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Garath, eyes closed, twitched
Welcome, Lady Envy
’Your suht, K’rul Is this the work of the Matron and her undead hunters? If so, then calling me here was unnecessary I am well aware of their efficacy’
Crippled and chained he od is never so obvious His ga is as he would have us believe, and his use of unwitting servants is as brutal as his treatment of enemies Consider, after all, the Pannion Seer No, for Callows, death came from the sea A warren-twisted fleet Cold-eyed, unhu, they now ply the world’s oceans
’Seeking what, dare I ask?’
A worthy challenge, no less
’And do these dreadful seaborne murderers have a name?’
One enemy at a time, Lady Envy You must cultivate patience
She crossed her arht me out, K’rul, and you can be certain that I had not anticipated that you and I would ever ood riddance, as far as I’m concerned -- and that includes my father, Draconus Were we coo, you and I? I think not, though the h But friends? Allies? Most certainly not Yet here you have co servants, as you asked Have you any idea the deuleh in check?’
Ah, yes, and where is the Third now?
’Stretched senseless half a league froet hiods know, I didn’t drag hi uleh will not be controlled Indeed, I wonder who huhtful warriors Mok will challenge Tool Mark ht -- to witness such a clash! None the less, the destruction of one or the other will ill suit your plans, I iine The First Sas almost defeated by Thurule, you know Mok will chop hihter filled her head Hopefully, not before Mok and his brothers have carved their way into the Pannion Seer’s throne rooht than you ine, Lady Envy Let them battle, if Mok so chooses I suspect, however, that the Third may well surprise you with his constraint
’Constraint? Tell uleh First would send sohly ranked as the Third to lead his punitive army?’
Ad the Seer’s forces into two fronts, I had expected perhaps three or four hundred Eleventh Level initiates Sufficient to inconvenience the Seer enough to draw an ar Malazans Yet, with the Secondprowess, no doubt the First had his reasons
’One final question, then Why a you these favours, anyway?’
As petulant as ever, I see Very well You chose to turn your back on the need, when last it arose Disappointing, that, yet enough did indeed attend to h at a cost that your presence would have diminished But, even chained, the Crippled God will not rest He exists in endless, tor pain, shattered, broken within and without, yet he has turned that into a strength The fuel for his rage, his hunger for vengeance -
’The fools who pulled hieance is just an excuse The Crippled God is driven by ambition Lust for power is the core of his rotten, shrivelled heart’
Perhaps, perhaps not Time will tell, as the mortals say In any case, you defied the su, Lady Envy I will not brook your indifference a second time
’You?’ She sneered ’Are you my master, K’rul? Since when-’
Visions flooded herher Darkness Then chaos, wild, unfocused power, a universe devoid of sense, of control, of h the ht A sudden sharpening -- pain as of wrists opened, the heat spilling forth -- a savage imposition of order, the heart from which blood flowed in even, steady streams Twin chambers to that heart -- Kurald Galain, the Warren of Mother Dark -- and Starvald Deons And the blood -- the power -- noeeping in currents through veins, through arteries, branching out through all existence, and the thought that came to her then stole all warmth from her flesh Those veins, those arteries, they are the warrens ’Who created this? Who?’
Dear Lady, K’rul replied, you have your answer, and I will be da to countenance your iht’s Wild Mane, your power feeds on the very blood of my eternal soul, and I will have your obedience in this!