I am not the only one to have had this vision, but I'll share it with you all here, so you can all decide for youselves what the future has in store for us.

I was suddenly engulfed in darkness, obscuring all around me as my senses were deprived of sounds and colors. Suddenly, my vision returned and I looked upon a scene unfamiliar to me. A group of figures, dressed in cloaks of deepest purple, were huddled about a fire speaking among themselves. 'I tell you, we are risking the wrath of you know who with our actions...' Another purple-robed figure scowled at the first and asks in a growling tone, 'Are YOU going to be the one to tell OUR lord that we cannot do as he asks.' The other backed away, stark fear in his face. 'No...no.'

The scene faded away with a bright flash and I was within a comfortable parlour. Dusk, the Keeper of the Darkness noticed my presence and grinned mischievously and motioned me closer. He pointed to a gleaming block of obsidian which flickered with images from all across Sapience. 'My Lord often bleases me with visions of things that may come. I see that He has chosen in His wisdom to do the same for you. Look then."

Soon I found myself in the Shamtota Hills, which I recognized from my travels. Everywhere around me could be heard the sound of some awful din in regular seeming intervals. Suddenly I realized that the rhythm of the sounds had a definite pattern, almost like...like a heartbeat. Gulping, I turned to face something my intuitive senses had already found, a pulsing heart about ten feet high, gleaming redly and pulsing with magical energy.

The cultists from my first experience gyrated around the heart in a frenzied dance, muttering in some arcane language and occasionally pressing some object against the heart which soon disappeared with a wet *plopping* sound. I realized as I stepped closer that the purple-garbed man is stuffing some animal into the heart which pulsed briefly as the corpse was drawn inward. I stepped forward, my instincts demanding that I did so, knowing that if the heart were fed that the coming of the Lord of Death would be hastened. 'No, child, you are here to observe."

The Cultists began to chant more loudly and the pulsebeats of the heart grew stronger and faster in length. Suddenly, there was a fierce explosion and my vision was blinded. I heard the scream of Belladona far to the north and the howls of Zsarachnor within Azdun, as the coming of Death forced the lord and the lady of the undead to embrace the final death, while the Lord of Death awakened from His slumber. As the undead were slain one by one and the screams of their tortured souls echoed across the land, my vision cleared for a moment allowing me to catch a glimpse of a face, shadowy, with softly glowing crimson eyes.

Mistral, the Shadow Matrix

Penned by my hand on the 15th of Ero, in the year 241 AF.