17: Reaching Through the Barrier

Too fast, thought Rollo. It was all happening too fast!

He had woken suddenly from a slumber that he thought would be eternal. He could feel the energy – he could see its flow beneath the ground. He had been shocked that it had happen at all, and now he was shocked that it was happening so quickly.

Right now, he had to rest a little. Summoning the demons was exhausting work, especially since so many of them were going to be needed.

He sat before the mirror, a glass of water in his hand. His wine stores had spoiled centuries ago, but the cis-tern was still operational. He probably would need some food soon, too, but he could subsist for now.

He gazed into the mirror. There seemed to be infestations cropping up everywhere. The big city at the mouth of the great river appeared to be an epicentre of activity, though there were several in the surrounding farmlands and in the nearby mountains and forests as well. That place used to be called Lomian in the old tongue, but he had no idea what it was called now. The world had changed considerably since he had destroyed it.

He took another sip of water, feeling the lifegiving moisture seeping into his desiccated flesh.

This busy port city was going to require most of his attention for a while. And it was clear that the horned demons – the cracci – were already insufficient to stem the tide. It was clear that something more substantial was going to be needed. Something that could raze the entire city and kill every person in it.

First, he would need some assistance, and he knew exactly how to get it. He finished his drink and returned to the summoning circle.

He re-lit the brazier with an offhand gesture and fragrant incense started to fill the dark room. He reached out with his mind and began to chant. The sound of his voice carried into every corner of the room, and soon the barriers between the world and the Void began to thin.

When the barrier was sufficiently weakened, he reached out and made a tiny hole. He was very experienced at this, and knew to not dare a larger aperture. Even so, he could feel the cold Void pressing against his mind, doing its best to break through. He braced one part of his mind against it while he reached through the hole with another, and started seeking for the particular characteristics he wanted.

He broke his awareness into multiple tendrils and started gathering together everything that he was going to need.

Once he had all of the components, he began to weave them together into a form that he would be able to use. He imbued it with a tiny fragment of his own knowledge – no more than was absolutely necessary – and when it was finally ready he brought it through the aperture into the real world.

He had not taken physical characteristics into account when he had constructed it, so the creature was little more than a motile mound of flesh with a mouth.

“Begin,” he said, and it moved off to one of his lesser summoning circles to begin its work. Meanwhile, Rol-lo returned to his own aperture and started to duplicate the creature.

It took him seventeen hours to summon nine of them. By that time he required a rest and another drink of water. While he rested, he gazed into the mirror once more.

What he feared was already beginning to happen. A dragon was attacking the port city, a horde of beastmen was besieging the mining settlement upriver, and several other cities and castles were already under Upraised control.

There wasn’t time to lose, but he was still weak. Too weak. It had taken him decades last time to determine what had been needed, and to raise and summon the forces that had been necessary to finish it. This time he had the advantage that he already knew what was required.

He could hear his nine servants going about the tasks that he had set them. He had a few minutes.