Mike Wild - Engines of the Apocalypse

There was only one reason she could think of. McCain enjoyed it. The fat bastard had been tempted to stir from behind his dinner table by the chance to play god.

"How did you know?" She asked McCain. She and Slack, had, after all, headed to the cave when no one was around and had told no one their destination. "How did you know I was underground?"

McCain smiled. "Because, Kali Hooper, the Eyes of the Lord are everywhere."

"Of course they are." But what she'd meant as a flippant response took a darker tone when McCain addressed the jury.

"Would you like to see, my children?" He asked. "Would you like to see what this woman has done?"

In response there was a murmuring. Kali, meanwhile, looked about in confusion.

McCain thrust both hands towards Kerberos. "Then let me show you what the Eyes of the Lord beheld!"

Oh, for fark's sake, Kali thought, enough!

But then she froze. Because, between herself and the jury, an image had flickered into view and before their eyes they saw Slack leading her towards the cave and out of sight.

The view segued to show the machines burrowing from the ground, starting the quake, and then fleeing and terrified townsfolk, trying desperately to escape the effects of the catastrophic machines. Again the image segued, and this time showed Kali alone, emerging from the cave, moving across the crumbling hillside towards Horse, and then mounting him and riding away. There was a collective gasp from the jury as she did, both at what the recording implied and because Horse, with his armour fully deployed as it had been, was something of a disturbing sight.

The images began to loop, showing themselves again and again, and with every loop the jury shifted more uneasily in their pews. McCain certainly knew how to charge an audience, allowing the images to play a couple more times before raising his hands to stop them.

"With your own eyes, people of Solnos, you have witnessed how this careless adventurer and her pits-born beast activated the machines that destroyed your town. With your own eyes you have seen her guilt!"

"Hey, fatso!" Kali shouted. "Horse is no pits-born beast, he's a bamfcat, okay! And your little performance here proves nothing! The destruction of your town began while I was underground, yes, but that doesn't mean I started it!"

"Really?" Randus McCain said slowly, and once more an image appeared.

This time the image zoomed into Kali's face in a sudden close-up, dusty and bloodied after her ascent from the cavern, and recoiling, wide-eyed, in shock. "Do you see the blood?" McCain went on. "Proof she murdered your own kinsman lest he interfere with her plans! Do you see the startled look upon her face? Proof she believed she could deliver this act of evil upon us without realising that the Eyes of the Lord see all!" He paused again. "Ask yourself, people of Solnos, why would the Lord of All reveal such things to you unless he wished this evil act to be punished!"

"But that isn't what happened!" Kali shouted.

She was about to launch into an attack on McCain that would reveal him to be the charlatan he was but then realised she was taking the things she had seen in her stride. It had been immediately obvious to her that the images McCain had presented to the jury had come from the dark sphere she had fleetingly encountered on the hillside, but how was she to explain that to the people who, thanks to McCain's manipulation, held her fate in their hands? Explaining the presence of such technology to them was like explaining magic to Slack. Here, in this once idyllic town, they simply had no knowledge of it, and the Old Races were stories for children.

Kali looked around. True enough, it was reflected in their faces. Even the face of Gabriella DeZantez. The woman was clearly intelligent, but she was also a dedicated Sword of Dawn, and the Faith carefully chose what they exposed the Swords to. Without something tangible to contradict it, why shouldn't she accept what she had just seen?

Only Kali knew otherwise. She stared up into the shadows of the church, following the flickering light that created the imagery, and saw it. The sphere. It had to contain one of the memory crystals she had encountered in the Crucible of the Dragon God, the same kind of crystal that had recorded Jenna's messages to Slowhand, and was perhaps held aloft by some miniature version of the rotors that had driven the Faith's ill-fated airships. Makennon's mob might have lost their battle for the skies in the Drakengrats but they had adapted both technologies for another far more insidious purpose. The Eyes of the Lord were no messengers of the Lord of All, they were surveillance devices.

Overseers .

Gods, no wonder McCain was enjoying himself. The Filth had a new toy for its voyeurs to play with.

Despite how difficult it might be to explain, Kali knew she had to tell the people of Solnos what was going on. It wasn't just for her or their sakes, but for those of everyone where these things might already have been deployed.

"This isn't divine proof!" She shouted to them. "This is a recording of only part of what occurred. The Lord of All didn't see what happened underground because 'He' couldn't follow us there!" Kali paused, looking up. "There is a device," she went on, "a device constructed with the aid of Old Race science — a science developed long ago by the elves and the dwarves." She stared at the blank faces before her and then turned on the Overseer. "Why don't you tell them, McCain? Tell them about memory crystals and airships and your sphere, and how those machines out there in the sky aren't from the hells but from civilisations far older and more advanced than our own? Why don't you tell them that it was they who left the shiny things in the dirt? Or are you afraid? Afraid that if these people learn the truth, know how you use their tools, that you'll no longer be able to bend them to your beliefs?"

McCain gave Kali time to take a breath and then turned to stare at the jury as if he had no idea what she was talking about. Only she caught the knowing flare of his eyes as his gaze passed hers. "'Memory crystals'? 'Airships'? 'Sphere'?" he said with a chuckle that became a laugh. "These terms are unknown to me. The only truth I know is that which is shown to me by the Eyes of the Lord."

The Overseer raised his hands once more and the images returned, playing over and over again.

Keep going , Kali thought, seeing Gabriella DeZantez edging forward from the door, peering up into the shadows.

Unfortunately, just as the Enlightened One was about to become more enlightened, McCain sensed her movement and the sphere, controlled by some unknown mechanism, zipped out of sight.

"It was a trick!" Kali shouted to the jury, but received only unsympathetic glances. She turned to DeZantez. If she was going to bring her onto her side, now was the time. "You have to believe me," she said. "It was there. The images showed only part of the truth, not the whole truth, and certainly not divine truth. It's circumstantial. Give me time and I'll show you the sphere. Give me time and I'll prove to you what happened."

DeZantez hesitated. Her gaze alternated between Kali and McCain.

"May I remind you," McCain interrupted, "that the Enlightened One plays no part other than that of an observer in these proceedings. Her opinion carries no weight."

"Hey!" Kali shouted at McCain. "You want an opinion that carries weight, you bastard, I'll show you one!"

She leapt the podium, intending to land a fist in his smug, fat face, but found her neck scissored between DeZantez's twin blades before she could swing. Barely able to speak because of the blades pressing on her throat, barely able to move her head, she strained to look into DeZantez's eyes.