Page 93 of The Brotherhood

“This,” Zodak whispered, pointing. “Is the Groaning Deep.” His voice was smooth, but there was something underneath—something dark. “It is the place of the swallowed. The forsaken.”

He moved to the next image.

“And this.” A sharp gesture. “Are the sayyidat al-khaliyah.” Seer met his gaze. “The Lords of the Hollow.” He returned to the pages. “But they have many different names over the centuries.”

Seer’s throat tightened as he stared at them again. The figures were wrong. Twisted, elongated, too many eyes, too many mouths devouring each other.

“Their war is not new,” Zodak murmured, slowly moving. “It is still the first war. The war that never ended.”

He moved to the next image and lowered. “Do you see?”

Seer knelt next to him, seeing the Pillars. But—not as they were. Figures drawn in a past they had never known, their shapes woven into something... forgotten.

Zodak straightened and turned to the kings. “You were once the keepers of the past.” His voice lifted slightly as Seer stood too. “You believed you were tracking chaos. But you were tracking a decoy.”

A decoy.

Zodak pointed to the next page and retrieved it, showing it. “These… are the Creole Kings. Keepers of the hidden knowledge.” He regarded Nidev now. “Hidden even from them.”

“What is this war you speak of?” Volkan demanded in quiet wonder.

Zodak turned and stared at him. “It is a most ancient and ongoing war. Not for fortune, not for might, not for human domains. It is for humanity itself.”

Seer’s skin prickled as his words confirmed everything he’d seen as well from the beginning. This was a divine war. Chaos was merely a component, nothing more.

“Are you saying everything we’ve studied for centuries…” Oblivion muttered. “Was a delusion?”

Zodak regarded him. “Yes,” he said, eagerly. “But you also, were a decoy.”

“Now wait a minute,” Colton cried, face perplexed. “You saying they thought they were fooling us but really we were fooling them? All without us even knowing it?”

“That is exactly it,” Zodak assured, turning to the Creole Kings. “My brothers were given the secrets that the Pillars once protected. But the knowledge of those secrets was hidden even from them.” Zodak lowered and picked up a paper, showing Nidev. “The prophecy coins. They were shielded by myth.” He scanned his brothers. “Their understanding protected by the faithless.”

“I’ll be a son-of-a-bitch,” Colton muttered, sounding like a con man conned.

Soren’s chuckle drew all eyes. “So, we are actually scholars of illusions.”

“No,” Zodak corrected, eagerly. “Your knowledge is valuable, only not how you thought.”

“Just tell me that we get to actually use our knowledge, in a physical capacity,” Soren pled.

“Are you saying the destruction we have seen,” Nexus began in doubt, “our stronghold, this country, the world, was all merely an illusion of chaos?”

Zodak turned to him. “It is not chaos, brother.”

“Then what?” Noctis demanded.

Seer stared at the final paper, suddenly realizing. He lowered and picked it up. “It’s a summoning.” The words sat in the air, now entirely quiet as he looked at Nidev. “To a prophetic war.” He realized even more as he looked at the images. “Velkratos was merely a veil. And it’s been torn away.”

“Yes,” Zodak said eagerly, seeing with him. “The battlefield had been revealed.”

That set off a new round of energy amongst men ready for action.

“So, how does this tie into what’s currently happening?” Rukem asked. “We’ve got thousands of beacons going off on the Dream Bridge demanding immediate extraction. Is this too an illusion?”

Zodak crouched again, lifting one of the sheets and began showing it to the entire room. “These are why the war is being fought,” he said, his voice steady, absolute. “Al-Namuthaj Al-Ilahi,” he said.

“The Divine Templates?” Zahir asked, getting Zodak’s immediate gaze.

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