The Wanderers

by MrToddWilkins (orphan_account)

Chapter 1: Prologue

“Hound of Morgoth,hearken to me! Ithildor of the Volturi is here. Get you back to the Ruins of Angband,dark demon!
Go where there is no light,where dark creatures abide! You are lesser even than the shade of Sauron whose Ring was destroyed in the Fire Mountain! GO,FOR I BANISH THEE! GET YOU TO THE VOID WHERE THY MASTERS WERE BANISHED BY THE VALAR!”

The darkness echoed. Makayla heard the cave collapse,permanently sealing off Ithildor and the Warg King. She wept,for what she did not know. Was all hope of destroying the Ticks dead?

————

It was dawn. The Sun was rising over the ruins of Fredericksburg. Behind her,the cave entrance sent out wisps of smoke. She thought she could hear Ithildor and the Warg King battling underground. Every so often the ground rumbled. Ahead of her was a Prius. She climbed in,activated the steering,and drove.
On Route 61 the road was clear. Wrecked cars littered the roadside. The Fredericksburg Farm was unlit,the revolt obviously contained. But no heads adorned the spikes. Was there a trial? Had any Green or Collab been found guilty?

A Breeder wandered the grounds,smirking as she showed off her pregnant belly. Makayla was sorely tempted to flip the bird at her. You don’t know how difficult it is to be pregnant,she thought.

If it is destroyed, then he will fall, and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed forever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed.

Shut up,she thought.

————

North Carolina

The next six days consisted of swerve driving, frozen meals in abandoned restaurants, use of the Portable Ultrasound, and camping in abandoned motels by candlelight. She regularly got a radio echo off the Ellipso satellite constellation,which was encouraging in its own little way. As she ate frozen macaroni and cheese one night,she ruminated.

 In the Before,and back home,this would have been winter of my senior year of high school. I would have been studying for my French tests,reading Gossip Girl,tending to my Facebook,listening to Alexis and Hannah whine about boys,dating Kameron. All that is gone now. France is besieged by Ticks and wights,nobody has any more time for Gossip Girl,Facebook is probably offline,and Alexis,Hannah,and Kameron are probably manning defense watches back in G’town.

————

In the night,she heard a voice speaking in her head. The voice said:

At the end of all realms
There is the Gate of Summer
Created by Eru in the Dawn of Time
A portal it is between realms and nations
There stands the Spirit of the West who points the way
An Elf he was,the Silver Fist on Earth
Abused by Mairon’s army as a bloody standard
In death Eru pardoned him of all he had done
And now he points the way
To a new age, the Age of the Earth
When all that was lost shall be restored
The prevention of the Dagor Dagorath
Earendil will show you the road
To where He is.....

Chapter 2: Prologue 2

As the man watched the flames, he could see the glimpses of images in the fire.

The first cries of a newborn babe

The clash of swords

The neighing of a horse in pain

The shouts of the wounded

The echoing bellow of a horn

The cheering of a crowd

The cough of the dying

The endless murmur of prayer

The last gasp of a dying man

The storming of a walled city, sitting on a river

A vast army marching through the snow,chanting prayers to a blind god

A king being crowned an Emperor in the most holy of cities

An old man in armor falling from a horse, felled by a lone arrow

An echoing hall, filled with hundreds of nobles

The Christian Cross rising over Jerusalem, the city in flames

Knights clashing in the desert sun

Barbarians from the steppe, crushing a dying Empire

The march of peasants in revolt

A ship powered by steam,crossing a seemingly endless ocean

The banner of the double-headed eagle,flying over London 

A dragon taking flight from a grassy plain

An army of vampyrs,camped in the ruins of a public square

An elven tribe clad only in shawls,paying homage to the rising of Venus

A white city of seven layers,beside a roaring river atop of which was another city

A halfling standing in a volcano,holding a great ring

The white city abandoned,an auburn banner flying from its highest tower

And the old man uttered:

“Know, O ye men, that between the years when the oceans drank Numenor and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Elessar, there was an Age mysterious,when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the skies - Ophir, Brythonia, Hyperborea, Thanaria with its dark-haired women and towers of mystery, Zingara with its chivalry, Kothar that bordered on the pastoral lands of Dodan, Stygia with its shadow-guarded tombs, Hyrkon whose riders wore steel and silk and gold...”

 

 

Chapter 3: Makayla in the dawn

The school gym sat abandoned in the grey before dawn as Makayla patrolled the halls. As she approached the doors,she heard whispers. They came from inside the gym.

”What if the Master knew?”

”That an abductura yet lives? He would be pleased. Let me list things for you:The line of Conan is nearly spent. The line of Elessar hides in the dust of lesser Men. The priesthood of Horus is all but exhausted. We have not heard from the wardens of the Westlands in many a year. The Temple of Val is in ruins. We know Alandros hid there at the last,when Khosrau I ordered his death.”

”But the Seer Telperion says that there are many abducturae.”

”Telperion sees many things. He is 760 years old,or had you forgotten that?”

”Is he right?”

”Yes,actually. I sense one drawing near now.”

”What will you do?”

”Observe. I would not risk trying to intercept her. We must plant someone here to,for lack of a better word,’seduce’ her. And send word to the Volturi. It is time that they rose again. They have had five years to recuperate from their near-war. Go now,and may the world spirits watch over you.”

———

Makayla went into the gym at last. Apart from her,it was empty. Dust swirled in the air vents and periodically obscured the banners displaying the many victories of the Greenwich Witches. 

She went into the abandoned office nearby and rifled through the stacks of papers. As she did so,she wondered who those men had been.

Chapter 4: The son of thunder

Thürn Adenson was an unusual man. Known to most mortals as Thor Odinsson,a corruption of his true name,he had lived among the men of Earth for twelve thousand years,regarded by some as a god. To the Northmen,he had been the god of thunder,as assured by the making of the war hammer called Mîonas in his tongue and Mjolnir by others.

Many hundreds of years ago,belief in him had waned,and he had left this world for his home planet. Called Agarne or Asgard,this planet revolves around the star of Epsilon in Eridani. It is a world of many climactic extremes,but also of great beauty and greater civilizations. 

Thürn went up to Argana Magna, the capital city of Agarne, to speak with King Aden. Aden was like to a god to his people. The son of Âlbaril, the Earth-shaker, Aden had unified his people and many others against Lolth, the Queen of Spiderkind. At the Battle of Kyr,Aden personally slew her with the sword Sumarbrandr and by the power of the Eld Stone confined her remains to the hells permanently. 

Deiket Tivion, the ambassador from Lenfell in the system of Alpha in Aquarius,greeted Thürn at the gates and escorted him to King Aden.

Chapter 5: Ander I

“Who wishes to enter the Kapuzinergruft?” the friar stated in a loud tone as he spoke through the sturdy wooden doors of the Imperial Hapsburg crypt.

The reply came from the Lord Chamberlain “His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Franz Josef I, by the grace of God Emperor of Austria; Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Illyria; King of Jerusalem, etc.; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany, Crakow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, the Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of the Upper & Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla, Oswiecin, Zator, Cieszyn, Friuli, Ragusa, Zara; Princely Count of Habsburg, Tyrol, Kyburg, Gorizia, Gradisca; Prince of Trent, Brixen; Margrave of the Upper & Lower Lusatia, in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg …”

From the other side of the door came the words “You may not enter.” The Chamberlain knocked again, receiving the same sentence as before in response. This time the Chamberlain exclaimed “Franz Josef, the Emperor-King.” Again the request was refused. Knocking a third time, the Chamberlain responded to the friar’s question with “Franz Josef, a poor sinner who begs God for mercy.” The doors to the crypt opened, and Franz Ferdinand watched as the ritualised entry of the former Emperor’s coffin into the crypt was completed, and the body of Franz Josef joined the 140 other members of the dynasty who were interred in the Kapuzinergruft.

It was October 23,1912,a day Ander of the Elessedili would never forget.