Gjallarsong

by BlackRoseRaven

Lost Verse

Lost Verse:
~BlackRoseRaven

I have a Father, I have a Mother.

I have two Sisters, I have one Brother.

I am a son, and a sibling as well.

One day a Daddy? Only time will tell.

I love my family, more than the earth,

They never question my dreams or my worth.

They always protect me from the darkness,

And I could not ask for better than this.

But my family has gone far away,

I loved them so, but they still could not stay.

I am alone now, left all by myself...

But I'll see them again when they visit tonight,

In the shadows they will dance, away from the light,

But oh, it will still be such a wonderful sight!

They'll stay with me until the end of the long night.

And then morning will drive their ghosts away again.

Trapped back in the crayon art smeared over the wall.

And I'll be left waiting, until the time comes when

They can escape, and join me once more in the hall.

I have a Father, I have a Mother.

I have two Sisters, I have one Brother.

I am a son, and a sibling as well.

I don't know why I was left in this cell.

I have a Father, I have a Mother.

I have two Sisters, I have one Brother.

I am a son, and a sibling as well.

Why did they leave me alone in this hell?

I had a Father, I had a Mother.

I had two Sisters, I had one Brother.

I was a son, and a sibling as well.

Now I am alone, longing for Death's bell.

Family was everything.

Thesis sat silently back in Valthrudnir's throne in Endworld... or what had formerly been his father's throne. Valthrudnir was long dead...

That made him strangely sad. But at the same time, he was grateful for it, because he knew it meant it was time for him to move his own projects forward. In all the long years since they had been abandoned here, since Endworld had become nothing but a... a dumping ground, after Valthrudnir had shut down the Decretum project after what had happened to Celestia... well, he had been given a lot of time to think. And thinking had gotten easier after the nodes in his mind had started to decay. He could understand things now he couldn't before... he could see the big picture. Everything made sense.

He slipped out of the throne and walked across the empty hall, past several long-dead Worker Drones. Everything here would have to be cleaned up, he thought: they had been living in ruin for so long, with no purpose but to wait, in and out of stasis, for Valthrudnir to return, that they had gotten... sloppy. But there was no room for sloppiness.

He had queer memories sometimes. They didn't always make sense. This life was all he'd ever known, wasn't it? Yes, it was simply a malfunction when he thought of those strange things... wait, but what about mother? Hadn't he been a child once?

He would have to ask her. The memories made him confused. But no, he had always had his family, hadn't he? He knew that for sure. But was family interchangeable, like the parts of many of the machines around Endworld, modular like equipment?

He did not know. He got confused sometimes. No, that wasn't right, he wasn't confused. He couldn't feel confusion, or doubt: those were logic flaws, there, that was the term he was looking for. He was never confused, never doubted, and he was never wrong. Or rather, very rarely.

Thesis smiled, and then he glanced up as a glass orb shot down towards him, his mother's voice saying contemptibly: “You should be in stasis.”

“No, no. I am fine, Mother. I feel good. I just had to get up and walk around. And see my family. Family is the most important thing.” Thesis said softly, smiling as he approached a door. It clanked brokenly as it fizzled and failed to slide open, but with ease, the stallion simply reached up and tore one of the doors off. He looked at this almost curiously for a moment, then chuckled quietly. “Well, it all needs to be fixed anyway.”

“Don't be an idiot, Thesis.” Mother chastened, and Thesis sighed a little. That created an uncomfortable chemical reaction in his mind.

“Yes, Mother.” he murmured, striding through the broken doorway... but when he looked up at what waited for him inside, he smiled, as he felt that familiar warmth of happiness. The rising of serotonin and dopamine, as he felt joy and excitement at the prospects of being with his family again...

He gazed from one capsule to the other, smiling wider and revealing teeth that had been replaced with steel as he looked happily at the cold-faced mares floating in stasis in the green liquid inside each. They were barely visible through the thick goo, but all the same, Thesis knew who they were, who they had to be: his sisters! “I'm so excited, Mother. It's been so long since I've seen Red Sky and Singing Lark!”

“Thesis, these are Class V Replicants, Protolea and Psukhikos.” his mother said irritably as the little orb floated down in front of him, before her voice lowered ever so slightly with perhaps the smallest hint of worry: “I want you to report to the Tower of Etemenanki. You need to undergo reevaluation and we should remove the exoskeleton-”

“No!” Thesis shouted as his eyes blazed, and then he shivered once before shaking himself quickly and repeating in a much-more cordial voice: “No, Mother. I simply misspoke. Of course their names are Psukhikos and Protolea, those are my sisters' names. And... Cheshire. Cheshire is my brother, he understands me better than the rest of them.”

His Mother was only silent, so Thesis decided that conversation was over as he turned around and instead said softly: “And we have more family out there, waiting to be found. Who will help us. Father was almost right, after all: we must find the core world. And in order to do that, I must be complete... as you no longer have his powers, I must activate these dormant genes, I must find the brother who carries on Father's legacy...”

“Thesis, there is no guarantee that you will be able to use Valthrudnir's powers, any more than the machine he designed will actually work. This exercise is a waste when instead-”

“Instead what, Mother? What else is there for us?” Thesis shouted angrily at the air, his head twitching as his exoskeleton sparked, before the stallion took a slow breath, closing his eyes and lowering his head. “I apologize. My temper... the chemicals in my body have become excited. It is strange how quickly joy can become... rage.”

“Then police yourself better, Thesis.” Mother said shortly, and Thesis nodded slowly before he lowered his head and took a slow breath. There was silence for a few moments, and then his mother said softly: “Return to stasis. Your... sisters aren't ready to wake up yet.”

“No. No, I think I will stay awake. The world is clear to me, Mother. Everything is clear to me now, who I am, what I must do.” Thesis said softly, looking up towards the ceiling and smiling. “I have had an epiphany. A burst of inspiration. I know what we must do now, and I understand why Father did what he did. I understand how I can make myself, and my family, whole again. You too, Mother, will be whole. We will all become one family, this entire universe. And then everything will make sense.”

“Valthrudnir used to say something very similar, Thesis.” Mother's voice said coldly, and Thesis glared towards the orb... but then he gave a slow, grudging nod.

He looked down for a moment, and then said slowly: “But I am not my Father. I will not destroy more than what I have to. I will spare every life that can be spared and I will not make mistakes. I will... control myself, and bring unity, not slavery. I want to help, Mother. I want to help.”

Thesis smiled almost childishly, and then he nodded to himself again before he turned away, striding out into the hall with a smile as the decayed logic nodes in his brain crackled and buzzed, and the chemicals poisoning his mind bubbled and boiled through his gray matter. And, caught between broken logic and toxic emotion, one poisoned message echoed through his soul:

Family was all that mattered.

And this was a lesson he was eager to teach the entire universe.With destruction, we become destroyers;

With creation, we become creators.

What is destroyed leaves behind nameless emptiness;

What is created stands as testament to all who see it.

The memories of what we have done can never be erased.

Comments

[BlackRoseRaven]

5841719

Thanks very much. Just getting started, too: Thesis has some much more difficult fights coming up.

[John Tomson]

Makes you wonder how much of Valthrudnir's victory over the Aesir, and the other Jötnar was luck or help from hel, or the norns or some other power. His plans really do suck and everything he has ever made failed him, and I cant think of one of his schemes that worked out for him...

Great story I knew I would feel bad for Hecate and Thesis, but I had no idea you would make me feel sorry for Valthrudnir. Love a good tragedy and this did not disappoint. Always did feel sorry for Thesis but after finding out how great a person he was It really hit me in the feels. And that last talk Valthrudnir and Hecate have on that hill not going to lie teared up a bit. I found that the most interesting part of the story was Valthrudnir and Hecate's relationship and how genuine it was. Makes you wonder if everything did not go so wrong if Hecate would of been able to fix Valthrudnir make him really see that he was wrong about everything.

Anyway... fantastic story can't wait to see what comes next.

[BlackRoseRaven]

5876233

Yeah. Valthrudnir has developed into a very... tragic character over time. You both feel sorry for him and... want to see him suffer for what he's done.
But it is certainly a tragedy, for everyone, and I'm glad it had that impact. I never knew that it would myself when I first started writing this, but sometimes things just... develop on their own, you know? And it does bring up a lot of questions, yeah, about what they felt, what they were doing and... what could have been.
Thanks again, though, and I just hope my stories continue to entertain. There's lots coming, after all, in terms of ponies and other stories, too.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

You know, I just found this buried in my "read later" list. I can't believe I forgot about it, especially considering how much I enjoyed your other stories. Looks like it's time to start reading.

[BlackRoseRaven]

5901579

Thanks. It'll definitely fill in a few blanks and questions that might still be lingering about Thesis. I hope you enjoy it.

[Lelouch Vi Britania]

5903574
Well, just finished reading it. Once again, an excellent story, even if it was quite tragic. It was interesting to see how thesis went downhill, and seeing valthrudnir in a different light was quite excellent as well. As always, I look forward to whatever you decide to write next.

[BlackRoseRaven]

5965957

Thanks very much. It was... a very interesting story to write, and ended up going a lot deeper than I expected it to. I thought the whole focus would be on Thesis, but then it kind of turned into... something a little different than I'd anticipated. Ever since Synthesis, though, I wanted to write something about Thesis, show why he was so deranged and delusional, so I was glad to get into this. I've got a lot of backstories in my head, so... it's always hard to pick and choose.
But thanks again, and I much appreciate the fave too. There'll certainly be more coming: a silly charity story chapter, and then after that I'll finally be able to get started on the big story I keep talking about and never doing. But it'll be nice to finally get to revisit some old friends.

[BlackRoseRaven]

5981895

This story ended up being way more about Valthrudnir and his own... difficulties than I thought it would be, admittedly. I figured it would just be Thesis, but... I suppose I underestimated just how important the people in Thesis' life were to him, and how much the roles they played affected him. It's... definitely a very different side of Val that we see here. And yet very much the same, since you're right. All he ever does is run away.
Thank you kindly for the fave as well. I hope it continues to be a pleasure to read.

[hellcatte]

Does Kindynas happen to become Hel's pet, Teddy, or just some freakish wrath demon?

[BlackRoseRaven]

5990591

That is an interesting idea, about Val, and what could have been. It's something I've toyed with in the past, I'll admit. And it would still be interesting, in a way, since... a lot of what kept him going all those years was trying to escape those demons instead of facing them.
Kindynas, though... I'm not entirely sure what happens to him. Who knows, he might pop up again: stranger things have certainly happened in my stories.

[BlackRoseRaven]

6090712

Thanks. I hope you're right, although my stories do go off on some odd tangents now and then.
But yeah. Chronologically-speaking, Gjallarsong is one of the first in the timeline for my stories, and only Synthesis is directly connected to it, but that's a far sequel. A lot of the characters of this story appear later on in other stories, but this mainly sticks to Thesis and the events of his rather difficult life. It can definitely be read completely on its own.
Thanks for the interest, and for the watch as well. I hope you enjoy my stories.

[BlackRoseRaven]

6113099

Things do change pretty quickly. I'm not quite sure why I didn't think of POWs. But Celestia and Valthrudnir have... interesting effects on each other.
And thank you very much. The sonnets for each chapter honestly took me as long as the chapters themselves to write. Utterly hate writing to form and meter, but it felt... important for the story, so to speak.

[-Brutus]

Oohhhh this looks interesting! Putting to read later bookmark, shall get to this sometime this week!

[BlackRoseRaven]

6401439

I hope it proves an enjoyable read for you when you get a chance to dig in, then. It definitely has its ups and downs.

[BlackRoseRaven]

7261343

Thanks very much, I'm really glad to hear that, and I hope you enjoy from Decretum onwards.
But yes: uh... Hecate actually comes into play in Synthesis of the Atheist, at the very, very end of the story, and then she plays a big role in Glory Be. But I'm glad she caught your eye. She's got a huge, integral role in the second series, so to speak, and it's always rewarding to hear when my particularly uh... strange, characters, end up being more interesting to people.