Ronan Affaron dressed for meeting his battalion. He looked at himself in the oval mirror. "I look like a rooster!"
Gaddis chuckled lightly and came up beside Ronan. "I have thought the very same thing many times – it is all to make yourself the focal point of the warriors you are sending out to perhaps die for the cause you have created for them to defend."
Ronan turned away from the image and looked at the Ne'Median Emperor. "Why have we allowed it to go on for so long?"
Gaddis shrugged his shoulders. "We had a good reason at the time," he responded. He adjusted a medal on Ronan's chest and sighed resignedly, "Now we fight to end it."
Together, they walked out into the audience chamber. Li'Bann was standing at the portal with the two Shadow guards, their lances pointing into the swirling darkness. Li'Bann looked at Affaron and Gaddis curiously. "Something is coming through."
"Something?" Ronan repeated.
Gaddis approached the portal, "Who is trying to gain access to this portal?"
"A daemon," Li'Bann answered.
Gaddis frowned in thought. "One of mine? Dioclydus?"
"Who is that?" Affaron asked.
"Dioclydus is the commander of Kaderyn's guard," Gaddis responded. "I am not certain why he is trying to come here." He glanced at Li'Bann, "He could be one of the ones Fury is acquainted with."
"Is there anyone Nicodemus Fury is not acquainted with?" Affaron asked, then looked at the Ne'Median Emperor in concern. "Can he be controlled?"
"No," Gaddis replied.
"Kaderyn and his Da'ark magic enslave his kind," Li'Bann said sending a baleful glare at Gaddis. "Perhaps he comes with an accord?"
Gaddis shook his head, "I doubt that, but I am curious to know what he has to say."
"Then we should find out," Ronan said.
Gaddis and Li'Bann exchanged wary looks, but Ronan smiled suddenly, "Look at us, three realms standing in the same room allied in one cause. Why not see if this daemon can help us?"
The Shadow guards stepped back, and the figure emerged from the portal. Affaron had never seen a daemon up close, and this incredible visage took him by surprise. Dioclydus stepped into the audience chamber and immediately took a defensive stance. He snarled at the lance points pointed at him and knocked them away with the arm guards strapped to his heavily muscled forearms. He turned mottled yellow eyes on Gaddis and dipped his head to his emperor.
This gruesome creature was smaller in stature than a warrior daemon, yet Dioclydus filled up the audience chamber with his body. He towered over the others in the room, his bulky muscled body was covered in scars that looked like they had been infected before scarring over. He turned golden reptilian eyes on the others standing with Gaddis, lingering longest on the Ard Ri.
"This portal drew me," Dioclydus hissed. He had a remarkable command of the Ne'Median language. "Where I am bound is weak and dying."
"Where are you bound?" Gaddis asked.
"I have been summoned to the portal to Arwyn," Dioclydus replied. He looked around and saw only Li'Bann's Shadow Guards. "Though this gathering looks far more interesting than what waits at the Arwyn gate."
Gaddis folded his arms over his chest and regarded Dioclydus. "Do you know why you were summoned?"
"I do not," Dioclydus carefully stepped past the guards' lances, "I only know Kaderyn has summoned me. If I am tardy I will be disciplined – painfully."
"The Da'ark Witch is bringing the Shai'Alomar into the Nu'Ada," Gaddis told the commander.
Dioclydus considered the unlikely trio looking at him. "Metal cannot pass through the Arwyn gate," he said.
"But the Daj Sultana can," Gaddis reported. "My guess is Kaderyn will be waiting to take possession of the dagger when she reenters Nu'Ada."
"How does this concern me?" Dioclydus asked.
"The moment the Da'ark witch realizes you are not a welcoming party," Ronan said caustically, "You will be killed."
"Why are you all of a sudden concerned for my kind?" Dioclydus asked and drew himself up to his full eight feet of daemon gristle and muscle. It still rankled him that his warriors snarled behind his back that he had been the runt of the litter! However, he still towered over the Ne'Median Emperor and the Nu'Adaian Ard Ri!
Ronan Affaron suddenly smiled. "It does seem disingenuous of me. But would you not agree, it is time to put our disagreements to rest."
Dioclydus' attempt at laughing was horrifying to Ronan. He tried his best not to show how terrified he was. "So, you want to have an accord now that you have discovered treachery in your nest? Your brother has betrayed you and allied himself to the Da'ark Witch."
"I will deal with my brother in time!" Ronan flung back at Dioclydus as he turned to the portal.
Dioclydus grunted and paused to look over his shoulder at Ronan, "You will likely not have to deal with him. He has outlived his usefulness, if Kaderyn does not kill him, the Da'ark Witch will! We have all outlived our usefulness. I am summoned!"
"You and your daemons can be free of Kaderyn," Gaddis said, "Help the Daj Sultana when she returns to Nu'Ada."
Dioclydus growled his disdain at them, "You place foolish trust in a myth!" The daemon commander stepped into the portal and was swallowed up.