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    NINTH INTERLUDE – ABANDONED


    Malinor was pulled out of his prison cell. The room at the edge of the world. He hated being here. He wanted to leave, but deep down he knew he had nowhere to go. He couldn’t go home. He couldn’t ever go back, not after what he had done. Since then, he had found little reprieve elsewhere, no new place to call his own. To the extent where he found himself… where no man has gone before, the SouthLands. His waywardness finally led him to a fitting end. He would die trapped in a fortress before the last great terror of MagnaThora, the divide, and what lay beyond.


    Thankfully, he was momentarily spared from his madness and taken from the prison room. The guards dragged them before their captain. The man stationed and in charge. Captain Zorrowfold stepped forth and judged Malinor. He didn’t look like very much. Zorrowfold immediately dismissed Malinor.


    “You let this beggar trick you into coming here?”


    “I thought you would welcome the company, captain.”


    “Your company is rarely preferable, Spangalore. Tell me there is a valid reason for your intrusion.”


    “Oh, my dear captain, you have held this station for too long and it has taken its toll, I’m afraid.”


    “The only light that matters down here is that which mixes with the darkness of the divide.”


    “It almost sounds like you worship it.”


    “Excuse me, scum?”


    Malinor looked up at Zorrowfold and repeated himself, “It almost sounds like you worship the divide.”


    “We serve the dragon lord Dracobra.”


    “All of this…” Malinor gestured around him, getting more comfortable, “you do for a god that has abandoned you for centuries?”


    “Its called faith, northgate, we would not expect you to understand our ways.”


    “I know faith. And I know when it is deserved and wasted. You worship a god that was bested by a man.”


    “You offer an alternative, northsider?”


    “Yes….Worship me!”


    Both Spangalore and Zorrowfold laughed. They almost embraced each other in the utter absurdity of Malinor’s brazen proclamation. Truly the audacity of northern men remained unyielding. Spangalore could not help but continue to amuse him.


    “Why would we worship you?”


    “What would the likes of you possibly have to offer us?”


    “How about a new job?”


    Zorrowfold stopped laughing.


    “You hold no power. There is nothing here but jokes.”


    Malinor tried to get to his feet.


    The guards by the doors grabbed their swords, but Zorrowfold waved them off. The poor man showed no signs of being a threat to them.


    “I know you don’t take me seriously.”


    Spangalore let go of a guilty laugh, “Take you seriously? I brought you here to kill you.”


    Malinor lowered his head.


    “How about a bargain?”


    “What could you possibly have to offer?”


    “It appears as though…only my life.”


    “You brought a smile to my colleagues face. One I have not seen in years. For that alone this trip has been worth it. I know we bust each other’s chops, but I do think very fondly of Captain Zorrowfold here. He is the true beacon of the strength that has dwindled from this kingdom. So, tell us…what do you have in mind?”The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    “I’ve spent a couple of nights now staring into the void. It is truly a vicious and tormenting lot down here at the edge of the world. Your charge is a complete waste of time. What are you guarding against? Has the thing ever moved? Have you ever sent anyone into it?”


    Spangalore’s ears perked up after hearing that last question.


    “I’ve been down here for a couple of days and that’s already what I have come up with. You have lived your lives down here ready to spend the rest of it guarding something you barely comprehend. I’m offering you the use of my life in the name of discovery and if I somehow make it through this…I only ask for your undying allegiance.”


    This time the other two men did not laugh. They looked at each other, both checking to see if the other knew what Malinor was referring to. So, he made it easy for them. He said it outright.


    “I will walk into the void.”


    “You offer it willingly? Death by the hands of the divide?”


    “No man has ever required such a fate. It would be sacrilege.”


    Spangalore smiled.


    “Deal,” he said, before continuing, “You just might be the craziest person I know, northgate.”


    Malinor didn’t know how he felt about that.


    “And let’s say you somehow miraculously make it back here alive. What do you intend to do with our undying loyalty?”


    “Rule.”


    “ I cannot believe I’m actually considering this. How did a kingdomless scum like you even get here?”


    “Your lord and master sent me.”


    For the first time since he moved south of the great gate someone looked like they were actually about to believe him.


    “How else do you think I passed through an unbreakable gate? By now your scouts must have reported back. The great gate to the north is intact and there’s been no sign of tampering. My chariot is the lie you refuse to believe. Your god chose an outsider to rule you instead of one of your own because you are so lost.”


    “It cannot be.”


    “I’ve heard enough. Toss this heretic into the divide.”


    “Then we have a deal?” Malinor yelled as the guards grabbed him and Zorrowfold walked out of the room. “Do we have a deal?!”


    “Wait!”


    The guards took Malinor outside. Spangalore couldn’t help but chase after them. It felt like it was raining, like they were in the middle of the storm, but there was no moisture. The stairs leading up to the outer wall of the fortress were short. Malinor thought he would have more time before he was tossed away, like a corpse.


    He slammed into a stone floor after falling for only a second. He was not expecting that. Malinor took his time getting to his knees. There was nothing around him. This was a lower wall, as the fortress sat on the edge of the final cliff in MagnaThora, beyond it the great void of the divide. Malinor looked out across his hellish horizon. The world looked upside-down down here. An inverted take on MagnaThora, the VoidLands would drive anyone insane. That must be why the fortress had little windows. Malinor strangely loved it. He thought it was beautiful. He brushed his pants off, getting to his feet.


    “Guess I’m waiting for high tide.”


    He heard a laugh from above. Spangalore was standing there, watching him.


    “Any tricks to this?”


    No answer.


    “You must be here for the show then.”


    It was dark, but Malinor could’ve sworn he saw a smirk on Spangalore’s face. Suddenly, behind him the horizon began to topple and tip over, spilling out all sorts of wild cosmic energy into the divide. It looked like effervescent waves crashing into each other, explosions in space. They ripped and tore at reality, grabbing a hold of four eyes. The crashing white against amethyst mixing together in their pupil, entrancing them. Malinor walked forth. Spangalore could not turn away. Malinor walked right off the lower wall. Spangalore stayed where he was. He was paralyzed in bewilderment. With his eyes, he followed Malinor down and the tendrils of the void reached back up into them, both Malinor, and Spangalore’s eyes, invading his mind.


    “AH! AH! NO! AHAHAHA!”


    Finally, he tore himself away, literally tore at his own face, trying to get himself to stop laughing uncontrollably. Spangalore stumbled away, forever changed.


    Malinor fell into the great void. The mix of churning water from the sea, fiscus smoke from the mountains, molten lava from the volcanos, and the hard line of the horizon surged together to create a cosmic fringe to MagnaThora. Malinor fell into it and it burned. Two kinds of burning he felt, the pain of his flesh on fire, and the exhilaration of something he had never felt before, anticipation fused with curiosity all before the mystery of the void.


    Malinor fell into oblivion and wondered if he would be the first to find out what was on the other side of MagnaThora. He took a deep breath and prayed he didn’t die. He got this far by being lost. What was one more ancient mystery unraveled? Malinor pushed himself to see through the pain and open his eyes. Malinor pressed on where no other man would. Something drove the man to what others would consider insanity. He was missing a piece of himself, and that desperation drove him to unsavory ends. Malinor tested not only his own but the physical boundaries all around him. What could possibly lay before him on this journey besides a quick death?


    He begged for death, knowing full well it would not come. Malinor was almost suffocated by a blinding light that brought him back to reality, one not of his own. He looked around and could tell immediately that he was no longer in MagnaThora.