No sooner had Kevin lifted the tent flaps than he found Zeh-Ahbe’ waiting outside. The leader of the Say-awr’ sat patiently, cross-legged on the ground.
“Is something troubling you, Zeh-Ahbe’?” Kevin asked.
“Yes, and no,” he replied as he climbed to his feet. He dusted himself off and walked with the group.
“No because I am still too thrilled about my salvation that nothing can really bother me.”
“Don’t ever lose that feeling,” Kevin advised him, “hold onto that with everything that you’ve got.” He silently prayed that Zeh-Ahbe’ would not lose that internal fire.
“Though I am still so enraptured in what has happened to me, I have a particular sadness on my part for the kil-yaw’. I have to return to the kil-yaw’ for one final meeting. Not just because I want to go to them and share with them what I have found, but because a messenger came to me this morning and stated that the kil-yaw’ meets tonight. If I do not go, they will assume something bad has happened—especially when they cannot find any members of tribe Say-awr’ present. They will form a hunting party and come searching for us.”
“It is your decision to go or stay. But I would like to know more about your kind. We have so many of your tribemates among us and I am curious. I know practically nothing as it stands, so anywhere is a good place to start,” Kevin said. “I need to know how I can best minister to your people.”
They came to an area dominated by an immense, sawn-off tree stump. Kevin sat next to it. He invited Zeh-Ahbe’ to sit and teach him about his culture.
“The Say-awr’ are the least of the tribes within the kil-yaw’,” Zeh-Ahbe’ explained. “The kil-yaw’ is made up of the leaders and escorts of the ten werewolf tribes. The lowest of these is Say-awr’, it literally means ‘hair.’ Then comes Zaw-nawb’, the tail, followed by Ore, they are hide. These are the low tribes.
“Some other tribes have a middle status, Tsip-po’-ren is claw, Shane’ is fang, Dawm is blood, Eh’-tsem is bone and Gheed is sinew. These tribes all have similar standing and often vie against each other for positions of power from the highest tribes.
“The two highest clans are the Kaw-bade’, which is the viscera or the internals, and then the highest and wisest of them is the Ahee-sthay-tay’-ree-on: the senses.
“Kil-yaw’ means ‘the mind.’ Together, we decide what should be accomplished. We decide to go or stay… where the body goes to and the length of our stay; we are nomadic and require a great deal of food to keep up our energy, especially when in our hybrid forms.
“We have been making our way across the eastern coasts these last several years… avoiding the rocky terrain of the central countries like Lol; they do not tend to have good prey. We also stay out of Briganik because of the mountains that rise with their foothills rooted in Lol.
“At least this is how the kil-yaw’ is now. Long ago we were much more warlike and often waged battles against orc and dwarven villages. Wherever meat was, we went; that was when the Kaw-bade’ was the dominant tribe of the kil-yaw’. After a time, the warlike ways of the Kaw-bade’ led to such a reduction in our numbers that the Ahee-sthay-tay’-ree-on gained supremacy and brought with it a philosophical revolution. They have led us in new ways; we no longer prey upon reasoning creatures, but instead upon other large game. This is pivotal to our personal safety and welfare. We keep our numbers down, selectively breeding to keep from overgrowing our colonies with appetites that could never be met. In the old times, we had become like locusts that consumed everything and move on—until all the prey rose up against us. The Ahee-sthay-tay’-ree-on are thinkers: very wise.”
“When must you go?” asked Kevin.
“This evening. I must leave with two of my trusted tribemates. I will take Rah’-be and Sil-tarn. You might recognize them, but I don’t think that you have been formally introduced. Anyone else who accompanies us would be in peril for their life. Attending without invitation from the kil-yaw’ means death. I will leave Raz-aphf in charge in our stead.”
Zeh-Ahbe’ grimaced with deep thought. “I have a problem that I do not know how to remedy.”
Kevin gave him a curious look. “I certainly know how you feel, but don’t understand your circumstances.”
Zeh-Ahbe’ sighed. “The meeting of the kil-yaw’ requires that I arrive in my werewolf form, as will be required of Rah’-be and Sil-tarn as well. You were right about our abilities. Our decision requires that we submit ourselves to God as fully human, reliant upon only Jesus as our master. We can no longer assume our wolf forms.”
“We will pray together, my friend,” Kevin said. “God will supply the strength you need to carry on.” The words struck home to Kevin as a remedy to his own disquiet spirit.
“I will see you off and pray for you before and after you leave. For now, tell me more about your people, your tribe. How can I better teach the Say-awr’ what it means to be a Christian?”
***
Absinthium stood alone in the complete silence; the chambers of his master spread around him. Hours ago he’d climbed the stairs of the Babel Tower; his gryphon deposited him at the tower’s base and watched him ascend the winding column of stairs on foot. Gryphons could make incredible speed on wind or ground. Initially bred to pull chariots for their demon masters, these magnificent creatures could make the trip from northern Ninda to the center of Briganik in just over a day’s time. They flew so fast that Absinthium could do little but bury himself within the large, downy feathers in order to prevent the wind from prying him off the creature’s back.
Candlelight flickered in the room, casting shadows that jumped about like imps overcome with mischievous glee. The flames howled in protest as a supernatural breeze gushed through the room, almost snuffing the lights of the candelabra.
Absinthium bowed low and dropped to one knee. He cast his eyes to the ground as his master, beh’-tsah, materialized before him, pulling his very essence from the shadows; a dark whirlwind of energy solidified into the towering and grotesque form of the overlord. The demon stomped the cobblestone floor two times in succession. The booming sound echoed through the chamber as a sign that his servant may rise and look upon him.
The weathered arch-mage stood and regarded his dark master. beh’-tsah stood a full fifteen feet. His gnarled face and twisted visage resembled a burn victim’s and told the story of glory hard-won through battle. His nonsymmetrical nose gave him a horrible kobold appearance with such canine-like features, though there was no kobold to ever look so terrifying and hideous. Below a black hide like hairy boar leather and haunches like a lion’s, his large taloned feet clicked loudly on the cobblestone as the beast walked a slow circle around his herald. The demon draped behind him his massive black wings, like those of some horrible drake, veined in deep purple; they complemented the yellowed, stained ram-like horns that protruded from his forehead and the simple bovine tail which hung so low it nearly touched the floor.
beh’-tsah’ clacked his teeth together to ensure that he’d resumed full corporeality. His sharp, gnarly teeth protruded from his maw in every seeming direction, stained, chipped, and misshapen from crunching upon the skulls of man and beast alike. While his physical features appeared terrifying to both man and to ekthro alike, Absinthium knew and loved his master. Absinthium had grown to love the terror that made him feel so alive in his core.
A simple loincloth hung about the demon’s waist; made from claw-rent dragon’s skin, the fine, crimson scales shimmered in the low flame light. beh’-tsah’s breast was clad in armor assembled from the ribcages of men whose bones were bleached white in places and encrusted red where torn flesh once clung in others. Around his neck hung a fine cord and strung upon it were the claws and shriveled eyeballs of the same dragon whose hide made the loincloth.
The mage knew the significance of the clothing his master wore; each item came from a personal kill and reminded any who saw him of the demon’s raw power. The dragon’s parts had been torn fr
om his predecessor—the previous head of the demonic Gathering. meh’-red had assumed a dragon’s form when he met his rival in battle, a battle ending in his demise.
Absinthium looked upon beh’-tsah and understood power. There was much power in fear.
“What news do you bring from the campaign in Jand? I had not time to divine the information for myself …I have been fighting a campaign here in the heavens to annihilate any would-be usurpers. I trust that the goblins are well pleased that they will have the power to assert their own plans and finally unveil their great subterranean network?”
“The leaders in Grinden grow expectant, my Lord, though the politics of the new regime are coming along as expected. Rutheir has solidified his position as the new ruler and the goblin diplomats have fully embraced our plan; these underlings of King Nvv-Fryyg wield all of the true power in the under-dweller’s realm.
“The goblins are quite cunning—selfish too. They recognize the potential in their subterranean highway but seek to use it for fiscal profit rather than to take real power. Nvv-Fryyg is far too removed from his own politics and he places too much trust in his envoys. They will have his head in a short while if he continues ignoring his kingdom in pursuit of selfish lusts; I imagine he’ll end his existence soon, roasted on a fire spit as a victory feast when their eventual coup is consummated.” Absinthium could picture the gluttonous goblin king’s thorax bursting and oozing juice from the cooked tissue as his carcass roasted over hot coals. He shook away the unappealing thought. “The politicians are very happy with the proceedings and the leading council in Ninda was extremely compliant.”
The demon grinned a wide carnivorous smile.
“The goblins must stay compliant; they are a key to this plan. I have given them what they required for this bargain. They will get total ownership of the Grinden location: both the surface and what lies below; we will get our followers. We will use the goblins from Nvv-Fryyg’s kingdom as our test run. We can use this group as evidence to the other ekthro that Luciferianism is right for them and show them our faithful ones who embraced the doctrines. Eventually, control will develop and solidify into such a power base that I can use its wave of bodies as a hammer to reshape this land however I envision it. I will rebuild the second heavens, destroy my opposition in the western mountains—those abominations that the jealous fool hay-lale’ first created at the beginning in his first twisted attempt at creating life—I will eventually blockade the gate in the west.”
The demon paused, amused with the praise he heaped upon himself in his monologue. He continued.
“All goes as I have planned. My rise to ultimate power has begun. No creature can stop what has been set in motion; I will soon have ultimate control, and I will be god in this place. I have forced nearly every demon on the Gathering into submission, and now but a few remaining demonic warlords must I vie with; if I contend with those warlike meddlers one by one, they will each fall before me and I will devour their eyes. I will be crowned as Lucifer.”
The demon gnawed on his tongue at the thought and his eyes stared into the supposed future that he planned. A thin trail of blood leaked from his mouth as he grinned.
“There is more, BEH’-TSAH,” the arch-mage interrupted. “The political campaign is going exactly as planned, but while you were preparing to meet with me I did divine the recent events in Grinden.”
Absinthium paused for a second, knowing what it is that he must say, but not wanting to upset the mood that his master was in. He’d learned that the direct approach was the best one.
“That which you fear is occurring right now in the city of Grinden.”
The words lingered in the air as if they were forbidden, like a child who had just flung profanities at a parent. beh’-tsah blinked blankly. What he had just heard was an impossibility.
“Explain your statement.”
A light of hatred had kindled deep inside of beh’-tsah’s cold, hard eyes.
Absinthium, leader of the Luciferian order, commander and manipulator of countless men, and arch-mage with no comparison, was rendered momentarily speechless. He wilted slightly before the foul breath of his dark master.
“The one thing that you have cause to fear is coming to pass. Someone is preaching of Yahweh’s grace in Grinden. They are tying in another name with this theology as well.”
The demon was agitated. He leaned more into the conversation.
“Tell me! Who is this other one that they align with their message? Are you sure of this, or could your divinations be wrong?”
“There is no error in my divination. Not everything was revealed to me in my vision, but I did see one name clearly: Jesus.”
beh’-tsah recoiled at the name, something that Absinthium had never seen nor thought possible. The monster gathered his wings and tail to himself; he seemed lost in thought and withdrew in deep concern.
“So then, it is true. The Christians I devoured so long ago spoke truly. The Son actually stepped down and rescued his condemned creation. I must question Karoz about this. The ageless prisoner may give me some insight. He will not stop at Earth if it is true; if He actually performed the substitutionary sacrifice with His own body then He will stop at nothing to redeem as many souls as He can. Truly, He could make enough atonement for every man who will ever live.”
His ugly mouth spat a string of incomprehensible curses from various languages, the worst possible from many dialects. beh’-tsah clutched his fists in fury at the potential ramifications.
“He is at work, even here. There must be a loophole! How can He send in more prophets unless there is some sort of loophole? He would not break His own word—He cannot; to do that would be so cataclysmic that reality would shatter and everything would cease to exist.”
The demon shouted a loud phrase, magically commanding a certain scroll into existence for examination.
“Qara meyshar terem ‘eth!”
A brilliant light flashed and it seemed as if the very particles of air in the room quaked with the powers he commanded. The demon stretched out his hand, palm upward, and a parchment scroll burst into existence within his grasp. It shone with a supernatural corona. beh’-tsah unrolled the scroll and began reading it to himself.
Absinthium could see that it was written in a language that he could not read: the language of heavenly beings. Penned in a kind of silver ink, the lettering glowed like rays of sunshine shimmering upon the surface of the sea.
beh’-tsah’s eyes tracked back and forth several times as he examined the accord Lucifer had struck with Yahweh so long ago. He paused for thought after reading it, paced a few steps, and then resumed his studies again. This happened several times. Absinthium stood at attention the entire while, waiting for his dread lord to come to a conclusion on the matter. After many long minutes, beh’-tsah spoke another mystic command and waved the scroll out of existence, returning it to the plane that he’d summoned it from.
“I know what has happened. Long ago, at the beginning, the Word was spoken: the Logos. Those of us who fell with hay-lale’ disregarded the Logos. We had to; if we had believed it then we would have never chosen rebellion. We would have never believed the words hay-lale’ used to tickle our ears should we have chosen to fully believe the Logos. Despite that, we all knew the Logos; it was with God and it was God. It stated and reaffirmed everything that those older prophets who rose in this realm preached… before I consumed them. These events in Grinden only show that He is still working hard to make His statements come to pass—I refuse to believe that He has already written history. There must be a way to overthrow it, and there must be an option for victory. I refuse to believe anything else...
But the Logos…
“The Logos said that in the end of all things, when He decided to bring His plan for creation to a close, before He ends it all, His message would be heralded in all of the lands.”
A moment of dawning comprehension overtook the demon overlord. His pupils shr
ank as he fully understood the situation.
“The agreement. It states the conditions and outlines the accord between He and hay-lale’ and it allows this place to exist outside of Yahweh’s jurisdiction, giving complete ownership and control to us, his opposition, though it leaves mankind’s souls still subject to the damnation of inherited sin. It is a grand mousetrap indeed. This agreement, signed by the triune Godhead, allows us to access the power we wield, it legalizes our magics. But there is a loophole…
“There is a cleverly inserted clause here in the terms and conditions of exclusivity that allows for action already endorsed by the Logos. The Logos precedes anything else and we cannot violate it; the agreement is all worded around the Logos—it was expertly penned by Yahweh to leave a loophole that inserts a messenger at the time of the onset of Yahweh’s wrath. That must have been a forethought on their part… and they call hay-lale’ the Deceiver…
The demon focused once again on his servant. Foreseeing the possible chain of events, beh’-tsah knew that he must put a stop to any Christian activity.
“Absinthium, I commission you to destroy every known Christian in existence. Train and teach others to do the same in case you fall before your task is complete. This is our greatest threat. This menace imperils everything that we have worked for and could even destroy the very existence of this place…
“You must act at all times in interest of this: it is your highest calling. You are the only servant that I find trustworthy enough to have my full authority on this matter. You must destroy this cell of dissidents before they unleash a power unlike any other…
“You know the power that you command as my most loyal servant, the magic that you wield and the supernatural abilities you can perform. If this message spreads and their faith grows amongst the people, a power will be unleashed—the Holy Spirit—and the lands will radically change. People, ordinary people, will begin to command power that even exceeds yours. This power will only increase as the number of believers in Christ increase across the realm; as their numbers increase exponentially so will the Holy Spirit’s presence. Muted for all of these years, it will grow and enable them to perform increasingly greater miracles. It is like a plague to us, a disease that will weaken and eventually destroy us if we do not rise up and kill it in its infancy…
The Kakos Realm Collection Page 19
