voices vibrating through his mind. He collapsed against the chair he had been seated in.
Are you ill? Have we damaged you? It was the first voice again, concern weighing heavy in its tone.
The concern so startled Dru that he almost forgot his pain. “I’m… well… as well as can be expected.”
We did not wish to cause pain. Despite the being’s words, the Vraad thought he felt one bit of dissension among the ranks at this statement. He did not have to hazard a guess as to which one of his odd captors it was.
“Where am I?” Dru asked, deciding it was time to take control of the situation, if possible.
In one of the many pieces of the world that the masters cut free. It was never used so we thought it best to bring you here.
“And the-I find it hard to talk to nothing! Can you show yourself to me?” He pictured in his mind something akin to the rubble-grown wolf. “Not quite like that, please.”
There was hesitation… underlined by worry, the anxious spellcaster noted. Very well.
Something glittered before him. Slowly, Dru made out two golden orbs and the faint outline of some great beast. The shape looked vaguely familiar, but he could not place where he had seen it.
It is the dragon lord you came across in the old ones’ first city, where they lived when there were many. I took the form because you admired it. I will add scent if you like.
Dru recalled the smell of the Tezerenees’ many wyverns and drakes. “The form will suffice.”
The mock dragon dipped its half-seen head. You wished to know of the others. They sleep.
“Even…”
Even the enigma you call Darkhorse. He is not a creation of the old ones. He is from the rim areas between the Void, as you call it, and the true world. We did not recognize this until now.
“Why have you chosen me?”
The shadowy form moved, spreading wings that were and were not there. You are closest to the masters. The Sheeka-you call them “Seekers”-have not become what they should have. Soon, they will join the Quel in the list of failures. Then there will be nothing left.
Dru wanted to stand, but he was not certain there was actually a floor on which to do so. He squirmed uneasily on the chair. “The Seekers control this world?”
The greatest of the continents.
“You make it sound as if you put them there.”
He could almost see the being shake its head. The masters set such in operation. They made the tiny worlds so that when the turn came, each would open again unto this, the true world. They hoped that one would prove a successor to their own kind.
The creature had informed him of everything in a simple, unattached manner, which was why its words did not penetrate immediately. Dru sat still as the impact of what his captor had said burrowed its way into his mind.
You understand correctly. The places from which the Sheeka, the Quel, and even you originated are slices of this world.
“Nimth… Nimth isn’t… isn’t real?” Not possible! the sorcerer wanted to shout. The birthplace of the Vraad a falsehood? A… zoo?
He could sense the sadness around him, a sadness that deepened his own horror at what he had come to realize. The mighty Vraad race had risen to supremacy of a cage, another race’s toy!
Not so, the ghostly dragon emphasized. Not a cage. More of a birthing place for the masters’ successors. They were old; their race was tired. The masters wanted to leave behind a legacy, so they took from their own and worked to make them better. Then they set them in worlds of their own and let each grow. See it as it was.
The dragon sank completely into the darkness and was replaced by a tiny image that expanded gradually, filling more and more of Dru’s vision until he actually felt he was standing in another place, in another time. In some ways, it was like communicating with the Seekers, save that what Dru saw was not forced upon him. He could accept it or not.
He had no intention of refusing such an opportunity.
There were beings he could call human and many he would not have guessed could ever have been. The ancient race had chosen every conceivable variation they could think of, some of which even Dru, who had witnessed much over his gray life, found so revolting he was astonished that they even lived.
Many attempts did not. There were scores of empty little worlds, worlds created by slicing reality itself. Each had once housed a hope, but those hopes had died for one reason or another, sometimes in great wars that destroyed everything. More than a few were judged failures even if the race within survived; the elders had searched for certain traits among their children. Eventually, most of those failures destroyed themselves, only one had not… so far.
Dru knew without asking that Nimth was the one failure that had, up until now, not succeeded in destroying itself completely. The time was nearing, however.
“What about those that succeeded?”
There were those that matured to the second stage, the mock dragon responded. Images of various civilizations passed before Dru. He recognized only two. The Seekers and their enemy, the armadillolike beings called the Quel.
“But you said…
They have failed. The Quel hang on, but nothing more. They will never rise to greatness again. The Seekers have begun their own descent. Their arrogance and communal thinking make them unwilling to face ultimate change. As for the elves… they will survive and aid us, but they lack the drive to become what they are capable of becoming. Because of that, they are lost to the plan as well.
“And we have also failed you.”
Perhaps. Perhaps not. With time…
With time, they, too, will fade, the one who chilled Dru’s spirit whispered.
Their death knell has begun already, added the fourth voice.
Dru shook his head, trying to clear away the confusing echoes within.
Not so! the mock dragon overwhelmed his counterparts. There is still time.
We have interfered enough, the fourth countered, but uncertainly now.
Give me leave to do what must be done…
The sorcerer found himself in the midst of darkness again as the entities evidently discussed something not for his ears.
So many questions continued to clamor for answers, but Dru doubted he would ever learn everything. Still…
His musings were forgotten as the world returned.
The sun was in the sky, a brilliant, burning orb that the mage had never thought to see again.
The Seekers who came here have been taken care of. You will think of them no longer. It was the first voice, but there was no sign of the dragon form.
It will not be needed for this short time. You will listen, Dru Zeree of the Vraad. A wind picked up as the being spoke. I have removed the one called Darkhorse from this place and returned it to its own domain. It should have never come here. It does not belong.
“He did nothing to harm you!”
A strong gust blew a cloud of dirt into Dru’s face, blinding him and causing him to choke for a few seconds.
It… he… has not been harmed. We have merely placed him where he should be. His presence was only one more catalyst for chaos in something we have been commanded to preserve.
“You interfere quite easily for something that isn’t supposed to interfere!” the Vraad snapped. Darkhorse had aided him, had saved him several times. To be so carelessly removed was unfair to the ebony creature.
I leave you the elf, Vraad. That is all I can do for you. That your kind have breached their boundaries is a matter of importance. I must study what can be done to return things to what they were. If the Vraad are to succeed, they must follow the path set by the old ones.
Dru could not resist one more barb before his benefactor departed. “Things as they were? Complete collapse of your masters’ hopes is all that remains if you steer things back that way. We’re entering this world at this very
