The alarm signaled the attack was commencing, but the attackers were quite unexpected: troops not in the light green of the undersea kingdom of Dlareme; rather, they wore a motley of different colors. Some were not even human.
It was then that I first realized that something was wrong. To quell the chaos about me, I cast the second spell I had specially prepared for Rali, the enchantment that would have sent her accompanying forces into a deep slumber. When the spell was cast, I could feel it reaching further and further out; out from the throne room that was the furthest I had set the spell to reach, reaching out to blanket the entire castle. All about me, foreign troops were falling asleep, leaving them helpless prey of the local forces.
Emboldened by the chaos, I believe, one of the guards took the coward’s path and tried to strike me down with a dagger in the back. Did he really think the daughter of Fiona to be so helpless? My protective robes easily turned aside the blade, so all he accomplished was to arouse my anger. Before he could strike again, I turned and caught his gaze before he could look away, although that would not have saved him, as you well know. I must confess that I was in a hurry and didn’t take the time to properly punish him. In the past, such transgressions usually merited something that would have been protracted enough to serve as a warning for the others. But here, as I said, I was rushed, and all I could think of at the time was to mesmerize the fool into believing himself a small puppy. He immediately dropped to all fours and began barking. I left him to his fate: I heard tell that later, another of the guards put him out of his misery.
I could easily see that something was affecting the castle. Walls were appearing and disappearing, walls of a variety of varying colors, growing and shrinking as I watched. Through a window that appeared in what was an inside wall, I could see towers sprouting forth towards a shadowy sky, against which the sky realms battled. Yes, I said realms: seven, of which Tir Nan Og was but one; another rose in ruins beside it, destroyed in the battle.
Below the sky realms lay a vast plain, bounded by a sea unlike none I have ever seen. Troops were marshaling on that plain, some in the colors of Emerald, others in the myriad of colors of the different Realms, all taking up arms against the invaders from the sea. Yet the sea also produced more defenders, as well. There was no reason or order to the battle: tall figures with six legs in brightly colored chitinous armor fought alongside animals walking upright, wearing costumes of the Orient, their foes being unformed undulating giant grey amoebas and squat mechanical warriors. Towering above the battle was a great furred creature, striding about the battlefield without caring whom it crushed, all the while calling out a strange battle cry.
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