James Galloway - The Tower of Sorcery

Not just any god. An Elder God, a truly immortal deity who would rival in power with the others of that most elite group. A god with no constraints, with no bounds, existing outside the structured pantheon. The Elder Gods would be forced to rise up and deal with the usurper, and it would be a war that would destroy the world.

That couldn't be allowed to happen. The katzh-dashi would find it first, find it and keep it, securing it away until that day came and went, and it would be nothing but a useless curiosity for another five thousand years.

In this mad crusade, the katzh-dashi found themselves outnumbered and overwhelmed. Other groups, nations, kingdoms, they had more resources, and they already had a head start. The scramble to find the Firestaff, what some called the Questing Game, began more than a year ago, when a battered scroll was discovered in ruins in Sharadar, a scroll that hinted at the long-lost location of the Firestaff. It was written that it existed behind the wind, within the realm of eternal shadow, and guarded by a defender of power. The Book of Ages also mentioned the ancient artifact, a device with the power to destroy the world. It wrote that Mi'Shara , nonhuman noble-born Sorcerers, had the best chance of finding the artifact. But it also wrote that anyone who could find the Firestaff and either defeat or outwit its Guardian could gain ownership of it. A Mi'Shara simply had a better chance.

Mi'Shara were frightfully rare beings. When the choice was made to use a Were-creature to create one, there was only Allia, and there was a sincere fear among many in the Council that she would not be enough. So plans were made, and a Were-creature was located and captured for the task. The arts of Communing with the Goddess, to directly ask her questions of great importance, required High Sorcery. And even then the answers were usually very unreliable, either being too cryptic to comprehend or outright wrong, when she deigned to answer at all. The Goddess' unwillingness to lead her children had confounded Keeper and Council alike since the katzh-dashi had returned to the Tower, but in this case they had produced a good result. When asked if there was a human Sorcerer of noble blood to be found, the cryptic response led to Tarrin. He was the only noble-born Sorcerer they could find, an obscure villager in a long-forgotten corner of the kingdom, who was the son of an Ungardt princess. Dolanna was sent to perform the Test there, even though they already knew he had potential. She was also selected because she had made a study out of Were-creatures, both their society and their physiology. If anyone could keep the fledgeling Were-cat sane, it was Dolanna.

They needed Tarrin, they needed him desperately. Keritanima had shown shocking potential, especially after she had absolutely stunned everyone by leading the quickly created alliance that attacked the Cathedral of Karas to get him back. She was not the spoiled, self-centered, immature brat that everyone thought her to be. Myriam had had the luck of being in Jervis' office, railing at him for his little activities the night before, when the news reached him. His jaw abosolutely dropped from his head. If Keritanima could fool Jervis, then that meant that she had all of Wikuna fooled as well. But where Keritanima showed incredible potential, control, and aptitude, she didn't have his raw power. Tarrin was a Weavespinner. A Weavespinner ! That unprecedented power had not been present on the world since the time of the Ancients. If a Weavespinner couldn't challenge the fabled Guardian of the Firestaff and have a chance at victory, then Myriam couldn't think of anything that could. He was their best chance, and now he was out of their hands.

A dark shadow passed over the light flowing from the large window, closed against the winter chill, and Myriam found the breath to scream when something grabbed her by the back of her nightgown and pulled her out of her chair. The ceiling and floor traded places wildly until she found herself on her back on the floor, a knee on her pelvis and a huge, padded hand holding her by the throat. Two slits of intense green radiance marked the silhouette of a human figure, a figure with the other hand held up and away.

Not a human. A Were-cat!

"Tarrin, are you out of your-"

"Silence!" Tarrin snapped in a voice tight with fury. "I know the truth, Myriam! You did this to me! "

Myriam Lar, Keeper of the Six Spires, ruler of the katzh-dashi , one of the most powerful people in Sulasia, wet herself at that infuriated proclamation. But then again, few human beings could stare death in the face and not be affected in some way. Tarrin was infuriated, and his Were-cat nature would not allow him to handle that fury in a very gentle or painless manner.

"You watched me, spied on me, let me go on here and suffer, and you never had the nerve to tell me ! I should kill you for this! I want to kill you so bad that I can taste it! You destroyed my life !"

"What was done was done for the good of everyone," she said in a quavering voice, seeing her own death in those twin slits of unholy green fire. "It was not done without great need, Tarrin. We need you. We need you now more than any person, any kingdom, any civiliation, has needed someone before. And you can't do what you need to do unless you are what you are now. Yes, we changed you," she admitted in a tight voice, tight with terror. "But it was only because we had no other choice."

Tarrin grabbed at a bulge in her nightgown, then Myriam gasped in pain when he snapped the chain holding her shaeram around her neck. He held that gold amulet in his paw lightly. "I want to kill you so bad I can taste it, but that's not good enough." His paw suddenly exploded in white light, Magelight, and she felt him weave a spell into that amulet. He plunged the amulet down and pressed it against her chest, just under the collarbone on her right side, and she screamed in total, mindless pain. The amulet's gold burned into her skin, charring it, burning through and into muscle, even as the magic behind it burned into her soul.

When he relented, Myriam curled up into a defensive ball, crying and moaning, feeling the searing pain shudder through her with every beat of her heart. "I did that because there was no other choice," he hissed. "I'll never trust you again, Keeper. Know that. But also know that you have a traitor among you. If not for my need to keep others safe, I would kill you and be done with it. But their lives are in as much danger as yours, and it's all because of that.

"Jula collared me," he told her as she looked up at him. "She said someone ordered her to do it, someone here in the Tower. And it's a woman. I don't give a damn about you or the Tower, but I do care for those I'm leaving behind, and they're in danger so long as that traitor stays among you. I'm letting you live only because you're the only one that can keep my friends alive, Keeper. And if they die, then so will you."

"What happened to Jula?"

"I punished her for taking away my freedom," he said in a cold voice, a voice full of tightly controlled fury. "Just be glad I'm not doing the same to you. I should, but if I kill you, my friends will be in danger, and you'll just be replaced by people who will come after me. Now that you understand the consequences of chasing me down, I'm sure that you'll think twice about it. You have no idea what I'm capable of, Keeper. I'll raze all of Suld to the ground just to kill you . So leave me be, and I'll let you live. And every time you start to forget my warning, just reach up and touch your brand. It won't let you forget."

He stared down at her, then those slits of ominous radiance blinked. And then he was gone.