"Hmm... so you found a book you bought from a wizard in order to learn the powers I gave you and grow stronger... and then you ended up here."
The goddess Tiamat summarized Areth's story as she examined the book in her hand. After looking through it, a smile spread across her face as old memories resurfaced. Then she tossed the book. Areth barely managed to catch it before it struck him.
"Does this book belong to you?" Areth asked as he rose from atop the pile of bones, the book in hand.
"In a manner of speaking, yes... I am the author of that book."
She turned her back to him and began walking toward the temple rising behind the field of bones.
After giving the book one more glance, Areth followed her. He still had no idea what the book actually was, yet for some reason it felt familiar. He was certain he had read about something like this in the novel, but for some reason the memory refused to come to him.
Unable to stop himself, Areth spoke as he walked behind Tiamat, her crimson hair flowing like molten lava.
"So what does this book do?"
Tiamat smiled at the direct question, but before answering she sat down upon the throne within the temple, a seat made from the scales of some enormous avian dragon.
"It does nothing."
Areth stared at the book in surprise.
But at that very moment, Tiamat raised the cup that had appeared in her hand from nothingness and finished her sentence before taking a sip.
"It does nothing because you need to read the other books in the series first."
For several seconds, Areth simply stared at her.
Then he looked down at the book in his hand, and back at her again.
"A series?"
Holding her cup delicately between two fingers, Tiamat leaned back. The throne of dragon scales trembled slightly with the motion, as though it were alive. The crimson crystals hanging from the dark ceiling of the temple glimmered in response.
"The book in your hand is the fourth one," she said in the tone of a bored teacher. "Your confusion is only natural. Starting from the fourth book makes exactly as much sense for a human as the state you're in right now."
Areth looked at the cover again.
Sure enough, at the bottom of the book was a faint mark he had somehow missed before.
IV.
"Damn it..."
"Good. Your eyes are finally starting to work."
Areth clenched his teeth. He could have sworn that mark had not been there before. Perhaps it had only appeared once he opened the book, but even so, he could not help being annoyed with himself for overlooking such an obvious detail.
The good news was that he finally remembered what these books were.
They had only been mentioned briefly in the novel because they were little more than legend. But that did not make them unimportant.On the contrary, their power had been exaggerated so much over the centuries that people eventually began to doubt their very existence.
"I see..." Areth murmured. "So these are the works you left behind for your beloved generals."
Tiamat merely smiled and looked into the distance, yet there was none of that familiar mocking glint in her eyes this time.
No.
This smile was painful.
For all that she was the Goddess of Ambition, she was still a being with emotions. And these books gave her more than enough reason to show them.
Yes, Tiamat had conquered the world with fire and steel.
But there had been one desire she had never spoken of, not even to those closest to her. A desire so immense, so all-consuming, that she could not bring herself to speak of it aloud even when she was alone.
She wanted to become a god.
Even for a woman as ambitious as her, leaving everything behind had not been easy. And of all those she had to abandon, the hardest to leave behind were the generals who had stood beside her throughout the greatest journey of her life.
Tiamat's greatest fear had been that once she ascended to godhood, her generals would succumb to their own ambitions and turn against one another.
After becoming a goddess, she wrote ten books, one for each of her generals. Each of those books was necessary to wield Worldburn, one of her divine powers.
Her intention had been simple: to give her generals a purpose even after her death, to keep them from scattering apart. If she gave each of them only a fragment, then they would be forced to cooperate with one another in order to claim the whole.
At least, that had been her plan. But the moment she ascended, she realized with bitter clarity that she had made a terrible mistake. Instead of working together, her generals went to war.
And thus began the War of the Ten Generals, also known as the War of a Thousand and One Books. They believed that Tiamat had given them those books as a test to determine who among them was truly worthy. The one who gathered every book and mastered Tiamat's Dragonfire would be able to rule the world.
Therefore, they believed the goddess wanted them to fight. To prove who was stronger. To prove who deserved that power. Because that was what the Queen and Goddess wanted.
At least, that was what Tiamat's generals believed.
In short, Tiamat had brought about with her own hands the very thing she had feared most. Her generals spilled one another's blood over the books she had given them, growing weaker with every war. And in the end, that weakness gave birth to a hero.
Areth's great ancestor, the first Landerbern, took advantage of the generals' weakness and succeeded in killing them.
Areth looked at Tiamat's face as she gazed into the distance. This was not the face of an arrogant goddess, nor that of a cruel being who toyed with mortals.
It was the face of someone who had made a mistake. The face of a woman famed for her cunning intellect, forced to watch her own foolishness destroy the people she loved.
And not a small mistake, either.
A mistake great enough to burn a continent, topple empires, and give birth to a war that people still whispered about in fear thousands of years later.
Areth looked down at the book in his hands once more. Now the weight of that old leather cover felt very different. This was not merely a book. It was a legacy written in blood.
"So..." he said slowly. "An entire continent burned to ashes because of these books."
Tiamat lowered her cup from her lips.
"One continent?" she asked with a faint laugh.
Then she tilted her head.
"No."
She slowly swirled the cup in the air. The black liquid inside formed a tiny vortex.
"Nine continents. And that is not even counting the island kingdoms."
Areth frowned.
"Worldburn is one of my divine powers. And humans are not intelligent enough to wield divine power."
Areth looked at the book again.
"And yet you still wrote them."
This time, Tiamat did not answer.
She merely stared at him for a few seconds.
Then she shrugged.
"Ambition... Ambition is my domain."
Areth laughed quietly.
"So one of the bloodiest wars in all of history..." he said, lifting the book slightly, "...happened because of your disastrous attempt at teaching."
Tiamat's eyes narrowed. Then suddenly she laughed. The throne of dragon scales trembled with the force of it. To laugh despite everything. It was perhaps the purest expression of pain there was.
"I suppose it did."
A while later, her laughter slowly faded.
Her eyes drifted back toward the book.
"So what do you intend to do with those books?"
Areth looked down at the old leather-bound volume in his hand. With his thumb, he brushed over the faded IV engraved upon the cover.
Then he raised his head and looked directly into Tiamat's eyes.
"I'm going to collect them."
For several seconds, silence filled the temple.
The light passing through the crimson crystals spread across the stone floor like blood.
"I will find every book," Areth said calmly. "And then I will claim Worldburn."
Tiamat looked at him for several seconds. Then she slowly lowered her cup from her lips. And laughed.
"You?" she said at last, still smiling. "Even my ten generals failed to do that."
The cup vanished from her hand.
Tiamat rose to her feet and descended the steps of her throne with slow, measured strides.
"They were the people who conquered continents at my side. Monsters who annihilated the armies of kings in a single night. Every one of them was strong enough to bring an empire to its knees alone."
She stopped in front of Areth.
"And despite that, they could do nothing except kill one another."
Tiamat tilted her head slightly. Her golden eyes narrowed.
"And you were sitting on a pile of bones only a few hours ago, asking what the book even did."
Areth shrugged.
"True."
"And you still think you can accomplish what they could not?"
"No," Areth said.
One of Tiamat's brows rose.
"I do not think I can do what they could not."
He took a step forward.
"I know why they failed."
For the first time, the mocking expression on Tiamat's face froze.
Areth raised the book in his hand.
"They saw these books as power," he said. "As a reward. A crown. The final step they had to reach by crushing everyone else beneath them."
Slowly, he lowered the book.
"But you did not write them for that."
Tiamat said nothing.
"You wrote them so they would move together,"
Areth continued, his voice harder now. "But despite knowing you, your generals still misunderstood you. Because not everyone thought the same way you did. They didn't share your vision. If they had worked together as you desired, every person in the world would begin their prayers with your name."
"There is nothing wrong with being ambitious," Tiamat said coldly.
"No," Areth replied. "But there is something wrong with being blind."
The air in the temple suddenly grew heavy. The shadows behind Tiamat lengthened. Her crimson hair began to move as though submerged beneath water. Thin cracks spread across the stone floor. A normal man would have stepped back.
Areth did not.
"Your generals hated one another," he said without even blinking. "They did not trust each other. Every one of them wanted to be greater than the rest. Every one of them fought to become your favorite. That is why they lost."
For several seconds, Tiamat stared at him in silence.
Then, slowly, she smiled.
But this time, the smile was not mocking.
It was dangerous.
"And what makes you any different?"
"Because I am... I want power too. More than anything. The difference is..." He met her gaze without hesitation. "I am not trying to become your favorite like your generals did."
He smiled faintly.
"Because sooner or later, whether I want it or not... I probably will be."