Please see Chapter Index below. It contains a lot of super important info and if you get triggered or something it's not my fault if ya didn't read
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Prologue: Eating New People
The Haelborne’s dimension ship was a grand undertaking, an enormous hunk of metallic material forged and shaped into a habitable vessel. Ritual diagrams shone across its hull, granting it the magic to cross between realities. For now, it was docked atop the sky-dome of Kaaldenvale, a reality encompassing just a single planet, doing nothing. For any other fringe interdimensional organization, this would be a massive and wasteful expenditure. But for the Haelborne, it was but one of their silent, thousand-strong fleet, out plundering the cosmos like the others.
This particular mission, however, was quite special. Both in terms of the objective… and who was involved.
Aboard the ship, in one of the lounges, was a fae and a dysphorium.
The fae were the local intelligent species of Kaaldenvale, somewhat resembling the elves of Earth folklore. Unlike those nature spirits, they were built for killing, evolved from highly predatory mammals – they bore such features as retractable cat-like claws, razor-sharp flexible ears, and jagged rows of teeth. This particular fae was a relatively recent recruit to the Haelborne cause, specifically for this mission. His name was Limril.
The dysphorium were nothing like the fae. A population of thousands scattered across the cosmos, with nowhere to call home, they roamed realities, slaughtering thousands with the power of an unchained soul. There was nothing keeping it from committing mass genocide on a whim, except for a lucrative deal.
This dysphorium was a nightmarish concoction. It had serrated blades incorporated into its limbs. Its face was dominated by a wide, ever-grinning mouth of sharp teeth. Its deep blue-grey hair floated in nonexistent wind, parted by a pair of twisting horns. From the rightmost horn hung an hourglass filled with blood red sand. Its name was Grim.
The two were playing a local board game. Limril was unusually enthused for his nonchalant and apathetic demeanour. Grim was alternately moving pieces and tasting them.
“Damnit,” Limril sighed. “Grim, can you not eat those?”
“I could…” Grim spat a bunch of twisted wooden scraps out of its mouth. “But my contract tells me I have to not eat the people.”
“How is that relevant?”
“It is.”
“How helpful.”
Limril sighed again and swept the board and pieces off the table. He waved his hand, and the board hovered its way across the floor and into a cupboard. Eyes dulling, he snatched a can of soda out of nothingness, popping it open and downing a gulp.
“So,” he said between sips. “You up for dispatch to Javenshard this week?”
“What-shard?” Grim mumbled, its grin fracturing back to a mildly triumphant smile. “What’s to eat there?”
“Javenshard, Grim. A town. In Haelcrien. And you can’t eat anyone until we get scouting done. And then we have to figure out the arrangement with the Felheils…”
Grim blew a raspberry – which was quite odd looking, because it didn’t have lips, and its tongue looked like a spiked mace made from red flesh.
“Can I go negotiate with those guys? I love eating – I mean EATING new people.”
Limril stared at it.
“Fuck I said it twice. Anyway, why’re we going there?”
“The Fundament Glass, Grim. The reason we recruited you in the first place?”
"Recruited me? No, I think I recruited myself.”
“Of course you do. When you get powerful enough, it just seems like everything happens because you’re around.”
“It does because it’s true. So why are we after a piece of glass?”
“If you keep playing dumb, I am going to report you to management.”
“How many calories is that worth?”