Bruce Cordell - Key of Stars

Neifion was not so lucky. The Lord of Bats scrabbled and tried to dig his claws into the metallic surface beneath him, but to no avail. He collided with the smaller figure.

When Malyanna’s hand touched Neifion, his wings melted to nothing and his great size withered away. He was, once again, a pale bald man, immaculately dressed, but gripped around the neck by a creature of devouring night.

“Good-bye, Neifion,” said Malyanna.

“Japheth, I bequeath thee my strength-,” the Lord of Bats yelled.

Raidon flinched as Neifion was ripped apart, then dragged down to disappear in the unending darkness of Malyanna’s empty form.

“Oh,” came Anusha’s voice from somewhere close.

Oh, indeed. Raidon hadn’t expected the Lord of Bats to fall so suddenly. He shouldn’t have taken the moment to rest, but should have joined Neifion while the archfey kept her partly distracted.

The monk jumped up onto the dais. His strength wasn’t yet completely returned, but the pain in his neck was a memory suppressed by Angul.

The eladrin’s blank regard turned on him. The wind howled, and he slid toward her wide-armed embrace.

Raidon concentrated on the Cerulean Sign. Clear light burst from his chest and washed forward, enveloping Malyanna.

The moment the sapphire illumination touched her, the wind ceased. Raidon came to rest mere paces from the woman, who had raised a hand as if to shade her empty face from his spellscar’s brightness.

Angul blazed too, its own intensity nearly equaling that of the Sign. Malyanna retreated half a step.

“Lock the gate, Malyanna, or I will strike you down,” Raidon said. “Then whatever happens, you will not be around to savor in your victory, or plan a future treachery.”

“Impossible,” Malyanna replied. “Only a handful of Keys were forged when the Far Manifold was created. With each one’s destruction, the Far Manifold’s integrity weakened. The leakage from across the dimensions increased. Mortals forgot what the Keys were for. But the Eldest remembered! A Key’s ultimate function can only be called on once-to lock, or unlock the gate. And I just used the last surviving Key to unlock it. Nothing can close it again! It’s only a matter of time before the worlds collapse beneath the return of the dominion that predates the cosmos!”

“If you unlocked it, why hasn’t the gate opened completely?” said Raidon.

“Because … some meddler is interfering!” Malyanna said. One of her arms came up and pointed to a spot in the air behind Raidon. He risked a quick glance and saw only a patch of empty sky.

Lightning made of midnight traced from her pointing finger. When it reached the empty spot, Japheth was revealed in an explosion of bruised light.

The warlock shuddered with the impact of the dark beam, and fell.

He hit the ground in an area clear of aberrations. The monsters that weren’t standing enthralled by Malyanna’s transformation or the Far Manifold itself were clustered around a crazed, green scaled monstrosity. And, farther away … Was that Yeva?

“I can’t hold it anymore,” yelled Japheth. “The gate’s opening!”

The sound of splintering crystal confirmed the warlock’s claim.

Raidon knew that they were finally out of time. He charged Malyanna, moving with all the speed of his training.

He slashed and drew Angul completely through one of the woman’s wrists even as she extended her arm in a warding gesture.

The hand came away from her arm and flew into the air, but didn’t drop to the ground.

Instead, it buzzed around his head like a giant horsefly and slapped onto Raidon’s shoulder. It squeezed.

The severed hand might as well have been liquid acid. The moment it touched him, it seared through his shirt and found his flesh. The hand began to dissolve away his skin.

Raidon gritted his teeth but a grunt of pain escaped him anyhow.

Angul blazed, and the pain dulled. But the hand remained, sinking into his arm.

Slice it off , instructed his sword.

Raidon backed away from Malyanna, and brought the sword around like a massive razor. He used it to scrape the devouring hand away, along with a great strip of skin and not a little muscle. Angul flared with true heat, cauterizing the wound even as its blade made it.

The moment the loose hand lost contact, it took to the air once again. It went to Malyanna and fitted itself back to the stump of her wrist.

The sound of breaking crystal grew louder. The distorted visages and vistas visible through the crystal facets pressed closer. Something akin to the Eldest crouched just across the barrier, though it was at least five times the Eldest’s size. It, and everything else, was about to break through en masse.

Even louder than the failing Far Manifold was the sound of the eladrin noble’s triumphant laughter.

Taal jumped up on the dais next to Raidon. He had the Dreamheart clutched in one hand. Raidon raised Angul to strike the man down, but Anusha appeared suddenly between him and Taal. “Wait,” she urged.

“Malyanna!” Taal yelled, raising the Dreamheart. “I’m done with you!”

“Taal,” the eladrin said. “You were ever my favorite. So easy to manipulate, my most loyal pawn for all these years. Only now do you find your independence, when I’ve already won. Even that trinket you hold, as if it made a difference any longer, is meaningless. The Far Realm is here!”

Taal wound up, then hurled the Dreamheart at Malyanna. Instead of being absorbed as Raidon had expected, the orb smashed her backward with the force of a stone sphere shot from a catapult.

“No!” she screamed.

The nightmare-clad woman struck the crystal disk. Despite its appearance of solidity, it parted like smoke around her convulsing body and closed behind her again with an eye-watering ripple.

Malyanna was gone.

The Year of the Secret (1396 DR)

Citadel of the Outer Void

Taal threw the Dreamheart and knocked Malyanna through the portal.

Anusha was too surprised to do anything but gape.

“She’s gone,” said Taal. A vicious growl emerged from the tattoo of a hunting cat on his shoulder. He looked up at the disk. “But the fracture lines have started to breed again. I don’t know how to stop it.”

“When I bound the Eldest to Xxiphu, I hoped a greater tragedy would be averted,” said Raidon. “I never foresaw how much worse things could get.”

Anusha swallowed. Did no one else see it but her? It seemed too obvious.

When Malyanna had produced the Key of Stars, the design on it was too similar for coincidence.

“Raidon,” she said. “Your spellscar-its pattern matches exactly the symbol on the amulet Malyanna used to unlock the Far Manifold.” She made herself visible for all to see.

The monk looked at her. “Yes,” he said. “What my mother gave me was probably one of the last surviving Keys. But it was destroyed in the Year of Blue Fire. The Spellplague stitched its remnants to my flesh. The amulet is no more.”

Anusha shook her head. Couldn’t he see? The Sign existed independent to what it was scribed upon. The monk contained all the power of the amulet. It was plain! If he called upon the power, he could lock the Far Manifold one last time! Just as when Malyanna had opened it …

An image of the amulet in the eladrin noble’s hands disintegrating after she had used it danced before Anusha. The memory of Malyanna herself, being pulled through the instant she brushed against the disk followed. She put her hands to her mouth.

If she convinced Raidon he had the power to lock the gate, she’d essentially be telling the man to sacrifice his life. Could she do that?