Disclaimer: I do not own Diablo or any content thereof. All lore is either researched or assumed. All character names are of my own invention.

Chapter 10

'Do you have no soul at all?' said Rathi as she paced the interior of her prison.

Othar simply laughed. 'You should know that demons are infamous for having corrupt souls, little one.' He still had not reverted back to his purely human form, his monstrous body matching Rathi's movements around the circumference of the pentagram.

'You're not a complete demon,' Rathi said. 'You were human once, before becoming this…' She could not find the proper word to describe the twisted form that watched her.

The fiend grinned. 'Only half right. Yes, this mage, Othar, was human once, a very long time ago. These days he is not much more than a frail shell of a body. He gave his life up to follow the call of the Burning Hells. He gained power, influence. We knew he was too valuable to simply let die at the end of his long life. So now I'm here with him, giving him some borrowed time, just until our Lord Diablo is brought back from beyond the limbo to which he was banished. Then Othar will be released from his tormented continued existence and be allowed to die. Considering where he's headed, he should savour every moment left to him in this world.'

Rathi turned away. 'After all that, you'd just let him rot in Hell.'

'Naturally. Hell's rewards favour the living. The price comes at the end of your life. That's why we are so much more attractive than Heaven. Humans want their gratification while they are still alive to enjoy them. Why spend your whole life toiling and suffering while you try to remain pure enough to enter a place that may not even accept you? The High Heavens are a pointless goal. The archangels and their ilk call it eternal paradise, even though they don't realise what humans truly desire. They're greedy, lustful, envious and violent. Heaven cannot satisfy those instincts. Hell allows them to be satisfied while they're still alive to enjoy the satisfaction of fulfilling those instincts.'

'And in return you subject them to never-ending torture agony for the rest of eternity?'

'You'd be surprised what some humans are willing to risk to have what they want. And of course, we don't just hand out favours. There's always a price, for everything.'

Price. The word reverberated inside Rathi's head. Had the price of coming here been her mistress' life? Had the price of meeting Darkan been to die for nearly breaking the code of her Order? Was this all some trick of fate to punish her for attempting to twist her beliefs?

Rathi immediately banished the thought. A fatalist she may be, but did not believe fate would be so cruel as to subject her to such a punishment. If it was her fate to die for any transgressions, it would not be as a part of the summoning of a Prime Evil.

'Deep thoughts?' Othar asked with a snicker. 'You appear to have lost your voice, Mage-Slayer. Thinking about your dear lost mistress?'

Rathi steeled herself against his words. She would not believe his lies. Mistress Thelina was alive, and the words of a demon would not convince her otherwise.

'As a matter of fact I am,' Rathi returned, facing the demon again. 'I'm imagining the look on your face when she comes to cut out your throat.'

Othar snorted. 'Such a charmer you are. Your hope is lost on me. I do not fear ghosts.'

Rathi gave him a cocky smile. 'You shouldn't fear ghosts. You should fear my mistress.'

Othar's face twitched. 'Your denial of the truth was admirable at first, but now it's just pathetic. I have no more time to waste trying to convince you. The hour of the summoning is nearly upon us, and I must assemble my followers to prepare for the spell.' He fixed Rathi with a glare. 'You had best prepare yourself too, if you want even the slightest hope of living through this.'

'I suggest you be the one to worry about your life, demon,' Rathi said, matching his glare. 'If you aren't ready by the time my mistress gets here, there won't be any hope for you.'

The fiend snarled and turned away, disappearing out of the cave mouth into the snow. Rathi allowed herself to breath normally again. With Othar gone, even for a short time, she would have time to formulate a new plan.

Sitting down in the centre of the pentagram, Rathi cleared her mind and began to meditate. Expanding her thoughts to the circle of magical energies around the design that made up her prison, Rathi again sought for a weak spot. Frustratingly she found none. Othar had reinforced the spellwork; breaking out would be impossible.

Abandoning that train of thought, Rathi instead considered the summoning spell itself. If she could not escape, she might be able to disrupt it from within. The summoning would need her to focus the energies the mages would call upon, and concentrate them in a single point to allow a rip between worlds to form. If she did not focus them, the spell would not work and the mages would merely waste all their energy. Simple.

No, it's not, Rathi realised. By not concentrating the energy, it would run rampant, randomly. The resulting chaos would tear her apart, likely blow up the entire mountain, possibly even cause the earth to split. The local communities in the foothills of the mountain ranges would be in danger from earthquakes and landslides if that happened.

The only remaining option Rathi could see was to focus the energy, but in a different direction than the mages intended. Considering her position, the best choice would be up. The top of the mountain would be blown off, the cave and anything in it annihilated, but the energy would be sent into the sky, allowed to harmlessly dissipate without endangering anyone else. The mountains may have to endure a few more weeks of rain and sleet, but it was better than the alternative.

Rathi frowned inwardly. It was a shaky plan at best. Talented she may be, but she had never channelled such a large amount of energy before. Controlling it into the direction she wanted it to go would be easier said than done. In addition, she had only ever channelled her own inner energy, never any other kind. The principle appeared to be the same, or Othar would not have chosen her for this. On the other hand, it was not energy generated from within her, but magical energy; it was wild and untameable, never before wielded by one of the Viz-Jaq'taar.

Reflecting on her Order brought Rathi's ideas back to Thelina and the others. Rathi knew her plan would claim her life, which she was prepared to give up for the greater good, yet a part of her wished that she could see her mistress again. She knew such attachment was self-sabotaging for a member of the Viz-Jaq'taar, but Thelina had been the closest Rathi had had to an older sister or even a mother. The thought of not being able to even say goodbye forced the young Mage-Slayer to fight back tears.

Steel yourself. You will need all of your resolve for this task, and all who loved you will remember you for it. The words were her own, but in Rathi's mind, they were Thelina's.

The sound of footsteps on the cave floor opened Rathi's eyes to have them be greeted by the sight of Othar and several dozen mages dressed in intricate dark robes.

'It's time, little whelp,' the fiend growled.

Rathi stared him down wordlessly.

'Defiant to the end,' Othar snorted. 'And make no mistake, Mage-Slayer, this is most definitely the end for you.'

With a wave of his hand, Othar slowly raised Rathi off the floor, suspending her between the centre of the pentagram and the stalactite she had been bound to.

'Try not to move, it may be more than a little excruciating,' he warned her without any indication that he cared.

The compendium of mages that now filled the cave began to spread out, encircling the design. The hooded figures raised their hands to the cave ceiling and began to chant in a demonic tongue. The syllables were harsh and piercing; Rathi likened the effect of them on her ears to that of a sand maggot's ripping jaws attempting to tear into her skull.

Then she felt it: the unmistakeable feeling of a magical uprising. The magical fields that already permeated the cavern began to grow in intensity, the forces within them starting to become agitated, twitching and jumping as the power increased. Sparks flew through the air from the barrier surrounding the pentagram. Rathi felt the magic start to close in towards her like the jaws of a giant beast seeking to swallow her whole. As the energies came closer and closer, the more fearful Rathi became, and the more she wondered if she would be able to contain such power.

Before she could prepare herself for the inevitable, the magic enveloped her in a crushing wave, suffocating and overwhelming. Instinctively, she began to channel it through herself to prevent it from consuming her. The foreign energy was different from the energies she often called on from her own body. It felt unfamiliar, wrong. While her inner power was soothing and comforting, the magic was like fire and ice flowing through her veins. The sudden onrush was exhilarating and sickening at the same time, a heady feeling of euphoria vying against a wave of extreme nausea.

Desperately trying to pull out of the unstoppable tide, Rathi attempted to align her thoughts. Up! Send it up! she told herself fuzzily, but to no avail. The will of the mages focusing the energy towards the design on the floor was too much, compelling her to channel it in the same direction. If not for the constant concentration needed just to prevent herself from being shredded by the magic, Rathi would have despaired for her failure. She thought she could control something she had never encountered before, and while she knew it would be better for her to die in order to stop this from happening, Rathi desperately wanted to live, if for nothing else but the chance to rectify what would come about, no matter how unlikely it was she could do so.

Though the swirling scene before her Rathi could make out the design of the pentagram beginning to glow with renewed intensity. The middle of the giant glyph was growing dark, a deep swirling vortex of shadow.

And deep, deep inside the black bottomless pit that had opened up beneath her, Rathi could make out two glowing pinpricks of red light coming towards the surface.

Those two tiny motes of fire filled Rathi with more terror than any man, beast or demon numbering in thousands could ever create.

Brought out of her daze by the sudden fear, Rathi heard shouting. Othar was screaming and cursing, not in the demon language, but in Common. Intruders had entered the cavern. Piercing through the noise and confusion, Rathi heard a voice calling her name.

Darkan?