A/N: Oh, Camp NaNo! If it weren't for you I may have never started writing on this fic again. :) And of course that Necromancer character pack and the epic new patch 2.6.0! xD
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter Nine...The Love That Finds Me
"A nephalem trapped the Prime Evil in the Black Soulstone. This is the perfect moment to end the Eternal Conflict. The demons are easy prey – but the humans must be eliminated before they grow too strong. The soulstone is the perfect weapon. The Eternal Conflict will end." -Malthael, The Paths of Wisdom
I had not been at the Pools long before I felt a disturbance in the air of the room though it felt like hours.
I had set my weary body down to rest at the edge of one of the pools, my hand tracing lightly over the marble where Malthael and I had once lain together. To my amazement, the stone there was warm as if it too held memory of that day. Our one perfect day.
What would it take for things to go back to the way they were then? Maybe nothing. Maybe only death could reset the balance now. Ironic, that.
I felt him the moment he materialized into the room, the place that had once been his sanctuary. The Pools began to ring and sing in perfect harmony like a glass when one runs a finger over the lip. It was beautiful and yet somehow mournful all at once. For a long instant, neither of us said anything and I did not turn from my observation of the marble to look at him.
"Do you remember when you brought me here? And we made love in this exact spot?"
"I do." Malthael's voice came from behind me.
Once I heard the rumbling cadence, the urge to turn and see him for myself was more than my resolve could bear. He was as perfect as ever in my eyes. As tall and regal, as deadly and as protective as he always had been. Even now, after everything he had done and all of the horrors he had committed, I wanted him with a strength that had not lessened over our time apart. My body warmed at the sight of him and at the memory of what had occurred when last we had been in this sanctified place.
My thoughts must have been plain for him to see because I could feel an answering pulse in his own aura. Malthael came to me in a quick glide, kneeling at my side. His gauntleted hands hovered just over my skin as if he were afraid that his touch would now be unwanted and unwelcome. The sight of him, here with me, brought Ithereal's vague words back to the front of my mind.
'I think that the Arch could sense the Master of Death in the Void and, knowing that any Aspect of Death would inevitably be bound to you, ensured it. Malthael and your union was decided long before you came to Sanctuary, I believe, and the Arch sought to bring you here for a purpose: to stand at my brother's side and to bring this conflict to an end at last.'
I remembered those words and what Ithereal had done became suddenly too clear.
In this place, of all places, Malthael had been connected to the Pools just as Tyrael was connected to El'druin. His very being resonated with Chalad'ar and its presence here. He knew the moment that I had stepped foot in this place. His soul would have sang with it as surely as the song at our back was singing with my need.
'Don't you see, Harry? I just have.'
He helped in the only ay he knew how, in the only way he thought would make any real difference: By uniting me with my beloved. By seeing me returned to Malthael's side.
With that loneliness and that overwhelming feeling of simply missing him in my life, I couldn't even find it in myself to be angry about the deception.
"Master..." His voice was almost a rasping moan, a pleading sort of question. Did I still love him? Was he still wanted? Could I ever still love him after working with his enemies?
When I reached out for him, there was no hesitation in him as he scooped me into his arms like a bride.
When he disappeared with me in his hands, I welcomed it with open arms.
Ithereal had been right about one thing. I was exactly where I was meant to be.
Damn him.
~o~
Tyrael observed the sigil burned into the very cobblestone of the ground with an expression of grim anger on his dark features. Suna stood nearby as her hounds sniffed and snarled at the surrounding area, searching and failing to find any indication of Harry's presence for further tracking. For all intents and purposes, he had been walking down the street one moment and then the next, he had simply vanished, leaving behind no trace of himself save for this strange sigil that had been scoured and burned into the very stone of the street itself. There was a familiar magic in the mark itself but the witchdoctor had wanted Tyrael to confirm it for himself before she came to her final conclusion.
"This is a Heavenly warding, indeed, my friend. An Angel left this behind and no low level Angel either. I can assure you that it was not done by one of Malthael's Reapers either. It holds no taste of death in its magic, only light."
An Angel? And one unconnected with the Aspect of Death? What would an Angel want to do with Harry? Perhaps, they believed that he could lead them to Malthael, she thought with a dark curiosity. Surely they wouldn't hurt the youthful sorcerer. Right? No. The spirits whispered to her from across the Void. No, the said. The Angels did not wish harm on Harry. They were sure of that, at least.
"But what is the mark for, Tyrael? Surely Harry could not make such a ward himself."
The Aspect of Justice's brow furrowed deeply and it sent a spark of anxiousness coursing through her belly like cold water.
"The mark was once used for Demons that the Council sought to capture and interrogate. It is for entrapment...and transportation."
Harry had been stolen from right out from under their noses. Tyrael could not have suspected that his earlier reassurances, his confession to Harry, would be the last time he saw his brother's beloved until the very end.
~o~
Our reuniting was as bittersweet as a rainbow during a hurricane. We had arrived back in Pandemonium with a soundless flash of mist-like wings. The bed that I had first been placed on when I have been brought to Sanctuary nearly forty years ago met my back as Malthael placed me down with the loving care of someone who's world revolved around my simple existence. His hands found their way into my long, dark hair and tugged me as close to him as I could be while still wearing a physical form. It felt so good, so real. Being held up against the Angel I loved most was the most real I had felt in many months. I felt solid at his side for the first time since we had parted. Surely there was nothing more right than laying against my beloved.
Not for the first time, I cursed my mortal shell. My lips ached to kiss him, to be united together in a way that we never could be. Even as imperfect as it was, being with Malthael felt like coming home. At long last. Never before had I felt such pain as being separated from him. The separation was over...but the struggle was only just beginning.
Yet as I cried out beneath him, my sweat-soaked form giving in to his ministrations, body and soul, the awareness of duty and of responsibility was as far from my thoughts as they possibly cold have been. All I knew in those heated moments of pleasure was how deeply and irrevocably my soul was tied to Malthael's. All I knew was how much I loved him in spite of his flaws.
Even as long a time as my body had traversed the Void, even as lonely as it had been, if it meant never again being parted from my Archangel, then I would wander the Void for all of eternity just to keep him by my side.
The knowledge made me weep even as I cried out my completion to the stones and empty space of Pandemonium Fortress.
A/N: SO I know this one was short but it's for a reason. The next chapter is the beginning of the end, the start of the last arch of this story. Admittedly, it has been a lot shorter than I originally planned for but I cut out a lot of the filler arcs like the hunt for Adria. I DO have another Diablo/HP story in the works though it likely won't have a pairing and it will take place during Diablo 2, not 3. However, this fic is far from over yet! Unlike the games, this story is not going to end with the big "final battle" sequence!