Note: I forgot to mention before that this story will be an alternate situation loosely based on "The Garden of Zinn."

Chapter III

Venger

Quakes, gales, fires, floods — these are all well and good, but one does tire of them after a time; though, the frightened screams of the panic-stricken, who, by nature, must fear death, do my dark heart much good. Alas, they did not hold my interest long. Manipulation of the elements is child's play, and mortals are quite capable of frightening one another on their own without magic. I was merely flexing my muscle.

But with each pernicious act, I felt my strength growing, growing, the more I summoned those energies I am so attuned to. There were times I had to stop myself breaking out into mad laughter in the rapture I felt at the forces surging through my being. For to have done so would have been regrettably unbecoming, don't you think?

But it was not mere ennui alone that now blackened my temperament. Understand that I had made no effort to hide myself from the peoples I terrorized. I would have them know me, fear me, revere me! Yet as winds howled and conflagrations roared, it was not my name they shouted in horror and rage, but another's.

"Venger!" they cried. "It is Venger! It must be!"

Must it? Am I so forgotten? I snatched an old yet sturdy man from a crowd. "Do you know whom you look upon?" I demanded of him.

Wide-eyed, he managed to form the name that had already grown tiresome to my ears. "Venger!" he said.

"And have you ever, before this day, laid eyes on this fiend you name?" I asked. One can never be too careful with the utterances of names.

"I have!" Such contempt in his voice.

"And do I appear as he to you?"

The confusion in his eyes angered me, but I managed to quell that particular fire. This mortal was not worthy to bring such emotion from me.

"No," he answered at last. "But the Force of Evil has many faces! Who else could you be? Who else!" He seemed to be regaining his nerve. "Kill me and be done with it, then!"

I tossed him aside like the waste that he was.

Now, in the darkening twilight, I sit between forest and mountain, on the precipice of a great cliff, facing the dying of the day. Sulking? Perhaps. But listening to the Realm, and feeling the fear dawning in the hearts and minds of mortals as the suns set, one after the other. And as stars begin to glitter above, nocturnal creatures stir, but their euphony does not bring a smile to my face.

This "Venger" . . . he vexes me.

That another Dark power replaced me was to be expected. But in my experience, there is never room for two evils in the same realm, no matter how expansive that realm may be. Any alliance can only be temporary, and once the common goal is accomplished, one inevitably betrays the other. With surrender never an option amongst those of our ilk, we fight to the vanquishment. To kill one of our own only diminishes us all, and is a direct act against our great master. Those who do not abide by this are the true fools. We are forever outnumbered by those who fight the "Good" fight, and are never served by destroying each other. It need not come to that. I can only hope Venger understands this.

Strangely, as I sit here now, I have no desire to kill him, no desire to oppose him at all. May I not be forced to change this position. But one of us will have to go. And I'd rather it not be me. Besides . . . I was here first.

I clad myself in black, befitting my mood.

Looking skyward, I saw the two moons that had arisen earlier in the evening. In this season, Ites and Ororta arise and consummate their lovers' tryst before Thraxis appears, discovers his wife with his trusted friend, and chases both to their deaths.

Or some such nonsense.

I felt a familiar tickle of anticipation.

Ah! At last! The erstwhile Harbinger of Death returns!

As I waited, I played a game with myself as to from which direction he would come. Then I saw him on the lower lands opposite me. He soon crossed the great chasm like an errant cloud caught in a crosswind.

"Wraith! What news? Have you found him?"

He stopped before me, hovering just beyond the edge. "No, Master. But I found those from the circle. It is as you described. A group of seven — a child and young unicorn among them. They make camp beside a river. And, Master . . . they possess powerful magical items and weapons. An archer with a flaming arrow made fire. A young wizard provides for their camp."

I had almost forgotten them. Now my curiosity was peaked anew. Powerful weapons? I stood. "We go to them."

Wraith led me to their camp, and we watched discreetly from the wood. I crouched and couldn't help but smile at the scene before us. All but two males were frolicking in the river. One, the wizard, safeguarded the weapons. The other looked to be a paladin, and soon he shed his shield and garb and jumped into the water with his laughing comrades. Ah, youth. . . .

Wraith had called the wizard "young," but I hadn't imagined them all to be as young as this. Only one of them, the youngest male, would I call a child. The others were old enough, but still rather young to be out adventuring on their own. And how had they come by their weapons? I surmised that their circumstances must be singular.

I counted them. Including the unicorn, I saw only six at first. But then . . . but then, from below the water's surface emerged . . . a goddess! I watched her, enthralled.

"Look at her, Wraith! Flesh nigh as moonlight pale as mine own, eyes of refined jade set in polished moonstone, and hair of such rich amber flame as to light the dark of my soul!"

"Yes, Master."

It has always amazed me how quickly he can ruin a moment with his tone alone.

"'Yes, Master' indeed! Are you so far removed from the living that you cannot appreciate the beauty of woman?"

"Perhaps. But to me, all are beautiful in death."

And then there are the moments when I'm reminded why he and I get along so well.

I would have let my gaze linger on the fair-skinned maiden, but movement blacker than the night took my attention. "Wraith!"

"I see it, Master!"

And with that, Wraith and I were in pursuit of a shadow demon that had been spying upon the young ones' camp. Naturally, anyone with a magical weapon is bound to have a powerful enemy. No gift is without price. It would be most interesting to learn who commanded this Dark familiar. There were few who could. I could. And if Venger deserved half the people's dread of him, then surely he could as well.

It sped west as we followed, unseen. Through mountains and forests and over moonlit waters and lands we flew until a black fortress came into view.

"Hold, Wraith," I cautioned with a raising of my hand. "Mind the ward." We slowed and came to rest in the shadow of a distant crag. I leaned against rock and folded my arms at my chest, my foot propped behind me as I observed, noting the window entrance used by the shadow demon.

Looking to the grounds, I watched the gross green creatures milling about, sharpening swords and axes and braiding whips with thick, scarred fingers. I laughed, incredulous. "Doth mine eyes deceive me, Wraith, or are those orcs accoutred in . . . uniforms?"

"They are, Master," confirmed my companion in a humoring tone.

"Perchance he believes it makes them smarter!" I said as I broke out into more laughter, which I soon stifled. This was serious, I reminded myself. I had yet to learn if, indeed, this was the lair of the reviled Venger.

"Remain here, my friend. I cannot promise to mask you through his defense. I shan't be long."

I leapt into the air. As a bat I swooped to the castle and around, taking its measure. I spied a nightmare as it felled an orc that had come too near it. I was at once amused at the scene below and struck by the nightmare's presence. A shadow demon, orcs, and now a nightmare! It all had me feeling rather covetous, though I've never felt I've needed more than my constant companion.

What does it say of one who commands a nightmare? I wonder . . . is it necessity, or vainglory?

As a lizard, I entered the same window as had the demon. There was no one in this room. Nothing but moldering tomes on dusty shelves, a sitting gargoyle, and fragments of bone. I crept through hallways, listening. A moth now, I flitted just below the ceiling, letting myself be pulled to lights until my senses found the light I could not ignore. And now a spider, I crawled along the ceiling of this room, my eight eyes surveying all as the creature spoke to his shadow demon as he stood at the edge of the largest seer's pool I had ever seen. Within it, I saw the young travelers I had only just left. This being looked down on my fair maiden in the center of the mystic waters. She was now clad in a dress, cloak, and high boots. So lovely. . . .

I turned my attention fully now to the Dark One. Throwing web, I moved round to have a proper look at him. No, no mere magus, this! I admit, he was more than I imagined. Old, powerful. A striking figure dressed in the ancient fashion of sanguine and ebony, with a single curved horn on the left of his head, a voice deep and unnatural that came forth through pure white fangs, and with wings of a devil broad upon his back. I could smell his power about him. And, if I tried, I could see the flow that fed him — the same power that fed me. But yet different. . . .

Yes, this was Venger. This was the one the people spoke of. He could be no other.

His face glowed with the pool's eldritch illumination. He spoke again. "'They will pay for destroying the Circle of Power!"

The Circle of Power? The circle in which I was imprisoned! So those young ones did free me!

"Do we attack, sire?"

My mind filled with questions.

"No, Shadow Demon. The time is not right. Besides, there are dangers enough lurking in the river. Come."

What other reason could there have been for them to have destroyed the Circle except to free me? For what purpose did they free me? Why, then, did they not stay to greet me? What did this Dark Power know of me? Had he been the attacker in the air, atop his nightmare? If he had indeed acted to prevent my release, why had he himself not remained or returned to finish me in my most vulnerable hour?

I was missing some vital element. But I would learn no more here. The pair had retreated to another part of the castle. I left as stealthily as I'd come.