Nurgle and Isengar in the style of Mikhail Vrubel, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.
Chapter 38: I feel mysterious today
Moho refuge, Lower crust, Confluence dimension
Year 42 of the Confluence Republic (local time)
Like he often used to, Isengar idled away a few hours on the ether. He and Nurgle had set up an indirect connection via several intermediary nodes; the whole thing resembled, at least in some ways, the ancient practice of plugging illegally into the electricity net in order to steal some juice. Except they didn’t actually take anything away.
One of the things he liked to do, besides gaming, seeing movies and series, listening to music, watching erotic performances, catching up on the news and, well, so many other things, was to participate in anonymous discussions. They would talk about all kinds of things – mostly games, movies and series, music, erotic performances, and news, but other things as well – but today, one subject was really taking over the forum. Apparently, there was some kind of book that was attracting a lot of attention and, not wanting to miss out, Isengar started reading it as well.
The first chapter was alright, maybe not exactly his thing though, and he skimmed through it wondering what all the fuss was about until the book suddenly started talking about the shadows in the Erd dimension. That got his attention. A bit later, he found himself reading a chapter about his estranged old comrade Soth. He realized that this was not the fantasies of some random Confluence author imagining what Soth may be up to. This was – something else.
He kept on. Some of it was totally weird and he had no idea what to make of it. It was rather too much to take in, especially since he had the sinking feeling that things would soon get more personal, probably in an uncomfortable and intrusive way. When he reached the preparations for an attack on Soth, his growing unease was replaced with outright alarm, and he finally had the presence of mind to notify Nurgle that something was afoot.
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Soon after that, there was a chapter where Isengar could read a highly accurate transcript of his very personal and intimate conversations with Nurgle, as well as of their planning of the counterattack in Erd. He felt unwell and started wondering if he was being watched right now.
“What is this shit?” Nurgle had just read the chapters about the Elders.
“I don’t know. Suddenly, it’s all over the ether.” They checked the news to get an update on the situation. It was all over the reports. People in the government declared it authentic – the Erd author was back with a second book about the Confluence.
“What the fuck!” Nurgle’s mind was racing. “Someone’s been watching us. They could be watching us right now. We’re in danger.”
“What do we do?”
“Should we get away?”
“To where? They tracked Soth to Thesaurus and trapped him there. Says so in the book.”
“Cunts!”
“Ok, don’t panic.” Isengar Mellowed them both. “Look, it’s quite some time since we planned the Erd thing. Whoever was watching us might have attacked then. Or any time after that.”
“Yeah. Yeah. What’s the rest of the book about?”
“Lots of things. Mostly people talking. It’s weird. And, um, your conversation with whoever you are talking to is in there.”
“What?”
“It’s in there.”
“How the fuck is that possible?”
“How the fuck should I know?”
“Ok. This is weird. I’ll have to read the whole thing it from the start.”
Isengar read the rest of it, then started from the beginning again, feeling more confused than afraid now. In the final chapter that was available, the other people in the book commented on the chapter about Isengar and Nurgle, seeming more surprised than anything else. When he considered it, the two of them looked pretty good in that chapter. He’d assumed that the people of the Confluence Republic hated him for what he had done, but they weren’t saying anything about that. They were just happy about the Elders’ intervention in Erd.
“They like us.” Nurgle had to sit down. “They think we’re ok.”
“We did alright with the Erd thing, and that seems to be all they care about. You know, the rest of the story, I don’t quite understand what’s going on, but it’s big, right?”
“Big and weird, yeah.”
“So, that’s what they’re focusing on, obviously. With us, they’re just hoping we don’t add to the complications. The fact that we helped was a bonus.”
“Right. They have no time to worry about what we did long ago. It’s ancient history.”
“Just forty-some years, but some of them weren’t even born yet. It’s hard for us to understand, I suppose. To me, ancient history – that’s the time before we set up the Confluence.”
“Yeah. We are ancient history, obviously. What we were up to a few decades ago is no longer very relevant to them. Let’s just follow the news and see what they say.”
Nurgle and Isengar in the style of Mikalojus Konstantinas ?iurlionis, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.
