The Blood Of Vampire: Chapter 18 - The Shadowed Pact of the Alliance
Far away in Aerthos, Chancellor Charles Hendry reviewed the same tactical feed. He didn't see Jatex's discipline; he saw only the failure of his expensive automaton and the resilience of Ryn, the rogue who had eluded his grasp.
Hendry smiled, a cool, calculating movement of his lips. "General Vorlag's military might is a sledgehammer. Jatex is a scalpel. And Kael..."
Hendry tapped the screen, bringing up Kael's latest tactical report. Kael's notes were obsessed with Jatex's "chaotic discipline."
"Kael is a spiritual purist. He wants to save the spiritual Law," Hendry mused to his shadow council. "I want to leverage the Shadowed Pact."
Hendry's true plan was revealed: he wasn't trying to capture Jatex. He was trying to ensure Jatex survived to complete the mission.
"The Wards are seals of Law, Truth, and Stillness," Hendry explained. "They are spiritually rigid. Jatex, the Aethyr-Wound, is pure, concentrated, chaotic Will. When Jatex gathers the three Wards, they will combine into a single, massive Containment Matrix."
Hendry paused for effect. "But for a moment, before the containment activates, Jatex's unique Shadow-Blood will act as a Cosmic Catalyst—a perfect, chaotic key forcing the Matrix to unlock the true power of The Sleeper."
His eyes gleamed with ambition. "I don't want the Sleeper's destruction. I want its Chaos to become a controlled, infinite power source for Syldavia, making me the undisputed ruler of the spiritual and political world. Kael, the Vaelanar Elders, the boy—they are all necessary steps on the road to my eternal Dominion."
Hendry dispatched a final, urgent message to Vorlag: Cease direct aggression. Allow the boy to proceed. We require the complete collection of the artifacts.
The Shadowed Pact was sealed. Jatex, in his quest to end his curse, was unwittingly being guided by the greatest threat to human and Vaelanar existence—the cold, calculating ambition of Chancellor Charles Hendry.