Author's Note: As of June 27th, 2016, the entire fanfic has been rewritten. That means this chapter, all that came before it, and all that follow it now contain different content that they did previously. You are strongly encouraged to go back and reread the entire fanfic from the beginning, as the revised continuity may confuse you if you jump in part of the way through.
"Ok, let's go over the situation." Phoney said as the craft neared Atheia. "We've only got a few minutes, maybe ten or fifteen, before their planes catch up with us. So we have to evacuate the city, or as much of it as we can, in that time. Thorn, you know the city best. Do you have any ideas?" Thorn pondered for a moment.
"We need to alert the guard and evacuate as many of the guards and civilians into the tunnels as we can. We've got a very, very small window of opportunity here, so when the plane arrives we'll split up into three teams. X'lish and Bartleby, you will drop off at the gates, and start spreading the word to meet inside the old tunnels outside the southern wall."
"Give the guard at the gate this amulet," Thorn said as she handed X'lish a silver amulet adorned with the Harvester crest, "And tell him to start evacuating civilians." Then go to the tunnels near the south tower. Wait there for about ten or so minutes, and then take anyone who showed up through the system to Sinner's Rock where the plane will be waiting. We'll ferry people from there in groups to the temple. Fone and I will drop off at the palace, get the council out, and tell as many guards as we can to gather up civilians and meet in the tunnels. The rest of you stay here on the ship and wait for us to return."
"We're coming up on the gates!" Shouted Jigafta from the cockpit. The ramp in the back of the dropship opened up as it turned around and neared land. Before it touched the ground, X'lish climbed onto Bartleby's back, and he bounded out of the entrance and onto the ground. The ramp closed back up and the ship took off again for the palace.
"What is the meaning of this?" Shouted one of the guards just beyond the gate as X'lish and Bartleby ran up. X'lish pulled out the amulet Thorn gave her and shoved it through the bars at him.
"This is a royal decree. There is an enemy fast approaching that is about to burn this city to the ground. You need to gather up every guard and civilian you can find and tell them to meet us in the entrance of the old tunnels in less than ten minutes to await evacuation, or everyone here will die."
"What…" The guard couldn't process what he was being told. X'lish sighed.
"I'm here on orders from the queen. If you don't do exactly as I say, everyone you know and care about will die, do you understand?" She turned to the guard staring agape at her on her side of the bars. "And you need to spread the word through the village outside the city. Meet in ten minutes outside the southern tunnels, or be left behind and slaughtered by the approaching army. Your choice." Both of the guards finally registered what was happening. They snapped a salute to X'lish and hurried off to accomplish their tasks. With that done, she turned to Bartleby.
"We need to get ourselves to those tunnels. Do you have any idea where they are exactly?" She asked the rat creature.
"Yeah, I do. I remember Phoney telling us about them on our way back to Boneville. Hop on." He gestured with his head to his back. X'lish complied, and he took off around the gate to the southern tower. He skidded to a halt near an inconspicuous looking oval shaped boulder. He nudged it aside with his head and it slid away to reveal a hole burrowing itself into the mountainside, the walls twisting and turning north toward Sinner's Rock.
"Not a moment too soon." X'lish muttered. People came running out after them through the gate. They were mostly townspeople, but littered among the two or three dozen people frantically crossing the plane between the wall and the mountainside were several armed Venu guards and about ten armed civilians. As they reached the entrance, X'lish quickly shuffled them inside. "Go! Go! Inside, Quickly!" She shouted. "Get up on top of Sinner's Rock and lay low! The Queen's transport will be arriving shortly to take you to safety!"
Just as the last of the first group crossed the threshold, another amassed at the gates. Suddenly the first of the enemy dropships de-cloaked above various points in the city, one right between the southern gate and the tunnel. X'lish motioned the oncoming group back with her hand, and pushed Bartleby back into the tunnel. Then she drew her sidearm from her belt and crouched down behind a rock and out of the enemy line of sight.
"What're you going to do?" Whispered Bartleby into X'lish's ear.
"I'm going to go get those people a ride. You make sure the group up on sinner's rock stays out of sight until the President comes back. Something tells me we won't be getting another batch." Without another word she sprang out from behind the rock and sprinted headlong at the four soldiers emerging from the exposed craft. Before any of them could react, she put a bullet square between each one of their eyes. By the time they hit the ground, she was almost inside the ship. Before the pilot realized what had happened just outside, X'lish put a bullet in his head too. She rushed back outside and motioned the awe-struck crowd onto the plane. As they tentatively crossed the open field X'lish grabbed the gear off of the four dead bone soldiers and threw the stripped body of the fifth out the ramp. When the humans had arrived at the plane, it was already prepared for takeoff.
"Get in and sit down if you don't want to die." Said X'lish as she prepared to activate the rotors. Scared out of their minds by their strange surroundings, they did as they were told and shuffled in aimlessly into the craft. They were packed in like a can of sardines, no one having the room to sit down. But by some miracle they all fit and the ramp closed. A few moments later the craft took off and blended in with the newly formed crowd of arriving dropships.
Bartleby took one last look at the gates before closing the tunnel entrance to see yet another group, this one made up of mostly guards, running across the field to him. He held open the boulder long enough to let them through before closing it behind him. He stopped the last soldier who came through before he could join the others at Sinner's Rock.
"Are any more coming?" He asked. The kid, he looked no older than nineteen, looked him in the eyes and started shaking uncontrollably. "Calm down, calm down. I won't eat you." Bartleby said. "What's your name?"
"M…My name is… Alex…" The guard said in between shakes.
"Listen Alex, I need to know if anyone else is coming so I can know whether or not to keep this entrance open. What's going on in the city?" Bartleby asked. Alex began to settle a little. Then he told his story.
"We had just gotten word to get the civilians to the tunnels when those… flying things appeared in the sky. They dropped out Bone creatures that started shooting people in the legs with these… things in their hands. They tried to prevent people from escaping, but they didn't kill anyone. They hit us hardest at the barracks, like they knew where we were all going to be. Those of us that knew about the evacuation started gathering up civilians and heading over here. The last thing I saw before I hit the planes was a group of about fifteen guards go down covering our escape, though I don't think the enemy saw us get here." His shakes had finally leveled out. "I don't think anyone else will be coming."
"You did well out there Alex. Go join the others and try to keep everyone out of sight until help arrives." Bartleby tried to sound as convincing as he could given the fact that, statistically, at least one person in Alex's family died at the hands of rat creatures five years ago. Alex nodded and ran off down the tunnel. Bartleby took one last look at the entrance before following him.
Eventually he and the more than seventy-five humans found comfortable positions on the rock face where they wouldn't be seen from, and started waiting. After a few minutes, he began to realize that the craft was late. Then the Palace collapsed in the distance, explosions going off left and right. He put himself on full alert. The seconds seemed like hours. His senses heightened beyond a sharpness he even knew he possessed, and by the time the craft descended from the sky he was a jittering wreck. It took him a few moments to realize that this new craft wasn't the enemies, but theirs, waiting to take them to safety. It took the humans a lot longer. They didn't stop mumbling and shaking until the two princes emerged, stoic and emotionless, from the interior of the plane. The sight of more humans seemed to calm the masses to a degree, enough to start ushering them onto the plane. They managed to fit Bartleby and most of the first group that had arrived onto the ship, despite the cramped conditions.
"We can only fit so many this run, unfortunately. We'll be back to pick up the rest of you shortly. Just sit tight." Rankyne said to the people still shivering on the cliff, including Alex. He looked the young guard in the eye. "Make sure these people stay out of sight, understand?" Alex nodded.
"Where's X'lish?" Caydmar asked as Jigafta raised the ramp behind him.
"She captured one of their dropships and took off with the second group toward the temple." Bartleby replied, relieved to see some people he recognized.
"A bit of good news then. At least we have something to show for this "evacuation" we planned." As Bartleby settled himself on the floor for the journey, he noticed that the ship hadn't gained any passengers other than the ones at Sinner's Rock.
"What happened at the palace?" Bartleby asked, an empty feeling gathering in his gut. He hadn't seen Fone anywhere on the plane, and it wasn't a space you could hide someone in, even if the person was Fone's size.
"We dropped off the people we managed to recover at the palace only a couple of minutes ago. We wouldn't' have been able to fit many refugees in otherwise." Said Rankyne as he leaned against the wall to make room. "We barely managed to get out a hundred and fifty people. Some rescue force we turned out to be."
"And did Fone stay with them?" Bartleby asked. The Princes stared at each other, than the ground, but didn't speak. They didn't have to. Through the door to the cockpit he could see Jigafta piloting while Phoney held his head in his hands, staring blankly at the floor. Bartleby felt sick. Out of the corner of his eye, he finally noticed Thorn crying in the corner, an expression of vague and removed shock on her face, as if she had failed to process something that just happened to her. Bartleby's heart dropped. He didn't even bother to wait for conformation from one of the princes. He already knew. He just leaned back against the now closed up ramp and began to cry. He had just lost another member of his family.
"We don't have a lot of time, so let's stick with getting the key figures out and spreading the word to everyone else. The Council should still be in session in the western tower, so I'll go there first." Thorn said as the plane came up on the palace courtyard.
"Right. You go find them and I'll go get the Commander in the eastern tower. And then we'll meet back up at the southern tower to get the Dreaming Council. Then we head back to the courtyard for pickup." Replied Fone. Both of them crouched at the edge of the ramp, facing out of the plane.
"It seems you committed that tour I gave you to memory." Thorn remarked as the ramp opened.
"Courtyard's coming up in three… two… one…" Jigafta shouted back at them from the cockpit. As he maneuvered the plane close enough to the ground. "Jump!" The two launched themselves from the dropship, landing in the courtyard grounds several feet below them. Instantly the ship lifted into the air and disappeared. Fone cast one last look at Thorn as they headed off in separate directions. There was no time for small talk with time working against them, but he couldn't help wanting to say so much to her. About everything he had felt in the last six years. He cast those thoughts aside and focused on getting to the commander. He darted off toward the south side of the courtyard, and found a wall perpendicular to the front of the palace. He followed it to a large door, wrenched it open, and found himself in a long hallway.
He tried to remember the layout of the palace from the brief time he had spent there. He ran down to the end of the hall into another room, took a left through the archway, and ran up the large spiral staircase. This was the Council of the Venu's tower, where all the leaders of the guard slept and convened for meetings. The western tower belonged to the Council of Nobles, and the southern held the Council of Dream Masters, all of whom they hoped to evacuate with the first group.
Fone made it to the top of the stairs to find the Venu Master meeting with some of his subordinates. One of the guards noticed him, and stopped Fone as he tried to walk over to interrupt the meeting.
"This is a private meeting, Master Sybron Brook has asked not to be disturbed. I'm going to have to ask you to wait downstairs until the meeting is over if you want to talk with him." The guard said. Fone brushed him aside, and ran up to the Master.
"Master Brook, my name is Fone Bone, though you probably already know that. I don't have time to explain in detail, but there is an enemy army about to burst down the gates and slaughter everyone in this city, and we need to get you out so we can co-ordinate a counterattack from safety." Fone blurted out. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. Sybron Brook responded with a chuckle.
"I don't know where you got this information, but rest assured we can turn back any enemy that comes to face us. Thank you for the gesture, but if what you say is true then we would have spotted this army of yours already."
"Not likely. They have flying machines that can turn invisible and weapons that can level entire forests in seconds. You can't fight them from such an exposed position. We have to retreat and get you and the outer Councils' members somewhere safe."
"Now you're just talking nonsense. Guards, please remove Mr. Bone from the tower. I have matters actually important to this city's safety to discuss with…" As Sybron glanced out the window, several of Glaian's dropship's de-cloaked over the city, one right outside the tower's window.
"Bloody stars!" One of the guards shouted as he notched an arrow in his bow. "What is that?" The guard fired the arrow through the window at the cockpit of the dropship. It plinked harmlessly against the reinforced glass, but did manage to get the pilot to notice them. In response, he casually swung the dropship around, pointing its open ramp toward the window.
"Get down!" Fone shouted as two fully armed bone soldiers crashed through the window. As they recovered their footing, Fone slammed one against the wall. Grabbing the man's sidearm, he aimed it at the other's head just as he brought his rifle up to Fone's. Fone ducked at the second soldier fired his rifle, and the bullet barely passed over Fone's head. Fone jolted back up and shot him in the kneecap. The first soldier recovered, and lunged at Fone to retrieve his sidearm. Fone stepped to the side and knocked the man on the head, sprawling him out on the ground. Then he shot them both through the head for good measure.
"Get to the courtyard now." He spoke over his shoulder to the humans, all of which were frozen with shock. "Hide and wait for pickup." They all scurried out of the room in formation, protecting Master Sybron as best they could. As soon as they all left the room, Fone threw the gun aside, collapsed to his knees, and threw up all over the floor.
"What just happened?" He muttered to himself. He had never done anything remotely like that before. Though it didn't feel wrong. He felt an intense rush of adrenaline as he stood back up and made his way down the staircase. He felt like he could take on the world. AS he descended the steps, he began to calm slightly, enough to center himself. As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he took off in the direction of the north tower and prayed that Thorn was still doing ok.
During all of this, Thorn had taken a similar path on the opposite side of the courtyard through a similar set of hallways, rooms, and corridors leading to the western tower, where the Noble Council was currently in session. She flew up the stairs at breakneck speed, and burst through the doors to the council chambers. Since Gram 'ma Ben was at Old Man's Cave and Gabriel was in the dungeon, only seven of the nine members of the Council of Nobles sat around the table at the top of the tower to discuss the events that had taken place at the party earlier that day: Four men, two of them in their mid-forties and two of them much older, and three women, one old haggish looking one and two in their mid-fifties. All of them looked severely shocked to see the Queen standing so disheveled in their presence. Thorn spoke quickly.
"All of you, this is a royal mandate: get downstairs and into the courtyard immediately. An enemy force is about to destroy the city, and you all need to hide there until I return with the Council of Dreams to summon transport." None of them spoke for a few seconds. Then the oldest woman, Delwyn Curtis, unleashed a tirade of pent up frustration at Thorn
"We have indulged your fantasies long enough, girl! You dream of faraway places and fantastical adventures, entertaining strange guests and engaging in conduct unbecoming of the Queen of the Valley. If you don't stop this ridiculous fantasizing about strange creatures and far off lands, then we'll…" Thorn snapped.
"That's enough of your ramblings, old cow!" Shouted Thorn, making everyone in the room jump a little. She was starting to get really angry. "I am the Queen of this Valley, and you will address me with the proper respect. Now if you don't do exactly as I say I could have you hanged for treason against the Crown. But I won't have to because when the enemy arrives they will do the work for me. Either outcome is fine with me, but if you want to live I suggest going to the courtyard." As she finished her sentence, the enemy dropships began to de-cloak around the city. "Damn it they're here early." She muttered as she looked out the window to see troops repelling into the streets. She turned back to address the nobles. "Members of the Council the enemy has broken through our defenses. I suggest you move to the courtyard to await transportation to a safe location." Seeing the smoke already rising from where the soldiers had begun their assault, the Council complied without another word. Thorn sprinted down the stairs ahead of them. Without checking to make sure they made it to the courtyard in one piece, she tore down the hallway to the north tower.
When she arrived, she heard shouting. Looking around the corner, she noticed several Bones carrying assault rifles walking out of the door to the northern tower dragging several members of the Dreaming Council behind them. Thorn eyed the crowd, but couldn't spot Mermie among them. Thorn found it strange an army that hated humans as much as Phoney said they did would take prisoners. Their legs seemed to have been shot, but other than that they were ok. Her relief caught in her chest when her servant girl, Lily, rounded the corner and stared face to face with the soldiers.
Without a word one of them raised his weapon and put a bullet in between her eyes before she could react. Thorn stopped breathing. A smirk erupted on the Bone's face, but one of the other Bones smacked him in the back of the head.
"What were you thinking?" He shouted as they walked down the corridor. "Glaian said to take them in alive so we could break them down first. What're you going and spoiling the fun for?" He asked.
"What's one human servant in the grand scheme of things, eh? I figure, kill one or two for fun, and no one will ever know…" Their conversation carried itself down the hallway as they dragged their prisoners to the palace's extensive gardens. Thorn began to breathe again. She collapsed on the floor, fatigued, and relieved that they weren't heading for the courtyard she had sent all of the Council Members to. Her relief was short lived.
She stood back up and attempted to find Fone, but as she turned the corner she was greeted by the barrel of the gun of a lone Bone soldier, one of the larger ones more akin in size to Smiley than Fone or Phoney. He motioned with his gun down the corridor the other soldiers had gone. When she didn't move, he raised the butt of his gun.
"Move down the corridor, human wench, or I'll break your legs and drag you by the hair. I'm fine either way." He began to bring the butt of his gun down, but stopped short of her frozen face with a loud crunching sound. He fell over, and behind him was standing Fone, holding a chunk of wall that he had used to bludgeon the back of the other Bone's head.
"And don't you speak to her like that again!" He shouted at the unconscious body. He immediately dropped the impromptu weapon and ran over to Thorn. "Are you ok? Did he hurt you at all?" He asked as she leaned against the wall trying to recover from the shock.
"I'm fine." She replied, "Though that was a little startling. Thanks for the concern though." She sat for a moment in silence before speaking again. "I think we should head back. I saw the Council of Dreams get taken away by soldiers, so there's nobody else to try to evacuate. We need to get back to the courtyard and signal Phoney."
"What about rescuing the Council? With a gun and the element of surprise on our side, it's possible." Fone nodded to the gun lying on the ground next to the unconscious Bone.
"No, we'd just be going to our own deaths. We'd be better off keeping the people we've already gathered out of enemy hands, not killing ourselves trying to rescue more." She stood back up. Before either of them could speak again, the radio of the unconscious Bone sparked to life.
"Attention all troops, this is a level one directive. Cease all actions at the palace and pull our forces out of that area. Glaian wants us to send the humans a strong message, so all available ordinance is being retasked to bring that palace down on top of their heads. Godspeed, brothers and sisters." Thorn and Fone looked at each other. Immediately the palace started shaking as explosions sounded off below and to the sides of them. Thorn was knocked down, but scrambled back up to her feet and began making her way back toward the courtyard.
"Fone Bone! The Palace is collapsing! We need to get out of here!" Thorn shouted as she ran down the hallway. About halfway down she stopped and turned around. "What's keeping you? We have to move!" The sound of the stone smashing and the fire roaring almost drowned out her words.
"We can't just leave them! We need to go back!" Fone wouldn't move.
"We don't have a choice, they've already been caught! We need to get out before those troops circle back!" Thorn ran back to pick up Fone. The ground started to collapse behind them. "Shit!" She exclaimed, and Fone, concluding that they would die if they lingered any longer, ran up to join her. The two of them took off for their lives. The fire close on their heels, rocks smashing from every direction. Fone glanced to his left and saw the wall shatter inwards, beyond it nothing but a sea of fire. He started running harder. They made their way through the passageways and halls of the palace, until they reached the Throne room. Thorn sprinted hard and fast for the door, but Fone paused. He had seen this before in his dreams. He had seen the ceiling give way, collapsing on Thorn right as they leave the building. He didn't have time to lose.
He ran at her in a mad dash, all his muscled kicking into overdrive. He couldn't lose her. Not her. Not after everything that had happened. He hadn't even told her that he loved her. His resolve burned behind his eyes. She turned around and looked back at him right before she left the entrance, urging him to cross the room quickly, not noticing the ceiling finally start to buckle. He had only seconds. He ran harder. He jumped at her, scrambling to save her, and shoved her out of the way at the last second, catching the look of surprise on her face as the ceiling came down. The next thing he noticed was the pain.
Thorn got up off the ground, startled that Fone would shove her like that. Then she noticed that the entrance had collapsed. Caught halfway inside it, right where she had been standing, crushed under several tons of stone, was Fone. She ran over to him, unable to comprehend what was happening.
His legs and part of his lower torso were pinned, possibly crushed entirely, underneath the collapsed ceiling. He grimaced in pain as he tried to shift the stones in vain to give himself some measure of relief.
"Fone, are you ok? Can you hear me?" She asked him as she began working, tearing frantically at a wall of stone trying to dislodge him. It was a stupid question, but at least if he kept talking that meant that he was alive.
"Yeah." He responded weakly, "My legs don't seem to hurt much, though I can't really feel them either. Can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing." At least he was still alive. That meant she still had a chance to free him. She kept at it. Fone noticed what she was doing, and reached out to her hands, grabbing them gently. She stopped working, and looked directly at him.
"You have to get out of here." He said, as she slowly shook her head, trying to deny what was happening. "Any minute this wall is going to come down and then I'm dead. There's nothing I can do about that, but you don't have to die with me. Get the Councils to safety. Plan a counter attack. Win."
"I'm not leaving you here to die." She said. "I've lost too much today to lose you too. I'm getting you out of here and we're going to live to see another day together. Besides, you never did tell me what you were going to say here, on this spot, earlier this evening." She was beside herself. She couldn't lose him to. Not him. Not now. Not after what had happened. Not after…
"You have to leave. You have a duty to your people that goes far beyond my life. Go live and fight for their freedom."
"No! I'll not leave you to die in my place!" She shouted as she went back to her work.
"You have to go, I'll not watch you die here." He said, urging her to save her own life.
"Neither will I!"
"Get out of here!"
"No!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. She stopped working and stared at the ground. "I'm not worth it." She muttered. "I'm not worth this. I'm not worth dying for, so I'll be damned if I let someone die so I can live."
"Yes you are, now go and do your duty as a Queen." He said, trying to reassure her of her worth, while staring worriedly at the wall looming above him.
"No, I'm not. Knowing me these last six years has only ever cost you. I've inadvertently put you and your cousins in danger multiple times. I'm short sighted, quick-tempered, volatile at times, and prone to violent and uncontrollable mood swings. I've berated you more times than I care to remember, even drew my sword against you at one point. I've constantly misjudged you and your abilities, and relied too little on the help you constantly tried to provide instead of being a good friend. I'm not worth the fires you had to go through because of me, and I'm not worth dying for." She looked him in the eyes. "So why then? Why?"
"Because I don't care about any of that. To me, you'll always be a kind, compassionate, comforting, helpful, caring, and beautiful woman who loves life, nature, and her friends more than anything. Any that's what made knowing you worth whatever trials I had to endure. It's what made you worth dying for. And it's why…" Minutes from death and he still couldn't tell her. But he finally said to hell with holding back, to hell with fear. This was his last chance. Those three words it had taken him six years to say rang true in every fiber of his being. "It's why… It's why I love you. I always have, since they day we met. More than anything. I love you more than life itself. And I will not watch the woman I've loved for six years die before my eyes." He mustered the last of his strength and made his best attempt to prop himself up under the circumstances. "So you survive, and you fight back. Snd you look Glaian in the eye and make my death mean something. More than it already does." Thorn took a few steps back, trying to process information. In that time, Fone looked up and saw a section of wall break off, heading straight for him.
"I guess this is it." He said, as death closed in on him. "My only regret is not saying that sooner. I love you, Thorn. I always will. Goodbye." She realized what was happening too late. The section of wall cascaded upon him. Time moved in slow motion. She could barely register any thoughts. The dropship appeared in the sky. The debris was moments away from his head. She screamed. She couldn't hear her own words. She collapsed to the ground. At some point she began to cry.
Hands reached out to grab her. She saw humanoid shapes through her tears, ushered onto the dropship. A small white creature ran up to her, and started asking questions she couldn't hear. She looked back at the spot where he had died. She couldn't take it. Phoney, yes, that was his name, continued to ask frantically for him. Fone. She wandered over to a corner and sat down. She cried until she passed out, though she didn't know when that was. As she transitioned away from conscious though, certain revelations nestled themselves in the back of her mind. He had loved her. Since they had met. And she had ignored him for years. And now he was gone. And now, looking back as she faded into tortured sleep, she realized that she might have loved him too. And then everything went black.
"Did you feel that, Lorimar? That colossal blast through the dreaming? The last time I felt something that powerful was when the other Nightmare Entity, the Nacht, was destroyed. It seems your plan failed. How… unsurprising." Vokelle sat in the chambers of Deren Guard with the other council members.
"For once I agree with Vokelle. You have constantly disappointed us. You claimed the Morudagni Nightmare Entity could solve all of our problems, but now it is as clear as day: it has died, and with it the Spark that you do wisely entrusted to it." Quimrath coiled up, as if he was preparing to strike.
"And now we have nowhere to run. No plan. No real defense. No anything. The enemy barks at our front door, and closes in on Mon'Yaran's sanctuary. And now you have failed to deliver us the salvation you promised. Give me one reason I shouldn't just kill you now?" Korin's nostrils began smoking.
"Because He isn't dead. That shockwave we all felt through the dreaming wasn't as chaotic as the death of the Nacht. If you listened close enough, you would have felt a pattern, a harmonious ping that accompanied it. This has all gone according to plan. That ping you heard amidst the torrent of energy he unleashed was not his death rattle. It was his dreaming eye." Rebutted Lorimar calmly.
"Are you suggesting that..?"
"Yes I am. That shockwave wasn't his death, but rather his birth. His awakening. The opening of his dreaming eye. The Spark's handiwork. And that puts my plan right on schedule. All we have to do is wait, because if we do, the Falsely Oneiric Nightmare Entity, the one the Great Red Dragon calls "Fone Bone" will accomplish our goals for us. He will destroy the Councilman, complete Mon'Yaran's soul, and bring about the everlasting Dream in less time than we could have hoped. Kill me, gentlemen? You should be thanking me. I just won us this war before it even got started."
Lorimar smiled to herself, amused by the Council of Dragons she had constantly bewildered since her time here. She looked back over her shoulder, in the direction of the Palace, and wondered to herself how much time it would take for the Spark to repair the damage to his body. Miles and miles away, in the ruins of the palace courtyard, a bright light shone through the countless piles of debris, and faint laughter echoes off of the ruined walls.