War of the Words/Chapter 4

Darin sauntered through the streets toward the central market with a feeling of satisfaction. Things were going more smoothly they he could have ever imagined. Tralin was coming to the front. The Drakel would not need to be coaxed out of hiding after all.

Elemental neutrality, such heresy had been attempted before. Of course, strictly speaking, Darin's own nation owed no Elemental Lord allegiance. Like the monks that served as temple intermediaries, like the priests, like Tralin, the nation of Vandar was based on independence, the will of the people. Subservience to an Elemental Lord would be trading a worldly tyrant for a spiritual one.

Darin slipped into the temple, remaining in shadows and approaching the altar. He moved past the common area which served all of the Elemental Lords and into the depths of the temple proper. Sliding behind the altar, into a series of secret passages into the deepest secrets lost to even the most devoted priests of the temple. Into a sanctum some secret that only the most devoted even suspected it might exist no less knew of its presence.

Darin sat in a chair and smiled. A primal voice, sinister and cold, filled the room. "Darin, my child, you seem most pleased."

"I am, Lord. Our plans are coming to fruit. Tralin comes to the front line; his treachery shall be be paid in spades..."

"It was not precisely treachery, child. I never held Tralin in thrall as I did his parents...."

"It does not matter; he will pay. He MUST pay."

"Such fire... one might mistake you for a servant of the wrong element."

"Never, sir. I am faithful to one element alone... The water is the life." Darin laughed. 'And the death.... the floods of time shall drown you, Tralin, and all who preach such blasphemy.'