Free Invoking Darkness by Babylon 5 Page B

flicked to Elric, and Elric knew, in that moment, what had happened.
    "They have attacked Soom," Galen said.
    Elric pressed the heel of his hand against his temple. It felt as if a great darkness would burst full-blown from his skull. Galen conjured an image above the table, a coastal lowland shrouded in dust. Through that haze, Elric saw only windswept dunes and lumps of rubble. It had once been the city of Tain.
    Then other images, other cities laid waste. The town of Lok, a smoking ruin. Soom had been a planet imbued with life, a rare place of simple pleasures. He had taken precious joy in each creature, each blade of grass, each drop of water, each bit of rock. He had loved each, as a part of himself. Elric accessed the probe records himself, searched through the images from Soom faster and faster, finding destruction upon destruction: vast tracts of barren land, fissures blasted deep into the earth, great clouds of dust darkening the sky.
    His precious home, his heart, ravaged; those under his protection, killed. For duty, he had abandoned them. And the Shadows had destroyed them. The pressure in his head was building into an irresistible, overwhelming pain. It spread through his body, the emptiness consuming him, driving out everything but despair. He fixed on Galen, struggling to hear the boy's words, to maintain his composure.
    "After the bombardment, Elizar, Razeel, and the telepath Bunny Oliver landed near Lok. They sought out one of the Soom that Elric and I knew, a girl named Fa."
    Various images accompanied Galen's description. There was Fa's wariness, Elizar's false solicitude. Galen's tone was flat.
    "I had once foolishly shown Fa some of my spells, including the spell of destruction, before I knew its nature. Apparently when Bunny scanned me on Thenothk, she learned this. Bunny searched Fa's mind for the knowledge. She told Elizar what she found was incomplete, but that it might be enough.
    "They knew that I was watching, through a ring I had given Fa. My father's ring. Once they had all the information they could get from her, Razeel."
    Galen paused, his gaze falling and his mouth tightening in a way Elric recognized. He was doing a mind-focusing exercise, struggling to retain control.
    "Razeel began to slowly kill Fa. After a time, I was able to access the systems in the ring."
    He paused again.
    Galen had finally opened that Pandora's box. Elric searched for any sign of change in him, but saw none. Still he hid from the truth.
    "I delivered an electric shock to Fa, killing her."
    A brief image flashed Fa's face, neck muscles seized in spasm, mouth gasping, eyes wide in agony. Quickly Galen replaced it with a view of mist-shrouded sky. Then the images vanished. Fa – she had been a sweet girl, innocent and affectionate, curious and adventurous. She had embodied everything good and special about her home. Now both were gone; Soom's fleeting, unique beauty was lost.
    Galen bowed his head. He'd been forced to kill one of those few he'd allowed close to him.
    "Soom might not have been attacked at all if not for my stupidity. Perhaps some other planet..." He raised his intense blue gaze to look at each of them in turn.
    Elric realized that his hand was still pressed to his temple, and he lowered it, straightened.
    "...I would like to request the Circle's permission to leave the hiding place, to pursue Elizar and Razeel and kill them, so the secret of destruction can again be contained. It is my fault they may now have it."
    Blaylock frowned.
    "Yet they may not. They may have suggested they did simply to lure you from hiding. Their true goal may be to obtain the spell directly from you, as they failed to do before."
    Galen took a step forward.
    "If they do have it, they could cause great destruction. As great," he said, "as I have."
    Herazade raised a cautioning hand.
    "The risks of sending someone outside are grave. We realize that you would never reveal our position willingly. You could, nevertheless, reveal it