Several months after her attainment of full membership in the Kan Onji, the head of the Kirian Society, Master Shen Shineza approached her and invited her to join. She didn’t learn until much later that Taya had tried to block her nomination. When Master Shen died and left the Society without a leader, Sonoe lobbied for the post, but as future queen of Alasiri, and by right of precedence, the helm of the Society fell into Taya’s hands.
That loss had been a bitter blow. Sonoe had raged for months. The office should have been hers by right of superior magical skill. For the sake of the Society, she did her best to keep her anger cloaked in a mantle of amiability and cooperation, but occasionally, it broke through. She and Taya had nearly come to violence a few times, but had always managed to step back from the brink.
Controlling her feelings had been easier when there had been more active members in the Society, but, in the space of only a few years, their numbers had dwindled due to retirement, death, and the lack of suitable recruits. Sonoe found this good in a perverse way, for it made her plan so much easier to execute.
Everything depended on the Key, that all-important piece of magic harbored within Keizo’s daughter.
If only she could somehow study the Key’s unique energy signature before the Sundering! She had thought to try breaching the shields put up around it by Taya, but without the help of another mage, she risked killing Jelena prematurely. She had decided to abandon that course because she didn’t want to bring in an outsider.
Now that I’ve found what I need…
Sonoe planned to seize the Key for herself once it was released from Jelena’s dying body. First, she would summon the Nameless One, calling upon him to claim his prize. When he appeared-and all depended on her quickness-she would use the one weapon against him for which he had no defense. After using his true name to bind the Nameless One to her will, she would then turn his power against her fellow Kirians, destroying them. Rid of the only ones capable of stopping her, she would put the rest of her plan into motion by using the Key to unlock the source of the limitless magical energy that would give her power enough to fulfill her destiny.
Despite the magelight, shadows crowded around her, and her own shadow-a crazy, elongated thing-stalked her along the rough-hewn walls of the corridor. She followed the passage to its end at a simple wooden door. She tested the iron handle and found that it turned easily. She pushed the door inward and sent the orb floating ahead to illuminate a small, round room.
Carved into the hard-packed earth, a magical symbol marked the exact center of the circular chamber. Sonoe breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized the glyph for travel.
As soon as she crossed the threshold, she could feel the thrum of powerful arcane energies coursing through her veins like strong wine, setting her teeth abuzz and her skin to tingling. She walked over to stand on the symbol.
Sonoe reached into the front of her tunic and withdrew the black stone that served as her link to the Nameless One. She closed her eyes and let her mind relax and open. She felt for the strand of energy that connected the stone to its source and sent her consciousness winging along it.
When she pierced the icy black curtain that shrouded the astral space where the Nameless One existed, she called out to him.
I have found the portal, Master!
The Nameless One’s anger surged along the link and smote Sonoe’s mind. Your incompetence has kept me waiting! Your screams of agony will be sweet when I punish you!
Flames erupted all around Sonoe, engulfing her in smoke and the stench of burning flesh. Horrified, she watched as her skin blackened and withered against her bones. She opened her mouth to scream, but never got the chance as she felt herself sucked into darkness.
She landed hard on her side, skin scraping against stone. The bone-chilling cold dealt her shrinking body yet another blow, and for a few precarious moments, she could do nothing but lie on the brutal stone and gasp for breath.
Total darkness engulfed her, but even though denied the use of her eyes, she had her other senses, and they all screamed warnings of eminent mortal danger.
Some thing waited, crouched in the dark-something ancient and unspeakably evil-and Sonoe knew without a doubt that it could see her perfectly well.
Slowly, she rolled over and levered herself onto her knees. A quick mental assessment of her body revealed no serious injuries.
So. The flames were an illusion.
Fighting the shivers that wracked her body, she conjured a magelight and looked around her.
Sonoe found herself on the floor of what appeared to be a natural cave. She sent the magelight shooting up to illuminate the many teeth of rock that hung from the high ceiling, then brought it swooping down in lazy circles to cast light into nooks and crannies too numerous to count. All the while, she remained acutely aware of the entity that lurked just beyond her sight, watching.
Climbing to her feet, Sonoe pushed her tangled mass of hair out of her face and waited, the magelight hovering at her right shoulder. The foul presence of the Nameless One seemed to exist everywhere at once, and yet Sonoe could sense a distinct vortex of particular intensity in the shadows to her left. She turned to face that direction and watched as the shadows coalesced into something more solid.
As a trained sorceress and Kirian Society member, Sonoe knew better than to relax her shields in the stronghold of her master. Though the attack that had brought her here had taken her by surprise, she would not make the same mistake again.
The Nameless One lashed out, his polluted energy pummeling her from all sides. She withstood its corrosive force, but just barely.
Will I have the strength to do this? He’s so much more powerful than I’d thought!
Breath harsh with strain, she cried out, “Master, please stop!”
Give me one good reason why I should not burn you to ash where you stand, whore!
“Because then I cannot deliver to you that which I promised!”
She could feel herself weakening.
I can’t take much more of this!
“The plan is set,” she gasped. “The Kirians will gather in three weeks time to perform the Sundering! I…I…” No longer able to talk and resist the Nameless One at the same time, Sonoe threw up her hands and frantically traced a sigil in the air before her in a last, desperate attempt to stop the onslaught.
Abruptly, the attack ceased. Sonoe stumbled backward, slipped on a loose stone and went down, turning her ankle as she fell. Pain, sharp and hot, surged up her leg, wringing a soft moan from deep within her chest. The sound of grinding metal filled the air around her. A bitter curse dropped from her lips.
“You enjoy my pain!” she hissed, breathing hard. A quick mental probe of her ankle confirmed that she had only sprained it.
Thank the Goddess!
The deeper darkness that was the material manifestation of the Nameless One floated closer until it hung over Sonoe like a storm cloud, the two baleful red stars that served as eyes staring down at her.
Of course I enjoy your pain, slut. I enjoy pain in all of its many forms, but yours is especially sweet. I shall have you writhing in a moment, but before my pleasure comes business. Tell me of the plan…
Sonoe told him everything…except the part about her counter-plan, which she kept hidden within the special vault of her mind that no one, not even the Nameless One, could penetrate. Gritting her teeth, she then steeled herself to endure the spirit’s vile assault on her body for the last time. When he had finished and had flung her, bruised and bloody, back through the portal, she lay for a long time on the cold dirt floor, unmoving.