Page 169 of The Satyr's Guilt
Chapter Thirty-Four
Cadmon pushed out of his deskchair at the Ministry of the Shield to greet Alarik.
A loose black robe cloaked the warlock’smuscular shoulders as he greeted the warrior ylve. “HighCommander.”
Cadmon gripped the offered hand. He wavedhis visitor to a seat. “Rarely do you journey to my territory.”
Nodding, Alarik balanced on the edge of hischair, his spine rigid. “Yesterday I spoke to the lawgivers atlength. My next step is to warn you. As you know, my ministryemploys several covens of mages who monitor and maintain ourportals. Watchers. Their names are unknown as are the specifics oftheir tasks.”
“I know of these witches and warlocks.”Cadmon shifted in his chair, not so comfortable when he expectedbad news.
“To get to the point, the Watchers areexperiencing unusual ripples in the portals.”
“What does that mean?”
“Not sure. When it happened, they examinedthe overall structure of the gateways. It is sound. The Watchersare now analyzingeach one for anomalies. This effort istime-consuming.”
“What have they learned?”
“Nothing. So far, each is perfect, buthundreds of thousands of sites exist around the world.”
“Then why the concern?” Cadmon had littlepatience with magic. He was a man of action. While he respected itsuse in battle, he knew little about it, trusting it even less.
“Perhaps we are unnecessarily anxious.Still, each mage felt this ripple. When they worry, I listen.”
“What could a ripple mean?”
“Nothing. Everything.”
Alarik’s hesitancy to draw conclusionsfrustrated Cadmon, who wanted educated guesses. “Let’s go with the‘everything’ scenario.”
“The collapse of the portals is thefar-fetched speculation.” Alarik sat still, hands in his lap,staring at his fingernails.
Cadmon leaned forward onto his forearms. “Acollapse would mean no separate realms. We would be one again? Freemovement for Aeternals?”
“And for Darque’s creatures. This is, ofcourse, the worst case. No proof exists that a collapse isimminent. The investigated portals are secure. We just haveanomalous ripples.”
“In the past have portals fallen?”
Alarik paused as if he was thinking.
“Do not think too hard, Director. Eitherthey have or they haven’t.”
“Yes, long ago. Before my time. Logs say awarlock ruptured a single portal.”
“Is this warlock still alive?”
“No, but I reviewed the archives. The recorddid not report a strange ripple preceding its collapse.”
“If a gateway is compromised, can Watcherssecure it?”
“Yes.”
Before Cadmon could nod, Alarik added to hisshort answer. “If too many don’t fall at once.”
The high commander lifted a pen and tappedit on his desk a few times. “What do you want from me?”
“I want the Firebrands alert. If gatewaysfall, Watchers will close them as quickly as possible. The warriorsmust prevent humans from crossing onto Scath and Aeternals fromtraveling to Earth.”
