I can't remember where I watched it, but many years ago, I saw a clip of Ronald Reagan during the height of the Cold War with Russia.
He said something like (paraphrased):
"I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."
Oh, how very true.
This has obviously only fuelled UFO conspiracies for decades (a topic I firmly reject as being a conspiracy, but anyhoo…), however, aliens aren’t what we are getting into today.
For me, what this quote highlights is a truth we tend to forget:
Enemies are only our enemies until a greater one shows up.
– D.J.J. Watson
Imagine how quickly the war in Ukraine or Gaza would stop if, say, a comet were earth-bound and due to hit us in less than 24 hours.
It would be instantaneous!
Guns would drop quicker than a man’s trousers at a brothel…
Soldiers would race back home to their families…
Governments would issue hapless safety protocols all while resigned citizens dust off their whiskey decanters for perhaps the last time.
Such is the truth. Such is life.
Just a shame there is no “common enemy” for our world to unite under that could cease the bloodshed we see across the globe.
But as they say in Mexico…
Hey ho.
Luckily, The Divided Region IS in the blessed (and equally cursed) position to unite as one against a common foe, but there’s a problem. A massive one at that. You see, Elron and Vlencia have been going at it for hundreds and hundreds of years for reasons only readers of the series will know.
Only once in their long, bloody history did they lift the swords from each other’s throats to rally together.
That was 1,000 years before Exiled.
And it was entirely because of a certain dark lord.
A dark lord who died in The Great Battle.
A dark lord who was then sealed in a tomb and buried beneath the ashen, mountainous land of Kaudon, from which he spawned.
A dark lord whose basin has not observed a death march or birdsong since.
UNTIL NOW, THAT IS.
The problem is, Elron has already been stung by Vlencia’s betrayal once, so uniting against this common enemy is not only unlikely, but downright impossible — especially for the new king of Vlencia who has heaped so much shame upon their northern neighbours.
What’s that I hear?
You want to know… what happens?
You want to discover if… Elron will listen?
You want to find out what… the dark lord could unleash?
Well, my keen adventurer, the answers to all three of these questions are found in Book #5, The Great Betrayal. But if you haven’t read the series yet, you’ll have to start with Exiled, which you can easily do by going here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/Exiled
DJJW