Of battle

There is a famous picture that says “war is hell”. And it is. It is a long, drawn out hell that is played on many fronts and has consequences that last much longer than when the last shot is fired. My dear apprentice, I hope you never have to go through hell. Panamoniam is difficult enough! I have spoken about what our kind went through with regards to the Horsemen. Today, I want to talk about the final battle. And make no mistake, young one. Even though I say “final battle”, these individuals have existed for hundreds of years. They will be back. It pains me to say it, but there was a member of the Horsemen among the Guardians. There was also a member among the Arrow, the Mysterium and among the Silver Ladder – though it appeared that he was late to join the group. All but one have been killed. But I get to the end of the story before going to the start. We had arranged for a temporary truce with the Seerers of the Throne. The Seerers knew where our base of operations was. As we knew where the Horsemen wanted to go and when they wanted to be there, I had arranged for sleepers to be away from the site at that time. As such, we let the Seerers defend the area around our base of operations. The idea was that the Seerers would both slow down the Horsemen and widdle away at their ghostly army. Never did anyone believe that the Horsemen would have access to a submarine! Nor did we think that they would take the submarine into the Shadow, completely bypassing the Seerers! We had egg on our faces. It was not good. Still, we defended the structure that needed to be defended. Mac and (I think) Root helped with a powerful ritual which would undo what the Horsemen had sought to do using the Copernicus device. Though, at one point, they waved me over to them and asked if any who were participating in the ritual would betray the cause. It turns out, the leader of the ritual – now an arch magus – was destined to partake in the ritual, and ascend to the Supernal realms. When Fate told me this, I laughed. I laughed so hard that I nearly missed part of the battle. Truly, I don't remember most of the battle. I counter-spelled several spells with the help of a drag queen named Dio, who's makeup ran every time he was almost harmed. (Oie vey! May I never have that experience ever again!) I tried to sever the ties of the ghosts to their masters, but the ties between the ghosts – who seemed to be ghostly familiars – was too strong. I sent out curse after curse after curse, only on those who were undead, not on the living. I helped counter-spell a Horseman who had co-located four times – and (God be praised) succeeded! Around us, people were engaging with the ghosts and horsemen. Knives flew through the air. Eir ran everywhere, attempting to heal the wounded. Billy Motion and Card Game came up with some sort of box that reminded me of an old movie from the 1980s. The sad thing is, their device actually worked for trapping ghosts... most of the time. Celestial fire blazed, mostly due to Apollyon. Guns were fired. Arrows flew. People bled. And only one of us died, not on the battle field. The hierarchic went into the Shadow to confront the Horsemen head on. I do not know what had happened afterwards, but she never returned and is presumed dead. The worst casualty, I believe, was our reality. Paradox is a reality. A break did not happen in my sight, but it was (apparently) a close thing, what with all the vulgar spells being thrown around on all sides. But more than that, our view of reality was shattered. We had betrayal from within. We faced battle. We can no longer delude ourselves that we are safe in our ivory towers, connected to the other Towers and made safe by magic and belief. Call me a cynic, but by the time you read this, young one, I doubt that the scars will have healed. And I doubt you will ever be safe.