Fashzhamina could not hide the shock he felt at the statement as the colour drained from his face and he seemed to slump into the chair in which he sat. Dumar noticed Narami who was whispering, eyes closed, as if in prayer – for all Dumar knew, that was exactly what he was doing.
Silence fell in the room as the two men were allowed to absorb the terrifying information, eventually Celouise looked at Narami who looked even older than before and asked.
"Polstice, what is the opinion of the church in this matter?"
The old man seemed to have come to a complete halt and remained motionless for some time before he spoke, a mild tremor in his voice.
"I cannot answer for the church, I must call an urgent meeting of the Group of Primes. However," he added in a firmer tone. "On a personal level, I think the man should be erased from the face of the world by any means possible, Dawa forgive me," the ageing holy man laid a hand on his forehead and attempted to control his heavy breathing.
"What, in your opinion, would the Group of Primes say in this matter?" Fultard asked the old man gently.
Narami raised his eyes to meet those of the Commander,
"Dawa teaches us all life is sacred," he began. "I am fairly sure, however, even He would make an exception in the case of Malthrom.
"The Primes will more than likely share my opinion," he paused. "With a couple of possible exceptions," he added before falling silent once more.
Queen Celouise turned to General Fashzhamina and asked for his input. The stout General rose smoothly from his seat and slowly paced towards the window, looking out across the great city of Lorneria he asked.
"What intelligence has been received?" His voice was deceptively calm in comparison to the change Dumar had seen come over him at the mention of Malthrom's name.
He spoke clearly yet gently and with an odd accent Dumar had not heard here before. Grethron updated him regarding the situation M'thar had reported earlier in the week.
"Has any of this been corroborated?" The General wished to know.
"We only received the information yesterday, Fashzhamina," Celouise stated. "And we also had the problem of Saruline to deal with," Dumar detected a slight hitch in the queen's voice as she spoke of her son.
General Fashzhamina nodded curtly and made a gesture to one of the Royal Guards standing beside the door. A few moments later a man, who Dumar assumed to be the General's aide, crossed the floor and the two began an animated discussion with Fashzhamina appearing to issue a number of orders.
Meanwhile, Fultard moaned.
"He is probably preparing to declare martial law over the city."
Queen Celouise gave him a withering look and shook her head. Fashzhamina's aide saluted and almost ran from the room while the stout man returned to study the vast map atop the table.
"We should begin making plans," Fashzhamina stated. "While I have scouts sent to determine the whereabouts of this necromancer."
The next few hours became a blur in Dumar's mind, suggestions and counter suggestions were offered and then dismissed. Routes which one man thought Malthrom's army may take would be discounted by another.
The big man remained silent throughout these talks as they became ever more heated, the atmosphere becoming tenser by the minute and the obvious animosity between Fultard and Fashzhamina blossoming into full hatred.
Eventually moving over to the window Dumar stared out over the city as he perched upon the large windowsill. Stone and wood buildings stretched into the distant haze of the smoky sky.
Removing the tablet from his pocket Dumar opened the cover and stared at the blank screen with one fingertip hovering over the power button indecisively.
If the information contained in this small piece of equipment was the entire history of the Dumar project, it may contain facts which would change his self-perceptions.
He almost laughed aloud at that thought, his self-perceptions had been so poor and low he had shot himself in the head in an attempt to escape what he was.
Stabbing his finger against the power button, Dumar waited the few seconds it took for the tablet to initialise and was left staring at a full colour representation of the Company's logo, a list of files and programs that had been installed and the original owner's name. A simple icon in the centre bottom of the screen began to rotate in an endless attempt to connect to the nearest Accnet point.
Dumar fluttered his fingers across the touch screen and found himself looking at a huge amount of data contained in a multitude of files and formats. Selecting a few at random, Dumar realised these were technical notes and chemical lists which made no sense to him. He tapped the search box and a virtual keyboard popped into view overlaying the list of files
What to search for?
He typed his name, which produced a list containing the majority of the files stored, before tapping in the following; Dumar, parents.
A list containing three files instantly replaced everything else on the screen. One was a list of potential sperm donors which Dumar scanned only to find he recognised none of the names save one; Alan McCabe.
A wave of revulsion washed through the big man at the thought of McCabe as his father and he took a deep, calming breath as he reminded himself this was a list of potential fathers and a different one may have been selected.
File number two was a set of contact information for numerous business addresses which Dumar could not reconcile with either of his search terms. In the final file he found the mother lode. No sooner had he begun to read some of the numerous pages of information than he heard a voice calling his name.
"Dumar, have you any thoughts on this matter?"
He turned, almost ready to shout obscenities at the owner of the voice before catching himself. Celouise was gazing at him with her eyebrows raised. The big man unfolded himself from the windowsill and dropped lightly to the floor.
"Yes," he stated. "I have got quite a few thoughts on the matter," he pointed to Fultard and Fashzhamina. "These two are wasting time bitching at each other like a pair of kids who need to be separated,"
Fultard started to protest, however Dumar cut him off.
"You pair have been picking at each other for hours now and haven't got any more of a clue as to what to do than sit around and wait for Malthrom to invade?" Dumar's tone was filled with incredulity.
"From what I've heard, that's what you did last time he came, right?" A few embarrassed nods confirmed Dumar's belief. "Well, look how that turned out."
Dumar felt anger crawling through him, yet realised the main source of his rage was the unfairness over what had been done to him by McCabe, the Company and its numerous employees.
He closed his eyes and sucked in several deep and calming breaths before continuing in a calmer tone
"Look, you can sit here and wait, reactively, for this fucker to come and start slaughtering people or you can start being proactive and take it to him."
"What then?" General Fashzhamina stood to address the big man in a deceptively calm tone. "Is your suggestion to invade?" The stout little man was making his way across to where Dumar stood as he spoke and stopped just before the big man, looking up into his eyes. "That would be obtuse in the extreme." He declared. "Also, if you ever speak before the queen or to myself in the same manner again, I will personally seal your mouth; permanently."