B.T.V. -- Session 14 Epilogue: A Date with Law, A Date with Lucifer

The Lord of Law known as Selador had retreated to his room in the newly-renamed Carriage Crashed Inn to resume his studies of Splinters, which for some reason he refers to as Shards. Sitting at his desk, he picked up the violet Splinter, which he admired for its orderliness and, to a lesser extent, its aesthetic beauty, and using his Ziggurat, the centre of his power, he entered a new landscapes for roads and hills, and then transitioned to a trail surrounded by steeper, more jagged slopes, though nothing he could not physically overcome were he on a physical journey, instead of one of the mind.

The trail seems very rough indeed, but then he comes to the top of a rise and sees a vista before him. Closest to him were a couple of men, standing casually not far away, and beyond that a twisted road leading through a town or a city or a woods or…but the far distance was what he really stared at, for there was a tremendous set of buildings resembling a desert temple, and standing vigil alongside its main entrance two giant statues of what might have been kings.

He approaches the two bystanders nearby, and sees they appear to be common herders, taking their ease momentarily before returning to their livestock.

“They’re almost like they’re part of the scenery,” Selador mused. Then one spoke to him.

“You are a traveller. We don’t get many of those here.”

The other countered that wasn’t quite true. In the valley below were travelers who had tried to reach their destination but had become lost along the way, he observed. “We try to help them get back to where they came from.”

“Yet I see a road,” Selador objected. The herders exchanged quick glances, as if to say they had heard this before.

“You need to follow the road, even if you don’t get very far.”

“We try to help,” offered the other.

“It is…sensible,” Selador judged. “One attempts to reach the pinnacle, but when one fails, one goes back.”

The herdsmen shared another look suggesting Selador might have spent too long in the sun.

Selador sets out on the serpentine road, which he recognized, though most travelers would not, was representative of Chaos, and that Chaos came from Law. He comes to a place where, in woods nearby, just beyond the first or second ranks of trees, a narrow column light shone up into the sky, as if it was a beacon of some sort. He takes a step off the road to get a better look, and sees that in fact a boulder of some sort might be hiding the source of the light, so he moves nearer, and the rock resolves into the back of a seated hooded figure. This figure turns its head toward Selador as he approaches, and its face is as a porcelain mask. The stranger holds a finely-wrought staff, and the light emerges from where the tip touches the ground.

Selador recognizes this one as 'The Traveller in Black', a character of a kind from a distant past.

Speaking to the identified stranger, Selador recalled the Traveller could re-form structures and objects, and asks if he can fashion a path to the temple-like structure. “We must each find our own way,” the Traveller replied, not unkindly. “The Lords of Law await.”

Selador returns to the road but, looking ahead, sees that it has straightened itself, as if the Traveller had reordered the other’s thoughts so that he might see clearly. The Law Lord proceeded directly to the entrance gates, in a place before the two sentinels.

“Name yourself!” they demand in unison. They explained they must know not just his name, but who he really was.

“I am Selador, Sacrament and Profane, child of Gerard and Lady Majiid. I have come to understand you.”

“Have you any doubts?”

Selador pretended he did not, and the doors opened before him. The Law Lord, or more precisely his mind, raced ahead and sees the six Lords of Law who were its Counsel standing before him, arrayed in something like a triangle before him. At the tip of the triangle, closest to Selador, was Lord Donblas in his mirror mask and white robes, who was viewed as the most approachable of the Counsellors.

“You are Selador,” Donblas spoke. “Welcome, Lord.”

“One is most humbled to be in the presence of this Counsel,” Selador answered gravely.

“I am Lord Arkyn,” said the Counsellor to Donblas’s right, in a triangular mask and draped in similar, though not identical, robes to Donblas.

Selador remembered that this Counselor had been much involved with the doings of Prince Corum, a Sinarden, and Prince Elric of Melniboné, though more with the former than the latter.

Selador replied, “I have recently met one who you are acquainted with, the White Wolf.”

“I know these things, and you must take counsel as you have, though this one is of Melniboné.”

“It’s where the end of the road has brought this one,” Selador agreed.

Donblas asks, “Why have you come here?”

Selador explained he had been carried to this place by a Shard.

Lord Quelch, in what seemed like a knight’s armour coloured by indigo, to Donblas’s left, said, “You have come through my Shard. I am of the Second Aethir.”

Speaking to his fellow Counsellors about Selador, he continued, “Where he resides upon the Third Aethir, there is a Great Sea. It is for me, and no other Lord.”

Donblas gently reminded Quelch, “Selador has no interest in what you seek.”

Quelch sidesteps Donblas to come to the fore, carrying a staff that resembled a harpoon.

“Lord Selador, I would view this as a favour if you should bring me to the Third Aethir.”

“Then I will attempt to do so,” Selador vowed.

“You have my Shard,” Quelch pointed out bluntly.

Donblas reminds Quelch that, in the Third Aethir, a Shard is known as a Splinter. “Law cannot be splintered,” Quelch declares, and the other Lords repeat this in unison, as if familiar with such rote.

The other Lords included Lucifer, a horned figure dressed in white, with a large symbol on his chest that included a cruciform, known as “The Prosecutor,” then Shallod, the most unhuman looking of the lords, all angles instead of natural curves, known to have defeated the Queen Ziyanbard of Chaos in the First Aethir, and who communicated only with his fellow Counsellors, and finally Alolb, the eldest and wisest of the Counsel, garbed in black and silver, a columnal headdress atop her, “The Countess of Law.” Donblas is the peacemaker and consensus-builder among the Counsellors, Selador recalled.

Finally, one place stood empty, which belonged to Selador’s mother. He was pleased to see it had not yet been filled, and that filled him with hope of a sort. Then he saw Lucifer smiling at him, in his way.

Arkyn observed of Elric, now known as Mythic, “You wish him to aid you, but he might not be the wisest course.”

“But in conversation he seems wiser,” Selador dares to contradict the counsellor, even if gently. “He is less driven by his physical frailty.”

Quelch states, “This is the New Aethir. Perhaps things can change.”

Arkyn, to Quelch, replied, “It is counsel that I hear from you, but this one is haunted by his past.”

However, Arkyn added, he would not stand in the way of a plan to assist Elric in his course.

Donblas, gravely, said, acknowledging the Countess at the source, “There have been suggestions that there is no Fourth Realm, no future beyond the present,”

Selador inquires, “Is one to understand that part of the motivation in the creation of these circumstances, is that it is understood there are not the dynamics to create a Fourth Aethir, and this is an opportunity to create an alternative?”

Donblas, taking back his place in the forefront as Quelch slipped behind him, replied, “It is not beyond conjecture of Time” and a ripple of the slightest unease might be felt wafting between the Counsellors at such a concept.

“He is himself a Dragon. He has declared himself an active component of this Realm. Because of this, I do not believe Time will go beyond a Third Realm. His alliance with Shadow seems a final maneouvre, a last winding of the clock.”

Selador, in turn, asked, “Lord Donblas, you said you are capable of coming to the Third Realm. Have you already stepped there?”

“Not yet. The Lords of Law must be beseeched or invited. If you find my Shard, you can beseech me to come to the Third Aethir. Is it true it is dominated by Chaos?”

Selador deferred an opinion. “There is much to explore yet.”

Donblas revealed, “The Houses of Chaos exist, held in Taiphon’s hand until he decides to release them. “We hope you have learned what you came for,” he added, seeming to conclude the Counsel session with Selador.

“It will be written as it happened,” Selador promises.

Donblas returns Selador to his room in the Carriage Crashed Inn. “It is my first glimpse of the Third Realm,” Donblas allows. “When my Shard is found, beseech me to enter.”

Selador, after Donblas departs, gives thanks to each of the Counsellors in turn. As he thanks Lucifer, he hears a voice from behind him.

“You’re very welcome for my acuity,” the Prosecutor says. “You did not speak with me, Lord Selador? Are you afraid there is something I would illuminate? I am the bringer of Illumination.”

Asher, passing outside the room with Bamboo, hears a sepulchrous voice coming from the chamber and stops, fascinated despite himself.

“One does not fear Lords of Law,” Selador answered Lucifer’s interrogation. “One does not want to give disappointment, as one’s father is of Amber.”

Lucifer, his gaze turned toward the door to the room, noted, “I find myself distracted. Will you invite him in?”

“One would reply with a question. Do you wish him to enter?”

“It would save one from being distracted.”

Selador goes to the door and cracks it open, to see Asher and Bamboo outside.

“I have a visitation,” the Law Lord confided to his friend. Asher enters the room, and sees before all else the symbol on Lucifer’s chest, though the human knows not what it means. It seems to be of two hills with a path leading between them, but in the forefront was a cruciform.

Selador, in turn, sees the symbol and recalls it, but not what it means, which disturbs him greatly, given his memory is infallible, or so he had thought. It was if the memory had been stolen from him. He feels Lucifer’s mind intruding on his own, as he had done earlier with Javen, the Teckla barmaid, but in this case the Counsellor illuminated the theft from Selador’s mind.

“How is it I cannot recall?” Selador asks.

“It has been taken from you, either as a mercy or because they fear you have known them if you had understood,” Lucifer answers. Then, he adds, “I am not the oldest of the Lords of Law, but I will be the last.”

Asher, fascinated to this point by the cruciform disk, gradually became aware of the personage that was Lucifer.

“Asher,” Lucifer said, turning his attention to the Drifter, “You are undergoing a change. I would help you, so you might understand yourself better.

“The Green Khakan, he troubles you. He wears the symbol of Authority, the Coronet, around his neck. He guards it for another.

Asher allows that, while he had seen the coronet, he had not recognized it for what it was.

“It is not meant to be easily recognized,” Lucifer informs him. “He is not of the Races.”

Turning from that subject, he reminds Asher that he travels with a Lord of Law. “Few understand the order of the universe,” Lucifer lectured. “The rest would view doing so as a curse. You need to be Man enough to know the difference.

“Some will challenge your thoughts, some your spirit.”

“is the Khan not a Solitaire?” Selador inquired.

Lucifer replies, “You see to aid Asher. You consider him a friend.”

“We are comrades,” Selador allows.

“Does Asher even know what a Solitaire even is?”

“He is a curiosity, and there are layers to be discovered,” Selador replied. Asher wasn’t sure if he meant him or the Khan.

Lucifer suggested that the mystery of who the Khan was, was yet to be pierced, but that Selador’s thinking led him towards the truth. Lucifer, concluding his visit, said to the other inhabitants of the room, “I thank you for your gifts, both of Law and Life.

“When you beseech Lord Donblas, feel free to tell him I have been loosed upon the world. I feel as if I am in your debt, as if I owe both of you.”

Selador assured him he did not, but a knock came at the door and Selador, answering it, saw an impatient Teckla outside bearing two packages, which he handed to the Law Lord.

“I hope you will find it of use, and as quickly as possible,” the Teckla said in a pleading voice. “I’m not trained in combat, and Maizak really needs your help.”

Selador, turning his attention back to his room, said to Lucifer, “There is no gift that is required beyond your presence."

Asher was pretty sure the gifts had already been delivered, but held his tongue.

Lucifer responded, “My presents are in your hands, and leaning against that wall. I sense there has been one here in this very room I wish to meet. The Jack is here.”

“He was,” Selador informed the Counsellor.

“We shall meet again before the end,” Lucifer said by way of farewell, and then he was gone.

“Who the hell was that?” Asher inquired. Selador, in place of an answer, hands him a package. Asher opens it to find three hiltless knives inside, obviously made for throwing, and realizes they are from the Dygosa claw he had given to a smith at the foundry a few days earlier. He picked them up and, while untrained in their use, they had a natural feel in his hands. He knew somehow he could throw one, two or all three at once and that their potential for taking life was already formidable, and would grow more so. Asher thought ahead to the new training he would receive from the Khakan in two days, as well as the possibilities of additional instruction, from Finndo, the master of defence, and Selador, a master of the sword, and even Random, for certainly he had abilities he kept secret from the others.

“Is this something you want?” Selador asked, as if in warning of being in debt to Lucifer. “Considering what has happened, Law has come to Axildusk.”



Shaking themselves from their reverie, the two emerged from their isolation and found Maizak’s servant awaiting them outside. They get a surprise when they arrive at Maizak’s shop, in the form of three Jhereg bravos atop the roof. One, a slinger, sent a shot an unwary Selador’s way. The Law Lord’s eye is the target, and the bullet barely misses high, ripping through flesh though and sending blood coursing downward, threatening Selador’s vision, though he managed to shake most away. Selador rushes to the wall to find cover, leaving Asher standing in the street, but the Drifter had the Claws, as he realized the knives should be known. The slinger has spent his shot, and beside him is a crouched Jhereg, perhaps preparing to spring down upon Selador but frustrated by the Law Lord’s quick reflexes. The third was an archer, drawing an arrow onto his short bow, and Asher knew who his target must be.

He sends a Claw hurling upward, and strikes the archer in his left eye. The Jhereg emits a scream and, clutching at his face, fell to the roof and rolls downward. A desperate grab for the eaves fails to hit its mark, and he plummets to the ground, landing heavily beside Selador, who takes the convenient opportunity to finish the rogue, slashing into his throat and crushing his windpipe, sending blood fountaining forth. Selador then rushes around the shop’s side and along its front to reach the entry door.

The slinger has reloaded, but is swinging his sling horizontally, rather than aggressively but Asher hears a noise from the street to his left, and turns that way instead. He sees a Jhereg emerge from a culvert, and the would-be killer weaves his way toward the Drifter, rolling in an attempt to avoid being hit. But Asher times his throw precisely, and as the Jhereg comes to his feet, he finds the second Claw entering his body.

Selador, entering the shop, adroitly leaps over a counter covered in weapons that, has he miscalculated him jump, might have caused him considerable wounds had he fallen amongst them. He is confronted by a Jhereg tough swinging a truncheon, narrowly missing the Law Lord’s nose. Selador swings and connects with the bravo’s chest, slicing through like a hot knife through butter, and the last sounds from the Jhereg are his cudgel hitting the floor, and then his corpse.

A second Jhereg comes running toward him and, despite being badly wounded by the thrust of Massartu, collided with the Law Lord, hurling both to the floor. Selador attempts to spin away, but still falls to the ground. The Jhereg caroms into a mannequin, and is dazed, so the Law Lord uses his sword hilt to knock out the tough. Asher, his opponent rushing toward him despite being injured by a Claw, deployed the ax hilt hidden in the Emitter’s stock and brings the ad hoc melee weapon upward in an underhand swing, slightly wounding the Jhereg. This tough still tries to tackle him but instead bounces off the smaller adversary, and Asher swings his Emitter around to fire a charge from the hip, leaving the Jhereg clutching his abdomen in response, blood running out between his fingers.

Asher takes a few steps down the street to recover his second Claw, which had fallen from the rushing Jhereg, and then went to the second corpse finished by Selador and removed the first Claw from the body’s left eye, wiping it off on the bravo’s clothing. He then moves around to the front of the shop and enters, seeing an open door to his left, on the end of the back wall, and decides to investigate. He goes through the doorway into a strange office cum waiting room, where perhaps Maizak welcomed his most affluent customers. Asher saw a basket covered in a blanket in the corner, and had a bad feeling. This was confirmed when a venomous jhereg emerged, and flew toward him. Asher leaps down nearby stairs to his right, rolling at the bottom to find him in a darkened cellar, preceded by Bamboo. The jhereg follows, and Bamboo warns Asher the winged creature is behind him. Asher whirls and fires a charge into the ceiling, missing the jhereg but casting the aqua glow of ghostlight around the room, which the creature is not happy with, and it flies back up the stairs, through the railing spindles and upward to the second storey of the shop. Asher moves backs up the stairs to the waiting room and, training his Emitter upward, waits.

Selador picks that moment to go down the stairs at the far end of the shop and, with ghostlight illuminating the cellar, sees chests and crates here and there. He ventures further in, but then hears the rasp of a knife being drawn behind him. He turns, intending to send his sword toward the waiting assassin, but found the Jhereg tough on his belly between two crates, ready to spring to his feet. The bravo is shocked to be discover and, after Selador adjusts his aim, finds himself on the receiving end of a rending wound through his shoulder, close to his heart, if a Jhereg could be said to have one.

The would-be killer somehow still lives, and he pleads, “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”

“You yield?” the Law Lord demands and the Jhereg acquiesces. Selador slowly removes his sword from the flesh it was sheathed in, raising the bravo’s hand to stand the bleeding before turning away. But in the corner of his eye he spots the Jhereg trying to raise his knife again, Selador cuts viciously into his other shoulder, and he collapses in death.

Selador returns to the main shop and then down towards the far, open door, where he finds Asher. A voice emerges from the second storey, warning that more Jhereg’s have Maizak and are holding him hostage. Selador solves the standoff in moments by portalling Maizak to him, to the consternation of the waiting Jhereg, who’s profanity turns to screams as they realize their bestial namesake is among them.

“The jhereg is loose!” someone cries, followed by another’s “This Jhereg is out of here,” and the sound of running boots is followed by the smashing of windows as they seek to escape.

“My windows!” Maizak cries, and as Selador and Asher turn to stare at him, the shopkeeper looks somewhat abashed.

The two humans and Maizak decide they, too, should join the exodus from the building. The Draegeran tells them he hasn’t had time to train his new pet yet, which the Jheregs had foolishly set free of its restraining collar. Maizak then offers the Easterners a bounty of first 50, and then 100 imperials for every Jhereg they killed. Selador moves off in pursuit of one, but Asher instead hears a harsh grating noise from above him, and sees the jhereg creeping down the building headfirst. The two stare at each other a moment, and then Asher, realizing he has a stationary target, hurls a Claw, striking the creature and sending it falling to the cobblestones below it. Asher walks over to reclaim the Claw, but first, having spent some time outdoors in the countryside, first rested his boot upon the creature’s head. The jhereg’s tail lashed out and around Asher’s ankle, and he stepped heavily downward, crushing its skull. He got his Claw back after that.

Selador has reached a limping Jhereg imploring to be allowed into a grated culvert, held down by the fingers of his erstwhile comrades. The Law Lord uses his sword hilt to knock the Jhereg senseless, ending the battle of the weapons shop.

Transcript by R.Perry