Chapter 5 Part 8

Tyson and Miguel were dining in the great hall when Miguel's she-devil friend entered. She sat next to Miguel and stuck her hand under the table. Miguel suddenly went rigid and bit through a wooden spoon.

"I just thought you would like to know that my lord and the other Dukes have agreed to remain in the alliance in spite of the Demons," she said as a forked tongue flicked out to touch his ear.

Miguel smiled, "excellent," he replied. "Now we can get the ball rolling." He pushed his half finished meal away. "Come, Tyson, we need to talk with my father and his brother."
Tyson drained his glass and stood. Miguel leaned over and whispered something into the she-devil's ear. Her face turned deep red. "You pervert," she exclaimed as they departed the table.

"She called you a pervert?" Tyson remarked as the left the dining hall.

"After a while you get a feel for what makes even a devil feel nervous," Miguel said. The two walked for a few moments in silence. "You know," Miguel commented, "you haven't been with us for very long, but in some ways it seems as if you have always belonged here."

Tyson didn't reply and Miguel kept talking. "I have never had any close friends that I could really trust because of my station. My father and my uncle are the only things like friends that I have. And yet you turned against your friends. Why?"

A thousand alarms went off in Tyson's skull. He certainly had to watch what he said here. "I did what I felt I had to do," he said slowly. "They were not what I would call friends, but acquaintances." He paused for a moment trying to decide if that was explanation enough. "We worked together when we had common goals, but our personal goals were usually quite different. In this case they got in my way and I made use of them. I saw that you and your father were pursing goals similar though not as modest as my own."

Tyson watched for some sign in Miguel's face. Had he acted innocent, Miguel would have immediately suspected something. Instead Tyson had shown both the danger and value that he presented to the Blackheart clan and implied that a common goal made him trustworthy. That should keep him out of trouble for a while. The lack of expression on the other's face made no indication either way.

They stopped as they approached the door to Serpent Blackheart's private chamber. The guard did not even question Miguel. He simply bowed then opened the door. The room was unoccupied.

"My father is busy with the affairs of the state at the moment," Miguel told him. "He doesn't really like all that official hoopla, but it goes with the territory." He took a seat and began nibbling on a piece of fruit from a bowl on the table. "We will wait here for him."

Tyson seated himself likewise. "Please pardon my curiosity," he said diplomatically. He sure didn't want to overstep any boundaries or raise any suspicions. "But I have been privy to quite a bit of information since I have been here and I would like to ask some questions."

Miguel seemed not to be concerned. "What is it?"

"From what I have been able to gather, you have this war planned, but you have yet to mention who you are fighting. Also, it is apparent that your father is going to ascend and replace the present god of war. Yet you have failed to mention how you are going to get rid of the present god of war or how you are going to turn your father into a deity."

Miguel laughed. "I guess there are quite a few misleading things here aren't there?" He tossed an apple to Tyson. "Let me tell you a story," he said. "About fifteen years ago, my father and my uncle were working in the far west near the bandit kingdom of Gramm. Some busybody do-gooders were interfering with our legal operations just because they did not happen to agree with our use of bonded servitude of debtors.

"Well, during the whole mess Uncle Morteous came across a dimensional portal. Now these things are very rare, and no one knew at that time where they came from or how long they last. In fact most of the time those things will appear for only a few hours every one thousand years. When their time is up they simply vanish without a trace. But wherever they originated, it is well known that they lead to pocket dimensions where fabulous objects were stored by some race in the distant past, possibly even the ancestors of the gods.

"Well my father and uncle entered the pocket and found a book laying on a table in a round room. The book they found was the Tome of Creation."

Tyson tossed an apple core in the waste bucket by the table. "I thought the Tome was hidden under the Cornerstone of the World," he said.

"That is the story we want people to think. The reason will become clear in a moment." Miguel paused to peel a banana. "The truth of the matter is that we read the Tome and found some very powerful magic in its pages. The Tome is also a book of the history of what it called a Continuum. The Tome claimed that the gods were all self proclaimed and that the Godking was the last of the original deities made by the Creator."

"That sounds vaguely like the story we were fed when we first arrived," Tyson noted.
Miguel nodded. "What you heard was an altered truth. We told our servants what we wanted them to hear. But we made a slight miscalculation."

Tyson grinned. "The new religion of the Creator?"

"Yes. That was minor problem really, but we played it up to make it out larger than it was."

"Why?"

"To keep the gods preoccupied. You see, another thing the Tome did was outline how to evolve an organism from the lowliest single celled form of life to a deity."

Tyson made no attempt to disguise his astonishment.

"Unfortunately the procedure requires the draining of power from equals to be added into the evolvee's new form. For my father, that would require some of the world's most powerful people to suddenly disappear. And many of those people are watched over by some of the gods."

"I take it they do not know about the Tome?"

"Only the Godking, and my lord, Set are aware of its discovery. As things sit right now, there exists a balance of power among the gods. Set feels that by replacing the noble god of war with my father, we can swing that balance to our side. The Godking has remained uncommitted up until now. If we gain the upper hand, he will side with us and we will forever rule the world."

It sounds as if you have everything planned out quite well," Tyson observed.

"There is one catch," Miguel tossed a banana peel in the trash.

"The evil gods do not trust each other enough to do what is necessary to stop us," Morteous said as he entered the room. "But the good gods do. They alone would be willing to sacrifice themselves to evolve one of their own into a being like the Godking."

"Right," Miguel said, "The evil gods would not pay that price."

"So that is why it is important for you to keep this from drawing the gods' attention." Tyson saw it all clearly now. "Hence the fake religion."

"Right," Miguel confirmed. "And hence the desperate measures that brought you to those fools in Seron."

"You people play for some very high stakes indeed," Tyson said with a touch of awe.

"That we do," Morteous said as he seated himself at the table. "Serpent will be with us momentarily," he informed them.

"I still do not know who we are going to war against," Tyson said looking inquisitively at Miguel.

Morteous laughed. "Neither do we," he admitted.

"I don't understand."

"Well what we are going to do is raise a fantastic army and wait to see who gets nervous enough to pick a fight. We have enough forces to prevent ourselves from being routed. You see, we don't need to win this thing, we just need to generate a large enough conflict that the god of War will personally come down to view the proceedings."

"What makes you think that someone will fight you," Tyson asked.

"Some time ago," Miguel explained, "about three centuries, the Pact of Quatar was signed by the city states forming the government of this world, Asille, which in the language of the gods means, Beloved Land. The Pact sets up an oligarchy in the capital city, Kesron.”

“Each city is ruled by a noble of the realm. The King is the head of House Durrance. King Rigel Durrance chairs the ruling high council. The other members of the council are the First Senator, representing the cities; the Grand Guildmaster, representing the Omniguild Congress; and the Loremaster, representing the combined will of the temples and the gods. The Pact outlawed all military organizations except two. The Army of High Branch and the Navy of Pandara. These military cities are under direct control of The High Council."

"So by raising an army, we violate the Pact. That is an unforgivable insult to the whole world," Tyson stated with enlightenment. "The powers that be will try to stop you, thus luring the god of War into your trap."

Morteous agreed. "With his enhanced power, my brother will kill the god of War. The Godking will rule that the position of the god of War must be filled and Set will nominate Serpent as the only logical choice since he will have defeated his predecessor."

"By that time we will control the pantheon of gods and it will not matter if the good gods know what has happened or not." Tyson surmised the rest.

"My newest servant is very perceptive indeed," Serpent Blackheart said as he entered the room. "I am confident he will serve me well. And I reward my good servants equally well."

"What news is there, father?"

Serpent Blackheart smiled. "Word of our military buildup has leaked into Kesron," he said. "It has begun."