Book 2 Prelude: Ashes

Prelude: Ashes
The world was not as it once was.
Veritas stared up at the rock ceiling of his rustic cave.  There were no amenities, nothing of comfort, only his gear and his most trusted companion, the cat-sized psuedodragon Pharyx.  Veritas shook his head, trying to order all his thoughts.  
After he and his companion had escaped Archimedes's trap he had spent a couple days simply loitering in Thorn forest, a few miles north of the ruins of Gorthar.  He had taken careful precautions to avoid both elves and orcs, who haunted the shadows of the forest, but his true intentions were unknown, even to him.  Such was the way of the shadowborn.  Ruled by Chaos, his intentions were always changing, he was so unpredictable that even he couldn't say for certain what his plans were.  But when he happened upon a plan he was meticulous, perfect, and always covered his tracks.  There was no one who could match Veritas, he was sure of it.
Suddenly, he stood, the dawn was just breaking, but he had had enough rest.  Pharyx looked up at him from a nearby rock and spoke to him telepathically, Where are we going?
Veritas belted his crescent blades to his hips, "We're going to pay a couple people a visit."
Pharyx nodded and flew the short distance to Veritas's shoulder, Would you like me to teleport us?
Veritas shook his head, "We have something to do first.  We need to visit the ruins of Gorthar."
Why?
Veritas's eyes grew distant, "There is someone there I would dearly like to visit."
Alain?
Veritas only nodded.  He could not say why he wanted to visit the dead paladin, he couldn't have been further from that man's heart, but something told him that he needed to find his body.
You are not nearly as good at concealing your emotions as you believe.
Veritas's mouth twitched in a frown, Pharyx was his closest companion, but the dragon had a terrible habit of thinking far better of him than he deserved.  The dragon had himself convinced that he, a scion of Chaos, was merely a paladin in disguise.  One who slaughtered whoever he pleased, but still a good person.  Veritas could not fathom the backwards logic.
Pharyx interrupted his thoughts, Thorn Forest is crawling with orcs, and with the survivors of Gorthar as well.  I do believe they've staged a sort of guerrilla war on the orcs.  So far they have managed to stay alive.
"How do you know this?"
My magic tells me many things.
Veritas said nothing, only began walking from the cave.
He was on a tall knoll, covered in lush grass. He had a view just barely over the canopy, and he could see the sunrise in the distance, obscured by the flames ravaging the forest.  The orcs had sacked Gorthar the same day that Archimedes destroyed Maiden's Cross, and since then most of them had left, carried away by the army that destroyed Kronrich, but more than 500 remained, under the command of a man named Arkos Bale, a fairly legendary commander.  He was a human-orc hybrid, and a seasoned general of many years.  He was also a slave to the poison orcish whiskey; many said that he had gone insane as well.  He was known to go into uncontrollable rages, slaughtering members of his own army as well as the other, and when he was not fighting, he was telling stories, of people, places and wars that never existed.  Veritas meant to pay him a visit as well.
Thorn forest was not a beautiful forest, not by any means; it was filled with brambles and many wild and magical beasts of the forest.  But it was the last place where one could find a unicorn, and that was enough to make it the eternal home of the Council of the Fey.
But they were dead now.  The sack of Gorthar had been complete, none of the elves had survived, and the few who escaped did so only because Alain and his few remaining loyal paladins sacrificed themselves so that less than one hundred souls could escape.
Veritas looked over the forest, noting the smoke, noting the destruction.  It was indeed a beautiful thing, Chaos.  It was change, it was creativity.  Where once there was a forest, now there would be an endless ruin, a wasteland.  Amazing.
Veritas started his descent; Pharyx perched securely on his shoulder.  Soon they would reach the ruins of Gorthar, soon Archimedes would have everything in his power to summon Amadeus again, soon the apocalypse would begin.
The world was not as it once was.