Epilogue

She lay on the cavern floor, unmoving, her twisted limbs spread awkwardly as she stared at the high ceiling above.  She had failed, and with failure came fear.  Her masters would soon know of this failure, if they did not already have the knowledge. 

Trembling on the rock floor, exhausted from the battle fought with the forces she had never encountered before, she pleaded with her masters even as she sent the message of her failure to them.

She was explicit within the message, sparing no detail of what had happened and filled the mist-carried winged messenger with her impression of the powers that had defeated her creations and herself.  At the end of the woeful tale, she added her plea for mercy, knowing full well it might never be answered.

But there was no choice.  There was no one other than her dark masters, the rulers of her world, the ones who had entrusted this part of the world to her with the most important task of all.  To destroy Roth, his woman, his child and the woman-child called Areenna, just as she had killed the woman child’s mother with a lingering painful death.

She dragged herself from the floor and half-walked half-scuttled to the cavern’s opening, where the winged mist awaited.  She drew into herself, all the strength she could muster and once her message was complete, and the mist swirled about her impatiently, she would either live or die at their whim.  Yet, until that day came, she would not cease her attempts to finish what her masters had commanded. 

“I will destroy them, I will do as you have commanded. Or I will give my life in the attempt.”

A rush of confidence filled her when she swirled her hands and called up the formula to send the message on its winged way.

She completed the formula and the mist disappeared. She looked up into the sky and saw not the cloud-filled heavens above, but the faces of the four she had sworn to destroy.  From within the black remnants of what once was her soul came a haunting laugh, for she knew what was coming.

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The End

Tales Of Nevaeh, Volume I

Born To Magic

A special preview of book II, The Dark Masters, follows.