Four days before the Black Mausoleum
The dragon soared high above the Raksheh. Others of its kind came and went. Some came to ask it about the half-made sky-home. Others went to see it for themselves. It had moved.
They are returning, Black Scar of Sorrow Upon the Earth.
The seals are broken.
The Black Moon and then the end.
It mused on those things and shared them with any who would listen.
A thing that speaks of the stars. And something other.
The sky-home had become a thing of interest. Dragons would come from across the realms to see it. Curiosity would bring them. A sorcerer who carried a touch of the broken god. Magic of glass and gold that made lightning. Amusing diversions. The dragon had felt other things there too.
They are here! The makers. The silver ones. The time would come for a reckoning and it would be soon, but the dragon would not be there, not on the sky-home.
It flew in lazy circles, a thousand miles, spiralling towards the Aardish Caves. It could feel the presence there. Something was waiting.
It would not wait alone.
Little ones were moving. Swarming along the river. It felt their thoughts, now and then, as it peered with its seventh sense through the blanket of branches and leaves. They thought they were safe.
They were wrong.
It is said that when Vishmir visited the Moonlight Garden, he observed that a dark reflection of the garden structures could be clearly seen in the waters of the Yamuna, and in a moment of divine clarity he understood that this was the Black Mausoleum of the Silver King. He became obsessed with the caves and spent many days participating in their exploration during the early years after his victory.
In the seventh year of Vishmir’s reign exploration of the caves ceased following an unexplained disaster that claimed the lives of most of those working at the site. Those nearby on the bluffs overlooking the caves reported that the ground shook and even the dragons resting nearby seemed disturbed. Upon hearing the news, Vishmir visited at once; on his return, he immediately issued a decree that the caves were a forbidden place under the guardianship of the King of Furymouth. In the later years of his reign, despite his own edict, Vishmir returned once more in great secrecy to build a mausoleum of his own. Even now the exact location of Vishmir’s tomb remains a mystery.
The Aardish Caves are remote and hard to reach without a dragon. The caves remain under the watchful eye of King Tyan of Furymouth. Despite Vishmir’s fascination, no evidence has ever been found to indicate there has ever been any connection between the Aardish Caves and the Silver King.
Bellepheros’ Journal of the Realms, 2nd year of Speaker Hyram