Chapter 7.
LENG PLATEAU,
(JUNE 15, 1955)
Roland Kantos had initially been one of the finest aurors in House Tytalus.* That is; till the fateful day he was hit with an Avra Kadavra curse during the war against the self-vampirized wizards of House Tremere.
To everyone's shock and amazement, including his own, he came back to life!
Never before had the Order of Hermes had an Immortal in their ranks. At least, not one of this variety! So, to study the matter further, they transferred him to House Jerbiton who, in turn, appointed him as their emissary to the Chakravanti. For the latter, who were also known as "The Scholars of the Wheel", were the Euthanatoic counterpart of House Bonisagus! Consequently, they were more well-versed than any other members of the Council of Nine Mystic Traditions when it came to such esoteric topics as necromancy and reincarnation.
That was how Kantos first learned of the Chinese legend concerning the origins of vampirism, in general, and Immortals in particular.
He was especially fascinated by all the written accounts -few as those were- concerning "The Quickening." A super-charged variant of chi, or life force, that only other Immortals seemed able to assimilate. And, most fascinating of all was a little something entitled... The Prophecy of the One.
"There shall come a day when only one Immortal is left. That One shall inherit the collective power of all the previous Immortals' Quickenings! Thereby becoming able to- -among other things- -resume mortality. To grow old and have children, if The One so wishes! But, The One shall also inherit the power to influence how the rest of the world thinks and acts. And how that power is wielded, whether for good or ill, shall depend upon the basic nature of The One."
Almost immediately, Kantos began fantasizing about being this prophesied Immortal. What would he do with such near-limitless power? What could he _not_ do with it? But, all that changed in the early fifteenth century... when he met the Master of the Order of Aurelius.
The latter was a Nosferatu-Embraced scion of the Giovanni Clan's Koenig bloodline. And upon becoming Master of the Order through ritual diablerie, he had gained knowledge of a prophecy concerning Kantos. One that had compelled the Immortalized wizard to abandon his post in a now-increasingly desperate bid to thwart it!
"Merlin's Beard!" Kantos exclaimed. "I swear to you, I was trying to apparate us much closer than this. But, suddenly, it was as if I had been spell-casting for a week straight!"
"No surprise, there," replied Fenris Greybeard. "The Temple of Shadows has a tendency to drain a wizard's magic. Much like the ruins of Kala Pradesh! Only, tenfold."
"And you choose _now_ to finally tell me this?!" snarled Kantos (just barely managing to restrain himself from drawing his sword).
The faux-Fenrir could not resist chuckling. "I wanted to see the baffled expression on your face. But, now that I've gotten that out of my system, we can proceed! Though, from here, we must do so on foot."
"Hmph!" snorted Kantos. "So what else is new? Most everywhere we've gone, in this part of the world, we've had to walk."
Half an hour later, the strange duo was climbing what was left of the Temple's front steps. They entered the once-grand entrance hall, very quietly. With Kantos now having fully drawn his sword. For, even though his Quickening had not alerted him in the usual manner, as it would in the presence of another Immortal, there was still something about this place that set it off. That made it "tingle", for lack of a better term, uncomfortably.
"My kingdom for an aspirin," he muttered in a Shakespearian paraphrase.
Greybeard made a hushing gesture with his right paw. He then pointed, with his left paw, to the doorway of an alcove along the left-hand wall. Kantos nodded and silently followed him. Upon crossing the threshold of that doorway, they found themselves at the top of a stone staircase leading downward. So, down they went. Five minutes later, they reached a narrow corridor. One with another open doorway at the far end of it. And the closer they got to that second doorway, the more painful became Kantos' Quickening!
It was only upon going through that doorway that the pain suddenly ceased.
"What...?" Kantos instinctively tried to ask at the top of his voice. But, Greybeard's massive right paw immediately gagged him!
"Down there," whispered the nephandic animagus, pointing with his left paw.
Kantos looked in the indicated direction and almost gasped, despite the hand-gag. For there, straight ahead, was an exact replica of the Wizengamot arena! And, in the exact center of that arena was a rectangular stone object covered with a translucent gray veil. One that seemed to periodically billow outward, as if being moved by small gusts of wind.
Only there was no wind blowing, at all. The stillness of the dust on the arena floor was testament to that fact. Indeed, the only disturbance of that dust had come from the footprints left behind by the individual now standing just in front of that stone rectangle! An individual who seemed to be conversing with someone oddly familiar. Kantos closed his eyes in order to better mentally picture himself fingering through the scrolls of the Chakravanti library. Then, it came to him.
"Herpo the Foul!" he whispered to himself.
"More specifically?" Greybeard whispered back. "His shade."
tbc
*GLOSSARY
House Tytalus: the branch of the Order of Hermes that believes strife improves life. In this universe, that's where the Wizarding World gets most of its aurors from.
House Tremere: the branch of the Order of Hermes that went renegade during the Dark Ages, becoming the progenitors of vampiric Clan Tremere.
House Jerbiton: the branch of the Order of Hermes that specializes in the cultural arts, including the art of diplomacy.
Chakravanti: Indian branch of the Euthanatoi, a collection of necromantic cults first confederated by the ancient Greeks.
House Bonisagus: the branch of the Order of Hermes that is chiefly concerned with the teaching of wizardry, mostly, the Euro-centric kind.
Council of Nine Mystic Traditions: a conglomeration of wizarding and quasi-scientific organizations founded by the Order of the Hermes circa the 15th century. The other eight members being the Euthanatoi; the Akashic Brotherhood; the Celestial Chorus (mostly Christian); the Verbenae (strictly women); the Dreamspeakers (tribal shamans); the Cult of Ecstasy (aka the Seers of Chronos); the Sons of Ether (fringe scientists from 1900); and the Virtual Adepts (fringe scientists from 1990).
Diablerie: the act of one vampire draining another vampire of his vitae, Kindred euphemism for blood.