Origins (Book 4 of Alfireán age)

Sinkhole

The darkness of night engulfed Intelus while he gazed down into the sinkhole that was growing by the moment.

Schreeeeech!

A four-story building wailed as the ground beneath it gave way, and the structure fell into the gaping pit.

"Well, that didn't work," a nameless blood oath said from where he stood behind Intelus.

That's an understatement, Intelus thought as the light from the lone street lamp flickered, and water splashed onto his charred black mask. He leaned forward and watched while the raging water, deep beneath the earth, swept the structure away.

"How many miners died when the dam gave loose?" Aloralex asked as the ground beneath his feet trembled.

The blood oath smacked the lamplight, and the flickering stopped. "Who knows and who cares," he huffed.

Anger filled Intelus, and he felt his heartbeat start to rise. "I do," he said in a soft tone laced with fire. "And I suggest you find out," he said, casting a golden shield and stepping onto it as the ground beneath his feet gave way.

The blood oath's posture shifted. His shoulders tightened in anger at being told what to do, and his bloodshot eyes glared back at him.

Intelus turned his masked face towards his rebellious subordinate and calmly said, "Now."

A shudder ran down the man's spine, and with an angry twist of his face, he turned away, mumbled under his breath, and ran off.

Intelus tore his eyes away from the blood oath. He hated using fear to control people, but the scum that Vackzilian employed were nothing but brute beasts, despite several of them being of highborn status.

His attention returned to the sinkhole and the raging river beneath it.

"They are not the only beasts he employs," he muttered to himself while gazing at his hands, which had sucked the life out of untold hundreds over the years. He would have succumbed to age long ago, but his victims' stolen life energy had sustained him like a vile parasite feeding on its prey.

Intelus pushed his dark musings aside and formed a scrying. Water accumulated at his fingertips, and light flashed through it like an old world projector.

"I assume, if you're contacting me, the rebellion has been dealt with, and the first shipment is on its way to the facility?" Vackzilian stated as his form appeared in the scrying.

"No," Intelus answered simply.

Displeasure flashed across the emperor's face, and his eyes narrowed. "Pray tell, why not?"

Aloralex Intelus tilted the scrying so Vackzilian could see the sinkhole.

The sneer faded, and Vackzilian's topaz eyes lit with interest.

"The rebellion wasn't a rebellion at all," Intelus explained. "But rather an inability to work. Your actions in the Indonesian caverns caused the flow of an underground river to shift course and flood the mines. I, and those you sent with me, tried to dam the flow and dry out the mines. This is the result."

"I see," Vackzilian stated.

"I believe, with some work, I can divert the river elsewhere, but it will take time," Intelus added, while the sound of the rushing underground river echoed hauntingly in the dark night.

Vackzilian's eyes narrowed once more. "With the loss of the Tokeph, and Drakovian's retreat to Merinia, time is of the essence," Vackzilian told him, as the light blinked out altogether and the street lamp fell into the gaping maul.