Free Sorcerer's Moon by Julian May

'Just get on with it, Kalawnn!'
    'Humans have discovered the second Moon Crag.'
    'Ahroo!'
    Tt is situated atop the immensely high mountain known as Demon Seat,' the Master Shaman said, 'just south of the Didion frontier, near Castle Vanguard in Cathra. The Great Lights once again became aware of its location when the detestable Likeminded Remnant used the crag to channel sorcerous Sky power to a human petitioner.'
    'You believed that, Kalawnn?' The frail Conservator of Wisdom spoke in a labored wheeze. 'More likely, the Lightshave known all along where the second crag was. Only their Likeminded enemies' unexpected discovery and use of it has prompted this warning to us.'
    'Who cares why they saw fit to finally tell us about it?' the Supreme Warrior trumpeted. 'Now we know! And perhaps this second crag has a better grade of mineral than the pitiful crumbling stuff we were able to salvage in the Barren Lands.'
    'At such terrible cost,’the Conservator lamented, 'only to find that it is virtually useless for creating new Sigils of Supreme Power.'
    'Perhaps not as useless as you think,' Kalawnn said. 'My workers are cleaving the best piece at this very moment, seeking to free a small perfect portion of mineral from the worthless matrix. If they are successful, we'll be able to make at least one new Great Sigil. We shall have to decide which one is the most appropriate. For practical reasons, it should be a type that is not too difficult to carve.'
    'A Destroyer!' Ugusawnn cried. 'A simple wand. What could be easier than that? And what is more appropriate than the deadliest moonstone weapon of them all?'
    'Recall that Destroyers are also the most perilous to those who wield them,' the Conservator said. 'During Bazekoy's invasion, numbers of our bravest warriors perished when they tried to conjure Destroying power in a manner that the Lights deemed presumptuous or excessive. The sigil acquired a dire reputation amongst our ancestors for that very reason.'
    The Judge said, 'Even the wily human villain Rothbannon was reluctant to make use of the Destroyer he tricked us into giving him.'
    Kalawnn inclined his head. 'We should also keep in mind the heinous fate that befell Queen Taspiroth of Moss, Rothbannon's descendant, when she tried to use the sigilwrongly. Her husband King Linndal, my friend and colleague in sorcery, was driven mad by horror and grief after the atrocious tortures wreaked upon the queen's body before her soul was consigned to the Hell of Ice.'
    'What in the world did the wretched woman attempt to do with the sigil?' the First Judge inquired with clinical interest. 'Knock the Moon out of the sky?'
    'Worse,' Kalawnn said. 'She was angered by certain - um - activities carried out by the Salka bands inhabiting the Little Fen. So she commanded Destroyer to kill every one of our people then dwelling on High Blenholme Island.’
    ‘Ahroo!' the other Eminences exclaimed, aghast. 'If such a terrible deed had taken place,' the Master Shaman continued, 'the minor sigils worn by those Salka would have died with their owners, depriving the Great Lights of the pain-energies they crave.'
    The elderly Conservator of Wisdom digested this piece of information with a thoughtful frown. 'But how are we to know which commands are safe to give this deadly sigil? I recall no guidelines for Destroyer's use.'
    'There are none,' Kalawnn admitted. 'Whoever was chosen to use the Great Stone against the enemy would put his own life and soul at risk, in addition to suffering a tremendous pain-debt. We would require a daring and selfless volunteer ... or even several of them, if the worst should happen. Of course, we might abolish the Lights' control of the Destroyer by means of the Known Potency, as we originally planned. But then the limitation would prevail.'
    'A single abolished Destroyer,' the Judge said, 'even when used to best advantage, might not suffice to win back the rest of our island.'
    'It would grease the skids of victory,' the