Sons of Ironstorm - Book 4: Griffon's Stand

Chapter 1: Shadow against Shadow

"Unified by their mutual hatred of the Light,

And love of their dark master and his foul purpose,

The dark and demonic host thrust itself upon the dwindling allies,

Rending flesh and spilling blood with unholy delight,

The focus of their shadowed will the death of all."

- From an excerpt of The Shadow Cycle, a verbal history of the First Alliance's war against the Kaal Eran

Ga'Tung, Chancellor of the Kaal Eran Dominion, and Mouthpiece of the Deceiver's Will on Ramnor, frowned as he let the report scroll through the glimmering space above the crystalline communication lattice built into the heavy stone table. The numbers were grim: of the invasion force launched across the Sea of Polua with the intent of establishing a demon beach head north of Earthforge, on the shores of the Bay of Gorgons, nothing remained.

It was a total loss; the Piceans and their magic proved brutally effective against the dark fleet that passed over their watery kingdom in the depths of Ramnor's southern seas. Unaffected by the fall of first the First Alliance then the so-called Cadremoor Alliance thousands of cycles later, the fish folk had retained a great amount of their lore and magic from the days of their creation, when they were potent enough to face the demons invading their realm with their full strength.

The Chancellor let his black eyes drift from the report to the table and the councillors waiting silently around it. The failure to hold the sa'anish Weapon of Power known as the Earth Sword from its Wielder had combined with the failure against the Piceans to severely thin their ranks. In the unrelenting Abyss success's lack was rewarded with death.

But their failure wasn't absolute. Two of the three Wielders had recently fallen to the power of their masters at the ruined fortress of Gorgon's Dagger. Transformed from human to animal by the might of their dark masters' magic, the Wielders no longer had the ability to draw on the power of their ancient sa'anish weapons. And that removed them as a threat. The Chancellor's eyes narrowed. Removed at least for now; these humans had astounding resilience in the face of overwhelming force. He didn't doubt the Wielders would somehow alleviate their condition and return to potency in time to resist the demonic invasion of Reutha, the final destination of the Return.

Not that resistance was restricted solely to the Wielders, with the Piceans illustrating that fact with perfect resonance. No, the attempt to land a force on the island continent of Uepolua had also met with failure, partially due to the Wielder of the Star Sword, but also due in great part to the efforts of the local elves who, despite having lost a great part of their ancient strength, were still bold enough to attempt to face Kaal Eran in open battle.

Again the failure wasn't absolute. Even as the Chancellor was executing the commanders responsible for engineering the failed invasion, the human magic user Bren stepped forward with alternative plans. With his current knowledge of Ramnor and its various peoples, along with their states of preparedness against the Return, he confirmed why the dark masters were allowing him to live as he managed to draw up plans sufficient to see them establish a base on an island south of the Uepolua mainland. 

Additionally the foot soldiers developed by Bren's long-dead empire were proving useful as cannon fodder against entrenched enemy positions on Reutha, as illustrated by their diversionary strike against the Wielder of the Earth Sword at Gorgon's Dagger. They had distracted the young human long enough for stealth shock troops to gate in close without being detected, thus preventing the Wielder from gating to safety and facilitating his capture by the dark masters. That they managed to capture the Wielder of the Star Sword as well when he came to rescue his fallen sibling was an added bonus.