The melding High Lord of Raj Tingara and the leader of the Akari were as different as two men could be. Moragon was tall, tanned and broad, with a shaved head and an arm of metal covered in silver runes. He wore a leather jerkin on his otherwise bare chest and tight-fitting black trousers with heavy brown boots. The yellow tint of his eyes gave him a feverish look, and the servant who topped up his mug with the oily black elixir looked fearful.

Dain Barden was taller even than Moragon, the top of his head nearly touching the roof of the command tent as he paced. His muscled legs stamped heavily on the ground and he occasionally looked at the war hammer at his belt as if wanting to use it on someone. Silver fox fur covered his shoulders and his leather armour had been bleached to a deathly near-white. His lips were turned down in a scowl and his brow furrowed in cruel lines to his eyes.

"We want to crush them, completely and overwhelmingly," Moragon said.

"And I keep telling you, we don't have the essence for such a long engagement. We're losing draugar daily due to rot and depletion," Dain Barden said. "You can't do it without us, no matter what you think. Their army is too large."

"Then, Dain Barden, what do you suggest?"

"We have to make this first engagement decisive, yet at the same time conserve our strength until the next carts of essence arrive from Tingara. We're fielding so many draugar, and spread so thinly, that if it weren't for the supplies coming from the Primate we would have headed back to the north long ago."

"Why don't you?" Moragon asked.

"The man you serve gave us a promise. We intend to make sure he fulfils that promise, and as long as he keeps the essence coming, we'll be able to make sure he does. As he strengthens our numbers to fight these rebels, he also gives us more draugar to make sure he fulfils his end of the bargain. We want this relic of the Evermen."

Moragon shrugged. "You can have it, for all I care. My task is to defeat our enemies."

"…And bring the world under one rule. Yes, I've heard the speeches."

"You don't think it's possible?" Moragon asked.

"I think it's possible. But is the Primate the man to do it? Are you?"

"We have the essence," Moragon said.

"You do. Using the techniques we gave you. I find myself wondering how you manage to glean so much, where we ourselves struggle to accumulate just a small percentage of what the Primate sends us. I've heard rumours, Moragon. They say you aren't just extracting the essence from your dead. They say that when you need more bodies you just go and kill yourselves some more."

"Rumours," Moragon said. "It's war. There's never a shortage of bodies."

"We'll see," Dain Barden said.