A Song for Winter: Return to Airdin

William had recently welcomed warriors from the east into Drakthorpe. Their leader, a snow leopard named Tai, offered to train the children of the village in martial arts. An offer that several of the kids of the village took up including William’s daughter Jaina. On this particular day, William watched as the kids broke boards with powerful kicks. Jaina had practiced hard and now had a yellow and black belt to show for it. The lesson was just beginning to wrap up when the sound of an alarm bell began to ring across the sky. At first, it was just one bell, then a second, a third, and a fourth joined in. William yelled for Tai to get the kids to safety despite protests from Jaina.

 

As he ran towards the sounds of the bell to meet his army, William suddenly found himself engulfed in a massive shadow. Overhead a strange spaceship that William didn’t recognize hovered over the village. As the pirate spaceship The Harlock, which flew under William’s flag, portalled in to attack the strange ship several large capsules fell from the ship. The capsules burst through the magical shield around Drakthorpe with an explosion of energy before landing mere yards in front of William. A hiss of air released from the capsules before the fronts exploded open and four large muscular white-furred bears wielding massive great axes stepped out. 

 

“This feels like a personal attack,” William smirked as he drew his earth maul. Stone and earth gathered around the end of the haft to form the head of the maul. William’s witch knife shot out of its sheathe and began its orbit around him as its hard light shield activated on its own. Despite their size, the large bears were incredibly agile on their feet. William blocked one axe with the haft of the maul while the talisman dagger’s shield blocked another one. A quickly whistled note sent a third bear backward with a gale-force blast of wind. As the fourth bear moved to strike William used the power of the earth maul to anchor himself to the ground and shifted his stance to throw the first bear into the fourth. Those two went sprawling as William used his whole body to power a swing into the second bear with the earth maul. Bones shattered as the maul connected with the bear’s midsection. As the bear fell to the ground a second swing shattered the bear’s skull into the ground. 

 

With a roar the bear that was sent flying by the air blast charged at William with his axe raised. William slammed the earth maul into the ground causing dozens of small pebble-sized rocks to fly into the air. A series of sharply whistled notes sent the pebbles flying at high speed at the bear. The small pebbles struck the bear, penetrating her armor and flesh due to the sheer speed at which the small projectiles flew through the air. That bear fell dead as one of the remaining two tried to strike William but was blocked by the hard light shield of the witch knife. With the shield occupied it was unable to stop the running tackle from the last bear that pinned William to the ground.

 

“So this is the so-called mighty Warking,” the bear laughed as she held William down, “who going to defend the helpless once I tear your throat out?” William reached out and grabbed his floating talisman dagger out of the air before he plunged the seax blade into the bear’s side.

 

“No matter what happens to me I will always help the weak,” William answered calmly before adding with a shout, “because I’LL HOLD THE LINE!” The hard light shield of the witch knife erupted into an extra large shield that bisected the bear on top of William in an instant. With a flick of his wrist, William tore the talisman dagger free of the bear and deactivate the large shield. As the two halves of the bisected bear fell to the ground, William leaped to his feet. A cry escaped the last bear’s mouth as it dropped its axe to run away. 

 

“Oh no, you don’t get to escape,” William called out angrily before he whistled a series of notes. Suddenly the bear stopped dead in his tracks to claw at his throat as if he was trying to pry some sort of invisible hand free. “Now tell me who sent you and I won’t further increase the air pressure around your throat,” William threatened as he casually strolled up the last white-furred bear. Panicking the bear shook his head as he tried desperately to get enough air. A whistled note from William tightened the air pressure on the bear’s throat to the point of not allowing any air in. “One last time,” William demanded as he buried his witch knife in the bear’s stomach, “who sent you?”

 

“Airdin will fall,” was all that managed to escape the bear’s throat as a series of runes lit up across his body. William recognized the runes and managed to dive to safety as the bear exploded. A victory cry could be heard from the army as they overpowered the invading army and began to take prisoners. William started to run down to greet his victorious army but his path was cut off by a portal that was being projected from The Harlock. With a sigh, William walked through the portal to find himself on the bridge of the spaceship. A normally orderly and efficient was a scene of chaos as almost every guard aboard had weapons drawn on a cyborg sabertooth tiger with teeth made of lasers. 

 

“He portaled directly onto my ship and claims to know you,” Izebel the red-skinned tiefling captain of The Harlock shouted to William from her chair. 

 

“His name is Laser Tooth,” William answered her as he waved off all the guards, “we met at the Cloud Factory.” Izebel ordered her guards back to their post and everything was back to standard operations within moments. William formerly introduced Izebel to Laser Tooth who apologized for causing such a commotion.

 

“Paladin, I intercepted a distress call from the adventure’s guild on Airdin right before you came under attack here,” Laser Tooth informed William as he started tapping keys on a keyboard. “One of the elemental orbs is leaking power causing all kinds of elemental catastrophes. This army might have caused the catastrophe to stop you from interfering with their plans.”

 

“Well if that's the case then let's disappoint them,” William declared as he looked at the hologram of Airdin that appeared above him. Energy readouts appeared next to the image with a particularly high number next to the major city of Decra. “Leave whatever warriors are on the ground here and set The Harlock on course to Airidin,” William ordered everyone on the bridge to which no one answered.

 

“Do as he says,” Izebel snapped to which the bridge sprang into action as everyone prepared to portal the ship. “With those energy readouts, we can’t risk portalling you directly into the planet or bringing the ship into the atmosphere but I have an idea that’ll get you to the temple.” There was certain glee on the tiefling’s face as she added that last part.

 

Ten minutes later William found himself crammed into an escaped pod that had been stripped of all of its magitech components. All that was left was a seat, an analog lever to release the parachute, and an indicator light. William had been drilled several times over the last few minutes as to how to land mostly unharmed. Once he was in free fall he had to wait for the light to go on and pull the lever, simple enough. There was a knock on the door to indicate he was about to be dropped from orbit. As the pod fell through the planet’s atmosphere it heated up to boiling temperatures. William grabbed the lever and pulled the second the indicator light went on but the lever jammed. With a swear, he gripped it in his hands and yanked harder but it held fast. Turbulence rocked the pod as it continued its uncontrolled descent towards Airidn’s surface. As the threw his full body into pulling the lever, William finally got the lever to release the parachute to slow his descent.

 

Even with the parachute William’s escape pod still hit the ground hard enough to rattle him a bit. He kicked open the door and stumbled out of the metal pod slightly disoriented. After he got his bearings about him William rushed in the direction of Decra. Along the way, uncontrolled magic wreaked havoc across the landscape. Jungle trees and plants wilted, burned, froze, and grew uncontrollably while wildlife fled in all directions from a myriad of adverse weather conditions. William did what he could to help here and there but he didn’t stop for long as he feared time wasn’t on his side. 

 

Once in Decra, William rushed to the temple to assess the situation for himself. Adventurers and town guards alike were engaged in a pitched battle against fighters that wore the same strange emblems that the ones that attacked Drakthorpe wore. The temple that once floated above the city had crashed into the ground to reveal a hidden entrance to what appeared to be a cavern. Most of the elemental magic that was once stored in the temple flowed down into the cavern while the rest ran wild across the landscape. Whatever was in that cavern was the answer to all this madness but first, the battle above ground had to be resolved. William grabbed up the witch knife and held it close to his mouth as he whispered an almost inaudible note to the blade. He then threw the talisman dagger across the battlefield. As the witch knife flew across the battlefield it released a targeted concentrated burst of air that shattered the eardrums of the enemy combatants. One by one they fell to the ground in pain before they were quickly subdued.

 

With the town secured, William retrieved his talisman dagger before he ducked into the newly revealed caverns. Despite recently being uncovered the tunnels in the earthen tavern looked recently made. Each one had smooth earth walls with brackets set in them at regular intervals to hold torches. All the torches had recently been changed out so dim light lit the way for William. With the flow of magic to guide him, William didn’t need to worry about getting lost in the twisted maze of tunnels. Occasionally, a handful of cultists patrolled the tunnels but were easily dispatched enough as they weren’t prepared to be attacked. 

 

After what seemed like an eternity of following the twisted maze of tunnels William finally emerged into a large room. He was greeted by a dozen cultists armed to the teeth. William drew his water sword and froze the blade into a razor-sharp ice blade. As his talisman dagger shot out of its sheathe to begin its defensive orbit around him the first cultist charged. The hard light shield on the witch knife blocked the cultist’s axe as William turned and impaled a second cultist by elongating the blade of the sword through his chest. As the frozen blade shrunk back to normal size, William grabbed his talisman dagger and with a twist rolled the seax over his opponent’s shield and into the cultist’s throat. Two cultist’s down, William turned his attention toward the remaining foes. Numbers three and four tried to attack in unison only to find themselves thrown into each other when a sideways gust of wind caused them to tumble into one another. They were dispatched easily as William walked by them to engage the next unlucky idiot to challenge him but none of them stepped forward as they started to shirk away from him. With an eye roll, William whistled several notes to create vacuum bubbles around the cultist’s head.

 

“First one to volunteer to talk gets to breathe again,” William offered as the remaining cultist’s started to slowly suffocate. None of them volunteered so William released the bubbles momentarily just to reform them in the lungs of the cultists. Simultaneously a few whistle notes increased air pressure around their skulls to the point that hairline cracks were starting to form. “Now I’ve never had my skull imploded while suffocating to death but I can’t imagine it pleasant,” William mused as he maintained both spells with separate hand movements with each hand, “first to volunteer doesn’t have to find out how far their brains will splatter.” William pursed his lips to whistle more notes from the Winter Song when hands shot up. Five heads imploded simultaneously and left a rat on the floor desperate for oxygen.

 

“Our god… is asleep… further down the… tunnels,” the rat gasped desperately for air as William loomed over him. “That iron fisted… wolf promised… to help us… wake him up.” William nodded as he decapitated the rat with one swift movement. Of course, The Matriarch was involved in this mess. Plus some sort of sleeping god was allegedly further down the tunnels. If he was anything like his followers then he probably wasn’t going to be thrilled that an outsider had desecrated his tunnels.

 

Farther down the tunnels the passages opened up into a large cavern with multiple paths that branched off of it. The magical streams that William had followed up to that point broke off into each of the tunnels that led out of the cavern. As he was about to pick one at random a faint blue and yellow light began to glow in one of William’s belt pouches. When he reached into the pouch the strange blue and yellow crystal that William was gifted last time he was on Airdin was there. Light from the crystal reacted to being held out towards the different tunnels. The tunnel that caused the brightest glow was the one that William picked to go down. Now the light from the crystal led William deeper and deeper underground until he emerged into a new large cavern. 

 

This cavern was larger and much better constructed than the others by far. On the ground was a luxurious red and gold carpet that matched the red satin curtains that were hung on the walls. A large gold four-poster bed with silk lace curtains dominated one corner of the room. Around the room mahogany furniture was set up to make this cavern looks like a luxurious bedroom for royalty. The far wall had been carved out to make a balcony that overlooked a massive crystal like the small one William held. All the stolen magical energy flowed into this massive crystal. On the balcony stood the seven-foot-tall black-furred she-wolf with the iron right hand that William knew only as The Matriarch.

 

“They seem to think that this crystal holds their god in an eternal slumber,” The Matriarch smirked as she kept her back to William, “but the truth is that its a massive chrono crystal that I intend to use to make my empire stretch throughout all of  time.” William froze his water sword with a quiet whistle as he drew it from its sheathe and charged The Matriarch. She turned and blocked the ice blade with a slender white metal rapier held in her left hand. “Next time I’ll use better cultists to slow you down,” The Matriarch laughed as she brought her metal hand around to strike William.

 

“There won’t be a next time for you,” William growled as his talisman dagger used its hard light shield to block the claw. The two traded attacks with the other only to have their attacks blocked. William quickly swapped his water sword for his earth maul in hopes of throwing The Matriarch off balance to no avail. Despite the slender blade of the white metal rapier, it was able to block the earthen hammer with ease.

 

“There's a new toy,” The Matriarch remarked as she caught it in her iron hand, I’ll stick with my sword.” With lightning speed, the white metal rapier came around to impale William but his talisman dagger was there to block it with its hard light shield. Fire flickered across the shield as the rapier pierced it slightly. “This white metal is harvested from the very essence of dead planets across the multiverse which makes it the strongest and hardest metal you’ll ever live to see.”  William knew he was in trouble as the white metal rapier pushed further through the hard light shield. With a quick thought, he decided to try something crazy.

 

“And that metal curses its wielder to die painfully,” William replied as he sent a spark of magic to his wind walker greaves, “I’m familiar with the legends.” A downward burst of air propelled William’s head into The Matriarch’s nose which knocked her backward. Immediately, William followed that up by using his earth maul to draw in all the earth that connected the balcony to the cavern. Fire lanced from The Matriarch’s iron hand as she fell towards the massive chrono crystal. William ran through the flames with his earth maul raised high ready to strike his archnemesis dead but he didn't make it in time. Blue and yellow light erupted from the chrono crystal and engulfed the room. Briefly blinded and disoriented, William started to fall from the air.

 

William’s vision came back as he found himself in a room he didn’t recognize with people he didn’t know. No one seemed to be able to see him as he stood there in the corner of the room. A small runty white and grey-furred wolf girl that appeared to be a slave tried her best to attend to the needs of a cruel badger taskmaster. Time seemed to skip and jump around over several years to different scenes of this small wolf girl being beaten and abused for being clumsy or slow. Everyone around her grew and aged but the small runty wolf girl stayed the same size. Other slaves wore name collars but this wolf girl lacked a name on her collar. Somehow William started to feel as if the temperature around him rapidly increased as the scenes continued. A final scene appeared in which the slave girl dropped a platter of food at a dinner party of sorts. The badger struck her across the face as he hurled insults and demands. Tears streamed down the wolf girl’s face as rage filled her eyes. A small hand tried to strike the badger back but he caught it as a wicked smile erupted across his face. Strange painful noise gave William an instant headache as the scene transitioned to a dark and dingy forge unlike any William had seen before. In the middle of the floor sat a vat of molten liquid iron to which the wolf girl was being dragged. At this point, William had trouble breathing from the heat. In one savage motion, the badger forced the wolf girl's hand into the vat of molten iron. Time felt disjointed and weird as the slave girl lay on the floor of the forge dying alone. A shadow fell over her from an unseen person as words that William couldn’t comprehend were spoken. 

 

Without thought, the wolf girl said six perfectly understandable words, “I don’t want to be small.” Those words spoken by the wolf girl on the floor were engulfed in flame. When the flames subsided the runty wolf girl slave was dead and in her place was the black-furred six-and-a-half-foot tall wolf that became known as The Matriarch. Scenes began to shift rapidly to show the atrocities The Matriarch committed as she and her power grew and grew. Blue and yellow light flashed again to reveal that William stood on the cavern floor next to the now shattered chrono crystal.

 

“So that’s how you remember that night,” The Matriarch ask with a laugh as she walked back into view, “you poor deluded fool. You don’t know who or what you are do you?” She sheathed her rapier and began to burn runes into the floor at her feet.

 

“You had the chance to use your new powers to make the universe a better place but you choose to be an evil cunt,” William shouted as he charged The Matriarch with his earth maul ready to strike. With a roll of her eyes, the large wolf motioned with her iron hand to make fiery chains trap William in place.

 

“Everyone that has ever wronged me is dead which means I did make this a better universe except you,” The Matriarch explained as she continued to burn runes in the ground. William tried to cut in to tell her to he wasn’t going to fall for her lies but the chain around his neck stifled him. “Have you ever stopped to wonder why even though I have all the powers of a god and harvest the raw power of the multiverse to increase my powers beyond that of any compare that I never just outright killed you? It is because, on that horrific night that you remember so vividly in your nightmares, two things happened simultaneously. The William on this timeline who wasn’t supposed to die did because I shattered the rules of reality when I broke through into this dimension and on a different timeline the William that is you was supposed to die was about to. As the you that is you were about to die your “Allfather” swapped you with the William from this timeline thus maintaining the balance. This is why you probably have conflicting incomplete memories from during and before that night. It's why every time you try to make your own portal it doesn’t work correctly because the portal network is trying to send you back to your proper place. Also, the reason you think your sister helped murder your family when in truth she wasn’t even on this timeline at the time. I pulled her from a timeline where you didn’t exist as this one didn’t have one. The multiverse tries to create memories for those that don’t belong here but it's not a perfect process. Now since I’ve technically already killed you I can’t do it again until I find another weak point in this universe to shatter.” 

 

With that explained The Matriarch finished burning runes in the ground as a portal opened at her feet. As she disappeared into the portal the chains that held William disappeared. Thoroughly confused with more questions than answers, William made his way to the surface to find that the shattered chrono crystal had stopped pulling elemental energy from the temple. The balance of magic began to stabilize as the last of the cultists were rounded up. His job here is done William called for an extraction. He needed to get off of Airidin to find a place to commune with the Allfather. He had questions that needed to be answered.