Silas Barrad paced the endless, pure marble floor. Luxury everywhere with nothing but greed beneath. Where everything began and where everything will end. He ran his fingers through his shaggy raven-colored hair, then turned to look at the well before him. Nothing inside anymore. No more energy to give. One finger continued to trace the well's coping. All of it is here with me. A single shadow skittered across the room like a crab across the sand and began to circle his feet, followed by a rising tide, all of which pulsed as if with lives of their own. Round and round they went, faster and faster until Barrad glared down at them. "Not now. Later, later." He took several frenzied steps away from the well, kicking out at shadows as he went, causing them to flit away to the room's edges, before returning to him like moths to a flame. Everything is growing, growing like a poison. The world's very essence is moving. All of the way to the coasts and all of the way from the glaciers to the deserts. It is all as it should be. Soon they all will be with us, and those who choose not to, well. He snapped his fingers and sparks shot out from the shadows around him in cascading lines hitting the far walls of the room, then rose into the figures of ash, almost human and yet-not human.
Seven sets of eyes of pure fire turned to him. "Spread the truth." He raised his arms and with a sound like a mix between fireworks going off and flames being doused, the shapes became shadows once again, rising up and out of a small hole in the center of the ceiling. Watching them go, he began to laugh, first softly, then uncontrollably, with tears running down his face.
Nothing exists with the strength to stop us.
The flames continue to spread.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
