Chapter 15

 

      They were off exactly two hours before sunrise, and they were both absolutely silent.  There was nothing more that needed to be said, though he knew that some things would have to be commanded later.  He had faith that Jesmind would do exactly as she was told without question, mainly because she understood the danger involved in what they were doing.  Their getting their daughter back demanded things to happen in a very specific manner, and also required exceptional timing on their part.  Val probably knew the plan by now, and he would understand why it was so important as well.  He would do his best to interfere with the timing of that plan, but he also could not interfere with one vital fact.  The fact that Tarrin had to be there with the Firestaff before the conjunction ended.  He had considered several possibilities in his mind, but that ultimate deadline meant that Val was more or less forced to accept the timing and pace that Tarrin dictated.

      What Val wanted was more important to him than Jasana was to Tarrin.  That didn't mean that he wouldn't do anything to recover his daughter, but Val had worked and labored and planned for five thousand years to reach this moment, and his desperation to free himself would override Tarrin's desire to regain his daughter.  Tarrin understood this, Val understood this, and that gave Tarrin a powerful advantage.  So the game would be played by Tarrin's rules, if only because he held the one piece on the chessboard that Val could not counter.

      They walked through the cold, starlit night resolutely, without conversation.  It would all be over today.  Months of worry and planning were focused down to this one day, a day that the gods themselves would be here to witness.  It was the day that Tarrin finally confronted Val and recovered his daughter.  It was a day fraught with peril, possibly the day that marked the beginning of the end of the world, but it was a day that totally and completely belonged to Tarrin.  He knew the dreadful importance of what was happening.  He understood the risk involved in bringing the Firestaff to Val, but to him, they were acceptable risks.  Nearly any risk was acceptable if it helped him recover Jasana unharmed.

      The appearance of Domammon, the White Moon, on the southeastern horizon was like a cold rock sitting in his belly.  It had begun.  Vala would rise but moments after Domammon, and the Twin Moons, Duva and Kava, would rise exactly nine minutes after Vala.  Domammon in the southeast, Vala in the northeast, and the Twin Moons dead east.  They would rise and approach one another, and then they would join to form the conjunction in exactly four hours and six minutes.  Tarrin took out the pocketwatch and studied it for a long moment, seeing that he was right on time so far.

      They moved on, step after step on top of the snow, the padded feet making no sound.  There was only the sound of the gentle wind and the sound of their own breathng, and the pounding of Tarrin's heart.

      Two hours passed like that, with Tarrin's every thought locked onto the perils the day would present, until the sky began to lighten as the sun approached the horizon, and the edges of Val's countless army became visible in the brightening light.  The edge of Val's void, which was also the boundary of the warmth that kept the arctic chill at bay, rose up before them, and the movements of the army seemed a shimmering of the darkness at the edge of his vision, as thousands of Goblinoids, humans, and other fell creatures moved around.  As they got closer and closer, he saw that they were not camped.  They were formed up in lines, formation after formation after formation, readied for any attack in a ring that had formations stationed at regular intervals around the perimiter, with the bulk of the force kept well back and in reserve.  Tarrin understood the strategy of it.  Those fringe units would serve to slow down the attack of the suddenly appearing enemy, giving the reserve forces time to rush to the site of assault and repel the invasion.  Tarrin wondered grimly if the beings in those edge units understood that their lives were being thrown away.  If they were the ones who were attacked, they would not make it long enough for the reserves to reach them.  They were there to die, and in that dying slow down the press of the attackers to give the reserves enough time to reach them, reserves set at a distance that would allow them to respond to nearly any place in their circle of protection.  It was a smart strategy, if one was willing to throw away a few thousand men, and Tarrin could appreciate the mind that had devised it.  Faced with a circle that ringed the pyramid some twenty longspans away from it, unable to defend it all, the commander of the enemy was willing to give a little ground in exchange for being able to defend the internal territory from nearly any direction.

      "What do we do?" Jesmind asked as she began to scan the enemy forces ahead.

      "Walk right through them," he answered distantly.  "If I'm right, they won't even try to stop us."

      "And what if you're wrong?"

      "Then we walk right through them anyway," he said grimly as he cancelled the Illusion concealing him.  He wouldn't need it anymore.

      Jesmind gave him a long, hard stare, then she too dropped the Illusion and stalked forward with a deadly expression on her face, the expression of a woman prepared to kill a million men if they decided to stand in her way.

      Tarrin gauged distances, and realized he was right where he wanted to be.  They'd reach the edge by sunrise, and then they would run to the pyramid.  He had no intention of walking while surrounded by enemy forces.  There was too much chance for mischief.  So he would minimize his exposure to them.

      As if moving by the clock he carried inside his vest, they reached the border of snow and grass just as the upper rim of the sun appeared in the southeastern horizon.  They found themselves facing a large formation of humans, mercenaries, dressed in mismatched armor and carrying assorted weapons, being commanded by a black-armored Cambisi, one of the male half-breeds, which Phandebrass sometimes referred to as Cambions.  Tarrin and Jesmind stopped right at the edge of the snow, as many of the humans looked down and realized that their feet did not sink down into it, both Were-cats looking grimly at the host arrayed before them, looks totally devoid of fear.  That put the humans back slightly, but the Cambisi only sneered at them in an evil way and then barked a single command to his troops.   They separated their formation, splitting in two and forming a wide alley down their center, clearing the way for them.

      Without a word, Tarrin stepped into the area of Val's protection, and felt both the heat and the animosity in it.  He felt the Weave pull away from him as he moved into the void, felt the strange restriction placed over him, a restriction he knew he could circumvent whenever it was necessary.  He levelled a flat look at the half-breed Demon, a look that made the red-eyed, blue-skinned creature flinch and reach reflexively for his sword.  The amulet around his neck grew heavy for a moment, and then it seemed to get hot, as Tarrin realized that Val had reached into his own void and adjusted it so Tarrin's amulet would function within the bounds of his anti-magical field.  He felt Val's fingers reach out towards him, touch the amulet, and in that touch he knew what the amulet was carrying within its elsewhere.  Val knew that Tarrin had brought the Firestaff.

      That was all the proof he needed.  Val was inviting him in.

      He was making the biggest mistake of his life.

      Nudging Jesmind, Tarrin moved forward, ears back, eyes flat, keeping an eye on the men surrounding them, men who looked at them with honest fear.  Jesmind did the same, and they slowly crossed the ground within the formation's area, eyes shifting to keep an eye on all the men and their Demonic commander.  Once they were through, they broke into a run, moving towards the distant massed armies, set up to respond to any attack.

      Quickly yet carefully, they travelled the twenty longspans.  They ran up to each mass of troops, layer after layer after layer of them, then paused as a Demon more hideous and power than the last, commanding each layer of defense, caused his armies to part and allowed the pair to pass without hindrance.  The stops served to slow them down, and Tarrin watched the sun in the sky carefully to gauge their time.  They were on pace to reach the pyramid more or less when he wanted to do so, so he was content to continue on as they were.  The idea of being surrounded by enemies did not sit well with him, though, and stirrings of unease and worry finally managed to seep in through the grim determination he had in place, deadening his emotions.  Jesmind too seemed upset by the continuous moves through soldiers whose avenues they allowed through their ranks seemed to be getting narrower and narrower.  The Goblinoids they passed growled and howled and banged their shields as they passed, taunting them, but those brave taunts stopped and the Goblinoids jumped back in fear when Tarrin or Jesmind hissed threateningly at them, laying back their ears and challenging them.  Goblinoids feared Were-kin, feared them more than any other creature, and even the threat that these two highly volatile, very dangerous Were-kin may strike at them was all the motivation they needed to give them a very wide berth.

      With a little creative pacing by Tarrin, slowing them down or speeding them up between encounters with enemy troops, he managed to get them close when they needed to be there.  After an hour and a half, the black stone of the ancient pyramid of Gora Umadar appeared on the northeast horizon.  It was a huge, titanic monstrosity, as big as a mountain itself, built of ominous black stone that even from that distance seemed foreboding and evil.  The sight of it filled Tarrin with momentary dread, but that was consumed by his driving need to rescue his daughter.  A god was in that pyramid, a god that wanted to kill him, but that didn't matter.  Nothing mattered other than his need to get Jasana back.  He would face all the gods, all at once, if that was what it took for him to rescue his cherished daughter.

      The sight of the black pyramid made Jesmind stop, putting a paw to her heart and with a stricken look on her face.  The pressure of what they were doing was getting to his mate.  He reached out and put a paw on her shoulder, his look both neutral and reassuring at the same time, conveying to her his absolute determination.  That bolstered her, and she nodded to him, her nervous expression melting away into a mask of stone much like the one that always rested on the face of their mother.

      Gora Umadar loomed larger and larger before them as they moved towards it, still unescorted, but with thousands of eyes locked on their every move, both within the pyramid and without.  Tarrin slowed to a stately walk, nearly a swagger that announced to everyone that he was there on his own terms, a pride that his position would not take away.  He was coming to bargain for his daughter, but his attitude clearly showed that he felt he would be bargaining from the higher chair.  Jesmind matched his pace if not his confidence, her slashing tail betraying her anxiety and worry over what was going on.  But Tarrin was calm, almost serene now.  He knew what had to be done, and there was no reason to even think about it.  Everything was going to work out alright.  He believed it in his heart, he was absolutely sure of it, and that belief gave him confidence.

      As they approached, Tarrin saw that there was a debris field on the west side of the pyramid.  There was a huge, gaping hole near the top of the ancient construction, the black rubble the stone that had been torn free from the inside.  Tarrin looked in that direction, and he realized that the hole was facing the position where the conjunction would occur.  Val had blown out a window of sorts to let him see the daytime sky, to let him see it when the four moons aligned.

      That would serve both of them.

      They reached the base of the pyramid, towering over them, right on time, barely more than twenty minutes before the fateful moment of the conjunction.  The channel through the army of Goblinoids ended in a wide passage into the bowels of the black stone building, a wide passageway with heavy arch at its entrance, with ancient runes and glyphs carved into the stone face.  In that arch, her coils shifting restlessly, was none other than the very six-armed Demoness that had cut Eron's throat, the Demoness who had been responsible for Jasana's abduction.  The expression on her face was eager, and the look in her eyes said that she felt that they had already won.  Four of her arms were crossed before her bare breasts, and the third set of arms were resting on hips that slid down into the scales of her snake body  Jegojah's deadly sword rested in a scabbard slung jauntily off one of those scaly hips by a narrow sword belt, her only garment, within easy reach of her hand.  She wore rings on her fingers and a medallion of a very large oval ruby in a gold vine and ivy setting around her neck, a pair of simple diamond stone earrings dnagling from gold studs in her ears, and she also wore a slender silver tiara crusted with small diamonds on her head that held her black hair back from her face, all jewelry of great value and riches, a king's ransom.

      My Master awaits you, her voice touched inside his mind.  He knows of your intent, Were-cat, she taunted him.  He knows of all your elaborate plans, but you know as well as I that they mean nothing.  As you saw, we are ready for your army, and your careful preparations were nothing but chaff drifting in the wind.  My Master is all-powerful, Were-cat.  That is why I serve him faithfully.

      "There's no accounting for taste," Tarrin growled.

      The Demoness' eyes flashed slightly in anger, but she continued.  Your daughter for the Firestaff.  That was the offered deal, and it will be honored.  My Master agreed to those terms in good faith, and he will fulfill his side of the bargain.  The look she gave him was absolutely predatory.  He had no illusions that that agreement would be terminated the instant Val felt he had the upper hand.

      "I'll make sure I kill you first," Tarrin hissed at her, images of her cutting his son's throat burning in his mind.

      I'm sure you will, she agreed mildly, though she had an evil smile on her face.  And I'm sure you'll let me tell you that my Master has generously given you to me.  Your soul will be mine, Were-cat, as it was always meant to be.  Now that we've gotten the reciprocating ugly threats out of the way, you will follow me.

      "What did she say?" Jesmind whispered, forgetting that she could communicate with him in an utterly silent manner.  But the Demoness was just that, a Demoness, and he knew that she understood all languages.  Even unspoken ones.  It was an aspect of her telepathic abilities.  Shiika had told him about that, so in a way, Jesmind hadn't really blundered.  Nothing she would say could be withheld from the Demoness.

      "She taunted me, I taunted her, then we threatened each other.  Now she's taking us to Val."

      "Oh," she said, her eyes baffled, but she let it pass.

      Tarrin reigned in his anger as he followed the scaly Demoness, who slithered along ahead of them, totally unafraid of exposing her bare back to them.  Tarrin looked at the passage carefully, and to his relief, he saw that Jesmind was studying it with absolute intensity.  It was nearly twenty spans wide, and the sides of the grand gallery were lined with thick, smooth, black stone pillars, ten spans thick each, that soared a hundred spans over their head to join to the ceiling.  The air was cool and dank, and there were smells of ancient decay drifting in that air that did little to mask the unnatural stench of the Demon's scent as they followed her.  Many Demons had travelled that passageway, as well as many humans, Goblinoids, and other foul-smelling things the likes of which Tarrin could not even imagine.  The light in the passage seemed to come out of the ceiling, but there was no visible sign of it.  The only reason he believed so was because the area behind the pillars was cast into dark shadow, and from that shadow he could sense lurking creatures that defied his imagination, things never before seen in his world.  Things he did not want to see, things even more horrific than the Demons.  The place exuded an ancient evil, but the sense of Val and the evil of the creatures that served him made it even worse, gave the place a heavily oppressive feel, a feel that they were nothing but prey to those who lurked and looked onto them.

      "This place is creepy," Jesmind whispered to him, her tail shivering.

      "It fits with what I expected from Val," he told her in a grim voice, a voice empty of emotion.

      The Demoness looked at them over her shoulder, her knowing smile annoying the Were-cat to no end.

      Tarrin amused himself with fantasies of how he was going to get that Demoness as they moved on, a pleasant distraction that also kept him from thinking about what he intended to do.  That had to be a surprise, or Jesmind wasn't going to get away with Jasana.

      The passageway penetrated into the deepest heart of the black stone pyramid, and every step they took was another second ticking off the clock that ruled them all.  The conjunction was very close now, very very  close now, so close that the luring song of the Firestaff was actually starting to reach into the real world, teasing him and tempting him with its promise of eternal life and absolute power.  The power of the artifact was growing with each second, keyed to the alignment of the moons on this most important of all days, and as those moons moved closer and closer to that moment, the power of the Firestaff had begun to swell in preparation for its opportunity to find release.  Tarrin ignored its temptations and its promises, for there was something before him even more important to him than the allure of power.  The passage seemed endless, eternal, and its singular sameness caused Tarrin to lose track of time, to forget where he was in his count.  That only worried him a moment, because he knew that Val had that opening to look upon the moons, and that would be all the clock he'd need.  He was intimately familiar with how the moons moved and how fast each one went, so a single glance would tell him everything he needed to know.  Val knew his plan, but he could not escape the ultimate finality of the conjunction, which was the deadline by which everyone based their plans.  Tarrin, Val, the gods, Jenna, everyone.  That end of all ends played into Tarrin's hands much more than Val's.

      After an interminable amount of time, Tarrin saw that the passage finally opened ahead of them.  The Demon slithered forward just a little faster when the end of the passage came into view, and after a moment they reached it.  It opened into a chamber so vast that all of Aldreth could have fit inside it.  The mountain-sized pyramid was hollow at its core, only with a shell of intimidating thickness enclosing this cavernous opening within, so large that Sapphire and her entire brood could easily fit within it.  The journey from the edge of that chamber to the middle would still take several moments, so far away it was.  Tarrin could see the huge hole in the western wall of the chamber, high above, and it shone light down on a large dais, a pedestal nearly a hundred spans off the floor in the very center of the chamber, but from the distance he was at he could easily see everything atop it except those things on the far edge.  Upon that raised dais in the center of this vast chamber rested a strange statue of ink-black stone, as well as several figures that he could see near the edge.  One of them was considerably shorter than the others, flanked by a pair of unnaturally tall, misshapen forms that had to be Demons.

      Jasana.

      Come.  The moment draws nigh, the voice of the Demoness touched him.  It is time to face your Master.

      Eyes narrowing, fists clenching, Tarrin drew in all his strength, drew in all his resolve.  This was it.  Now he would see how well he could play the game against a god.

      It was the longest and shortest walk of his life.  Tarrin felt every footstep creep by, but they were to the dais before he realized what had happened.  He could feel Val's presence, an overwhelming, suffocating weight that bore down on him, the might of a god, an aura that was absolutely unmistakable.  It had the same sense of power that the Goddess' presence did, and where the presence of the Goddess uplifted him, the presence of Val sought to oppress him.  The Goddess accepted him with love, but Val endured his presence with abject hatred, and he could sense it all around him.  But he was not afraid.  Val could not touch him, could not harm his daughter or mate, so long as he played the game correctly.  The Demoness started slithering up the stairs leading to the top of the dais, and Tarrin mounted the stairs with Jesmind following him closely behind, almost brushing against his back, feeling what he felt but unable to shrug it off as he could.  Tarrin's eyes fixed on the rattle-tipped tail of the Demoness' snaky lower body, giving him a visible reference point to organize himself, to push the fear away, to ready himself for what was coming.  He took in a deep, cleansing breath, and exhaled out all his doubt and fear, leaving behind nothing but a knowledge that when the time came, he would know what to do without even having to think about it.  And that was his greatest advantage.  Val could put his hand all the way in Tarrin's mind, and find nothing.  He would find nothing in Jesmind's mind either, only reinforcement that the plan that had been made was the plan.  When in fact, it was nothing but a diversion around which Val could prepare.

      The Demoness reached the top, and seconds later Tarrin set foot at the top of the platform.  He looked around, but all else was forgotten when his eyes locked on his daughter.  Two boar-headed nalfeshnee stood on either side of his daughter, who looked unharmed, but was still wearing the same clothes that she had on when she was taken.  They were badly torn and absolutely filthy, and her hair and fur were similarly stained, but there was little defeat in his daughter's fierce green eyes.  She glowered at the Demons, stared defiantly at them, glared at the others on the dais, but when her eyes met his, there was nothing but boundless joy and relief.  She made a move to run to them, but Tarrin put out a quick paw, and she nodded and bowed her head slightly, folding her little paws before her.  She would wait.  He was there now, and her father would make everything alright.

      Tarrin tore his eyes away from his daughter and looked around.  There were ten figures on the platform aside from him and Jesmind and Jasana, and seven of them were Demons.  The two nalfeshnee and the marilith, as well as a single Cambisi, a four-armed glabrezu, and a hideous creature that looked like a gigantic fly with a hideous, vaguely human-like head.  The seventh was a creature that towered over all the others, with a vaguely ape-like body and a canine maw, with burning red eyes.  It was huge, with membranous, bat-like wings that had many tears and holes in them, and an aura of fire and heat seemed to shimmer around it.  Tarrin recognized this creature as the mightiest of the Demons, a vicious, powerful brute known as a balor.  These were the direct servants of the Demon Lords, the unique beings that held absolute power over their infernal realms in another dimension of reality.  Phandebrass said they were quite smart and incredibly powerful, almost as powerful as a minor godling, but they lacked the refined cunning and cleverness of the marilith.  The three humans on the dais looked extremely uncomfortable, and it was apparent that one of them was a slave of some kind.  She was a quite pretty woman with dark hair and lustrous dark eyes, stripped naked, with a collar around her neck that had a chain attached to it, a chain whose end laid negligently on the floor, unattended, but that did not bolster the woman into jumping up and fleeing.  She knew that it would be pointless.  She knelt by the statue with her eyes on the floor, a look of utter defeated misery on her face, trembling in fear.  The other two humans were gray-haired men wearing simple black robes, standing behind and to each side of the black stone statue with their hands in their sleeves, simply waiting to serve.

      Tarrin's eyes fixed on that statue.  That was the icon of Val, and within it, all of his power had been imprisoned by Spyder five thousand years ago.  It looked remarkably nondescript, much like the icon of the Goddess didn't seem to be what it actually was.  It shared her icon's detail in appearance, the individual hairs on the statue's head visible, but this statue wore a robe, where the icon of the Goddess was unclad.  Tarrin realized that that had to have been how Val appeared in life before using the Firestaff to become a god.

      The marilith slithered up to the statue and bowed deeply to it.  My Master, as I promised, so I deliver, he heard her mental voice address the icon.  The Were-cat.  He brings the staff.

      I am pleased with you, Shaz'baket, the voice of Val emanated from that statue, a voice that chilled Tarin's soul.  As is promised, Lyselle is yours.

      The woman kneeling on the floor moaned in pitiful despair, her head dropping to the stone as she curled over herself.

      The marilith slithered aside and took a place to the immediate left hand of the statue, reaching down and grabbing the chain.  She jerked it sharply, literally dragging the woman to her by the neck, and the woman made no attempt to resist.  She settled into a submissive kneel at the Demon's scaly side, her head lowering and her hands resting on her knees.  The Demoness' green scaled snake body coiled around the human, but did not crush her, as if to establish her ownership of the woman.

      As I wanted, so it is, the voice of Val reached out and struck at Tarrin like a thousand hammers, the full power of the god lashing out with that communication.  I wanted to look into your eyes as you die, mortal.  And be assured, you will die today.  Who dies with you is the only matter subject to negotiation.

      Tarrin looked up towards the hole in the sky, and saw that Vala had already started passing in front of Domammon.  The Twin Moons, Duva and Kava, were but moments from touching the edge of Domammon's white disk, Duva completely concealed behind Kava, already lined up with one another.  That one glance told him exactly how much time he had, and it wasn't very much.  The conjunction would occur in mere moments.  As soon as the borders of the four moons mingled, even without them being perfectly lined up, the conjunction would be upon them.  The instant Duva and Kava passed their edge in front of Vala's edge, the conjunction would be upon them, and it would remain so until the Twin Moons' edge passed clear of Vala's opposite side.  A span of twenty minutes.

      Bringing himself up to his full height as Jesmind's eyes stayed locked on their daughter, on the far side of the statue and with two Demons guarding her, Tarrin looked at the icon of Val with cold, dead eyes.  "You already know the bargain," he announced aloud.  "Release my daughter, and do not interfere with her or her mother as they leave this place.  When they are free of here, and only when they are free of here, I will give you what you want.  Double-cross me, and I'll make sure you spend eternity trapped in your prison, godling."  He put a paw around his amulet and reached within, deep within, through the Cat and into the boundless power of the All.  He caused the All to reach into the Weave, and the Weave somewhat startlingly responded to that summons, boiling out through the All and filling him with its power.  Magelight appeared around his paw, around the paw holding the amulet, a clear indication that he was ready to carry out his threat the instant he felt that he was being betrayed.  "It is a simple bargain.  Accept or decline as you wish, but know that I'll carry out my threat the instant you backstab me."

      Then the lives of you and your mate and daughter are forfeit, and their souls will belong to this one, Val responded, and the balor stepped forward.

      "I'll go knowing that I forever denied you the one thing you desire more than anything else in the world," Tarrin hissed in response.  "That will be sweet satisfaction no matter what torture you lay over me."

      And you would condemn your mate and daughter to similar torment?

      "If we're going to die, we may as well spit in your eyes on the way down," Jesmind hissed at the god vituperiously, surprising Tarrin with the raw emotion in her voice.

      "Face it, weakened god," Tarrin hissed.  "There is no way you're going to get all three of us and the Firestaff as well.  I offered you a bargain.  The Firestaff for the release of my daughter and mate.  That choice is yours, but remember that you have a deadline," he said, pointing to the hole in the ceiling meaningfully.

      And I think you fail to understand that you deal with a god, mortal, the voice emanating from the icon hissed, and Tarrin felt an explosive release of power.

      Jesmind stepped back in shock and fear as darkness surrounded the statue of Val, living darkness, enshrouding it like a blanket of inky blackness that boiled like an angry stormcloud.  The veil of darkness, the cloud of black swelled and expanded, lifting off the floor, took form a  vague shifting shadow of darkness that seemed to suck in all light and heat, leaving the place cold and empty.  Jesmind gaped at the shadowed visage before them, just as the marilith Shaz'baket stared up at it with something approaching adulation.  That dark form, the true form of the god Val, his icon caught up within his form, looked down at Tarrin and Jesmind with hollow, dim white eyes, the features the same as the features of the icon, but now cast in shades and dimensions of solid shadow, of living darkness.  The oppressive power of Val became almost unbearable as the god released his power into the room, establishing his godly presence.  He felt that power crush down on him like an attack, using his divine power to smite at the will of the Were-cat, seeking to smother his desires and intent under a hooded mask of control, seeking to subdue his will and make him a puppet of the god.

      Tarrin's mind reacted instantaneously and savagely to that attempt.  He reached as deeply into the All as he could, bringing forth all the magic of the Weave he could muster.  He formed a shield of raw power with it, again working with the the raw, elemental state of energy, beyond Spheres, beyond order, magic at its most primal form.  Again, just as before, he felt the Goddess rear up behind that power, the might of her hand reaching between him and the power of Val, and turning it aside.  Jesmind clung to his back, seeking his protection, her claws digging into him, whimpering slightly as the effect of Val's attack was swept out of her mind by the protection of the Goddess.  He struck again, and then again, but each time he was foiled by the power behind him.  He turned his attentions to Jasana, gathering himself up to crush the child, but then he stopped before unleashing that attack, understanding that it would be the one thing he could not do, the one thing that would make Tarrin carry out his threat and forever deny to him that which he most desired.

      "And I think you forget that I am not alone!" Tarrin shouted hotly in the face of that living darkness.  "You are nothing compared to the might of my Goddess!  Face it, Val!  You can't have everything, so choose what it is you want!  You can have the Firestaff, or you can have us and never get the Firestaff!" he raged, putting a paw over his amulet threateningly.  "Which do you want more?"

      Val howled in fury, a sound that chilled Tarrin's soul, a sound of the purest form of anger and hatred.  He felt the god's terrible power gather itself, but Tarrin plunged his awareness down into the weaves of his amulet, setting his will like a knife against them in such a way that if his concentration was disrupted, the loss of his power would destroy the weaves of the amulet and destroy everything held within the elsewhere it created.  "Now then," Tarrin hissed.  "This is what is going to happen.  Jesmind is going to go get my daughter, and they are going to leave.  Nobody will get in their way.  They will march out of here, and when they are safely away from here, I'll give you what you want.  But not a second before that!" he shouted.

      He felt Val's awareness probe into the amulet, and it seemed startled that Tarrin could so completely intertwine his power into the staggeringly complex weave of the amulet in the way that he had.  Unless he very carefully withdrew his power from the amulet, he would destroy its power.  "If you make one more attempt to attack us or stop us, I'll cut the weaves!  I swear I will!"

      And then your lives and souls are mine to vent my fury upon for all eternity! Val retorted in a grim manner, the living shadow making up his form shifting in anger and anxiety.

      "I can live with that," he replied in a voice so cold, so ruthless, so utterly devoid of emotion that even Val was taken aback.  "They chose me because I can make the decisions that must be made," he said in a dead voice.  "It's not the first time I've had to choose like this, and by the Goddess, it will be the last.  So test my resolve, you worthless bastard," he spat.  "Try me.  Push me and see how far I will go, how far I'll go to deny you what you want, no matter what it costs me.  You should know, you had a hand in making me what I am today," he hissed spitefully.  "So if you don't think I'll do it, you just go right ahead and try attacking one of us again.  I dare you."

      It hung there for a long, utterly silent moment, a moment absolutely charged with energy.  Tarrin glared up into the shifting shadows of Val's form, and the god stared down at the Were-cat with utter hatred on his face, but also a very sincere concern.  The Demons, Jesmind, and Jasana stared at the two of them in mute shock, but Jasana had a resolute expression on her face, clenching her little paws repeatedly.  The three humans, overwhelmed by the power of what was taking place before them, look dumbfounded and totally confused.

      And as Val considered, as he debated, as he decided if Tarrin really had the nerve to do it, the seconds kept ticking away, the moons came closer and closer together.

      There was a moment of dreadful fury that emanated from that shadowy form, then it pulled back slightly from the ground.  Then so be it, Val said in a furious manner.  The two females are free to go.

      Tarrin glared viciously up at the shadowy form, showing absolutely no fear.  "Jesmind," he said in a careful voice.  "Go."

      Shaking off her shock, Jesmind patted his back and quickly rushed across the platform, avoiding going directly under the hovering shadow-form of Val, as Jasana suddenly rushed away from the two Demons flanking her.  They did nothing to prevent her.  Jesmind knelt and held out her arms, and Jasana jumped up into her embrace, hugging her tightly, tears flowing down her cheeks as Jesmind crushed her in a powerful embrace.

      Tarrin didn't look at them too long.  Seeing them like that could be his undoing.  He kept his eyes on the dark form of Val, his eyes narrowed and his ears back, his long tail almost straight out behind him as he kept his paw and his power on the amulet around his neck, threatening to destroy it the instant Val showed signs of betraying the deal.

      "On my back, cub," Jesmind said in a tight voice, and Jasana settled herself on Jesmind's back, her little arms wrapped around her mother's neck.  Jesmind stood up and gave Tarrin a long searching look, but Tarrin only gave her a barely perceptible nod.  Jesmind turned and rushed back across the platform, then passed by Tarrin.  She looked deeply into his eyes, but there was nothing in his gaze that gave her hope that he would be right behind her.  He looked deeply into her eyes, looked at her beautiful face, taking in the sight of her, memorizing her every line, her every curve, branding her into his memory, giving him something that could never be taken away from him.

      Her eyes brimmed over with tears, and then she turned away from him and started towards the stairs.

      In that moment, one of the programmed things clicked in his mind.  He had to tell the Goddess something.  Mother, he called silently in his mind.  Summon the army.

      It's too soon, kitten! she replied urgently.

      It's the perfect time, he answered.

      He felt her invade his mind once again, but this time she searched much more deeply than she did the time before.  This time, she found what he was hiding, and her touching of it caused her to shrink back from in shock.  Oh, kitten! she wailed in his mind.  NO!

      Do it, and protect Jesmind and Jasana, he said, then he pulled away from her.  He looked up at the moons.  The time was but a moment away.  As he'd hoped, the bantering and useless posturing and threats and counter-threats had eaten up what little time there was left, time to do nothing but stand around and wait.

      Now came the gamble.

      Withdrawing his power from the amulet carefully so as not to damage it, he reached out his right paw and summoned forth the Firestaff.  The lull of the artifact became a loud roar in his mind as soon as his fingers closed over the strange stone-like material of its length, and Val's shifting form suddenly expanded when he saw the object he had desired for so long within his reach.  The black stone of the Firestaff was actually glowing now, radiating a powerful reddish aura that illuminated the boiling black clouds within Val's shifting shadow form.  The Demons all seemed to lean forward when Tarrin brought the Firestaff forth, reaching out for the power that they all yearned to possess for themselves.

      "Here it is, Val," he said in a grim tone, standing fully erect with the glowing staff held lightly in his paws, reaching within and summoning up the power of Sorcery through his Druidic magic, causing the paws holding that glowing staff to begin to glow with soft blue light.  "If you want it...then try to take it."

      There was nothing Tarrin could have said or done that could have enraged the bound god more than that. With an infuriated howl, Val struck at the Were-cat with enraged fervor, a blasting wave of power that Tarrin had never before conceived possible.  The Were-cat stood defiantly in the face of that power, Firestaff held before him as he summoned up every iota of power at his command.  Sorcery, Druidic magic, the Wizard energy within the Weave, the raw, unaltered energy that was the base of all magic, and his powerful faith in his Goddess.  He did nothing with them more than use them as a shield against the might of an enraged god, defending instead of attacking.  Val's full might crashed down on the Were-cat as a wave of unfathomable blackness, and Tarrin's knees buckled under the assault.  The magic within him, around him, before him, actually withstood that initial crash of collisions.  Intense pain roared through him as he fought against a tidal wave of power against which he could not stand for long, felt it blasting into his defenses, seeking any weakness through which it could pour and strike at the vulnerable mortal hiding behind that power.

      This was the gamble.  This was the moment of truth, when the Goddess was engaged with transporting the army and could not help him.  He didn't have to hold out forever, just long enough for the Goddess to complete her task and rejoin her power to his and protect them.   He had infuriated the god to such a degree that Tarrin was the only thing he could see, the ony thing that mattered, and all that existed in that terrible moment was destroying the defiant Were-cat and claiming the prize that Tarrin had dangled so tauntingly in his face.

      Pain lashed through him as he pushed himself to his limits and beyond, but he would not yield.  His heart pounded in his chest, threatening to burst, as the incredible strain of trying to hold back a virtual avalanche with his bare paws crushed down on him, as the raw power of the might of a god was completely focused on him, but he would not yield.  With a scream of absolute defiance, Tarrin rose up to his full height in the face of that powerful attack, raised the Firestaff, and held it over his head with both paws, refusing to be destroyed, somehow managing to deflect aside the power of a god.  The stone around his feet began to melt, the air shimmered as the darkness poured down on him with enough force to shatter a mountain, but he would not yield.  Everything that he was, everything he cared about, everything that mattered to him was behind him, the desperate need to protect his daughter giving him a strength and power that surpassed even his own physical limits, allowing him to draw on reserves of strength and magical power he never dreamed possible.  The Weave answered the call of a desperate sui'kun, surrendering up to him all the power he desired, as he acted within the blessings of his Goddess, giving him all the power he needed to defend himself against assault.  The All, attracted by the Were-cat's need, also gave to him freely, causing the very land itself to give to Tarrin its energy so that he could erect a defense suitable to protect himself from the god of darkness.  Even the Firestaff itself, so close to the moment its power would reach its peak, seemed to aid the Were-cat in his defense, joining its power to his own and reinforcing the defensive wall of power around which the Were-cat had surrounded himself, a wall that shuddered and buckled and was distorted by the power of Val's assault, but would not break, would not open, would not lower and leave the one it protected vulnerable.  The power of the Weave and the All were not the power of a god, but together, with the power of Tarrin's faith and desperate need and the power of the Firestaff, they combined to give the Were-cat a magical defense so potent that it could withstand the furious assault the evil god rained down upon him.

      Val redoubled his efforts to crush the mortal and take the prize, but Tarrin responded in equal measure, the Weave and the All responded in equal measure, even the Firestaff responded in equal measure to grant to Tarrin the power he needed to protect himself.  His vision blurring and his heart about to tear itself from his chest as sharp cramping pains of exhaustion quickly blasted through him, as the pain of exerting more magical force than any mortal had ever before expended took its dreadful toll on his body and mind, Tarrin stood against that unimaginable assault, stood as solid as stone, still screaming in defiant fury as he reached into the very core of himself for absolutely any iota of untapped reserve.  The Were-cat, commanding the power of the Sorcerer, Druid, Wizard, and Priest, combined all of his power into a single cohesive effort that formed a whole greater than the sum of its parts.  As if the four orders had Circled with one another, giving Tarrin a magic the likes of which the world had never seen before, a desperate defense erected out of pure instinct, and all of it for no reason more simple or pure as that of a parent defending his child.

      Val stopped.  Tarrin nearly fell to one knee, panting heavily, his eyes unfocused and a dazed expression on his face, but he had not yielded.

      Val seemed just as shocked that Tarrin was still standing as Tarrin was that he had managed to last so long.  His mind swam for what seemed an eternity as both the effort of defending himself and the pain of being in the path of the avalanche of Val's power rippled through him, as little flecks of darkness and light swirled around him, as arcs of electricity danced around the invisible shield of force Tarrin had erected in defense against the dark god, as the very air around the platform seemed to become alive in the aftereffects of such a release of magical energy, charged with such magical energy that Val had to struggle to reassert the void he had erected in the area.

      You are powerful, mortal, but a mortal is all you are, Val's voice said, no longer angry, no longer furious, and strangely respectful.  My power is endless, and yours has reached its end, but you did stand firm against my might, for however fleeting the moment.  For that, I find, I must salute you.  But now, it is over.  I have won.  I have won!

      Tarrin could not deny that.  Breathing heavily, his arms sagging, his tail drooping behind him, he knew that he had no more.  But he knew with certain grim pride that if only for a moment, he had stood against the might and power of a god himself, and he did not yield.

      He only dimly heard the screaming of Jasana and Jesmind as the god Val gathered himself to strike at Tarrin with his full, utter, and complete power, a blow Tarrin would not be able to turn aside, a blow that he would not have been able to turn aside even had he not been exhausted, a blow that would finish him and convey to the dark god the prize he had so coveted for thousands of years.

      Maybe...maybe this time, luck had failed him.  But he had just enough for one more act.  He reached within, through the Cat, seeking to touch the All, preparing to cast one final spell, a spell that would kill him, a spell that would keep the Firestaff out of Val's hands until well after the conjunction was over--

      The conjunction!

      Tarrin looked up, past Val, past his dark form, and to the hole high in the ceiling of the vast chamber.  Vala was now completely within the white edges of  Domammon, and the Twin Moons were but a hair's breadth from touching the edge of Vala's reddish circumference.

      Tarrin smiled evilly, feeling some tiny energy surge through his exhausted frame, feeling some measure of satisfaction.  It had worked.  He had reached Val, had gotten him angry, had goaded him into an attack, and he had somehow managed to survive through it.  And as that all happened, time kept ticking away, the second hand on the little gold watch in his pocket continued to advance.  Tarrin had arrived there mere moments before the event, and as he had hoped, Val had lost track of time in his fury, a fury intentionally goaded into him by the Were-cat.  For the first time, Tarrin had turned someone else's anger against himself, rather than have his own rage turned against him.

      Val was too late to stop what was coming.

      "You're wrong," Tarrin wheezed with that same evil smile.  "You haven't won yet."  He drew himself up to his full height, beyond pain, beyond weariness, beyond worry and beyond care.  He had withstood the assault that was the only weakness in his plan, gambling that he would somehow find a way to hold for those last few precious moments before the conjunction began.  And he had managed to do it, though how he had managed, he would never fully understand.

      Val seemed to follow his eyes, his shadowy form looking out into the sky.  When that insubstantial head whirled back around, there was raw terror in his eyes.

      You must be able to make the choices that must be made.

      For the last time, he did just that.  Without fear, without emotion, with only regret at what he was surrendering and fully understanding what would happen to him, Tarrin raised the Firestaff towards the sky as the Twin Moons brushed the edge of Vala's red disc and opened himself completely to the ancient artifact's whim.  He saw the look of terror and chagrin on Val's face as the black Wraith-like form blazed towards him even as his power lashed out to prevent it, but he knew even as he did so that he was too late. His rage had taken him, and in losing his temper he had surrendered the only chance he would have had to stop Tarrin from doing the one thing that Val could not have permitted him to do under any circumstance.

      To use the Firestaff.

      And he who holds the Firestaff at a certain time, on a certain day, shall become a god.

 

      Twenty longspans away and to the east, in a brilliant flash and a demonstration of power the likes of which had not been seen since the Blood War, the featureless tundra east of the pyramid flared, and left behind in its diminishment over a hundred thousand armed troops, ten of the the thirteen clans of the Selani, three hundred dragons, nearly ten thousand representatives of Fae-da'Nar of varying species, a thousand Aeradalla, nearly three thousand magic-users of all four orders, and nearly two score of Demons summoned forth by the Succubus Shiika to do battle on their side.

      The closest element to this suddenly appearing force was a group of Waern under the command of a Camibisi.  The Waern took one look at that host, and then turned and fled squealing back towards the reserves stationed some distance behind them.  The Waern, it seemed, were not fools.  Their half-breed commander screamed and cursed at them, even cut a few of the slower Waern down from behind as he chased after them with his sword waving in the air, but he too retreated quickly as a grand, earth-shaking shout arose from that mighty army, and huge gusts of wind swept across the warm grass as three hundred dragons, the mightiest creatures on Sennadar, took to the air from the fringes of the huge army and turned in loose groups to unleash their furious might on the land-bound enemy.

      Then came the charge of the bipeds below, led by the legendary Knights of Karas.  Leading a huge formation of armored cavalry of Knights, mounted elements of the Legions and the Arkisian armies, and with the Selani loping easily in pace with the horses, the combined armies of the civilized world began their assault as Goblinoid elements of the army arrayed against them rushed forth from their positions to meet the fleeing Waern and the armies of humanity in a mighty clash on the unnaturally warmed grasslands of the land surrounding Gora Umadar.

      The dragons were the first to strike.  Led by a huge blue, larger than every other dragon in the host, the dragon Sapphire struck the first blow, an intertwined blast of lighting bolts that lanced forth from her open maw, driving into the center of a large formation of Trolls, killing most of them and causing the ground where the lightning struck to literally explode from the power of the magical attack.  Other dragons followed suit, pounding the armies below with infernos of fire, blasts of lightning, clouds of poisonous gasses, streams of lethally powerful acid, and withering cones of intense cold.  They absolutely destroyed those enemies closest to their charging allies, and then broke up to attack any large concentration of enemies that were close to them, making sure that no large element of the enemy army was going to meet the attack of the humans and their allies in one piece.  They did not try to destroy every little thing, they simply made sure that their enemies were forced to scatter for their very lives, making sure that no organized defense would meet the Knights as they thundered onto the battlefield.

      It was a tactic elegant in its simplicity, and absolutely devastating.  When the Knights caught up to the Waern and the Goblinoid reserves that had been rushing to meet them, their foes had had no chance to form up and meet the assault in an organized manner.  The Knights and heavy cavalry simply rode them down, splitting them into two groups, and into that hole charged the Selani.  They widened the hole, and the Legions of Arak with Sulasian Rangers mixed into their lines marched in behind them in the classic Arakite wedge formation, the Rangers withering the enemy with storms of arrows as the highly disciplined Legions solidified the split of the enemy into two groups.  Wikuni Marines, Ungardt, Amazons, Arkisian Legions, and the armies of Sulasia spread out to envelop those isolated pockets and cut them down as quickly as possible.

      But that was but the initial blow, and Val's armies outnumbered the forces of the humans and their allies by ten to one.  The dragons, the great equalizer that made their forces evenly matched, fanned out with Aeradalla escorting them to protect them from the winged elements of Val's forces, vrock and Harpies, fanned out in their mission not to lay waste to everything, but to cause as much chaos and disorder in their enemies as possible, keep them off balance until friendly forces could arrive to strike them before they had a chance to organize themselves.  Even dragons had limits on their magic, so they had to use their breath weapons and their spells wisely, to maximum effect, before being forced to land and fight with their opponents in close combat, a method that actually posed risk to them should they come up against a strong Demon.

      The battle outside had only just begun.  The battle within had not yet truly started.

 

      Val's power struck the Were-cat, but in that same instant, the Twin Moons broke the smooth perimeter of Vala's edge, and the conjunction was at hand.  And in that split second, the long-sealed pathways of power which the Firestaff called upon to convey its might were opened.  The Firestaff suddenly erupted into blinding white fire, a white fire that melted away Val's attack, that cast every nook and cranny of the platform and those who had watched the struggle between mortal and god with a light ten times more brilliant than the sun.

      That light, that power, that brilliance, that energy erupted from the staff, a power so vast that even a god seemed as nothing when compared to it.  It was the power of everything, of the entire universe, an echo of the vast energy generated in the instant of its creation.  The Firestaff reached back through unfathomable means and touched on that power, the overwhelming power of life, of awareness, of being, a force that was vaguely related to the All, but the All was the most pitiful shadow of what this power truly was.  The light surrounded Tarrin, enclosed him, and then he felt its power surge into him through the paws that were holding onto the staff, conducted into him from the nether regions where that power still echoed and through the staff, the instrument of its conveyance.

      It was absolutely indescribable.  The power of the gods themselves flowed effortlessly into him at a rapid pace, scouring away all that was mortal with their fiery touch.  There was no pain, only a kind of utter ecstacy as his mind and soul were torn loose of their mortal constraints and bonded to the power of the universe itself, a power without bounds, without limitations.  It infused him, caused his body to shine forth with the same blinding radiance as the staff itself as flesh and blood and bone were saturated with absolutely power, scoured away, replaced by the god-stone that replaced his mortal coil and formed the icon that represented him within the mortal world.  It was but a metaphor, a symbol of his true self, but was necessary all the same as a point of reference which the mortal mind could fathom and understand.  The power filled his mind, expanded his consciousness, revived memories taken from him by Niami during his turning, again allowing him to look down into the workings of the universe, but this time with an awareness that could comprehend the nature of its workings.  Tarrin could see everything that was, everything that had been, could see the intent and reason for all, and he understood its meaning.  The power joined to him swelled within him, freeing his mind of all mortal restriction, expressing the ultimate potential that he possessed, a potential that transcended the boundaries of mortal comprehension.  Tarrin was joined to the universe itself, understanding all, seeing all, feeling truly as if nothing were beyond his capability.

      He understood what needed to be done.  There was no choice in it, and no choice in what would happen, but he had to make an active attempt to begin it.  He reached out with his soul, with all his godly power, and sent it through the power of the universe itself, until those energies most harmonious with his power and his personality responded to him.  Those energies, those states became his chosen forms, and those forms represented the base of his power.  The energies of fire were most compatible with him, as were the both mortal and immortal concepts of duty, honor, and protection, traits that had been his strongest aspects as a mortal, and transferred into his godly sentience to form the basis of what he represented to the universe and to the mortals and other gods.  They were what he was, his being, and their energies were his to command to a higher degree than the rest.

      The formless stone of his icon flared anew, this time with intense red light.  Fire exploded around the blank statue that had once been his mortal form, became as flesh again, but a flesh that did not exist within the bounds of mortal comprehension.  It was the physical extension of self, the material focus through which the energy of his boundless self would channel, it was the instrument through which he would exert his will upon the mortal world.  The blond hair of the statue burst into flame, as did the eyebrows and the fur, but the body retained its Were-cat features and shape.  Two wings made of pure fire fanned into being within the fire of his braid, and then anchored themselves to his back, becoming an intregral part of self that were as real as an arm or a leg, despite being made of living flame.  This terrifying new creation opened its eyes, eyes that glowed with an intense green light, much like the green of the eyes that the mortal had once possessed, glowing in his anger and shining in his resolute intent to defend.

      In that moment of blinding brilliance, Tarrin Kael ceased to be.  In his place was born a new god, a new power within the universe.  He was Tarrin, god of fire, god of duty, god of protection, defender of Sennadar itself, and his was the burning light of retribution which would strike down the god of darkness and forever spare the world of Sennadar from his scourged presence.

      Pushing his complete awareness into his icon, feeling much as he had when he was mortal when he pushed himself into a projection, Tarrin became again aware of the material world around him, restricted himself to an awareness grounded almost completely within the material world.  A mind expanded by his transformation took all in at once, understood, planned, realized.  Jesmind and  Jasana had not left, and he saw in their minds, minds that seemed as open books to him, that Jasana had tore free of Jesmind and ran back to protect her father when Val had attacked him.  The Demons were all aghast with shock and furious with chagrin, understanding that they had just allowed the opportunity of an eon to slip through their fingers.  And across from him, his mind a whirling chaos of disbelief and fury, floated the entity whose existence the new god had been created to destroy.  He existed solely for the need to eradicate an ancient mistake, and he would not be denied.

      Curious, he noted, that the amulet about the neck of his material form was still bound to Niami, and it still functioned.  It had survived the transformation of self.  He used it quickly and wisely, sending the Firestaff into the bounds of its elsewhere and recalling the black-bladed sword, bending his power to it, transforming it in an instant into an instrument of godly might, whose power existed on so many levels of existence that the mortal mind could not comprehend its depths.  It was the instrument of justice, the executioner's sword, and it would fulfill the task for which it had been created.

      He was ready.  There was only one thing left to do.  He reached out--such a simple thing to do!--and touched Jesmind's mind directly.  Run! he told her as Val managed to recover himself, drew in his power and prepared to do direct battle with another god.  Run as fast as you can, and don't look back no matter what happens!

      Val struck, and in that attack Tarrin understood the nature of the danger.  Val attacked not in one manner, but attacked Tarrin on uncountable levels, in so many myriad ways, on mental, physical, magical, and metaphysical levels, that only a god could have countered it.  Only a god could attack another god in that manner, for they were not bound by the laws and restrictions of the material world, as Val had been so restricted when he struck at the mortal Tarrin, forced to limit his power to the restraints of mortal capability.  Tarrin countered on every level, and the strain it put on the very fabric of the universe spilled over into the physical world.  A shattering concussion emanated around Tarrin, containing more energy than every magic-user alive on Sennadar could have generated in a combined effort, knocking down all the mortals, sending Jesmind and Jasana tumbling down the stairs, as the stone of the pyramid shuddered and rocked from the blow.  Dust billowed out from the ceiling, but a shrug of fiery wings showed Val that his divine opponent was not impressed by the attack.  Carried into the air by his divine power, the blazing light of the god Tarrin met the swallowing darkness of the god Val, who had conjured forth a rod of absolute blackness to serve as his physical weapon, and they locked into mortal combat, a duel that could very well destroy the world.

 

      The Elder Gods, present only in spirit and unseen on the battlefield, had no interest in what was happening with the armies.  They could sense what was transpiring in the pyramid, and in what was but a flicker of time to the mortals, a long and heated debate arose among them to decide what must be done.  But it was the voice of Niami, the goddess of magic, that quelled all objection and unified them to a common goal.

      It is as he wishes it, she said with undisguised pain tremoring her spirit.  We cannot interfere.

      Then what shall we do?  Step back and watch them destroy what we labored to create? came a hot demand from Ahiriya, the goddess of fire.

      We will do as has been decided by our champion, the voice of Ayise, the mother of all gods, stated firmly.  We can be of use without interfering in what must be done.  Join to me, my children, and let us summon forth the aid of the Youngers.  Combined, our power can limit the sphere of destruction about to be wrought upon the land.  We must confine the damage as much as possible, so as to save the lives of the mortals currently embroiled in war around us and protect the Balance from being disturbed by what is to come.

      And when one defeats the other, then what shall we do? Leia, the goddess of nature, demanded.

      What must be done, my daughter, Ayise said grimly.  Destroy the victor before he regains his power and can defend against us.

      Such a rude end seems a grave disservice to one who served us so faithfully, stately Darian, god of earth, noted.

      It was an end the champion fully understood would be awaiting him, Ayise sighed.  He has made his choice.  Dishonor not the nobility of his sacrifice, my children.  What he does, he does in service to us all.

      And so, the Elder Gods called forth into service the power and presence of the Younger Gods.  Forty-five of them, representing every aspect of the forces that served to shape the world of Sennadar.  From grim K'Tar, god of war, to capricious Elia, goddess of song, dance and revelry, from baleful Niskar, god of enmity and hate, to insatiable Lenani, goddess of vice and lust, from dutiful Aldoran, god of law, to raging Vykar, god of chaos and destruction, all answered the summons of the Elder Gods.  Elder and Younger gods raised forth the hands and joined in unified intent, creating a boundary of defense through which the destruction about to be wrought within could not pass.  It was not a physical boundary; indeed, the mortal Goblinoids below them passed freely across its boundary, but it would serve as a powerful defense to limit the destruction surely about to unleashed upon the land as two gods lashed at one another using power and might the physical world was never meant to contain.

      They would ensure that the world would not suffer with what was about to come to pass.

 

      Never in her entire life has Jesmind been so terrified.

      She cowered on the floor, clutching her desperately crying child as all reality seemed to go wild around them.

      The immense chamber seemed to waver and distort as two indescribably powerful figures seemed to duel with one another in the air over the platform. One of them was the god Val, but the other, somehow, was Tarrin.  Jesmind didn't understand what had happened, but somehow, Tarrin could somehow fight against Val.  And the change in him!   Was how he looked now some kind of great magic?  Triana had told her long ago that she sensed something special about her mate, something unusual, as if there was a potential within him that transcended the bounds of normal magic.  Could this be the final realization of that hidden potential?  A power so great that it gave him the power to fight a god?

      Whatever it was, they were tearing the world apart!  They struggled against one another, Tarrin's brilliant blade crashing into some kind of rod of utter darkness in Val's shadowy hands, and every collision between those two weapons sent out a shockwave of power that was shaking the very earth itself.  She could feel the power exchanged between those blows, and she could also somehow sense that what she could see was only a fraction of the true struggle going on between them.  The shaking of the earth was only a part of what was happening, though.  Images and shapes floated transparently in the air around them, like some delusions of reality, and magical streamers of light and energy cascaded down from the air to hit the ground.  When they struck, sometimes they exploded, sometimes they just disappeared, but sometimes they did bizarre things.  One streamer hit a stone in the floor and changed it into a puddle of water, another hit and transformed a small piece of rock fallen from the ceiling into a sparrow, which then frantically rose into the air and flew towards the large passage that led outside.  Jesmind rolled wildly aside each time one of those dangerous motes of light drifted towards her, then managed to regain her feet as the shaking of the earth subsided by a small amount, enough for her to stand.

      Clutching Jasana to her, she was momentarily stunned and confused by what was going on.  She woodenly saw that six-armed Demoness come down the platform with the naked human female secured firmly in the grasp of her six arms, keeping her prize, and the human woman actually clutched to the Demoness like a child, willing to accept even her aid if it got her to safety.  The other Demons were right behind her.  They were fleeing from the battle, and the looks of terror on their faces were sincere and obvious.  One of the pig-headed ones squealed in sudden fright and tried to dive aside, but it was too late to avoid a massive blast of fire that billowed forth from the combatants high above that crashed into it.  She clearly saw the silhouette of its body evaporate, outlined by the furious fire, wavering away to nothing and leaving not even ash behind when the fire splashed into the floor and winked out of existence quickly.  Jesmind looked up to see Tarrin raking Val with a column of fire that emanated from his outstretched paw, his braid and tail and those wings all covered in angry red fire stretched out behind him, as if bracing him for the attack.  Val had blocked the fire with his black rod, and the remnants of the fiery attack were raining down on those below.

      Tarrin had told her to run.  Now she understood how good an idea that was!  They were going to get killed if they stayed in there!

      Gathering up Jasana, Jesmind turned and raced towards that archway, her terror and desperate concern to get her daughter out alive consuming her, giving her great strength and speed.  She sprinted past the six-armed Demoness, and the creature made no move to attack her or hinder her.  In this, they were all united by their powerful instinct of self-preservation, and there were no enemies anymore.  She flinched away and nearly fell down when a shadow of absolute blackness raced over her head, leaving her chilled to the bone in its wake.  That wave of utter blackness struck the wall over the archway, and instantly covered every part of the stone that it touched in a thick layer of crystal clear ice.  Tarrin and the god Val were completely consumed in their battle with each other, and the power that was flying around them was indiscriminate and deadly.  They had to get away!

      Almost flying through the archway, Jesmind entered the long tunnel that would lead them back outside.  The columns lining the wide gallery were shuddering and swaying alarmingly, and stones and dust were dropping down out of the ceiling like rain, concealing the passage and reducing her vision.  But she ran on wildly, recklessly, consumed with the need to get her daughter out alive.  She jumped over a boulder-sized stone that had fallen out of the ceiling, and raced underneath one of those huge pillars as it broke free of its anchors and toppled out into the gallery, racing under it literally as it fell, and the deafening sound of its impact behind them shivering her fur, a palpable force against her skin.

      Insane.  This was insane!  What had happened?  How had Tarrin managed to face off against Val?  He was fighting a god, and he seemed to be holding his own?  Why was he doing it?  Why?  All he had to do was get away!  If he had that much power, he could just run away, and take the Firestaff with him!  He didn't have to fight!  He couldn't win!  Val was a god!

      Jesmind screamed when a huge fissure opened up in the stone beneath her feet, making her leap aside to avoid falling into it.  Hot light poured up from the base of that longspan-deep chasm in the earth, and Jesmind realized that the power those two were giving off was tearing the very earth apart as they battled!  More fissures crisscrossed the floor, and the land began to shift crazily as some blocks of stone-capped earth rose up and others fell, an insane obstacle course of shifting sections of floor that ground and crushed against one another.  Those fissures went up under the columns and snaked up the walls, and she saw with some serious terror that some were being shattered by the forces being exerted against them, and others were beginning to tear free as the ground dropped out from beneath them, tear free where they would begin to fall.  The walls were crumbling, as massive stones began toppling out from them to strike the pillars, and larger and larger stones began to rain down from the ceiling.

      Sprinting forward because she had no other choice, Jesmind relied on her inhuman agility to navigate the wildly shifting floor, loping from platform to platform as fast as she could possibly go.  She glanced back when she heard a deafening tearing sound, an awful tearing of rock, and she glanced back just in time to see that six-armed Demoness get crushed under thousands of tons of rock as the walls and ceiling collapsed on top of her.  She and that human she was carrying were certainly dead, and the Demons behind her, if they weren't dead, were trapped.  But she felt little satisfaction in seeing that hated bitch die.  At that moment, their own survival was in serious doubt.

      Moving with renewed terror-induced motivation at seeing the walls collapse behind her, Jesmind surged forward, taking greater and greater risks, keeping her eyes peeled for any large stones that appeared out of the dust ahead and above them, dust so thick that she could barely see more than ten spans ahead of her.  She clutched Jasana to her with one arm, the little girl clinging frantically to her mother as the Were-cat danced along uneven patches of rubble-strewn ground, evaded flying rocks that rained down from the ceiling, and jumped high to clear the massive pillars that had already fallen to the floor ahead of them.  The noise was deafening, tearing and exploding rock all around her, and the dust coated her nose and throat and made breathing more and more difficult.  But to her eternal relief, the strange light that lit the gallery had not failed, lighting their way and providing Jesmind with just enough light with which to avoid the lethal stones that rained from above and see enough of the floor and debris on it to set her feet without having them slide out from under her.

      A thunderous detonation shook the entire world, it seemed to her, shaking everything so badly that Jesmind and Jasana were spilled to the ground.  She barely heard the snapping of stone and saw the shadow appear out of the dust, and wildly rolled to the side as one of the huge pillars toppled down on top of her.  She rolled up against a huge stone that had already fallen to the floor, and the massive black shadow of the falling pillar suddenly consumed all the light.  She flinched, covering Jasana with her own body as the pillar crashed to the ground, and then she screamed in agony when something crushed her left leg.  She looked back to see that the stone by them had stopped the pillar's fall and kept it from killing them, but the pillar had broken, and the very edge of its end had landed on her left foot.  She realized she could cut off the foot with the Cat's Claws, but they would leave a permanent injury, and she would have no chance of getting Jasana out alive with only one foot.  And she would only slow Jasana down as she tried to get out alive herself.  Grimly, she realized that there was only one choice to make.

      "Mama!" Jasana said in wild terror, struggling under her.  "Mama, are you hurt?"

      "Cub!" she said in a gasping voice.  "I'm pinned!  You have to keep going!  Go!"     

      "No!" Jasana shrieked, wriggling out from under her.  "I won't leave you, Mama!"

      "You stupid cub!" Jesmind shouted at her.  "You have to get out of here!"

      "I won't leave you!" she screamed, grabbing Jesmind by the arm and pulling with all the might her little body could muster.

      Jesmind yanked her paw free, fixing Jasana with a penetrating stare, summoning up all her motherly authority.  "I told you to go!" she said in a voice that would brook no disobedience.  "You're all that matters, cub!  You have to get out!"

      "I will not leave you!" she declared adamantly.  "Tell me how to get you out!"

      She saw that this was argument she was not going to win.  She couldn't force Jasana to go, so she realized that the only thing she could do was let her daughter help her in any way she could.  "If only we had something to cut my leg off that wouldn't leave a true wound!" she said.  She could tear her leg off with raw power, or use her claws to rend the flesh to the point where she could snap her leg off, but both would take time, and time was the one thing that they did not have.

      Jasana took on a look of dreadful concentration, and to Jesmind's surprise, the woodcutting axe that they had used in Aldreth appeared in her little paws.  "Will this work?"

      "How did you do that?" Jesmind asked, forgetting the terrible danger they were in.

      "It's Conjuring, Mama," she told her.  "I realized I could do Conjuring a few days ago.   I was going to use it to get away from the evil man."

      Jesmind gave her daughter a fiercely proud look.  A Druid!  Her little Jasana was a Druid!  Just like her father!  She took the axe from her daughter, twisted around, and did the deed with one swift blow.  She severed her own leg just below the knee, feeling that wild sting of pain, then the angry burning that heralded the rapid growth of a new foot.

      As soon as that foot was fleshed out, she scooped up Jasana and raced into the dust once again.  The whole pyramid was coming down around their ears, and they absolutely had to get clear as quickly as possible.

      She had no idea how long she ran along that passage, wildly dodging falling stones collapsing pillars, and holes that suddenly appeared in the floor.  It all blurred together in Jesmind's frenzied mind, a mind consumed by the absolute need to get her daughter out of the pyramid and to safety.  But time caught up to her when she saw light ahead of her, piercing the dust-induced gloom of the treacherous passageway, and it caused her to redouble her efforts.  Now that she could see the exit--the way out!!!--her utter desperation to reach it caused her to speed up, to move like an arrow shot from a bow, to get her daughter out of the deadly tunnel and get nothing but empty air over them.  Her eyes fixed to that light, growing stronger and stronger with each racing step, narrowly avoiding a house-sized block of stone that dropped from the ceiling to crash into the floor behind them, shaking the ground with the might of its impact.  Her only sight, her only goal, the very focus of her entire life was that light, and it was with almost religious joy that she suddenly burst from the darkness, burst from the dust, leaping out of the collapsing tunnel just ahead of a shower of stones from the archway that marked its entrance, leaping free of the pyramid and setting foot on lush grass.

      She didn't look back.  She raced forward with all the speed she could muster, rushing towards a column of smoke where huge winged figures circled over something.  They were dragons, and she realized quite unahppily that the dragon that was supposed to be there to pick them up was not there.  What had happened?  Was it late?  Had it already come and not found them?  The area around her was empty, all the Goblinoids moving forward to engage the armies that the gods had brought here to deal with them.  With Tarrin fighting Val, why weren't the gods doing something about the army?  Couldn't they just destroy it?  She raced on as the ground shook and rumbled beneath her feet, and she realized to her horror that the fissures that had collapsed the tunnel were also snaking out into the earth itself around them, tearing the very earth apart.  Far to her left, a geyser of molten rock erupted from the ground in a deadly spray, flying hundreds of spans into the air to spatter back to the ground, killing anything that it landed upon and setting fire to the lush green grass.  She angled away from that horrid display almost unconsciously, and was forced to leap over a ten span wide gash in the earth that stood in her way, a gash that had a terrifying reddish light and powerful heat rising up from it as she sailed over it, so hot it singed the fur on her feet and lower legs.

      Gods above!  If someone didn't come to get them soon, they may not live to reach safety!

      Ahead and to the right, to her terror, she saw a chunk of land that had be be a half a longspan in area suddenly sink down into the earth itself.  A gout of fire and magma flew into the air a few seconds later, and an ominous black column of smoke rose over the pit.

      Goddess!  The land was sinking into the liquid fire that was beneath it!

      Not seconds later, a hideously sharp shudder in the ground under her feet told her that the same thing was happening right under her!  She saw the earth start to rise before her some twenty spans ahead, felt the lightness in her stomach as she started to fall down under the earth with the land on which she was running, and she leaned forward and sprinted with all her might as the land got higher and higher, leaping hugely when she got close to that rising land.  She soared over that edge with plenty of room to spare, and the instant her feet touched solid ground, she fled away from the growing pit behind her blind panic, knowing that a plume of flying lava was going to erupt out of that pit as soon as the earth fell into the lake of liquid fire that was consuming it.  If any of it splashed on her, it would mean her instant death!

      "Mama!" Jasana screamed in terror, burying her face in her mother's chest.

      "I know, cub, I know!" she said in a strangled tone.  "Where are you, you damned dragon?" she huffed in a terrified voice.  "Goddess, if you're out there, I need your help!" she pleaded as she ran.  "If someone doesn't come and get us, we're not going to make it!"

      As if in answer to her prayer, a shadow appeared over them and then vanished.  She looked up to see a dragon circling over them, one with deep blue scales, but was an order of magnitude smaller than Sapphire.  This one couldn't be more than fifty spans long from nose to tail, a truly tiny dragon compared to the immense matriarch who was Tarrin's friend.  Jesmind's relief at seeing that scaly beast defied rational explanation.  It was as if it were a personal gift from Tarrin's Goddess, a magnificent chariot to whisk them away to safety.

      "I'm here!" it called in a breathless voice.  "Sorry, a couple of Demons slowed me down!"

      It landed quickly and heavily fifty spans before them, hunkering down as they rushed towards it so they could climb on as soon as they reached it.  "Quickly, the earth is shifting under me!" the dragon called in concern.  "We don't have much time!"

      "What's going on?" she demanded as she reached it, jumped up onto its back and in front of its wings, settling between two spines at the base of its neck.  She stuck Jasana in front of her, putting her arms around her daughter protectively as the dragon turned quickly on the ground and unfurled its wings.

      "The army's pulling out as quickly as it attacked, and the Goblinoids are running right behind them!" the dragon said.  "The entire tundra is shaking, and fissures are opening up everywhere!  This war is over, biped!  Nobody's going to fight on a battlefield like this!"

      "What's making it happen?" Jesmind asked as the dragon's wings flared, and they vaulted into the sky.

      "That is!" he said, nudging nose towards the collapsing pyramid.  "Can't you feel it, biped?  Whoever's in that thing is tearing the world apart with magic!"

      Jesmind looked down as the dragon turned its tail to the pyramid and beat its wings frantically.  Huge masses of Goblinoids were doing just what the dragon said, running for their lives, but many of them were dying as the land tore itself apart, sending them plunging into those pools of molten rock and to certain and painful death.  She looked ahead to see the army the gods had brought doing the exact same thing, fleeing wildly, trying to outdistance the fissures that were opening in the earth and causing massive chunks of it to sink into a fiery demise.  Whatever combat had taken place before this happened was completely forgotten, as human and Goblinoid fled side by side in common interest, as every living thing on the tundra below desperately tried to get away from the hellish chaos that had gripped the land.

      Jesmind looked behind them, to the pyramid.  Tarrin was in there, and he was fighting with Val.  Their battle was so intense, so powerful, that it was tearing the earth apart.  She could only look back in desperate fear and worry for her mate, trying to understand what was happening, why he was continuing to fight even though there was no chance he could win.  Goddess, what was happening in there?

 

      It was a battle between two evenly matched foes.

      Tarrin sensed that early on as they continued to trade unimaginable assaults on one another, grappling in the air over the platform, but those physical actions were nothing but a metaphor to symbolize the titanic battle that was being waged between the two of them.  Val was confined to his icon, but it in no way restricted his ability to battle Tarrin on every conceivable and inconceivable level of existence, fantasy, imagination, and even anti-existence.  The two gods hurled such power between them that the mortals surrounding them would go mad trying to understand it, scrabbling into every possible realm for any foothold or advantage that would turn the tide of the battle in his favor.  Though Tarrin was new to this kind of battle his divine status gave him all the understanding and awareness he needed, and that caused him to be able to fight Val on even terms.

      And they were even.  Their power, though separated by five thousand years, was equal.  Totally equal.  They were both creations of the Firestaff, both borne of its energies, and it had not changed its method of bestowing its gifts after five thousand years.  They were mirror images of one another, with only time and experience separating them.  But while Val had the advantage of experience, Tarrin had the advantage of sheer determination, possessing an absolute determination to win at any cost, no matter what.  Val did not have that same maniacal zeal.  He was fighting to save his own life, nothing more, and that fear of death caused him to be much more cautious.  As it had served him so many times in the past, so it served him again.  Tarrin's wild nature and dangerous, reckless method of fighting allowed him to throw absolutely everything at the dark god, unafraid of consequence or even continued survival, seeking to overwhelm his adversary with with sheer determination and his utter need to win at any cost.

      And he could throw absolutely everything at Val.  He could sense the presence of all the other gods, something that certainly seemed to distract Val, and knew that they were containing the pair of them, allowing them to fight and minimizing the damage they did to the universe.  That was a good thing.  Had it not been contained, muted, the raw power unleashed by them would have devastated everything within a hundred leagues, and as the battle raged on, the area of destruction would have grown wider and wider.

      Knowing that their battle would not destroy the world only urged Tarrin on even more fervently, allowing him to commit himself utterly and completely to the fight, unleashing such furious assault on Val that he had been forced to literally consolidate his power and defend against his infuriated opponent.  The pyramid shook and crumbled around them, shaken to its core by the power of the struggle taking place within it.

      The battle taking place in the mortal realm was only a small part of what was going on, but it was a metaphor for the battle raging between the two gods.  Every movement and act was merely a representation of the shifting of vast amounts of power along infinite realms of possibility, and every attack or defense was a representation of countless thrusts and assaults, parries and ripostes, taking place in those realms of possibility in a simultaneous action.  It was a battle on every possible level, but a battle waged by two gods whose minds were still grounded in mortal concepts.  That was why Tarrin had managed to unsettle Val with anger.  Despite being a god and having such a vast mind, able to concentrate on thousands of individual things at once, he still possessed emotion, and that emotion could blind a thousand facets of the same mind as easily as they blinded just one.  Emotion was the key to this battle, one facet of Tarrin's vastly expanded mind realized as he deflected an attack from Val from those countless aspects, but in the mortal realm was symbolized by a blast of utter darkness that erupted from the rod in Val's shadowy hand.  Tarrin's sword slashed the darkness in half, sending it to either side of him, a mere representation of the true defensive counter that the former Were-cat had employed.  The deflected attack's power was largely lost in the ether of existence, but a fragment of it, the fragments grounded in the physical world, slammed into the side of the pyramid and nearly collapsed its entire south side, but through some miracle the wall managed to hold, a testament to the skill of the lost race of people who had built it.  It caused the entire pyramid to shake violently, but somehow the grand old building managed to stay up.

      Emotion was the key, and also the weakness.  No matter that they were gods, it was emotion that ruled their actions now.  Val fought desperately out of hatred, anger and fear.  His hatred for Tarrin was a tangible thing, a cancer within him, and it was facing his most hated foe that brought out his anger.  And there was fear as well, fear of losing, fear of destruction, even fear of what would happen when he beat Tarrin and had to face all the gods surrounding them, worried that he would be too weak to repel an attack from them all.

      Tarrin's emotions were no less powerful, but were much differently focused.  His hatred for Val was intense, but it did not consume him.  His greatest emotion was fear, but it was fear for others, not for himself.  He had used the Firestaff to become a god to save his mate and daughter, and also to once and for all put an end to Val and the danger he represented to his family and friends.  That fear for the safety of others had instilled within him a powerful determination to win, to destroy Val no matter what it took, and no matter what the cost.  He fought wildly, recklessly, unafraid of loss so long as his defeat so weakened his opponent that the gods beyond could strike him down, just as Val feared, before he could mount a defense against them.  For Tarrin, Val's defeat was much more important to him than his own victory, and his opponent had a very hard time protecting himself from someone that was quite willing to lose so long as he softened up his foe enough for the next assailant to win.

      Besides, he knew that his victory would be his own defeat.  By taking up the Firestaff and becoming a god, he was now just as much a threat and danger to the gods as Val.  If he struck Val down, they would attack him just as quickly as they would have attacked Val.  He knew the instant he held the Firestaff to the sky that it was a one way trip, and that his deification would be brief.  He had become a god for the sole reason to destroy Val.  Once Val was destroyed, there would be no more need for him, and he would not endanger the world by trying to live on.

      If only to protect those he so greatly loved that he was willing to resort to this kind of desperate gamble.

      Tarrin shifted his awareness more into the physical world, studying the shifting, shadowy form of his opponent, allowing his expanded mind to consider as he prepared to repel an attack his opponent was about to initiate.  Val's physical form suddenly rushed forward with the black rod leading, and Tarrin responded sufficiently, which caused his physical form to bring up his sword and parry the blow wide.  The key was the physical world and emotion, he understood that now.  By continuing to brawl across the entire spectrum of existence, he was doing nothing but wandering away from the key of it.  Val was imprisoned within his icon.  Destroy that icon, and he would destroy Val.  That was why Val was attacking in such a vast and broad manner, to distract Tarrin from the simple truth of that one observation.  Val's weakness, his greatest weakness, was his imprisonment.  And emotion was the path that would lead him to the promised land.

      Shifting himself almost entirely into the physical world, Tarrin freed his physical form of its mere status as a metaphor of battle and attacked Val's physical form in earnest.  This shocked and surprised his foe, who  was forced to return to the physical realm himself, hastily raising up his black rod of utter darkness to desperately parry the assault.  Tarrin attacked again, and again, and again with his blazing sword, causing his adversary to back up quickly, moving to protect his vulnerable icon from attack.

      What's the matter, Val? he taunted, speaking directly into his foe's mind.  Do I frighten you now?  I know how to defeat you.  You couldn't beat me when I was a mere mortal, and you know you have no chance against me now.  So why don't you just give up?  I'll make it swift and clean.

      I am invinicible! Val shrieked feverishly in Tarrin's expanded mind, his hatred and anger boiling out of his words like froth from the mouth of a mad dog.  I am a god!  I am eternal!  You are nothing, Were-cat, do you hear?  Nothing!  You take from me my rightful place and my destiny, and now you have the nerve to consider yourself my better?  I will show you how wrong you are!

      It's almost unfair, Tarrin continued to taunt.  After all, you're bound into your icon, limited in your power.  I have no such restriction.  I could withdraw my icon to somewhere safe and deal with you from a position of security, but I won't do that.  I'll give you the chance to kill me, fair and square, hand to hand.  Just you and me, though it will hardly be a fair fight.  You are but a mere godling, Val.  In a way, I pity you for your disability.

      That got him.  The term godling seemed to send Val into a fever pitch, and he abandoned dragging Tarrin into fighting across the entire spectrum of existence and resorted to good old fashioned brute force in the physical world.  He advanced with his glowing eyes blazing with indignation and fury, as if Tarrin's insults had been more than he could stand, wailing at Tarrin's winged form with his rod of utter darkness.  This was a form of combat much more suited to the martially trained Were-cat, and he smoothly and gladly fell into a defensive position, concentrating all his power in the physical world yet watchful for a sudden attack in the realms beyond that of mortal comprehension.  Motes of charged magical chaos drifted away from the impact of Val's rod and Tarrin's sword, physical embodiments of raw magic, whose effects on reality were wild and upredictable when they struck solid matter, as the two gods battled across the dusty air over the high dais below, a dais littered with massive boulder-sized building stones that had fallen from the roof above.  Val proved he knew how to fight in a physical sense, but his technique was forced, and his edge was taken away by his rage.  His movements were jerky and predictable, and he was so taken with his anger that he didn't realize that the god who opposed him was simply letting him attack to get a feel for his opponent, coming to an understanding of his preferences and his strengths and weaknesses when fighting with a weapon.

      Tarrin continued to defend, searching Val's technique and the magic that made up his physical form for a chink in his armor, a weakness he could exploit to his full advantage.  His chosen form was one that was not completely solid, shifting in its nature and actually rather cleverly adaptable, which also made it deceptive and hard to pin down.  But the shadows and darkness only concealed what was really in there, and that was his icon.  It was a physical object, not an amalgamation of shadows and darkness.  Those were just shells, smoke and mirrors that Val had erected around his vulnerable icon to protect it from detection and attack.  Somewhere in that mass of living darkness was a plain black stone statue, and that was what he needed to attack.

      It could be anywhere in there, he realized as he deflected a furious series of savage blows, as the dark god's temper had truly run away with him.  He'd have to be very exact, and he couldn't miss.  If Val realized what he was doing, if he missed with the first try, Val would regain his composure and again spread the battle out into the infinite aspects of existence, where Val had a better chance to defeat his less experienced opponent and protect his vulnerable icon.  Tarrin had gotten him mad, and he had to defeat him before he regained his senses and strove not to lose his temper again.

      The icon was the key.  But how to reach it within the shapeless nature of the defenses Val had erected around it, that was the question.

      Tarrin considered the problem for long moments as he systematically backed up and out of the dark god's wild swings, trying to find a clue that would answer that simple question.  He stopped backing up and suddenly turned on Val to attack, catching the angry god off balance, raining massive blows down at his shadowed head that the god just barely managed to deflect.  That attack seemed to clear the fog in Val's mind, and Tarrin realized that he was starting to come out of his tizzy.  He doubted he could incite him into another outburst again, so he knew he had to work fast.  He again scanned Val's shadowy body for a clue as to where he was hiding the icon within it, but the dark god had done well in concealing his vulnerability from his opponent.  He felt Val's mind again expand out into the countless realms of existence, preparing to return the battle to a raging melee conducted through all aspects of being, to return to the form of combat that gave him the most advantage.

      The answer was deceptively simple, striking him suddenly, and it was an experience of his mortal life.  It was so simple that he almost laughed.  It was so simple that he had overlooked it!

      Magical creatures can directly affect one another.

      Icons and their physical forms would be no different.  Just as the young mortal Tarrin, so long ago, could strike an insubstantial Wraith and do it harm, so now could the god Tarrin reach out with his physical form and grab hold of the vaporish darkness that made up Val's physical form.

      That was the answer.  And it presented him the opportunity to finish it once and for all, to bring a final end to the threat Val posed to his friends, his family, and to his children.

      With deliberant intent and eyes lost in the moment, Tarrin let go of his sword.  The blazing weapon dimmed and contracted when he let it go, until it was again nothing but a mortal weapon that clattered to the ground far below, the ringing of its impact sounding in his ears, like the chiming of the sweetest bell.  That act took Val off guard for a critical instant, in that instant Tarrin struck.  He surged forward with only a speed that a god could muster, and a speed that only a god could react to and counter.  But Tarrin's release  of his weapon had distracted the dark god for a fatal instant, and when Tarrin's flaming paw closed around the wrist of the shadowed hand holding the black rod, Val's eyes widened in shock and terror.  He returned to the physical world and tried to wrest free of the god's fiery grip, but could not.  He struggled and writhed as Tarrin's other paw reached out and grabbed him by the back of the head when he turned away, then dragged him into a deadly embrace.  Val writhed and struggled wildly to break free, trying to gather himself up for a final assault on the former Were-cat, an attack of wild desperation, but it was too late.  Tarrin's power focused inward, built to its maximum, even as his fiery wings folded over, covering over both himself and his insubstantial adversary, enclosing him within the fiery expanse of their inner curves.

      Tarrin bowed his head as he folded in his wings over Val, completely unafraid of what he was about to do.  Val, sensing his power, realizing what was about to happen, screamed and howled in terror, trying to break free, but his darkness was totally surrounded by Tarrin's light, and he could not escape.  He was trapped, imprisoned once again by his most hated foe, and he could only scream in a voice that could not contain his outrage, his terror, even as he did attempt to strike at Tarrin with all the power he could bring to bear.

      But it was too late.

      Mother, Tarrin's voice called out, totally at peace.  Take care of them for me.  I love you.

      And then, in a cataclysmic explosion of all of Tarrin's focused power, he destroyed Val.  And in so doing, he destroyed himself.

 

      The death of a god was a release of energies too vast to be contained by the material world.  The destruction of two in a simultaneous event was more than the planet could have withstood, had the combined might of every god of Sennadar not been there to contain that release.  The black pyramid, that man-made mountain rising up from the flat tundra, shuddered in the instant of that destruction, and then it was vaporized by a light brighter than a thousand suns, a light that erupted into a massive cataclysm of fire and energy that formed at the point of destruction, and then expanded away from it faster than any horse could ever run and any bird could ever fly.  It manifested as a hellish sphere of fire that expanded in every direction, including down, utterly destroying everything it touched.  It raced away like a shockwave, travelling impossibly fast, but not so fast that those mortals who glanced back did not see it racing towards them.

      Jesmind, Jasana, and the dragon that carried them were three such mortals.  Jesmind screamed in terror when she saw the flash, then looked behind to see a wall of fire raging towards them so fast it would overtake them in a matter of seconds.

      "Mama!" Jasana wailed, turning and clutching at her mother desperately, so desperately that she nearly fell off the dragon.  Jesmind held onto her tightly, sure that the dragon would never get away from that.

      All of that effort to get away, and it was for nothing!  Nothing!

      She saw strange lights ahead of them.  They were incandescent balls of light floating in the sky, and with some surprise, she realized somehow that they had to be the gods.  So, they had finally shown up!  Well it was a little too bloody late for them now!

      Move, dragon! the voice of the Goddess touched both Jesmind and the dragon.  You must get past us before the fires reach you!

      That seemed to spur the dragon on.  It beat its wings in a frenzied manner, frantically trying to outrun certain death as it raced up towards them from behind.  Jesmind clutched at Jasana as the little girl wailed and cried uncontrollably, wanting to cry herself, but so much had happened that she was almost numb with shock.  She could only look behind her and watch the broiling fireball roar towards them, watch with some distant interest as it consumed Goblinoids on the ground behind them, Goblinoids that had been closest to the pyramid when the earthquakes began, and hadn't had the time to get away.  She looked ahead and saw the blazing lights of the gods before them, and now she could make out bodies within those blinding lights, lights of every imaginable color, lights that encircled the fireball.  The ones she could see before her had their hands raised, as if to repel the fireball that was rushing towards them.

      She looked back once more, and saw that it was so close that she could almost feel its heat.  And from that distance, in a strange kind of way, it was a beautiful sight to behold.  Then the terror of certain death gripped her, tore her back into reality, and she screamed out her fear as she squeezed the little girl in her arms desperately, as if she could protect her from the fire with the power of sheer will and holding onto her as tightly as she could.

      But certain death would not claim Jesmind that day.  The dragon sizzled between two of the gods with the fireball hot on its tail, and then the gods set themselves in a unifying movement as the fireball reached them.  It struck something solid before the gods, a something that suddenly bulged from the strain of containing all that unbridled power, but did not break, containing the full fury of the fire safely inside it.  The shock of the impact transferred through the protective shield of godly might, sending a concussive shockwave away from them that knocked everyone down it struck, everyone but the largest of the dragons, who dug in their claws and relied on their raw size to let them withstand the blow.  That shockwave struck the dragon and its riders, and only Jesmind's inhuman strength locking her legs around the dragon's scaly neck managed to let her keep from getting dislodged from her mount.  The dragon shrieked in pain and fear as it was catapulted forwards by the impact, turning over in the air, and for a terrifying moment Jesmind looked up and saw the ground.  But the dragon somehow managed to twist in the air, righting itself, though it had lost a great deal of altitude.  It tried to pull up, and partially did so, but it still hit the ground fast enough to send Jesmind and Jasana flying over its head.  Jesmind tucked in her body and relied on her innate sense of presence in the air, knowing exacty where the ground was at all times in relation to her position, and it let her hit feet first.  She rolled to absorb the forward momentum, keeping Jasana safely tucked away and out of harm, then skidded to a stop.  She dropped to her knees immediately, hugging her sobbing child to her with trembling arms, unable to believe that they had actually managed to get away from that alive.

      Jasana couldn't stop crying, clutching onto her mother with her little claws digging into Jesmind's sides and her face buried in Jesmind's breast.  She tried to comfort her terrified child as best she could, but the terror of that ordeal was so strong in her that she wanted to be comforted.

      Jesmind looked up woodenly, to where the gods had been floating.  One by one, they disappeared, winked out of sight, as if stopping the fireball had been all that was required of them.  That angered Jesmind quite a bit, but she bit back that anger when she looked around and realized that the dragon had crashed among the armies that had been summoned to battle Val and his Goblinoids and Demons.  They extended on for a great distance, and she realized that their army must have gotten safely away from the explosion.

      The explosion!  That had happened at the pyramid, and that's where Tarrin had been!  Her mate couldn't be hurt by fire, so she was pretty sure that he was still alive, but, Goddess, what power!  Did that mean that Tarrin won?  Had he truly done the impossible and somehow managed to defeat a god?

      A bright light over her head made her look up, and she saw that not all the gods had departed.  There were ten left, and she realized dully that they were the Elder Gods.  Those ten deities looked down at them, but they were too far away for Jesmind to see their expressions.  But she did hear the voice of the Goddess touch her mind.

      It seems that your services are no longer required, she said in a heavy, exhausted manner.  Could gods really get tired?  It certainly sounded like it.  Don't worry, we're about to send you all back to where you came from.  When you arrive, we'll make sure that people are told what happened, so you can know.  You deserve that much for what you have done here today.  Go with our blessing, and know that we are both pleased and grateful for what you have done here today.

      Jesmind saw the light surrounding them flare suddenly--

      --and then she was kneeling on the cool grass of the Tower grounds, not far from the Knights' training field, along with all of Tarrin's sisters and friends, all the Knights and katzh-dashi, and quite a few Wikuni Marines and Arakite Legionaires.

      Now she was confused.  She looked around, and saw that everyone seemed as stunned as she was.  They stood where they were for long moments, utterly silent, but Keritanima and Jenna had haunted looks in their eyes.  It had all happened so fast, and she didn't understand even a portion of what was going on.  What had that fire been?  Had Tarrin won?  If so, then where was he?  He hadn't appeared with the others.

      She stood up on wobbly feet, totally drained and exhausted.  Not a moment ago, she was fleeing for her very life, now she was back at the Tower, safe and sound, and everything seemed to be over.  But what had happened?  And where was Tarrin?  She looked around, but she neither saw him or caught his scent anywhere.  She took a feeble step forward, but nearly toppled over.  Jasana continued to cling to her desperately, and her crying was the only sound that was coming from any of the shocked, stunned survivors of that most bizarre of experiences.

      A touch came on her shoulder.  She turned and saw her mother, Triana, who looked down at her daughter with a grim, resolute look on her face.  "Mother," she said in confusion and exhaustion.  "I have Jasana.  See?"  She tried to hold up her daughter, but Jasana's claws embedded in her sides made pulling her little girl away a potentially painful experience.  "Where is Tarrin?  He needs to see her.  I have to show him."

      Her innocent question sent a severe jag of intense pain through Triana's stony mask of expression, and Jasana wailed loudly.  "Papa's dead!" she screamed hysterically, then erupted into an even more intense outburst of tears.

      Jesmind stared up at her mother in utter disbelief, but the empty pain within her mother's eyes told her that it had to be true.  "No," she said in a bare whisper as the horrible truth crashed down on her.  "No, it can't be," she said more forcefully, clutching her daughter tightly to her breast.  But it was true, and that truth was more than she could bear.  She would have dropped to her knees had Triana's strong paws not caught her, and she closed her eyes in anguish as tears rolled down her cheeks.  She gave out a cry of such pain, such loss that it broke the heart of every person who heard it, a cry of one who had just lost everything that had meaning to her.

      "NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"