Johnny and Jenara fled the gear room but were stopped short by five Horde archers covering the door.
"Well, looks like we're screwed!" Johnny exclaimed. Just then the Horde archers' attention was drawn by shouting and noises of war: the Aody riots had reached the industrial sector!
Johnny and Jenara took advantage of the distraction and cut down two of the Horde before the others took notice. By this point, however, the Aody had closed the distance between them and none-too-gently compelled their surrender. Leading the Aody was Lieutenant Benton and his Security forces.
"We're going to have to move, Johnny," Benton told him. "The Captain's up on the mountain!"
"Where are the other columns?"
"Lataro and Wallace destroyed the rear towers of the city; the various Borial commands have pretty much overrun the city. The main keep is destroyed and the dungeon empty, and it looks like you've taken care of their manufacturing efforts. The Horde'll be at least a generation rebuilding, and I doubt the Aody will give them any help this time!" Benton replied. With that, the Aody in the crowd sent up a rousing cheer!
Just then two Horde showed up. The one on the left was none other than the loveable Dweezle. The one on the right was unarmed and very nervous. He wore a tattered, dirty smock embroidered with nine very complicated-looking characters surrounding a wheel with nine spokes. Four Aody armed with captured idejs held them at bay.
Dweezle yelled, "Whoa! I come in peace, little guys!"
The other yelled, "Listen to me! I need to speak with your commanders!"
"And you are?" Benton asked.
"I am the High Mage Glybothar, Keeper of the Nine Sacred Glyphs. I wish to offer the surrender of Stonefist, and an explanation."
Johnny, Jenara, Benton, and the other senior officers in the grouping heard Glybothar out in the control room of the now-defunct water wheel system.
By his telling, the Horde had originally been a a group of missionaries sent from their home world, long since lost to memory, to spread the Message of the Nine Sacred Glyphs: nine ideograms of the Horde language which, when combined in their 362,880 possible permutations, spelled out the whole of Horde morality and ethics in rules nine characters long. The Keeper of the Glyphs was the one charged with exploring these permutations and interpreting them; in other words, a high priest.
The original destination of the missionaries was also lost to memory; most of the teachers and acolytes aboard the vessel which crashed on Xenon III ten thousand years earlier were killed in the crash. No rescue mission could or would be dispatched; the voyage had been planned as one-way. The remaining crew tried as hard as they could to preserve the teachings of the Glyphs, even working with the Aody at first as a substitute for the original mission. But the technicians, ship's crew, and acolytes among the survivors of the crash just didn't have the knowledge or the devotion to continue the mission more than a few generations. The Visitors and the Aody then began to go their separate ways.
Over time, based on historical fact turned legend, the Visitors began to rebuild their lost civilization. First agriculture and fishing, then cities, then competing nation-states which eventually unified under a single leader. But as their civilization regrew, their need (and, indeed, their respect) for their ancient rites, the only true remnant of their previous civilization, fell by the wayside. The Keepers of those times were ridiculed, exiled, even executed for their teachings. It was at this point that the Visitors became the Horde, raiding and exploiting their onetime hosts and their allies, the Borials.
But the old teachings, despite persecution, never died: occasionally one Horde leader or another would trot them out for propaganda value, a sort of Horde version of the "white man's burden" which had been so infamous on Earth. Many disreputable Keepers came into power, using the Glyphs in ways they were never intended to be used: as oracles, words of power, and other abuses intended to keep the masses under control.
Glybothar had become Keeper forty years earlier, around the time the "furrow-headed strangers" had been compelled to come to Xenon III by the Borial god Kalmar. There had only been five or six of them, and they had been most uncooperative with either side in the conflict. What became of them, nobody was ever quite sure. But since that day Kalmar had brought in other strangers, though none as powerful or in such numbers as the Virgos. The introduction of outsiders into the ancient conflict, as well as the destruction wrought on the once-beautiful forests and streams of Xenon III, convinced Glybothar that there had to be a better way. He researched the ancient texts and found that the Glyphs were never meant for political power, but rather for spiritual fulfillment.
For his teachings, and for his opposition to the wars, Glybothar had been imprisoned in the Horde's dungeons until Thudd's fateful attack set off a chain of events which led to the Keeper's freedom and reunion with his followers.
"I must admit, you Virgos are awesome warriors! How one can combine your virtue with your killing prowess is astounding!" Glybothar exclaimed.
"This wasn't our fight," Johnny replied. "It never was: we just want to get back to our ship and go about our business. Among us Virgos I don't think there's one of us who wishes to see your people, or your civilization, destroyed completely." The others nodded in agreement.
"Do you have the allegiance of the remaining Horde in the city?" Jenara asked. The last thing the Virgos needed was a rear action while storming the Dark Mountain!
Glybothar nodded. "Our government was nothing less than a dictatorship: a reign of terror with just enough freedom to let my people know that they were oppressed. Many looked upon the Borials and the Aody with jealousy as much as hatred. But if we work together, then maybe we can all end up on the same level."
"Allow me to put you in contact with Gori, one of the leaders of the Aody," Benton replied. Perhaps between the two of you some sort of reapproachment may be reached.
The Keeper laughed. "Oh, I am well-acquainted with that worthy! For many years, I was one of his contacts!!!"
"Under these circumstances, only our acting leader, Commander Lataro, can accept your surrender. If you approach him under flag of truce, I am sure he will be more than willing to negotiate terms," Johnny replied.
"Oh, I'm more than willing to accede to any terms you wish to name for the surrender of the city," Glybothar answered. "The mountain, however, is another issue entirely. That's where the Horde leaders have fled!"