• Part 1

• Part 2

• Part 3

• Part 4

• Part 5

• Part 6

Part 3

Mirabalpur

For the past week the representatives of the nations that were invited to meeting had been showing up. All had agreed to come except the Great Archmage of Myr-Kun but with the riots taking place in his city the Sorcerers did not expect for him to come. The first to arrive had been the Empress of Cedonia. And strangle anof she had started liking Nioratosa. Eubratosa had expect the Empress and Riacrada to bond but it was quit the opposite. Dioya and the Head Imperial Sorcerer had meet at the last meeting and had developed a friendship and when the Imperial Sorcerers had arrived and been shown to their rooms Dioya and him had hit it off again. But unsurprisingly Riacrada and Asadu had become close friends with the Eerith.

"Yes and the Eerith seem to be fascinated with Asadu's son." Riacrada said.

"I wonder why." Eubratosa did not both asking how she knew what he was thinking.

"I don't know. They simple don't answer when I ask." Riacrada said.

"Do you have any idea why Empress seems to like Nioratosa? That one has me baffled." Eubratosa asked the women siting across from him.

"Why does the Head Imperial Sorcerer and old D get along so well?" Riacrada said in answer to his question.

"That simply. Their both pompous, know it all, old men." Eubratosa said with complete sincerity. Riacrada laughed not because it was funny but that was the exact disciription she would have used. Eubratosa continued, "But that does not answer my question."

"The Empress and Nioratosa were both frost into positions of power at a young age. Neither one felt ready when it happened. I have heard them talking. She has been giving him advises on how to cope with his situation. Also their fact that Nioratosa's wife is pregnant and the Empress and her seem to be enjoying talking about what to name the baby and other stuff like that. Seems to help." Riacrada shock here head. "Next thing you know Nioratosa will ask on of the Eerith to be the childs godfather."

Eubratosa chuckled. He had seen the his daughter-in-law and Empress laughing together. Then he thought back to when his lovely wife, Athan, had been pregnant. He remembered his wife's friends coming over and them talking about the very same thing. He remembered his wife's joy at having a baby. Eubratosa final shook his head. Those are thoughts for another time.

"I think she is also trying to get some information out of Nioratosa and his wife." Eubratosa said remembering the conversation he and Nioratosa had the other day. "I think they may have gotten some information from the Sorcerers that they captured but not what they wanted."

"What are we going to do about those Sorcerers?" Riacrada asked.

"I have no idea. We will eventually have to rescue them but the question is how." Eubratosa said

"Exactly what are we going to tell them at the meeting." Riacrada said to change the subject.

"Well. I am definitely going to tell them about the Prophecy, and the Eerith, I will also sugest the Magic Users look through their rank to discover if they have a Traitor." Eubratosa said.

"You relies that we too probe have a Traitor in our mist." Riacrada said.

"Yes, and we will try to flush him out." Eubratosa replied.

"Will you tell them about our attempts to reopen the Gateway." Riacrada asked.

"No. Its was after we opened the Gateway that we were ably to conquer the content, and it was after the Gateway was closed that our Empire fell. If they found out about us trying to reopen the Gateway to the Dreaming. Well any support we have left would vanish." Eubratosa said.

"That had not accrued to me." emitted Riacrada "Will we tell them about the priest?"

"No." Eubratosa said.

***

Asadu looked down at the piece of paper that sat on his desk. For the past week he had been the neutral party for a treaty between Mir and the Eerith. Asadu had asked the classic question of "Why me?" but this time he got a good answer. He was an apprentice and he was Milkanuren not Mirish.

"So what did the Council say about the Treaty?" The Eerith asked.. He had an idea of what happened just not the exact details.

"Well after they had argued for about an hour they finally remembered I was their. They agreed with it. Even thought they were hoping for more." Asadu says. "Hi little one." The Eerith ignored that as it was directed at Thaench.

"You humans like to argue." The Eerith observed. Asadu laughed.

"You have no idea how true that is."

The Eerith titlted his head to one side as if listening to another voice then asked, "How often do you water them?"

Asadau looked up in suprise. "This one's a little young for water but a human drinks water whenever they are thirsty?"

"What if they are still thirsty?"

"They drink more."

The Eerith nodded in understanding then added, "These things are a lot of work."

Asadu laughed. "That is an understatement."

***

Nioratosa walked down the hallway towards his chambers. It was the day before the Meeting of Nations and Nioratosa was thinking about the next day. If we don't play our hand right then we could end up with more than Alatta at our throats. He thought. He had meet all of the delegates, and many had tried to leak information from him. They knew he was the Archmage's son and that he was young a new to politics. Well they had been suprised when he had proven that he could play their games. He still remembered the heartless politics of being and apprentice. He had fought the political fight of the apprentices and he had one for the last three years before he past the test and became a Sorcerer he had "ruled" the Council of Apprentices.

He chuckled as he thought those days. True the Council of Apprentices helped to develop the skills of apprentices but back when he had been on the council he had thought that he was making hard designs. Well those were easy compared to some of things he had to do now.

Those days were over and so was this day. He entered his chambers and found his wife waiting for him. He had forgotten all about the Meeting of Nations and the threat of Alatta because as he does everyday he had left his troubles at the door.

***

Eubratosa looked out over the assembled delegates. The Empress Yzara sat away from the rest of the delegates with the air of a 'I am better then you.' 'Well she was one of the largest nations on Qaiyore' thought Eubratosa. Across the room, the Hisarian Emperor reflected her attitude like a baleful mirror. Which was not hard.

The Hisarian Empire was more isolated then Cedonia and their for was not as involved in politics as Cedonia. Eubratosa understood instantly what the Empress was trying to do. In her silk dress and bejeweled crown she was breath-takingly beautiful. When she had entered the Assemble Hall ever delegate had reacted. Most of the delegates mouths had touched the floor. Eubratosa had even caught a few Council members mouths on the floor until they say their Archmage staring at them then they acted as if nothing had happened. The Wizard's Guild, the Royal Necromancer, and the Court Wizard just gave the Empress a distrustful gaze. The Eerith just raised and eyebrow.

The High Lord and the Saraan were both whachting the Eerith. Of all the delegates those two knew who the three robed persons in the back corner were. The High Lord had an almost worried look on his face. Eubratosa wondered why.

The Torphan Sorcerers and the Brotherhood of the East were scaling at each other. Eubratosa began to wonder if it mit not be wise to build a wall between those two. That way stop the bloodshed from starting.

Celpali delegates, dressed in simple robes that spoke of humility, had positioned them self away from the overly dressed Wizard's Guild and the Overpriest. Whom were dressed in robes as well. In doing so the Celpali had ended up next to the Vraa'al whom they did not seem to mind. Of all the delegates they were the only ones that would even get close to the Vraa'al or the Saraan.

The two delegates from the free cities sat as far from the other as they could. They were at least civil with each other but they still shoot hateful glances at the other.

Eubratosa observed this all. Know wonder Alatta is a step ahead of us. We can not stop the fight amongst ourselves. He thought. He say Asadu finally arrived. We can get started. He waited for Asadu to take his seat before he stood up. The delegates stopped their petty staring to pay attention to the Eubratosa.

"Mir thanks you for answering our request." He started. "As you may have noticed. This is a meeting not just of magic users but of nations." The delegates nodded their heads.

"These are dangerous times. Seven years ago my predecessor called some of you here. He warned you of a threat that could destroy us all. Two years ago the Sorcerers of Mir went to Celepar to fight that threat. They succeeded at stopping that threat. True they destroyed the monolith and most of those Sorcerers were killed but that threat was stopped." The delegates start to cheer but stop when he Eubratosa puts up his hand. "But Alatta was ready for failure. He had a back up plan. As to what it is we don't know. We do know that Alatta has help. Some were on Qaiyore Alatta has a disciple."

The Empress stood up and asked. "And how do you know this?"

"We sent a party to the Oracle at Talishara..." Eubratosa began.

"Without permission you snuck into my realm." Empress Yzara said. The two Eerith defenders seeing were this conversation was headed quietly moved up next to Asadu. "We captured your Sorcerers how could you have any information from the Oracle."

Eubratosa smiled and turned to Asadu. Asadu stood up and at his side the two Eerith were ready to shout lighting. Asadu looked at his protectors then said. "Your Imperial Majesty. I am apprentice Asadu. I was an apprentice to one of the Sorcerers you captured. I was with them at the Oracle. I saw what happened. The magic of the Oracle left all of those Sorcerers to weak slap a fly let alone deal with guards. Your Imperial Majesty their is not much honor in capturing a weakened Sorcerers."

The Royal Necromancer of Tanimbar stood up. "Your Imperial Majesty. We are in desperate times. Mir did what it thought was best. The Oracle might be our only guide to stopping Alatta. We must use ever thing we have to stop Alatta and if that means Mir sent Sorcerers to sneak into the Oracle to get a Prophecy then we should not hold that agents them." The others assembled started muttering their agreement. The Empress releasing she was not going to win sat down.

"What was the Prophecy that was received? asked the Saraan delegate.

Eubratosa looked at Asadu. Asadu began reciting the Prophecy.

"One friend turns on another.
A great city at the edge of a desert is besieged,
from above and from the ground.
A dark, ancient power awakens.
The fate of the world teeters on the edge of sword.
That which was great shall be cast down
or shall rise again."

"Thank you apprentice Asadu." Eubratosa says. Asadu bows his head and sits down, "As I said earlier some were on Qaiyore Alatta has a disciple. The first line of the prophecy suggest this very thing. it also suggest that this disciple is a traitor. We of Mir will begin to search our ranks for traitors we encourage the rest of your to do the same. If we are to win this war we must go directly for Alatta's link, his home base on this content. We must find and get ride of this disciple."

"Before now Alatta has always had the upper hand. We have something that all thow it will not give us the upper hand will it will at least help us even things out a little." He paused and looked at the Eerith. "If you will excuse me." Then he cast a spell. The delegates all of the sudden started summing magic to them. Then Eubratosa finished and a chest on a pedestal appeared before him. The delegates began to release the magic they had summoned until they felt the second spell being cast.

The room went dark.

"It is all right we are in a pocket of reality in the Dreaming that was created." Eubratosa said as the light came back. He looked around. Most of the delegates were standing up. The Empress Yzara had evan pulled a knife from her belt. "We have come here to stop spies from seeing what is in this chest."

Without waiting for a response he began to cast a spell. The language he used was Faerie. Most of the Magic Users knew what the language was but it was from the none humans who reacted. The High Lord face took on a look of dread when he understood whoms Will Eubratosa was calling on. The Saraan were suprised. The Eerith were interested. All watched as Eubratosa cast the spell.

***

A Faerie named Granth stopped speaking as he realized that his Will was again being called on. He was suprised to find it was coming from the Dreaming this time.

"What is it?" Eoghan asked.

"Grand Archmage business." Granth said

***

A last the spell was finished. And as the spell finished the assembly breathed. Eubratosa opened the chest and pulled its contents out. The assembly gasped. He held the Crown of Mir, an artifact that had been lost since the Revolution of Mir. All the Magic Users in the room had learned about the major artifacts. The Crown of Mir thou not as powerful as some was still one of the best known.

"Yes this is the Crown of Mir. It has been past down in my family for years." Eubratosa said. The council members gasped as they understood the significance of that. "We will use this to help defeat Alatta." He placed it back in the chest and closed it.

"Now as we close this meeting. We the nations of Qaiyore must unit agents this common enemy to stop him from conquering us. We must work together to stop him. We can not have this petty fighting amongst ourselves. Mir has shown the example. For many thousands of years us and another society have been at each others throats finally we have set aside our difference in the face of this threat. We of Mir have made and created a treaty with the Eerith and will sign it here today."

The assembly burst into an uproar.

"You told us the Eerith were Evil." was what most yelled.

"Depending on your definition of evil," muttered one of the Eerith, his voice was almost unheared in the clamor.

"Mir," replied his companion with a sardonic grin.

Nioratosa stood up and yelled , "QUIET!" The delegates stopped talking. Eubratosa started at his son in suprise. "If my father will allow me."

"Yes." Eubratosa nods and goes sits down.

"The Eerith are no more evil then you or me." Nioratosa began, "What ever loyalties they had are gone. They no longer want to be enslaved by others, nor do they want to enslave others. They just want to live as a free people. Tributary will you come up here and bring the other Eerith with you." The assembly started at the robed people walked to the stage.

"No," replied the smaller Eerith without malice. As he walked to the fore of the room, his two compaions moved to the opposite cornors of the room, insuring that none of those present were free from Eerith eyes.

"Before all of you we shall ready this treaty and sign it and you shall be witness to this treaty." Nioratosa said. His tone left no room for argument. Eubratosa smiled to him self. Nioratosa was learning.

***

Mir hoped she was on the right path.