Chapter Sixteen
Anoreth followed the old man into the Great Wood and far to the east, into the lands beyond. For many days they wandered, Anoreth following the old man. At night, the man would kindle a fire by the wave of his hand, and he roasted great slabs of meat over it. Fat dripped and sizzled over the flames, and the aroma made Anoreth’s stomach rumble, but the old man offered Him nothing, though Anoreth crouched at the edge of the firelight within in sight of the man. This repeated for many nights, unchanging, until one night when the man suddenly turned and offered Anoreth a leg of roast mutton. Anoreth refused with a wave of His hand, though His stomach burned with hunger. The old man just laughed.
The next day, the old man began scaling a tall mountain. Though he appeared to be very old, he climbed without tiring. Anoreth followed. It took five days to reach the top.
Sitting upon the pinnacle, the old man spoke to Anoreth for the first time. “They say that you are the Messiah. What is your name, Illuminar?”
“I am Inár-Ádun.”
“Ha!” the old man laughed. After a time, he spoke again. “I am the ruler over all that you see. I will give it all to you if you will do but one thing for me. Acknowledge that I am your Father.”
“Do not stand before me, old man, and claim to be My father, for you know in truth who My Father is.”
A clap of thunder rent the blue sky, and the old man cowered before Inár-Ádun, and then rose up in a giant black shadow and took on his real form, a great, headless warrior in black armor wearing an iron crown. Eyes of molten red flared in the emptiness beneath the crown. Then the shadow raced down the mountain, and Inár-Ádun followed.
The shadow stopped on a lower pinnacle, blanketed with snow, and pointed down to a shining castle that was perched on a crest far below. “This is the great
“Do not tempt me, shadow. My battle with you will come another time.”
The headless shadow grew angry, and in his wrath he grew to a great height and threatened to swallow Inár-Ádun in his dark shadow. But Inár-Ádun burst into a white light that grew to rival the sun above, and His light turned back the shadow and sent it scattering to the cracks and crevices of the mountains and deep places of the world. Then, Inár-Ádun’s light diminished, and He turned away from the Demon Lord and back toward the west, descended to the green grass of the hills, and walked into the wild.
When Inár-Ádun was lost from sight, the Demon Lord’s shadow coalesced again, and he turned and looked toward the lower parapets. He saw the Nil’Ganash that had been hiding there, watching the exchange from a moment ago.
“Legion,” the Lord of Shadow shouted. The creature spread great leathery wings and flew up beside his master.
The Demon Lord pointed to where Inár-Ádun had gone. “Send one of your kin to follow the Gathân, and kill any of the Avanyar that He comes in contact with.”
The violet creature smiled, revealing yellow fangs. He tilted his head to the sky and called out in a weird, high-pitched cry. From the shadows of approaching night, another Nil'Ganash approached. Legion sent it down the mountain after Inár-Ádun. The Demon Lord nodded approvingly, before Legion, dissolved into a black mist which drifted eastward, against the wind, toward the gathering dark. Soon all that was visible in the darkening sky high over Hearthside were two eyes, burning red with hatred and malice.
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