PAGE 17

PANEL 1

As Rook carried orders to the men, Avestine heard the echo of howls.

PANEL 2

She didn’t need to see the beasts to know they were close. She knew her men were dead, but that didn’t stop her from fighting.
AVESTINE: ATTACK!!

PANEL 3

The wolves arrived, stirred to a frenzy by the God of the Chaos, they weren’t driven simply to kill but to feed their ravenous hunger.
As her men fell to the mad beasts, Avestine anxiously searched the horizon. She knew Kami was near. She wanted to see her, to remember this moment.

PANEL 4

KAMI: I won't let her dstroy this land. Her war ends now. She will leave.
KATAN: HAHAHA! She will never leave, Wild One. War is all she knows.

PANEL 5

AVESTINE: You bitch! This is not over.
The woman who knew her better than any other could hear her thoughts, but she shouted anyway.
Her fury had more to do with damaged pride than thwarted plans--for her plans were more ambitious than the capture of a mere city, no matter its power.
Even as she confronted her ancient enemy high upon a Darkward cliff, her plan to end the demon’s reign was reaching its first milestone in an ancient dungeon of Castlebejel...

PAGE 18

PANEL 1

GERARD: Try harder. You can do it.

PANEL 2

The creature writhed and shrieked, and in time the vapors coalesced.

In the years that Gerard had known Avestine, He had served only with circumspection. He knew it was what she valued about him. But now, any doubt he had for her ambitions was gone.

PANEL 3

GERARD: Be proud, Boy! You did what no one else could do. You moved us closer to peace.

WARD: I'm afraid so, Dear One. This world will never know peace until Arujan has what he wants. What will he do when I'm the only god left? Will he command I scatter myself, too?

PANEL 4

WARD: Will you? Uhhhh...

Mon, the God of Death, lived in the body of a weak young man. Wald collapsed into his lover’s arms.

PANEL 5

Across the continent a scene of wanton brutality suddenly stilled.

PANEL 6

KATAN: Bala!

The tugging in Kami’s gut ignited into flames that seared through every nerve. She fought to stay conscious as Bala was torn from her.

PAGE 15

PAGE 16

PANEL 1

Katan was no longer behind her as she outraced the flies.

PANEL 3

But then the trail came to an abrupt end. She had been food for Kami's hungry horde before. The fall would be painful but much less so than having thousands of mouths eat her flesh.

PANEL 5

Bones snapped, but they quickly wove themselves back together. She found she was not alone.

PANEL 6

AVESTINE: Where have you been? Katan is here. And he's with Kami.
ROOK: Are you injured?
AVESTINE: What does it matter? Did you hear me?

PANEL 7

ROOK: Katan has joined her then? One more enemy.

PANEL 8

ROOK: The ghost of your father visited me. Even he warns you. Don't do this! Sahrdon will be yours again, but you must be patient, Your Grace.

PANEL 9

AVESTINE: Is that why you're here with my army? Will you betray me, too?
ROOK: Never, Your Grace.
AVESTINE: Then array the men and light the fires. I have a world to burn!

PAGE 13

PANEL 1

Avestine tore off her coat and dropped her sword and gloves to the ground. The icy air did nothing to cool her desire.

Avestine always smoldered between rage and desperation, and few aroused her like Kami. As her hungry mouth tasted Kami's skin, she grasped for the sense of control so essential to her arousal.

PANEL 2

AVESTINE: You're wetter than an all-night whore. Who have you been screwing?

KAMI: No man gets this close to me. ...UHNH... And neither would you if I didn't let you.

PANEL 3

AVESTINE: Let me? No. You’ll do what you’re told, Child. And I've got a better use for that mouth of yours.

PAGE 14

PANEL 1

FX: GRRRRRRRR

PANEL 2

AVESTINE: Oh hell.

PANEL 3

FX: GRRR

It wasn’t the teeth or the tempers that disturbed Avestine so. It was the knowledge of what would soon arrive.

Avestine had faced Kami’s beasts before and she wasn’t comforted by the knowledge that no mauling could kill her. Even a god has fears.

PAGE 11

PANEL 1

KAMI: Coth told me what you plan.

AVESTINE: His name is 'Rook'.

KAMI: He hasn't been Rook for a long time. You aren’t Avestine. She died on that pier at Fivefold Woke. And Kami is dead. You have Bala before you now.

Avestine tried to see the girl before her as a god, as Bala, enemy of man. Her enemy.

PANEL 2

Avestine stepped closer. Kami’s jaw was firm and her chin raised. The familiar affect softened Avestine's mood.

AVESTINE: Go back to the Demonforest and leave the Dark Quarter to me.

KAMI: Forget your plan and I will.

AVESTINE: My strategy is not your concern.

KAMI: I won't let you.

AVESTINE: I need permission from no one. No friend--

KAMI: Nor enemy. We've been here before. Arujan.

PAGE 12

PANEL 1

Avestine seized the thin wrists. her brother had taken kami’s hands. it was a bitter memory for Avestine. Those hands belonged to her. She should have taken them, as she had taken them from every Essanti who served her in the days before the end of the world.

AVESTINE: Beastwalker, you smell like a dog.
KAMI: You have the stink of a man on you.
AVESTINE: Hahaha! I take pleasure where I find it. And I take what is mine.
KAMI: None of this is yours.
AVESTINE: It's all mine. How will you stop me? Will Bala send one-thousand beasts? Then Arujan will slit ten-thousand throats! You can stir any beast's hunger, but I command men. The world will belong to Arujan again. It will belong to me. Serve me. I've always been your master, Child.

PANEL 2

Avestine peered into eyes nearly black, like a sky with no stars and possessing endless secrets.

PANEL 4

Avestine had not touched Kami in two years. Was it the girl or Bala she was touching now?

PAGE 9

PANEL 1
Avestine woke herself. No dream could hold her against her will.
She buckled her riding boots and slid a dagger into her belt. She put on her heavy coat and gloves.

PANEL 2
Insects and small foragers kept the land alive with sound and movement after the wind stilled.
Avestine entered the tree line some distance above camp. Her mind searched for Rook. When she found him, she walked in his direction.

Night under the Blue Sun was much like the day. The wintry land maintained a dim glow even at sunset.
Some said the eerie light was what remained of the first magic -- a magic that would one day return with the Unsetting Sun to this dark part of the world.


PAGE 10

PANEL 1

As she picked her way through the underbrush, she thought she heard a wolf howl.

PANEL 2

Then a voice spoke in her mind.

VOICE: You’re vicious and magnificent...incapable of any lasting repose...

PANEL 3

VOICE: ...Arujan...

The voice made her heart pound. made her smile.

PANEL 4

The leather of her glove creaked as her hand curled around the hilt of her sword. She saw a silhouette separate from the clutter of trees.
A four-legged shadow slid into the dim light and emerged on two legs as a lithe young woman.

AVESTINE: Kami.

PAGE 7

PANEL 1

The genvri were swarming...as wild things did whenever Bala was near.

For each one Avestine dispatched, another arrived. But she knew her rage could outlast their hunger.

That's why Bala would one day serve Arujan again.

PANEL 2

Some of the genvri seized a soldier. The rest lost interest in her and followed the meat.

PANEL 3

Rook intruded into Avestine’s thoughts. As angry as he was at her recklessness, he was more anxious that she remain unharmed.

She sneered at his concern.

AVESTINE: Are you frightened, Essanti? This is merely a welcome. What else can we expect from that BITCH, except chaos?


PAGE 8

PANEL 1
The small party headed up the mountain and made camp. After a MEAL of smoked fish, Rook wandered into the forest. Avestine retired to her tent.
Avestine rarely slept, but when she did, her dreams were filled with the past...
PANEL 2

That night, she was back in the Trade Quarter on the run from her brother.
Kami was with her. She had not yet acquired all the pieces of the spirit that would make her a god.

PANEL 3

Even before power had settled on Kami, she was a wild creature bred from chaos.
It was what Avestine hated about her. It was what she loved.

PAGE 5

PANEL 1

The churlish breeze blowing iceward off the sea was changing direction.

It began to whip down the Arscid, creating snow drifts and crackling ice on the great branches of the ancient forest.

Magic as old as the world brought to life the misshapen children of Bala, the Beast, Lord of the Wild....

Queen of Demons.

The genvri once claimed the mountainous regions as their exclusive domain. Like all magic, they had lost much when the great empires brought steel to the land.

PAGE 6

PANEL 1

The genvri were nimble despite their fat bellies and lanky arms.

AVESTINE: ...uhhn...

PANEL 2

The touch of steel should have extinguished the magical creature in a curl of black vapor.

AVESTINE: Gods!

But it bled.

PANEL 3

The dark forest erupted with a dozen of the motled demons.

PANEL 4

AVESTINE: Bala! I’ll butcher every last one of these damn things!

PAGE 3

PANEL 1

ROOK: Give me time to find out more.

PANEL 2

AVESTINE: Your ghosts won't help the daughter of the Architect..

PANEL 3

AVESTINE: I'm the one that made most of them ghosts in the first place.

PANEL 4

ROOK: She'll stop you.

AVESTINE: How? How will she stop the Avatar of Arujan?

ROOK: The way she stopped you at Fivefold Woke.

AVESTINE: Enough, Essanti! Ghostwalk with one who owes me. Maybe then you'll do some good.

Avestine thought about the one ghost that visited Rook often.

PANEL 5

One that owed her.

PANEL 6

A Lot.

PANEL 7

Memories fouled her mood. Memories were irrelevant.

PAGE 4

PANEL 1

AVESTINE: You should be chasing down demons in the Trade Quarter. Why don't you leave? You should leave...Essanti.

Avestine spoke the word as if it were a scourge.

ROOK: I can't let you risk it.

PANEL 2

AVESTINE: LET ME?! You shit! This land belongs to Arujan. It belongs to me.

PANEL 3

ROOK: Your Grace...everything wild belongs to her.

PANEL 4

Avestine alerted even as her horse did. Poison quills were neither silent nor deadly to a god.

PANEL 5

Her soldiers were less fortunate.

PAGE 1

PANEL 1

KATAN: Bala! Are you hurt? Bala?

PANEL 2

Kami was weak, but she launched herself into the sky, and transformed into a falcon.

PANEL 4

She soared high into the the Dark Quarter’s churning azure sky before she plummeted downward. She passed the cliff and swooshed near Avestine. Then she
rose high again and disappeared into the distance.

Avestine watched Kami fly away, satisfied that Bala no longer had her avatar to work her worldly plans.

PANEL 5

AVESTINE: Now that you are Essanti again, You will come to me, Child. You always do. And I will remind you why.

PANEL 6

In Castlebejel’s dungeon, Gerard held an unconscious Ward...

PANEL 7

...and he beheld the young man’s astounding gift. Resurrection.

A man stood where a ghost had shimmered a moment ago. The man had been Essanti in life, and he had carried within him a piece of the god Bala.

His second life would be spent in a harem, his only purpose--to produce Essanti children.

In time, Avestine would scatter those children across the world, forever depriving Bala of the unified power of an avatar.

PAGE 2

PANEL 1

AVESTINE: Don’t underestimate what I’ll do.

PANEL 2

ROOK: Hahaha! Your Grace...I haven't done that since you were ten.

PANEL 3

AVESTINE: I need to find out who he is.

ROOK: The Darklord.

AVESTINE: Call him what you will. It's a man in those walls.
A man screwing every night and shitting every morning.
I'll kill him. Like I've killed the rest.