Manifestation: the Coming Dark/Chapter 16

The sounds of battle filled the early evening air. The roving necromancers and the approaching Brilhado were making no distinction between De'me'thar and Citizen, between elemental caster and loyalists.

The sharp clang of swords filled me with a cold sense of foreboding. There was an irony in this that I could not help but feel. I had directly manipulated wars as my stock and trade. I had advanced my own position on the backs of the fallen. In the other world, they had intimated that I was still doing so, that that darkness remained a part of me that I could not escape. In a way, I realized that their accusation was true, and it filled me with cold dread.

"What is it, Darin?" Jano asked, sensing my reticence.

I could not bring myself to answer him right away, merely grunting and surveying the loss of life senselessly occurring outside of the town. I felt myself being drawn deeper into a nightmare that I had helped to create. I could easily imagine our own world slipping down the same slope that had spelled the end of countless races during the Uncreator's previous reign. The worst part of the Uncreator's evil is that it depended only a little upon his own devices and relied far more heavily upon the evil we ourselves brought to the world.

I coughed slightly, shaking my head, feeling increasing dismay as the wind shifted and brought to light a new problem. In the distance, the smell of smoke and charred flesh drifted on the wind...

"This is bad....." Jano muttered coldly..."Very bad... From what you told me of your experiences, it is clear the Uncreator is preparing for something quite unpleasant."

"I have been wondering how they got here as quickly as they did, however. And what is it that they seek here?" I replied wearily....

"I have some idea.... While you were gone, I...." Jano was cut off by the rapid approach of a very young Drakel who wore the colors of the Water Casters.

"I bring notice from the front," the Drakel said breathlessly. "It is very, very bad."

Jano took the paper from the courier with a grim expression even as the battle among the undead and De'me'thar below intensified. He read the note for a moment and turned to me. "The Brilhado come, Darin. The scouts report that in addition to the Lesser Light Demon foot soldiers, and the Brilhado proper, they bring a coterie of Brilhado spellcasters. I cannot imagine what that means, however. Are not all of the Brilhado spellcasters? Even the Lesser Light Demons are spellcasters."

"Necromancers," I said, knowing from my journey through the portal in Stone Deep just what that meant.

Jano digested this for a moment. In an earlier age, he might have denied right away it as even possible. The Brilhado were light creatures and necromancy in and of itself was dark magic. Dark magic twisted by uncreation, but dark magic nonetheless. I had been through the portal in Stone Deep though and seen with my own eyes, but he lacked the experience.

"If they are sending their own," he finally said, "it is worse then we imagined. It is not simply some new dark plan. It must mean the manifestation is happening soon."

"No," I replied, grim. I felt a sick sense of dread and certainty. "That's not it at all."

"What then, if not that?"

"The manifestation has already happened."