Prologue

Man'nah's Shadow stared into the wall of swirling dust.

Dust. What we have built. What we have let ourselves become. 

He had only to look at his hands to know it. Even stone worn by time and wind would disappear. The Shadow had seen cities rise and fall, civilizations fade to memories, then legends, then carvings on cave walls. He’d become less than a story himself.

Except to a few.

He smiled, thinking of his games and his plans. In the end, amusement was all that mattered. Once, he had loved and been loved in return. But like the wind across this desolation, feelings were far too fickle for a life’s foundation. 

He built his future on the tides of fear and power. To these, mortals moved ever predictably. By these, he would achieve his aims.

The Shadow looked now beyond the dust, to the city that lay uncounted leagues afar. Like fireflies in a field, humans flitted about the cliffs, living in houses that once belonged to an ancient people of which they knew little and less.

His lips curled. Amusing as mortals could sometimes be, they were too often short-sighted and dull-witted. They had no concept of the trajectory of an age. They lived at the feet of mountains, but never thought to look at who truly cast them in shade. 

But in his hands, time was the sharpest blade, and perspective the eye that guided it.

The Shadow looked back to the ruined city behind him, back to the one who had cast his name into oblivion. Even eternity would end. No empire had yet risen that did not fall.

And perhaps, he thought, a thousand years spent in the shadows means less than a moment in the light.

Shaking his head, the Shadow drifted to his place at the foot of the stairs. The time had not yet come. His plans still unfurled. But soon, at last, he would have his due.

Man'nah's Shadow reached the stairs, glanced up at his master, then faced the dust bank again. Stiffening his flesh, he set to waiting once more.

But only a little while longer.

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