[Sedna]

R'lyeh, Turn 60

Auluddh has come.

To me, this has more import than world freezing over as the giants awake. Auluddh is the leader of the Aboleths, whose empire once spanned the Persei arm of the galaxy, before it was brought low by a stellar collision with their homeworld, which I don't know anything about that and at which time I have several eye witnesses who can provide me with an incredibly solid alibi.

If any deus ex vacuuma was going to appear and challenge me for supremacy, it should have been him, with a legion of shock-troops at his back. And he should have appeared here, at the caves. But instead he wandered through the void gate, somewhat lost. There, he cowers under the sieging force of birds, led by that erstwhile god: ghost-of-the-wingless. I will have my priests drag him out of his cave- use his raw power to smash the feathered ones, and make sure Auluddh also dies in that struggle.

And so... I must accept that Sammy is right. Tomorrow, before sunrise, Pandokos will march across that river which separates the isle from the mainland, claim his right to fulfill the ancient prophecy, and challenge me to combat. And I shall issue forth from my cave with a thousand spawn and slaves at my back, and score upon score of evil tentacled things from the void, and a hundred woefully misguided humans who think they are fighting the infidels who insulted their god, and a gaggle of starspawn for magical support, and two queens of water, and an ice devil (captured in a distant land)... and if the prophecy holds we will both die tomorrow and both time and the world shall end, but whichever side wins and maintains possession of the caves from sunrise to sundown during the carnage- that "god" shall return from death and rule this world and countless others as God.

And what of this human? What madness drives a mortal to attack a god? What twisted belief system causes a wanderer, far from home, to lay down his life in defense of strangers in a strange land? What love or hate causes him to struggle against forces he cannot possibly comprehend, much less control? And when did humans acquire the permission of the gods to challenge the order of things- to imagine a different world?

It scarcely matters. The world ends tomorrow. And no matter what happens, Pandokos' frame cannot possibly survive the transition to god-hood if his side should (by some miracle) win. But I have become quite attached to these caves, and the glimpses into forever which they provide. This has been my home now for some months, and I would hate to see my home broken into by another with his hands full of butter and the salesmen... those men! and their -- sales!

For now this is my house. I shall lie here until dawn, dreaming...