War for Auros: Origins

Deryck 1

Deryck

"His Authority will see you now, Lord Styrr." Two Guardians of the Court pulled the solid doors of the throneroom ajar. Deryck's face was a grave stolidity rounded by his gold-lined monocle which was clasped tightly inside his brow. The entire ordeal with the Black Wolf had him more agitated than usual.

He strode into the hall, and sighted the Autur sitting, ankle rested on knee, arms thrown longly about the rests of his golden throne, ogling him with more aloofness than he would have anticipated, given the gravity of the situation. He wore a dark leather mantle over his very tall and thin frame and his loose pants were streaked with lines of brown and black. Upon the top step of a shallow set of curved stairs which led to the throne, his boots rested, and were high, dark and slightly arched at his toes. His hair was a storm, torrid and white, and his beard was a lightning bolt of the same colour. There was a sallowness to his skin that suggested a deficiency of sunlight, and he was so gaunt that the purple veins in his neck could just as easily be abysmal fissures hewn deep into his skin.

The throneroom was clad in golden Rhysian banners, and gold flourishes which resembled lucid teardrops drooped in ordered triads from the hall's many arches and columns. Light poured in behind him as he stood facing the Autur, and although the hall was bright and gleaming, a pervading shadow befell the throne that left the Autur darkened, his sharp features shaded.

Lord Styrr stood at the foot of the throne and bowed to the master of the city. In reply, the man smiled vaguely, appearing ready to counsel, and nodded a head to the Guardians of the Court who erected gold-laced halberds at both sides of Deryck. They slowly animated themselves and awayed back through the golden doors from which they came. "Your old butler told me you were in a maddened and irritable state, so I relayed my information to him. If you wanted to speak to me you should not have been so intemperate."

Deryck did not enjoy the Autur's tone; he had no idea of the origin of his previous troubles, but he came for information, and was determined not to leave without it, even if it meant the Auturs snipes went ignored. "I presume you know why I'm here?"

"Of course. For what other reason could the least agreeable churl of Rhysea be plaguing my home at this tragic time? You want to know how to survive. And I'll tell you how. Surrender a million gold coins to me and I'll build a wall so high and so impenetrable that the Obheris will never be able to pass into our sordid, stately lives. A meagre sum of money to somebody so affluent and industrious as you. What say you to that?"

Deryck's jaw tightened as he contemplated giving so much money away, but he was under no illusion; a great wall did need to be built, and there was more than the worth of a million gold coins in his treasury. Alas, he was not familiar with the outlandish name the Autur employed. "The Obheris?"

"Yes. That is the name of our black blight - the dauntless demon who bedevils the southern dead as we speak. The lupine spawn of Uthopos - the Demon Realm. Yes, my Lord, the wolf is not a worldly beast which was born of the woods and raised among a brood - it is a thing of shadow; a beast raised amidst perpetual darkness. Impalpable, yet as dangerous as it is tenuous. A thousand men have fallen to it, and a thousand yet will, unless we raise our stone-wrought absolution with haste. But, you can be sure of your safety yet, for my sentinel wizards know its exact movements, and they know too where our fortification will be best built." He stared past Deryck and winced from the intensity of the sunlight that met his eyes. "Take a look at the balconies over the periphery of this magnificent chamber. The wizards' magic is quite extraordinary, and their dark orbs show us the aspects of the Wolf as it desolates our southern headland. The Black Wolf sings to them, my Lord, through the sinews and warps of the hellish realm. Have you heard of the demon lord Varthizus - the Uthoposian God who has given the power of vision to my wizards?"