"What about the inferns?"
"The inferns will not interfere."
"What do you need me to do?" the steward asked
"Nothing. Nothing at all. It is best if you stay out of the way. Stay home."
"I can do that."
Prilgrat, however, was not a man who enjoyed placidly standing by and letting others take all the action, and all the spoils that went with it. He stepped to the window of his bedroom and looked down upon the street.
"Will I be able to see anything?"
"Very little. The goblins know to leave your home untouched. They will usher any humans out of the area, but my orders are to keep the destruction near your house to a minimum."
The mayhem unfolded quickly. The diminutive monsters acted much more viciously than the steward expected. Watching goblins crash into his neighbors' homes and violently remove them kicking and screaming out into the streets left him uneasy, not about his neighbors' well-being, but about his own safety.
"Are they going to enter my house?"
"I said your home would be untouched. Does that word confuse you?"
"No, but I wondered about my servants. I don't want to get caught up in some scuffle. I'm also going to require their services when all this is finished."
"When I say untouched, I mean it. Your servants will be spared, as long as they remain inside."
"Maybe I should tell them."
"That is your decision."
Prilgrat showed no urgency to warn anyone, and instead, monitored the activity he could see from his window. He saw some smoke in the distance and heard several more screams. He wanted to know more of what was happening.
"Will the city be destroyed?"
"Partially damaged."
"Are you going to let any humans, besides me and those that serve me, remain in Ashlan?"
"Quite a few, actually. Not enough so they can stir up any trouble, but just as you require servants, so will I."
The steward realized what that meant. The creature was taking over… not just Ashlan, but the entire region. The majority of humans would be dispatched. Goblins would become the main inhabitants-creatures that would not honor his authority. His rule as regional steward would be over.
"You know, I'm giving up a lot," Prilgrat announced rather sadly.
"What is it you are giving up?"
"Control. Influence. Almost everything I have."
The creature laughed.
"Would you have been able to keep it if I decided not to include you?"
"Maybe."
"Do not delude yourself. You have seen the power I possess. Would you have really wished to fight me?"
"No, I wouldn't," Prilgrat admitted, "but others might have been able to stop you."
"Who? The dwarves conceived the plan. The goblins were already making inroads when I contacted you personally. My brother was already deeply rooted under Huntston. He knew the captain of the guard was weak. That was why I told you to work with him, and I knew you would work with me. I could tell. If you chose not to, I would have found someone else. No one could have stopped this. It was a wise choice to join us."
The steward did not quite agree. He was often underestimated and he had always found a way to overcome seemingly terrible odds. Still, he reached the position of steward because he knew what was important. He always focused on the true prize. Power over people of the valleys was not power at all if it was fleeting, and to humans, power is always fleeting because their time is always limited. Prilgrat, however, had other ideas.
"You remember our full bargain, right?" the steward asked.
"Of course I do. I am thrilled to see you remember it as well."
The fire mage Brenn was in his basement when he heard the crash at his door. He couldn't believe it. Ever since the elf entered his home, he had been much more careful about his spell casting. He did not wish to bring attention to himself, but it seemed as if he couldn't avoid it. He wondered if an infern had simply walked too close to his home at the wrong time and noted the light residue of a minor spell he cast.
Resigned to face the consequences of his actions, he walked up the basement stairs to give himself up for questioning. He believed he could explain the situation. Spell casting had been restricted, not abolished. He could say he was being careful and kept the spells limited in scope and power. He also restricted the energy to his basement where no one might be harmed, and that was at least partially the truth. He also didn't wish to be noticed, but he didn't have to make that admission.
He was prepared to meet human guards-perhaps even a group of inferns-when he opened the basement door and stepped into his living room. He found neither. Disbelief struck him first, and then anger. What he saw defied explanation, and as he looked out his front window, he realized that the invasion of his home was also occurring everywhere he could see.
"Get out of my house!" he shouted.
Nearly a dozen goblins appeared stunned by the forceful admonishment, but only for a moment. Their expressions of surprise quickly dissolved into masks of giddy belligerence. They sprang upon the mage, intending to take hold of him and throw him into the street.
Brenn reacted out of total instinct. His hands rose out of a reflexive need to hold off the goblins, and the words of the spell spilled from his lips without much conscious desire. A fireball that would have consumed a large shag burst from his open palms and incinerated the goblins.
Most of the tiny monsters simply turned to ash, but a few in the back managed to stay alive long enough to race about shrieking in agony. As the fire from their bodies quickly spread across the bottom floor of Brenn's house, the remaining goblins quickly collapsed into the flames.
Brenn ran across the floor, holding his arms across his face. He leapt through the broken remains of his front door and out onto the front porch. At first, he looked back at his house in dismay as the flames shot up to the second floor in an instant. He knew there would be nothing to save, but then he worried about the entire block. He was about to call out for help when he remembered the goblins had not just targeted his home.
Turning about, Brenn witnessed the horrors of the goblin uprising in full. He saw neighbors and friends dying in the streets, goblins looting corpses and destroying anything and everything within their reach. He found more than despair, he found fury, and just as the goblins had released their hostilities upon the humans, Brenn decided to let loose the magical abilities he kept guarded for so long.
He threw spell after spell at each goblin he saw. He singled them out from the people they attacked and used his fire with great skill to focus his anger on goblins alone. He never scorched another human, and other than his own home, never set another building to burn. Arrow flames shot from his fingers, and fireballs exploded from his palms.
The goblins nearby recognized the threat and turned their attention toward the fire mage with a rage of their own. They did not appreciate the interruption to their plans, and so they collapsed upon him from all sides.
Disregarding the staggering numbers that surrounded him, Brenn unleashed the full fury of his power. After burying his talents, he released them with a roar of flame. A ring of fire erupted from his midsection, incinerating goblins in every direction that dared stagger too close.
Many of the goblins realized the folly of their attack, but it was too late. The horde behind them pushed them forward and forced them into the flames of their death. As they kept flinging themselves at the mage in hopeless rage, the stench of burning goblin flesh rose high above the street.
"Enough!" a voice from deep behind the goblins shouted. "Make way!"