How many times had I pondered the strange events of that night?

And for how long had I wondered what madness afflicted myself and my friend, Erlam Gifford, all those years ago?

Too long.  Indeed, a lifetime.

For I am an old man now – eighty four next year! – and for nearly sixty of those years I have hidden in this town – in this very bar – waiting and trembling that I might once again hear the coming of that which we released and that which took Erlam Gifford.

I was an old man when Ferdinand was assassinated and older still when the Great War which that event caused finally abated.  The year now is 1928 and I have seen many marvellous and new inventions, yet for all of Man’s technological achievements, I have seen the most efficient and terrible machine – conceived in the minds, and build by the hands of the ancients – old and forgotten even when Egypt’s mighty Pharaohs built their pyramids in the desert sands.  Old and forgotten until Erlam Gifford found the Device of Ula-Dein.

---x---

There was a city, across the mountains of Ghat and beyond the plains of Tyr, known as Arat.  Now, Arat exists on no map – not today – but then, when the world was new and Man had only explored but a small part, Arat was mighty; its walls stood tall and strong, its people safe and its fingers of trade reached out to all of the known world.

There was a king in Arat, whose name was called Tre-Alath, known throughout the lands as a maker of peace and as one who loathed war.  He was a learned man and surrounded himself with scholars, artists and wise men of all professions.  Chief amongst these advisors was the magician Ula-Dein and it was to him that the king came with a proposal to end all war and the suffering which it brings.

For Tre-Alath was a keen chess player, and in those days chess was a mighty game, played by kings and statesmen, far removed from the slow, pale imitation played by the baser men of today.

In those days the game, if it can indeed be called a game, was played upon a vast board, living men occupying the spaces now taken up by carved pieces.  It was a game of skill and courage, each warrior facing their opponent in real battle.  Now Tre-Alath proposed that this game be used as an alternative to war, saving the populace the dangers and horrors of real battle, confining it to the carefully supervised arena of the chess board.  The idea was embraced by many leaders and it did not take long for vast training schools to arise in order that the various kings have the very best warriors available to take with them when playing against a rival.  Tre-Alath’s great court was considered to be the most neutral and many disputes were settled under his arbitration, his reputation as a truly great man of peace spread wide and far.

For many years all disputes and negotiations were settled in this manner and men grew rich on their skills as warriors and tacticians.  And once again Tre-Alath sought out Ula-Dein with a new proposal.

---x---

Erlam Gifford came to me, those many years ago, with a proposal.  It was soon after we had finished studying at university and, both being adventurous in our boredom, we found ourselves booked aboard the Caspian, a liner with a charter from Europe to Indo-China.  My friend’s proposal was a bold one.  He had read of a legendary artifact hidden in the caves of the Himalayas.  Indeed, he had devoted so much of his time to pursuing this object that he had singularly failed to impress upon even one of his Masters at college any wish to bestow upon him any class of degree which would, even vaguely, have pleased his father.  And so it was he decided to leave, or perhaps flee, his homeland and search for this strange device.

Thus we set sail for brighter horizons.

Erlam continuously talking of his findings and I eagerly absorbing what he was saying.  I was always the more disciplined of our little group and, as such, it was I who arranged passage, lodgings and all of the countless other necessities which must be arranged for such an undertaking, while Erlam concerned himself more with the loftier visions of how we would break our momentous discovery to the greater world.  I give you these facts, not to criticise my friend nor, indeed, to raise myself in your esteem (for what worth is that to me now?), but only to indicate that, while both of us were utterly caught up in the excitement of the adventure, certain practicalities held little or no interest to Erlam and that I was the more practical, reasonable sort – not impetuous enough to disregard the logical, scientific methods I had been taught.  How, now, I wish I had had the strength of character to insist that we applied those methods!

---x---

The vast armies of Iben-Mara marched like rolling thunder across the plains of Tyr and all fell before them, as recorded by the great poet Sal-Drano.  Hundreds of years had passed since Tre-Alath, great king of Arat, had quelled Mankind’s violence, only once again to release that terrible energy through the corruption of his greatest achievement.

The warrior hordes moved as one unit, seemingly controlled by some unseen commander, meeting all resistance with the same deadly force and unswerving will.  Those defending the ancient city of Arat fought with no less determination – the men of both opposing forces appearing as if almost dancing with the fluid motion of strike and counterstrike.

No one knew or even remembered the reason for the battle.  Indeed, it was a war of attrition that had been raging since before all men present that day had been born and would continue with their sons and grandsons before the madness finally abated.  Even the commanders and warlords grew up with the certain knowledge that their death would not be a carefree one, as old men in their beds surrounded by loved ones, but rather the violent, agonising death of the battlefield.

And all men cursed Tre-Alath.

A thousand years later, when the civilised world of that ancient time lay broken and dying, but still yet thousands of years before the pitiful ancestors of modern man first lifted their crudely crafted tools, the lonely remnants of the warriors’ descendants raised their sorrowful voices to the dark skies.

Their scattered tribes, reduced from their former grandeur to roaming bands, searched the world looking for a place to settle, separate from the others, where war and dispute were unknown.

And all men cursed Tre-Alath

When the new Mankind arose across the Earth and began to fashion tools and a new culture, he had forgotten the name of Tre-Alath but as more and more of these ancient creatures interacted, they soon discovered that which had only been forgotten and under a different name they cursed that which Tre-Alath had begun.

The Earth was no longer peaceful and war and battle waged anew, growing more deadly and insidious as Mankind continued his evolution.

---x---

And now as I, an old man who has seen the reasons for this destruction, narrate this tale, the peoples of the Earth prepare for more battle and conflict, which they shall call the Second World War, not even knowing the reason for it, not knowing what I know and not knowing that it solves nothing.  For in that desolate cave, all those years ago, Erlam Gifford opened the stone box, ignoring the warnings carved in every known language, ignoring because he knew not the meanings of those ancient and forgotten marks, and uncovered the corrupted legacy of Tre-Alath – the terrible device of Ula-Dein.