‘An Attender. A healer…’ He looked confused. ‘I don’t remember where. My memories are fading. I have more difficulty with every passing day recalling things that I knew without pause just weeks ago.’ He glanced at Pug. ‘I knew much of what I remembered from my human life was lost, but now I’m losing my memories of this life as well.’ He looked at her. ‘I fear I have little time left.’
She stared down at him. ‘You have no time left, whoever you were. For you are not dying, my friend; you are already dead.’
Pug and Magnus stood motionless and stunned. Finally, Macros softly said, ‘Yes, that would make perfect sense.’
Pug said, ‘It makes no sense to me.’
Audarun looked at Pug. ‘For you to be here, in that guise, so perfectly achieved and maintained, I can only assume you to be a magician or priest of most puissant ability. Illusion is not something we do well, we Dasati. There is no need. We are a people who prize strength and force above all else.
‘But while the Deathpriests may understand necromancy in all its subtle and dark aspects, we of the Bloodwitch Sisterhood understand life in all its subtle and bright aspects.’ She paused, then said, ‘This vessel does not contain true life.’ Looking Macros in the eyes, she said, ‘You are a simulacrum, false life resembling the living.’
She looked over her shoulder at the young attendant and asked for a few more items, and the young woman left. Returning her gaze to Pug, Magnus, then Macros again, she said, ‘The magic used to create you is vast, alien to me, and of a design I can barely begin to understand. No mortal being could fashion such as you, and that leaves only one alternative.’
‘A god,’ said Pug.
‘Of your world,’ she added quickly. ‘Some agency in your universe judged it vital to pierce the barrier between our realms, in anticipation of some act by the Dark One, in order to aid the White. I am no theologian, but the Sisterhood has more untainted lore than anywhere else in this realm; for the Dark One’s Hierophants have destroyed everything except approved doctrine everywhere else. I shall see if I can find any reference to any such act before, but this much I know: rules have been violated, rules as binding upon the higher power as the need for air and water are upon we mortals. Whoever did this thing, whoever sent this… creature here, did so knowing that the consequences of such an act could be as disastrous as that which he was trying to prevent.’
‘"Desperate times call for desperate measures" is an old saying among our people,’ said Magnus.
‘Perhaps,’ said the old Bloodwitch. ‘But while it is sometimes wise to set a backfire to stop a wildfire from spreading, if the backfire gets out of control—’
‘It becomes a bigger wildfire,’ said Pug. He fell silent.
After a moment the creature called Macros said, ‘If I am not who or what I think I am, why am I here?’
‘I cannot tell you,’ said Audarun. ‘When we received word that someone calling himself the Gardener had appeared, more than ten years ago, we waited and watched. We knew there were powerful forces behind you, for you merely had to appear before our followers and they would do your bidding, as if you had been leading the White for years. Martuch is one of our oldest, most loyal allies, and he was asked by Lady Narueen to seek out this Gardener and ascertain his purpose.
‘We were certain it was a ploy by His Darkness’s servants, but there were too many… oddities. Martuch not only did not discover anything nefarious in this Gardener, but like so many others he fell easily into taking instructions from him, and assigning to him the role of leadership in the White that he claimed. So we kept watching.
‘After many months, it was clear that this creature had a mission, and as far as we could discern, that mission was in concert with our own. Moreover, he provided a strong focus and a clear mission we had lacked. Until then, the White had been little more than an association of Bloodwitches and a few sympathizers who shared information and occasionally saved bands of women and children from marauding Deathknights. We had enclaves, such as this one, scattered throughout the Dasati realm. The presence of this leader, this Gardener, provided a much-needed focus for our activities. We’ve recruited powerful allies, like young Valko, and we’ve established a far more effective presence throughout the Empire, and so we are stronger.
‘Thus, we have benefited from his appearance, but since the start we’ve known something about all this to be false, to be fabricated, for in the Dasati it is unheard-of for a humble Lesser suddenly to rise up and become a leader of power. And using magic unknown in the history of the Sisterhood? Impossible.’ She stared for a long moment at Macros. ‘What is your purpose, strange creature? That is what we wish to know.’
The thing that was Macros stared back weakly at the old woman. ‘I… only know I have been driven to lead the White, to get it ready.’
‘Ready for what?’ asked Audarun.
‘I don’t know.’
Suddenly Pug said, ‘I know.’