Mantling Rituals

Haalfrin's reverie is broken when Fheldin suddenly stirs. The dragon-man turns his head to Haalfrin and abruptly asks, "Why were you asking so much about the Felkin to Dakka earlier?"

Without moving at all, the human answers with another question. "You can hear me talking to Dakka? I thought that was a private telepathic link between slayer and dragon."

Fheldin nods. "I'm VERY old. I know a trick or two the others don't know."

The dragon smiles without showing his teeth. "Anyway, from your conversation in the Clan Meeting room, I heard you were interested in asking about the Felkin. What? Are you interested in one of my daughters or something?"

"…" Haalfrin is silent for a bit. "No."

"Then why were you talking so much about them? Hmm???" Fheldin presses on with his questioning – this time with a little more threat in his voice.

Haalfrin considers telling Fheldin about the emperor's request to kidnap a Felkin. Well, more specifically, the emperor ordered him to kidnap Mistress Arla...

... though the emperor was presumably so specific because he's unaware that Fheldin has many Felkin daughters – not just a Felkin wife.

As for why the Brancotte emperor wants a Felkin, it's definitely because Felkin feathers have many properties – up to and including restoring youth.

Yup. The emperor certainly made this rash request because he's incurably afraid of dying – especially as he teeters on the edge meeting Das.

However, Haalfrin reigns in his words just in time before he lets his true thoughts slip; if he'd told Fheldin the truth, he's afraid the dragon lord would personally stomp both the Threshold AND his entire world flat out of rage.

Haalfrin has seen how much Fheldin treasures his wife, so he can imagine what kind of horrifying temper Fheldin might demonstrate if anyone tries laying a hand on her.

'I mean,' Haalfrin thinks, 'Lord Fheldin may appear mild-mannered… but come on… he's a dragon! He'll DEFINITELY kill a lot of people if he gets mad.'

Seeing that Haalfrin isn't answering, Fheldin unexpectedly adds, "So, are you going to try taking one of my daughters? They're in the east wing of the palace, you know."

Haalfrin's eyes twitch, and his blood goes cold. "…What?" he asks with a blank expression. "Are you asking if I want to take one away?"

"You're welcome to TRY," the Fhelkin corrects him, "though you wouldn't make it out the front gate."

Haalfrin waves his hands to the side as if making a shooing motion, "Nah! As if I would ever do that!" He laughs aloud at the ridiculous idea of him kidnapping one of Fheldin's daughters.

Suddenly, the very air goes cold… and this time, it's not Haalfrin's imagination.

Fheldin still looks composed, but there's a frostiness in his eyes that wasn't there before.

"... Excuse me?" Fheldin says slowly, "Are you saying my daughters aren't good enough? Are they so ugly that you'd turn your nose up at them and say, 'I'll never try to take one away!?'"

Haalfrin laughs even harder at this - seemingly unintimidated - and says, "No, no, you've got it all wrong! I'm not into kidnapping people."

"Is it because you're scared?"

"Because it's WRONG," Haalfrin answers resolutely. "Dakka told me earlier that the Drakin's marriage custom has the suitor invade the parents' house, kidnap the bride or groom, then successfully escape with their prize. Sorry, but I'm not into that."

Haalfrin almost mentioned how he already has a girl he likes, but that situation is complicated enough that he doesn't feel comfortable sharing it with a stranger he just met for the 2nd time.

… Plus, Frey is still next to him.

So instead, Haalfrin jibes at the Drakin's traditions again. "Are you really sure this is all necessary? Kidnapping your brides… Where did such a ridiculous marriage ritual come from?"

"It's not ridiculous, nor is it frivolous," Fheldin replies seriously. "The ritual kidnapping is an important Spell that gives us greater Yiir."

"…Spell?"

Fheldin nods. "Yes. It's a spell to alter Fate – to change the future. You probably didn't hear this from Dakka, since most dragons have weak Yiir, and hence don't bother studying Yiir magic."

"Huh," Haalfrin realizes. "Yiir and Dra are opposing elements. With your imposing Dra in your powerful bodies, you naturally have the weakest Luck of any race."

Fheldin pretends to sniff back a tear. "Yes, we do have horrible luck. You've heard the stories, right? - the ones about brave knights sneaking into our castles and killing us for our treasure or children? Most of them are either true, you know - or based off of true stories."

Most of those dragon-slaying stories involve things like "a scale being missing right over the heart" and the hero "just happening to hit the vulnerable spot".

Other stories involve the dragon – who is normally a vigilant individual – "just happening to be" dead drunk the very night the intrepid young hero waltzes in.

All of these tragic incidents are due to a dragon's fatal Luck. Their horrible luck is essentially the universe's way keeping everything balanced between the races.

Dragons are the strongest, sinisterly clever, practically immortal, can revive upon death, and have impenetrable senses…

... How else is the universe supposed to kill these monsters off except for cursing them with bad Luck?

So, if the Drakin have a Ritual Spell that boosts their Yiir, it makes sense that they ABSOLUTELY have to do it.

Seeing the cogs turn in Haalfrin's head, Fheldin smiles encouragingly. "Yup. Most of our strange traditions are Mantling Rituals; 'Mantling' is the name for these spells, by the way."

After hearing that your Fate can be altered with a Mantling spell, Haalfrin suddenly becomes a lot more interested. "How is a Mantling Ritual done?"

"You must understand," Fheldin explains, "that 'Yiir' is the Element of events – of things happening. In other words, everything that happens in the world carries Yiir with it.

He explains further, "In our tongue, we call Yiir 'Significance' for a very simple reason. The more important an event is, then the more Significance it carries – the more Yiir.

"The fundamentals of a Mantling Ritual is this:

"1. You find an event that's MAGNITUDES more Significant than yourself. In the spell books, this Significant Event is called the 'Template Event'.

"2. You fabricate an event that imitates the Template Event. This staged event is called the 'Mantling Ritual.'

"3. The more closely the Mantling Ritual resembles the Template Event, then the stronger the effect is.

"4. After the ritual is complete, then the universe will naturally want to align your Fate with the one you just Mantled."

"So," Haalfrin asks, "you can just… influence your own future in any way you want?"

"Well," Fheldin answers, "You'd have to find the right events to Mantle. Let's say that there's a very powerful god who perishes because his wife stabbed him in the heart while they slept next to each other. That's the death of a god! That's pretty Significant, right?"

"…Right?"

"So, if you walk yourself through the events prior to this hypothetical god's betrayal, then your own fate will bend and twist as it tries to imitate that god's life.... until you never wake up one morning after your spouse stabs you in the heart."

"Ugh, that's pretty scary."

"Yeah…," Fheldin admits. "Mantling is a legitimate assassination technique among the gods. Just find a god better than both you and your enemy, who also happens to have an untimely end. Then… BAM! You got yourself a Mantling Ritual!"

Haalfrin tries to make sure they stay on topic, so he brings up, "You never told me what Event the Drakin's marriage ritual imitates."

"Ah… that." Fheldin raises his head proudly. "Kidnapping the spouse is how the very first Dragon marriage happened. Our great ancestor, Drakavar, is the most powerful Goddess in the universe, so imitating ANYTHING she does (or will do) is bound to make a VERY powerful Mantling Ritual.

"As the stories go, the Goddess of dragons fell in love with the God of elementals. Now you see, the Elemental King was the Creation God's live-in apprentice."

Fhelding chuckles at this next part.

"Our Ancestor tried getting her crush to move out with her, but the Creation God wouldn't let it happen. He said that our Ancestor was too dangerous and had a vile temper. He didn't want his beloved apprentice to end up with a mad woman."

( Author Note: The Creation God is absolutely right about this.)

"Let me guess," Haalfrin cuts him off. "the Dragon Goddess kicked the door down, trashed the Creator God's palace, and flew off into the sunset with her prize tied and gagged over her shoulder?"

"…Yeah… That's basically what happened. You forgot the part where she broke the Creator god's four limbs and warned him it would be his skull next time he tries getting in her way."

"…" ~ Haalfrin

"A-anyway," Fheldin awkwardly gets back on track, "in the end, the Dragon Queen and Elemental King have eternal, marital bliss. No outside force was able to separate them."

…And this is precisely why Dragons imitate their Goddess's abhorrent "betrothal ceremony". They want to have a happy ending like that too.

After hearing all this new information about the Mantling Ritual, Haalfrin is in a good mood. He would really like to tell Freyya about this ritual, since it might help him get killed even faster.

'Still,' Haalfrin thinks, 'if the Mantling Ritual is common knowledge among gods, then why hasn't Freyya been doing it yet?'

This sounds like it would've been a really easy way to end his life. This 1000-year-long journey wouldn't have been necessary at all!

…In reality, Freyya HAS been doing a Mantling Ritual on Haalfrin's life – for hundreds of years now.

Of course, the only one who knows what she's been doing is herself.

…But that's a detail in this story for another time.

Anyway, Haalfrin shakes his thoughts away, and he changes the subject. "So Lord Fheldin? Why don't you tell me the story of how you met your wife? That sounds pretty interesting."

Fheldin gets excited about having the opportunity to chat some more, so he puts his hands on his knees and gives a big, toothy smile, "Haha! Yup! We met in a forest, and…"

…And Fheldin goes on and on about the story of how he came to marry his wife. It goes on for much too long for Haalfrin, so he ends up falling asleep just before the story ends.

---------------------

Fheldin doesn't bother waking Haalfrin up for the last part. Instead, he stands up, straightens his jacket, and walks away.

'It was fun having an intelligent ear listen to my stories for once.' Fheldin looks up with a frown – recalling all his own sons. 'All those rebellious brats never want to spend time with me for some reason!'

He sighs, 'I just wish I had a few sons like Haalfrin. Grr… I still need to figure out a way to convince Haalfrin to be my son-in-law. Being a son-in-law is the closest he can be to being my actual son, after all.'

Fheldin naturally feels that this "Frey" person is an obstacle to his ambition… but that's a problem he'll think about later.

Dragons are greedy creatures, after all; no matter how much they already have, they'll try to find out how to get more.