Page 1547

((The 14 pages of Valentine's Day + Double Wednesday -- Page 15 of 16))
Of course, they weren’t truly mirrors. Rather, they were spatial windows, connected to every mirror in Himmekel. They allowed him to observe the daily lives of his subjects, to understand their struggles, their needs and desires--as well as their lies and their treason, unintentional though it may have been.

Seyos’ eyes fell upon his stone desk in the middle of the chamber, upon the bodiless core currently sitting upon it.

A terrible shame. One day, such intelligent and probing minds would be of tremendous value to the Hun’Sho again, but right now, they were only a nuisance. Too much so, sadly. Seyos hated having to do this to his own kin, but he knew all too well that they simply would not understand what needed to be done for the continued survival and resurgence of the Hun’Sho.

He picked up the core of young Jasirok and gripped it in the palm of his molten hand. “With this sacrifice,” he whispered, “you will do unto our enemies as they once did unto us.”

Seyos took a few moments to simply breathe, long and deeply, feeling the weight of the deed that he was about to do. He had done it far too many times, these past few years. It was all for the preservation of his people. Even if they eventually discovered what he was doing and hated him for it.

It was all for their sake.

Seyos circumnavigated the desk and retrieved the Wand of Conduction from the top right drawer, as well as one of the many small metal containers from the bottom left drawer. Next, he moved toward the mirrors and tapped the Wand against each one as he passed, activating them just long enough for a brief look on the other side.

Hmm.

Not many of his people were in their homes. Strange, for this time of day. Perhaps they knew more of what was happening than Seyos had previously realized. He knew they wouldn’t dare set foot outside Himmekel, of course, not with Enkir and Dunikei wreaking their eternal havoc, but still, it troubled him.

He would look into it later. Seyos crammed the Wand into the Deceiver’s Cloak. There wasn’t a proper space for it, but it would do, for now.

He readied himself to teleport again. He knew that he wouldn’t have much time once he returned to the Chamber of Grand Desire. He held Jasirok’s core in one hand and the small metal container in the other. With effort, he twisted the cap off the container and heard it pop.

He dumped its murky contents onto the core. Almost immediately, he felt it pulse in response.

No time now. He tossed the container aside, gripped the Pendant of Unso, and jumped back to the Chamber of Grand Desire.

As expected, Hector was still there, though he had moved closer to the small pile of treasure by the far wall, no doubt looking for more valuables to pillage.