Dawn of Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

last. “Neither Githyanki nor Githzerai, but… similar.”
    Vhostym replied, “I am nothing that you have encountered before, celestial. Nor will you encounter my kind again.”
    The deva heard the threat in that last and his brow furrowed.
    “We are not enemies, creature,” the celestial said.
    He closed his eyes briefly and attempted to cast a spell, likely a divination or sending, but the casting failed, as Vhostym had known it would. The deva opened his eyes.
    “Your binding prevents me the use of any magic,” the deva observed.
    Vhostym did not bother to reply.
    “What do you want of me then, creature?” the deva asked.
    Vhostym saw no reason to lie.
    “I want all of you, celestial,” he answered. “You will not leave this plane.”
    Positive energy, a manifestation of the celestial’s anger, flared in a rosy-colored halo around the deva’s bald head. His downy wings fluttered in agitation.
    “Your confidence is unwarranted,” the deva said. Vhostym did not bother to correct the celestial’s misapprehension.
    “I will fight you,” said the deva as he took up his mace.
    “It will not avail you,” replied Vhostym, waving a hand dismissively. “You could not harm me even if you were free of the binding.”
    “Allies will seek me,” Phaedriel said. “They will avenge me should I come to harm.”
    “They will not find you,” replied Vhostym. “And even if they could find you, they would dare not come.”
    Nothing short of a god would risk confrontation with Vhostym. In his time, he had single-handedly slain flights of dragons, annihilated entire faiths, left worlds in flame behind him. But he had been young then, and rash.
    “You belong to me now, Phaedriel,” Vhostym said. “But fear not. Others of your kind will join you. You will not die alone.”
    “Why?” the deva asked.
    The radiance from his skin dimmed somewhat, and Vhostym almost smiled. He too had asked such questions once. Only after millennia of existence had he finally realized that the question had no meaning. The multiverse was infinite, unforgiving, and random. There was no why, not in the sense that the deva meant.
    “Because I will it,” he answered. “Will is the only why in the multiverse.”
    The deva’s eyes narrowed and he clutched his mace tightly.
    “You are mistaken,” said the celestial.
    Vhostym almost laughed, but instead said, “Am I? Where now is the god you serve? Where the planetar to
    whom you report? You think yourself a being of good, a servant of justice. Yet I tell you that there are no such things as good and justice. What is, is. In the multiverse, there is the will of the powerful and nothing more. Consider: If the multiverse was just, how could you be fated to this end?”
    The deva stood up straight and fixed Vhostym with a steady gaze. Its radiance returned.
    “You will not cause me to question my faith, creature.” Vhostym frowned, sad for the doctrinaire deva, and replied, “Then die a fool, Phaedriel.”
    The deva tensed, preparing for a fight, no doubt intent on expending his last breath in noble battle. Vhostym would give him no such chance.
    The Sojourner moved his hands in a complex gesture and spoke words of power. His will flowed along those words, penetrated the binding, and entered the deva, attempting to dominate his mind. The celestial gritted his teeth and went rigid. Every sinew in his beautiful form was visible. He resisted admirably, but even the deva’s will was no match for Vhostym’s magic. The spell rooted in the celestial’s mind. Phaedriel could still think for himself, but he could not resist obeying Vhostym’s commands.
    “Relax your body and remain still,” Vhostym said. The deva did just that.
    Vhostym lowered the magical binding that encased the celestial and flew to the summoning platform. Gently, so as not to aggravate the pain in his bones, he lowered his feet to the granite slab.
    “Shhh,” Vhostym said, though Phaedriel had said nothing.
    Vhostym