“Hello, young lady.”

     Voltarrens turned around.  It was Traveller with his grin. “I see the evening meal is burning quite nicely.” He had appeared in the middle of her rolled out bedding.

     “What?!” She turned her attention back to the bird roasting on the spit above the campfire.  The flames had leaped up high and were scorching the skin along the backbone. “Damn!”  She stirred the fire with a long stick to lower the flames. “Mum said you’d be along.  Thanks.  I’ve got too much on my mind to think for too long right now.”

      “You haven’t done too badly with your set up, your bed’s pretty comfortable.” He was laying down, his hands behind his head on the small pillow and staring up at the stars.  There were only a few clouds in the sky, the moon was quite bright and lit the gloom.

     “I don’t really want to be here.” She turned the bird slowly on the spit, fat dripped down and spat in the flames.  “Why this way?  There’s nothing to go back to in my village.   I’m going somewhere where I don’t know anyone at all.”  She looked up at the stars twinkling in the heavens. Suddenly everything seemed very cold and quiet and a shiver ran through her.

      “Sudden change is never easy, my dear.  You know this was an important decision made before you were born.  Besides, no matter where you go you’ll never truly be without company.  I’ll always be there,” he said smiling warmly to ease some of her loneliness.  “Your bird looks done,” he chirped, changing the mood.

      She took the bird and planted the spit in the ground near her feet.  From her leather travel bag she took out a knife and started to slice into the flesh.  “Would you like some, grim Traveller?” she asked offering him a piece of meat from the breast.

     “Sorry, but no.  I don’t have a need to eat.  But you go ahead and enjoy yourself. I don’t mind watching,” he replied slyly.  “Don’t hurry on my account, I always find watching some one eat very sensual.”

     She stared for a moment. “Oh, really?” She tilted her head back and kissed the fleshy breast, let it almost slide down her throat in one piece, sucked the juices from her fingers and thumb and asked, “Well...?”

      “Very nice indeed.  Let me see more.”  He smiled mischievously, turning on his side and resting on one elbow.

     “Are you sure you’re not going to eat?”  She smiled in return, batting her eyelids melodramatically.  “You look quite hungry,” she said, winked and leaned toward him.

     “So, who’s feeding who now?”

     “You, sir, started all this.”  She grinned.

     “Really? Me?” he squeaked.  “Sure?”

     “Well, yes!”

     “Somehow, my dear,” he said jumped up from his spot, light as a feather,  “I think what you’re alluding to isn’t possible in this situation!” He revealed himself, nude, full frontal underneath his traveling clothes.  Voltarrens was taken aback.  There was nothing there at all, just smooth, evenly coloured skin over his entire body. There were no features whatsoever, no hair, no nipples and no genitals either.  “Seen enough yet?  Or would you like to see my insides as well, my dear.  I hear they can really get some people going.”

     “You bastard!” she cursed half playfully and hit him across where his genitalia should have been with the small pillow from her bed.  They both howled with laughter.

     The light mood had now given a respite to the loneliness she had felt not too long ago.  They danced playful with each other in the moonlight and around the campfire, being very wickedly witty until it became too exhausting to do it anymore.  Voltarrens collapsed on her small bed by the fire.  Traveller lay down beside her.

     “No more playful games, please,” she said yawning widely.

     “This isn’t part of the game,” he said quietly, making himself comfortable.  “While you sleep, you’re vulnerable.  To protect you through the nights, until you reach the Green Goddess, I have to wrap myself around you as a shield.”

     “Can’t you do it without sleeping?”  Her words were starting to drift into tired whispers.

     “I may not need to eat, but I do need to rest physically.  Mentally I am always alert.  Just relax, nothing will happen to you.”

     “You promise? Hope to die a horrible death if you fail?” Her whisper was barely audible.  The wind rustling through the trees almost carried her voice away.

     “Little lady, regrettably...yes,” he said gravely, but he was sure she hadn’t heard for she had fallen asleep. There was more entailed in this than he was going to let her know for now, it was a certainty that her death would also mean his own.

     He curled himself around her warmly, his coat an extension of his protective shield.  No shadow being or magical chant could penetrate while he was on guard.  The campfire was slowly burning down, and he pulled the blanket over the both of them and externally appeared to be asleep.
     Night creatures started to wake in the forest, calling to each other or to their prey to come out of hiding.  A white owl flew from a tree, its eyes scouting the darkness for signs of movement.

     Somewhere, far away from the furthest reaches of the Magical and Mundane Realms, dark infuriated eyes were trying to get a better view.  The Lord of the land turned away from the darkened viewing screen and looked out at the landscape through the archway of its chambers. It’s metallic robes scraped across the floor creating sparks as it stalked over to the balcony to look beyond. This was in the highest spire of its sanctuary, far above the war ravaged landscape and the vast poisoned expanse below.

      The surrounding Realm of Darkness was discouraging and ominous, filled with shadowy secrets and fierce insatiable hungers fighting the eternal battles to move across into the daylight world beyond its reach. Rivers flowed like raging lava, carving deep furrows and cracking the earth around broken hills next to huge flows of ancient ice and snow. Skeletons of trees clung to the landscape, roots extending out like claws holding on fiercely to tiny moats of blackened earth and ice. Everything here was either scorched by fire or hellish sub zero temperatures.  Pollution filled the air from centuries of greed, jealousy and hate which had accumulated to feed an inexhaustible need for more.

     If it had had a corporeal form, it would have smiled at its beloved home with devilish delight; but not today, it just curled up it’s leather gloved hands into tight fists. The plan had failed miserably to even get a decent assessment of the state of the initiate, cut down before it even had a chance. It had not been one of their best agents. They had underestimated how much protection was surrounding her.  It would be a while before another opportunity would present itself.

     Looking further into the surrounds it could see the Emissary of Deceivers, with a follower, coming down the charred road to the Lord’s sanctuary. Something for later that he had set the Emissary to task with. For now stage two was about to be planned and set into motion. It leaned over the balcony to listen in on the conversation to see if all was going well.

     “My lord, my lord,” the follower pleaded on hands and knees, “I will do anything for you. Please do not forsake me and my only desire to do your bidding.” The poor fellow was only a small figure of a man, a half corporeal being connected to someone outside the Realm of Darkness.  Here he took on the appearance of being scrawny and in horribly bad health.

     “Liar!” shot back the Emissary with a disdainful laugh as it continued to move forward at a brusque pace.  It’s metal robes glowed an intense bright red as they caught the light of a nearby lava flow. It loved this sort of torture and felt this was a really good time to enjoy the menace it could inflict.  “You always say this to me, yet every time you fail me. There are never enough followers in your Church of Darkness, there never have been and your quota has been down for a long time. Others have done far better than your pitiful efforts.”

     “Oh, Lord, tell me what to do, which secrets to use, which tricks to entice them and I will do it at your bidding,” it crawled. “Can I debauch myself for you in punishment to appease you?” It lay on the ground, waiting to be trodden on.  The Emissary walked over it, just to give it some more annoyance.  The follower bounced up, chasing after it. 

     They both passed by a blacked and twisted husk of a tree.  The Emissary stopped suddenly and had a devious thought.  It turned to the follower.  “Would you really do that for me?” Its eyes blazed red.

     “Oh yes, yes, anything.  For you and only you, anything at all, Lord.”

     “Just for me, I really...?”

     “Yes, yes”

     It pointed to the tree.  “Then hang yourself from that dead tree for me, turn yourself inside out and open every nerve ending to all the cold and heat.” 

     The follower rushed over to the twisted dead thing and did as he was asked of. For a moment it hesitated at the impending pain and suffering. He was compelled by the Realm and fear of the Emissary to do it. He climbed up and hung upside-down by his feet with the Emissary watching.  It waited until it was sure the follower would stay there.  Then it turned to continue walking down the scorched path to the Lord of Darkness’s lair.

     “Lord, lord, is this not enough?  Will you not watch as I suffer?” it screamed at the receding back. “Does it displease you? I can do far better if that is your desire!”

     “But you know who I am,” it said in a low rumbling voice.  “I am your Emissary of Deceivers, your Lord and tormentor.”

     “Was it not enough, lord?  I need your approval of my punishment,” it babbled.  “Can I debauch myself more for you?  Let me try again...please...Lord, wait and watch me....” The follower’s sobs and cries for recognition grew less as the Emissary reached the Sanctuary, and cut off completely once it had entered and the door closed behind it.

     Above on the balcony the Lord of Darkness approved.  The Emissary of Deceivers was at its best, joyfully being wretched to its follower and charge. This would be a masterful plan enacted to sell ideas to a few souls, to feed the depleted parts of the landscape with more greedy hungers and powerful minions. An indirect approach would be far more devious and harder to detect.

      The Emissary of Deceivers was a being essentially of cunning concealment and matched to the Lord of Darkness’s own dark lordly ways. There had been occasions for clashes in the past between them. The Emissary had cheated outrageously and the Lord had countered with blindness and anything else that was at hand.  It would be an interesting partnership this time to gain the confidence of the initiate. There would always be an eye open watching the other.

      The Emissary entered and the two incorporeal beings faced each other.  Two dark lords in their regalia: long black robes, leather armored gloves, gleaming horned war helmets, old friends and treacherous manipulators of their long eternal life times.  The feted air was still and foreboding; dust seemed to hang in their presence, afraid to fall to the floor, the tension from both of them keeping it airborne.  When it came to business, daily sniping was put aside and co-operative integrity fell into play, each would be respected by the other while it lasted and until work was concluded, at least that was the intention.

     “I see you brought the follower with you.”  The Lord of Darkness broke the silence.  “An interesting choice. Who does it belong to?”

     “Someone she is destined to meet, a sorry soul who could do better in the world, but who came to a point of choosing.  I have been working on his obsessive qualities tormenting them into shape personally. At the moment he does still fade into times of being very sober for long periods of time, but I am working on him to make them more permanent with a promise of an eventual escape into his own private Eden.  It wasn’t hard to initially sell the idea to his soul either, as he was already racked with worldly torments.”

     “Shall we now proceed?”

     “As planned with your intervention at the first opportunity.”

      It was loathed to say it. “The scout failed.”  It turned.  “It was demolished by her mother’s wretched chants,” it spat out the final words with distaste and a spark of flame.

     The Emissary eyed it, taken aback. “You failed...?!  The Lord of Darkness fumbled the chance to gain a foot hold on the soul of a one day powerful being?”  Opportunity was opportunity, even if it was a small one in the middle of business dealings cracks could always be made for later use.  The Emissary was still looking at being The Lord of this Realm.

     The Lord of Darkness raced swiftly onto the Emissary, almost standing over it, and roared, “Well, at least we can now judge where we can strike!  I did not see the need to send one of my best spies out there!” The Emissary stepped back a few paces. “There will be an opportunity coming up where I shall subtly influence the course of events. Shouldn’t be too hard with the creature I have in mind.”

     “Is this the one you have been working away with for some time, Lord?” it enquired, as it did not as yet know the full extent of the plans.

     “No, it is another one which I had reserved from a previous incident and a lucky encounter.  All the pity it was not me who was the instigator, but we were all young back then, and much to my dislike, inexperienced.”

     “Then there is more of which you have not informed me?”

     “Why tell everything all at once, dear fellow?  Is it not more fun this way,” and it laughed slyly, “to use your wonderful trait that you have?”

     “You are devious, Lord.”  One more reason for some cunning revenge in the future. “So which soul were you working on to call me here for my assistance?”

     “This one shall be an opener, a softener for what is to come, if all goes well.  Someone she will not suspect at all, some one who can and will become close to her. Let me show you…” He lead the Emissary over to his viewing screen and turned it on to a scene which showed the soul he was talking about.  “This one.”

     They both watched. The Emissary felt he could not have come up with anything better for the moment.  It marveled at the two fold way that it was going to effect both the initiate and the soul involved.  “This time I will not fail,” the Lord of Darkness gloated, finding it hard to contain his sheer and utter delight at his own cunning plans.

     “I envy you, to strike on so many levels.”

     “I am the Lord of this Realm of Darkness.  Now, is there more you can do with that one soul out there on the tree?”  There was that hint of menace behind its words, underhandedly waiting around to find any holes that might exist in plans, waiting to run down the Emissary and take over his part of the bargain.  Here it was sporting, and expected, it helped to keep everyone running around in circles, keeping the machinery of devious intent going.

     “I have other parts of him in my charge in my chambers,” it gloated.  “His own piece of self-deception is second only to his obsession out there on the tree.  Luck was on my side when I found him on the verge of committing suicide, weak enough to step in and do some fast bargaining and direct marketing to sell his soul to the idea.  The rest of him at this very moment is being taught ‘the Arts’.”

     “Hmmm, interesting find.  But what else do you have, you know he won’t be enough to reach her on his own.”  The scheme had asked for more diversions.  “There are still a few years I presume before they meet...?”

     “Yes, my Lord, a few, and that is the best part about it.  Others have been rounded up and are also being swayed toward our ends.  They are not as complete as the main one, they will be enough to start leading the initiate down the road we want.”

     The Lord of Darkness turned and walked out onto the balcony again with the Emissary following.  They both looked out onto the landscape and the follower below them still with itself hanging from the twisted tree, babbling and carrying on.  If they could have smiled, they would have at each other, very broadly and with sinister intent.

     Approval was mutual.