Mune'stahr and Pylott: HELLMARROW, a tale of the Ventriculum

Part 4, "...Until Infinity Fears Our Name."

The Herald of the Far Silences could not believe what it was he was hearing. It was unfathomable. Unprecedented. Stupefying. And, quite frankly, more than a little frightening.

He stood amid low-lying patches of swirling dust on the surface of an orbitally detached, irregularly-shaped rocky body. The building-sized, gravitationally-unanchored rock was a large fragment from a more massive celestial void-object that had been shattered by repeated hits from particle beam weaponry during the recently-concluded battle.

"You surely realize that answer cannot be considered at all adequate," Dumarechiel said cautiously, painfully aware that he was treading fragile ground. "Your presence is required back among the Paranescience's Extra-Territorial Operations Command Center in the Nautilus Redundancy, amid the higher-ranking Black Sun Seraphs of the Conjoined Planescape of the Banborough Aggregation. The Queen's forces cannot afford you to be wandering the unincorporated territories of the Ridge-Surf Cascade..."

"I am not 'wandering'. I am completing my mission," the armored giant answered, tossing the ice-white, scarlet rune-tattooed wasp-man a withering look of disdain. "There is nothing of magnitude occurring at the ETOCC that cannot be handled by another Agent-Seraph. The Queen favored me with a task and my work here is not yet done."

"I am uncomfortable reminding you that the unfortunate course of events you just experienced, though aggravatingly frustrating, constitute nothing more than the fortunes of war," Infernyya Rebekkon's Envoy to the Oceanic Void explained. "One cannot guarantee the outcome of any particular battle campaign set amongst an environment we do not fully control. Things happen. Sometimes we are not wholly successful in our endeavors."

"What are you saying?"

"We have known one another for quite some time now in the Queen's service, Seraph-lord," Dumarechiel said reluctantly. It was obvious he felt he would be walking upon fragile ground in broaching the subject he presented to the Black Sun Seraph, but it was just as obvious he felt compelled to do so. "And, while we cannot describe our interactions as exactly 'friendly', we DO, I hope, share some mutual respect for one another's rank-station and abilities. I say this because my next words may bring you offense. It is not intended, should you feel that way. I am simply seeking want your truthful assessment. So then..., I do not suppose that you asked yourself WHY the Noble Court needs you, particularly YOU, to do this thing, have you?"

The Seraph's massive armored head turned slowly towards the Herald of the Far Silences, his broad face covered by the rakish helmet with its vented face-guard, and his eyes hidden behind a visor lens of iridescent crystal material. "Your tongue flirts with sedition, Messenger, but I sense that your intent is fired by your patriotism. What is it you mean to say? Speak plainly."

"I think the Court is plotting against the Queen."

Opthas Kandyruu's dry laughed was a series of humorless barks. "Of course they are. They should. With each new decisions she makes, it becomes more and more apparent that her mind is diseased. The Queen is mad."

A great tension appeared to be released from Dumarechiel at Kandyruu's words. "So, you know. But isn't it equally madness to continue to follow her commands?"

"Oh yes, it is. Undoubtedly. Our forces are no match for the Authoritarchs and if the Devolutioners decided to invade the realm of the Paranescience, we would be hard pressed to defeat them. And should the Quegfellum come knocking at our doors... disaster, absolute slaughter would ensue. She knows this. It frustrates her to no end. But she is insane. That insanity fuels her fury. Her fury provides her empire with its dark and withered heart. Her madness is a glorious thing, is it not?"