Games Gods Play Book 1: The Beginning

Chapter One. He Who Has the Will.

The Sodneians are a peace-loving nation; just like the Freelanders they offer shelter to anyone needing it. The country itself stands on sands and seashores; it has a rather warm climate and a decent amount of various carnivorous beasts that dwell in the sands...

- From "The Chronicles of Otherworld".

The last thing Harry remembered before he felt sand filling his eyes, nose and mouth was Arquin making several strange waving gestures, yelling a strangely sounding spell (Harry hoped that it was a spell), and the feeling just like he was Flooing. Except that this, unlike Floo, was not controlled by Harry's own volition.

He stood up, brushing the sand out of his face, his hair and his clothes... clothes? He checked twice - he was not wearing his battered old t-shirt anymore, instead, he was now wearing a light navy-blue short sleeved shirt and plain brown trousers. The leather boots and the style of his clothes looked as if they all were props from the aforementioned fantasy blockbusters, featuring busty leather-bikini-clad women and hulking masses of muscle as protagonists. However, neither were seen anywhere near.

In all directions, he could see only two things - sky and sand, sand and sky... His mind jumped to the map Arquin showed them; the only place on it that actually had sand was the Desert of... damn those tongue-twisting names... The Desert of Sodne. He remembered towns, mostly on the sea-shore, and a small dot in the very middle of the desert... he wondered if that was where he was supposed to end up in.

Having once again looked around to search for any signs of anything but sand, and not seeing any, he decided to make an account of his assets.

He had no wand; he had local (hopefully) clothing and no idea as to which language the locals speak. That meant trouble with communication, travel and, generally, his existence. All the magic he could rely on was accidental magic, and that was unreliable, hence it's name.

On the other hand, he still had Animagus magic, and he needed it, as it seemed to be the only way out of this (for he had no wish to walk all the way to Sodrak or whatever the capitol of this place was named).

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on a griffin, remembering McGonagall's words about concentration and changing into whatever one wishes, provided one has enough willpower... willpower? Wasn't willpower the "gift" Arquin had promised to give Harry?

It was, as it turned out, for the transformation went much faster and way less painful than usually. As his four feet touched the hot sand, Harry spread his wings and took off into flight.

He was lucky to have practiced enough flying in griffin form to be able to do such a long flight... Having picked a direction completely at random, he headed towards it, hoping he'll find someplace to rest soon, for the sun was burning his back painfully.

After about what felt like an eternity, and was actually little more than an hour, he finally saw a small camp below. He started descending, only to realize his mistake as one of the men below yelled "Griffin! Hide the horses!" and grabbed what looked like a crossbow.

"Damn it, why hadn't I remembered that griffins prey on horses earlier?" Harry thought bitterly, starting to descend even faster - he needed to revert as soon as possible, and not get crushed by the law of gravity in the process.

He saw the man ready his crossbow, the man's black and grey hair... Having realized that he won't reach ground before the man opens fire; Harry reverted back to human for in-flight, hoping that his Quidditch practice at landing after falls did not go to waste.

He smiled happily, as it turned out that the landing was quite soft, but the man still had Harry targeted.

"Who are you?" the man asked, "A demon?"

"A demon? You must be kidding me!" Harry laughed in reply, "I'm only a boy, lost in this stupid desert!"

"Of course you are, and you can change into a griffin as well?" the man asked, his words dripping with unrealized irony.

"What, never heard of Animagi before?" Harry asked nervously. The man's face said the answer evidently was 'no'.

"Animagi are only wizards who can transform into animals!" Harry protested, trying to at least talk some sense into the man. It looked as if that argument wasn't going to wash with the man.

"A wizard, eh?" the man asked, "Very well, let's see what Alyssa has to say on this!"

Harry had no idea why the man was talking in English, and with a thick Irish accent, who this Alyssa was, and why the man was so displeased with Harry being a wizard.

He was led into the walls, which seemed to be made of black obsidian, thick enough to withstand an attack of an entire army of demons and obviously constructed through the extensive use of magic. The inside of the wall was even more interesting - several buildings made of stone and wood, each bearing markings of some kind, which Harry didn't understand.

"In there, lad!" the man commanded, pushing Harry into one of them.

Inside was pleasantly cool and dark. After Harry's eyes finally adapted to the half-light of the inside of the building, he saw what would have been a paradise for Hermione - rows upon rows upon rows of books, parchments, and tomes, all dusty and ancient-looking.

At the table standing in the middle of the room sat a woman in her mid-thirties, wearing a deep blue robe covered with golden runes most of which Harry still didn't know. She had very long black hair and rather pale skin.

"Who is this, Jeremy?" she asked Harry's guard, while studying Harry's face and appearance.

"This is a property violator I caught, Alyssa," Jeremy replied, "He was flying in as a griffin. Claims he's a wizard able to become an animal. I think he's a bloody spy."

"An Animagus, eh?" said Alyssa with a grin, "Let's see then. What can you become, boy?"

"Er... What do you wish?" Harry asked, trying to remember the way a Hungarian Horntail looked like, and comparing the odds of escape with and without that form among his assets.

"Let's see... a wolf?" she suggested merrily.

"Nothing easier," Harry replied, closing his eyes.

"Right, wolf..." he thought as he focused on the body shape and the addition of the heightened sense of smell and hearing. Then, he suddenly smelled two new scents intruding into his nose - a nice perfumed scent of a human female and the sweated and overly repulsive scent of a human male.

Alyssa smiled warmly.

"See, Jeremy? The boy is an Animagus indeed."

Harry reverted back into his human form. "Excuse me, but could you tell me where this is exactly?" he asked as politely as he could.

"Of course, my boy!" she replied cheerfully. Apparently she either didn't know many Animagi, or (and this Harry dreaded horribly) she had a thing for seventeen-year-old boys.

Jeremy retreated to the outside quite swiftly and silently, while Alyssa led Harry up to the map hanging on the wall. It was much alike to the one Arquin had shown them in Tanelorn, except that this one had the names of geographical objects written in a language Harry did not know.

"See, here we are," she said, pointing in the very middle of the desert. Exactly where the camp was on Arquin's map.

"So tell me," She started as she settled down into the chair again, "How did you end up in the middle of the desert?"

"Er... It wasn't my choice, really," Harry replied earnestly, "I was put here by Lord Arquin and..." however, he was cut off pretty quickly.

"Arquin? As in The Lord of Order?" she asked quickly.

"Well, yes..." replied the flabbergasted Harry.

"And what was the part he's doing in this cosmic play of idiocy?" came a hoarse voice.

Harry turned around to see the owner of the voice. It was an old-looking man with strangely mixed dark brown and grey hair, and a very young looking face. He was also rather tall. The man was wearing a simple grey shirt with matching trousers on his body and a look of grim absence from the world on his face.

"And you are..." Harry started.

"Simon Steelfeather, the resident amnesiac," the man replied dryly. Harry wondered how could he be an amnesiac if he knew his name...

"Lord Arquin and the other Rulers of Order made a bet with the Rulers of Chaos: four mortals are to be thrown into this world. If they survive, the Order gets this world through their hands. Otherwise, Chaos gets my world. I'm one of those four," Harry explained once more.

"Wonderful, another world crushed in the ever-going conflict between Chaos and Order, Light and Darkness," Simon commented grimly and left.

"Is he always like that?" Harry asked Alyssa.

"No... eight years ago Simon was a paladin of Daed, and he fought against Blackheart. He was the sole survivor, since Blackheart thought it would be amusing to erase Simon's memory, leaving only three things in it: his name, how he lost his memory, and to whom," she explained, "Not the best life, is it?" she added.

"Yeah, but at least now I understand his melancholy attitude... so, I suppose you are the Chosen, the rebels?" he asked.

"Yes... and you were supposed to join us or what?"

"No, I was told to seek you."

"Great. Let's find your friends then," she said and led him outside. His eyes hurt again at the bright desert sun's light as they walked into another building. This one was furnished as Snape's dream come true - almost every single type of alchemical gadgetry was present here, along with shelves upon shelves of various ingredients.

There was a man wearing a green turban along with robes of matching colour who was engrossed in activity regarding a cauldron he was lowering something into on a length of rope.

"Jonathan, we need a locator ritual done," Alyssa said.

The man turned around, smiling warmly at Alyssa, who returned the smile, though not as eagerly, then they both turned to Harry.

"And this it..." Jonathan inquired.

"Harry Potter, planeswalking Animagus," Alyssa said, "Arquin sent in four seventeen-year old kids in to help."

"At least something," Jonathan muttered as he turned back to the cauldron.

"What are you brewing?" Harry asked, "Some kind of poison?"

"Not exactly," Jonathan replied, "Moonshine. It's a bit hard since I don't know the exact proportion of materials..."

"Moonshine?" Harry asked, "Then you most definitely should seek Malfoy first. He can tell you anything that's got to do anything with alcohol."

"Alright. Who are we Seeking?" Jonathan asked eagerly, Harry's words about Malfoy obviously flaring up his enthusiasm.

"Three people. Harry?" Alyssa replied.

"Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. Do you need descriptions?"

"Those names are uncommon in this world..." Jonathan said thoughtfully, "Let us hope this works well."

Having said that, he departed through a back door into a dark room beyond. Several minutes later he resurfaced with a small map, looking very smug.

"Success! Arquin heard my prayer!" he announced, showing the map to Harry. Three dots were on it - a red, a brown and a silver one.

"The red one is probably Ron," said Harry thoughtfully, "The brown one might be Hermione and that leaves the silver one to be Malfoy."

"Alright. Ron is in Kalen, which means he's closest to safety," Alyssa muttered, "Hermione's in Darekh, which is far and obviously bad... Draco's in Gy-Ler, making him the closest to us, but hardest to reach."

"And that means?" Harry prompted.

"That means we separate the team. Jonathan, call for an assembly."

*****

Harry stood there, watching at all the people assemble. There were nine of them total, including the ones Harry met already.

Alyssa introduced each and every one to him:

Alyssa Markes, a warlock (that meant the same magic as wizards and witches have, but without wands and a bit weaker) of Narretian descent; Simon Steelfeather, ex-paladin of Daedian descent; Jeremy Hawkes, who turned out to be a werewolf, of an unknown blood mix; Kro-Zhag, the half-lizard woman, half-human shaman of the Efilian way (she looked quite human, except that she had skin-coloured scales instead of actual skin); Peter Shacklebearer, a Relanian soldier that joined them in search of extreme kinds of entertainment; Jonathan Greene, the Sodneian alchemist; Jenna Lerkhaw, a Demonist (a person with the magical power of summoning and controlling demons), a Wereraven born in the Free Lands; Eric Miklas, a Daed/Relan half-blood mercenary that joined the Chosen whilst seeking shelter from the laws of this world, and finally Fleera Forgen, ex-pirate of unknown blood mixes.

Then the plan was forged with extreme quickness - Jonathan, Jeremy and Kro were to go into the Free Lands to recover Draco; Alyssa, Harry and Jenna were going north to get Hermione and Ron, while the rest stayed behind to guard the fortress.

*****

...The lands of Otherworld are scattered upon the two continents and one large island - the Northern continent carries the lands of Daed, Narret and Efil. Daed is a kingdom of warriors and scholars overtaken by the Narretian Empire, with Michael Blackheart ruling as a regent. The Narretians are mostly magic users, they have no respect to anyone who is not magical, and they use their magic to control the enslaved Daedians. It is ruled by Emperor Ezam - a powerful Elementalist mage. The Efilian kingdom follows the way of nature, its mountainous lands being source of the combined lizardman/human army that threatens the eastern borders of Narret.

The Southern continent houses the lands of Sodne and the Freelanders. The former are a peaceful nation devoted entirely to studies, while the latter is a country made up from people fleeing from the laws of other lands or shunned from other lands for who they are, so half-bloods, mutants, monsters and otherwise deformed beings seek shelter here.

The isle of Relan houses the Relanian Kingdom - a nation of sea-farers and traders - and the pirate hideouts, the largest one of them being the underground city of Khe-Sal...

- From "The Chronicles of Otherworld".

*****

The travel to the north was quite easy and short. Harry gave the fullest description of Draco his mind could master to Jeremy and they separated in the northern Sodneian port of Fygal. Alyssa's team boarded a ship heading north there, while Jeremy's team headed towards the resident Runic Mage capable of Teleporting them into Gy-Ler...

*****

Harry was sitting in his cabin, reading a book on the Otherworld history. Not the most interesting read, unless one was interested in the two magic blades of Ravenheart (the blades were Ravenwing and Wanderlight) and his long-time enemy and then the even-more-long-time partner in adventures Silverhand (bearing the single magical sword of Bonecrusher) or the history of the rebellions of Daedians against the rule of Narret.

His thoughts were interrupted by Jenna's entrance. She was a young woman in her mid-twenties, about as tall as Harry, had pitch black coloured hair, and with eyes the same colour - the sign of a wereraven. Her face... Well, one could call her pretty, if it wasn't for the strange scar running across her left eye, the eyebrow cut in half, the forehead and the cheek slightly deformed by this, and the eye miraculously unscathed. She sat in the armchair across from him.

"Listen, Harry," she started, "Alyssa wants to see you in her cabin. I suppose that it's about your magic."

"My magic?" he asked, putting the book down.

"Well, everyone in this world is believed to have some magic in them. Some can use it, some have it enforcing their virtues, and some - weakening the virtues and strengthening the sins," Jenna explained, "I, for instance, can summon the wild spirits of the Underworld - demons."

"Alright, I'm going," he grumbled, getting up and leaving the book on the table, "Let's go," he added, looking at her.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "You go alone."

*****

He entered Alyssa's cabin, looking somewhat disoriented, and found her reading. She greatly reminded him of Hermione, especially when she behaved that way - all bookish and studious.

"Jenna said you wanted to see me," he said.

"Yes," she replied, putting the book aside, "Sit down, Harry."

He did as he was told to, sitting down onto the chair that was standing on the other side of the table from Alyssa.

"Hold out your hands," she said. When she saw the hesitation in his eyes she added, "Don't worry, I don't bite."

He held his hands out, pulling the sleeves of his dark blue robes up. They were travelling under the guise of a skilled Narretian warlock (which Alyssa, indeed, was), her apprentice (which Harry really was) and their guard-mage, Jenna.

Alyssa studied his hands for a brief moment, then spoke up.

"Alright, you can put them away now. Let us start with the simplest tests - try and cast any wizard spell you know, waving your hand instead of the wand."

Harry did so, using Wingardium Leviosa, but nothing happened.

"Alright, now try a rhyme."

"A rhyme?" he asked.

"Yes, a rhyme - that's how spirits and demons are summoned," she explained, giving him a small piece of paper that bore a short four-line rhyme.

"I call for thee, spirit of fire,

Come and I shall pay your price,

Leave your lair on shores of Hell,

Come to me, I'll pay off well," Harry read out loud, then added, "What kind of rhyme is that?"

"The best we two could come up with," Alyssa replied earnestly, "Jenna's a Demonist after all."

"And..."

"If the spirit did not come, than you're not an Elementalist, definitely. Try this," she said, handing him another piece of paper, "Copy these runes with your hands. Just wave your hands around, trying to make the trace of your fingers become visible. Give those traces the shape of these runes."

Harry looked at the three runes on the paper. He lifted up his right hand, holding the paper in the left, and tried to draw a smiling face in the air, willing the trace to be visible. To his surprise, he succeeded ("Thank Arquin for the gift!" he thought) and the face was hanging in the air for several moments after Harry stopped waving his hand about.

He then proceeded to copy the runes from the paper onto the air. The first one achieved the colour of crimson; the second became navy blue while the third was cyan. Once Harry finished the writing, the runes started glowing brighter and went together, forcing themselves into a small sphere of light that hanged in the air as if it was weightless.

"And that means..." Harry started.

"...You're a Rune Mage," Alyssa finished for him.

**********