Wizards At War

This was a problem that recently had been getting worse for her. Is this Roshaun’s fault somehow? Dairine wondered. Or something to do with Spot? Whatever the cause, the feeling of sheer evil that flowed off the King, and was reflected back to it by its worshippers, was horrifying to Dairine, and familiar. She’d felt it before, on the mobiles’ world, during her Ordeal. This was the sentiment behind the terrible gloating laughter she had kept hearing back then—the amusement of the Lone Power, darkly entertained by the pitiful struggles of mortal life in the universe in which It went from door to door selling Its invention, Death, to the unwary. But here there was something different about the silent laughter. There was a sense of smugness. There’s nothing more to do here, It seemed to be saying. Everything’s just the way I want it. Now all there is to do with eternity is take it easy and enjoy what I’ve accomplished.

It’s not the whole Lone Power at all, Dairine thought. It’s an avatar, like all the others. Maybe a more aware one. But, otherwise, it may not have a lot of autonomy.

A warrior with strange glowing patterns laid out on its carapace came forward and was joined by several others. It abased itself before the dais, along with its compatriots. The King never gave it even a glance, as far as Dairine could tell. Though whether it can move at all is the next question, she thought.

The crowd began slowly to press toward the dais. “The day is done! Let the Arch-votary speak!” a Yaldiv said, lifting up its forelegs. Others began to chime in: “Let the Arch-votary tell us the Great One’s will for tomorrow!”

More and more Yaldiv began to chant together: “Speak! Tell us the Great One’s will! Speak!” This went on until the warrior with the glowing patterns on its shell, the Arch-votary, lifted its own forelegs.

The assemblage swiftly became quiet.

“All praise to the One!” the Arch-votary said.

“All praise to the One, the Great One, the King, the Lord of All, the Master of Creation!” said all the gathered Yaldiv together. They all bowed to the swollen mass on the dais. It annoyed Dairine, but she bowed, too, as Ronan and Kit and everyone else was doing.

“Let the sacred story be told!” said the Arch-votary.

“Let it be told,” the immense crowd whispered in awe.

“In the beginning was the One,” said the Arch-votary. “And all things were well. But then, from outside, came Another. That Other said to the One, ‘Your way is wrong, and this other way is right; bow down to me and admit your wrongness!’”

“Down with the Other! Death to the Other!” the crowd answered.

“And the One rose up and said, ‘Evil Other, old shadow-ghost that haunts the ancient darkness, you have no right to question my creation or my will! I will never bow down to you.’”

“Never!” the crowd cried. “The One is all! These are in the One, and no Other!”

“And the Other spoke in pride, saying, ‘If you will even now bow down and admit your wrongness, you shall be forgiven!’ And the One spurned this craven word. Then the Other spoke in threat, saying, ‘If you do not bow, you shall be punished and driven out!’”

“The One must not bow! The Other is evil, the Other is outside!” chanted the crowd.

“But the Other could not frighten the One, or move It from Its purpose!” said the Arch-votary. “And when it realized this, the Other came with its minions and made everlasting war on the One. But it could not prevail. And while these are Its faithful servants, the evil Other can never prevail, not until worlds’ end and beyond!”

“Praise to the One! We will always be loyal! We will fight the Other until the ends of the worlds!” cried the crowd, and bowed down before the King.

Dairine kept doing what everyone else was doing. But she was both infuriated and disgusted. It takes the truth and twists It around to serve Its own purposes. But It doesn’t take any more of the truth than It absolutely has to … because truth’s essentially good, and It hates it for that.

“Now the One in our King gives commands for the next stage in the new war against the Other’s minions in our world,” said the Arch-votary. “Tomorrow a great force of warriors will be sent to intercept marauding warriors who are coming to attack our hive and devour us and our children. By bringing them the gift of death, we will turn their evil to good. By ending their miserable lives, we bring them peace, inside us, inside the King.”