The Court of Souls?

“The utukku were a type of spirit In Sumerian religion that had escaped the underworld, either by their own power or by being summoned forth by a priest, such as the one appearing in the Epic of Gilgamesh. They could be either benevolent or evil. The evil utukku were called Edimmu and the good lamassu or shedu.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Semper Fidelis***

***Elona***

Our scouts searched for a few days before they finally found Moonray's hideout. Not that it is like he is trying to hide himself. No, in fact it is the complete opposite. Even if his facility is well protected against prying eyes, he practically rolled out a red carpet for us.

He has an underground facility which is awfully close to the mana storm. In fact, it is in a zone which is regularly hit by the storm.

The reason why it isn't well concealed any more, is because there is a huge magical circuit installed into the ground. Tons and tons of iron were refined and poured into creases which were carved into the lava.

Normally nobody would go anywhere close to the storm, so if we weren't searching for a hideout we would have never found it. Rusty metal isn't spotted easily, but since Moonray is pouring mana into his circuit the entire area is lit up like a Christmas tree.

I lower the sheet of paper and cast a look at the people who are gathered in the throne room. “If those reports are correct, then they are clearly trying to open some kind of portal. But why it has to be done in the vicinity of a mana storm, I have no idea. We should hurry and stop them from doing whatever they are trying to do.”

“It doesn't matter. From Moonray's behaviour I judge that they are ready to open it any time. They are just waiting for us, for whatever reason.” Shade closes his eyes and massages the bridge of his nose. “I think that Moonray wants to open a pathway to another realm.”

Ishaan shakes his head. “But why!? Why go through all that trouble? He should open the damned pathway and go if he is that keen on escaping this realm. Why does he need us? And I thought that there is no way out of Dedessia?”

Shade shakes his head. “That's not entirely true. I've had a long time to think about it and I am almost certain that the mana storms are zones in which the different realms touch each other. They grind at each others reality and therefore create static energy. The mana storms are the physical result of what happens when two realities overlap. I think that Moonray intends to poke a hole into the thin fabric between our plane and somewhere else.”

Tisha widens her eyes. “Does that mean that the spirits aren't created by the mana storms!? They slipped through from another plane of existence?”

Shade shrugs. “That remains to be seen.”

“That still doesn't explain why he needs as many higher immortals as possible in close vicinity to his portal,” I mumble.

“Isn't it obvious?” asks Doreen and crosses her arms in front of her chest. “He doesn't know what will happen when he opens the portal to another realm. He needs a distraction. And what's a better distraction than a huge army which is attacking the portal?”

I close my eyes and try to think it through. Grandmother has a point, but if she is right, there are also other implications. “That would mean that he knows what will happen as soon as he opens the portal.”

Antonius gestures at his own duplicate of the report. “I just don't get how they managed to get so much iron. The circle is huge and so much metal is worth a fortune. If anyone had known about it, they would have raided the facility for the resources. And how did they manage to conceal it for so long?”

Shade makes a dismissive gesture. “Isn't it obvious? Moonray must have gotten something in return for working with the slavers. Who knows how much information he provided to them? And Parle had a mine which ran for years. Everyone knows that it didn't yield much. But what if that wasn't true either? What if Moonray took most of the iron for himself and in exchange provided information for the slavers? The slavers certainly wouldn't care if they are working a few minor slaves to death, as long as there is a steady stream of replacements.”

Suddenly my throat feels dry. The cruel determination and long term plans of Moonray are getting worse and worse with every bit of uncovered information. Is there any chance at all to stop him from opening the portal? If all our theories are true, then he will open the portal as soon as we arrive with a mentionable fighting force. “Does that mean that our only chance is to sit it out and force him to make a move?”

We would be forced back into the role of reacting to his moves. A major setback!

The biggest problem is the mana storm. We can't use strong magic in its vicinity, so Moonray will see us coming from miles away. The area ensures that there is no way to conceal ourselves. We aren't even sure if Moonray would pay any heed to our restrictions. He holds the safe ground.

If we approach his facility, he could simply cast strong magic and set off the mana storm. When he retreats underground he will be safe from the storm while we are caught in the open and torn to pieces. Our only hope is that a spirit takes notice of his little circle and destroys it. But that's probably too much to hope. This facility must have existed for a long time, so he surely has a way to defend against spirits.

Our tactical meeting is interrupted by one of Tisha's harem girls who enters the throne room. It's the redhead. Since this is a closed meeting with only high ranking members, all eyes focus on her expectantly. She gloats and enjoys the attention for a few moments, then she bows apologetically. “I am sorry to interrupt, but there are several representatives from the allied clans outside. They are complaining about a certain incident and since they are fairly sure that none of them was the culprit, they want to have a discussion with us.”

I raise both eyebrows. “Which incident?”

The redhead bows. “Apparently Imothep is gone, together with their whole island. The allied clans want to know if we are responsible for it.”

My head swivels slowly towards Shade. He is busily studying his staff, not looking at me.

“Honeybear, is there any chance that you would know something about this?” I ask with a smile plastered on my face.

He shrugs. “I may have paid them a visit and given them a choice. Unfortunately Ra didn't cooperate, so I had to make an example of them.”

I feel the corner of my mouth starting to twitch. “You wiped out an entire clan? Alone?”

He sighs and turns towards me, then he starts counting on his fingers. “Sugarcat, I am sorry if you think that I did something that's morally wrong. But just think about it for a moment. Their higher immortals attacked us in open battle. There is no way to tell what they would have done to our labourers if we would have been defeated.”

A pearl of sweat starts forming on his forehead.

“So we had to punish them somehow. We certainly couldn't let such individuals roam free. And if we punished only their higher immortals, we'd doom the rest of them to be wiped out by a spirit sooner or later. We certainly can't take in even more people. And I most certainly won't give them our crystal technology to use against us. Hence I decided to wipe them out in one clean blow. I promise that they didn't feel it. Just a flash of light, that's all.”

I study him for several moments just to let him sweat. “Honeybear, I don't object to your decision. But what I am concerned about is that you went there alone! What if something had happened to you!?”

He shrugs. “It wasn't like I was in any danger. I used one of my shadows as an ambassador and when they refused I wiped out the island with my chaos magic from a safe distance.”

Oh, if it's like that...

I return my attention to the people around us. “What's with the long faces? Get the representatives from the allied clans. We have a lot to talk about.”

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