Dusk – Ch. I – Marion and Kaitar
A/N – This is a Diablo story based in an alternative universe. In this version of the Diablo universe all three brother reside in hell trying to maintain order among their minions. This would be before the lesser evils overthrew them and sent them to earth where they then had to be bound in soulstones. Set before the first game, may led to be a prequel to the first game in later chapters, I'm still undecided on this atm! Characters involved are the prime evils, Tyrael, and original characters.
Disclaimer – I didn't think up the Diablo universe, obviously! As the story goes on more disclaimer will be added, but doing it now would be a spoiler I think.
The thing I miss most is a cool breeze. I miss it even more than the scent of a salt marsh or the sound of the bottomless ocean. The pain of missing these things have waned over the centuries. I begin to wonder if what I remember as the feeling of a summer eve breeze is really what it feels like. Regardless of where a soul ends up, you have countless hours to ponder your death. Often many look back with regret. Those in hell lament their choices in life, if they survive long enough to afford leisurely moments. Although dead, we can still be destroyed, but after hell all that awaits is nothingness. My continued existence I credit to turns of luck. Luck that caused Kaitar to pledge his loyalty, luck that gave me the ability to learn the demon chains, and luck that brought me Diablo's protection. If in my mortal life I had been told it was my fate to stand in the presence of angels and the lord of terror I would have thought the person daft in the head.
I was a good girl in life. I went to church every Sunday, respected my elders, confessed my sins, while shouldering the burden of my family. Kaitarsaid I did not deserve my fate, that it was a great injustice thrust upon me. I suppose as an angel of justice he would be a good authority on the subject. However there was no denying that I was heavy with sin on the day of my death. But I accepted this, I knew when I sold my body that I was damning my self to hell. That didn't matter to me, as long as I saved my mother and brother the same kinds of hardship I willing gave myself to sin for years. It's funny, as time in hell marched on you forget things. Although my memories of a breeze, or what I interrupted as a breeze, the names of my mother and brother are lost to me. Sometimes I sit and think, just trying to remember but to no use. Diablo told me I looked stupid and weak when I did so, that I should will to forget my mortal living. One of my clearest memories of life is my death. Sometimes I wish I could do as Diablo suggests and will it away, but other times a feeling I can't describes wishes for me to never forget.
It was freshly snowing on the night of my death. I was wrapped up in my mothers old shall standing outside one of the cities taverns. I wore my long red hair down that night as extra protection from the night's chill. The warmth and the laughter of the patrons inside drifted out to me as I stood waiting for an offer. My memories are strange, I don't remember his face, or his voice, but what I do remember about my killer was his scent. It was a pleasant musk, a far cry from the smell of sweat and beer most men who bought me had. He bought my body that night but he took my life instead. My whole body began to go limp as my blood gushed from my neck and spurting onto the snow, staining it a bright red. The intense burn from my wound faded as I became cold and my life left me. The last thought I had were that of sadness. Not for the lose of my life but for my brother and mother left behind. I think that I shed some tears, but I have no memory or feeling of this. A drunkard found my body three hours later. The wound on my neck is what killed me but that didn't stop my killer from mutilating my body after I left it. Kaitar told me the sight of my body drove my mother to the brink. Three weeks later she died. When he discovered this he looked for my brother but could not find him. Much like Hell, the city has a way of swallowing life and making people disappear. I feel in my heart that he is dead. I'm comforted by the fact that they died with pure souls for I have never encountered either here in hell.
"Why is it always here that I find you?"
She didn't need to look, only one being would track her down to this place, but Marion glanced behind her all the same. Kaitar slowly approached her, his large feather seeming to drift behind him. They were large and tapered to points, three sprouting from either side of him. Marion believed an angels ability to fly with such appendages was due to some divine grace. Unlike his other brothers, who choose not to set foot on solid ground, Kaitar always walked.
"You should not be here Kaitar," Marion replied, her eyes again looking forward. She sat on the edge of a large cliff that served to mark the boundaries of Diablo's territory and the Plains of despair, the land closest to the angel's outpost. The two factions gave each other a wide birth. The barren land spread out as far as one could see, a large expanse of red earth with craghly spires strewn throughout. In the distance the last bastion of heaven could be glimpsed. To have appeared behind her the angel must have accessed a nearby way point, a frustrating piece of magic. Mostly a frustration to the inhabitants of hell because they could not activate their transportation magic.
"Hmp, that's not much of an answer Mar," said the angel as he came to stand next to her. His voice had an almost chime like ring to it, like the sound of bells is the only way Marion could describe it.
"I'm serious, and you know why I come here."
"Have you felt your breeze yet?" Kaitar sat down next to the damned girl.
"...No," Marion paused and at her companions silence she said, "Why are you here?"
"Why are you so adept to avoid me and sending me away?"
"Answering a question with a question, now THAT'S not much of an answer," Marion remarked. Kaitar wore a deep hood that covered his face and darkness but she had the feeling he smirked like he used to do when they were in the mortal world. Marion sighed and let her self tip over to lean against Kaitar's arm. "I don't wish to send you away, I just want you to be safe from my companions and from your own. If he knew you were here again-"
"He knows, Tyrael knows where I am at all times, I am charged to be under his command. It his he who sent me to live as a human, where I befriended you. For him to punish me for upholding my promise to you is something he wouldn't do. Only once have I been reprimanded for something I need not tell you," Kaitar added ignoring her gaze and looking up at the expanse of dusk that surrounded them. Hell was stuck in a perpetual dusk that enclosed all like a stretched dusty red canvas painted with occasionally hues of orange or brown. "besides, your companions or comrades or fellow damned, whatever you call them at any participial time, never come to bother you here."
"Most of them are too afraid but I think not of you and the other angels so close at hand. It's something hard to explain to a divine being," Marion murmured against Kaitar's arm adding, "you still haven't answered me."
"I came here to see you of course, why else would I come to the damned city?" The unstable brick and mortar buildings of the city of the damn were packed tightly together behind the pair. Some were crumbling and others were nothing but piles of rocks. Lost souls of all kind inhabited the cursed city under the rule of Diablo. Even with the berth the dead gave to the boundary of the plains the noise and screams served as a permanent backdrop to Marion's and Kaitar's conversation.
"I gathered as much, I mean to say is there something you wanted or needed to say? I really don't think I require any checking up on. I've existed here too long for that," Marion replied. "I lose track of things being in hell for so many years, how long has it been? Surely you must know."
The air of a smile emitted from Kaitar. "I do but I think it would surely upset you to know the number of years."
Marion straightened up and with a rustle of fabric and soft chiming of chains got to her feet . "Always so frustrating you are, even when you played a human. No wonder your brothers keep your distance from you." Marion turned her back and began to walk back toward the city.
Kaitar stood as well. "You are the same as you ever were. You can fain anger but I know you too well to believe it's sincere. It has been many years since you first awoke here Marion and it does not matter how strong you believe you become I'll still be there."
Marion turned to respond only to see the angels feathers disappearing into a portal. "You are more like Tyreal then you'd like to admit," Marion murmured to herself. Feeling unsatisfied she made her way back toward Chaos Sanctuary.
This chapter is a bit slow I think, I just wanted to get some things introduced to begin with. I have a page of notes and character bios written to help me with my ideas. I'm really worried about my two original characters atm, and how they come off to people. I have one more main original character planned for future chapters. if anyone had any ideas or suggestions, please read and review or feel free to PM me or email me! Next chapter I plan on starting after marion's death and explaining how she came to be in the service of the lord of terror.