Legends of the Dragonrealm, Vol II - By Richard A. Knaak Page 0,210

the masters. The Sheeka—you call them “Seekers”—have not become what they should have. Soon, they will join the Quel in the list of failures. Then there will be nothing left.

Dru wanted to stand, but he was not certain there was actually a floor on which to do so. He squirmed uneasily on the chair. “The Seekers control this world?”

The greatest of the continents.

“You make it sound as if you put them there.”

He could almost see the being shake its head. The masters set such in operation. They made the tiny worlds so that when the turn came, each would open again unto this, the true world. They hoped that one would prove a successor to their own kind.

The creature had informed him of everything in a simple, unattached manner, which was why its words did not penetrate immediately. Dru sat still as the impact of what his captor had said burrowed its way into his mind.

You understand correctly. The places from which the Sheeka, the Quel, and even you originated are slices of this world.

“Nimth… Nimth isn’t… isn’t real?” Not possible! the sorcerer wanted to shout. The birthplace of the Vraad a falsehood? A… zoo?

He could sense the sadness around him, a sadness that deepened his own horror at what he had come to realize. The mighty Vraad race had risen to supremacy of a cage, another race’s toy!

Not so, the ghostly dragon emphasized. Not a cage. More of a birthing place for the masters’ successors. They were old; their race was tired. The masters wanted to leave behind a legacy, so they took from their own and worked to make them better. Then they set them in worlds of their own and let each grow. See it as it was.

The dragon sank completely into the darkness and was replaced by a tiny image that expanded gradually, filling more and more of Dru’s vision until he actually felt he was standing in another place, in another time. In some ways, it was like communicating with the Seekers, save that what Dru saw was not forced upon him. He could accept it or not.

He had no intention of refusing such an opportunity.

There were beings he could call human and many he would not have guessed could ever have been. The ancient race had chosen every conceivable variation they could think of, some of which even Dru, who had witnessed much over his gray life, found so revolting he was astonished that they even lived.

Many attempts did not. There were scores of empty little worlds, worlds created by slicing reality itself. Each had once housed a hope, but those hopes had died for one reason or another, sometimes in great wars that destroyed everything. More than a few were judged failures even if the race within survived; the elders had searched for certain traits among their children. Eventually, most of those failures destroyed themselves, only one had not… so far.

Dru knew without asking that Nimth was the one failure that had, up until now, not succeeded in destroying itself completely. The time was nearing, however.

“What about those that succeeded?”

There were those that matured to the second stage, the mock dragon responded. Images of various civilizations passed before Dru. He recognized only two. The Seekers and their enemy, the armadillolike beings called the Quel.

“But you said…

They have failed. The Quel hang on, but nothing more. They will never rise to greatness again. The Seekers have begun their own descent. Their arrogance and communal thinking make them unwilling to face ultimate change. As for the elves… they will survive and aid us, but they lack the drive to become what they are capable of becoming. Because of that, they are lost to the plan as well.

“And we have also failed you.”

Perhaps. Perhaps not. With time…

With time, they, too, will fade, the one who chilled Dru’s spirit whispered.

Their death knell has begun already, added the fourth voice.

Dru shook his head, trying to clear away the confusing echoes within.

Not so! the mock dragon overwhelmed his counterparts. There is still time.

We have interfered enough, the fourth countered, but uncertainly now.

Give me leave to do what must be done….

The sorcerer found himself in the midst of darkness again as the entities evidently discussed something not for his ears.

So many questions continued to clamor for answers, but Dru doubted he would ever learn everything. Still…

His musings were forgotten as the world returned.

The sun was in the sky, a brilliant, burning orb that the mage had never thought to see