Shadows danced along the wall, while a giant hooded snake coiling, then rising up straight, balanced itself on threads of ka the living energy that moved all on Ardjia.

“Your sssecretsss are revealed to meee. The knowledge of your ancientsss isss myyy knowledge.”

Ttttutmosen tall, straight, and proud in his gigantic were king cobra form stood in front of a small brazier where dragons blood resin smoked on hot charcoal. He chanted memorized stanzas in a forgotten language, the language he forced his snake tongue to form closely resembled that of the were dragons of Cloudbank Midland. Power was simply no more an obstacle for the God Emperor. Knowledge continued to elude him.

“I rule over you! I am your Lord!”

His harsh aspirants and sibilants swirled around the room, summoning more and yet more ka.

The fools had scampered while he toured their musty libraries, learning and assimilating their hidden secret knowledge; books that told of the keys to other books which described hidden places, temples, the strict genetics of the Midlanders as well as their were dragon royalty, the secrets of their were ka that let them remain in complete control of their ka spells even in were form. Ttttutmosen, too, mastered this skill and found that there was a special power to spells spoken in his king cobra form.

“I am the God Emperor! Sssupreme Ruler of aaall of Aaardjiaaa!”

The voices in his head were divided. Most cooed in delight and either echoed his words or murmured words of praise. He had taught them to be quiet. There were so many of them, so very many of them. So many God Emperors of the past ages, now considered Gods in the afterlife, but that was their ba, their essential spirit soul and personality gone on to reside where the streets were made of gold, worshiped in perpetuity by grateful slaves and descendents. What he had claimed, by the hundreds, was the akh and sheut, the subtle ghostly body and shadow of the dead rulers and priests, along with various spouses and slaves. Not in thousands upon thousands of years had a rising of the undead like this been seen or even attempted. That Ttttutmosen alone succeeded in raising the sheuts sleeping in the four major burial cities of the Mainland dynasties including the oldest and first had all those voices convinced he was the greatest of them all, the Uniter Reborn as he so wished to become, the Living God of Blood and Ka, immortal and supreme.

But there were other voices as well. The shades of the recently dead and buried God Emperors and Empresses, who recalled with pride their own noteworthy accomplishments; goals and quests achieved, for the good of their people! They were remembered and the candles were lit and the fruits were left in their memory in appreciation for real actions! The office of God Emperor was not some vain self-serving opportunity to practice sorcerer’s trickery, what to speak of this illogical attempt at a living immortality! You lived on Ardjia the time allotted for you, many thousands of years, or one year. Initially most outspoken, now bound in silence was the priest Hemata who developed the Unrise and Unset summonings and put them down into a codex with only good intentions; not for this bastard perversion of raising every dead sheut just in case they had a speck of relevant knowledge.

“I know the placcce of your sssecret meetingsss! For I am your ruler!” the giant snake hissed, it's flaring head almost brushing the ceiling as the tall figure swayed before the brazier. He spoke and because he had the blessing of the Throne of Ardjia Herself, it was truth. He suddenly knew the exact location of the secret meeting place of the Eight Kings of Cloudbank Midland.

Keeping the location firmly fixed in his mind, Ttttutmosen let go the were cobra form and resumed his human form of a tall thin man with black hair and blacker eyes, dressed in a simple white robe. Black shadows flickered on the walls. Gold and jewels were all well and good for putting on a show, but these Midlanders had dismissed his every attempt at peaceful compromise during his tour. He was beyond the trappings of office now. Ttttutmosen relied only on ka, on power pure and simple, for he knew that his was greater than anyone else alive!

The God Emperor, student of thousands of texts, began another ka spell with his rich compelling voice. He altered an ancient spell meant for dream travel, adjusting it for the waking world and the physical body. It had worked over shorter distances. Ttttutmosen was fully confident that this spell would take him to his desired destination, deep within the heart of the Midland.

“There is a place my heart desires. A place that I must go.

Ard, water, air, and fire, the place that I must know.

By the mountains of Cloudbank Midland, by the lakes of Sunrise Lowland,

By the desert winds of the United Mainland, by the volcanoes of Sunset Highland,

By the ba of Mother Ardjia, all her places are as one.

She takes me from this to that one.

Step forward. It is done.”

With that, Ttttutmosen took a solid bold step forward onto the brazier, but he felt no heat and his foot set down on solid ground as though the brazier was not there. It no longer was. He found himself in the dimly lit cavern of his inner knowledge from the previous spellwork. An enclosed cavern, huge, thousands of feet high and wide dwarfed a lake and the four people sitting beside it in a circle. There were protrusions of rock in all directions from the curved walls. Some appeared like switchback stair cases, others large ledges. High on one of the ledges, a fifth person tended a large brazier near a large brass gong that reflected the fire's light. Ttttutmosen walked toward the group by the lake. They sat in various meditative postures on the hard rock though there were silk pillows strewn about in all the colors of the rainbow. Lanterns on tables cast a soft glow around them.

Suddenly the gong rang a tremendous tone throughout the cavern, its sound thrummed in the bones of the body as well as the bones of the earth. Ttttutmosen glanced up to the ledge and took note that a woman had beat the huge brass disc with a large wooden mallet. She returned to stand beside the brazier that was larger than her. He continued approaching the four, when one after another, four more men appeared from various dark places in the cavern and began approaching as well.

“You are not welcome here,” began the man wearing a green heavy silk brocade robe with sleeves that draped to the floor. His hair was black. All the others had grey or white hair indicating immense age. Few rulers on the other three land masses lived long enough to attain the signs of age.

“Shagach the Green, of growth and foodstuffs, Better you welcome me with words of praise for my daring and achieving the impossible,” Ttttutmosen answered evenly.

“It is forbidden! Just because you have the means does not give you the right!” The Golden Emperor wore a cloth of gold frock coat over red wine colored loose shirt and trousers.

“Injang the Gold, of Day and the sun. I am God Emperor! That gives me the perfect right to come confront you in your little hidey hole and demand justice for the attack on my Second Son!” Ttttutmosen's voice, while rich and smooth, also showed his anger. “During his ascension to the apex of Sunset Highland, an Ice dragon attacked without provocation. We demand recompense.”

“I am Ganguleh, the Diamond Emperor,” said the man with long white hair pulled back into a long thick horse tail. He wore a simple white robe like Ttttutmosen's but as the lantern light made as many shadows as it gave light, so the cloth seemed to show sheer and then not with each breath of the ruler of the land of Ice and Water. “We have heard rumors of such a dreadful occurrence, but we do not condone such actions and did not send any ice dragon to bother your Second Son. We respect the Treaty of Monetary Exchange and Trade of Goods.” His tone clearly reminded all present that Ttttutmosen broke this treaty by being here.

“And yet it happened.” Ttttutmosen snapped, his tone brooked no argument.

“We have heard as much,” wizened Ganzix the Amber Emperor of Fire in his ancient ceremonial orange and red layers of robes nodded in agreement. “Word came by way of the fisheries from there to here. But we have no knowledge of the dragon who committed such aggression, or we would turn over his family seven generations worth to you.”

“Phhh!” Ttttutmosen made a rude noise. “If I wanted him or his family, I'd have him! No,” he said slowly. “I want your direct daughters for my sons to marry.”

“Impossible!” barked the Amethyst Emperor of Godshome. He wore muddy brown wrap around robe with a wide belt. His eyes flashed a purple glow now and then in the dim light.

“Heresy!” protested Gold Emperor Injang.

“Sons too!” Ttttutmosen thundered above their protests. “For I have many daughters!”

“We will never mix our children with the mudlings of your Mainland!” Shagach roared then suddenly transformed and expanded into his green dragon form.

Ttttutmosen paid no heed. He could deflect any spell any of them threw at him, man or dragon. He wanted their blood, their ka, their secrets. “Who is the eldest of you? Who is the most knowledgeable?” He looked around at the wrinkled eyes and white haired men trying to judge.

“It is I!” called a frail woman's voice from high up on the ledge. The short woman wrapped in flower patterned silk with a wide cloth belt stood under five feet tall but her presence in the godworld was immense and aged; perhaps even ancient. Surely she was as ancient as the dragon kings around Ttttutmosen. He suspected that one ruled the eight. She must be the true King of Cloudbank!

“Quiet fool woman!” the equally wizened Amber Emperor shouted. Wispy grey hair hung at the back of his otherwise bald head. Ropes of glowing fiery amber covered his chest and bracelets of it ran up his forearms accenting the fiery colors of his robes.

“Depart!” she called to her countrymen. “This is between the Mainland Emperor and me, the Goddess of Mists!”

While they dithered Ttttutmosen made himself busy with disastrous magics in his mind. Ka appeared at his fingertips and struck out to instantly kill the Godshome king, the so-called Amethyst Emperor. He fell down dead and the others snapped protective ka around themselves.

Two men disappeared in reaction. The Jade Emperor remained in his were dragon form. He drew a great breath. Ttttutmosen turned to confront him.

With a rattle of amber necklaces Ganzix leapt up to the ledge where the gong and brazier stood. Before he could land, the Goddess of Mists went sailing high over everyone's head, her many layers of robes and under robes and long sleeves trailing behind her. She disappeared deep into the lake.

Ttttutmosen parried ka spell attacks from the others and protected himself from the green dragon's fire that lit up the entire cavern.

“Shagach, do not face him!” Ganzix shouted from the ledge. “We cannot lose you!”

Ttttutmosen finally gained a split second to attack. He sent a bolt of steel arrowing toward the green dragon's breast. He had no time to wonder that they all leapt to the green dragon's defense, thwarting his 'sword arrow' ka. He only took advantage of the fact they left the woman alone. Perhaps she had a way out of the cavern at the bottom of the lake. As he compressed space and leaped for the lake Ttttutmosen heard the dragon roar then cut off as it and more men disappeared.

Underwater, Ttttutmosen survived on pure ka. He had no more need of air than he had of food. The Empress stood on the bottom, her dress slowly undulating with the currents. Her white hair was wrapped and pinned at the back of her head by a great amber hair pin.

Guessing at her affiliation, if not origin, he taunted, “After I kill you. I will kill Ganzix.”

“You will kill no one,” she calmly replied, showing no shock at the thoughts placed directly in her mind. “I admit to curiosity as to your motive. We have done you no harm and have endlessly accommodated your whims here in our country, despite the prohibitions of the Treaty. Why do you persist in tormenting us?”

Her serene confidence gave him pause. Ttttutmosen smirked as he readied a killing magic. “You know what secrets you hide from me. I will have them with your last breath.”

Slowly she wove her arms in a sinuous dance, the long sleeves trailed in the water behind her hands which contorted in intricate mudras. A bubble puffed from her mouth and rose quickly away from them. Next she simply held her arms toward Ttttutmosen hands upright as though pushing a wall, or futilely holding back the ocean.

Soon he would know what those finger signs meant. Soon he would have all the ka spell knowledge and ancient wisdom of the Goddess of Mists! Ttttutmosen summoned her bodily toward him and sliced through her disconcertingly thin ka of protection. She did not resist and Ttttutmosen felt the last of the Cloudbank kings leave, Ganzix it was, with a cry of “Nana!”

Ttttutmosen stabbed his ka into her heart and closed his lips over hers in a parody of passion. He pulled and easily consumed the life force of a frail old woman. Yes, she was ancient, over eight hundred years old, but she was no goddess! Treachery! She was Ganzix' nursemaid all those years ago! She attended him and his children as the centuries went by until now she tended the sacred fire of the Eight Emperors. With an unusual roar of pure rage, Ttttutmosen let go her body and shot to the surface, ready to unleash his fury on all eight of the were dragon kings. But of course they were all gone by then. She had distracted him long enough that Ganzix could receive her dying breath, that innocent air bubble, and depart to mourn her death as well as the loss of their hidden meeting hall.

Clever clever Ttttutmosen had already placed a tracer on all the Cloudbank Emperors. It led him to one after the other, Ganzix first, and he proceeded to murder them and any retainers who tried to stop him. It took several days and he could never find the Shagach, the Jade Emperor. Finally he returned home to River Mouth and his two wives. He had no time for them, or to look after the state of his empire.

“I must assimilate all I have learned,” he said, mildly declining their invitation to dine. “I have all the knowledge of Cloudbank at my disposal now.”