Sons of Ironstorm - Book 4: Griffon's Stand

The Shadow's Resolve

Ga'tung, Supreme Chancellor of the Kaal Eran forces in the lighted realm, felt his eyes narrow as he looked at first the report detailing the failure of shadow forces to take the fortress their enemies called 'Gorgon's Dagger' then at the current status of the purge of the traitorous human elements in their ranks.

The failure against two Wielders at Gorgon's Dagger he had expected. The shadow elves Master Bren had offered as soldiers were weak at best, ineffectual at worst and barely worth their time even as cannon fodder. Even when a small force of demons was sent to bolster the attempt, they were handily defeated, a testament to the growing power of the Wielders.

Ga'tung waved that part of the report away with a frustrated frown. Not only were Bren's shadow forces incompetent, but they had also served only to strengthen the Wielders' resolve and push them towards unlocking the majority of their abilities. Even here in distant Maedorin had he felt the pulse of energy that rippled across the fabric of time and space to announce the Wielders had achieved the next level in their growing power spectrum.

However, it wasn't as dire as the surface information would lead a lesser creature to believe. While it was annoying to feel the Wielders unlocking their powers, in truth the dark masters would consider it more of a challenge if the Wielders could actually resist them when they stepped out of the Abyss's embrace to engage them directly. Neither the Wielder of the Star nor the Wielder of the Earth had put up much of a fight when the Tactician captured them in the south part of the main continent. Now, however, that could possibly change with the Wielders having access to additional abilities and power.

No, what was truly troubling was discovering Bren's duplicity. How much of the council's inner workings had that human been privy to? How much of their overall plan had he learned before commanding forces loyal to him to begin thwarting the Kaal Eran's efforts to expand beyond Maedorin and bring the fight to the other continents? The fool had not only blunted their attack on the second largest continent with an ambush but had lost them the Earthforge portal as well. Other smaller attacks had followed, each carefully disguised to look like it was carried out by the enemy but the signs they discovered at each attack were unmistakable: Bren's sorcerers had turned against them.

The betrayal, in itself, wasn't what was causing the most powerful Kaal Eran in the lighted realm concern. Bren and his sorcerers were a means to an end, something to hold the Wielders at bay while the demons gathered their strength. Once the Kaal Eran were positioned to make their strike into mortal-held lands, they would've disposed of their erstwhile allies anyway. The fact that they had to do it sooner versus later was merely an inconvenience instead of a true issue.

It was the fact that Ga'tung had given Bren his trust that was causing the Chancellor no little amount of concern. Trust was a valuable commodity in the Abyss, given only to those that had truly earned it. Bren, in his opinion, had done so when he opened the gate to allow the Kaal Eran to Return to the lighted realm.

Bren's apparent betrayal in effect had undermined all of that, illustrating just how foolish Ga'tung had been in granting trust to the before-unknown-quantity that was the human sorcerer. And that was something their dark masters wouldn't be very pleased with. Especially Lord Furis, who was quite taken with the persuasive and ambitious Bren. The powerful, yet dangerously unstable dark master would be looking for something or someone to take his disappointment and anger out on and the Chancellor wished to avoid being the target of that terrible ire.

A soft chime momentarily pulled Ga'tung from his self-flagellating considerations. Touching a flashing indicator on the panel in front of him, he wiped all expression from his all-too-human face as a communication image shimmered into existence a couple handspans above the table's surface.