Come Endless Darkness

but Gord would not be dissuaded.

'I am not champion. I have no wish to play this game! Let the hells, the demons, all of you find some other pawn to push around!' Gord was ready to rise and leave, although he didn't know where he would go or what the reactions of these mighty ones of Balance would be when he tried to evacuate. At this juncture he no longer cared. It was just too much for a mortal spirit to bear.

Rexfelis stopped him, smiling gently. 'You are right. You need not be a pawn. Do not 'play.' Those who seek evil, death, misery, enslavement for all who do not serve them willingly will gloat and be filled with glee at your decision, Gord. They have long sought to eliminate you from the contest. Your quitting will serve almost as well as your death, I think.'

That made Gord sink back down and stare at the Catlord. 'Better, better,' Rexfelis said softly. 'Long have you played unwittingly, without our direction, although our other active forces in the game supported you when they could. Then you took part at the direction of Balance, but without full knowledge of what was involved. Even should you choose to leave now, Gord, I think that too would simply be part of the play. You, like us, cannot escape by simply wishing to.'

Gord could do little but shrug. 'Then I am no champion at all. I am a piece which wanders aimlessly about, doing nothing of significance and unable to direct my course. Let one of you powerful beings serve as the banner- bearer. Who amongst you all is not more puissant than I?'

'Fairly put, young Gord,' a slow and heavy voice said. All in the chamber were completely still at the sound, and Gord looked over to the place where the words had come from. 'Yet there is a bit of each of us to go with you, and then you will be both less and more than any of us,' the being continued.

That meant nothing to him, but Gord was unsettled by what he saw. Nothingness and yet something occupied a place in the hall, and none of the other occupants of the place were near the space. 'I am at a disadvantage… Lord of… Nothingness? I cannot see you, nor do I know your title or realm.'

'I am All and Nothing, prince. You were not far from the mark. It is sufficient to say that in my own limited way I am part of Balance in that I contest with life and death, chaos and order. Normally I would not take part in any struggle, for in the end I will triumph over all that way.

'However,' the measured, plodding voice spoke on, 'the advent of Tharizdun has forced me to assist the Lords of Neutrality. Thus a portion of my essence will be yours to call upon, should you step forward and serve willingly.'

Advent? So the terrible force of total evil was advancing. That knowledge had a great effect upon the young thief, and Gord forgot to ask just what the so-called 'All and Nothing' was. Instead he turned to the Master of All Cats. 'Explain more of this to me, please,' he asked simply, settling back in his chair for the first time since he had been thrust into this assemblage.

Rexfelis proceeded to tell him about the emerging struggle that put Balance into so exposed a position in the very center of all. With occasional interjections from the great personages and virtual deities in the chamber, the Catlord related how he and the others had sought to confound the machinations of devils and demons without recourse to a particular champion. Although they, as the sovereigns of Neutrality, knew that there was a prophecy regarding such a singular figure, even they could not be certain, so they had played on while keeping careful guard over the one who might one day be needed — by all the multiverse, not just by Balance. Gord's parents had been, together, a minor force in the game, and they had been betrayed into vulnerability by pieces of their own color. Sadly, they had been eliminated and yet thus fulfilled a part of the foretelling, for behind them remained a tiny spark of potential.

'Amidst the webs of magic and energy, Gord, even that mote could have been discerned by our foes — your foes, of course, as well as ours,' said Rexfelis. 'Alone we could not have hidden your spark of possibility, but still the evil ones could not seem to locate you. Another hand was involved.'

After a few questions, the narration continued as before. Rexfelis and Lord Donal spoke of how they had seen Gord become an able young beggar and thief, occasionally protected, always observed, but never interfered with. 'When you left the city, prince, and set off with the Rhennee, you suddenly entered the field as a pawn,' Lord Donal noted. 'You were not played — you placed yourself upon the board!'

After noting that Gord's successes, as well as his failures, not only moved him around the area of the contest but also made his relative strength change, just as an advancing pawn becomes more threatening to the opposing force, Rexfelis explained that Gord himself promoted his worth to above that of a mere foot soldier. 'By continually winning over evil adversaries, and by not just staying well away from their influence but becoming more and more firmly convinced to uphold your ever-strengthening beliefs in freedom and choice, you grew from an inconsequential if well-placed pawn into a multi-powered piece.'

Shadowking and the Demiurge added their own comments then, and Gord was amazed still more. He turned to the person introduced to him earlier as the Master of Swords. 'Blademaster, you assisted me?'

'Even so skilled a thief as you, one whose gymnastic feats are of the highest sort, does not acquire weapons skill — or such weapons as you have possessed, Gord, without a bit of help, shall we say,' the Master of Swords confirmed in his quick manner. His thin lips smiling, the Lord of All Blades added, 'And I shall do so again if you will.'

Each of those present assured the young man that he had done some small thing to assist him. Then Rexfelis spoke again. 'Now, Gord, you are Prince of Panthers. That acknowledged status bestows but little additional power upon you, for you are already a knight in service to Balance. As a willing champion, however, you will command those spaces adjacent to you as well; thus will you be equipped to the best of our ability to face the Ultimate Foe.'

'What choice have I?' Gord said finally. 'Whether willing or willy-nilly, it would seem I am fated. I have no love for our foes, no commonality with those who oppose them. Balance is my only understanding. To accept conviction of its purpose, then, is but to admit what I am.'

There are shades and tints, intensity and pallor, even in the whole of Neutrality, Gord,' Lord Hewd told him. 'Whatever the exact ethos may be, all of us recognize that in order to have our liberty to remain as we are, and for all others to do likewise, the Ultimate Darkness must not be allowed to prevail.'

'Am I not proof of the different shades and tints?' Gord asked rhetorically.

'No,' said the slow voice of the nothingness that seemed to All a whole corner of the hall, 'but my presence with Balance is.'

Before more could be said, the four Hierophants arose and in unison placed their mark upon Gord. The sensation for him was like a burning wave washing over his body, and the young thief nearly fainted. Then each of the others there likewise gave some touch or sign as their gift. Energy shot through Gord's body, made his nerves tingle, his brain float. So much power, so many diverse agencies! He was glad Indeed to be sitting when it occurred.

'Basiliv and I will escort you from here, prince,' the Catlord said when the last of the Lords of Balance had finished placing their tokens of power with him. 'I have more to say, for above all my own aegis is over you. The Demiurge too has instructions.'

'Now I will begin at the beginning,' the Master of Cats said when the three of them were alone in a small library that served as Rexfelis's personal study. 'You are the offspring of my seventh son, the ninth of my great- grandchildren to attain status above that which was theirs by birthright. With the acceptance just given by the Lords of Balance, none of my own, not any of the scions of the other houses, dare to contest you.'

'What do you mean?' Gord asked. This was all too confusing still.

'Each of the Nine Houses vies for supremacy with the others. Each would have its own become king. I cannot interfere… much, anyway, else I would be no Lord of Catkind. But your own father had no such aspirations. He knew of the prophecy and above all sought to see it come true. He and your mother were the deadliest foes of Tharizdun and his servitors.'

'What was my mother's name? My father's?'

'Of course. Forgive me, Gord. The pressures of this time made me remiss. Your mother was called Ataleena. She had second sight and could have been a great wizardess. She had violet eyes, you know — perhaps from her distant elvish blood. Your father was named Karal, and he loved your mother more than Just about anything in the planes. It was she who convinced him to desert the confines of this place, Gord, and to fight the enemy elsewhere. I don't think I forgave her for that until I first met you….' Rexfelis said half to himself. Then, recapturing his train of