Many thanks for Ahlmal and Eirame for their efforts in translating these fics.
Bob – reread please, in this fic I have Dumbledore being wrong and Harry was naturally a parseltongue.
The Lady Reka – oh thank you for such a thoughtful review.
Narutopsykoz – the name Rahkesh doesn't have an origin, at least not intentionally. I was mixing letters for interesting sounds and came up with that.
Ffn notices – Daray and Silas were born vampires – they were changed as infants. Sorry if that confused you, I meant they had never really had a mortal life but for a few months.
Blackisback69 – you can see whatever you want. I wrote this fic so you can see whatever you feel like.
Kyle Law – Namach and Sharahak are NOT the same age. Namach is more than three thousand, Sharahak is quite a bit less.
RatherFabulous – I love you. Anyone who came make me laugh out loud reading their review is a living miracle. I bow to your sense of humor, if only I could get rid of Voldemort like that…
Zi ma gesto – thanks, apparently some people still need all that cleared up.
Toki Mirage - hey you're still around! I've been checking your fic every so often, thanks for the review, you always make me think.
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Yeah! Book 7 is out! In case anyone was still wondering - this fic WILL continue.
On a less happy note, I will be leaving for a few weeks in mid August. No internet. I'll post again before that, but then it might be a while.
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Chapter 14
There was a warm breeze blowing in from the open windows, stirring the sheer silk curtains. Rahkesh was staring at the jeweled Simurgs flying across the ceiling. The artist had been exceptionally thorough, the birds almost looked real. The sunlight poring in the windows like liquid gold was turning dusky and pink, it was evening again. Outside the sounds from the thick lush jungle that bordered the Nile were switching from day-active life forms to night-active ones.
Rahkesh turned to the white pillars long the walls that held up the ceiling. They were very much like the ones in Namach's rooms at Akren, but with opals placed into the stone in long tendril-like designs. The ceiling was plated in real gold and covered with displays of Simurgs done in real gemstones. The ancient vampire was wealthy almost beyond belief, and displayed that wealth in everything he owned. The couches were covered in the finest silks with real gold thread brocade on them. Across from the pillars long the walls more marble pillars separated the massive windows and had silver and sapphires built into ropes that entwined in symbols all over them. The floor mosaics were also precious gems, and the door handles were solid gold, silver, and amethysts, even the door hinges were silver. Namach was possibly the wealthiest being alive, surpassed only possibly by Cyala Ateres. It was just a little absurd and should have looked incredibly tacky and overdone, but somehow it managed to blend and look tasteful. Perhaps if you had an eternity then designed amazing rooms with enough wealth to buy a country was a good time-consuming activity.
Rahkesh's headaches were gone, his vision steady. His cheek hurt and his back and leg throbbed dully. Slowly healing as the demon venom wore off and the wounds began to repair themselves. He'd been injured so often by demons, maybe he would build up some sort of immunity to the venom. Wishful thinking probably, but it would be nice if he got something useful out of being injured so much. Lately he'd been spending as much time healing as being healthy. He had slept for a long time, and while his magic was still healing and he needed rest he'd slept so much he couldn't fall asleep again if he tried.
This is irritating. I have a week and I can't do magic. I could be practicing a containment spell to capture that dementor, working on the bloodmagic to finish off Voldemort, or running a bloodmagic test to find out what's wrong with me. What a waste of time. Rahkesh complained to Sygra.
He had already worked out on paper how his removal of the soul from Slytherin's locket would go. He would get a dementor tied to the locket to break Voldemort's soul-pull enchantment. Next he would have to use his captive vampire to create a series of broken runes in a way that would create a vortex across the life-death barrier. Then he'd just have to pick out his connection to Voldemort clip it out of his mind, and toss the link through the vortex. The link would drag open the locket, since the soul-pull was cancelled, and Voldemort's horcrux would be dragged through. The vortex would shut down from the mass going through and Rahkesh would kill the vampire to seal it closed. It was complicated but Voldemort had been very clever with this one. Rahkesh would still have one of Voldemort's horcruxes in him when it ended, but he was mostly through a plan to get rid of that. The only thing that could go wrong would be the horcrux he carried, which was a separate entity form the link he and Voldemort shared. The piece of soul might not react well to having so much of its creator's magic dying around it. Rahkesh would have to find time to talk that over with Namach first.
He would have started one designing the bloodmagic rituals he wanted to do. He had been planning a magic directing ritual and focusing one, but hadn't gotten to do either on schedule. He needed both before he could do the next one to allow for easier poison removal. However, he needed his current bloodmagic working and stable in order to feel out what was needed for the next pieces. So that was out of the question.
I think healing should be foremost on your mind. The young basilisk chided him.
Not a whole lot I can really do there. Rahkesh sighed. Why don't you go have a look around, there's no need to stay here.
I think I will go explore some. There must be rodents around here I've never seen. Where are we?
Ethiopia. Rahkesh replied. Do be careful. I didn't get a chance to see if Eli was here, but if he is stay away.
Sygra hissed an agreement and left. Rahkesh hoped that Namach had not brought his familiar with him. The magical lizard hated Rahkesh because he "smelled wrong" and had transferred some of his dislike to Sygra. Who did not help the situation by being overprotective and spitting curses at Eli every time they met.
Rahkesh pushed the pillow behind him higher up. He still wasn't able to do much more than walk to the bathroom and back. After reading the letter Nicodemus had left him concealed in the painting Rahkesh had fallen asleep again. Someone had been in while he rested – there was a tray with ice water and a few sandwiches on the large beside table. But for the moment he was alone. It was late evening. As darkness fell he was expecting the vampires and demon to wake soon, if they'd slept through the day. Upon waking he'd realized that he was going to be spending the next week, or six days now, in the company of two vampires and a demon. Strange company indeed. If someone had told him two years previous (not counting time travel) that he'd be spending a week with those two species he'd have thought them insane. If they'd said that one would be the unofficial Lord of Vampires, one a fifteen hundred plus year old vampire-turned-demon and one a vampire with a demon animagus he would have signed that person into the nearest asylum.
There was probably at least one library in the palace somewhere, but he couldn't get up to find it and he couldn't summon any books, too risky with his magic such a mess and straining to heal him.
Instead Rahkesh began one of the exercises they'd been taught in his Mind Magic class. A basic technique that they were tested on every so often to see how far they'd progressed. He closed his eyes, relaxed his breathing, and began to meditate. Sinking deep into a dark pool he felt about with his magical senses. Feeling for the flows of magic that filled the blood and soul of a magical being. He found them, and although they were invisible he could feel them the way he could feel a spider web when he placed his palm over it.
Bits of magic were sparking around disjointedly. Rather than smooth, powerful, coordinated flows that moved like a river with a strong current he encountered a hailstorm of magic flying every which way. No wonder he hurt so much. When the magic worked properly it flowed over, around and through the body smoothly, moving in all directions endlessly like a well-coordinated kaleidoscope built of strings. Now he had bits and pieces moving, forming, splintering, disintegrating and reforming in complete chaos. While all the flows shifted everywhere at once naturally they were all connected and movement in one place corresponded to another shift elsewhere. Those connections weren't being made anymore.
Remembering what it was supposed to look like Rahkesh gently began to massage the magic to where it was supposed to be. He began soothing out knotted clumps of magic and drawing their tangled writhing threads through and around him to begin the endless motion. Keeping the pressure constant and steady Rahkesh dragged magic into graceful moving streams with his mind, careful not to let go until the magic was connected into perpetual motion around him.
Blinking open his eyes Rahkesh realized that he instantly felt better, though even more tired. Perhaps if he did that every few hours he would heal faster. As for the bloodmagic, whenever he tried to feel for the runes that shaped it into working pieces he heard his basilisk form hissing randomly and flashes of connectivity interspaced between jumbled pin-pricks of unattached magic. Namach had said to leave that alone for a while longer before working on checking the damage to each individual piece. Rahkesh felt like it had been long enough, but the basilisk was getting in the way. What the snake form wanted that made it jibber and break into his bloodmagic he didn't know, and until he did Rahkesh would have to be careful.
Since he could do no more with his magic Rahkesh went back to staring at the ceiling, bored, then he remembered that he still had his magical earrings with their trunks inside, undamaged. He would have to modify them at some point – the piercing were poorly placed in his basilisk form and it was only a matter of time before they got torn out of his scales in a fight.
From the first trunk Rahkesh took out the cracked remains of the staff weapon made for him by Xeri and Nic. He and his friends had given up on fixing it, but Sharahak had helped to build it and so he would know if it was possible to repair the broken weapon. Rahkesh hoped it was, he'd been very fond of the gift.
In the other of the trunks was a set of maps he'd copied from the Chachapoyaro archives. He located the rivers Nicodemus had spoken of, and memorized their locations before putting the maps away. Next he picked out a current world map, it was a magical map and he could zoom in on an area of interest, he found the right area and located the same rivers, oddly their names hadn't changed. Even if he lost the letter and the maps, unlikely, he'd always know where to go, Rahkesh had a good memory for geography, though not at all for road maps.
He was just putting the maps away when he sensed something from his connection to Sharahak, and a moment later Sharahak strolled into the room. The cream and grey demon was walking upright on his hind legs. From what Daray often said this was not particularly comfortable for demons to do. Sharahak settled onto one of the bench-like couches in the room. The couches had no backs but high pillowed ends.
He was still looking a little tattered from his fight with the demon sorcerer while coming through the portal. The gashes that covered his hide were mostly healed, but the pinkish scars were still fading. Sharahak had retained some of the vampiric healing abilities, and they were helping him recover now.
Rahkesh greeted him, first a Chachapoyaro greeting meaning "it is good to see you" and then again in English, "it's been a while hasn't it?"
"Longer for me than for you." Sharahak said softly.
"Indeed. It has been barely half a year here." Rahkesh said. "A pity it took so long. If I'd known I might have attempted to time travel and help you get out sooner."
"I imagine that would not have ended terribly well." Sharahak said. "And once established as a recluse it wasn't so bad. I just had to remember to fake my death and choose myself as an heir every generation so no suspected I was immortal."
"I felt your presence before you walked into the room. I assume our connection is still strong then."
"It seems so. We could probably communicate telepathically if we needed too. I sense that your mind magic has greatly improved in a half year." Sharahak said.
"I've been practicing a lot. Most of the other Akren students are sensitive to such things, even the mortals work on mind magics a lot. Mind magic is good cross-training for other magic."
"It does generally help other areas of magic expand." Sharahak agreed.
"Did the travel through the portal cause any damage?" Rahkesh asked.
"No, not particularly. I used all the remnant vampire magics I could draw on to make it easier. I'm exhausted and won't be doing anything much for a several days yet but the only real injury came from the sorcerer." Sharahak said with a sigh. "How are you?"
"Healing, slowly." Rahkesh said with a shrug and a wince as fresh new scar tissue protested the motion. His whole body was a mess from one or another thing. The past few weeks had been rough.
"You do manage to get injured an awful lot." Sharahak said with a small smile. No doubt recalling the injuries Rahkesh had taken fighting the Inca.
"Even for an Akren student he manages to lose a preposterous amount of blood through fighting wounds." Namach agreed, walking in with two diamond and gold glasses of blood. Sharahak moved swiftly to his feet as the older vampire entered, Namach waved him back down and handed him one of the glasses of blood. "It's Nefertiti's." He added, nodding to the blood. Naturally Namach served nothing but the best to his guests. Sharahak stared at him for a moment before sipping it. The ancient was clad in an open-fronted lightweight dark red shirt, soft black pants, high ornate black boots, a heavy gold armband with a beautiful dragon carving attached, clutching a white opal, and a heavy necklace of bloodmetal links that shone gold, black and red, with a dragon carved from gold and white opal hanging from it and all in all looking a bit like something from another century. Then again most old vampires had difficulty keeping up with modern fashion, or just didn't care.
"Thank you. I didn't know preservation enchantments were in use that long ago." The demon said slowly.
"Only by a few." Namach said, "it would be hard to go without such exquisite blood when she died so of course we had to store some. Actually at one point we were drawing blood every three weeks. I'd have to check but I think there's another fifty bottles in the cellar. We got a lot from the ruling bloodline; they were so inbred they had their own taste you see."
Rahkesh noted the "we" in that sentence and wondered briefly if Namach had in fact been alive and in Egypt at that point. For all that he was supposed to be Egyptian, or from somewhere close, he really didn't look quite Egyptian. Then Rahkesh decided it really didn't matter and there was a good chance that the ancient himself didn't know how old he was. Instead he pondered briefly over the value of that blood, before dismissing that thought as well. Wealth had a different meaning to Namach than to most.
"Even for an Akren student I manage to get into a lot of extreme situations." Rahkesh countered.
"True. Has Fengyang challenged you yet?" Namach asked with a laugh at Rahkesh's eye roll.
"We came to an agreement wherein he will attempt to keep his little pride under some sort of control so that they stop assaulting me." Rahkesh replied. "And a basic understanding that while he can take me physically, for now, I can outdo him magically. If he wants to attack he'll have to do it in a place where I can't afford to use magic. I gave him a chance in a muggle club a few days ago, he talked instead so he's not totally mindless." Then he changed direction. "Did you and Cyala know there was a demon army ready to attack?" It was a very direct question and Namach's sharp look said he did not approve of being questioned, but Rahkesh was being as decidedly non-aggressive as possible so that ancient didn't seem too annoyed. A vampire would never have dared to ask so directly.
"Yes. I had identified the chamber as being a portal before we began." Namach finally said as he took the other couch. "I had been there before but hadn't sensed it then. The fae had just finished some experiment and whatever they did left a residue that reacted with the magics in a way I could sense."
"Why summon then? Unless Cyala just wanted to teach Sven not to ignore her advice?" Rahkesh asked.
"Well there was that. Sergio will be groveling for decades. Sven's gone, and good riddance. His replacement Jerashil is a vast improvement, she already sent a thank-you note to Cyala. No, the real problem was the upcoming ICW meeting. While Europe is collapsing into anarchy and desperation the rest of the world, while terrified, is not so much affected. Cyala and I were worried they would start to think that these demon attacks are only small occurrences, isolated incidents. There's even a thought that the Europeans did something to piss off the demons. We just wanted to clear things up real well. Now it's not just Europe. Demon portals could be anywhere and now we know that they're preparing an all-put invasion with everything they've got. There were only a few who actually thought that the plague was only an attack of Europe, but we really wanted to cement the danger in everyone's minds. A world-wide invasion from another realm by millions of demons. Now that's a thought to frighten everyone into action. That's why we made sure so many species were represented when it happened. Now the imminent threat of a demonic invasion is much sharper in all minds. Plague are plagues, even when used as weapons to kill…almost two hundred thousand is it now?...they still don't have quite the effect an invasion does on people's minds.
More importantly we wanted some information on the demonic capabilities. I wanted to meet their sorcerers, we were hoping for captive demons to interrogate if possible, and lastly we wanted to check some of our world's fighting forces against the demons. The two fae species present, the wolf fae and the Vashora, are well regarded fighters. The Vashora didn't have a single casualty and used barely a fraction of their abilities, they and the Vascari are the fae you really don't want to cross. We also wanted a look at what everyone said was one of the better human fighting squads. That team of aurors is world famous. They also did very well. Sergio's forces were pretty good, fatalities were mostly newer young vampires and there weren't too many deaths, but Sven's fighters were completely massacred, maybe six or seven survived."
"So there are some fighting forces prepared and trained enough to at the least stand their ground in a fight." Rahkesh said, "I've never heard of the Vashora."
"That is the name of their species that they give humans, they call themselves something else. They're not common around Akren, the last one said we weren't fierce enough, said we trained weak cowards." Namach said with a wry grin. Rahkesh stared for a moment, then he had to laugh. "They're a tree-based species, meld with plants, very, very scary. They rejected the fae council centuries ago – not decisive enough. I avoid crossing paths with them; every one has a biochemical arsenal enough to take out anything they care to attack." Namach told them. Rahkesh added the Vashora to his mental list of creatures to never offend.
"About this invasion. What will you do?" Sharahak asked. "Their fighting forces number in the many millions and are well trained. And they are getting a bit desperate. They need more slaves."
"Been killing them all too quick huh?" Rahkesh asked.
"Yes. And too few breeding. There are inbreeding fears." Sharahak said. "They desperately need fresh breeders to keep the population of slaves going."
"Well a good portion of Europe can not be relied upon to defend themselves much less help anyone else. With this plague any army gathered would just be slaughtered the second a bit of plague got in." Rahkesh said.
"The Americans and the Chinese are gathering forces, they'll be calling for all armed forces to join up at the ICW meeting. For the first time in history every species has been invited and the MLFC invoked." Namach said, "the MLFC stands for Magical Life Forms Conclave. It hasn't ever actually happened until now. It will be the first real gathering of all sentient magical life. Should be interesting."
"Interesting. The understatement of this century." Rahkesh said. "How many representatives will there be per species?"
"Ten of each species per continent is the maximum, except for the fae, who have twelve per continent because there are so many varieties. That will wind up being about a thousand representatives all told. The definition of magical "being" in this case is defined by the widest definition available. In this case the most open definition belongs to the Russians and the Canadians, who, for unknown reasons, include trolls, whereas the Americans, Norwegians, Swiss, Taiwanese, Egyptians and Israelis, the next closest contenders, do not."
"How'd the Swiss get on that list? I thought they had joined the anti-vampire alliance?" Rahkesh asked. And how had anyone decided that trolls were intelligent?
"Oh they did. But they still acknowledge them as magical beings. Actually it was only the latest government that liked the idea of joining with everyone else. The general populace is as neutral as ever. I truly don't know anything more. They're in a very odd political state right now. The fae have been pushing a revolt against the current Ministry so perhaps it'll sort itself out. Anyway whatever pieces are left will in all likelihood be very open minded. I suspect everyone else will be dead. A true purge of every bigot in the country." Namach said cheerfully. Rahkesh wondered if perhaps the ancient got a bit bored with the common every-day stuff so that the occasional bloody revolution or revolt seemed much less dull than everything else in his endless existence.
"The demons we've seen over the past year have all been adolescents. What about the ones in that cavern?" Rahkesh asked.
"They were also adolescents." Namach said, "well trained certainly but young nonetheless. With the single exception of the lead sorcerer. The others were all young sorcerers. Cyala and I had figured that out before hand, had there been a serious possibility of adult demons coming through we would never have done it."
"Sharahak?"
"Adult demons are very hard to transport. It wasn't moving too many that destroyed that altar. It was moving me." Sharahak explained. "That thing could have handled fourteen demons, two per wedge, with each activation. That small altar was meant for the sorcerers, and the larger altar that spanned the cavern was for a common summoning of Order Two demons."
Rahkesh thought hard, confused and trying to follow what Sharahak was saying. "I got that the altar in the center was for sorcerers. But the rest?" Rahkesh asked.
"Demon rankings are very complex, each Order is a subspecies. Within every Order there are several Sets. Demons from the same Order can mate and reproduce without magical assistance. The offspring may wind up being of any of the Sets in that Order, regardless of what Sets the parents are from." Sharahak explained. "Set is determined by intelligence, with some small physical differences. The demons in that cavern were all Order Two demons. There are two Sets in Order Two, and all of those demons are fighters. Order Two is entirely military. Set is determined by the physical differences that make each demon a better fighter in flight or on the ground."
"Uh huh. That sounds awfully complex." Rahkesh said, hoping that he wound never have cause to memorize all of that.
"It is. It took me a year to get it all right. The Sorcerers are all Beta or Alpha demons. In this case they were Betas, all young and still in training, except for the leader. She came into this realm several years ago, matured here, and has been hiding ever since."
"We guessed that Daray was an Alpha, you are a Beta demon?"
"Yes. Which is why he's having such a problem. Alpha's have an extra metamorphosis." Sharahak explained, "I had one small one to go through to become an adult. His is more complex, involves a good deal more magic, and has larger consequences."
"You can still help him though right?"
"Yes. I've been in the demon realm long enough to learn what goes on." Sharahak assured him. "I've explained it to Daray. He's meditating and using his bloodmagic to remove all impurities from his system."
"The potions have just about fully worn off, sooner than expected actually. We'll give his transformation a try tomorrow night. Midnight I think so he's fully awake." Namach said.
"Great. I get to spend a week with nocturnal beings. My internal clock is going to be so far off when I get back I'll be sleeping through all my classes." Rahkesh sighed. The other two chuckled.
"Just get to know how the weaker vampire students often feel." Sharahak said.
"No not truly. All the vampires at Akren are powerful enough that they aren't that bad off." Rahkesh replied.
"He's right. We do only admit the very best and they're all magical from powerful bloodlines." Namach agreed.
"Why did such schools not exist when I was young?" Sharahak complained.
"We were still stuck with just an apprentice system." Namach replied. "And a poor version of it at that. When you were young the system was just falling into a complete collapse. When we brought it back a few centuries later it worked better, but at that time it had deteriorated something terrible. And the more powerful those involved the less actually useful it was. When you were young apprentices spent more time acting as whores for their masters than actually learning. I imagine you were better off being a wanderer."
"Sounds like you didn't approve much." Sharahak said.
"Hell no. Oh I like the apprentice system just fine, it's still used today even. But it had gone to pieces right about that time in a bad way. Rather awful couple of centuries actually. So few decent brains around. Too many power-hungry vampires, too many vampires. No top-down management to make sure everything was working and the brightest youngsters weren't getting kicked around too much. Actually I suppose a lot of it is my fault since I had just finished killing every vampire older than myself. Removed all governing bodies really, no control over society, too many large territories up for grabs. Messed everything up for several centuries."
"Why did you kill all the old ones?" Sharahak asked.
"I felt like doing so." Namach replied shortly. Rahkesh made a mental note to never ask about that. The ancient vampire wasn't touchy about much but apparently his reason for exterminating all older vampires was one of those few things he didn't talk about. "Created a bit of mess eventually, but it did stabilize out nicely in the end. And those few centuries were not without some good times. I have to admit it was very easy and a lot of fun to toy with the then-new christian religion. Not quite as fun as making mortals think we were actually gods like we did a thousand years earlier, but amusing none the less when we tricked them into burning their own priests and such." Namach said with a cold, fanged, grin. Rahkesh reminded himself that the usually pleasant and conscientious ancient did have a very dark side that could get cold and cruel at times.
Sharahak was eyeing Namach warily, and Rahkesh decided to change the subject quickly.
"I've been examining my bloodmagic. It seems to be healing from the overload quickly." Rahkesh said. "I haven't tried to activate anything but the runes don't ache and I can't feel them on my skin anymore. My vision's normal, and I think most of the demon venom has finished."
"Best leave it for at least another two days." Namach said. "You were injured during the raid on the British Ministry, nearly killed and almost went into a complete psychic shock during your work with Silas, and injured again during the fight in the cavern. Give yourself time to heal. Better heal completely and be out for a few days than heal partially and have your body or magic fail at a critical time."
"I've also been seeking the cause of my recent bloodmagic issues. When I transformed in that cavern I noticed that there was an unusual amount of energy coming from my Basilisk form. I was actually able to channel the thunderbird's magic into it and even to cast spells while in my snake form. I've never been able to do that before. Now, when I try to glance at the magic from the runes on me I get parselmagic and jumbled up hissing."
"Ahh. So the basilisk could be the source the energy that has been allowing your recent unusually fast rate of rituals?" Namach asked. He turned to a confused Sharahak. "He has an animal form of a thunderbird - that's an animagus, and because he's a parslemouth – a snake speaker, he can turn into a snake, in his case a Basilisk."
"Impressive." Sharahak said softly. "There seems to be a lot for me to catch up on."
"Yes. The past thousand years have seen some incredible advances in magic. Not so much a sudden leap as a steady progression." Namach agreed. "Rahkesh can you find the answer to this in the snake-magic?"
"No. Along with my healing ability I lost some portion of the knowledge contained in the magic." Rahkesh said. He then had to explain to Sharahak what the parselmagic entailed. The demon admitted that he had heard of snake-speakers being great healers, but had never gotten any real details during his travels.
While Rahkesh was explaining his magic to Sharahak, and the demon using some of his remnant vampire magics to place it all into memory, Daray came in. He was in vampire form, looking ill and a bit rumpled, like he'd slept poorly or not at all. Namach waved him into the remaining seat before he collapsed, and summoned a glass of blood from somewhere. It came floating into the room a moment later.
"Thanks." Daray said, "are those going to heal?" He asked, gesturing to the places where the lead demon sorcerer had managed to injure Namach. The wounds were sealed over but glowing a faint white just under the skin.
"When I let them. I'm keeping the magic in that thing's poison active so I can examine it." Namach replied.
"You've got demon venom stuck under your skin and you want it there?" Rahkesh asked carefully. Namach chuckled softly.
"I suppose when put that way it does sound a little absurd. I'm finishing my little experiment from the fight."
"What happened?" Rahkesh asked curiously, he'd been waiting for the right time to ask what had happened between Namach and the lead sorcerer. It had appeared to be quite a fight, but then the ancient had destroyed the sorcerer with such ease that Rahkesh wasn't sure if it hadn't all been some elaborate plan that he'd missed the point of.
"I invaded its mind." Namach said with a very self-satisfied smirk. "I wanted to know what its plans were, in full, what its orders were, and everything else I could get. I stole its entire memory. I needed a blood connection for the full removal, and some of its venom to figure out the magics so I let it claw me a bit. Safer than drinking its blood. From the magic that creates the poison I learned the bits I needed to cut its mind open. After that it didn't have much of a working mind left, fighting instincts only really. Cutting someone's memory out generally makes them an easy kill."
Rahkesh blinked and processed that. The vampire had used poison and some sort of reverse bloodmagic to get enough of a grasp of demon magic to access the mind of an adult Beta sorcerer and remove its memory, while fighting it. With an envious mental sigh Rahkesh wondered if he'd ever become skilled enough to manage something like that.
"Learn anything interesting?"
"I won't know for a while. I put the memory in a spare pensieve and now I'm just draining off the residual demon energy so I can view it. Vampire and demon magics mix like oil and water so until the rest of the energy is gone it's inaccessible."
"I can draw out a basic map of the demon realm. Being able to place events from its memory might make more sense." Sharahak offered.
"Excellent idea. Is their realm round like a planet? Or did they copy the elves and go for a never-ending realm with no apparent borders or shape?" Namach asked.
"Ah…well I don't much about the elves, but I'm pretty sure the demon realm is round. All their maps are globes." Sharahak said. "How did the elves manage that? Shouldn't it be physically and magically impossible?"
"They'd never actually tell us. But they're not from this universe so I don't suppose we'd be able to understand any of the magics involved even if they did explain. Of course there's always the possibility that it is a round planet-like realm and they just want everyone to think it goes on forever to confuse all other species, I wouldn't put it past them." Namach said with a smile. "Don't stress your brain over it. It doesn't really matter."
"About the elves. They have to know what happened in Mexico, but do they know about Sharahak?" Rahkesh asked. Sharahak suddenly began looking very worried.
"Given that there were six of them in that cavern watching the whole event I'd say they all know about him. Since they're not here demanding his death I assume they either don't care or haven't decided anything. Probably the later. I'll contact them when we get back to the proper time with his story. I'm sure they'll want to interview you, Sharahak, but I doubt they'll want to kill you."
"Why not? I'm a demon."
"They won't kill you because as far as their interactions with demons extend whatever their Champion – the official title is actually Sentinel - says is what happens, and while Ferraidar is an insane killing machine on the battle field he's really very reasonable otherwise. They'll want to get everything you know about demons to match it to their records to see if anything has changed since they were last updated, and they'll want your view on the past thousand years of demon history. I imagine you'll be seeing them regularly for months in not years. However, while Ferraidar and his forces may be intelligent enough not to go and kill you the younger, more impulsive elves may. We'll have to make sure that all those interviews are held in this realm, not theirs. You're safe enough here but I wouldn't bet money on your chances of living longer than a minute in their realm." Namach explained.
At the doorway someone coughed politely. "About that."
Rahkesh, Daray, and Sharahak all swung around to stare at the five elves who walked in like they owned the place. Namach didn't turn, or even blink. Nor did he conjure any new chairs.
All five were dressed in elegant leather and bloodmetal armor, green, black, gold, and white, and radiating an almost-painful amount of magic. None of them carried any weapons, but Rahkesh didn't need his thunderbird animagus to tell him that at least two were death dragons. The first of these, Ferradiar, was in front and talking, unconcerned at their surprise. The other death dragon had stopped by the door and was leaning against the wall, watching everyone with a scowl.
"I was wondering when you would show up. Might want to watch out for the inner wards next time. You got around the others just fine but you tripped the sonar-based one." Namach said, finally turning with a rather smug grin.
"My inept students outside tripped the sonar-based ward. We did not." Ferraidar corrected archly. "However good you are at not jumping when startled you did not know that we" he waved a hand at the other four "were here. As for the students outside…they'll all be going back to basic training for a month to correct that oversight."
"How many did you bring?"
"Thirty." Ferraidar said. Namach's eyes narrowed with fury.
"There are thirty half-trained cadets stumbling around my property?"
"Elves do not stumble." Ferraidar corrected, conjuring up five elegant silver and white wood chairs with a flick of one hand. "I thought it would be an interesting training opportunity." Namach blinked then snarled out loud, a deep growl rumbling out from him. "Oh hush. You will be able to gloat at the lot of them for a long time." Ferraidar told him.
"What do you want?" Namach growled curtly.
"To meet a most interesting trans-species dislocation. We have no records of anyone going completely from vampire to demon before now." Ferraidar told Sharahak, "Our young Ateres here is just a partial." Daray frowned but kept quiet. "I am Ferraidar, commander of the elven military. The others here are some of our researchers and analysts."
Researchers an analysts my tail! Sygra hissed to Rahkesh as she wound up a bedpost to settle atop his ankles. Rahkesh was sitting Indian-style and the snake coiled between his feet. Researchers and analysts do not carry death dragons in their souls. If they're analysts and researchers then I'm a garter snake. Rahkesh stroked her gently and tried not to grin. Only two of these were death dragons, so only part of it was probably an outright lie.
Rahkesh was a little surprised that only two were death dragons, but he guessed that they thought that was more than enough for one demon. And truly they had nothing to be worried about. Nor did any of the vampires in this time. Sharahak was by nature quite, unobtrusive, and had a generally submissive nature that made him little threat to anyone who didn't go out of their way to bother him. Sharahak could certainly handle himself well in a fight if he had to, but he was about as non-confrontational as any vampire could be. His switch to a demon body hadn't changed that.
"You were all watching in the cavern then?" Sharahak asked cautiously.
"Hmm. An interesting battle." Ferraidar said, one of the other elves said something in elvish to the rest that drew laughter. "True it was poorly done, but that is just compared to how we fight, and we are trained for combat with demons." Ferraidar agreed with the other four, in english. "You are not a trained demon sorcerer then?" He asked Sharahak.
"No. Their rituals and magics…call for a lot of mortal bloodshed." Sharahak said with a shrug.
"Good. We might have had to kill you if you were." Ferraidar said as calmly as though he were announcing that the sun was shining. Sharahak stared.
"Drop the dramatics." Namach said.
"I was not being dramatic. If he was a sorcerer then he would have had to enjoy their magics and he would have had to swear a soul-binding oath to the demon central council." Ferraidar said. "Did the travel between realms cause you any harm?"
"No, not particularly."
"In that case our analysts would like a copy of your memories, or at least some of them, when you get back to your proper time."
"I think I can do that. But I was there for a thousand years."
"Do not worry about that. Our ways of copying memories will find everything, including things your memory has apparently forgotten. Our magics could take an exact second by second replay of your entire life without any harm to you, a thousand years, excepting anything you would like to keep to yourself, will not be a problem at all." Ferraidar assured him. Rahkesh thought it highly unlikely that the elves would actually leave anything out if Sharahak requested it be kept private.
"Very well." Sharahak said, obviously not knowing what else to say. Rahkesh had to pity him a bit, it wasn't as though there was any way to get out of it.
"Normally we would invite you to our realm to discuss the demons with our people there, but Tristan is, unfortunately, correct about young elves being impulsive and we can be a bit violent at times." Ferraidar admitted, drawing a snort from the vampire.
"A bit violent?" Namach asked dryly. "Anyone who calls vampires blood thirsty never met an elf."
"The difference is that with you they mean it literally." Ferraidar said. "And I do not think going to one of the elven bases on earth is going to work either."
"Because you don't want anyone knowing where they are." Namach added. "Never mind that as the head of the vampires, official or not, I'd be going along and the council doesn't want me anywhere near any of their bases."
"There is reason for that." Ferraidar muttered. "And precedent for the problem involved."
"Easily intimidated are they?' Namach asked. Ferraidar ignored him.
"So we will have to find another location." Sharahak nodded, Namach cut in and took over the negotiating.
"Since your Earth bases are out of the question we'll use one of my estates." Namach said. Sharahak looked relieved.
"That will do fine. It is not as though we have trouble getting into any of them." Ferraidar agreed with a gentle smile at Namach's growl.
Outside the window someone screamed.
"Better go get your students before they're all maimed." Namach smirked.
"If they were stupid enough to fall for any of your traps I will maim them myself." Ferraidar replied. Sharahak, looking back and forth as the two verbally sparred, stopped before his neck started to hurt and raised an eyebrow at Rahkesh, who gave a small shrug and a grin.
"Not their fault I'm clever." Namach said airily.
"There is only so much cleverness to be had in the brain of an animated corpse." Ferraidar replied. "I think you will need time to settle into the world again, it has changed a lot." He told Sharahak, pointedly ignoring the furious vampire in front of him. "However since your world has about three months before the next planned invasion sooner would be better."
"Three months?" Rahkesh asked, finally talking. The five elves all got very smug.
"We were working our own magic in that cavern. A blanket enchantment that went through the portal then expanded. It created some horrible weather problems, firestorms, earthquakes, general mayhem. And we added a few touches to your cute little pixies, which was an excellent idea by the way. When the demons die from the Heartsfail slivers their magic with explode. It will feed off of their deaths and drag other magic in, creating a vortex. As it draws magic in it creates a hurricane like structure with magic wrapped tight around it, but never fully going through. They can get very big. The destruction will take some time to undo." Ferraidar explained.
"We do this sort of thing regularly, but this time we added a cloaking enchantment behind it all to block portals from functioning. Those are very difficult enchantments and we do not use them often because it leaves so many of our best sorcerers drained. The demons have their own sorcerers and in order to work out enough levels and shielding to keep them from disabling everything we have to put a lot into it, in both time and power." One of the other elves explained. "We have given you three months. If we can do more we will, but the portals closed were only the ones to your realm. The demons are still invading other worlds, ours. Those attacks are mostly not occurring through portals, but rather all on the same plane of existence, which means we cannot really block them magically and have to fight it out. We are not terribly worried about those because there is little doubt we'll win, but we can only spare so much to help you. The demon's intention is to keep us busy, and unfortunately at present they are doing it rather well. Though we have not had any injuries yet it has diverted most of our fighters and sorcerers."
"Thank you for what you did then. Any ideas on what we can do?" Rahkesh asked.
"Train an army." Ferraidar replied. "Beyond that, no. I would say that there is a way out of this simply because our seers seem to think your species will not be completely enslaved and exterminated, but they do not know what to do."
"Helpful of them." Namach sighed, but he seemed more resigned than annoyed. "The best chance of finding a way out would be to give all the information we have to the public. Make every member of every affected species aware of the problem. The more minds the better, and I don't need to tell anyone that the most creative minds are usually not found in bureaucracies or in government of any sort. Get the public involved, take ideas from everyone. Pick out the best and release them for feedback and general discussion. See if any diamonds roll out of the muck."
"It'll be a nightmare to organize that." Rahkesh said.
"Species by species basis, let everyone manage their own. We might just find something interesting. Somebody's got to have a good enough imagination to find an answer." Namach replied. Rahkesh thought that this seemed entirely too hopeful. Namach had much more faith in the combined minds of the world than he did. If the elven seers said there was a solution, but they didn't know what, then there had to be a solution. It was probably a glaringly obvious one too, it always was. What they needed was someone who was capable of seeing the glaringly obvious, and that was a much more unusual ability than most would believe.
The elves left after a half-hour question and answer session with Sharahak, that proceeded with more calm and politeness than Rahkesh had thought them capable of. Upon being informed by a laughing Namach that half of his students had fallen victim to the numerous traps covering the forests beyond the walls of the palace Ferraidar had flown into a rage. Eventually he calmed enough to stop cursing and retrieved them with a few magical commands. Fifteen elves promptly came falling out of thin air, all of them bleeding heavily and rather disheveled. With a tired sigh and a few more curses about the "inept youngsters these days" their commander cast a magical net around the lot of them and dragged them off back to the elven realm.
Rahkesh, Daray and Sharahak watched from the balcony of Rahkesh's room, a safe distance above and away from the elves, while Namach laughed and toasted their retreating backs, Ferraidar smirked back and flipped him off before vanishing. A second later a snarl of rage echoed from Namach as he found his goblet of blood turned to fruit juice.
"Grandmother records their arguments whenever she can. Apparently those two are the star comedy act of the last several thousand years." Daray said, watching Namach hurl itching and wart-raising hexes into the quickly vanishing portal the elves had used. The bright blue glow vanished and ancient vampire went back into the palace. "She's got a whole library full of recordings. Naturally Namach and Ferraidar have been trying to find an erase it all ever since they learned she has it."
"Which of course results in more entertainment. I suppose if you're going to live forever you have to find some way to amuse yourself." Rahkesh said.
"Something like that." Daray agreed.
"Good-for-nothing pointy-eared wretches." Namach said, walking back into the room.
"How young were those?" Rahkesh asked.
"Very young, none were much more than two hundred. About the equivalent of a twenty year old mortal. Ferraidar must have annoyed the Council again to get assigned a training patrol of elflings."
"And he of course brought them here." Rahkesh said, thinking to himself that bringing an untrained patrol to the home of the world's most powerful vampire made so much sense, right?
"One of them is the child of a Council member. He's expressing his displeasure at having them around. I'm sure his report to the Council will include some suitably snarky comments that he doesn't need children to interview mysterious new demons."
"He knew that your wards would hurt them." Rahkesh stated.
"I am, naturally, always ready to help embarrass a member of the elven High Council. I love having a reason to gloat at our high and mighty patrons from another universe. They need a good kick occasionally."
"And Ferraidar gets one over the Council, they won't be attempting to order him about any time soon." Rahkesh said, amused. "And they can't even complain about it since they sent the elflings for him to train, knowing what his duties are, and he wasn't the one who hurt them."
"And that. I will be writing a few gloating letters this evening." Namach agreed with a smirk. "I think I need to make a new set of offensive wards and attached their triggers to elf magic."
"Oh I don't know. Very scary super-vicious anti-human aliens from another universe…sounds like your average muggle sci-fi film." Rahkesh said, "and the humans always win in those." He added with a grin. Namach laughed.
"Someone forgot to tell them about that part." Daray said.
"Hmm. Tell me, when they were telling us about their other planets being invaded, how closely were the ones sitting behind me listening?" Namach asked. Since the elves had been sitting in a semi-circle he'd only been able to see two of them. Which, Rahkesh had noted, were the two he thought were death dragons, Ferraidar and another who hadn't spoken a single word the whole time they'd been there.
"Ah…not much?" Rahkesh guessed. Daray and Sharahak shrugged in agreement.
"Interesting." Namach said. The other three traded quizzical looks but the ancient did not elaborate.
"The elves are probably the most powerful magical beings around right?" Rahkesh asked.
"Yes."
"And massive magical undertakings are not much of an issue to them."
"Also correct."
"But they can only give us three months?" Rahkesh asked dubiously.
"It's the nature of the magic." Namach explained. "yes they could wipe out most life on this planet easily enough. But that's just massive destruction. Blocking the demons isn't a matter of power, it's a matter of building a precise network of magic to block every portal. That takes time. Endurance and a lot of power, and time. An artist can paint an entire canvas black with a few strokes of a big brush, but creating a photo-quality painting of a tree takes time."
"They're prescient."
"Yes they are. They often know what they should do to achieve a desired result, but they don't know why doing that will work." Namach said. "Their ability to see the future is based off of pure instinct."
"They still knew the demons were coming." Rahkesh argued.
"Certainly. And they let them." Namach agreed. "They're allowing the demons to attack because it will gain them some result that they want."
"Any chance we know what result?"
"No. And I don't think they actually know either. They know that allowing the demons to attack our world will force us to do something that will turn out good for them, and hopefully us, in the end."
"Not a lot to go on." Rahkesh muttered. Namach smirked, but did not seem amused.
"Keeps life interesting. I am not overly concerned. You heard that they are certain of eventually victory in the other battles taking place between them and the demons. Therefore the continuation of their species is certain. As their Champion it is up too Ferraidar to protect and preserve his species first, in the best state possible. However once he has done that he's supposed to then work to ensure the safety of other sentient magical life. They've already got their future set. Now they're working on ours and have apparently decided that a demon invasion is the way to our best possible future." Namach explained. "It could also be that the attacks the demons have launched really are that bad. Only a handful of elves are death dragons, only the elite. They can get around easily enough, but the others travel slower. And locking a piece of magic into place covering the portals really does take a lot, never mind the difficulty in creating it.
Part of the problem is that all other methods of containing the demons have been tried, and eventually been torn down in such a way that they can't be done again. Many times they've been locked away, the last being the attempt with the Seven Seals. So now we need a new way to do it. There's also a good chance that they managed to create more portals in this world recently, I'll know when I can view the memories of that lead sorcerer. It's like trying to cover every hole in a sieve with microscopic thread. And the ones doing the weaving plan on eventually letting the water out."
"They couldn't just come out and say that?" Rahkesh asked.
"Of course not." Namach said, highly amused now, "that would make too much sense." The ancient chuckled and then he changed the subject. "Sharahak now that you're rested we should start going over what the world is like now."
"I brewed a memory potion earlier." The demon said, "I suppose it is a very different place."
"Just a bit." Rahkesh agreed, thinking it was all too likely that Sharahak would take a century to adjust, and then he'd have to keep pace with the changing times. Which were changing very fast, especially with the muggles and their new technologies.
A half hour later, as Namach carefully explained the industrial revolution, and then how a light bulb worked, Rahkesh decided that it might take a good deal more than a century to explain everything. He'd never considered before how difficult it was to explain his civilization to someone who'd left Earth a thousand years before. Being raised in the muggle, and then in the magical world, it all seemed very normal and common-sense to him. Sharahak, despite the memory potion, was clearly trying hard and struggling, to grasp concepts he'd never heard of before. He asked questions constantly, and when these led into a discussion of what atoms were Rahkesh, getting a head ache, stopped following the conversation and went back to working on healing his magics, which at least required no such intense thought and more instinctive magic.
XX
The room in which Namach had decided to have Daray attempt his transformation had been a cave originally. However at some point Namach had decided that he might some day have a need for a very secure chamber. The walls were reinforced with concrete, a magical metal made from steel infused with potions, titanium, and covered with long trailing pieces of what Rahkesh had on first inspection thought to be bloodmetal. Then he felt it stir to life and realized that Namach had crossed bloodmetal with Guardian Vines to create an almost-living metal-like being that manifested all of his power and which he could control. The bloodmagic history books mentioned only a small handful of people who had ever managed to mix bloodmetal with living flesh not their own, naturally Namach was the most renowned, but Rahkesh had never seen any of it until now.
"The vines will take in any excess magic to keep it from harming him or us." Namach said. Like the bloodmagic rooms at Akren the main cavern had a small one-way window, the room they were in was behind this, looking in. Daray was lying on his back in the middle of the large cavern, eyes closed.
Sharahak was standing beside Namach, he would join Daray once he finished his pre-metamorphosis meditation, but right now Daray's mind had few walls and didn't need another presence clouding things. Rahkesh went around to Sharahak's other side and took one of the seats. He was up and moving, which was a vast improvement, but only barely. He was limping heavily and the thick bandages around his wounds made movement difficult. Sygra, wrapped around his neck and over his shoulders, was monitoring him to make sure he didn't over-stress himself.
"Sharahak I never got the chance to ask earlier, whatever happened to Enireth?" Rahkesh asked. He'd been fond of the young dragon during the short time he'd known him.
"He stayed on with the Chachapoyaro his whole life." Sharahak replied. "He was alive and well when I left, he'd just barely passed maturity then. He didn't have any family, didn't know of any others of his kind, and nor did the Chachapoyaro. He never fully recovered from what the Inca did to him you know. When I left he was enjoying himself helping the Xuelhuala train to combat dragon attacks. Those warrirors just adored him, as much as they ever did Nicodemus. The two of them were an amazing team. There were other dragons around so Enireth had some contact with his own kind. He and Nicodemus would go to meet them sometimes, and he and the weather mages had a grand time flying around learning about the upper atmosphere." Sharahak said with a wistful smile.
Rahkesh grinned, he could just imagine that. Nicodemus had insisted on personally overseeing Enireth's healing. He, Enireth, and Rahkesh had often gone flying together, the two humans on the dragons' back, often with Daray and Sharahak flying alongside. He wondered briefly if Enireth could have joined the time-frozen army Nicodemus had written of, but pushed the thought away before his still-mending mind magics leaked anything to the two very perceptive ancient beings with him.
Daray sat up, then rose to his feet and nodded. Sharahak went in to join him. Satan flew down from the roof and landed on Namach's shoulder, making little squeaking noises that sounded rather distressed. Namach scratched him behind the ears and the magical bat settled with a whine.
Daray transformed into a demon, painfully slowly, growling and whining in pain. He looked half-dead. Satan whined again in sympathy. The dark demon settled in the center of the room. Sharahak measured off a few paces away, a safe distance. Daray took a large container of his blood and drew out two overlapping spirals on the floor. One to spiral in towards himself and one to spiral away, they connected at their outermost points to form a circle. He put the container aside and went to the center.
Once in the center Daray folded his wings down and crouched. Sharahak, on all fours, began to hum. It was a drawn out continuous hum that never varied. Slowly the cream and grey demon began to sway, still humming softly. The hum shifted up, taking on a note of urgency. Slowly a reddish glow grew around him.
Then Daray, eyes closed, deep in meditation, took up the humming. For several moments the two demons hummed a synchronized song. It was monotone, with only a few shifts that Rahkesh couldn't follow. The vibrations abruptly shifted, becoming magic enhanced, and Rahkesh could almost feel it through the walls. Daray's voice rose echoing a counterpart to Sharahak. Daray's hum was deeper, but slowly began to rise while Sharahak kept up a steady hum. As Daray grew louder his mouth opened and the hum turned to a full song. His head arched back and his scales darkened as though they were drinking in the light around him. A deep warbling note followed by a long higher call, then white light sprang up around him.
Magic shot from his claws, the spines around his neck filled out and began to glow at the tips. Tiny bits of magic, trailing streams of white in their wake, crackled up, spiraling around him in the cloud. More white magic leaped from the spines on his back and tail, shooting stars that raced around in spirals forming a cocoon of light. More white jumped out from his wing-claws. Flying pieces whirling around him, wraping him in streams of white magic like comet-tails.
Finally at a point above his head two of the tiny white comets collided to form a loop. Another joined the loop, then another, until all were connected to each other, each loop spinning on its own axis and revolving around to touch other loops. The speed increased until the loops and spirals blurred into a mass of white magic.
Sharahak's hum rose again, higher and more powerful, the urgency growing. Daray's song dropped, then rose, then dropped, then rose. His voice shifted until it was closer to a wail then became harsh and brittle, like frozen glass, a long sharp note that seemed to stretch forever.
Outside the room Namach closed off some of the sound escaping from the chamber as the level began to make their ears hurt. The metallic guardian vines writhed across the walls, drinking in loose magic spilling away from the transforming demon. Satan had gone silent and had his eyes shut tight, but his body was swaying in a slow movement in time with Sharahak's.
Sharahak now began to change his song, slowly the sound became insistent, brilliantly high and full-throated, but not a tremble to it, a continuous sound. How the demons were possibly managing this without ever drawing a breath Rahkesh couldn't tell, it must have been done with magic. Daray's voice snapped to a roar, an abrupt bellow that made Rahkesh jump.
The white magic turned black, black as night. Bits and piece snapped off and sprang away, then shot inwards, striking at the demon wrapped in the magic. Daray's roar continued, deepening, and then slowly becoming higher pitched. At the same time a deep growled reverberated from where he was within the black magic. The roared turned to a howl and the magic went red.
Bright brilliant red light, Rahkesh shielded his eyes as it flared, the whirling mass turning to neon red flames, spiraling around and around in continuous loops and erupting out from the ground around Daray where his blood encircled him on the floor. Sharahak, having led Daray's mind to this critical point, fell silent. Traditionally another Alpha would have led him through this, but now Daray would have to find the last part himself, Sharahak could help him no more.
The sound of claws screeching across impenetrable rock broke through the howls and growling. The growl vanished and the howled turned to a fierce roar, rising and falling in a slowly increasing rhythm. As the ups and downs grew closer together they coalesced into blast of noise somewhere in the middle.
New flames appeared, white ones around the floor. The magic crackling around stayed brilliantly red and flaming in every direction with the spirals on the floor turned white. Beyond the red flames the air grew brighter, light springing from nothingness. Beyond even this light everything went dark and the shadows reached out, dancing through the room. The darkness closed in on the bright red, held off only by the white glow.
Then the flames leaped, throwing away both light and darkness and the fire exploded around Daray. Daray's song faded to a lower volume and changed to a song that felt like a spiral, higher, lower in slow progression, then higher again. As his voice dropped the light and darkness returned. Daray broke the song with a terrific scream. A terrible fierce sound that cracked like a whip.
Massive glossy black wings erupted upwards, arcing high above the red flames. The long spiked black tail whipped out, swinging away, Daray's huge claws appeared beyond the flames, shiny black. The fire dropped and became thin spirals of flame again, slowly disconnecting.
Daray's head tilted upwards, screaming. Black scales gleamed and the thick black neck spines were fully extended. As the spirals of fire withdrew and slowly vanished the screaming stopped and turned to an aching mesmerizing howl. The light and darkness vanished, the white glow faded from the floor, and the last of the fire disappeared.
Daray had not changed much during his transformation; his was bigger now, but not by a lot. His scales were once again their stunning obsidian, gleaming and shining. The black leather and tiny scales on his wings were black and no longer peeling. His wing claws dark. The glow vanished from his neck spines and they relaxed, shrinking down. His eye ridges had flared, almost artistically, a few new horns appeared, short and stubby around his brow. The scale pattern on his wings had changed, thicker now along the top between wing claws, which were quite a bit larger. The muscles around where his wings joined his power full shoulders rolled under broad armor-like scales, smaller flexible scales, and leathery black skin. His tail spear had changed and now his tail scales stood up sideways, sharp edges flattening out into sharp little blades along the sides.
The scales on the tail flattened down, relaxing, the scales along his shoulder and back, which had shifted to form long blades running lengthwise, also settled flat and smooth. The wing claws relaxed back a bit. Daray dropped his head and turned, wings still up above him.
Now came the potentially dangerous part, a newly metamorphosed Alpha was extremely aggressive. Sharahak was lying on the floor, half curled up, watching Daray cautiously. Namach took Satan off his shoulder and rose, walking to the door the ancient released the bat into the room. Satan winged right over to his master.
Daray's head shot up as the bat flew over. Satan circled once, then landed tentatively on one massive wing, then climbed down the wing and up Daray's shoulder. Perched on top of his shoulder Satan gave a strange high pitched call. Daray's tail lashed, then settled, then flicked again. The wings relaxed a bit. Tilting his head down Daray nose the bat gently, then sighed and twisted around, scratching the last of the dried blood of the floor. Pausing his settled and began to examine himself, going over each claw and scale. Finally he raised his head again and looked around at Sharahak.
"Is it done then?" He asked wearily. Sharahak nodded and rose, Daray showed no inclination to attack but merely wandered over, butting his against the cream and grey demon playfully.
XX
Rahkesh rolled and lunged up, slamming his shoulder into the black demon's gut and flipping Daray over his back. Daray landed awkwardly on one wing and twisted to avoid breaking it. Springing off of powerful hind legs he followed Rahkesh's movement. Rahkesh barely turned around in time to avoid him. Wing claws flashed past centimeters from his face. Rahkesh swung his knife around and slipped it into the cuticle of the wing claw, tearing in between the scales, then leaped back.
Rahkesh wiped sweat out of his eyes. It was just past noon and even indoors it was hot. He was shirtless and sweating enough that he'd taken off his shoes because they were soaked through. Daray, being undead, was not at all bothered by the oppressive heat and humidity, Rahkesh's lungs ached.
Daray snarled and spun again, raising his wings and pouncing. Rahkesh went down and rammed a taser into Daray's neck hairs and activated it. Daray's jaws snapped shut with a shriek. Rahkesh kicked him hard in the groin. Even if demons didn't have obvious genitals it still hurt.
Daray rolled away with a shout. Coming to all four the demon shrieked at him. Rahkesh laughed. Daray sat down and glared.
Off to one side Namach and Sharahak were laughing as well, Daray tilted his nose upwards and sniffed at the two ancients, his tail flicking about like a cat's.
They had one more day before they got back to the normal time, and Rahkesh and Daray were using it to work out and practice. Testing each other's strengths and weaknesses to see if either was still injured or not completely functional. Rahkesh had been pushing Daray's agility and magical defenses, while Daray had been going after Rahkesh's most recent injuries in hopes of finding a spot that hadn't fully recovered. Rahkesh's cheek ached, but the wound was healed, his ribs and back were still a little sore, and he was favoring his leg where the demon had bitten him, but not enough to really matter. The play fighting was also stretching his stiffened scar tissue and working muscles still healing from being torn by demon teeth.
"Our big tough Alpha demon brought down by a mortal?" Rahkesh jeered. Daray blew flames out his nose.
"Rahkesh if you really wanted to grope me there are better ways. And please not in front of the ancients." He replied.
Rahkesh collapsed to the floor laughing. "Only you would confuse a kick in the groin with a grope. Like it that way do you? Shall I tell Fengyang?"
The two ancients off to the side started laughing again as Daray roared and lunged. Rahkesh sprang away, still laughing hard enough to make his ribs hurt. He twisted his wand around and hurled skin shriveling hexes behind him. Daray brushed them aside with his wings. Apparently in his new form that was possible Rahkesh realized this was going to be very difficult.
So he conjured throwing stars and animated them into hurling themselves at Daray. This he followed with a thick mist which he wrapped around the demon. Then he started bouncing stinging hexes off the floor.
Daray used his own magic, throwing away the mist and blasting apart the throwing stars. Rahkesh had closed in while he was moving the mist and as Daray charged out Rahkesh flung himself onto the demon's back. Gripping tight at one wing joint he swung himself up between Daray's wings. Conjuring sharp wires he pulled Daray's wings together. Daray rolled, Rahkesh dove off, rolled on one shoulder, and came up under Daray, a wire tight around the demon's neck. Daray's jaws closed around Rahkesh's head.
"I think I won. It's a noose, tightens instantly when I cut the spell." Rahkesh smirked. "So if I die your head gets cut off."
Daray's growl, coming as it did around Rahkesh's skull, seemed awkward. Then Daray backed off, spitting.
"Your hair tastes disgusting."
Namach and Sharahak started laughing again. Rahkesh, laughing and catching his breath smacked Daray over the head and pushed him away.
"Hrumph." Daray muttered, stalking away, head held high.
"Any noticeable differences?" Sharahak asked.
"I move faster, my muscles and bones seem stronger. I have better balance, and I can sometimes sense what he's about to do ahead of him doing it." Daray said.
"You'll continue to change for a few weeks, it is different for every Alpha demon, but don't expect anything major." Sharahak said. Rahkesh slowly got his feet, his leg and back hurting.
"You're still not fully healing." Sharahak observed needlessly.
"Yeah well, demon magic and venom and all." Rahkesh said, shrugging it off despite the worry in the back of his mind.
"You should be healed." Namach said. "There's no venom or magic left in you." The ancient vampire conjured a long bench and waved Rahkesh over.
"Lie down. The other healing spells aren't working so I'm going to try something different."
Rahkesh stretched out on his stomach and watched as Namach sat on another bench beside him and raised his hands over the new scars on his back. Magic flew from the ancient's hand, crackling gently across Rahkesh's back. Grey/silver lines began to appear like elaborate scrollwork, winding over Rahkesh's skin, spreading out until his entire body was covered in silvery lines. Rahkesh examined the ones on his hand, they didn't follow his bloodmagic lines, this was advanced healing magic that showed the exact lines of every tendon and muscle, and the flows of magic that filled that body of any magical being.
"Your mind magics are more or less intact." Namach asked.
"Yes." Most of his mental shields were restored to full strength.
"You haven't worked on your bloodmagic."
"No." Rahkesh said, he was still having trouble accessing it. Everything had healed, and it was working fine, but he couldn't feel it properly yet.
The other two came over to watch as Namach flicked his fingers and the silvery lines deepened and shifted, forming a more three dimensional image.
"Here." Namach said, "this is it. Your body as healed and your magics are more or less stable and healed, but they aren't connected."
"What's stopping them?" Daray asked curiously, leaning over to look at the spots Namach was now manipulating, shifting the grey and silver lines.
"Dead flesh. The demon venom killed some sections of muscle. His body should have reabsorbed that magically, it hasn't. Probably because his magic can't feel its there." Namach examined the silvery lines for a few more seconds. "Rahkesh I'm going to just remove those little dead pieces and regrow them."
"Will that hurt?"
"No. No nerve ending alive. And with this type of healing magic it is possible to shut down the nerves that might be affected."
"Go ahead." Rahkesh said. Namach carefully placed his fingers across the silver strands and began to move them, pushing the silver lines slowly until they circled the dead pieces, then he shifted until his fingernails caught the lines and gave a little flick. The lines across Rahkesh's skin spasmed and four small areas went completely blank.
Lightning snapped and thunder crashed, Daray and Sharahak backed away as Rahkesh's thunderbird surged to life violently. Namach growled in irritation and waited. Rahkesh closed his eyes and sank inwards forcibly suppressing his natural violent reaction to foreign magic. Finally the thunderbird settled and retreated. Rahkesh always reacted badly to foreign magic, now he carefully calmed that reaction and soothed his animagus away. Normally he would not have reacted so badly when he was awake and fully conscious, but the dark energy that spilled off the ancient vampire was enough to make his animagus feel threatened.
Namach placed the silvery strands back where they had been, and pulled other ones towards them, until silvery lines joined at each point of missing flesh. "Rahkesh, try to find the dead areas, using magic."
Rahkesh focused on his back, and felt the silvery lines brighten, slowly he searched until he identified the missing pieces. It was an extension of mind magic, being able to sense every piece of the body. Locating the missing bits was surprisingly easy.
"Now, push raw energy into those spots, and recreate the living flesh." Namach said. Rahkesh called on his magic, and felt a sharp pulse, which he threw into the gaps. Catching it again Rahkesh remembered the feeling of working muscle and life and energized the surrounding flesh. Imagining the regrowth in his mind Rahkesh pictured the muscle growing and filling the empty spaces, and slowly it happened.
Rahkesh blinked and opened his eyes. All pain was gone from his back, and his leg. Had he healed the leg as well without realizing it? Namach had moved to his leg and chuckled suddenly.
"Another instinctive reaction apparently. I was expecting some healing, but not a complete job." Namach said, "try to move it." Rahkesh flexed his leg and was surprised to find it worked perfectly. Namach slowly removed his own magic, and the silvery lines faded away.
"Without that dead flesh in the way your magic and body should reconnect completely." Namach said. "It is very odd that you didn't felt it. Perhaps some reactionary affect of whatever is off with your bloodmagic."
"I think I need to talk to some other parselmouths about that." Rahkesh said, standing cautiously. He put his full weight on his previously injured leg, and found it healed.
"I doubt they'll know much. Unless you find another basilisk." Namach said. Rahkesh nodded, knowing that there was just one other basilisk, and he wasn't anyone Rahkesh would be seeing anywhere but a battlefield.
"Is your magic working fully then?" Daray asked.
"It seems so." Rahkesh said with a shrug.
"Oh good." Daray smirked. Rahkesh instantly went defensive. Rahkesh threw up a shield as he sensed magic moving, and stinging and tickling hexes bounced around him, a couple hitting one foot that hadn't made it behind the shield in time.
Daray laughed and leaped away from several thrown weapons and a blinding spell. He sent back a burning spell and a runny-nose curse. Rahkesh retaliated with a finger-nail growing spell and Daray yelped as his nail extended almost a meter. Rahkesh dodged a bruising curse and spell that would have turned his skin glow-in-the-dark and attacked again. Daray dodged out the door, a last spell turning Rahkesh orange. Rahkesh snarled and followed him out, spells flying.
Behind them the two ancients had avoided the fight and now turned to listen to the battle. Sharahak chuckled and turned to the older vampire.
"I don't suppose they'll bother repairing anything they break?"
"Nothing to break. This wing was meant for dueling." Namach replied. "Did you notice Rahkesh's reactions to foreign magic when he drank the dragon's blood?" Sharahak blinked at the change in subject, then thought about it.
"Yes. Well, I didn't. One of the sorcerers there noted that he had probably survived because he panicked when he felt the invasion and took control of the reaction subconsciously, then gave the worst of the magical discharge from the dragon/human clash to me. But he funneled it into healing magic. And since I was a vampire and almost dead any blood I consumed was automatically altered towards healing."
"That must have been some panic to manage that."
"Enough to send him into seizures bad enough to almost kill him when he tried to first reject, then completely absorb the remaining dragon magic." Sharahak agreed. No one had mentioned it to Rahkesh, but the cave rock had been so badly damaged it had collapsed not long after. "How did he manage to absorb the dragon magic? We could never figure it out."
"Fear. Not surprisingly. He almost died trying to avoid it. I think he made it part of himself because, for whatever reason, he couldn't kill himself. So he defeated it another way, taking it over and making part of him.
"He would have killed himself first?"
"His fear is intense enough that suicide is one of the first reactions he has. It does make sense on some level, on a very twisted panic-attack level. His immediate reaction is to attack. But if it's an opponent he can't beat he switches to suicide instantly because if he dies fast enough then his foe won't gain anything." Namach explained. Sharahak thought that over for a few moments, watching the way Rahkesh had left thoughtfully.
"What caused that reaction to form?"
"That's the question isn't it? I've never encountered such an extreme terror before." Namach said.
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Please review, as always. Reviews feed the muse.
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I will be continuing this fic. Book 7 is out but you'll find little of it here, this is AU and I will continue it.
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