The Enemy of an Enemy

waswearing his regal black robes of office, and carrying the scepterof authority in his right hand. He was much older than I hadexpected but still had a powerful stride and a confidence built onthe might of the Empire itself.

“Greetings, Honored One,” I said as I made asmall formal bow. The rest of my wizards mimicked my bow in perfectunison.

“Sire, I apologize, but I was not informed ofthis order,” said the chairman as he and the others scrambled totheir feet.

“That is fine, please remain seated. I wantto hear Vydor’s report,” said the Emperor as he took his seat onthe throne.

“Get shields up on everyone but Larath,especially the Emperor,” I said to the wizards via our link.“I am about to tip our hand and things could get ugly.”

I walked a few steps towards the Emperor andsaid, “Honored One, I cannot, for a traitor is in our midst.” Thisbrought a gasp of surprise from several members of the HighCommand.

I turned and looked right at Larath, butbefore I could make my next move he pulled out a wand and yelled,“Your feeble Empire is no match for us!” He then fired three boltsright at the Emperor in rapid succession. The bolts hit Darnath’sshield and burst into harmless light.

I moved towards him and he lowered his wandat me. Before he could fire the wand flew out of his hand, thanksto quick thinking by Jerran. As I neared him, my anger over theloss of the Dark Knights welled up. My voice was dripping withvenom as I said, “I have a message for you to send to yourmasters.” I saw fear pass over his face just before I swung mystaff, battering him in the side of his head with great force. Hecrumpled to the ground. I picked up his wand and finished him off.It took me a moment to regain my composure, but thanks to Andreya’sillusions no one knew.

Before I could say anything, security forcesrushed into the room and surrounded all the members of High Commandand the Emperor.

“The situation is under control. Dispose ofthe body, and stand down,” ordered the Emperor.

They moved to comply with great precision andspeed. Once they were gone, the Emperor said, “Now would you shareyour report?” I was somewhat surprised at how fast he could moveon.

“Sire, I would like to know more first aboutwhat just happened,” said the chairman.

“I fully expect that to be part of Vydor’sreport,” stated the Emperor.

As was the proper custom, I faced the Emperordirectly before speaking. This put my back to where High Commandwas sitting, which felt a bit rude, but that was not for me todecide, I guess.

“Yes, Honored One. War has come to the Empirefrom a new quarter. A group of aliens who call themselves sorcerershave already invaded our realm and attempted to set up a base onArken IV. This attempt was defeated by the combined efforts of theBlack Adders and the Dragon Claw’s fleet. The sorcerers wield greatpower, and have already infiltrated our highest ranks with theirspies. Larath was one of five known spies in top consular positionsthroughout the fleet. These positions give them access to sensitiveinformation which no other position in the Empire could give.” Ipaused here to let that sink in a bit. “Larath’s attack on theEmperor was uncharacteristically drastic for them, but I blame thaton the fact that he was only an apprentice, and relativelyinexperienced in his art.” Since Larath was so highly respected forhis skill, I wanted to make sure I cast him as weak amongst hispeers to give a proper respect for the power of our enemy. “HonoredOne, with your permission I have a visual presentation to betterillustrate who our enemy is.”

“Proceed, Vydor,” said the Emperor with atone of curiosity.

“Andreya, please show the fleetdemonstration,” I said aloud, then across our connection, “Canyou make an illusion of this?” and sent her a series of mentalimages.

“Sure, Vydor, but next time how about abit more warning?” was her reply across our connection. “Yes,Master Vydor,” she said aloud with a tone of extreme respect. Ourgroup then spread out into a circle. Jerran helpfully reached outand lowered the room lights a bit as a 3D image of the DragonClaw’s fleet appeared in the center of the circle, high enough upin the air for all to see.

“Honored One, what you see here is the mostpowerful arm of the Navy, the Dragon Claw and her fleet,” I said.Then the image shrank a little and off in the distance we saw asmall shuttlecraft. “Here is a single, simple shuttle to representthe number of sorcerers needed to completely defeat the DragonClaw. Now watch how it plays out. Andreya, play it through to itsconclusion without stopping.”

“Yes, Master Vydor,” she replied.

The scene that followed brought gasps fromall of High Command and a look of worry on the face of the Emperor.What I had Andreya show was the fleet turning on itself, shipagainst ship, and crewman against crewman. It was a bloodbath, thelike of which had never been seen in all of history. When theillusion finished, the lone shuttle was left flying through agraveyard of destroyed ships.

“Honored One, that is what will happen whenthe sorcerers decide to move in force against the Empire. What yousaw there was one of their simpler but devastating attacks. This isnot a theory or a guess; they have already used it on us once. Itis a combination of a fear weapon and a hallucination weapon. Inshort, they can turn us against each other completely eliminatingany chance for an Imperial victory,” I explained, then over ourconnection I said, “Andreya, can you display the invasion ofLieutenant Tom’s forces?”

“No, I did not witness it, but I did seethe final battle of the Dark Knights. Would that work?” sheasked.

“Yes,” I said with some hesitation. Iwas not sure I was ready to see that yet, but this was tooimportant to stand in the way. Aloud I said, “Andreya, please showthe final battle of the Dark Knights. Just bring up the initialscene and hold it there.”

“Yes, Master Vydor,” was her reply.

Upon hearing her say that it occurred to methat I was not speaking to the Emperor as a lowly soldier, for Iwas speaking now as an equal, a fellow ruler. The formal title ofmaster which everyone would have to use to me now scared me alittle. Instead of executing orders, I would have to give them. Theburden of that was starting to weigh on me as I realized that thefuture of the Empire might depend on my presentation right now.

“What you see before you is the best of thebest, the Dark Knights. At the start of this battle there weretwenty-five of them, heavily armed and ready for combat. Earlier inour mission we had discovered how to block the fear andhallucination weapon. What you are about to see here is how easilyour elite forces were defeated. Andreya, let the scene play out,” Isaid.

They all watched in horror as the Knights’weapons proved ineffective against the shields of the sorcerers. Inoticed Andreya had left me completely out of it, which I wasthankful for since I did not want to distract from my presentationby explaining how I had lived through it. As she got to the end ofthe battle I saw for the first time how they had died. One of theseven appeared. Unlike the other sorcerers, he stood tall and didnot hide behind a shield. Instead, he walked forward, completelyimmune to all the weapons being brought against him. He casuallylowered his staff and fired a single blast. Andreya masterfullyshifted the scene so that everyone’s eyes followed the bolt ofenergy right down to the center of the Dark Knights’ position. Theresulting blast ripped a hole right through to the outsideatmosphere, sucking any who might have survived out on to thesurface of the planet to die. The sorcerers were safe behind ashield wall, but the Greenskins all perished, as they were with theDark Knights. The scene faded and everyone was silent.

“Andreya, please bring up an image of thatmaster sorcerer just before he blasted, and nothing else,” Isaid via our connection.

“Honored One, the sorcerers break up theirforces into seven ranks. They are prospect, student, apprentice,journeyman, elite, master and grandmaster. Each level isexponentially stronger than the previous level. We do not have acount of their total forces but we know there are six mastersorcerers and one grandmaster who make up their ruling council.This man here is one of seven known to be on their ruling council.As you saw, his power is far greater than any of the others and hedoes not care how many of his own troops die, as long as he wins.The hard truth is that the Empire presently has nothing that canstand against him, and he is but one of seven,” I explained.

“Vydor, what about the Black Adders?” heasked.

“Honored One, they fought hard and well,killing many of the sorcerers, but when this one and the other sixarrived on the scene, they were outmatched and almost all of themwere killed.”

“Vydor, you said that you found a way toblock their hallucination attack, so we should be able at least toprevent what we saw in your first video?” asked the chairman.