Jackal Among Snakes

Orion stepped in front of a large wooden house that was guarded by a great contingent of royal knights. For a few moments, they braced in anticipation of the big man that entered before them. Yet when recognition dawned, one stepped forth.

“Prince Orion?!” the man shouted, infinitely surprised. “You… you’ve returned?” The man took a deep breath, and duty came to the front of his mind. “The king informed us to send you to him as soon as you were found.”

“People say Vasquer is down there,” Orion looked at the man.

Orion and Boarmask passed back through the Burnt Desert, travelling quickly. As time proceeded, Orion felt a sense of urgency—he even carried the knight on occasion to make the journey go faster. And once they passed over the mountains dividing Vasquer from the desert of black sand…

Vasquer. Not the kingdom nor the house, but the snake from which so much of both derived their legitimacy. Though Boarmask had said there was no such thing as a moment of enlightenment and Orion had never found one himself… as soon as he heard the news, his urgency to return to his home redoubled. It felt like a light amidst the tunnel of darkness he walked. This must be the answer he sought.

If any could free him of doubt and indecision, it was surely the one who had started this all: Vasquer.

Once Orion stepped back on the kingdom’s soil, the whispers returned… yet now, they felt strangely alien to him. Indeed, it was difficult to adapt, difficult to sleep. And he did not listen to them. He had another he might receive answers from, another he might find the truth from. And he pursued that goal relentlessly, readily accepting Boarmask’s help to this end. Now, the two of them had been led here by rumors and whispers.

All of that led him here.

“My prince, how did you get here?” another asked, stepping towards Orion. “The king and the guard have been searching for you. Your presence is desperately needed at the palace.”

“Is Vasquer in here?” Orion repeated, unheeding.

“Yes,” one royal knight finally answered, almost off-handedly.

Another knight looked at him angrily, yet quickly stepped up before Orion. “The king has forbidden all to enter here. Please, my prince, return to the palace.”

“The royal family is barred from nowhere,” Orion dismissed, stepping past.

yet

deeply entrenched in anticipation to heed the words shouted at his ears. Soon enough, he barreled past them all, for none were willing or able to harm him. His feet moved so quickly he seemed to fly down the stairs, leaving light footsteps and disturbed air in his wake. The royal knights soon abandoned their efforts to subdue

passed a certain point, a gargantuan figure entered his view. Golden, coiled, and bound… he saw Vasquer in all

echoing across the vast stone chamber.

his voice cut off as he, too, witnessed the great serpent of

the great serpent. Rumors dictated she had been trapped and bound by the Bat until very recently. Yet from what Orion saw… she was still bound, still trapped. His feet moved forth almost unwillingly, spurring Orion

followed Orion as he walked, and he knew she saw and perceived him. He felt no horror, no fear, despite the sheer scope of this majestic serpent. It felt as though he walked towards a great protector—a figure of myth that he’d read of for years, manifest in flesh and blood. Boarmask still followed yet made no noise beyond the sound of his plate armor boots pounding against the floor in

turn, the snake’s neck craned, her snout reaching out for his body. He felt drawn to her as

was entirely foreign to him, like a thought not his own persisting in his mind. It was different from the gods’

felt so right as surrendering to

It was not like a bursting dam; instead, it was like the dam ceasing to exist in less than a second. His questions, his uncertainties, his self-doubt, his confusion, and his emotional turmoil spilled from his brain, their stagnant waters becoming a flooding river in seconds.

that all as uncompromisingly as a mother ought

the words of men, unlike the whispers of gods… he knew this all was real, he felt it in his very being. He did not know when, but

okay to be confused, the comfort came, though not in words. The world is a confusing place.

but bask in the glow of this unprecedented relief. Vasquer’s scales were cold to the touch, yet the warmest experience he’d ever had. He felt alive, and he felt human. Both were things he

in this microcosm of his ancestor’s making. Minutes passed. But as was human nature… contentment alone soon lost its appeal. Orion remembered why he had come here, what had spurred this confusion, and the answers he sought. And he asked Vasquer all of them—his doubts about the pantheon, his doubts about Argrave and his family, and above all… his

behalf of his ideals in the past, but Orion liked pain and suffering no more than any. Vasquer had given him his comfort. Now was the time for truth, painful though

so the

had never come to Berendar to forge a kingdom. They

to undermine its power. It was, more than anything, death, destruction, and loss. It was the cold scrutiny of judgement.

I and Vasquer… their own children betrayed them. The first son craved dominion over men. He turned protectors into enforcers of his will and declared a kingdom. The second son craved dominion over life. He embraced the unnatural magic of vampirism and went to war with the

the third son… he craved a good, fulfilling life. He pitted the first and second sons against each other, causing betrayals in their ranks and continued disunity until they both perished in their foolish, overreaching ventures. He embraced

elves, the origins of the gods… this third son twisted an ambitious conquest into a war of liberation, and