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

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

Dumarechiel's heart sank. He abandoned any further attempt at engaging the Black Sun Seraph in any further discussion along those lines. The creature was a Nihilist, fascinated by and attracted to the idea of a cynical, fatalistic life of murder and warfare in service to the Paranescience.

"So, Seraph-lord, if she commands, you will obey, even though you know the reasoning behind her commands is fractured."

"Do not speak to me as if I were a novice recruit or an uneducated mercenary brawler," Kandyruu said, his low-pitched voice rumbling with angry thunder. "I am not an idiot. I am well-versed in the art and principals of warfare. I am a professional. And this misadventure was not the result of mere chance. This was the result of incomplete or faulty intelligence. WHY did we not know that the crew of The Glide were in any way involved in what should have been only a border skirmish? The Glide! The greatest, most powerful and most enigmatic alien vessel abroad the MetaFlow! Not even Queen Infernyya Rebekkon can control or predict the strange methodology and goals controlling its mission. Its crew are literally the Instruments of Fate. Were I told of their possible interference in these proceedings, I could have better prepared an attack strategy."

"No one places you at fault," Dumarechiel said. "There was no way to anticipate their interference..."

"You are certain of that, are you? Do not play me for a fool... I know that there is unrest and intrigue, even sedition, plaguing the Paranescience at the highest levels. You are sure that Zigmus A'arkenum, the Minister of Foreign Interactions, was not aware that The Glide would stand between the Devolutioners and the Quegfellum? You are sure that the Court of Territorial Nobles did not conspire to undercut the Queen's wishes?"

The being known to the Queen and her subjects as The Messenger bowed his head, sighing. Opthas Kandyruu's paranoia was no secret to the Royal Court. "I cannot speak on such things, my lord, I am not privy to the private counsel of the Nobles."

"No, of course not. THAT privilege belongs to your counterpart, Zigmus A'arkenum's toadie, that disloyal bastard Kahlyndaar, the Angel of Cataclysm..."

"My Lord Opthas Kandyruu, the Queen wants you to return to home base," Dumarechiel said, the tension in his eerie voice stressing the message's urgency.

"No. My prey is still out there."

Dumarechiel realized any further discussion was pointless. He gave up and changed the subject. "So what do you plan to do? What would you have me tell Her Sovereign Eminence? How far are you willing to go in pursuit of the crew of The Glide, these Out-Planar human-hybrid adventurers named Mune'stahr and Pylott?"

"You can, as ever, tell the Queen that Opthas Kandyruu will enforce her will. And to do that, I will go as far as needed, or beyond, until the original mandates of the mission are completed."

"This is a dangerous thing you do, my lord, dangerous and impulsive. I fear for your safety..."

Kandyruu's booming voice softened as he said, "Do not fear for me, Dumarechiel. I have not lost my reason. I am simply weary of being told to abandon my duty and stand down. I will run these rogue mongrels to ground and then return to smash the armies of both the Devolutioner Protectorate and the Quegfellum to blood-stained dust --- and I will do it for the greater glory of Infernyya Rebekkon."

The Killer of Gods then turned away from facing The Messenger, over whom he loomed like a weaponry-festooned armored mountain, and projected his mutant extrasensory directional perception out among the byways of The Flow, searching for the path The Glide took as it flew away from the battle zone.

There. He had them. If he didn't know better, he could almost swear they were heading off towards the Fluidic Topological Highway to Kadaverign-Space and thus, thereafter, to Hellmarrow.