Prologue

I walked through the near empty predawn streets of the capitol leading the Betrayer by a heavy two meter chain mithril leash. The lich bone enchanted collar that she wore prevented mana recovery and any form of magical identification but unfortunately had the side effect of negating any other magic that would be applied to the wearer. Because of who she was, I had to be careful that this particular woman could not be recognized, an iron mask and normal peasant clothes completed the disguise. Even her famous holy tattoos were of no use. We received a few curious glances but my magical transformation as a renown slave trader was enough to keep the gawkers at bay. When we entered the temple district she perked up but was unable to do anything besides helplessly follow since she was hobbled, gagged, blindfolded and defended by the muffs. Her body shook in tears when we passed the Temple of Aune, Goddess of Health and Home; High Priestess Anna’s home for two decades before she and her retinue joined me the Companions for the final battle against the Dragon Queen.

Most of us would have lived if she and the Paladins of Hearth hadn’t attacked the light mages and prevented them from healing The Companions. I was too busy at the time keeping the Dragon Queen’s attention on me, freeing the rest of our group from the enraged monarch to notice the betrayal until too late. The seven holy knights of Aune stayed in a defensive formation until the last of my friends and allies dropped seconds before I delivered the final death blow to the millennia old dragon monarch. The seven remaining ‘good aligned members’ then cast the Forbidden Soul Death spell upon me, only to have it fail because of the gift of my only real friend Gar, an artifact of Baal which was destroyed by their spell granting me thirty seconds of Holy class spell invulnerability. That alone was enough time for me to sacrifice my last Tear and recover half of my mana pool and kill the remaining four Paladins of the Hearth and render the Betrayer Priestess unconscious. Shocked at the spell failure to obliterate me and unable to respond her protectors’ demise, all Priestess Anna could do was watch in horror as their final betrayal failed. The High Priestess of Aune never experienced true combat nor true violence, her subdual capture was too easy for a living avatar of a Goddess. My rage almost compelled me to kill her many times over the following two days.

The mountain of gold and treasure hoarded by the Dragon Queen all those millennia were melted into slag and would take miners and craftsmen centuries to separate if I planned on letting them have access to it. As planned, the Queen’s fight caused the formally dormant volcano to become active. With my aid Her lair filled with magma which eroded the mountain side and caused a minor eruption and a major lava flow that should last months, destroying the bodies and the loot that the allied kingdoms hoped to confiscate. I even had a copy of the treaty from one of the dead noble’s trusted aids. Of the twenty six individuals that entered the Lair, only myself and the Betrayer exited, her presence was masked, both magically and physically. Mine too for a lesser extent and duration. My making would only last a few more days. I didn’t have much time left to make my escape.

In my guise as the renown slave merchant soul mage Ander, I mercilessly dragged my captive onto the Evil God of Destruction’s grounds and into the temple proper. Stopping at the entrance my ‘donation’ and I waited until an acolyte approached. I handed him a bone coin and asked if the High Priest Garjol Dem would receive me. The acolyte gasped in shock feeling the power from the coin burning a permanent imprint of the Baal’s Face into her palm, after his initial shock the young man ran to get his superior. The coin was one of the thirteen pieces of the lost artifact of Baal God of Destruction. It was probably beyond the acolyte’s imagination that the one who gave me the Coin was his High Priest himself. Allowing access in case of an emergency.

The Betrayer was screaming into her gag the whole time inside the temple but no one paid any attention to it. This was my first time in the main hall in years, Gar and I always met in seclusion to do our business and relax. We had found friendship early and kept it hidden for the last two decades. Over that time a strong trust had built, Gar was even one of the four that attended my and Marnie’s wedding. It took almost a dozen years, but she finally understood why he and I could be such close friends despite the gap in our goals. Hell, fifty of my worst Death Curses were removed by him. I still had twelve of the lesser ones active. The three main ones we didn’t dare removing so not to let my adversaries spur to harsher methods. NOT that a Soul Chain was light by any means. Nor was the Curse of Unyielding or the Curse of Subjugation. Though since they were so broad in scope I had plenty of room to maneuver around them, usually. Since the death of the Queen, the Curse of Unyielding broke which alerted King Edward to Her Death and since the Curse of Subjugation was still active he knew I had lived. The Soul Chain was a desperate measure by the Assassin’s Guildmaster to prevent me from killing him. He never thought that I would plant him in the heart of the World Tree encased in a shell of amethyst rendering him in a state of permanent stasis. Never aging, never dying, never changing as long as the World Tree lived. Not until I die or the curse is broken by the Gods themselves...

I didn’t have to wait long before Gar himself came and greeted me pleasantly before leading me dragging my Gift, who was still thrashing and whimpering into his personal sanctum. No sign of the acolyte nor did I expect to see one, or anyone else see him, ever. Gar locked and warded the chamber before casting Baal’s Domain as an added precaution.