The Withered Land: Dragons and Marauders

Dragons and Marauders, Part Eight

"You really have to be joking. You cannot be at all serious about this."

"But we are serious, Sir Knight. We have no choice but to be serious. People are dying..."

"That is to be expected. This is Teshiwahur and these are the times of the Long Death. Someone is always dying."

"But a war is coming, a great and awful war unlike any we've ever seen on this world and we are not prepared to fight it. It will destroy what remains of this once proud planet..."

"Before the Great Revocation forced the mighty Emperium to withdraw its tyrannical empire away from the expanses of interplanetary space, this 'once proud planet' had at one time held the populations of two other planets and five mega-asteroid colonies firmly in the iron bonds of slavery. Don't our rewrite history to me, buccaneer, because I was there when it happened. I saw what crimes we committed against Others unfortunate enough to have encountered the greed and power of The World-Father's ambitions."

Vandessha'Jai stood uncomfortably in the silence following his introduction to the somber armored paladin named D'Spayr. The nomadic former monk, Lumynn, had presented Jai and his shipmate, Geh'wan Shryke, to the Knight after they'd covertly rendezvoused outside the bustling bazaar across the metropolis. D'Spayr had straightaway given them the impression he hadn't wanted anything to do with their subterfuge. Their presence obviously presented a set of possible complications regarding his own status as a new citizen to The City with which he had not wanted to deal. Vandessha'Jai could tell that, although the Knight obviously trusted his friends, he did not by default extend that trust to either himself or to Geh'wan Shryke.

For her part, the imposing warrior-woman, Nygeia, whom Jai suspected was descended from or had once been a member of the titled aristocracy, had interceded during the brief introductions and tried to engage D'Spayr's rebellious anti-establishment leanings, but the solemn chevalier had not responded beyond a reluctant agreement to dispassionately listen to Jai and Shryke's story.

It was the man's eyes, the renegade ex-Ymperatur's Navy officer decided. D'SPayr had cold, intelligent eyes that immediately weighed and assessed the strength and value of anyone they beheld. The intensity of his gaze seemed to penetrate past the masks of professional rank or social convention. When you met him, it felt as if he were somehow, in some strange way, sitting in judgment of you.

It was like he could see a person's sins. That was not a thought Vandessha'Jai wanted to entertain. His own personal history was painted a deep, wet red with the aftermath and consequences from his sins. He felt uncomfortable with D'Spayr knowing anything about his past.

Outside, in the fading light of day...

*** The six of them gathered in silence, alien to the world through which they moved, yet comfortable with the basic and unchanging mechanical predictability -- and inevitability -- of their mission. It was ever so. They had assembled as a team at the command of a power far older even than they themselves. For nearly a millennium, they had worked together, in concert, like the fingers of a single mighty fist wielded by the unimaginable will of the Dire Lords of Darkness Eternal. They had seen the rise and fall of many proud civilizations, of many fearsome and powerful empires, and whenever the Cosmic Balance was at risk of tipping against the warring entropic forces that bound the various elements of the Multiverse together, they were resurrected, empowered and then unleashed against that which threatened the Balance.

They were the children of a being known to humankind only as "The Woman" and, as such, they served enigmatic beings called 'The Arbiters' who were counted among the roster of the Dire Lords of Darkness Eternal. The six were soldiers of the Arbiters and they were called "the Instrumentality of the Constant".