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From: stiltman@teleport.com (Stilt Man)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [Tor][AD] Alliances and Treacheries
Date: 13 Feb 1995 14:09:56 -0800
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[ADMIN:  Well then, we finally have a few actual credits to take care of here.
Corey Venour provided his usual invaluable help, and Alex Young provided a
great deal of remarks and suggestions WRT his character, Shifter, who was
introduced last post and finally achieves sentience in this one.  I didn't
feel like sharing the hamster-shredding duties this time, so I fired up the
brush chipper myself and handled that part.  Aside from that, all I did was
sit around and fill up Corey's advice page with pyschotic ravings.]


Kryalla immediately vanished from the surface of the small Plate when the
creature took on its hostile shape.  The gray-skinned creature with two
heads diverted one of its trios of eyes to keep an eye out for the Shrouded
One, while the other snarled softly at the threat it knew of in front of
it.

Emrikol knew he was not abandoned, but she had not informed him of her intent. 
Were he not in a potential battle for his life, he would find it amusing that
he actually had forgotten himself and expected otherwise of her.  He had little
time to laugh as the monster changed form again, this time to a large single
headed demonic creature. It sprang at him with inhuman speed, talons clawing
for his heart. The runes acted only partially to blunt the force of the blow,
but he was still hurled off his feet and pinned beneath the creature.  If he
wanted a closer view of the thing's emanations and how they might resemble the
Vortex, he thought bitterly, he had his opportunity.

The runes lit up brighter in instinctive response, but dimmed again.  Emrikol
frowned.  It was as though the creature was dampening his magic in defense
of itself.  Emrikol's instincts took only a moment to correct the problem.
The reality was that he was pinned beneath the creature.  The possibility was
that he was no longer beneath the monster, but standing on his feet a short
distance away.  The runes left the reality and reached out to the possibility,
wove it into being, and the creature suddenly found itself snarling incoherently
at the soft rock of the Plate beneath it.

A scarlet lance of power stung the thing a moment after, knocking it head
over heels onto its back.  The creature had had a large hunk of its mass
blown away, but its form quickly went plastic, the hole in its hide closing
up while its feet overhead vanished and reformed beneath it.  Again seeing
only Emrikol, the thing lunged for him again.  This time his runes were a
bit quicker to react.  The thing had exhibited the ability to dampen magic
before.  This time the runes acted on the possibility that the creature
very simply could no longer find him either, as it could not find Kryalla.
Its ability to see him where he was was off, as though its eyes could not
focus on the spot where he stood.

The creature stopped again, puzzled.  No sooner had this occurred, than a
large black hawk swooped from the sky and sunk its talons deep into the
creature's back.  The demonic creature shrieked as what would serve for its
spine was severed.  The hawk returned to the ground, resumed the shape of
Kryalla Simuel, katana in hand.

She looked at the thing sidelong, as it struggled to recompose its spine
before they struck again. "In my opinion it would not be safe to hold this 
creature in captivity."

"I agree," said Emrikol.  "I regret that we can't study it alive, but I just
can't put my people in that kind of risk by bringing it back while it's
this dangerous."

As though cognitive thought suddenly found its way into the thing's brain,
its eyes widened.  It shrivelled and shrunk to a small, wispy green thing
skulking on the ground, its limbs scrawny and its eyes wide and blue looking
up at them in fear.  This time, Emrikol was pleased to note, it only had one
head, two arms, two legs, and looked reasonably humanoid.

"Please, don't hurt me," the creature begged.  "I'll be a good boy.  Just
let me live a little longer . . ."  The birds-egg blue eyes welled up with
tears as it grovelled shamelessly before them.

Emrikol looked at Kryalla in barely-hidden outrage.  She smirked back at him.

"Perhaps that possibility should have been mentioned ere he became hostile,"
she said with the slightest tinge of amusement in her voice.

"Yeah," Emrikol said disgustedly.  He bent down to the cringing thing on
the ground.  "You be a good little boy, and maybe we won't have to clean you 
off the castle floor with a hairbrush."

"Shifter will be a good little boy," promised the thing, smiling from ear to
lobeless ear and nodding emphatically.

"Shifter, huh?" said Emrikol.  His lip curled in disgust.  "Can you take a
shape any less ugly than that?"

The creature suddenly sprung up, the green hue of its skin brightening to
pink, "his" hair sprouting from the back of its now fairly human head in
white locks.  Yellow eyes with no pupils or irises stared back at him.
"Will this suffice?"

Emrikol looked up at whatever passed for sky.  Kryalla nodded slightly.  "That
will suffice."  She, herself, looked at it in a sidelong manner, as though
not certain what this apparent change of heart meant.

"Might I ask if you have any spare clothes for me?  This would be rather 
embarassing to go home in," Shifter said, looking down at his nude body.  "That
is where we're going, correct?"

Emrikol made an indescribable expression combining annoyance and confusion.
"Yes, that's where we're going . . ."

			=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Shifter could almost thank the sorceress or whoever she was. That blast of 
magic jolted him back into sentience. Not that he was in any real danger - or 
at least, not from their magic. The warriors disappearing trick was effective, 
but the man's spell of misdirection or illusion was probably intended for
mundane senses, not a shapeshifter's. The reality-manipulation of his spells
had thrown his senses for a while, but a shapeshifter had many different sorts
of senses. The woman, on the other hand, clearly was widely experienced in
a large myriad of methods to deceive the senses, and thus he had been unable
to get more than very brief glimpses of her throughout the battle.

On the other hand, discontinuing the battle and making an apparent plea for
mercy was, partly, intended to allow them to think they could dominate him,
and mostly to end their threat for the time being. His biggest fear was that
his instinctive response to threats would cause him to once more lose himself.

Ever since he had woken on this barren forsaken rock, he had been trying to
piece himself together again. Every time he seemed on the verge of being in
control, he would shift into another form and lose his mind. After a while he
would shift back. He would have to learn control. 

Meanwhile, it wouldn't hurt to see how long he could lull these dolts into a
false sense of security. They knew things about this world that he seemed to
have forgotten. He was sure he could get them to reveal enough to prod his
memory, and then he could get back to normal. 

Whoever or whatever that was.

                        =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"You say this Vortex has likely caused the destruction of this world?" asked
Arcania of the face of Kronos, now peering up at her from the waters of the
crystalline pool in her sanctum.

"From your own notes concerning the interrogation of the man Emrikol when he
was your guest there, it is fairly clear that this world was once similar to
our own," said Kronos.  "This K'al has reduced it to this collection of rubble
with his experiment."

"The levels of raw energy this Vortex puts out, according to your written
report," she leafed through the pages that he had sent her through the
portal, "are not particularly encouraging to any thoughts that we might just
leave our two enemies alone there."

"Indeed," said Kronos.  "I think it very possible that Emrikol could gain
control of this thing with his bloodlines and the probability-twisting runes
he bears.  He was a duke here before, which made him one of the best in the
world at controlling the smaller power fonts.  I see no reason why he would
be incapable of controlling this Vortex as well, once he had attuned his
magic to do so."

Arcania sighed angrily.  "This K'al, you say, has very little actual skill in
refining the energy he draws through it?"

"Yes," came the reply.

"But your judgment of his overall ability was not particularly favorable,
either, is that correct?"

"Yes," answered Kronos.

She turned away from the image in the pool.  "So this upstart Duke took a
shortcut and ripped the Vortex into reality, thereby destroying his own
world and gaining raw power that he cannot refine, but which nevertheless
could very well stretch the limits of the finite, is that your assessment
of what has taken place here?"

"That is my guess as to how this K'al had his origins, yes," replied Kronos.

She turned back to him.  "You realize that this comes at a most inopportune
time, my dear Lord Kronos.  I have a High Dragon Lord who is showing potentially
treasonous motivations, I have an alliance of two non-trivial powers in the
south who have their eye on the main continent, the crusaders of Mithras are
frothing at the mouth to use this as an opportunity to at last be rid of me,
and now you are telling me that the Shrouded One and the Man with the Bandaged
Hands might well get control on virtually limitless raw energy on this other
world."  She shook her head.  "As dangerous as it is to leave Thyaris again
with all these other developments forthcoming, this warrants my personal
attention.  I cannot risk having those two return here with the energy of the
Vortex behind them and putting at naught my efforts of centuries.  However,
your generalship will be required here in no great time, I would wager.  You
may remain there only for a short while, but keep in contact with me while I
am there.  Your leadership on the battlefield may be needed back here."

"I understand, Empress," he said respectfully.  "Then I have your leave to
continue my search for them?"

"For now," said Arcania.  "I will keep a few minions from the vaults prepared
to meet me on Tor'el.  I will need to study one of the power fonts and perhaps
the Vortex itself.  While you are searching, draw a list of potential targets
for a quick strike, one with a power font that is poorly defended and might
be wrested without a great deal of expense."

"It will be done, Empress," replied Kronos, bowing a small amount.  "Will there
be anything else?"

Arcania rubbed her square chin a moment.  "You say that K'al considers himself
the ruler of all Tor'el at this time?"

"His power lays claim to it, yes," answered Kronos.

"Is it likely that he has spies within the household of Emrikol?" she asked.

Kronos hesitated.  "I suppose."

"Then your primary goal will be only to find a suitable target for strike and
study.  K'al will locate our enemies for us," said Arcania, smiling for the
first time since Kronos began his report.

Kronos hesitated again, before replying in an affirmative.  Arcania waved her
hand over the pool, and he was dismissed.

Arcania signalled to the guard at the door, and her personal servant Rudaj
was admitted.  "There are rivals within the ranks of the Dragon Lords,
correct?  Wyrms that might profit from a loss of face on the part of this
Talan?"

"Yes," responded the wraith-like robed sorcerer.

"And there are also rival clans within the dwarven kingdoms, are there not?"

"Indeed," the wraith was smiling within his hood.

"Send a summons to the most likely rivals who would be most willing to put
forth a challenge for those respective thrones," she said.

"You expect that some sort of intrigue is afoot with this High Dragon Lord?"
asked Rudaj.

"Kollain was an arrogant bastard, but he knew his place," said Arcania.  "This
Talan has too many schemes of which he shares little for my tastes.  I have
my suspicions that the urge for autonomy he has exhibited may run to a possible
insurrection.  I will see how he fares in his siege of the dwarven lands he
has promised me, but with an eye to treachery."

"I will undertake these tasks immediately, Empress," said Rudaj, bowing out
of the room.

Arcania sighed, looking back at the now blank pool of water.  Hopefully this
would at least be interesting, she thought.

			=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Arcania appeared high in the sky of the world of Tor'el, the Necklace of the
Crescent dangling over her collarbones.  However, she amended in her own mind,
the point of reference which would qualify her as being high up was rather
difficult to attain.

Kronos' report on the condition of this world had been accurate.  A huge
swirling blue pool of light, a great gash in the fabric of reality, dominated
the scene.  Scattered in orbit about it were several tiny hunks of rock.  The
entire system had been hurled into its own minor plane of existence, she noted.
K'al had probably done it when the singular planet of Tor'el had shattered.

She herself was surrounded by a sheath of green fire, which both kept her warm
this far away from any source of head and which protected a bubble of air for
her to breath.  It quickly became clear, however, that this world had plenty
of its own air to draw into her lungs.  The sphere of fire assisted her in
flight, however, so she left its magic in effect nonetheless.

Her keen senses could detect several smaller sources of energy similar to but
smaller than the Vortex.  All of these occupied larger asteroids which
careened about the festering wound in space.  These, no doubt, were the homes
of the power fonts, now being maintained to keep the larger hunks of stone
from falling into the Vortex.  Arcania Dorval took mnemonic note of everything
she observed, allowing nothing to escape her notice.

What she quickly found was that the largest of the planetoids which remained
had no power font residing upon it.  In fact, there was little reason to
believe that such a large piece of rock would still be intact under these
conditions without it.  Arcania focused her truesight spells upon this large
abode, determined to learn what it was that kept it in existence as she
approached it.

The brilliant flash of azure light that lashed out at her was almost wholly
unexpected.  The bolt of energy overwhelmed the shield that protected her,
biting down into her personal defenses with a fury she had rarely, if ever,
encountered.  Fortunately, her own wards were sufficient to prevent what
part of the blast that penetrated the shell from inflicting any lasting
injury.  She took stock of herself, now under concealment of veils of
invisibility that even her own truesight would have difficulty piercing.
Her lip was bleeding, and several aches made themselves known all over her
body.  Perhaps a sprain or dislocation here and there, but these were being
healed even now by her body's magic.  However, Arcania quickly added up the
writing on the wall and deduced that the shell of flame had saved her life
here.  Had she not had it protecting her, with only her own personal defenses
betwixt her and that strike, the Necklace would have been left floating in
space here, trying to regather her soul and reconstruct her body ere it fell
into the Vortex itself.  It could survive even the blast that had struck
her, but its survival in contact with the Vortex was improbable.

So this rock was the home of the renowned K'al, Arcania deducted with no
particular effort.

Arcania waited, observing to see if whatever force had launched this attack
would be able to see through her veils and cloaks and strike again.  Nothing
happened.  It was apparently as Kronos had reported:  K'al was very powerful
in terms of raw energy, but not well-skilled in the subtler sides of power.
It came to Arcania that she had returned from one shattered world where the
philosophy of artless force ruled only to arrive in another, more literally
shattered world where that extreme was even more prevalent.

She slowly hovered down to the surface of the rock, the silhouette of a large
palace shaping against its sharply-curved horizon.  She could feel the eyes
of her assailant reaching out into the ether, trying to find whence its
target had fled.  No doubt K'al was trying to ascertain whether or not she
had, in fact, survived his initial assault.  She set her feet down upon the
soil and began her trek up to the fortress.

What few guards were posted here were complacent, as though their master's
magic kept anyone from setting foot here, let alone surviving long enough
to reach the gates.  Arcania could make out several charred outlines of
human beings scorched onto the rocks, making it evident that whatever assault
the other dukes had made here had not succeeded whatsoever.

Arcania strode boldly past the guards, into the courtyard betwixt outer wall
and central palace.  With her veils in place, the guards never flickered an
eyelash at her passing.

			=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

"I do not like this," mused K'al as he gazed furiously into the glass of the
sphere before him.  "First Emrikol appears with some lady love of his that
can evade my all-seeing eyes, then this other woman appears, approaches my
home, and vanishes.  She was not destroyed . . . I saw a glimpse of her,
battered but very much alive, before she disappeared.  She must be alive.
She must be found . . ."

"Perhaps the finding will not be as difficult as you would think," came a
sultry female voice from behind him.

K'al went rigid, but made sure to form the unseeable force field about
himself ere he turned to face his uninvited visitor.  What servants that
stood watch within his work chambers wisely cleared away.

K'al whirled, and sent a second strike at the spot whence the voice had come.
One of his tables was splintered underneath the force of the blow, but no
cry of pain came from his enigmatic guest.

"Tsk, tsk," said the voice.  He spun to find the most beautiful woman he had
ever seen, seated on the edge of a bench smiling at him with ruby lips below
the most captivating sapphire-colored eyes he ever knew.  Her platinum hair
fell to her waist behind her.  Her leather fatigues were torn here and there,
the marks of her previous bearing of his wrath well visible to him.  "I come
to observe and make alliances, and you try to kill me without even hearing
my words."

K'al responded with a third attack, shredding the bench.  The woman was
abruptly no longer at the point at which he struck.  Instead, he found her
sitting on a dresser across the room from the bench.

"We can be at this all day, my dear," she said.

K'al's eyes narrowed angrily.  "Who are you?  Why do you plague me with your
viper's tongue?"

"My name is Arcania Dorval," said the woman.  "I am here because agents of
mine have already met with you concerning a possible revolt on the part of
one of your agents."

K'al recognized the name.  "And what have they to do with any real threat to
me?  It seems to me that you pose the greater threat, sneaking into my own
chambers and taunting me.  For aught I know, you could have killed me before
you announced your presence."

Arcania stood, walked up to K'al, towering over the masked master of Tor'el
by half a head in height.  "Indeed.  Take my neglect to do so as proof of
my good will," said Arcania.

"I see," said K'al.  However, he made no relaxation of his shield.  He could
sense the unbelievable strength of will of this woman, will great enough that
she seemed almost a demi-goddess in that as well as in beauty.  The unearthly
quality of this woman made him afraid, made him distrustful of her presence,
her intentions.  He could now well understand how it was that Lord Kronos
came to serve such a one.

"Then state your purpose, Arcania Dorval," said K'al.  "And do take care that
you do not tax my time overmuch in doing so."

			=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Kryalla and Emrikol returned to the latter's keep, the form of Shifter being
that of an avian creature fluttering over the castle walls.  Kryalla had
suggested that he not take any humanoid shape in arriving, and make his
presence unknown to any of the castle servants.  Emrikol had not had the
foggiest idea why, but he knew there had to be a good reason which Kryalla
was not sharing.

"Typical," he muttered to himself.  This earned him a glower from Kryalla.
Damned if he'd ever get used to having a woman around that he both cherished
and who could seemingly read his mind.

After cleaning themselves up and a change of clothes on the part of Emrikol
(Kryalla never seemed to wear much except the same ebon fatigues; Emrikol
wondered how it was that her leather clothes always appeared polished, the
black fabric of the Shroud always clean and deep sable in color), the two
of them reported for dinner.

Syandria spoke up quickly, impatient for a volunteering of information.
"So, how was your exploration?"

Kryalla looked about slightly, then spoke up.  "We encountered something
rather interesting on our trip.  We . . ." she looked up briefly at something
behind Emrikol's right shoulder, then continued, "found nothing of consequence.
The entire escapade told us very little we did not already know of the Vortex
and its nature."

Emrikol blinked at this sudden shift of tone in the middle of a sentence
by the Shrouded One, particularly when the later part was utter falsehood.
He looked at her in confusion, then another feminine hand reaching over his
right shoulder almost made him half-jump as a loaf of bread was placed on the
table before him.  He looked up and saw Brianna absently looking around the
table to see if anything more was needed, then bowed out of the room.  He
turned with a wise look on his face to Kryalla.

"You think she's dirty?" he asked quietly.

"I know . . . that she is dirty," Kryalla replied, equally quiet.

"How?" he asked, knowing she wouldn't answer.

"I have methods," Kryalla replied, satisfying his prediction.

Syandria looked back and forth between them, then back the way Brianna had
left the dining room.  She half-sputtered in outrage at the suggestion that
one of her most loyal and hard-working servants was a spy.  "What are you
saying?  You are saying . . ."

Kryalla placed a gloved finger over her lips, calling for silence.  "She
listens," she silently mouthed.  Emrikol and Syandria nodded, Emrikol
trusting Kryalla, Syandria a little more indignant but bowing to her son's
judgment of their guest.

"I am saying," Kryalla spoke up as if in answer to her host's question, and
it was immediately clear that she spoke not for their benefit so much as for
that of their eavesdropper, "that I am not convinced that there is an easy
way for us to wrest control of the Vortex from K'al.  I believe that the
only answer to your ills is to facilitate an exodus from this world, flee
his influence altogether.  Sooner or later the Vortex will devour Tor'el,
and we can do naught to prevent it.  We can only save the lives of those
who are left."

"But that's crazy!" Emrikol half-shouted, though he smiled as he did so.
His back was to the doorway Brianna had used to exit, so he could get away
with this.  "How are we going to get . . ."

"There are only a few thousand of you left," said Kryalla.  "Every month
the Vortex claims a few more of those with its unnatural light burning the
flesh of you all."  She shook her head.  "It is the only answer."

"I think she may be right, Em," said Syandria, realizing what the purpose
of this.  "It may be the only . . ."

The conversation went on, and Brianna heard every word from the next room.

			=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

K'al interrupted his own conversation with Arcania when the signal came.  He
bowed politely to her for a moment, then turned back to the crystal ball.  The
servants around the room ignored the whole affair as they labored to clear
the evidence of battle from his study.

"You called, Brianna?" said K'al.

"Yes, Master," said the spy.  She saw Arcania standing behind him and
hesitated.  "You are busy.  I will call back later . . ."

"You will do no such thing, my dear," said K'al in a soothing voice.  Brianna
seemed to be more worried by the tone, but tried her best to conceal it.
"Give your report."

"The Duke and the Shrouded One have returned from their reconnaisance of the
Vortex," said Brianna.  "The Shrouded One began her briefing with something
that seemed to confuse Emrikol, as though she read more into the situation
than he, and had not told of her knowledge yet.  She then convinced the
others that flight from Tor'el altogether was the only solution to their
problem."

"No doubt a wise decision, rather than deciding to challenge my power," K'al
nodded.  Arcania turned away from the sphere, frowning so that neither K'al
nor Brianna could see it.  "Was there anything else?"

"No.  They found nothing other than confirming what they already knew of
your power," said Brianna confidently.

"Excellent," said K'al.  "Continue your observation, and report to me on
the progress of this exodus."  The image in the crystal ball leaped and
was again the masked sorceror's reflection twisted by its curved surface.

"Well, then, Arcania," said K'al to her back, "it seems that your aid is
superfluous.  You may leave my presence."

"I would like to ask your permission to stage an assault with my minions on
that castle," replied Arcania.

K'al blinked in surprise.  "Whatever for?  They are fleeing from me, and are
thus beyond my concern."

"They hide something," said Arcania.

K'al frowned dangerously.  "What makes you think that?"

"Your minion said that Kryalla inferred something more than Emrikol knew, that
he seemed confused as she explained that they found nothing more of the
nature of your Vortex," said Arcania.  "I think that what she inferred that
Emrikol did not know was that your woman is a spy in his household."

"You seem to be suggesting that I give my agents insufficent abilities to
avoid detection," said K'al.

"That is precisely what I am saying," said Arcania, her eyes flashing
angrily at his arrogance.  Despite his position of strength, he found himself
blanching beneath the glower of those twin sapphires.  "You are used to
others who use means of power similar to your own, with raw energy and
little more as their mechanisms of might."  She smiled at him.  "You do
not know my enemy, nor her ways, nor the slightest hint of what might be
going on in her devious little mind."

"And you do, I suppose," he was reduced to sarcasm.

"Yes," she hissed.  "She knows something that she wanted to keep hidden from
your agent.  They found out something far different from what your mole was
allowed to know.  I intend to learn what that is."  She softened her tone,
became more diplomatic.  "I only need know which of these gods-forsaken
rocks happens to belong to them.  If I am right, you are rid of a potential
threat of which you knew nothing.  If I am wrong, you lose nothing."

"Indeed," he agreed grudgingly.  "Very well.  My agents will inform you as
to the location of the home of this renegade Duke of Tor'el."

"I will not bother you with my presence again unless you should require it,"
Arcania bowed shortly in simple politeness and whirled to leave the room.

K'al nodded angrily in the direction in which she had gone, slowly turning
back towards the sphere.  "Brianna . . ." he began.

A moment of running sounds came through the ball, then Brianna's face appeared
within once more.  "Yes, my liege."

"You are about to have more visitors there," said K'al.  "I want to know
everything that this Arcania Dorval wench does there.  And if you get the
opportunity . . ."  He hesitated, knowing that this was a very dangerous
enemy to have.  Her power base paled before his, but her brilliance and
strength of will made her less trustworthy.

". . . if you get the opportunity, deal her out of the story," K'al finished.


+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+
+	Kryalla Simuel the Shrouded One			  +
+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+
+       . . . scribed by the Stilt Man,			  +
+		stiltman@teleport.com			  +
+=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=+

 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 =-=-=-=-= Corey Venour -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- cvenour@cit.gu.edu.au -=-=-=-=
 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~cvenour/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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