“Actually, we had to go over his head to Beragamos to get permission to be here for this battle,” Dashgar admitted.
Beragamos sighed, closing his eyes again for several moments as the tension around the table simmered and no one spoke. “As Lord Orcus has said, such issues are for another day. I assure you that all of this will be brought before Tiernon as soon as this war is over. Let us focus on winning one battle at a time,” he said upon opening his eyes.
Talarius stood observing the obscenely large army of the dead surrounding the Citadel. He was on a balcony down the hall from the Command Center. He shook his head; this was his first true view of the Citadel as a whole. It certainly lived up to its name. He had never seen, nor even imagined, a man-made fortress on this scale. It was quite daunting. As was the Unlife army arrayed around the mighty fortress.
It was very difficult to get an accurate count of the bewildering number of Unlife arrayed before him, both on the ground and in the sky. But if the keep had nearly a quarter of a million people holed up in the bowels of this fortress-city, then there had to be nearly the same number of Unlife on the field and in the air. These were mind-boggling numbers. How did one defeat an army that size? How did one raise an army of that size? How many necromancers did they have?
Talarius shook his head. He had feared that a battle in Nysegard would not be enough to take his mind off his internal turmoil. The ridiculously insane battle before them could actually work. It would, however, have been better if that infernal — hah! — archon of Tiernon, Beragamos Antidellas, had not essentially confirmed everything the demon and his god friends had told him.
Talarius felt his fury returning. His entire life had been predicated upon a lie! The sacred Church and Rod had committed atrocities beyond imagination. Hypocrisy was not a strong enough word for the self-delusion of his Church. Beragamos, while not admitting that Tiernon and Orcus were stepbrothers, admitted that they had worked together as allies. Even Orcus’s right-hand man — or D’Orc, Darg-Krallnom, knew Beragamos.
He had never been so grateful to be in his plate armor. Its rigidity had only barely been able to keep him upright during these revelations. He closed his eyes, breathing in the late-afternoon air, trying to clear his mind. How could the Church have committed these atrocities? Not only upon the worshipers of the Nyjyr Ennead, but upon the forces of their ally, Tiernon’s stepbrother? How could his god, Tiernon, ignore the perfidy of this Sentir Fallon?
Ruiden spoke in his mind. Humans, and apparently deities are often oblivious to their own sins.
Talarius chuckled. I don’t believe a human could be as blind as Tiernon, he replied.
Well, I hate to point it out, but you were walking around with a soul-sucking dagger. Pretty sure that was also against Church doctrine and policy.
Talarius’s eyes went wide. Ruiden was absolutely correct! I did not know at the time it was an Unlife dagger!
Nor, admittedly, did I, Ruiden said. I am actually surprised that I was never able to sense the Unlife in it. All I felt was Tiernon’s magic and aura.
So what I did, I did unknowingly, Talarius responded.
However, if you think back to the times you used it, there were, in retrospect, some signs, Ruiden said thoughtfully.
Talarius shut his eyes tightly, gritting his teeth to block out such thoughts, memories that perhaps should have given him pause, should have allowed him to see what was going on. But he had been blind to them; at the time he didn’t see the signs. Now, in hindsight, it should have been obvious. Even as he’d been blind to his own lack of honor in fighting Tom.
His lack of honor in dealing with Melissance! Oh, gods! How could I possibly have thought Melissance had chosen Unlife? Talarius suddenly realized in horror. She had insisted on her innocence, but for whatever reason — reasoning that now, today, seemed completely insane — he and his fellow knights had turned their back on her and her flock! He fell to his knees with a crash, resting his head on the backs of his hands as he grasped the stone balustrade of the balcony.
I was so blind. So stupid! How could I have been so unknowing? Talarius cried to Ruiden.
Perhaps Tiernon did what he did unknowingly? Ruiden suggested.Perhaps he suspected Sentir Fallon, someone he has to have known for thousands upon thousands of years, but could never prove it? Perhaps the same things that blinded you to your own failings blinded Tiernon to Sentir Fallon’s.
Talarius shook his head. He is a god! He is my god. I hold him to a higher standard — that’s one of the core reasons to worship a god! They are ideals, bastions of the perfect! They are not supposed to be fallible, not like mortals.
Well… Ruiden said. Talarius was certain by the mental tone of the sword that he was not going to like the rest of the sentence. You’ve now met three gods — Sekhmekt, Hephaestus and Orcus — as well as any number of avatars, including the D’Orcs. And then there is my father, who is immortal, if not a god. Do you believe any of these individuals is infallible?
Talarius chuckled mirthlessly. Hardly. They are no different than the mortals they seek to rule! They are not perfect, nor ideal. They are just older and more jaded, yet for all their age they make mistakes!
So why would you expect Tiernon, or any of the Siblings, to be any different? Ruiden asked.
Because Tiernon is my god! Talarius shouted angrily in his mind at his sword. I have put my absolute trust in him. His design brought Excrathadorus Mortis into my possession, a soul-eating blade! How many have died permanently at my hand because of this?
As I understand it, the blade was the doing of Sentir Fallon, not Tiernon, Ruiden argued. Perhaps you should be angry with him. Enough others seem to be.
“No. I need to start accepting responsibility for my own choices, my own actions,” Talarius said out loud to his sword. Fortunately, he was alone on the balcony. “Sentir Fallon may have created the blade, but I took it. Perhaps he or the blade blinded my sight, but it was my actions that damned Melissance to her fate. If we live through this, I must make atonement. I must find and rescue Melissance from the foul fiend that took her soul!”
Hilda breathed in the fresh air as she surveyed the dark host surrounding the walls of the mighty fortress. It felt like a fortress had been lifted from her shoulders. Both Beragamos and Dashgar had gone to the Isle of Doom with Orcus, as had the other attending archons. Once they were there, all of her links, her illumination streams, had been restored, rerouted through Beragamos. She could once more bask in the light of Tiernon.
She did not, however, envy Beragamos and the attending archons. They would have their proverbial hands full channeling everything through themselves. They would once more be able to hand off links to the avatars’ HALOs; however, all of those links would have to run through them, both uplinks and downlinks. They would have the assistance of their HALOs, but they themselves had to linked to the avatars in the Citadel. Their HALOs could not handle that due to the interdiction.