Treachery : book 2 of Codex Elysium

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

 present time: Muspell

Sutur was an ancient demon, he had been around since the dawn of time. He had seen the worlds grown and change. He stood at the very boundary of his diminished domain. Before him was an ancient barrier that was the magic of the Fae. He couldn't pass through it or even see it but he could feel it. It was solid and impassible just like it had been for thousands of years. Sutur looked down at his feet, the only way he could tell where the boundary was. The land was bare and blackened rock, just like all of Muspell behind him. It suddenly changed into beautiful, lush green grasslands that rolled out into plains. Dotted with rocks and stunted trees. Sutur clenched his fists in frustration. He hated the sight. He could remember the time when all the worlds were black, everything was fire and ash, when mountains spewed lava and fire.

There were no towns or cities within a hundred miles of the border of Muspell, no animals or living things ventured into the grass lands. Sutur had missed the development of all the races and their achievements and monumental failures as he slept. The giant demon pressed his hand against the barrier. It was more solid then a mountain of granite, the air around his black hand shimmered and rippled as he watched the visitor.

He had come casually strolling across the grasslands and had walked right up to the barrier. There the stranger had waited for Sutur's arrival. Just having a living creature at the boundary was odd. He had the pale white flesh that Sutur associated with the wicked elven creatures who had imprisoned him, he babbled away in some strange language the demon had not heard before. Sutur simply shrugged and watched, he didn't trust this strange person and he would keep an eye on him.

Day after day Sutur returned to the barrier and watched the bizarre activities of the man. He always dressed in black, he seemed to be measuring things and making calculations with bits of rope and twigs, he did it by sun and by stars. One day the man in black made a few final calculations, he stabbed a few final sticks into the ground then turned and bowed deeply to Sutur before strolling off towards the horizon again. The man had been gone for many days now and Sutur was left puzzling over what it all meant. Today as he stood at the boundary of his lands he was finally getting an answer.

The man in the black suit was strolling back across the plains and this time he was not alone. Behind him shambled a seething mass of people. Sutur growled and eyed the oncoming crowd. They all had the same pale white flesh as the man in the suit but they were not the retched elven creatures. They wore shreds of fabric and tatty clothes. Their bodies were withered and wasted, they had very little flesh on them at all. Boney hands held rusted tools, spades, hatchets, pick axes, shovels.

Sutur bellowed out a call to arms in his own demonic language. He ordered the army of Muspell to assemble at once. They were under attack. Had the man in the black suit found a way to breach the barrier?