Chapter Six
The legions gather
The world 'round
The reapers can rejoice
Cause fear does abound
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Lucy paced back and forth in the chamber of the underground labyrinth that made up part of the Grim's palace. Here is where the Grim had recorded all the prophecy that had been delivered over that past half- million years to his infinite mind. He stored them as instructed on shelves in proper order, labeled with the year past creation on which he had received the instruction from Order.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVQXklfajzH
The problem lay in the perception of time. The way Grim measured time was from creation; his years ranged from one to the current at Five hundred and fifty-six thousand two hundred twenty-two. On the Overworld, in the Federation, it was Twelve Hundred, and they measured it off the founding of that particular kingdom and the forming of the council. The East used the similar date and on the other continent, well they had three different calendars. There was no continuity for time on the Overworld to judge events that had occurred and line them with the words of Prophecy. It was hard enough understanding prophecies, with them being given such as they were, but to understand it in the context of historical reference was nigh impossible. 306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdGXh1VvHtQ
A particular event of prophecy could have lined up with fifteen instances over the past few millennia if she did not know what era to look in. If it talked of a lion rearing its head to roar as it marked a territory, but she did not know which ruler was being birthed it was of no use. A shade never got exhausted, but she was getting close. The message she had sent to Grim's Seed had been the first break yet, and she had started to look for more instances of the Seed of Destruction. Damon and Faldo had tried to keep her apprised on what was happening there in Tharpe, but until the snows broke there in the East, there was not a whole lot the new Grim would accomplish.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8E3IGaMl95
Damon, to no fault of his own, was hardly a replacement for the Grim. He could not fulfill near a tenth of the duties required of the Grim, but she found the undeniable draw to her new husband though she had never met him. Lucy knew Damon would have to make do with what he could do at the moment. He and Faldo would have to work as an oddly different version of the immortal that she once knew.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDXg3kuUEz
The Chimes of Crossing sounded letting her know another arrival had come and she shook her head in resignation. The shades just seemed to be piling up right now. She had sent messages to the Mother Matrons at all seven thousand odd Temples on all three continents telling of the recent news and no rebirth. She informed them that their Grim-Wards were no more and of the need for the first time since the creation of second-man of the need to Garrison the Temples. The shades that were brought into the glorious Underworld would be in paradise for some three years till all would be settled, but to some of the younger souls who yearned for life, it would be worst torture.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlKyC2uB397
She walked up to the stairs carved into the very bedrock that led up to the court that she now was responsible as caregiver till the day she saw Damon come to claim the Throne. Till that day she held court every day in sacred trust of the duty left for her. A reaper approached with a nude young woman of perhaps eighteen winters. Lucy raised a questioning eyebrow at the reaper for the condition of the shade coming to stand in court. Typically a shade would have demanded to stop at a vendor in the city to change their appearance when they had perished in a compromising situation. The women were especially vain about this, most making a reaper's life torment until their condition was rectified. The reaper held up a hand to stay any comments or criticisms from the mistress of Grim's court.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTI3tjLNxTd
"Madam Lucy, Please hear her out first. She demanded to see the Grim and when that was not possible, she demanded to see you instead, straightway." The reaper defended himself from the withering look of the current master of the Underworld. He brought his charge forward and presented her to the court of Grim. She had to be a beauty in life, one that would have been hard to equal. Her olive skin tone had lost some color in death and her chocolate eyes a little less, but she was still a wonder to behold.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtYIsoh0V7t
"Madam Lucy, I present Ulanda, an acolyte of Grim from Doldrom. Murdered by those employing sorcery." The reaper intoned ritually, "She demands the right to speak to you of matters of great imports, and after talking to her, I would strongly suggest listening."306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91lJie30z1
Lucy's head perked up at the mention of sorcery in Doldrom, and she motioned hurriedly for the young woman to step forward. She had heard rumors of trouble in the City of the Wood. Two of her necromancers had just been executed for the crimes of heresy, and this was the third acolyte this month to appear before her. The young woman did not shake or cringe as most did when they stood before the Throne of Judgment. She stood tall and proud, and her brown eyes flashed with dangerous anger at the injustice done to her the day of her death. 306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe2xrBEzKxw
"Speak girl quickly, for peoples lives may depend on this very bit of news. If there is trouble afoot in the very bowels of the Temple of Grim, then things are dire indeed in Doldrom." Lucy commanded with a flick of her fingers. The young girl straightened her shoulders, looking the seneschal straight in the eye as she began her story with an anger filled voice.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbOtF8KKjy
"I am not ashamed to say that I have a love for women. One who claimed to be a Necromancer, who recently came to the Temple was in my bed. An older one, who came accompanied her, used the Purpose of Chaos to change me into the form of a rodent. In their conversation, it is admitted that the disappearance of two of our acolytes is due them and I fear much of our problems in Doldrom is because of them. Before I could hear anymore, the older one stomped on me and threw me down the well, changing my corpse back on the way down."306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzio3l1OHRm
The shade gave her report standing defiantly before the now steward of Grim. Lucy drew a thin smile across her lips and shook her head in disbelief. Had this acolyte had any real training at all, she would have known that a Necromancer, no matter her preferences, would never fraternize with one of the help. They looked on the acolytes as house servants and family. As a family, they would never bed a cousin.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQDOVQNBu0l
"What is the sorceress's name, to know such is power indeed? For with it we might be able to counter this foul demon before she can cause any lasting harm in the East." Lucy asked the fuming acolyte before her.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLk5A90eLhD
A look of murder came over the shade as she breathed out the word, "Therese."306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ153KdANdZU
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The skeletal apparition whisked through the darkened halls of the old temple at Salastar. He knew these halls well. The Lich had been the one who had seen to the collapse of this very Temple thirty years prior. He had meticulously worked behind the scenes for upwards of a century planting unrest within the right families and matching the right people, so when the time was right, the field would be ripe for the harvest.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJsMBWf1iAD
Now he enjoyed the fruits of his labors. The Ducal Palace was slowly turning into another academy for sorcery, where young could come and learn how to utilize the awesome power of life to the betterment of man. The Temple now served as the new city hall and his palace. The city council now met in the old Matron's Chamber everyday, to discuss the trivial, everyday city business leaving the lich free to take care of the Sorcerer Council once more. The Council was now in the fifth year of a major offensive in the East, one that would allow them to gain a death grip on the Federation and bring the arrogant Mad King Rodrick to his knees. The Lich truly wished to see the land rid of the Temples and the influence of death. It was, in fact, his life's work. Despite the rumors and stories spread by the necromancers, he sided with the living in all things.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9P2n6jt82L
The people in the city of Salastar, where he resided and ruled, had come to love and admire him for his gentleness. He would go to extreme ends to make sure his people were all seen to and their needs provided. Long ago, he had lost the lust for more power because after existing for ten thousand or more years, he had accumulated enough to slack the passion for it. Now, he wished to see the accomplishment of the wish of the good brother of Chaos, a universe without death. He wanted to live to see a universe where one could exist just for no other purpose but to exist without the threat of death and the Judgment.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTDeR96efb
He rounded the corner, coming into the primary, well-lit hallway that led to his study contained in the old Judgment Hall. This hallway always contained great beauty to him. It was one of the oldest on this continent, freshly rebuilt after the falling of the star from the cosmos that formed what was now the Western Sea. It contained sculptures of the great beauty of marble and quartz, intricately carved historical pictures of both world and regional events, and his favorites were the artifacts gathered from before that catastrophic meteor. They reminded him of his life before his transformation. The Temple had even found some vases from his own home city that was destroyed ten thousand years ago by the sea flooding in.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqOcv5DEvTR
After the falling of the star, almost all second-man had been wiped from the face of the continent of Ratar'. The Age of Ice that lasted almost one thousand years that followed devastated the rest of the population that remained on the continent of Gadashi'. Only near the equator did the temperatures ever peak above freezing during those hard years but the second-man persevered. It would be in the forty-fifth century after the falling that a pirate running from the Randite fleet would rediscover the continent of Ratar'. At the feet of the Cree-dance Mountains, Captain Westerman would establish the Port of Salastar, named after the ship that barely survived sailing under full sail into a hurricane. The bold move allowed the notorious pirate to escape and the eventual birth of the Federation.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQItUqhJdyf
He had commanded that the Temple be preserved in its entirety. This request had brought a lot of confusion to his followers, they wanted to demolish what they saw as the symbol of their oppression, but after a decade, the wisdom of his actions had shown through. The children from the city-sponsored schools came through to learn of other points of views and the ancient history of the world they found themselves. The children grew in their knowledge and tolerance; they went on to become great leaders throughout the entire continent without prejudice of their counterparts in the Federation and the East.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7d2pLNNuFM
He opened the silent double doors to his extensive study, now the largest library outside the Institution of Higher Learning and Sorcery in Berdiline on Gadashi'. He had worked long and hard to establish some semblance of a presence for the council here on Ratar' so that sorcery might abound and the loving touch of life might be felt. The work in the Ducal Palace was coming along rather slowly. Even with him being a hero of the people here in the Free Cities, the people were reluctant to have an operating institution teaching sorcery in their backyard. Securing the funds had come at a bare trickle as it had to come from private investment. If they could do that, all people would know that there was indeed a choice, that all was not Order only.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqNAFc1iroj
Around the brightly lit room, shelves reached from the cobbled floor to the arched ceiling, with books and scrolls lining each and every space. At long tables, in designated spots around the room, scribes were hard at work making copies of books that were only on loan temporarily to Master Delver. Apprentices would copy the rare tomes, then hand them to be checked by younger journeymen, and finally verified by the Lich's Master Scribe, a silent monk named Williams. Williams had forgone both his voice and his surname decades ago when he had given his life to the service of the Demon Drevlin, Demon of all Knowledge and Wisdom. He had taken a vow, as all monks of that particular order eventually did, to forgo verbal communications to equip him better to understand the knowledge to be imparted to him to be passed to second-man. 306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ZKTtQDESE
The Lich took in the well-lit room through his green dots dancing in his sockets and drew in a deep, rasping breath to smell the fragrance of parchments and ink. To him, there would be no more exceptional flower, no better savory bread, for his magical taste. His smell had been retained through the process of obtaining undeath, even enhanced it. The first few months after his transformation into his immortal form had been utterly dismal for him. He had genuinely wondered during that period of tribulation when his flesh desiccated and fell from his bones, whether he made the proper decision and if he had the strength to endure the torment. 306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡscWfaZTsvM
After the last of the flesh fell away, he had kept his appearance in perfect order. Delver's clothes were always clean and free from stain and his bones polished. He swore never to fall into the a-stereotypical type that people thought of and feared when they thought of undeath.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVVS4rkCApZ
Master Delver made his way to the tall, gangly man with a balding crown. He was carefully looking over a newly minted section of a book that had been handed to him by a lower journeyman scribe. Williams would look it over with those sharp emerald eyes he possessed, taking in any error that might lay within missed by the lesser scribes. When he was satisfied that all had been copied, word for word, he would add it to the manuscript it belonged. Numerous books lay before him, splayed forth as corpses with which the Master Scribe was doing battle. Before him on his chosen battlefield, he would not lose track of which page went with which manuscript before him. Williams did not make mistakes.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWBH8aM0lg2
The Lich made the sound of clearing his throat softly in the silent rustling of parchment and scratching of quills. Every eye briefly made contact with the master of Salastar. They quietly gathered their ink and quills and began to withdraw themselves from the large room. Their soft white robes made less sound than that of snow falling over a field; their feet were muffled with subtle leather low boots, never to make a sound. The vow of silence stood, even when dealing with the most powerful being in existence. They recognized him and left the room, leaving their master to deal with him. 306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9LxM464Ath
The Lich put a skeletal hand softly on the slender shoulder of the Master Scribe of nearly seventy winters. He was very fond of this man, more affectionate than the last master scribe who served him. Williams was truly dedicated to the idea of the spread of knowledge, unbridled and unadulterated. It was for these specific qualities that Delver had brought him into his service some fifty years ago.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBuG8MFuxYv
“Have you found the requested information yet friend Williams?” Delver inquired, “I have a particular meeting today that I need it for.”306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnuiQv3ohOf
The tall skinny man bobbed his head up and down, answering the Arch-Lich. He gained a look of concentration as he leafed through a pile of parchment that was labeled on the table before the two. The skeletal figure next to him looked over his shoulder with eager curiosity. The book in question was the oldest known written work in existence, and it would provide a question and an answer for which insight could be gained today.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbo822rjrX
Brandon, in Farthest Reach, had sent a thought to him two days past, requesting a meeting with him. The younger sorcerer claimed to have met and was keeping company with the eldest son of the late Grim. His request had piqued Delver's curiosity enough to risk having a Third Circle chance a spell that could kill him. Delver would send his image to Farthest Reach to lessen the strain of the communion between the two, but even so, it would still likely prove too much in the end for poor Brandon's soul.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyU0OhClvXz
“What is this?” Delver asked eyeing the page handed to him by the Master Scribe. The scribe made a series of gestures as the Lich looked on and the Lich grunted his acknowledgment. He read the page out intently and gave a raspy chuckle. He patted the skinny man on the shoulder with approval.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa6xT6JOe16
“This will do. If this is truly Baine, only he will know the answer to this.” 306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkCmw2hTeLA
Delver turned to walk off as Williams finished gathering his items to leave. Delver always cleared his study when he needed to commune with anyone. It was a chant that was best not interrupted, especially when one was sending their very image across a vast distance. He worked his way to the very back of the extensive library and pulled on a rope to draw curtains back to reveal a Circle of Life.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFaUkeqAmsq
The Circle of Life enhanced a sorcerer's ability to connect their essences together to complete difficult spells. It also gave an anchor for those seeking audience from a great distance to catch hold of with their minds and bend their energies to. A person had to know the existence of the symbol and the approximate location to make contact with it. At a short distance, another sorcerer can sense the presence of a Circle of Life, but at nine hundred leagues, it could take a vast amount of energy to maintain a lock on an anchor.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMNByfTlVi
The Circle glowed a faint green glow to allow Delver to know someone was requesting an audience with him. He shed his half coat to his suite and stepped into the circle. He tasted the energy signature and recognized it to be Brandon's, and he bent his energy to Brandon's, tracing his power across the vast continent of Ratar', to a waiting Circle outside a city under siege.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSJMx1xrsI2
Across the broad flat plain before the blue of the Great Inland Sea, spread the few thousand of the Resistance Army. Behind the Lich, he could hear catapults and trebuchet's booming in sequence as their missiles soared across the vast distance to crash into the waiting city. The Lich's image finished appearing, and he looked directly at a portly man of forty, sitting cross-legged in the circle sweating profusely. He smiled warily at his master, his face pale and drawn with the strain of holding his end of the communion.306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3OPckvyO75
“Hail Master Delver,” he said weakly, his voice was tired “well met and be welcomed to Farthest Reach.”306Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMlVP9iM9WR
