Cold is the Void

[Amaterasu]

Previous Thread: http://omniverse-rpg.com/showthread.php?...6#pid87176

Amaterasu and Oki laughed heartily as they raised their glasses and toasted before drinking. Mithral Hall was every bit as amazing as they had been told, and the dwarves had organized a little feast to celebrate the new Prime in their ranks. King Bruenor himself had made a brief appearance to personally congratulate the both of them before his duties had dragged him away again, but as brief as the meeting had been his energetic, cheerful behavior had left both of them wound up. Amaterasu had given the dwarves a taste of sake and rice-balls and in exchange had been treated to beer and roasted Cadagor, a native animal of the Frozen Fields herded by the dwarves for its meat. And though she only drunk a little, she was quickly intoxicated - not by the alcohol, but by the atmosphere in the room, the upbeat, cheerful nature of the dwarves and their partying like there was no tomorrow. Oki and her soon were separated from each other and let themselves be guided through the hall by the dwarves who insisted on showing their guests all sorts of depictions of architectural marvels, carved into the walls of Mithral Hall by the most skilled of artisans. Amaterasu's memory of these events was later spotty at best. She could vaguely remember eating and drinking, speaking to various dwarves, laughing or marveling at their tales... it was all a big mix.

That is, until she stood before a depiction that the dwarves explained to her was a stylistic map of the Frozen Fields. Far from proper in size and accuracy as many areas, for instance around the troll-controlled areas, were inaccessible to the dwarves and could thus not be mapped, it was a blend of the artist's imagination and of reality. A dwarf whose name Amaterasu could not remember was telling her about the carving while she traced the smooth surface with her finger, capturing the lines that had once been carved in with a chisel. When she looked at the mountain spanning a wide part of the map, suddenly she was wide awake.

"Hey... what's this?" she asked and pointed at the carving. Specifically at the mountain in the center of the Frozen Fields, with what looked like a slash mark at the summit.

"Wha? Oh, that. Well, ye see..." The dwarf stroked her beard and thought for a bit. She seemed unsure about how to explain it. Finally she began talking. "There's a legend tha' says tha' the Mount'ns of Madness reach so high tha' the tip... pierces through the roof o' the world. The artis' made a depiction o' it, sayin' tha' there's a rip in the fabric o' the world in there."

"A rip in the roof of the world... so you're saying that there's a ceiling of some sort? Somewhere that you just can'f fly past?"

"Aye. If ye go far 'nough through the Fields someday ye reach the Wall, we call it." She held her hand out, forming a wall with it, and bumped two fingers of her other hand into it. "Yer blocked. Like an invisible barrier of some kind. It looks like there's more beyond there, but nay. We even tried ta dig through... with pickaxes an' shovels we dug through tha mountain, but eventually... well, it jus' didn' go on. We reached an indestructible rock. No pickaxe could even scratch it. An' well... we figured that this wall forms a big dome, with a ceiling an' everything."

"And... what do you believe is beyond that rip?"

"Aye, that we don' know..." She stroked her beard again and hmmed. "Bu', there's plenty a' theories. Most popular one's the "bubbles" theory tha' says tha'... hmm. Imagine tha' the nine verses are nine bubbles... wha's gonna be between an' around 'em? If they's like bubbles, there's got ta be some air between 'em ta fill the gaps, eh, an' maybe tha' they float in. The bubbles theory also says tha' the rip's gonna expand an' eventually the Frozen Fields bubble's gonna burst. Ah en't believin' that, bu' it's one thing that could be. Or maybe if ye can get out it's gonna be an exit o' the Omniverse. Ya know, so people can get out an' return home."

Amaterasu touched the carving again. There was a weird attraction about it. The carving had power, she realized. This depiction of the rip, it wasn't just a figment of the artist's fantasy. It was a representation of reality. A supernaturally accurate one. "Who made this carving?"

"Oh, he ain't here anymore, he retired. The poor guy went crazy, ya know. 'e went on an expedition, he did, an' when he came back he was..." She passed a hand before her face. "... insane. Locked himself in 'is room fer days. Then grabbed tools an' forced his way into Mithral Hall. Spent days carvin' out the map... only ate cause his wife brought him food and beer, an' made him eat an' drink. When he was done, he fell over an' slept fer three days... when he woke up he was changed. Stopped workin' on carvings cause he said he could never do better'n this. Worked the mines fer a couple years, an' various other jobs... then one day he retired an' left Dwarfholm. Lives in some town far away. Probably fer the best though. That rip thingy, people say he's gone insane. Heard the stories from some Prime an' thought it to be reality. But see, if there's a dome over our heads, it'd be way higher'n that to cover all of the fields, if it's dome shaped. If it was flatter it'd be unable ta support its own weight, it'd collapse. Or the mountain would be hundreds o' kilometers tall. Tha's physically impossible even fer the hardest rock that exists. King Bruenor had scientists test the theories, ya see."

"So the artist's theories were dismissed as fantasy, huh... what was his name?"

"Glod McJerowsson. See, it's signed right 'ere." She pointed at a corner of the carving. Amaterasu's eyes widened a bit as she listened and she hastily checked the writing.

"Glod? And it says something else! Right there... I can't read those symbols." Glod... that name sounded familiar. She had a suspicion what that writing meant.

"Oh. Tha's ancient dwarvish, no surprise. It says 'Dedicated ta me beloved son, Urist.'"

"I know Urist! Urist McGlodsson, right?! He... he was the one who led me here!" Something stirred in her stomach. Could this have been a coincidence? No, it didn't feel that way... but, what a thought.

"Aye? Urist's been 'ere in the Halls. He knows 'bout this. Not talkin' about it though, people already wonder if he's crazy like his pa... why d'ya think does he travel 'round so much outside of Dwarfholm?" She stepped back. "Look, yer getting a bit frightening there, Ama. Let's go look at somethin' else instead."

"Actually, I think I need some fresh air... I'm sorry. But thank you so much for showing me around, I really appreciate your aid!" She then rushed through the halls and out of the gate, before heading up to a balcony to breathe. She needed to talk to Urist... no matter what the dwarf woman had told her, the moment that she'd touched that mural she had known that it represented the truth. It... it was unfair to Urist. His father's claims were right, however he had gotten them... and Urist had helped them so much. If there was just a single grain of truth in the story of this mural, she owed it to him to cleanse his father's name by finding that truth. Besides, what had the woman said... through what laid beyond that rip in the world, one could go anywhere. She felt like the only way to where she needed to go was through that place. She had no idea why she felt that, but she knew it to be the truth.

Her mind cleared in the cold air on the balcony, as she overlooked the Frozen Fields at night. The warmth from the cooking fires in Mithral Hall behind her were warming her back, keeping the cold air at bay to some extent, but even so she felt a cold chill run down her spine as she produced her Mobile Dataverse Device and began pressing the screen. She was figuring out how to use it, she was... and it was now time to send a message to the world out there.

She couldn't attempt the climb to the peak of the Mountains of Madness alone, even if Urist and Oki accompaigned her. She needed allies, other Primes. She needed to gather a party. When her message was typed she hit Send without a second thought. She shot one last look towards the center of the fields before going back in, and for a moment she could make out the silhouette of the enormous mountain in the center of the verse. Soon she'd be seeing it from up close.