He found them. He wove together an Illusion of himself, a projection, and then pushed his awareness into it.

He opened his spectral eyes to find a rather startled, thin, rather cadaverous man staring at him in shock. The six-armed, bare-breasted woman creature beside him looked on with only mild interest, but the armed men and scaly blue-skinned Cambisi guarding the platform upon which they stood all rushed forward as one to attack and destroy the intruder. The first one drew his sword as he reached him and swung with all his might-

– -and then crashed harmlessly through the Illusion, to dive headlong off the raised platform and crunch into the grass below in a rattle of armor. Tarrin allowed the Cambion to pass through his projection calmly, not even flinching as its sword went through his Illusory head. "Typical," he snorted absently, then he focused his eyes on the two of them.

"Fools," the six-armed Demoness growled at the Cambisi. "It's an Illusion!" She looked to him, her dark eyes speculative. "It's a pleasure to get a chance to meet the famous Tarrin Kael, at least before I take your soul back with me to the Abyss," she purred. "It's already been promised to me. Isn't that right, Kravon?"

"Of course, my dear," the man Kravon said in a hollow, chillingly dead voice. "One must always give one's allies suitable compensation. Wouldn't you agree, Were-cat?" he asked conversationally.

"Be glad I don't fry you where you stand, but I'd be robbing someone else of that honor," he said coldly, and that made Kravon flinch. "He's already caught up with you, hasn't he?" he asked in a chilling, evil chuckle. "How long did it take to stop the bleeding?"

"It was of no moment," he shrugged. "I can't say the same for some of my sycophants, however. If he'd have chased you with half the enthusiasm he's been hunting down my servants, you'd not have lasted a month."

"They're the appetizers. You're the main course," Tarrin warned him with a baleful glare. "When they're all dead, he'll come after you. And there's nowhere in the entire world you can hide from him, human. He'll slit you crotch to chin and watch you bleed to death."

"I'm sure you didn't reveal yourself just to state the obvious," Kravon said. "I take it you're here to ask for terms of surrender? Or did you just feel the urge to chat? We've never been properly introduced, you know. I guess it would only be proper."

"I'm here to show you what's waiting for you when the sun comes up, Wizard," he said in a hiss, raising a paw.

"Illusions don't frighten me, Were-cat," Kravon said with an amused look.

It took every ounce of his willpower not to attack Kravon, but Jegojah had rights to him. Tarrin wouldn't deny that from him. Tarrin's paw began to glow with Magelight as Tarrin touched High Sorcery through his physical body and channeled it to his projection. Kravon scoffed at it, until Tarrin turned and levelled his clenched fist at a large group of Trolls that were lounging on the grass nearby. Fire erupted from Tarrin's Illusory paw, real fire, and it erupted into a hellish inferno as it raged towards the suddenly screaming Trolls. It slammed into their encampment, incinerating most of them where they lay, then the mass of fire suddenly exploded in a horrendous blast that sent fire, smoke, dirt, charred grass, and the smoking parts of Troll bodies flying in all directions, showering the startled creatures that had been resting near the group of Trolls with grisly flaming chunks of charred flesh and red-hot globs of steel.

"Now," Tarrin hissed, his eyes blazing with an incandescent white that suddenly shifted to an evil reddish aura, his paws erupting into flame. "Now, face me." He raised his paws at Kravon. "Face the power of my Goddess!" he roared, and he threw consideration and caution to the four winds and wove together his favorite weave, the chaotic mess of Air, Water, Fire, Divine power, and token flows to grant the spell the power of High Sorcery, and then unleashed it right at Kravon's head. He struck to kill.

Kravon would have had his head vaporized from his body if the Demoness had not intervened. She interposed herself between Tarrin and Kravon at the last second, shielding the human with her body. Tarrin's Sorcery could do her no harm, but the physical impact of it was sufficient to blow both of them off the platform, sending them crashing to the ground below.

In that moment, of having his lust for vengeance against Kravon denied, Tarrin lost all semblance of control and flew into a rage. Raising his Illusion into the air, Tarrin unleashed the full force of that rage against the amassed armies surrounding Suld, sending fire and lightning and raw power down upon them. Men and Gobliniods and other creatures screamed and ran away, but there was no escape. Weaves were formed and released with staggering speed, causing absolute destruction wherever they struck. For long moments, he vented his fury on the fleeing figures below, slaughtering them by the hundreds as they fled in mindless panic from his fury. He killed them singly and in groups, blasting them with spells and raw magical power in ways that left very little of them behind to be buried. At least the parts that could be found, anyway. He kept on killing them until some semblance of sanity returned to him and he remembered what he was doing there. He turned in the air and focused himself on that black obelisk, forming the weave of the Sunbolt and releasing it. It tore through the air, right at the black stone-

– -then was absorbed into its black stone as it touched it.

That done, knowing that that was going to happen, Tarrin pulled aback, as if in surprise. In that moment of inactivity, one of the Demons managed to get itself together enough to use its own magic. Tarrin felt that alien magic attack the integrity of his Illusion, just as the Demon had used its magic to disrupt the anti-magic Ward that Tarrin had woven back in Dala Yar Arak. But before, Tarrin could do nothing about it. This time, he realized, he could have blocked that attempt to destroy his Illusion with ridiculous ease.

But he did not.

He let the Demon's spell affect his Illusion, pulling his awareness from it a split second before it was unravelled, and then recalled his consciousness back to his body.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he felt the exhaustion. Weaving through the Weave like that was very exhausting, despite the fact that he was only weaving across fifteen longspans. The reality was that he was weaving through the Weave, and manipulating that kind of power over that much distance wasn't easy, even for him. He blew out his breath and removed himself from the Conduit, landing lightly on the roof of the Tower, feeling his knees wobble a bit.

"Tarrin, what in the blazes was that stunt?" Jenna's voice reached him immediately.

"Misdirection," he panted in reply. "They know I'm strong, and they were expecting me to try something like that."

"What in the nine hells does that mean?"

"It means, sister dear, that now they think they can stop me," he told her. "I took a shot at that obelisk and let one of the Demons disrupt my projection. They had to know that I'd try to destroy the obelisk, and now they think that their spells can stop me from trying again. They'll be worried about me trying to destroy it, so it should give you an easier chance. After all, we both know that we'll have to attack it through the Weave instead of physically."

There was a long silence. "Dammit, Tarrin, I hate it when you have a good explanation for things," she growled. "But you may be right. If they're going to defend it from you, it'll give me the chance to attack it the right way."

"I just revealed one of my new tricks, but it should certainly keep them on their toes," he mused grimly. "They'll be so paranoid about seeing another projection of me appear that they won't get much rest. And it should pin those Demons in place. They'll have to stay with the army to protect it from me, instead of trying to cause trouble for the soldiers on the walls. Especially if you weave up an Illusion or two every now and again to keep them where they are. You're closer than I am, you should be able to do that without wearing yourself out."