Edge of Extinction war story/Chapter 17

Dark clouds billowing with light moved across the Derenian sky, their wake marked by the angry scars formed by arcing flashes of polychromatic light.

A cold mixture of ice and rain began to fall on the farmlands outside the city, accreting on wet surfaces and forming long stalactite-like forms whose extreme weight pulled down on the branches of the trees, causing many to bend, break, and even snap under the weight being pulled upon them.

Myr walked between the palace grounds and the temple build site and noted a particularly large example of the odd weather phenomena hanging on nearby eaves.

Outwardly, the structure appeared to be an ordinary icicle, but for Myr, a communicant of the Lord of Darkness, the icicles were a curious example of elemental incongruity.

“Something wrong, Shadow priest?” Drakath asked, approaching Myr from the city and moving toward the palace.

“I wish you would not use that term. I am a communicant of the Lord of Dark. Shadows are a completely separate issue... and speaking of which... These icicles are all wrong...”

“Oh, believe me, I know. I have long been sensitive to the Darkness as well, Myr. I detect their oddity as strongly as you.”

“These are elementally inconsistent. Icicles composed not of ice but of Shadows.”

“Not to mention that icicles in general do not form this time of year in this hemisphere. On Battleonia maybe, where it is mid-winter, but not here in Deren where it is mid-summer,” Tralin observed.

The king stepped out of a doorway into the courtyard.

“King Tralin, you have noticed the odd weather as well.”

“I could scarcely avoid hearing. The clouds are being seen, and have been reported, on every major continent and in the Maritime Provinces as well. These unusual atmospheric phenomena and the resultant weather are global.”

“Global?” Myr asked.

“Indeed. Furthermore, these weather patterns are strongly elementally charged.”

“I noticed that these icicles are rather strange.”

“It is as if they are composed of both light and darkness collapsing together and mirroring more normal weather effects...” Drakath observed.

“Aye. I believe that to be precisely what is happening. Elemental Light and Elemental Darkness are in active collision and the shadow-like effects are being formed by these collisions.”

“What would cause such an effect? Surely we are not in the midst of an elemental collapse of the sort that formed the Shadow Universe.”

“No, but the effect is close enough to cause very real parallels with that event.”

“So what then?”

“I am not certain, but I have strong reason to believe that the local ley lines are bleeding outwardly.”

“Local? But you described the effect as global,” Drakath asked.

“The effect is global.”

“Meaning that the effect is happening repeatedly and independently at each of these locations,” Myr extrapolated.

“Indeed”, the king answered, “I believe that it is a side effect of the massive draw upon...”

Tralin stopped speaking when a creaking cracking sound was given by the large nearby structure.

He stepped aside narrowly avoiding the collapsing “Shadow Icicles,” which exploded into pure shadow itself upon collision with the earth, tendrils of the tenebromantic material threading like undulating tentacles through the bushes where it fell.

“This is disturbing. Where the elements are colliding, what is being discharged has elements of void energy.”

“But void energy is beyond primal; it is non-aligned. What cause would there be for detection of void energy?”

“As conflicting forces collide, they are suffering massive local annihilation. That annihilation is releasing the combined energy as a single and unaligned burst of power. It is akin to the collision of matter and anti-matter.”

“But that would mean that the boundaries of the Elemental Wheel have been compromised...”

“Not necessarily, only that the Lady of Light and Lord of Dark are allowing the events to proceed and are not taking the usual steps to balance them. Hence, elemental integrity is weakened in this area.”

“What does the Creator say...?”

“That she may not say anything,” Tralin answered.

“Isn’t that convenient for her...” Drakath answered somewhat sarcastically, “Her policy of non-intervention gives her a dodge.”

“I think we can draw only one conclusion.”

“Something massive is happening.”

“Not only is something massive happening, but it is far too late to stop it. The fuse has already been lit underneath the powder keg. And that only leads to one result...”

“Explosion?” Drakath asked.

“Explosion,” The king affirmed.