~~~===~~~
Chapter Thirteen: Calm before the Storm
~~~===~~~
"Are you a damned lunatic?" Cecil gritted his teeth and clenched his hand over his bandaged ribs almost as soon as his shout had been voiced. I had just told him about the mission Reis had given me, and he had responded the way I had hoped he wouldn't. Not that I could really blame him.
"No, Cecil. I'm doing my duty."
"What about Baron? What about Rosa and I," he asked, almost pleading again. It was more obvious this time than it was the first time I had left, though - because we both knew full well that this was a dangerous mission at best, more likely a suicide run. And even if I proved capable of completing it, it would probably be months or years before I could return to Baron. "What about your duty to us?"
"King Cecil Harvey, Son of KluYa," I said, emphasizing the last word more pointedly. "If you were told by the spirit you met in that shrine, told to complete this mission, would you?" To his credit, Cecil didn't react immediately. I was actually surprised by how long it took him to answer. What surprised me more, though I'm not sure why, in retrospect, was his answer.
"No," he said softly, as he turned to look at Rosa. He said it very quietly - his bellowed roar a few minutes earlier had already been unhealthy, given his broken ribs. To me, though, the word was like a cannon going off, or the final slam of the gates closing behind me those years ago, when the War was starting.
The difference was that Cecil had been on the outside with me that time. Now, he had just denied the one thing that I had thought would *always* connect us.
"Then I'm afraid I can't explain myself to your satisfaction. Cecil, you are my liege-lord and my friend," I explained. "I love you like a brother. You have trusted me, defended me even when I betrayed you and your trust, even when I tried to kill you. I ask you, Cecil, to trust me again. I have to do this. If I could refuse the mission without turning my back on everything I've ever wanted to be, then I would. But I can't," I finished, my voice nearly cracking at the end. "I can't turn down an order from Lady Reis, any more than I could turn down an order of yours."
"I won't let you do this," he said, clenching his fist. "I won't let you march off to be killed because some ancient spirit says it's the only way to protect our world! There has to be another way, Kain!" Rosa put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. I closed my eyes and reached for the Baronian insignia pinned on the uniform I was wearing.
"There is no other way, Cecil, not that can also save the people he's tormenting. I'm sorry." I took the badge off, and put it down on the table. "My last request as your Captain of the Guard, Cecil, is that you give this to Sean, and trust him as you trusted me."
There are a handful of images I would give my right arm to forget. Cecil's face when I attacked him at Fabul - Rosa's broken body between torture sessions at the Tower of Zot - the pained looks when I stole the Dark Crystal - and the look of shock on Cecil's face when I did that. I saluted him one last time, and turned to leave the room. I didn't hear his response as the door closed behind me, and I leaned against the wall, trembling. I blinked away the tears that were starting to cloud my vision, drew myself up ramrod straight, and started for the main gate at a standard marching cadence.
I could keep from breaking down as long as I kept my focus.
"Kain, Kain!" I almost couldn't hear the voice shouting at me; it sounded like it was from miles away. My pulse was pounding in my ears loudly enough that I probably wouldn't have heard at all, if it hadn't been Rosa. For her, I could at least slow down enough that she could catch up with me, which I did. It didn't take her long, even in the dress she was wearing.
"Kain, don't leave like this, please," she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. It threw off my focus just enough to force me to stop.
"Then how am I supposed to leave, Rosa," I asked, my voice getting hoarse. "It's like I said, he won't understand. And even if he will, he won't let me leave if he has the power to stop me."
"Kain, he's worried about you. He's *scared*, Kain, and I don't remember seeing that more than once before."
"I don't have a choice, Rosa. I have to do this."
"Why, because some ghost told you to? Kain, this is suicide," she said plaintively.
"Not because some ghost told me to - because Lady Reis told me to. She is the first of the Dragon Knights; any one of the dragoons here would leap at the chance to follow her orders. That she chose me means that she believes I can do this - that she wants me to do it. I'm a soldier, Rosa, and I always have been. I follow orders. Cecil understood that, once, but he's changed. I'm not surprised that you don't understand."
"There's more to being a soldier than following orders, Kain."
"You're right. But orders are only to be disregarded when they're wrong. Rosa, people are fighting and dying trying to beat Dragonheart and his Lord and Lady of Darkness, the same way we fought against Golbez. They've been fighting for generations - they're losing hope. And if they lose, then there's nothing to keep Dragonheart from coming here and doing the same thing - he's already tried it, once, and I doubt that he's going to stop just because he was beaten back once."
"Kain, he almost killed Cecil - what chance do you have?"
"Cecil was fighting him one-on-one. So was I, when I lost to him, and that was a much closer match, I'm happy to say. I'll be going into this with Rubicant and Callista -"
"One of whom you barely know, and the other has tried to kill us all on multiple occasions," she pointed out. I ground my teeth together, trying to hold back the building rage I could feel inside of me.
"He might have tried to kill us, but he had less choice in that than I have in this. And he saved *both* our lives far more often than he tried to hurt us, remember? I can trust him, and I don't have any reason not to trust Callista. She's a little odd, but she'll be able to help me."
"Kain - I have a horrible feeling that you aren't coming back to us," she admitted. "And I don't want to lose you - you're a good friend to Cecil, and to me. I don't know what losing you will do to him, and I'd rather not find out the hard way."
"I will come back, Rosa," I promised. "If it is within my power to do so, I will come back to both of you. Once this is over."
"I'll hold you to that, Kain." She paused for a moment. "I'll authorize use of the Enterprise so the three of you can return to Mount Ordeals with a minimum of effort. After a week, I'll have Cid return it to the castle."
"Thank you, Rosa. I'm sorry, but I have to do this."
"I know," she said after a moment's pause. "I might not understand it, but I know you have to do it. I'll see you again, Kain Highwind."
"Good journey to you, Rosa. And farewell." With that, I turned and left Castle Baron, marginally more steadily than before. Little did I know the effect this afternoon would have on the course of my life. Or how soon that course would change because of it..
~~~===~~~
Several minutes later, the Enterprise left Baron, the roar of its engines audible even in the room Cecil was healing in.
"He's gone, isn't he," the paladin-king asked sadly as Rosa entered the room again. She nodded quietly, and sat down next to him.
"He is. He's hurting, but he's gone."
"Don't you try telling me he's hurting, Rosa. If he cared about Baron - cared about us - he'd have stayed," Cecil said, throwing Kain's old badge of office to the floor.
"That's bullshit and you know it," Rosa said, raising her voice slightly. Cecil looked at her with a scowl, but she continued. "He cared about you enough to be willing to die for you more times than I can count, almost did get killed when he fought Dragonheart to protect you. He could have finished it, but you would have been hit by the spell that the bastard was casting. You wouldn't have survived, but he would have killed Dragonheart. Instead, he took that spell for you. And now he's going to finish the job. He may not want to, but he knows it has to be done. And frankly, he's right." Cecil was quiet for a moment, thinking.
"What did he do to you, Rosa?"
"Who, Dragonheart?"
"Yes. What did he do to you after he kidnapped you? You seem quite certain that he has to die - that's not like you."
"Less, and more, than was done to me at Zot. He didn't touch me the way that Golbez or Scarmiglione did - but he did worse. He stole my magic, Cecil, stole that and pieces of my mind that held everything from cherished memories to the best way to break into your old bedchambers."
"I'm not sure if I should be flattered you remembered how, or thankful that I'm not using them anymore," Cecil half-joked. Rosa rolled her eyes and continued.
"There's more, Cecil. Dragonheart wants to see both of us dead, and won't rest until he does. He has to die in order to protect us."
"How do you know so much about him?"
"There are worlds like ours, but different," Rosa said quietly. "One of the lessons a true mage is taught is how to see into versions of yourself on those other worlds - sort of an object lesson in how power must be used, and why you can't use magic for certain reasons." She swallowed deeply.
"By all that's holy, Cecil, I saw what spawned him. I know what he is, and who he is. I wish I didn't, but I do."
"What is he? Why do you know him from that?"
"He's my son," she whispered. "My son, and not truly human. One of my other selves - they made a bargain with something evil, and he's the spawn of that union. A monster that shouldn't exist."
"Rosa, he's not *your* son," Cecil said, reaching to put his relatively good arm around her. "No more than that other self is really you. You're a good person, noble, caring, kind almost to a fault. Anybody who could do what you described couldn't really be you."
"I hope you're right, Cecil," she said, laying down next to him and snuggling up as close as she could without hurting him. "I just hope you're right."
~~~===~~~
The Lady of Darkness was lying on her bed, sipping a glass of blood-red wine, when she heard the knock on her chamber door. She smiled to herself and set the glass down.
"Come in, Scarmiglione." The door opened, and a well-dressed young man with raven-black hair walked in.
"Well," she chuckled, "you're certainly done up tonight." The young man, presumably the Fiend of Earth, bowed graciously as he closed the door behind him.
"I thought you might prefer it if I came to you in the form you first met me in," he said smoothly.
"How considerate of you," she rumbled seductively. "Well come on, there's more than enough room for you over here." Scarmiglione practically glided over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it and looking over his shoulder at her.
"Just what have you been up to these past centuries," he asked. "The last time I saw you, you were busy trying to get rid of Dragonheart's father."
"Which I accomplished," she said smugly. "And got my son back in the bargain."
"He is a good fighter, though I have to question his ability as a commander, at times. Grand plans, but not quite the people skills to pull them off." The Lady reached up and took his shoulder, pulling him down next to her on the bed.
"He has learned how to be what I need him to be," she said seriously, before drawing him into a heated kiss.
"I have missed your presence," she said fondly, once they had parted. "My husband busies himself with paramours and other distractions, while I maintain the realm and have the occasional tryst. But nothing compared to you. Nobody else who understood me, after my change." He took her hand and raised it to his lips.
"Nobody else understood what that change meant, my love. I have searched a thousand lifetimes, more variations on your eternal theme than I can count, and I have seen that you alone are the one who deserves this power." She trailed her fingers down the fine fabric covering his chest for a few moments, thinking quietly for a few minutes before speaking again.
"Tell me, Scarmiglione - you have been born, created, summoned, controlled - and yet you have the power to destroy worlds. Why do you obey these fools - why not simply destroy them?"
"They serve my purposes," he said simply, reaching to rub her shoulder gently. "I have done all those things, yet here I am, poised to retake my place in the universe."
"And how will you accomplish that," she asked, an eager gleam in her eyes.
"That, my love, is the last of the secrets I have to reveal to you. Given time, all things shall become clear. You have but to complete the transformation, and I will see that you understand."
"I cannot complete it yet," she said wistfully, turning onto her back and looking towards the ceiling. "I have tried, for a thousand lives. But I have not completed it yet."
"If you had completed it, then I would be trembling in my boots," he said with a soft smile. "I completed it the fastest of all of us - and even then, it took so long that even the planets changed in the interim. Of course, I was finding my own way down the path, hadn't located the shortcuts that I have shown you. You have come far, my love - you transcended mortality, and found a way to send yourself through time, within the span of a single life. It took Bahamut the lifespan of ten dragons before he had done so. The rest is simple, now that I can guide you the rest of the way." She turned to face him again, a curious expression on her face.
"What do you mean?"
"You need power, love," he explained. "You have conquered and looted, drained the energy of entire worlds slowly, always seeking to continue the path to your apotheosis. But there are other ways. Ways that I alone have discovered, for none of the other so-called great spirits have desired to bring another to their level. They seek to keep the key to immortality for themselves."
"And you would share it, with me at least," the Lady said with a soft smile.
"Of course. Trust me - my actions are all for your own good. Even my attempt to disfavor your son were done with your best interests in mind - I fear he will bring the servitors of the great spirits to this realm, and they will surely interfere when they discover what is happening." The Lady's eyes darkened, and Scarmiglione could swear he saw fire glowing inside of them.
"I don't care. I will delay my transformation if my son's death is the price for speeding it up." She turned away from him, facing the outer wall as she crossed her arms in front of her.
"Forgive my presumption, please," he said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "I'm sure he will prove useful in his own way, given the time."
"It took me twelve years to get him back, Scarmiglione, and the death of his fool father. I will not lose him that easily." The Fiend of Earth nodded, a rueful smile on his face.
"We will simply have to establish that his disciplinary measures are not to be used against me, then. This body has some severe issues with fire, and with the Holy spell he stole from one of your counterparts. I am sorry," he said quickly, as she rolled to face him again, her dark mood fading somewhat.
"I know of her," the Lady stated simply. "And she of me. Strangely, our lives seem to parallel in many respects, yet she refused you." Scarmiglione chuckled dangerously.
"Unlike you, she truly loved the dark knight to whom you are married. I quite enjoyed my time with her."
"I'm sure you did," she nearly purred, slipping her arms around her again. "You always enjoyed being persuasive."
"Ah, but with you, there's no need for that," he said before claiming another kiss. "And yet, you satisfy me more than any other ever has."
"Because I'm a part of you, Scarmiglione, as you well know. Or perhaps you are a part of me."
"It goes both ways. I suppose that makes Dragonheart a part of me as well," he mused. "Given that he is your son, of course."
"After all the trouble I went through to find him," she growled, "he most certainly is."
"How did that happen? I was forced to leave this world by the time that transpired, but I know your plan was sound - you should not have lost him."
"Unfortunately, I misjudged Cecil's reaction to finding that I had been.indiscrete. Rather than simply furthering my dear husband's eventual descent into madness, he broke then and there. In the course of the following battle, Cecil said a few things that tipped my hand. And so, the little bastard ran, taking Ryan with him. Swore to raise him as a paladin, the way he was meant to be raised, or some other such foolishness. Found a wet nurse among the peasants to help raise him, then led me on a wild goose chase for six years. That was when he came back and started Ryan's training. Or so he thought. My son did an excellent job of sneaking into the castle, it seems. I didn't even sense his presence, until after I completed the first change." She chuckled smugly and ran a hand down Scarmiglione's back.
"Enough about the past, love," she continued. "Let's enjoy the present, now that we're together for it again." The Fiend of Earth chuckled as he shifted his form slightly, drawing the clothes he had materialized back into his body.
"How right you are," he said quietly as he shifted to kiss her, and she extinguished the torches in the room with a thought..
~~~===~~~
End of Legacy of Kain Chapter 13: Calm before the Storm
~~~===~~~
Chapter Thirteen: Calm before the Storm
~~~===~~~
"Are you a damned lunatic?" Cecil gritted his teeth and clenched his hand over his bandaged ribs almost as soon as his shout had been voiced. I had just told him about the mission Reis had given me, and he had responded the way I had hoped he wouldn't. Not that I could really blame him.
"No, Cecil. I'm doing my duty."
"What about Baron? What about Rosa and I," he asked, almost pleading again. It was more obvious this time than it was the first time I had left, though - because we both knew full well that this was a dangerous mission at best, more likely a suicide run. And even if I proved capable of completing it, it would probably be months or years before I could return to Baron. "What about your duty to us?"
"King Cecil Harvey, Son of KluYa," I said, emphasizing the last word more pointedly. "If you were told by the spirit you met in that shrine, told to complete this mission, would you?" To his credit, Cecil didn't react immediately. I was actually surprised by how long it took him to answer. What surprised me more, though I'm not sure why, in retrospect, was his answer.
"No," he said softly, as he turned to look at Rosa. He said it very quietly - his bellowed roar a few minutes earlier had already been unhealthy, given his broken ribs. To me, though, the word was like a cannon going off, or the final slam of the gates closing behind me those years ago, when the War was starting.
The difference was that Cecil had been on the outside with me that time. Now, he had just denied the one thing that I had thought would *always* connect us.
"Then I'm afraid I can't explain myself to your satisfaction. Cecil, you are my liege-lord and my friend," I explained. "I love you like a brother. You have trusted me, defended me even when I betrayed you and your trust, even when I tried to kill you. I ask you, Cecil, to trust me again. I have to do this. If I could refuse the mission without turning my back on everything I've ever wanted to be, then I would. But I can't," I finished, my voice nearly cracking at the end. "I can't turn down an order from Lady Reis, any more than I could turn down an order of yours."
"I won't let you do this," he said, clenching his fist. "I won't let you march off to be killed because some ancient spirit says it's the only way to protect our world! There has to be another way, Kain!" Rosa put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. I closed my eyes and reached for the Baronian insignia pinned on the uniform I was wearing.
"There is no other way, Cecil, not that can also save the people he's tormenting. I'm sorry." I took the badge off, and put it down on the table. "My last request as your Captain of the Guard, Cecil, is that you give this to Sean, and trust him as you trusted me."
There are a handful of images I would give my right arm to forget. Cecil's face when I attacked him at Fabul - Rosa's broken body between torture sessions at the Tower of Zot - the pained looks when I stole the Dark Crystal - and the look of shock on Cecil's face when I did that. I saluted him one last time, and turned to leave the room. I didn't hear his response as the door closed behind me, and I leaned against the wall, trembling. I blinked away the tears that were starting to cloud my vision, drew myself up ramrod straight, and started for the main gate at a standard marching cadence.
I could keep from breaking down as long as I kept my focus.
"Kain, Kain!" I almost couldn't hear the voice shouting at me; it sounded like it was from miles away. My pulse was pounding in my ears loudly enough that I probably wouldn't have heard at all, if it hadn't been Rosa. For her, I could at least slow down enough that she could catch up with me, which I did. It didn't take her long, even in the dress she was wearing.
"Kain, don't leave like this, please," she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. It threw off my focus just enough to force me to stop.
"Then how am I supposed to leave, Rosa," I asked, my voice getting hoarse. "It's like I said, he won't understand. And even if he will, he won't let me leave if he has the power to stop me."
"Kain, he's worried about you. He's *scared*, Kain, and I don't remember seeing that more than once before."
"I don't have a choice, Rosa. I have to do this."
"Why, because some ghost told you to? Kain, this is suicide," she said plaintively.
"Not because some ghost told me to - because Lady Reis told me to. She is the first of the Dragon Knights; any one of the dragoons here would leap at the chance to follow her orders. That she chose me means that she believes I can do this - that she wants me to do it. I'm a soldier, Rosa, and I always have been. I follow orders. Cecil understood that, once, but he's changed. I'm not surprised that you don't understand."
"There's more to being a soldier than following orders, Kain."
"You're right. But orders are only to be disregarded when they're wrong. Rosa, people are fighting and dying trying to beat Dragonheart and his Lord and Lady of Darkness, the same way we fought against Golbez. They've been fighting for generations - they're losing hope. And if they lose, then there's nothing to keep Dragonheart from coming here and doing the same thing - he's already tried it, once, and I doubt that he's going to stop just because he was beaten back once."
"Kain, he almost killed Cecil - what chance do you have?"
"Cecil was fighting him one-on-one. So was I, when I lost to him, and that was a much closer match, I'm happy to say. I'll be going into this with Rubicant and Callista -"
"One of whom you barely know, and the other has tried to kill us all on multiple occasions," she pointed out. I ground my teeth together, trying to hold back the building rage I could feel inside of me.
"He might have tried to kill us, but he had less choice in that than I have in this. And he saved *both* our lives far more often than he tried to hurt us, remember? I can trust him, and I don't have any reason not to trust Callista. She's a little odd, but she'll be able to help me."
"Kain - I have a horrible feeling that you aren't coming back to us," she admitted. "And I don't want to lose you - you're a good friend to Cecil, and to me. I don't know what losing you will do to him, and I'd rather not find out the hard way."
"I will come back, Rosa," I promised. "If it is within my power to do so, I will come back to both of you. Once this is over."
"I'll hold you to that, Kain." She paused for a moment. "I'll authorize use of the Enterprise so the three of you can return to Mount Ordeals with a minimum of effort. After a week, I'll have Cid return it to the castle."
"Thank you, Rosa. I'm sorry, but I have to do this."
"I know," she said after a moment's pause. "I might not understand it, but I know you have to do it. I'll see you again, Kain Highwind."
"Good journey to you, Rosa. And farewell." With that, I turned and left Castle Baron, marginally more steadily than before. Little did I know the effect this afternoon would have on the course of my life. Or how soon that course would change because of it..
~~~===~~~
Several minutes later, the Enterprise left Baron, the roar of its engines audible even in the room Cecil was healing in.
"He's gone, isn't he," the paladin-king asked sadly as Rosa entered the room again. She nodded quietly, and sat down next to him.
"He is. He's hurting, but he's gone."
"Don't you try telling me he's hurting, Rosa. If he cared about Baron - cared about us - he'd have stayed," Cecil said, throwing Kain's old badge of office to the floor.
"That's bullshit and you know it," Rosa said, raising her voice slightly. Cecil looked at her with a scowl, but she continued. "He cared about you enough to be willing to die for you more times than I can count, almost did get killed when he fought Dragonheart to protect you. He could have finished it, but you would have been hit by the spell that the bastard was casting. You wouldn't have survived, but he would have killed Dragonheart. Instead, he took that spell for you. And now he's going to finish the job. He may not want to, but he knows it has to be done. And frankly, he's right." Cecil was quiet for a moment, thinking.
"What did he do to you, Rosa?"
"Who, Dragonheart?"
"Yes. What did he do to you after he kidnapped you? You seem quite certain that he has to die - that's not like you."
"Less, and more, than was done to me at Zot. He didn't touch me the way that Golbez or Scarmiglione did - but he did worse. He stole my magic, Cecil, stole that and pieces of my mind that held everything from cherished memories to the best way to break into your old bedchambers."
"I'm not sure if I should be flattered you remembered how, or thankful that I'm not using them anymore," Cecil half-joked. Rosa rolled her eyes and continued.
"There's more, Cecil. Dragonheart wants to see both of us dead, and won't rest until he does. He has to die in order to protect us."
"How do you know so much about him?"
"There are worlds like ours, but different," Rosa said quietly. "One of the lessons a true mage is taught is how to see into versions of yourself on those other worlds - sort of an object lesson in how power must be used, and why you can't use magic for certain reasons." She swallowed deeply.
"By all that's holy, Cecil, I saw what spawned him. I know what he is, and who he is. I wish I didn't, but I do."
"What is he? Why do you know him from that?"
"He's my son," she whispered. "My son, and not truly human. One of my other selves - they made a bargain with something evil, and he's the spawn of that union. A monster that shouldn't exist."
"Rosa, he's not *your* son," Cecil said, reaching to put his relatively good arm around her. "No more than that other self is really you. You're a good person, noble, caring, kind almost to a fault. Anybody who could do what you described couldn't really be you."
"I hope you're right, Cecil," she said, laying down next to him and snuggling up as close as she could without hurting him. "I just hope you're right."
~~~===~~~
The Lady of Darkness was lying on her bed, sipping a glass of blood-red wine, when she heard the knock on her chamber door. She smiled to herself and set the glass down.
"Come in, Scarmiglione." The door opened, and a well-dressed young man with raven-black hair walked in.
"Well," she chuckled, "you're certainly done up tonight." The young man, presumably the Fiend of Earth, bowed graciously as he closed the door behind him.
"I thought you might prefer it if I came to you in the form you first met me in," he said smoothly.
"How considerate of you," she rumbled seductively. "Well come on, there's more than enough room for you over here." Scarmiglione practically glided over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it and looking over his shoulder at her.
"Just what have you been up to these past centuries," he asked. "The last time I saw you, you were busy trying to get rid of Dragonheart's father."
"Which I accomplished," she said smugly. "And got my son back in the bargain."
"He is a good fighter, though I have to question his ability as a commander, at times. Grand plans, but not quite the people skills to pull them off." The Lady reached up and took his shoulder, pulling him down next to her on the bed.
"He has learned how to be what I need him to be," she said seriously, before drawing him into a heated kiss.
"I have missed your presence," she said fondly, once they had parted. "My husband busies himself with paramours and other distractions, while I maintain the realm and have the occasional tryst. But nothing compared to you. Nobody else who understood me, after my change." He took her hand and raised it to his lips.
"Nobody else understood what that change meant, my love. I have searched a thousand lifetimes, more variations on your eternal theme than I can count, and I have seen that you alone are the one who deserves this power." She trailed her fingers down the fine fabric covering his chest for a few moments, thinking quietly for a few minutes before speaking again.
"Tell me, Scarmiglione - you have been born, created, summoned, controlled - and yet you have the power to destroy worlds. Why do you obey these fools - why not simply destroy them?"
"They serve my purposes," he said simply, reaching to rub her shoulder gently. "I have done all those things, yet here I am, poised to retake my place in the universe."
"And how will you accomplish that," she asked, an eager gleam in her eyes.
"That, my love, is the last of the secrets I have to reveal to you. Given time, all things shall become clear. You have but to complete the transformation, and I will see that you understand."
"I cannot complete it yet," she said wistfully, turning onto her back and looking towards the ceiling. "I have tried, for a thousand lives. But I have not completed it yet."
"If you had completed it, then I would be trembling in my boots," he said with a soft smile. "I completed it the fastest of all of us - and even then, it took so long that even the planets changed in the interim. Of course, I was finding my own way down the path, hadn't located the shortcuts that I have shown you. You have come far, my love - you transcended mortality, and found a way to send yourself through time, within the span of a single life. It took Bahamut the lifespan of ten dragons before he had done so. The rest is simple, now that I can guide you the rest of the way." She turned to face him again, a curious expression on her face.
"What do you mean?"
"You need power, love," he explained. "You have conquered and looted, drained the energy of entire worlds slowly, always seeking to continue the path to your apotheosis. But there are other ways. Ways that I alone have discovered, for none of the other so-called great spirits have desired to bring another to their level. They seek to keep the key to immortality for themselves."
"And you would share it, with me at least," the Lady said with a soft smile.
"Of course. Trust me - my actions are all for your own good. Even my attempt to disfavor your son were done with your best interests in mind - I fear he will bring the servitors of the great spirits to this realm, and they will surely interfere when they discover what is happening." The Lady's eyes darkened, and Scarmiglione could swear he saw fire glowing inside of them.
"I don't care. I will delay my transformation if my son's death is the price for speeding it up." She turned away from him, facing the outer wall as she crossed her arms in front of her.
"Forgive my presumption, please," he said, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "I'm sure he will prove useful in his own way, given the time."
"It took me twelve years to get him back, Scarmiglione, and the death of his fool father. I will not lose him that easily." The Fiend of Earth nodded, a rueful smile on his face.
"We will simply have to establish that his disciplinary measures are not to be used against me, then. This body has some severe issues with fire, and with the Holy spell he stole from one of your counterparts. I am sorry," he said quickly, as she rolled to face him again, her dark mood fading somewhat.
"I know of her," the Lady stated simply. "And she of me. Strangely, our lives seem to parallel in many respects, yet she refused you." Scarmiglione chuckled dangerously.
"Unlike you, she truly loved the dark knight to whom you are married. I quite enjoyed my time with her."
"I'm sure you did," she nearly purred, slipping her arms around her again. "You always enjoyed being persuasive."
"Ah, but with you, there's no need for that," he said before claiming another kiss. "And yet, you satisfy me more than any other ever has."
"Because I'm a part of you, Scarmiglione, as you well know. Or perhaps you are a part of me."
"It goes both ways. I suppose that makes Dragonheart a part of me as well," he mused. "Given that he is your son, of course."
"After all the trouble I went through to find him," she growled, "he most certainly is."
"How did that happen? I was forced to leave this world by the time that transpired, but I know your plan was sound - you should not have lost him."
"Unfortunately, I misjudged Cecil's reaction to finding that I had been.indiscrete. Rather than simply furthering my dear husband's eventual descent into madness, he broke then and there. In the course of the following battle, Cecil said a few things that tipped my hand. And so, the little bastard ran, taking Ryan with him. Swore to raise him as a paladin, the way he was meant to be raised, or some other such foolishness. Found a wet nurse among the peasants to help raise him, then led me on a wild goose chase for six years. That was when he came back and started Ryan's training. Or so he thought. My son did an excellent job of sneaking into the castle, it seems. I didn't even sense his presence, until after I completed the first change." She chuckled smugly and ran a hand down Scarmiglione's back.
"Enough about the past, love," she continued. "Let's enjoy the present, now that we're together for it again." The Fiend of Earth chuckled as he shifted his form slightly, drawing the clothes he had materialized back into his body.
"How right you are," he said quietly as he shifted to kiss her, and she extinguished the torches in the room with a thought..
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End of Legacy of Kain Chapter 13: Calm before the Storm
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