It was high summer and the heat was unbearable. Mortanius sweated like a pig under his dark red robe, and he assumed Moebius was equally uncomfortable, although he knew his friend would never admit it. In public, Moebius worked to maintain a detached and mysterious demeanor, rarely letting his feelings show. Although he was a few years younger than Mortanius, his thin, frail frame and bald head made him appear older, and when he walked, he used his magic staff almost like a cane to further give off an image of infirmity. It was all an act, though.

At the moment, they were both riding in a cart down a winding road toward an isolated village called Mirkwater, a days' ride east of the Pillars. Marching on each side of the cart was a squad of soldiers wearing stiff leather armor dyed red. They carried swords and maces, but also had long wooden lances and spears. They were the military arm of the Sarafan.

An unexpected consequence of their rebellion against the vampires was the growth of a competing cult that viewed the vampires as living deities. While it was true that many people on Nosgoth feared and hated the vampires, it was equally true that others believed the vampires were holy figures to be respected and even worshiped. The death of the vampire Guardians ignited a backlash that Mortanius had not anticipated. He and Moebius were deemed traitors and heretics, and a sizable minority of humans actively opposed their control of the Pillars.

The leader of this new faction was none other than Vorador, the first human to be turned into a half-breed. He gathered other half-breeds and they initiated a small rebellion of their own, fighting against what they viewed as a campaign of murder and oppression. These acts of resistance only motivated the Sarafan, led by Moebius, to crack down on the half-breeds. Within a few years, the fighting became so bad that it was an almost constant threat. Hence, the armed guards protecting them as they traveled down the road.

Mortanius did his best to stay out of it. He had long since abandoned any position of leadership in the Sarafan, and mainly focused on preparing for the new Guardians and continuing his own private lines of research. He delved into vampire records, trying to solve the many mysteries that still remained, and worked to advance his knowledge of his own powers and limitations. He also worked to know as much as possible about the other Guardians, in order to better train and mentor the new Guardians when they came of age.

Finding the new Guardians was a considerable challenge. Soon after the rebellion, they sent word all across Nosgoth to keep track of any children who were born at around the same time. However, tragically, some of those children died in childhood from accidents or disease, and it was not always possible to track down different children who were born at the same time the others passed away. And to make matters more complicated, they saw nothing special about any of the infants they examined in the months after the rebellion, leading Moebius to speculate that a link to the Pillars did not truly take hold until the child was well past infancy.

Worse possibilities existed. What if Mortanius and Moebius were simply incapable of recognizing the new Guardians at all? Maybe it was something only a vampire could see? Maybe the vampires had lied about it and simply chosen children at random, although Mortanius doubted that. If they could have chosen whatever child they wanted, they would never have chosen Moebius.

But the longer it took to find a new Guardian, the more Mortanius and Moebius began to worry. What if they couldn't find them? They debated performing the ritual on a random child, or even an adult, just to see what would happen. They had been searching for more than ten years, and they had not discovered any of the new Guardians.

Until now, that is. In his travels a few weeks prior, Mortanius spotted a young girl in the village of Mirkwater. She would have been indistinguishable from thousands of other dirty blonde village children all over Nosgoth, but when Mortanius looked at her, he saw a glowing blue aura, and he knew instinctively that she was one of the children they had been looking for. The Sarafan quietly kept an eye on her until a special trip could be arranged. They kept her existence a secret out of fear that the half-breeds led by Vorador might try to make a move against her.

They rode into Mirkwater with as little fanfare as possible. The Sarafan soldiers quickly set up positions around the village as Mortanius and Moebius climbed down from the cart and walked toward the house where the girl and her family lived.

"You're certain?" Moebius askd for the hundredth time.

"When you see her, you'll know."

"I'm actually nervous to meet her. Can you believe that?"

"Just think, she's only the first," Mortanius said. "We have six more to find."

By the time they reached the girl's dwelling, a few dozen villagers had come out to see what was going on. The Sarafan had already informed Moebius that there were no known half-breed sympathizers in Mirkwater, so they didn't expect any trouble. But the soldiers stood on guard, ready to fight if anyone tried to interfere.

A middle-aged woman walked out in front of the house, dressed in a shabby gray dress, her dingy blonde hair tied with a strip of brown cloth. She carried an infant in her arms and looked fearfully at all the people surrounding her house.

"What's going on out here?" she asked.

Moebius put on his most reassuring smile. "It's all right, my dear. Everything is fine, I promise."

"Who … who are you?"

Mortanius answered. "My name is Mortanius and this is Moebius. We are the Guardians of the Pillars. We'd like to talk to you about your family."

"My husband isn't … he isn't here," the woman said, staring at them with wide eyes. "He's in the fields right now." The baby in her arms, perhaps picking up on his mother's fear, began to cry and she tried to shush him unsuccessfully.

"We can wait for him if you like," Moebius said. "You have an older daughter, is that right? About eight or nine years old?"

"My daughter? Yes, she's ..."

A girl appeared in the doorway of the family's house. She had shoulder-length blonde hair and large blue eyes that glared suspiciously at the strangers in the front yard. "Momma? What's going on?" she asked as she gripped the edge of the doorway. The hem of her simple brown dress was frayed and dirty.

"Oh, my," Moebius breathed.

A beautiful blue halo that only Mortanius and Moebius could see hovered around the girl's body, sparkling like gemstone dust. It was undeniable. The girl was a Guardian.

Mortanius knelt down on one knee and held out his hand. "It's okay, child. Come here, I'd like to talk to you."

"Momma?"

"Come on out, honey" her mother said nervously, trying to muffle the cries of the baby in her arms. "These men are very important people."

The girl hesitantly walked out. Everyone in the entire village seemed to be there, all of them looking at her. All the villagers saw was a plain-looking child, but Mortanius saw something much more than that. He realized that the shimmering blue aura was the same color as the symbol on the Pillar of Balance. She was the Balance Guardian, the one born to take the place of Aleph.

"What's going on?" she asked sullenly, glancing around at all the spectators.

Mortanius smiled. "You're a very special little girl, do you know that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean there's only a few people like you in the whole world. I'm one of them. My name is Mortanius and that other man over there is named Moebius. We've come all the way from the Pillars to meet you."

The girl stared at him, utterly fearless. "Why?" she asked.

Her mother stared in shock and then spun her head around to gape at Moebius, who leaned on his staff with a blissful smile on his usually-stern face. "What do you … what do you mean?" her mother stuttered. "What do you mean, special? She can't be … you can't mean ..."

"Do you know what the Pillars are?" Mortanius asked, ignoring the girl's mother as she babbled behind him. "Have you ever heard of the Guardians of the Pillars?"

"Sure, I guess so."

"Well, I'm one of the Guardians, and you're one of the Guardians too."

"Oh!" the girl's mother cried out, and a few other villagers had to run over to help her before she fainted. One of them took the crying baby and tried to calm her down. People started whispering and murmuring to each other, pointing at the child in excited tones. The Sarafan soldiers kept the villagers from coming forward, and thankfully none of them tried to. Everyone seemed thrilled and surprised, but Mortanius didn't notice, because he wasn't looking at them. At the moment, he only had eyes for the person in front of him.

"How would you like to come to the Pillars with us?" he asked.

The girl thought about it. "Can my momma and poppa come too?"

"Of course they can. Everyone is welcome. We'll have a big feast and a celebration just for you."

"Because I'm a Guardian person? How do you know that's what I am?"

"Trust me, I can tell."

"Okay," she said, but she didn't sound like she believed him. Mortanius remembered back to the day that the vampires came for him. He had been much like this girl, respectful but stubborn, decisive and opinionated. He could tell right away that this child was going to want answers, and he could only hope that he had the answers to give her.

"What's you name?" he asked.

She crossed her thin arms and stared at him with penetrating blue eyes. "My name's Ellendra."

"Well, Ellendra, it's very nice to finally meet you."

They performed the Pillar ceremony in the middle of the day with a crowd of over two-hundred people there to witness it. They cleaned Ellendra up and dressed her in a lovely blue tunic with the vampiric rune for Balance on the front. They put her hands against the Pillar with her parents by her side and declared that she was officially the new Guardian of Balance. When it was done, everyone cheered and threw flowers into the air to commemorate the occasion. The first Guardian discovered since the rebellion deserved a huge celebration, and Ellendra certainly received one.

By contrast, the vampires performed their ceremonies in the dead of night, with no witnesses except the other Guardians. They claimed the ritual was a sacred event, but they treated it like some kind of shameful secret. Making a human into a Guardian was something done under the cover of darkness. Mortanius was determined to make their own ceremony into something to be proud of, something everyone in Nosgoth could take part in. If Vorador himself had chosen to attend the ceremony, Mortanius would have let him.

There was some concern about a possible attack by the half-breeds or even the remaining vampires, but even Moebius thought it was unlikely that they would try to interrupt the ritual for a new Guardian. The Pillars were a holy site for all of them. Stopping the ceremony, or trying to harm or abduct Ellendra, would accomplish nothing. Vorador and his kin chose to stay away, but Mortanius was certain that some of the spectators in the crowd would eventually get news to them.

Ellendra and her family would spend the night at the Home of the Guardians, and in the morning she would touch the Pillars once more for the second half of the ritual. Mortanius had no idea what she would experience, but it would be nothing like what he or Moebius had experienced when they began to feel their powers. What exactly did the Balance Guardian have control over? Aleph, the previous Guardian, had never spoken about his powers, so Mortanius could only guess at them.

When the sun set and cast the Pillars in shadow, the celebration eventually died down and the crowd dispersed. The Home of the Guardians was still packed with people continuing the festivities, but Moebius was more than capable of being in charge, so Mortanius took a moment to leave the building and get some fresh air.

It was dark outside now, the moon obscured by clouds. Mortanius walked silently out to the Pillars, not needing much light to see where he was going. Even in pitch darkness, the Pillars seemed to glow with a faint light all their own as they rose to the top of the sky. Mortanius stepped up to the Pillar of Death and brushed his fingers across its cold surface.

Death and Time, and now Balance. Six more Pillars remained: Dimension, Energy, Nature, States, Mind, and Conflict. Six more Guardians to find. Now that they knew they could recognize a Guardian when they saw one, Mortanius felt a weight slide off his shoulders. It might take a few more years to track down the remaining Guardians, but they would be found. Mortanius couldn't help but wonder what the others would be like.

He turned when he heard a familiar sound, although one he had not heard in years. A rush of air overhead, the ruffle of wings, and the soft thump of feet landing on soft dirt.

"Hello, Janos," Mortanius said. "It's been a long time."

The vampire straightened and folded his wings behind him. He regarded Mortanius carefully and then sighed when he looked up at the Pillars, his expression softening.

"Yes," Janos said, his eyes skyward. "A long time."

"You took a risk coming here."

"So did you," Janos replied evenly. "Out here in the open, all by yourself, without your guards. I could kill you if I wanted to."

"You could. But if you murdered a Guardian, that would make you as bad as me."

Janos looked around, as if to assure himself that the Sarafan warriors weren't coming up behind him. There was no one around, even though the Sarafan usually did patrol the Pillars on most nights. For the moment, the two of them were completely alone. In the distance, Mortanius could see lights flickering from the Home of the Guardians.

"You should have seen the ceremony," he said. "It was very nice. I couldn't remember all the words, so I improvised a little bit."

"And the new Balance Guardian?"

"Her name is Ellendra. She's nine years old, but she's very smart and mature for her age. I think she'll grow into a very fine Guardian."

"That's good," Janos said. "I know where two of the other Guardians are."

Mortanius felt his breath catch in his lungs, but he forced himself to look away and then waved his hand dismissively. "We don't need your help to find the others."

"I know you don't. I wasn't offering my help."

"Then what? Bragging that you found them before we did?"

"I could tell Vorador where they are. I suspect he would be very interested in getting his hands on them before you do."

Mortanius let the words hang in the air between them. "Is that a threat?" he asked after several tense moments. "Are you going to let Vorador turn a child into a half-breed like him? Is that how desperate you've become? Do you think it will make a difference?"

"The Pillars must remain in vampire hands," Janos said, as if that was all the explanation he needed. "We can keep the children from you, turn them when they become adults. Vorador has places to hide. You'll never find them if he doesn't want you to."

"They aren't truly Guardians until they touch the Pillars and inherit their powers," Mortanius replied. "All you'll accomplish is preventing the Pillar from having a Guardian at all."

"Then we'll wait until after the ceremony. You have plenty of soldiers, Mortanius, so maybe you think you can keep them safe. But your soldiers won't be enough if Vorador brings all his forces to bear, plus myself and the other true vampires."

"So you'll kidnap the Guardians now?" Mortanius said, almost amazed at the audacity of it. "You'll steal children away from their families and force them to become half-breeds? If you or Vorador try anything like that, you'll unite the entire human race against you."

"We have allies, lots of them."

"I know you do. But your allies believe that the vampires are a noble and honorable race. They think Moebius and I overthrew you to gain control of the Pillars for ourselves. If you kidnap the Guardians and turn them by force, you'll prove that we were right all along. I don't doubt that Vorador has the resources to challenge us, but I promise you that if every human on Nosgoth is united against you, then even Vorador won't be able to hide. Are you really willing to risk all that?"

"The Pillars must remain in vampire hands," Janos said insistently.

"You already said that," Mortanius snapped, suddenly angry. "That's what you always say. That's what Aleph said. The Pillars must stay in vampire hands. But why? Why don't you just tell us why?"

"We were going to, when you were turned –"

"That's a lie and you know it. Lora was a half-breed for over a hundred years and she still didn't know anything about the Pillars."

"Lora was … problematic," Janos said lamely. "She resisted our teachings. She fought against us."

"Moebius and I fought against you too. Would we have been kept in the dark for over a century? I bet you didn't even tell Romanen the truth."

"We told him some of it."

"Some of it?"

"We needed to make sure he was ready to understand it all."

"Spare me your excuses," Mortanius spat. "You and your damned secrets. You always had to keep the truth hidden and lord your knowledge over the rest of us. The truth can't be so shocking that human beings can't be trusted with it."

Janos shook his head in defeat. "You'll never understand. How could you understand?"

"Stop treating us like stupid animals! If you'd been honest with us from the beginning, then maybe Moebius and I wouldn't have rebelled against you in the first place. Just tell me, Janos. It's far too late for you to keep your secrets anymore. The Pillars belong to the human race now."

Janos bared his fangs in anger, the first time Mortanius had ever seen him do so. "The Pillars belong to the vampires!" he shouted in a fury. "We created the Pillars! We sacrificed our very mortality for them! Humans were living in caves and wearing animal skins when the Pillars were built! The vampire civilization has lasted for a hundred thousand years!"

"And now it's over," Mortanius said. "How many of your kind are even left on Nosgoth? One hundred? Less than that? Pretty soon the vampires will be extinct, and humans will inherit the Pillars anyway. Whatever secrets you're determined to keep are completely meaningless now."

Janos glared at him. "The Pillars are entwined with the fate of Nosgoth itself. They are a gateway, and a lock upon that gateway. They are more powerful and more important than you could ever understand. There are things in this universe that human beings simply cannot grasp."

"Keep telling yourself that," Mortanius said. "I prefer to believe otherwise. If you won't tell me the truth, then I'll figure it out myself. I have access to all your records, as limited as they are. But I'll learn the truth."

"Maybe it would be better if you didn't. The truth might destroy you. But I promise that there will come a time when you'll regret what you have done."

"I'm not the one who started this. I gave you a choice. If you had let Moebius and I stay human, then the rebellion would never have happened. But that's right, the Pillars have to remain in vampire hands? Well, they aren't in vampire hands anymore. All of the Guardians are human beings now, and nothing you can do will ever change that."

Janos glared at him and then looked away, his clawed fists clenched. He let out a long breath and regained his composure. "Where did we go wrong with you, Mortanius? When you first became a Guardian, I thought that the Pillars had chosen wisely. Moebius was a problem from the very beginning. We should never have let you and him become so close. He was a bad influence on you."

"Don't blame Moebius for what I've done. I promised you when I was still a child that I would never let you turn me into a half-breed. I was just keeping my promise."

"You had such potential," Janos said sadly. "I truly believed that you would realize the error of your ways and submit to the ritual. And once you became one of us, you would realize how important it was that vampires control the Pillars."

"You were wrong."

"Yes, I was wrong. But even so, I never imagined that you would … that you would ever betray us. That you would seek to kill us."

"You should have," Mortanius said. "After all, I'm the Guardian of Death."