Free Lords Of Existence (Book 8) by Ron Collins Page A

was strong in each of them.
    Soon this band of champions from the Thousand Worlds had become a strange collection of misfits, truants, and otherwise free thinkers—all, Garrick decided, likely targeted by Braxidane when they were weak, all having needed something so badly that they would be easy marks for a planewalker’s asinine doctrine of
actions and consequences
.
    They were also, however, a jaded collection, each weary of the burden Braxidane had put upon them, and each more than willing to bring it to an end.
    The champions split again and again, each group bringing more of their own siblings into the fold.
    It was only a matter of time before the council of Joint Authority found them.

Existence

    Agar came to sit in Joint Authority.
    Leaxis, leader of the council flung questions at him that hung in the flow like strings of pearls.
    “They are here, correct? Garrick and the rest of Braxidane’s champions? You sense them, do you not?”
    “Why do you ask such questions if you already know the answer?” Agar replied.
    “You promised Braxidane would settle this.”
    “I recall making no such promise.”
    “You said—”
    “I
said
Braxidane was trying to bring Garrick to the justice he fantasizes of. I did
not
say he would be successful.”
    “Semantics.”
    “You will fix this now.”
    “Me? How is this my mess?”
    Leaxis flashed cold rails at him. “Do not pretend you had no plans to fill Braxidane’s shoes, Agar. Consider yourself lucky that our investigation found the triggers you had set prior to any ill-advised effort you might have made to take advantage of them.”
    Agar said nothing.
    “Are you trying to start a war across All of Existence, Agar? Is that your desire?
    “No, Lord Council,” Agar replied. “I do not wish war.”
    That was true enough.
    Indeed, if he had succeeded in gathering the strength he had anticipated, Agar would almost certainly have forestalled the war that was now nearly guaranteed to come.
Talla
politics were tangled and twisted, and nearly assured to cause conflict. But his plan was a false hope. Garrick, Braxidane’s rogue champion, had broken Agar’s entire structure by rallying the others.
    The champions would die, of course. Garrick and his cohort of strange magicians had no chance fighting in the middle of Existence. But a collection of dead champions meant his original plans would have no fodder to build from, so whatever war was written into the future of the flow was going to come now, regardless of what he did.
    “You will destroy Garrick,” Leaxis said. “And you will destroy him now.”
    “It will take more than Garrick’s death to staunch these wounds,” Agar replied. “Spread your senses. The gates are discovered. You know better than I do that there will be more visitors.”
    The entire council flashed. His words were true. If the creatures of the worlds found they could survive traveling through All of Existence, the gates would see a steady flow of these same creatures invading their homeland. And that was a losing game because, while creatures of the planes bred like insects, there would be no more of the
talla
. To lose even one was bad. To open the gates to a stream of visitors would be to expose themselves to endless attacks, and that meant the only variable to extinction was time—a long time, certainly, but time is time. It moves at whatever pace one lives at, and planewalkers—the
talla
, the
flow masters
, the
yahli-at-ba
—lived forever.
    Now Joint Authority understood.
    “So there is only one option,” Leaxis finally said. “Each of Braxidane’s champions must be exterminated, and their planes forever sealed.”
    Agar smirked. “You command an action that is certain to annoy half of Existence, and you have the nerve to suggest that I am the one who wants war?”
    “There is no other option,” Leaxis said. “The lords will see that. We will create new planes.”
    “I think that command goes too far,” Agar replied. “Kill