Among the ghosts and shadows.....

"....okay, but don't be angry about the descriptions," the shade of Jonathan Tisbitt says nervously to his audience.

"Son, I frankly don't give a snargly squat about who's feelings it might hurt....including mine at this point in time," the strange figure says as his semi-transparent form shifts yet again. "Speak!"

"First, I guess I should tell a bit about myself," Tisbitt says, getting a nod from the other. "I am from the now defunct nation of Allaria, also known as the Great Kingdom.....the one on THIS Terra.

"My life ended soon after the vile dragon mage Minestus landed and pretty much knocked me and the other struggling fighters down like nothing at all." Tisbitt says, remembering how steel swords had barely dented the thick hide of the wyrm. "The dragon had slaughtered the rest, but I was alive, barely. Minestus healed me, and transported me to his laboratory in the Southern Caverns. There......."

Tisbitt shuddered, remembering the pain....and the look of indifference on his tormentors face.

"He slowly and methodically stripped layers of my skin from my body by magical means while doing the same to what I now know as a Forsaken Manimal.....a bear subtype. I was soon left screaming for mercy....calling upon the Christian God.....on the Norse gods and goddesses....on ANY gods to relieve me of my suffering."

Like a vanishing number of the older Allarian families, Tisbitt's family had taken on the appearance of becoming Christian while in reality staying loyal to the Norse religion. But ever since royal family of King Ember had been converted, it had become clearer and clearer that the days of this hidden faith were numbered. Heck, even the grand old family of D'Honaire had fully converted over. All this was pretty much nulled and voided by the destruction of large tracks of Allaria and Gelda by nuclear fire, so why worry about it?!

"The fact that his ministrations took much longer to kill his creation than it did me only seemed to re-enforce what I now know as his decision to cleanse the planet of humanity....an evolutionary dead end as he put it.....and make room for his superior creations. He had stumbled across the solution to the 'Forsaken' factor....the thing that caused a Manimal lycanthrope to sometimes lose his or her 'humanity' and become something little more than a wild....rabid beast, and he sounded rather excited......."

"Then he searched the multiverse for a disease that would not be easily countered by the mages of this world," the mysterious figure sighs. "He found it in a bioweapon created by the Enemy.....called the Lizards by you locals.....and set the stage for a tragedy.

"He set up false information that made it look like the dragons were in bed with the Lizards, as the old saying goes, and thus setting up a situation where the Alliance would divert resources to destroy an ally while they, the Enemy, would establish bases of mining and operation on Terra." There is a note of reproach in the shade's spectral voice that makes Tisbitt look at him strangely.

"You say it like you were personally involved....." the ghostly knight says.

"I was, for I was one of those who were fooled," Ajaz, the ghostly AI, sighs. "It's the job of Intel AI's to sort through true and false data, and see the true picture so we can give a clear picture to our superiors and our brothers in arms.

"I was the one who initially stumbled across the planted information in a courier ship's memory banks," Ajax said. "I was the one who overlooked the signs, ultimately. Colonel Probe trusted my judgement, for I'd done....miracles in the past from even less.....but this time......

1. "This time I erred terribly," the AI said darkly. "And so I sinned greatly........"

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