Imperium (Caulborn) by Nicholas Olivo Page B

for these men’s faith, Lotholio?”
    “Yes, Lord,” he replied, nodding his feather-topped head.
    “Good. One of the Bright Side has gone missing, and I need men of strong faith to aid me in my search.”
    “We will send scouting parties out immediately,” said one of the priests.
    I smiled at him. “Thank you, but that isn’t what I need right now. The four of you kindly go to the upstairs ritual chamber.” They bowed and hastened toward a stairwell. Lotholio turned to me.
    “Lord, what do you plan?”
    “I think something bad has happened to a Tuatha de Danann named Seamus McElery. I’m going to try the rite of Shallar.” Lotholio nodded and we went upstairs. The ritual chamber was twenty feet across, with a basin of water at the center. I say basin, but it’s about the size of a kiddie pool. The room was lit by glowing stones, and the white floors and walls were completely unadorned. I told the priests and Lotholio to sit around the pool while I removed my shoes and socks and rolled up my pants. I stepped into the pool and waded to its center. The lukewarm water barely came up to my calves.
    I looked to my priests. “Begin the prayers of Shallar,” I said. They closed their eyes and began to chant. Lotholio and I developed Shallar shortly after the Urisk began worshipping me. This ritual lets me see anything that ever happened in the world. It let me learn more about the Bright Side quickly, and better understand its people. I got the idea for it from my Glimpse, but unlike Glimpses, I can control what Shallar shows me. The downside is that it requires five Urisk chanting to me for the duration. Once they stopped, Shallar was over.
    I concentrated on the image of Seamus that Galahad had shown me, and I saw a younger version of the fae in a small village. I followed him for a time, then sped the vision up. Seamus grew, aged, married, had children, and those children moved on. One night, Seamus’s wife was killed in a troll attack. Determined to take revenge, he sought out the troll’s cave. What he didn’t realize was the entrance was guarded by a phasilion, and the gateway transported him to my world. Seamus stared at a model T Ford that was chugging down an old Boston road.
    At this point, the images Shallar granted me became fuzzy, and the vision slipped. I ground my teeth in resolve and clenched my fists. Getting Shallar to show me something that happened outside of the Bright Side would take a lot of effort. I willed the pictures in my head back into focus and the vision cleared. Some time had passed. Seamus was older now; he looked like he did in the pictures. The cars on the street around him looked like they were from the sixties or seventies. The vision slipped again, and my nails bit into my palms. I screwed my eyes shut, and sweat ran down my face. The Urisk’s chanting was more like shouting now, and I knew they couldn’t keep this up much longer.
    The vision showed what looked like present day. It was nighttime and, going by the marquis of the movie theater Seamus was leaving, it was only a few weeks ago. As Seamus walked past an alley, a chain snapped out from the darkness and wrapped around his ankle. He hit the ground with a grunt and was dragged into the blackness beyond. The vision followed Seamus and I saw a man who looked similar to the one I’d Glimpsed with the Delions. Instead of vines, chains burst from his hands, ensnaring Seamus. Seamus’ skin smoldered wherever the chains touched it; steel and fae do not make a happy combination. As Seamus howled in pain, a pair of short, shimmering forms descended on the fae and began biting him. Green blood rushed from his wounds.
    Seamus screamed something in Gaelic and a spear made of light and fire materialized in the air above him. The spear moved of its own accord, stabbing his assailants. The short forms shrieked and fell back. The spear surged forward and impaled the chain man. It punched straight through his chest, then spun in the