Manifestation: the Coming Dark/Chapter 15

The bitter cold of night clung to me and I watched as the mountain gate was cast open. I could not help but feel a sense of foreboding at this... the loyalists beyond. The outcast were outcast precisely because they clung to tradition. We could make no friends by inviting them in, least of all among those we were letting back in. Yet I had come to trust the wisdom of the king. The Drakel beyond the mountain gate would be allowed to return. Then, however, I heard it: the chilling sound of wings. Something was coming from the other direction, coming quickly, and the K'eld was without its walls.

"Lord?" Giliara asked, noting my sudden tension. "What is it?"

"The Brilhado come to K'eld Ner."

"Lord?" Giliara asked. "Are you sure?"

I turned away from the mountain gate and cast my view over the horizon.... A pale swatch of lavender could be seen in the distant horizon, clearly moving and growing....

"I am sure, Giliara." I gestured toward the horizon. "The war has come to us... Sound the alarm and alert the king at once."

"Yes, my lord," the Brilhado said, and took flight, rapidly moving away. Within moments, the sound of klaxon bells split through the night, long-silent alarms springing to life and announcing the arrival of the armies of The'Galin the Uncreator in once sacred space....

"How? How did they arrive so quickly...? If they only learned of this place from Sigarin.... there was not enough time...." but these thoughts were quickly silenced by the clang of swords in the distance.... The Brilhado did not travel alone: already the undead were charging the city periphery, the sun's last rays sinking below the far horizon.