Some when - a young boy stands with a crowd of others in a
dusty courtyard, they each take turns in tracing a complex pattern in the air
as a robed tutor watches with interest. On his third try the child wins a small
nod of approval from the silent instructor.
Another turn - a warrior in ornate red armour staggers from
the distant impact of an orbital barrage. His opponent dispatches him with a
brutal strike to the neck with a savage looking axe. The sky burns.
Another when - a crimson armoured warrior staggers under the
distant impact of an orbital barrage and uses the momentary distraction to
catch his grey armoured opponent unawares with a point-black shot from a bolt
pistol.
Another turn - an etheric wind howls around a group of
figures locked in combat atop an impossible structure. It rises to hurricane
force driving most of them to their knees, leaving others strangely untouched
yet unresponsive.
The images swirl again and again as a figure gestures within
a gleaming room, a golden figure addresses her legions punctuating a point with
a blazing sword, another wave, a man in similar golden armour figure lies
broken at the feet of a black armoured man blazing with power.
"Could have, might be, never was, never will," the
gesturing stops and the hazy image of a planet struggles to come into focus.
Adjusting an arcane-looking device the figure resumes waving
dislocated images away, each time eventually coming back to the same hazy
maybe-planet. For how long this continues it is hard to say, but images of
other warriors, human, post-human, and otherwise begin to pile up around the
figure, now more animated with its gesturing and tinkering.
"So many drawn to this place and time, ignorant of
their fate and blind to their place in what is to come." The figure
chuckles to himself, "a delicate touch will be required." Another,
more purposeful gesture and this time sanity warping runes and geometries blaze
to life around the room.
Far above Krillion a thin needle of silver slips out of
elsewhere and begins its descent, wrapped in a cloak of stolen darkness and
unseen moments.
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