Chapter Thirty-Seven

The war continued. It continued for ten more years before things began to turn against Petra. In the end it was not her losses that undid her but her victories.

The death of Kora had left Kara distraught for years. But when she'd finally returned to the field she quickly rose to command; she may not have been the best at TacSim, but from the forefront of her troops she was rarely beaten.
Worse yet was the ally she brought with her. Knarf had spent the intervening years rising to power within the Ga-Vok confederacy. Through charisma, and his own magical prowess, he had overthrown the standing Alpha and replaced him. He managed to achieve the unthinkable and convince his people to join the Nielda against Petra's undead legions.

Petra herself lost much of her sanity in these years. Immortality can give you the strength to fight at levels greater than any mortal, but necromancy doesn't become any easier. She had limits, and she had long surpassed them. The price of controlling billions of ghoulish corpses across a hundred worlds was that she was no longer able to distinguish reality. The nightmares she'd inflicted began to slowly come back and haunt her waking hours. Yet even in her insanity she was a formidable opponent. Indeed, some would say that as she ceased to percieve what was there she began to see what couldn't have been known. Ambushes and silent fleets were attacked without warning or detection. The day before an attack would take place a million new enemies would arrive.

The final blow would come as it had always been meant too. And Petra, for all her insanity, knew the hour and the means of it.
"Specter why are you silent?"
"Oh, I'm just watching. It's big day for you empress of the dead."
"What do you have planned for me wight?"
"Me personally? Nothing until about three o'clock tuesday; then I get to introduce you to a world of pain."
As she began to ready a shadowy assault he quickly followed up, "Not my world of pain child; I'm just the paymaster. You've done some rather naughty things child, and they're coming back to haunt you. Meddle with demons and the demons will meddle with your line for eternity; for they are not the sort to forget a wrong or forgive a kind deed."
"Who are you? Never have I slain or fought any man like you."
"Good question; You'll know soon enough. Who do you think is going to come through the door behind me?"
Petra spun to guard against the coming intruder.
"No girl, the one behind ME. The door behind you leads to a closet. And that one a bathroom." he added as she turned again.

"Then what door do you mean you cursed shade?"
He stepped to the right, yet appeared to be left of where he had been before. Where he had stood a moment before now stood a door.
"This one. What do you think is behind this door?

Petra thought about all the horrible things that could be behind it. Demons, shades, but worst of all was the friend she'd left bleeding in this very atrium twelve years before.
"Chesi"
"Actually; she'll come through that door, tuesday, two in the afternoon." He gestured to another door. This is not an exit door, it's a service entrance. As of today, it's quite holy. You see; my Lord is no longer behind it. Soon enough, you will be behind it. And then in time, I shall not be behind it."
"It's death. You want to kill me." She backed herself against one of the surviving collumns.
"No, there are enough people who want you dead without me being one of them. I simply know when, how, and why you die; then ferry you along to your next life. In fact, allow me to offer some advice. Go down to the arena, and fight her there." He kicked some of the rubble from the last incursion into her dark academy as he continued, "Hate to see you make more of a mess than you have to. A lot of people worked very hard to build this place."
Petra sat; thinking about her coming doom.