The creature loomed up into the shadows, the highest part of it concealed in the darkness of the high ceiling. There was no telling how large it really was. Its abhorrent form was mostly a grotesque, over-sized brain. A lattice remnant of the skull had been stretched into narrow connections; in between these brain bulged out, covered by a translucent membrane. From the membrane probed thin ropes of dendrites that hung down into one of the many suspended jars in the room. The jars glowed a faint blue, reflecting off the metal of the chains that held them in place. In each jar floated the remnants of another being, a brain and spinal cord with a number of sense organs that varied, perhaps with the type of being it had once been. These specimens had been masterfully dissected, with great lengths of their original nerve tissues intact. Between the jars hung feeding tubes, which cycled the cloudy nutrient liquid. The dendrites of the massive brain wrapped twice around the specimen remnants before the tip was lost within them.

Below the brain hung a small, atrophied form. It might have once been humanoid, but everything below the neck was shriveled and indistinct. The eyes were large globes, which rolled independently, seeming to search for something beyond the focus of the dim room in which they were contained. Below the mouth a set of bellows was attached with a mechanical pump. The body was too frail to speak on its own.

In walked the master demon. "Watcher, what do you see?"

"Many things m’lord. Along one path I know see your death."

"Is it likely to arise?"

"There are many paths, I cannot tell you which will be chosen, m'lord."

"Who is involved?"

"Your new pet, master. The guilt borne of worms will turn on you."

"That is something I’ve always known. It is his own lack of control over his emotions that binds him to me. I gave him power to release his thoughts, to make him wild. In that wildness he has lost his hold over himself."

"Aye, tis true that. You’ve thought of many things, but there is a seed of hope and love within him that will not be banished m’lord. He will turn on you, he has been waiting for the chance."

"It’s a shame to destroy him after he's become this useful."

"The paths suggest it will not be easy to destroy him m’lord. Direct attacks on him will lead to rage; some other paths could be the ruin of this domain, others the destruction of entire fields of your minions. He now conceals a new artifact from his last campaign which aids him in absorbing attacks and using that energy for his own."

"There is not a creature in this world that I can trust" the master demon said and paused, letting the timepath watcher sweat a bit over this, not to forget that it too was expendable.

"He must be removed then, the high council of sorcerers have been working on a powerful teleport spell but it has not been focused enough to be useful. He would be a prime new subject for them to lose in space-time. What say you of this path watcher?"

The great tangled mass of brains before him pulsed, the large brain making loud groans of churning within and the jars jerking and flashing slightly brighter. After a few minutes of thought an exhausted stillness passed over them. "It is hard to see my lord. The time and distance to which he will be removed is great and makes chances of anything likely. There is but one clear item along all the paths, should he ever wish to return to Shashnia, he will have to pass through the depths of hell voluntarily."

"Hmmm, then it is a possibility I will consider"

The large gilded door behind the master demon opened loudly and a high-ranking commander strode in confidently. The biomodifications on his torso breathed and rasped, tiny claws grasping outwards in search of prey. The commander dropped to his knee and spoke "Forgive me oh great master for this disturbance, but important news comes to my ears."

"I do not take lightly to disturbances in this chamber, speak now and hope it is sufficient to keep you."

"The outer rim of the fortress is under assault, by a single individual, the tormented wurmspawn. We have dispatched squadrons out to stop him but he is immeasurably strong, stronger than he ever was when we fought together."

The master demon looks back up at the watcher with a questioning look, "What say you of this watcher?"

The answer came quick, the consequences of the near present easy to see. "He wishes only to get your attention, m’lord. He will not strike against you yet. But the time grows near."

"And so also grows the time to start the seeds of his undoing. Is there anything to add to this report commander?"

"That is all, I wished for you to know as fast as possible since he began his assault closer than any foreign enemy could."

"Indeed."

The master demon gestured briefly and the commander snapped upright into a rigid and physically impossible posture. "You’ve carried out your duties to their extent."

The master demon began to walk out of the room and spoke without looking back. "Be tender with this one, he was a smart solider and his brain should serve you well."

The door closed as tiny tendrils of dissection descended upon the paralyzed commander.

Image credits:

Four eyed demon painting, used as proxy for the Master Demon=  Portrait of the Demon Guard - kolakis @ deviantart