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The dark lord looked up from his desk to Vesakan, who stood at attention a few feet in front of him. His concentration had been interrupted by a strange thought, a memory from his past.
"What is amiss, my high lord?" Vesakan immediately intoned, her body stiffening in anticipation of his disapproval at her forwardness.
Sayron ignored her and rose to pace the length of his personal quarters. Why was he thinking just then about the king? It seemed more and more often he was suffering from spontaneous nostalgia. He had unconsciously come to a stop beside Amy's lifestone and looked down at it. He had once sought comfort in her presence, and he frowned at the implication that he was doing so just then.
Vesakan had not been so forward as to turn her body to watch him, but she was casting a curious and concerned look over her shoulder.
"Dismissed," he commanded.
Vesakan turned and bowed deeply, then strode out, closing the door behind her.
The dark lord waited until he heard the door beyond his atrium to open and close before he went to his laboratory. Now that his senses were awakened, he felt the lingering echo of great magic. It did not take much scrying to discover that Jellen had razed the city of Signet, the capital of the human territories.
The dark lord stared for a long moment at the decimation of the city, the bodies filling the streets, the leveled battlefield. The taint of sorcery was so heavy, plants leagues away had begun to wither. Jellen had scorched the earth with the poisonous magic so heavily that nothing would grow there ever again.
An unexpected pang of rage awakened in Sayron at the scar left on the land in Faiden. Before he could think better of it, he pulled the communication disk from the wall and summoned Jellen. The sorcerer was not in the fortress, but the dark lord didn't care. He willed so much strength into the summons, he was sure it must have hurt Jellen. He felt the sorcerer's distance from the communication dish shorten significantly, then Jellen's infuriated features filled the silver disk.
"How dare you call me thus?" Jellen raged as a trickle of blood ran from his nose. "And to call me to a disk instead of in person—"
"You savage, murderous, blood-thirsty fool!" Sayron shouted, immediately silencing the high commander. "How dare you raze an entire city in my kingdom without leave!"
Jellen's shock faded, and a malicious smirk curled his lip as he dabbed the blood from his nose with a handkerchief. "Cities are destroyed by sorcerers in your kingdom all the time. Why should this one be any different?"
The dark lord came back to his senses quickly at the truth in Jellen's observation. Sorcerers razed cities often enough, and the dark lord did nothing to discourage them or reprimand them. He only required a report of the actions of everyone involved, including what transgressions of the inhabitants led to the punishing blow. Why had he been so angered, so offended by this one? He did not lessen the severity of his glare or tone, not wishing to appear taken aback. "This was the capital, you idiot!"
Jellen's smile widened. "You destroyed the capitals of both blood-elven kingdoms, even killed the royal family of one and handed its lands over to its sister kingdom. I find your outrage hypocritical at best. More importantly, I find it suspect. You have not even asked why I did it."
The dark lord shook his head. "When I act, it is far different than when you are permitted to act. You answer to me," the dark lord reminded him. "I sent you down there to observe and contain the human generals—"
"That is what I am doing, High Lord," Jellen snidely remarked.
"No! You are starting a war!" Sayron shouted. "Do not think for a moment that I do not see what you are doing!"
Jellen shook his head, his voice smooth and steady, almost patronizing in its tone. "They were training an army, my high lord. I was merely setting an example, as we commanders are wont to do when there is evidence of open dissent. Fear not, all of my reasons will be clearly explained in my report." Jellen severed the connection without salutation, and the dark lord was tempted to summon him again to reprimand the insult.
Instead, he placed the disk upon the wall once more. The voices were whispering to him again. They liked what Jellen had done; the orb was pleased with the city sacrificed. It wanted the dark lord to spend more time admiring Jellen's work.
The dark lord sighed and returned to the desk in his personal chambers to continue the work that had been interrupted. He wasn't sure he even remembered what had distracted him in the first place.