The fiery colors of the dying day were accented by the gathering clouds. They had bivouacked just south of U'delph, or what had been U'delphand was now a jumble of smoldering rubble. In fact, the smoke added to the spectacular colors of the sunset.

Strange how he had ceased to notice such trivialities when he was alive before. Now that the gods of fate had given him another chance at life, he had every intention of savoring every moment of it.

That fate, it seemed, had taken the form of Matokin, a powerful Felk magician with a vision for conquest who needed a general to run his army for him. Dardas still did not truly understand just how Matokin had gathered his consciousness from beyond the void and deposited it in a host body. Neither did he have any clear recollection of the time while he was dead.

He was, in fact, astounded to learn after having been revived that more than two hundred and fifty years had passed since he had last been an active participant in life. Still, he had adjusted to the incredible fact. He had a soldier's grim constancy and could adapt himself to anything. He was alive again now and planned to exploit the opportunity for as long as possible.

What was most troubling to him right now was this mage. Matokin had brought him back to life. Matokin, in a sense, owned his life. Dardas was unaccustomed to any status other than that of supreme and uncontested leader.

He had had little use for mages in his prior life, in fact had only minimal dealings with them. They were few and far between, throwbacks to an age before the Northern and Southern Continents had collapsed into disarray.

In Dardas's day magicians mostly conducted themselves as healers. He had never really understood them, nor cared enough to educate himself as to the mechanics and limitations of their skills. Such creatures were often shunned. But that, he acknowledged, had been a long time ago, and even quite some physical distance away. This was the Isthmus, which lay between the two great continents. Once, it had been nothing but a trade route. Times, evidently, had changed.