Wizard Trials: Epilogue (Patreon)

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          Draevin found himself floating weightlessly on some kind of cloud, his essence enveloped in a comforting warmth. He had no body. He was free of the aches and worries that had plagued him in life. They felt distant and meaningless, like the—

          “Hey! Wake up already, you big blockhead!” Sylnya’s voice shouted. Draevin opened his eyes, realizing he was in a bed. Sylnya stood in the doorway of his bedchamber, the sun behind her giving her the illusion of being surrounded in a glowing halo of light. “You’re going to miss the big announcement,” she said.

          “Mhmm,” Draevin said. “Five more minutes.” He tried to close his eyes again. A pillow hit him in the face.

          “Hey! What’s the big deal!”

          “I already let you sleep in,” Sylnya said. “It’s time to get up now. Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way?” She walked into the bedroom carrying a glass of water and tipped it to the side ever so slightly. Draevin squinted up at her. Her skin was still the black he remembered last, but her hair was now a tangle of tight braids rather than vines. The difference was strange, but still somehow familiar enough that he recognized her immediately. She didn’t look like a dryad or a traut’ska anymore. As he blinked himself awake, Draevin realized he had the knowledge somewhere in his head that he and Sylnya were roommates now. They… had their own house together. How did he know that?

          Draevin sat up. Reluctantly. “No need for threats,” he assured his old friend. “I’m up.”

          “Good,” Sylnya said. She set the glass of water on his bedside table and tossed a wad of clothes at him. They were clean and laundered; not even wrinkled despite being left haphazardly on the chair in his room. “Put those on and meet me outside, I’m going to water the plants before the sun gets any higher.”

          Sylnya pranced out of the room, altogether far too satisfied with herself for Draevin’s taste. He examined the clothes she’d grabbed: bright blue silk shirt and slacks. The color was gaudy, but Draevin liked it that way. Blues stirred fond memories in him. With a heavy sigh of regret, he got up from his cloud-like bed and dressed himself.

          While pulling his shirt over his head Draevin realized something felt off… he couldn’t remember how he’d gotten here. The last thing he could remember was pushing all his godly powers into Peter. When had that happened? Five minutes ago? A year? Was it all just a dream? After getting dressed, Draevin stepped out of his room to find Sylnya in their attached sunroom. She had a pitcher of water in hand and was moving between the hanging baskets and potted plants, giving each a spoken compliment along with a healthy dose of water. Draevin watched her dote on a black vine in a hanging basket, then shift her focus to a little willow sprout. Somehow Draevin knew those two plants were Sylnya’s favorites, just as he knew the sprout was a willow despite being rather pathetic at identifying plants. Draevin couldn’t say where that knowledge came from. Like the knowledge that he and Sylnya lived together, it was just there.

          “Uh, Sylnya?” Draevin asked. “How did I get here?”

          Sylnya giggled and turned her bright smile on him. Her braids danced around her head as she whipped it around. “You don’t know?” Sylnya asked. “I thought he spoke to everyone—is there something wrong with my hair? Why are you staring at it?”

          “Uh, no. I mean, yes? Since when did you have hair?”

          “Since this morning, silly,” Sylnya said. “You’re really behind, aren’t you? Maybe I shouldn’t have let you sleep in for so long.”

          “I don’t understand,” Draevin said. “I feel like we’ve always lived here and you’ve always been human, but I also remember….” He trailed off as memories flashed in his mind: fighting in the arena, Peter’s wish, a broken world, becoming a god… Had any of that really happened? Was any of that even possible?

          “Relax, Drae,” Sylnya said. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Everything is fine. The Blackroot is gone. Just look around. We won! The world has been restored!”

          Draevin did look around. The sun was in the sky. He could feel the warm rays on his skin. He looked out through the glass ceiling of the sunroom to see his picturesque backyard with a gentle hill of grass that led down to a lake. It got cold here in the winter, and snowed for months. How did he know that? Beyond the cleared land of his property he could see a healthy forest of pines. He turned around to look out the window of he and Sylnya’s kitchen. The path leading out of their house connected with a larger road that led to other houses. They had… neighbors, and as Draevin started to think about it he realized he knew who they were.

          “What was that you said about an announcement?” Draevin asked.

          “Did you really not get the message? He said there would be an announcement when we all woke up. I’m not sure why you’re so clueless. I assumed he would talk to everyone.”

          “He?” Draevin asked. “He who?”

          “God, of course,” Sylnya answered simply.

          “God?” Draevin exclaimed. “Like God God? He actually spoke to you?” He paused. “Wait, it’s a he?”

          “I AM SURE YOU HAVE A LOT OF QUESTIONS,” a voice boomed out from everywhere at once. The very ground shook with the vibrations of the man’s voice. The sun darkened with an eclipse.

          Sylnya put a finger up to her lips. “It’s the announcement!” she whispered. She pointed upward.

          Draevin looked into the sky and saw a face looming over everything. He tried to make out the features before realizing it was made of the very sky itself. Clouds formed the face’s cheeks and nose; the sparkle of distant stars lit its eyes and open mouth. After a pause, the figure continued speaking. “YOU ARE ALL AWAKE NOW. MANY OF YOU WILL FIND YOUR SURROUNDINGS FAMILIAR TO YOU; MANY WILL FIND THEM DIFFERENT. I AM YOUR GOD, AND I HAVE CREATED THE WORLD YOU FIND YOURSELF IN.” The god paused his speech briefly.

          “Is that… Peter?” Draevin asked during a lull.

          “Why would you—”

          “THE WORLD YOU KNEW WAS DESTROYED BY FORCES FROM BEYOND,” the voice in the sky continued, drowning out Sylnya’s words. “I WAS FORCED TO INTERVENE. I HAVE RESTORED WHAT WAS LOST AND SET ELDIRA BACK IN ITS PROPER COURSE. AS PUNISHMENT FOR THE INDESCRETION THAT CAUSED THIS CALAMITY, I HAVE TAKEN AWAY ALL MAGIC. SOME MAY FIND THIS DISORIENTING AT FIRST, BUT THAT WILL FADE WITH TIME. TO PREVENT ANOTHER SUCH CALAMITY, I ISSUE THIS DECREE: NO MAN SHALL EVER AGAIN CLAIM DOMINION OVER ANOTHER WITHOUT INCURRING MY WRATH.” There was a pause as the god’s voice echoed over the land. The whole world was stunned into silence. Just as the voice began to fade, it continued. “YOU MAY NOW RETURN TO YOUR LIVES! BE FREE. FIND HAPPINESS. LET DEATH TAKE YOU WHEN IT IS YOUR TIME. I WILL NOT AGAIN INTERVENE IN MORTAL AFFAIRS UNLESS MY DECREE IS VIOLATED. FAREWELL, MY CHILDREN…”

          As the last words echoed across the land, the clouds and stars that formed the face of God faded away. As they did, the sun returned.

          Draevin took a moment to process what he’d just seen. He’d never really believed their world had any gods left. Then he’d become one, briefly, and realized they were just powerful mortals with more magic than sense… now he was back to being unsure. “You knew about this?” Draevin asked Sylnya.

          “I knew there was going to be something, not that,” Sylnya replied. “What was that about a calamity? I don’t recall any calamity. The last thing I remember, we were destroying the Blackroot. Did we fail? Was that the calamity he was talking about?”

          “No, I… I’m fairly sure we destroyed the Blackroot,” Draevin answered. “There was more after that, though. Some… darkness. The world was dying, I think. Sorry, it’s hard to remember all of it.”

          “Speaking of dying,” Sylnya said, “I’m pretty sure I died.” She clutched her arms around her torso. “What was with that guy, though? I thought you told me god was a tree. That god didn’t seem very tree-like.”

          Draevin shrugged. “I must’ve been wrong. Hard to argue about it when you see the real thing. Whatever that entity in the sky was, it was absolutely a god.”

          They got a knock at the front door. Draevin walked through the sunroom and past the kitchen to reach the front door. He opened it to find two familiar faces standing before him. It was their neighbors and longtime friends: Peter and Aaron. Draevin vaguely recalled Aaron moving in with Peter after leaving Truntstown, though he couldn’t say how he knew it. The inserted knowledge conflicted slightly with his memory of watching Aaron fall to his death during the battle with Dwyra. He seemed fine now; he was even missing the metal braces on his legs. Peter was… the same as always, which Draevin found hard to reconcile against the memory of Peter’s body glowing with power as he absorbed Draevin’s godly essence.

          “What did you think of that message?” Peter asked.

          “Hard to believe,” Draevin answered honestly, looking Peter up and down as he spoke, trying to notice a hint of godliness. He didn’t see anything out of the ordinary but knowing Peter, that could just be a trick.

          “Who knew we had a god watching over us this whole time?” Aaron asked. “The last thing I remember is manning the laser turret against Dwyra’s army. I never would have thought God would consider petty mortal concerns like that a calamity!” He glanced between Draevin and Peter as they stared each other down. “Wait, was there more to it than that?” he asked.

          “A lot happened after you died,” Draevin said.

          “I died?” Aaron asked.

          “Yeah, and at one point the sun went out,” Peter supplied. “I think that might have been the calamity God was referring to.”

          “Do you mean the eclipse when the Conflux came?” Sylnya asked. “That happens every time though.”

          “No, it was more than that,” Draevin said. He remembered a pervading darkness, a hopelessness.

          Peter shrugged nonchalantly. “Who cares what happened?” he asked. “The important thing is that it’s behind us now. For all we know we were the ones that caused it. We were trying to jumpstart an artificial Conflux, remember?”

          Draevin gazed suspiciously at Peter. “Oh, I remember…” he said. He couldn’t explain why, but he instinctively wanted to trust Peter. That only made him mistrust him even more than usual. He couldn’t tell whether Peter actually didn’t remember as far back as he did or if he was just saying so.

          “Well I’m just glad I’m alive again,” Aaron said. He suddenly sucked in a breath, eyes going wide.

          “What?” Peter asked him.

          “I just remembered something!” he said excitedly. “My mom and dad live a few houses down the road! I have to go see them.” With that, Aaron turned around and sprinted off down the road. Peter found something about that amusing and chuckled softly to himself. As Aaron reached the end of the driveway he passed a burly man that dwarfed him by a full head and shoulders. The man was headed straight for Draevin’s front door.

          Draevin felt a moment of panic as the burly man grew closer. He looked strong enough to crush a man’s skull and he was coming at them fast. Then he looked over the features. There was something familiar about them. He was practically covered in hair: he had a scruffy beard, a hairy chest and arms, as well as a mop of curly hair on his head. The skin that peeked out between his dark curls was a golden bronze. The reason Draevin could see the hair on the man’s chest was because his only clothes were a pair of shorts. He looked like a human version of Grrbraa, which was fitting since that’s exactly what he was. As Draevin realized this, his panic turned to joy. Draevin’s face cracked with a wide smile. “Grrbraa!” he called out.

          “Friend-Draevin!” Grrbraa shouted in his deep, human, voice. It was nearly the same voice Draevin remembered from when he’d been a werebeast. Grrbraa ran down Draevin’s entryway, barefoot but not seeming to care one bit. He reached Peter first, wrapping him in a big hug that lifted the much smaller man off his feet. “Friend-Peter! You’re here too!” He let Peter go and grabbed Sylnya next. “Friend-Sylnya! I have not seen you since yesterday!”

          Sylnya giggled with excitement as Grrbraa picked her up off her feet. “So good to see you again, Gerby!” she said.

          “I missed you all!” Grrbraa said.

          Before Draevin got his turn being smothered by the oversized man that Grrbraa had become, someone called out for him from down the road. “Grrbraa! You can’t just run off like that! You’re going to scare someone.”

          The voice came from a dark-skinned man with bright red hair hanging loose around his head. Draevin had never seen the man before, but his mannerisms seemed familiar. That he was so quick to scold Grrbraa gave Draevin a hint as to the man’s identity.

          “Sorry, father-Taelshin,” Grrbraa said. He let go of Sylnya and looked down at his feet as though he was ashamed of himself. “I was just so excited to see my friends.”

          “Father-Taelshin?” Draevin repeated. “I thought all dryads were women. What am I missing here?”

          A pale woman with a wisp of blonde hair ran up and snaked an arm around Taelshin’s waist. The familiarity between the two of them could only mean that the other person was Taelshin’s wife. “Dryads were never male or female,” Taelshin asserted. “When God came to me in my dream and asked me which gender I would prefer to be, I said male. Do you have a problem with that, Draevin?”

          “No,” Draevin said quickly, holding up his hands defensively. “Just surprised is all. I’ll get used to it. There’s a lot to get used to this morning, apparently.” Draevin glanced a look at Peter and caught him turning his eyes away like he’d been caught staring. “Excuse us just one minute,” Draevin told the others. He grabbed Peter by the arm and dragged him back through the house and into his bedroom. Peter didn’t even try to fight as Draevin closed the door behind them. “Talk,” Draevin commanded. “And don’t think for a second whatever you did to my mind is going to make me trust you.”

          Peter held up his hands. “Just an innocent suggestion,” he insisted. “One you clearly chose to ignore. See? I didn’t take away your free will.”

          “Explain to me what the Hell is going on here. I know I’m supposed to be dead. Why is everyone human?”

          “I can tell you,” Peter said, “but only if you keep it a secret.”

          “Sure. Whatever. I’m sure you can just erase me from existence if I don’t, so I’m not sure why you’d bother to ask.”

          “No,” Peter insisted, “I can’t. But if you must know, I made everyone human because it was the easiest way to make us all equal. No special powers. No genetic advantages or disadvantages. No more races like dryads or eldrin that require magic just to survive.”

          “So you are in charge!” Draevin shouted. “I knew you didn’t just forget everything. You’d never do that. Was that you in the sky then? Can you do that sort of thing whenever you feel—”

          Peter dived forward and clamped a hand over Draevin’s mouth to shut him up. “Not so loud!” he hissed. “You’re the only one I left with any memories of what really happened. Don’t make me regret it. I don’t need everyone blaming me if this doesn’t work out.” Peter cracked the bedroom door open. Draevin saw Grrbraa out there flexing his biceps to Sylnya’s amusement. Alex had joined them and was greeting the others with big hugs. It didn’t seem like anyone was attempting to eavesdrop. “We’re lucky nobody overheard you,” Peter said, shutting the bedroom door. “One wrong word and you could ruin everything.”

          “Ruin what?” Draevin asked. “What did you do?”

          “Exactly what I said I was going to do,” Peter explained. “I fixed the world. I got rid of magic. Everyone is equal now.”

          “But I thought our world was severed from the World Tree,” Draevin said. “We need a god to keep things turning.”

          “And we have one,” Peter said. “That’s why I was able to retire.”

          “You mean that thing in the sky? You… made that?”

          “Well, yes, but also no. That’s not a god. Just a very convincing illusion. The actual god keeping our world together is a tree I grew from the divine seed you gave me.”

          “What about the one you stole from Istven?” Draevin asked.

          “Used it up,” Peter said. “I did my own Rite of Severing with Tenna’s help after you died. I didn’t think it was a good idea to leave a connection to the worlds still controlled by the Blackroot once I got rid of the magic we would have needed to defend ourselves. It would have been a disaster just waiting to happen. Now we’re completely alone. Completely safe. There’s no way for anyone from another world to travel to or from Eldira. It took a few thousand years to grow the mana I needed to get everything to work right, but you’d be surprised what you can do with a little light and some algae. Turns out, World Trees don’t care if the life that feeds them is conscious or not.”

          “Wait a second… did you say I died? What was that about thousands of years? Has it really been that long? It feels like we fought only a few hours ago.”

          Peter chuckled. “Yeah. You didn’t think I fixed everything instantaneously did you? There was a lot of work to do and you wouldn’t believe how long it takes to fully master god powers. We were both just little newborn babies when we fought. Making stars was the difficult part. If I tried to tell you how big they really were you wouldn’t even believe me. Filling the entire sky took ages! Once I learned to get everything growing and feeding back into our own World Tree I had to wind back time to capture impressions of everyone besides Brorn in the moments before they died. That’s why everyone can still remember as much as they can.”

          The star stuff wasn’t really in Draevin’s wheelhouse, but the line about impressions got his attention. “What do you mean ‘impressions’? Did you make copies of everyone? Am I a copy?”

          Peter gave Draevin a sheepish smile. “Sort of? I took a piece of your original soul to grow your current one, if that makes a difference. The bodies all had to be custom designed, but I made some improvements while I was at it. For instance, did you know you had a nerve that looped all the way down your spine and back for no reason? I also fixed everyone’s teeth. Nobody knew how to manage them properly without magic so now if you have any problems, you can just pull your bad teeth out and new ones will grow in. And don’t even get me started on eyes! I’m surprised they even worked at all.” He cleared his throat dramatically. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

          Draevin felt at his ears. They were round and boring now. “So… I’m not an elf anymore?” he asked.

          “Were you not listening? Nobody is,” Peter said. “That’s what I meant by no magic. I mean, you can call yourself an elf if you want to, but it’s a meaningless expression now. Everyone is human. You’re just a human that used to be an elf. Grrbraa’s a human that used to be a werebeast. You get it?”

          “Everyone?” Draevin asked. “Even the dragons?”

          “Even the dragons,” Peter confirmed.

          “How many people did you bring back exactly?”

          “Everyone who died after my original wish,” Peter said. “As well as everyone that died in the events leading up to it.”

          “So did my wife—”

          “No!” Peter said immediately before Draevin could even finish the question. “I was only fixing my mistakes. It wasn’t my responsibility to bring back everyone who ever died. I wanted to make an exception for you, I did, but once you start down that path where does it end? I didn’t even make an exception for myself! I’m serious about that. I may have memories of being a god, but I’m fully human now. Same as everyone else.”

          “But you brought back Aaron’s parents,” Draevin said bitterly.

          Peter shook his head. “They died in the events leading up to my first wish, your wife didn’t. Neither did my parents. The people we have now are the people we’re stuck with, for good or bad. The only magic left in the world is in the tree keeping everything together.”

          “Oh?” Draevin said. “Where did you plant that then? Just out of curiosity.” It occurred to Draevin that a magic tree like that might be able to grant wishes the same way the Conflux used to. Not that he was thinking of abusing that power, but if Aelaniss was still dead after all this time…

          “I know what you’re thinking, and it’s not going to work,” Peter warned. “I considered putting the tree way off in the open ocean on its own continent, but I decided that wasn’t secure enough. Then I considered putting it way on the Southern tip of the planet, where winter never ends, but even that could be exploited given enough time. So I put it on the moon.”

          “The moon?”

          Peter nodded. “The moon. It would have been too risky to put it anywhere else with people like Brorn still walking around. And yes, I did make good on your promise to give him his own continent. I’m sure he’s crushed about the lack of magic needed to spawn the army he was planning to make there. If there was a magic tree somewhere he could reach, all my plans would have come unraveled. The same way that line about incurring the wrath of God if you try to make slaves only works as a bluff to keep everyone in line if they actually believe it. So you absolutely can’t tell anyone I was behind everything.”

          Draevin let out a deep breath. His last hope of seeing his wife again was finally smashed. It had never been a dream with much of a chance of success. He was surprised to feel just the slightest glimmer of relief at not having to feel like he was somehow letting her down by giving up on her anymore. It was finally impossible. He could focus on living out the rest of his life with the friends he had left. “I guess… that’s fair,” Draevin said. “I won’t tell anyone.” Only Peter would have come up with a plan to prevent slavery with a worldwide lie. It seemed like a compromise meant to get what he wanted without actually taking away anyone’s free will. A lie and fear of divine retribution. Draevin wondered if it would last.

          “Yes,” Peter insisted. “It is fair. For everyone. Now come with me, I have a surprise for you.”

          “For me?” Draevin asked. “What kind of surprise?”

          “You’ll see,” Peter said. He opened the door of the bedroom. They found Istven standing in Draevin’s sunroom with his arms crossed, looking directly at them. He skin was still as inky black as ever, but his eyes were now a more mundane light gray color instead of the glowing white of an Eldrin. He glared at Peter, saying nothing.

          Draevin cleared his throat. “Hi Istven,” he said.

          Istven didn’t reply, instead he continued to glare at Peter. “We need to talk,” he said sternly, looking at Peter.

          Peter gave Istven nearly the same sheepish grin he’d given to Draevin just a minute ago. “Oh?” he asked innocently. “Do we?”

          Draevin leaned in close to Peter’s ear. “Was Istven that surprise you mentioned?” he asked.

          Peter pointed back, towards the front door. “No. That is.” Draevin then saw who Peter was pointing at and felt his heart skip a beat.

          Tenna.

          She was stunning. For the first time in a long time Draevin saw her in the flesh. Her pale skin practically radiated with health. Her eyes sparkled with a bright blue that matched the summer dress she was wearing—which was inlaid with thousands of sapphires. Draevin was already ten paces closer to her before he realized what he was doing. She laughed at something Grrbraa had just said, her cheeks flushing with pink. Then she saw Draevin and turned to face him, her eyes going wide. “Draevin!” she said in surprise. “Grrbraa was just telling me what your nephew said after the—”

          Draevin pulled her into his arms. For once she was warm beneath his touch. “I don’t care what he said,” Draevin told her. “I owe you my life. Thank you, for always being there for me. I can’t imagine what it took for you to leave the Tuan’diath behind to help save our world. I owe you a lot. Sorry you got dumped in a mortal body.”

          Tenna frowned for a second, then broke into a peal of laughter that bubbled up from the depths of her diaphragm. “Oh Drae, are you really sorry about that? I chose this world, silly. I knew what it would mean. The only thing that’s changed now is how much time I have left.” She reached a finger up and bopped Draevin on the nose. “And what I get to do with that time.”

          “Oh?” Draevin asked. “And what can you do now that you couldn’t do as an immortal spirit of magic?”

          “This,” Tenna said. She leaned in close and planted a gentle kiss on Draevin’s lips.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Author's Note: 

          Readers! It’s been a long journey, but we have finally come to the end of Draevin’s journey. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it for you. While this is the end of the main story, this isn’t the end of my writing in the Wizard Tournament world. I will be spending the rest of the month wrapping up any side story content I started and didn’t yet finish: this includes Caladin’s Climb, For a New World, and Andorra Academy, so look out for those posts to come on Monday/Wednesday/Friday as usual. I hope to be able to wrap up all those stories this month, but in another week or two I’ll be able to tell if that’s an achievable goal for this month or not.

          Only if I absolutely need to will I consider maintaining this patreon’s release schedule for another month, otherwise I will finish out the release of regular chapters next month for the Newbie patrons, then I will be starting a new release of Wizard Tournament from the beginning on /r/redditserials and r/humansarespaceorcs (with daily chapter releases). Fingers crossed that I can build a new (likely smaller) audience for my story. Any money I earn on the second release I hope to invest in hiring an editor to help get my story organized into ebooks and novels (we are about equal in word count to the entire Harry Potter series with just the main story content, to give you an idea how many books it would need to be).

          Now there’s an elephant I’d like to address: Patrons that have paid for hard copy books here on Patreon.

          I realize I launched my patreon tier to purchase signed copies of my books a little pre-emptively. I did not manage to get all of Wizard Tournament edited and released in hardcopy form like I hoped to, so for anyone that purchased hard copies via a patreon tier I will be messaging you directly this month to coordinate the delivery of any 1st book copies you haven’t received or issuing a refund. If you’re feeling generous and don’t want to accept a refund, I’m still going to insist on granting it and you can choose to take that money to my next patreon if you think I’ve earned it. So look for those messages. I’ll be making an excel doc with everyone in it and working my way through it before the month is out.

          As for my next project. It has already started. 2 weeks ago, actually. I haven’t launched the Patreon page yet but plan to by the first of next month. My current plan is to make a separate post here on Patreon before the month is out titled, “The Circle of Trust” which will be readable for all patrons. Look for that, as it will tell you where to find my next project and what name I’ll be writing under. To better disguise my existing readers I won’t be linking my discord server to my new Patreon page until the series has organically achieved a larger readership, but I will include an invite link to the new server in my “Circle of Trust” post later this month.

          Love to all. It was a life changing experience for me to write all of you a million words of Wizard Tournament :)

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