Mallory Muses

Mallory's Blades take up positions according to his silent mental commands. He has brought his entire personal legion, the legendary Blades, comprised of the elite warriors, intelligent war horses and battle cats, and military trained Elven mages from the Academies of Camellia. Well seasoned and well trained, the bulk of this legion is comprised of personal troops that made the trip to Chaos and back with Mallory during the war of Patternfall.

The hall is surrounded, all paths of entrance and exit blocked, and with another silent command Mallory and a special unit of mages make their way toward the two story doors that mark the grand entrance to this monolith of stone. These mages have been trained by the Horned Guard, taught to ferret out shapeshifters, and contain the agents of Chaos.

Mallory flings open the doors and strolls into the hall with a phalanx of hooded mages in tow, his boots upon the stone floor the only sound in the room that has now gone silent. Blades flow through the doors behind them and take positions at every exit, while the rest of the legion seals the great doors from the outside. Mallory's gaze sweeps the assembly, and the looks on the faces of the nobles, dignitaries, and officials from around the Golden Circle. They are a mixture of surprise, outrage, fear, and absolute terror.

One arrogant individual, an official of Novgorad and outspoken opponent of Mallory, steps forward to begin a rant filled with outrage and indignation.

"How dare..."Silence!", commands Mallory. And they obey. For his enemies have done their job well, and he is known now as the Tyrant, the Mad, the Ruthless, even though his actions speak only to the contrary."

"REVEAL THE SPAWN OF CHAOS, REVEAL THE POISON THAT THREATENS US ALL!" And upon his command the Elven mages speak the words with arms raised, and a wave of rippling energy sweeps the room. An energy that demands that the True Form of all be seen. Shrieks of outrage and panic go up across the assembled dignitaries, as the official from Novgorad transforms into a hideous multi-armed demon, with cloven hooves, and curling horns. And then more screams of fear and panic as more transformations take place among the crowd.

Quickly the mages work their magic, gesturing and speaking in all directions, demons fall stiff from paralysis, caught within invisible cages of air, or encased within stone prisons as the floor of the hall flows over them. Those demons which escape the mages quick magic are swiftly subdued by the Blades present, all too familiar with the effective ways of dealing with demonic adversaries.

The uproar of the hall subsides and quietness reigns again, except for the occasional squeal of a subdued demon, as all eyes once again return to Mallory.

"What do you see? I'll tell you what the Church would see. It would see heretics here, a whole room full of them. Betrayers in league with spawn of chaos!" Mallory says as he points to the demon and former official of Novgorad at his feet for emphasis.

"I wear many hats, as you all may well know, and that makes my job here challenging. As a Patriot Son of Amber and Knight of the Realm I should judge your crimes now and hang you all! As a General of Amber I should see you all as a threat and act accordingly. As a General I see your planning here as move to undermine Amber, to hold her prisoner and make her vulnerable to outside influence, to hold her hostage with your goods and trades and greed. What I see is that you are in league with Chaos to make Amber weak, to make her vulnerable, so that she can be controlled by you, so that she can be controlled by Chaos!

"As the ruler of Camellia I should see this as my opportunity to take revenge upon you all, upon those who would call me enemy, to those who would slander my good name, poison the ears and minds and hearts of my oldest and most beloved allies, of those who would hurt the good people of Camellia whom I love! TYRANT? MADMAN? Be careful what you wish for, my friends, for I am all too ready NOW to give you what you already expect of me!

"As a man, I am hurt by you. I know one thing above all, and that is Duty. Tyrant? I have spent my life in service to you! I have marched to the Courts of Chaos itself to face the demons that would destroy you and feed upon your young! I have spent the last five years helping you to rebuild! My life is spent protecting you, protecting Amber, for whatever happens to her happens to us all! There are those among you who would call me enemy. Why? Is it your greed? Do you covet what I possess? Did I wrong you, am I unfair? IF you have a complaint against me, then face me and I will respect you.

"If you have called me friend before, then look at yourself, look at these creatures, and see how easily you were turned away from what has been good by the lies and sly tongues of politicians and monsters.

"Amber and the Golden Circle form a web. One based on mutual need, interdependence, and good will. What has been taking place amongst you is the unraveling of that web. You stab yourself in the back with your own actions.

"I have marched on Chaos and killed their sons, and they have no love for me now or for Amber. What you see before you are those agents of hatred, come to whisper poison in the ears of my political and economic allies and adversaries alike, to urge you all to slit your own throats, to urge you to division with Amber, to urge you to scorn your protector and ally."

Mallory awakes with a start, his bed sheets soaked in sweat, with two lingering images hovering in his awareness. One is the image of peace and prosperity, of old allies shaking his hand once again, of goods flowing through Camellia, of old enemies bringing their complaints to him for fair consideration and reconciliation.

The other image is one of fire, lightening, hurricane winds, swords and bloodshed, screaming and dying, the smell of burnt flesh, and a picture of a stone hall collapsing in upon itself and those trapped within.

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