The Archimage Wars: Necromancer of Irkalla

By Philip Blood

The story of The Archimage Wars is an urban fantasy series. The story begins in current time, on Earth, but don't let the time or place fool you! Truth is stranger than fiction and the truth about Earth and what it really going on will confound and amuse you!
Join the lead character, Nick, as he continues his crazy adventure, now heading for the fabled fantasy world called Irkalla, as he takes you on a diabolical journey to the next of the Ten Worlds. Nick must not only survive, but he must reclaim his lost memories, avoid his hunters, save the souls of his friends, and discover the secrets of this new fantasy world!
On this journey, you will discover things that are hidden in all of Earth's history, wars, religions, famous people, movies, books, legends, and myths, and while doing so, uncover the truth about our universe! It is not what you think. This novel series will take you on a quest across many strange fantasy worlds, not the least odd of which is Earth. The worlds range from almost Tolkien fantasy settings to modern day technology, and everything in between!
If you liked Zelazny's Amber series, Butcher's Harry Dresden series, and Farmer's Riverworld series, you should like my The Archimage Wars series.
Nick continues his tale in Diabolical Book 5, Necromancer of Irkalla; do you dare to join him and find out the truth?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Philip Blood
• Release date: Aug 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370100408

Philip Blood

Philip Blood is a published author currently living in the Los Angeles suburbs. He is an avid scuba diver, a voracious reader of sci-fi and fantasy, a tabletop gamer (from way back), and a computer game junkie with MMOs being the top of his list.Mr. Blood recently finished the third and final novel in his Zone series, this one called Brethren of the Ark and will soon publish book 9 in his urban fantasy series, The Archimage Wars: Warlok of Sheol. Book 1 through 8 are all available now with just one more to come to finish the series. Book 10 will be finished by the end of 2020. In addition, he works on creating Audio Plays for his novels, with five already available and more to come!He also recently went back to his very first fantasy epic series, Cathexis, and did a deep re-write, fixing may of the writing issues of a young author (he wrote it 30 years ago) while leaving the story intact. All four books have been re-written and are now available in ebooks or print versions.Finally, Mr. Blood has begun outlining a new, more traditional, fantasy epic, which he will start writing in 2021. The series is called, Kingdoms of Magic.

Book preview

The Archimage Wars:

Diabolical Book 5

Necromancer of Irkalla

by

Philip Blood

Version 3.00

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PUBLISHED BY:

Philip Blood

The Archimage Wars: Necromancer of Irkalla

Copyright © 2017 by Philip Blood

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any short quotes of other Authors, Movies, Writers or Composers works are within the bounds of the Fair Use Act.

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License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Dedication:

We all have a little darkness within, this book is dedicated to the people who manage to control it, use it, and benefit from it, while still remaining in the light.

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Other novels by Philip Blood

SINGLE NOVELS

Dragon Slayer’s Incorporated

SERIES:

NexLord (3) zONE (3)

Dark Prophecies The End and the Beginning

Black Chains Pirate Code

Grim Realities Brethren of the Ark

The Archimage Wars (10) Cathexis (4)

Wizard of Abal Necromancer’s Dagger

Sorceress of Atlantis Conspirator’s Coin

Demon of Annwn Sorcerer’s Ring

Seeress of Yaochi Desecrator’s Sword

Necromancer of Irkalla

Huntress of Tartarus Kingdoms of magic (Forthcoming)

Divinity of Elysium Weapon of Destiny (Forthcoming 2021)

Magus of Nibiru Black Wizardry (Forthcoming 2021)

Warlock of Sheol Doomed Crusade (Forthcoming 2022)

Sibyl of Terra Witch’s Curse (Forthcoming 2022)

The story so far…

Hello! Damn, it has been rough lately, I just found out that…

Wait, I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s assume, for the moment, that it has been a while since you read the earlier chronicles of my misadventures. Like me, you may have some memory issues. If that is the case, I will try to bring you up to my current, awful, moment in time. On the other hand, if you remember all the sordid details, then just skip to Chapter One to read about all new shenanigans!

Right now, I am just going to bring you up to speed on the stuff you have already read! Now, if this is all new to you, I strongly suggest you go back to Wizard of Abal and start from book one of this tale. That way you get the full story, as this will only be a brief reminder of those past events.

Still here? All right, I warned you! I am about to tell you stuff that even I do not want to know! Last chance…

OK, my name is Abaddon Dragon, though my friends call me Nick and, currently, they think I am from House Albus. To keep them from knowing my true identity, I am still going by the name of Nicholas Albus.

At this point, you probably hate my guts, well, join the crowd! But I am about to go find out who has been dragging my name down into the pits of evil and tarnishing my reputation.

Some time back, I woke up on a stone slab in the ancient Egyptian ruins of Karnak, having forgotten every damn thing about my personal history. I did not even know my name, but I could speak many languages and I know how the world works, at least Earth, but we will get to the other Worlds, soon enough.

A Hunter, from Morrigu’s House, named Stewart Hentan, tried to kill me as part of the Ascension Quest. That is what the Houses call their game where they all try to eliminate the other nine Houses on their way to winning a stupid ‘King of the Hill’ contest! All this warfare is just so that their supreme ruler may ascend to the Silent Mother’s throne. That means that their Archimage would get to rule the universe, or the PTA, or something, as God.

At that point, I traveled to England, where I ran into a wizard and tourist named, Hydan. He is a lush on holiday; no, really. He travels the Worlds to drink and collect new alcoholic beverages. I was soon reunited with my old girlfriend, Fiona, a kick-ass, Second-Tier Sorceress from House Albus. She is the single most beautiful girl on this side of Andromeda. Not that I remembered her or anyone I had known in the past, due to my wonky memory.

Soon, we were off to a new World, called Abal. On the way, I met a bloodthirsty Tarvos sorceress named Myrka, who only wanted to stay near me so that she could find The Dragon when he came to do me in. Everybody thought I stole something from the master of evil, and that he wants it back, or that he just wants to kill me because I borrowed a wrench and did not bring it back…or something.

Myrka and the rest of her House are tainted with a power called the derkaz. It is something that, once voluntarily taken into your soul, makes a mage callous and violent.

Once we arrived on Abal, I gathered another wizard into my little group, a very honorable Bakemono mage, named Toji. I saved his life, so he swore to serve me for a Yaochi year. That is his home World.

During our little adventure on Abal, I bumped off a mage who had returned from the dead, he also happened to be the insane son of the Archimage of Abal, Mordred. Then, I rescued a guy I thought was my dad, who turned out to be the Archimage of Abal, Mordred’s father. His name is Merlin. Yes, he is ‘the’ Merlin, of King Arthur legend.

Merlin did not blame me for doing in his son. That little shit had caused a civil war on Abal and he had imprisoned his dad in a crystal cocoon, though I eventually busted Merlin out.

I also met, who I thought was, my long-lost mother, the White Enchantress. With her help, I had managed to stop a thousand or so year civil war on Abal.

That is when I learned that my father is not Merlin, of House Sivaeral, but was some House Albus wizard called The White Knight. I figured that the White Knight was Lancelot of the same Earth Arthurian legends, with Guinevere being my mother, The White Enchantress. It made sense, though it was all a lie. However, I did not know that yet.

When I thought they were my parents, my previous Nautilus Glyph, of House Sivaeral, changed to what I thought was my actual House, becoming the Spider Glyph of House Albus.

I then returned to Earth and did a little research into my newly discovered House. While doing that, I met a Hidden Soul, which is a mage who does not know they are a mage and, because of that, they do not show a House Glyph on their left cheek, at least, not yet. His name was Casey Griffith.

Together with Casey, Fiona, Hydan, Toji, and Myrka, we had gone to yet another of the ten Worlds, this one called Atlantis, the home of House Albus. At that point, I thought these were my people.

Once on Atlantis, I battled with Morgana, a Dokkalfar necromancer who teamed up with a dark entity called The Unspeakable. I later discovered that The Unspeakable was the split-off, dark half, of Jenidan, the Archimage of House Albus. This dark half named herself ‘Draok’, also known as the aforementioned, Unspeakable.

During one battle, Guinevere was killed and, later, Lancelot, the man I thought was my father, got kidnapped by Draok. If that was not bad enough, Draok inhabited Myrka’s body, using something called a ‘Heart of Stone’ to take control. To find and rescue both my father and get Draok out of Myrka, I had to go to another of the Ten Worlds, Annwn.

Annwn is the home of House Tarvos, a bunch of derkaz crazed, bloodthirsty, nut job mages… just like my pal, Myrka. I went there pretending to be a captured mage slave since they do not allow other mages on their World. On Annwn, while tracking down Draok to rescue my, supposed, father, I discovered that the Tarvos are dying off due to some inability to breed with another Tarvos mage who has embraced the derkaz. To keep breeding, they have been capturing and enslaving mages from other Houses and using them as breeding partners.

Not only that, but their planet is slowly spiraling in toward its sun, which has already made the surface so hot it has become uninhabitable. I had solved their breeding problem by finding some of their mundanes who were in hiding. Now the Tarvos mages can breed with them, instead of enslaving foreign mages. Next, I blackmailed the Archimage of Annwn into releasing all his mage slaves. Along the way, I met Melusine, an Argoth girl, who knew me from way back, before I lost all my memories. After I set her free from slavery on Annwn, she told me that she owed me her life, so she decided to tag along to repay her debt by protecting my sorry hide.

Then, the man I thought was my father, sacrificed himself to get the Unspeakable out of my bloodthirsty Tarvos friend, Myrka. Unfortunately, Myrka then also sacrificed herself to save me from her own derkaz crazed Archimage. Before she died, I, stupidly, promised Myrka I would save her people. Damn my mouth! That turned out to be extremely difficult. Nearly all of them, including their Archimage, Arawn, had embraced the derkaz, making them uncaring, bloodthirsty killers. And, at that point, I thought that no one had any idea how to get the derkaz out of a person once they took it into their bodies! At least I solved the Tarvos breeding issue and put a stop to their enslavement of other House mages for procreation.

After that, we returned to Earth to help Toji. His family had been disgraced and his Grandfather’s position as Warlord on Earth taken by another Bakemono wizard named Jiro. Toji had been coerced into helping that very mage, the man who disgraced Toji's family line. To reinstate his family’s honor, Toji made a deal with Jiro to challenge the Bakemono Executioner to a duel. Normally, this would be suicide for a Fourth level mage to challenge a Second, but I had obtained a rare and powerful Actuality weapon, called Excalibur, yes, that Excalibur, and Toji… er… borrowed it, without asking, so he could use it in his duel. If he managed to kill Hotaru, Toji planned to commit honorable seppuku, happily dying by his own hand, knowing his family’s honor would be reinstated. What an idiot.

I threw a monkey wrench into that plan when I challenged Hotaru to a duel before Toji could do the same thing. Hey, it sounded like a good plan at the time! This solved the immediate problem of Toji dying in the duel, but Hotaru is like a lawnmower on nitro when she uses a Katana, the very weapon we would use in our duel at the Winter Solstice, which was coming up swiftly!

I had also learned, from a message in a ring given to me by the now-deceased, Guinevere, that my father is not Lancelot, The White Knight! She told me that my father is really… wait for it… Arthur Pendragon.

I started searching Earth, looking for my pop, you know, the Once and Future King? We had a lot of catching up to do. The problem being, I thought I was being hunted by the evilest being, well, ever. Everyone calls him The Dragon and he was once part of the ring of Ten Archimages. These are the ten immortal Archimages who each created, at least, one intelligent mage species on each of the Ten Worlds. The Dragon is also the only surviving son-of-a-bitch to break the Archimage Accords… twice, which got him tossed out of the Ring of Ten.

Sheol, his World, was then destroyed and House Dragon marked for extinction, with the other eight remaining Houses hunting him and his descendants. There are only a few mages left from House Dragon, but their Archimage, The Dragon, was still out there, causing havoc, pretending to be mages of other Houses (which only an Archimage can do), while committing all kinds of atrocities and other evil shenanigans. Oh, and I was sure he was hunting me for some unknown reason.

Arthur Pendragon is of House Dragon and is the man I now thought was my father. Pendragon means: ‘From the dragon’s enclosed land’, or ‘from House Dragon’. Since I still thought my mother was a second of House Albus, I figured that made me half-Dragon, which also means I was now half-sentenced to death. I was fairly sure that my being a half-Dragon crossbreed was enough for any mage to want my head stuck up on a pole.

I wisely kept this new family relationship a secret, even from my friends.

Fortunately, at this point, my Glyph still showed an Albus Spider, which I thought was due to my mother’s side of my blood. Guinevere was a Second of House Albus, while Arthur was a Second from House Dragon, which would have made me a Crossbreed Bastard Second. At that point, no one, except me, knew of my dark side connection.

That is when I got this great idea to go talk to Mordred… yeah, the guy I killed on Abal, and his wife, Morgana, who I had also killed when I went to Atlantis. It turns out they knew things I needed to know, but I had killed them without asking those questions first. I figured I was screwed, due to that ‘dead men tell no tales’ thing. Then my new Argoth pal, Melusine, informed me that she knew a mage who could get me to a place called the Netherworld… yeah, the land of the dead. Once there, I thought I could ask the dead souls of Mordred and Morgana some pertinent questions.

So, like an idiot, OK, not just like, but as an actual idiot, I separated my soul from my body and made the trip to this Netherworld. For my trouble, my soul was nearly eaten by the dead souls of those I have killed and, to save me, the souls of my dead friends protected me so that I could escape. In doing that, they damaged their souls, and now they were on borrowed time before their souls dissolved unless I figured out how to release their souls from this Netherworld. You see that place was not natural! Someone created it to trap souls instead of letting them go on to a place some people call, the ‘Origin’.

Upon returning to the land of the living, the Winter Solstice was nearly upon me. No big deal, right? Except, remember, I stopped Toji from challenging Hotaru, the Bakemono Executioner, to a duel by insulting her first, thereby, getting into a duel with her myself! That was one of my dumbest ideas, and that is saying something!

My friends and I decided that I would have to uncover the whole plot, which led Toji’s family into disgrace, or I was going to have to face that katana-wielding master slicer and dicer in a duel!

So, we went to spy on Jiro in Okinawa, where we witnessed him making a deal with Bloodmoon, the mage spy who is impersonating dead mages. This time, he or she was playing the part of Fiona Albus, my girlfriend. However, we did not get any proof of Jiro’s guilt in framing Toji’s grandfather.

Then I ran out of time and ended up in Japan, where no matter how much I tried to avoid it, I ended up in that very duel with the katana wielding Hotaru!

By some miracle, when an avalanche obscured our battle, I managed to disarm Hotaru and pick up her sword. However, in some stupid act of chivalry (where did that come from?), I gave her sword back and then offered her my apology… and life if she wanted it. I promised her I would find the proof of a plot going on against Toji’s family. She decided to let me live, much to Jiro’s chagrin!

After that, I had to go to Toji’s home World to find that proof of the plot that I suspected Bloodmoon had concocted with Jiro. We uncovered a much larger conspiracy. Jiro was plotting with the Second in charge of Yaochi, a guy named Susumo.

In the end, we exposed Jiro, who committed Hari-kari, and then I tricked Susumo into revealing his involvement in the plot with House Argoth to weaken Yaochi. Nuwa, a Seeress who can see possible paths into the future, and who is also the Archimage of Yaochi, took charge and put things in order. She put Susumo’s fate in my hands, but I remembered what a little saeran girl taught me, and I spared his life. I did get Toji’s line reinstated and their honor restored.

And all was right in the universe… for about two seconds.

Nuwa offered me a reward, and foolishly, I took it, even after she warned me that the knowledge would not bring me happiness. She told me where to find Arthur Pendragon back on Earth, the guy I was so sure was my father.

I left my friends and headed to find Arthur. I did not want them to learn that I am half-Dragon yet, little did I know, it is much worse than that! I found Arthur, and he took me to the dungeons beneath, what had once been, the location of Camelot Castle. There, he showed me a giant crystal with a boy trapped inside. I broke the crystal, something Arthur, a Second of House Dragon, could not do. He knew I could do it, firstly, because I had already broken Merlin out of such a prison and, secondly because Arthur knew something I did not… I am an Archimage.

I learned that the boy inside the crystal is Arthur’s son, Nicholas. I know, wait, I am his son, Nicholas… but as it turns out, I am not. Arthur is not my father… and, holy bat-twist, I learned that it is the other way around; I am Arthur’s father! That makes me the Archimage of Sheol, the monster who is the basis of every legend of the Devil, and just about every other evil bastard in history! I am The Dragon.

Coming to grips with this is… hard. All this time, I thought The Dragon was after me, but someone else has been playing at being The Dragon while I was in my coma for 27 years! Now I have to find out the truth, what have I really done, and what has someone done in my name? Who am I? Could I have done all these atrocities, or am I just blamed for what others say I have done? I am not sure. I need information, so I called on my professor friend, Casey, to help me dig up some information on the devil… me. Not that I have told him, or any of my friends of my Evil Archimage status. I am meeting Casey at the University of Oxford England, where I plan to start getting to the bottom of all this.

Which brings us to this particular moment in time…

Chapter One

School's been blown to pieces

-Alice Cooper

If there is one thing I hate, it is being woken up early, particularly by a wrinkly skinned little bastard with a bad case of body odor.

Master awaken! the stinky scourge stated.

I cracked an eyelid and found myself nose-to-nose with Pox.

You do not ever want to be nose-to-nose with that crusty creature! Trust me. In fact, you do not want to be nose with any part of Pox!

My eyes widened as I took in his wrinkled face, which, at this moment, is way too close for comfort! Then the smell hit me, and I fell over backwards in a clatter of books.

The sound of my body and the books hitting the ground echoed loudly, like I am in some kind of great hall. Then I remembered, that is exactly where I am. To be precise, I am inside the famous Radcliffe Camera reading room in Oxford University, England.

When I was in the Peel Hotel, on the Isle of Man, Arthur and I discussed my current goals; including a few obvious priorities. First off, I have limited time in which to save the damaged souls of my dead friends. Their souls are currently trapped in an artificial construct called the Netherworld. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to set their souls free, so my first priority is learning more about this Netherworld, like who made it and how to destroy the damn thing.

Secondly, though not as time critical, but certainly of vital, personal, importance… if I am truly the devil, what dastardly deeds have I really done in the past and why? This will require some research into The Dragon as well as mythological tales of various incarnations of the devil.

Thirdly, I still need to get back my memories, somehow.

Arthur and his young son, Nicholas, cannot really help with any of these problems, both of them have been out of it for a long time, with Arthur being in a magically induced coma and Nicholas frozen in a crystal.

So, I needed information and my good friend, Professor Casey, seemed like my best resource for finding some answers. This meant I needed a plan to get me to Oxford University, to meet with Professor Casey Griffith. My son, Arthur, provided me with such a plan.

I cannot begin to tell you how hard it is for me to accept that I even have a son, let alone more children and other descendants. But let us ignore my parental status and get back to Arthur’s plan… he opened a Traveling Star to Piccadilly Circus, in London. As soon as I went through the Star, Arthur sent Moddey Dhoo after me.

Moddy is a massive wolf-like monster, a big, toothy, beasty, who I, supposedly, created way back before I lost my dark skills to make such monsters. Once Moddey and I arrived in London, I told the big gehdrin beast to stay at Piccadilly Circus and handle any mage hunters who might arrive, tracking my recent Star Travel. I wish them luck, Moddey is a freaky handful of supernatural teeth and claws.

Now, for those of you who do not already know this, Piccadilly Circus is not a circus at all; at least not the three-ring kind with performers and animals. In this case, the word ‘circus’ refers to the Latin word meaning ‘circle’ therefore it does not have elephants and clowns. However, with Moddey Dhoo there, it will be quite the center ring for any arriving mage hunters! There is a statue, high atop the monument, depicting old Anteros. I hope he is amused by the show Moddey Dhoo will put on as any mage hunters arrive. Arthur told me that Anteros is an Argoth Second, but I am not sure if Argoths have much of a sense of humor.

Meanwhile, I am not waiting for the show; I immediately made a hasty exit into the crowds of London.

Arthur and I decided that I should go to London first so that my pursuers will not know my real destination, which is actually Oxford. I mean, as a mage, if you can Star Travel to wherever you want, why arrive in London if you intend to go to Oxford? At least, that is what we hope my pursuers will think. Once safely away from Piccadilly Circus, I waved down one of those old-fashioned black English taxis and told the driver to take me to Oxford University.

The driver threw a fit about the distance, until I waved a wad of bills in front of his English nose, so wide it is like a deck of cards… the bills, not his nose.

Then we drove off toward Oxford.

On the way there, I have some time to consider my past. You might think this is a good thing, but I have recently learned I am the master of evil, Satan himself, commonly known to the mage Houses as, The Dragon. This is not something you accept lightly. It would be like saying to someone, Hey there, you hit your head and forgot a few things, but your real name is Ted Bundy, and you are a serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, burglar, and necrophile! Have a nice day!

Yeah, something like that, but much worse.

Nearly every living person on nine of the ten Worlds considers me the evilest son of a bitch to ever live. They would gladly execute me, in the style of your choice. Even little old grandmothers will happily pull the switch on the electric chair to see me fry.

Bundy was once called, ‘The very definition of heartless evil,’ but he was a saint compared to what most folk think of me.

According to nearly everyone, I am the true master of evil.

Well, let me consider… what is evil? I can tell you this, I do not feel evil. Then again, do evil people think they are evil? Did Hitler think he was an evil bastard? Actually, they tell me that little Dokkalfar shit is still alive and kicking somewhere so I guess I could ask him.

Anyway, as I was saying, I am quite sure most evil bastards think they are the good guys. They rationalize each thing they do and say, things like, Sure, 10,000 people died, but I am saving many more! That whole 'the end justifies the means' bullshit.

In fact, they probably think their opponent is evil and that makes what they are doing to stop them, good. People have the capacity to rationalize almost any act.

So, I have to ask, am I evil? I really do not know; how should I define evil?

Oh my, the conundrum that comes to mind when I start thinking that one through. At first glance, you might think it is easy to discern evil. Particularly moral evil, so to speak. Take, for example, killing someone else. That is evil, right? But what if that person is raping a child and you could stop them, right at that moment, by pulling the trigger of a gun and shooting that bastard in the back of his head? Aren’t you on the moral high ground here? So, in that case, killing is good, right?

What if you are in the military and your commanding officer orders you to attack the enemy and, in doing so, you kill one of the enemy? Are you now evil? Or, is killing, in this case, now morally acceptable?

It seems that each society defines what is evil and different societies draw that line in the sand at different points. For example, a priest, back in the Mayan society, could execute 30 innocent people as a sacrifice to appease the ‘gods’ and his people thought he was doing them all a wonderful favor; they would cheer him on! They did not think he was evil, at all. Now, I am fairly sure the people being executed had a different opinion.

The point is, in one society, I might be deemed evil for certain acts while in another one I might be considered good, or at least, less evil.

But what about the religious context of evil? Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of religions, none of which agree on much. Assume, for the moment, that they do agree, or that there is only one true religion. According to that one ‘true’ religion, there are some kind of supernatural forces making up good and evil.

Satan, or whatever name they give their worst bad guy, is at the most extreme side of their evil supernatural monsters, completely to the dark side and, news flash, I am the Devil. But, in the case of religious evil, the only way to know evil is by comparing it to the opposite, good. The opposite of the Devil is God. So, from a religious context, for me to be labeled the ultimate evil, there has to be someone on the other end, as the ultimate good. They call that being, God. However, I happen to know that there is, currently, no living God. According to my odd friends, there once was, but she killed herself making the universe. Since that time, there has been no God watching over anyone, which also means there is no God to act as the opposite example of the Devil.

And, if you really think about it, the evidence supports the ‘there is no current God’ theory. After all, if there is a current God in existence, why wouldn’t they stop all the evil? Oh, wait, you are going to say, ‘Free will’, ‘He’ (why is God male?) put us here with free will so that we can prove we belong in heaven. That is bullshit made up by people to rationalize the atrocities their made-up version of God allows. These people expect you to stop a child being murdered, but do not believe their God should do the same. News flash, bozos, if God is omnipotent, then he already knows everything. If he already knows everything, then he knows if you are good or bad. If he already knows, why let a child suffer? But why listen to me, I am the Devil, right? However, back to the idea that the Devil is the opposite of God, the two sides of the good and evil coin. Since there is no living God, how can we measure evil on any religious scale?

All right, I will ignore the religious definition. I will try to offer a plausible analysis of evil without referencing the supernatural.

Many philosophers believe that calling a person evil is just citing that their actions defy explanation or are incomprehensible and state that, therefore, evil does not even exist!

A German philosopher, named Nietzsche, wrote about evil. He believed that the concept of evil is dangerous because it has a negative effect on human potential and vitality. When accrediting an action to evil we promote the weak in spirit and suppress the strong. Nietzsche contended that the concept of evil started from the expression of negative emotions, like envy, hatred, and resentment. He argued that the powerless and weak created the concept of evil to take revenge against their oppressors.

If I go with Nietzsche’s ideas, then I am not evil at all, in fact, perhaps the opposite!

But I do not really agree with that Dokkalfar wizard’s philosophy. It is funny how I find out that it is the Dokkalfars who are, so often, the people arguing against the concept of evil.

Then there are those who believe we need to categorize certain actions and practices as ‘evil’ to avoid the old ‘Two wrongs make a right’ syndrome. If we do not define acts as evil, then we will do more of the same kind of acts to counter our opponents. In other words, he kills my friend, so I kill all of his. If killing is not evil, then why not do it?

There are lots more arguments about the question of ‘is there evil or isn’t there?’ I am going to have to say that I fall on the side of agreeing that evil does exist, though defining every case of what is evil might take a long time.

To help with each choice, I tend to lean toward a much simpler definition of evil: if you do not want some other person doing something to you, that act is evil. So, if you do not want to practice evil, then you should not do those same things to others. This means that the definition of evil is personal, not inherent. Each person has to decide what evil is, and then try not to practice it, or consider yourself evil.

The big question is, what have I practiced in the past? Have I done, what I now consider, evil and, if I did, what were my reasons and motivations? Was I forced into evil or did I choose to go down the path of darkness of my own free will? Did I do unto others what I think others should not do unto me?

To answer these questions, I am going to have to learn a lot more about who I was and what I really did, and then I am going to have to decide who I am now, and what I believe is evil. But, before I can do that, I have to know the truth about my past. I am fairly sure that I am not going to like what I learn, but I will have to deal with it, somehow.

Fortunately, self-discovery will have to wait, I have more immediate concerns, like saving the souls of my friends who sacrificed themselves to save my, pretty much, worthless soul. I wonder if they would have done so if they knew I am The Dragon? It does not really matter, though, they did it, and now I have to save them. Or, maybe a more accurate way to say it is, I want to save them.

It took my cab just under two hours to reach Oxford and the taxi dropped me off near the Radcliffe Camera building. This structure is a round domed affair, sitting in the middle of an oval grass plaza, surrounded by a wrought iron fence. There is a road around that, and just across the street, all the way around, are tall Oxford college buildings, done in gothic style.

Unfortunately, I arrived too early; the Bodleian Library & Radcliffe Camera reading room do not open until 9 am. So, I took a seat on the front steps and waited for it to open in an hour or so. Students are moving about now, so I just people watched for a time.

Eventually, a young woman opened the front door and I followed her into the massive domed structure, now converted into a reading room. It is two stories tall, with a row of windows going around, just under the dome. The second story gallery balcony stands on a circle of massive arches, supported by square pillars below.

The ground floor gallery has an open round center area, with a circular desk in the middle for a librarian. There are long tables which go out from the center, like spokes from a wheel. These tables continue on under each arch, extending almost all the way to the outside walls. The outer walls are covered in bookcases, with a window to let in natural light, placed every so often, all the way around.

The upstairs gallery has similar bookcases and windows, but smaller tables and a marble banister. From there, you can look down into the round lower gallery. The banister goes all the way around, except for the arch above the entrance door. Above that arch is a solid marble wall, with a statue of Dr. John Radcliffe inset into a smaller marble alcove within the wall.

I am dead tired, and Casey has not arrived yet, so I went up to the second-floor gallery for some privacy. Once there, I picked a spot at a table near the railing and stacked some books to hide my arms and head as I lay my noggin down for a much-needed nap.

I sensed something foul… and was rudely awakened when I opened my eyes to find Pox’s ugly mug too close to my face!

That view would shock anyone, and I scrambled back, landing on the floor in an undignified tumble. I scrambled back to my feet and then demanded, though in a quiet voice, What is it, Pox? Has Casey arrived?

Pox’s raspy voice replied, No, Master, she tried to arouse you, but you were sound asleep.

I missed the ‘she’ part and growled at him as I plopped back into my seat. Then I snarled, And what was so important that you needed to wake me up?

Fiona wishes to speak with you!

Then I heard Fiona’s wonderful