Chapter Thirty-Eight
Kain was about at the end of his rope. He had tried all he could think of to convince Rauha that she was the new balance guardian. It did not help matters that she hadn't a clue what the pillars were in the first place. Kain found himself giving the new guardian a crash course on the recent history of the pillars.
Kain's difficulties did not end there. Rauha's carefree spirit was like splinters beneath the vampire's skin. The girl seemed not to care about the fact that she was a guardian, let alone the most important one. Every time Kain attempted to get through to her, Rauha's attention was elsewhere, whether it was watching the sky or chasing butterflies through the field.
Kain had also quickly discovered, that for one reason or another, Rauha could not speak. This only added fuel to Kain's fire of frustration. He had no way of knowing if any of the information he had given his pupil had sunk in.
Desperate, Kain had even attempted establishing a mind link with the entity within Rauha. As he tried to do so, Rauha struggled against Kain, but the stronger vampire won out. When he overcame the child's tantrum, he placed his hand on her forehead once again and waited. But he heard nothing. He waited a moment longer before releasing Rauha. The girl bolted from Kain's grasp and immediately headed towards a patch of dandelions.
Kain thought about his predicament a moment while watching Rauha gather a fistful of the yellow flowers. Perhaps he could not initiate a conversation with the spirit within her. Perhaps only Rauha could. Or maybe the spirit itself?
The sun had traveled across the sky to indicate early afternoon. Realizing this, Kain had decided he had wasted enough time trying to get through to this girl. Whether she realized who she was or not, he was just going to take Rauha to the pillars and let Raziel and Jenise deal with her. He was not a babysitter anyway.
"Rauha, it's time to go," Kain tried to speak to her as calmly as possible as he approached the crouching youth.
The thirteen year old rose to her feet and turned towards Kain with a wide smile on her face. Kain sneered at her cheerful expression. Rauha thrust a bouquet of thirty or so dandelions towards Kain, offering them as a gift.
"What use are those to me? I do not need those weeds."
Rauha's smile faded at Kain's refusal. Her arms dropped down in front of her, barely clutching the flowers. She drooped her head down and tried to stifle her tears, but could not prevent the barely audible sniffle. Kain sighed in exasperation. This was the last thing he needed.
"Alright. If it makes you feel any better, I...like...those flowers."
Rauha's head snapped up, the bright smile had returned despite the stillborn tear in her eye. She thrust the flowers once again towards Kain, who this time, reluctantly accepted them. Unexpectedly to Kain, Rauha wrapped her hand around one of his massive claws. He was slightly taken back by her boldness, but he figured this would be easier for him than chasing her down. Concentrating, the vampire cast his teleportation spell and they vanished from sight.
Raziel had paced from one end of the pillar base to the other for about the millionth time. Jenise had sat quietly and watched him with an amused expression on her face. He could get so worked up at times. Though, Kain had been gone quite a long time now. The reaver of souls hadn't taken nearly this long to find Taliba.
The guardians had passed the time by introducing themselves to each other, since from this point onward; they would be a vital part of each other's lives. Along with telling each other a little about their lives, they had also given demonstrations of their powers. Most of them anyway.
Drogo refused because of his beliefs that the dead should remain dead like they were intended. The wizard Roshan refused to demonstrate his power, but for less noble purposes. Once he had found that no one in the group had heard of him, the great Roshan, he withdrew from the group. Instead he watched quietly from the side, angry that Jenise had figured him out so easily. Nobu, who was from Uschtenhiem, had never even heard of him either.
Taliba had demonstrated her power by looking into the past and reciting a moment of a few of the guardians' histories. Sophia read a few of the other guardians' minds, with their permission. Nobu foretold the participating guardians how their lost loved ones were doing in the dimension of the afterlife.
Cosmo used his power to cleanse a patch of the ground of its toxins. Alma showed her abilities by vitalizing the previously cleansed earth with grass, flowers and shrubbery. When Galen was asked to demonstrate his abilities, he said he had been doing so the entire time. When he was questioned about this, he simply stated that it had been nearly two hours since Raziel and Jenise teased or bickered each other. The groups shared a chuckle over this, including Roshan, who had almost completely gotten over his anger.
The group suddenly went silent as a new presence was felt, along with Kain's returning presence. Raziel stopped in his pacing and stared expectantly at the pillar gates. Kain slowly made his way towards the pillars with Rauha still grasping his talon and the bouquet of dandelions in his other hand. As he came into view, Raziel released a chuckle he could no longer suppress.
"If I had known you were out on a date, I wouldn't have been so impatient for your arrival, Kain," snorted the reaver of souls.
Kain growled with irritation as Rauha released Kain's hand and ran off towards the pillars. Kain watched her go as she ran passed the other eight guardians towards the new object of fascination.
"Aw, she's so cute Kain!" Jenise added with a laugh. "Where did you find her?"
"In Coorhagen, like I said," Kain growled quietly between gritted teeth.
Some of the other guardians tried to introduce themselves to Rauha, but the young girl seemed to be ignoring them as she stared in awe at each of the pillars. Alma was the most persistent of the guardians, being grateful that she was no longer the youngest looking of the group. Not that that was a bad thing, but when you look like a child, you tend to get treated like one.
The remainder of the guardians watched in puzzlement at the odd behavior of their newest member. Rauha's strange antics raised a few questions and concerns. Taliba and Roshan approached Kain with these concerns.
"Is that young girl the last guardian?" Roshan inquired.
Kain turned his attention from Raziel and Jenise. "Yes. She is, without a doubt," he added for emphasis, "the guardian of Balance."
"But she still seems to be...such a...child," Taliba persisted.
The master vampire sighed...humans and their idiocy. "She is still yet unaware of her duties. But you, time guardian, should be able to 'see' that she is indeed the Balance guardian."
Taliba took the hint offered to her. She closed her eyes in concentration. The group in her immediate presence, except for Kain, waited patiently for her confirmation. After a few long moments, she opened her eyes with a look of surprise on her face.
"She is. She truly is the balance guardian. All we have to do to get her to realize that is-" The time guardian was cut off by a crippling shockwave, followed by a blinding white light.
While Taliba was looking into Rauha's future, the girl had been circling the balance pillar, studying it meticulously with curiosity. As the time guardian was about to unlock the secret to helping Rauha, the girl placed both her palms on the pillar and closed her eyes. At that moment, the shockwave erupted from the balance pillar, outwards towards the pillar gates, knocking all of the guardians unconscious.
Kain, being a guardian as well, suffered from the shockwave as well. Being a vampire, and being not from this era, he was weakened from the blow, but not unconscious. Raziel and Jenise seemed unaffected from the shockwave, but the blinding light was another story. Once their vision returned, they were left in utter disbelief.
Rauha opened her eyes and found herself in a blank, white vastness. She sat up off the ground, looking around with worried eyes.
"Do not be afraid Rauha," a woman's reassuring voice filled the void.
Rauha spun around, and found a mysterious woman standing before her. She wore a pure white silk cloak that hid her identity. Rauha stared at her with wide eyes.
"Rauha, do you know where you are?"
The girl shook her head 'no'.
"This vastness we are now in is inside the pillar of balance."
Rauha stared questioningly at the woman.
"You may speak your mind her, child. In this place, you are not bound by your limitations."
Rauha opened her mouth, but was hesitant with doubt. "W-why...a-are...we...here?" she struggled the words, surprised that she had actually spoken.
The woman smiled with pride at the girl's achievement. "Rauha, you are here because you must realize your destiny."
"M-my...des-tiny?"
"Do you know what the Pillars of Nosgoth are?"
"Kain...told me...some..." Rauha replied in thought of the vampire's lectures.
"Yes. The pillars keep Nosgoth healthy and uncorrupt. Each pillar has a guardian. Many years ago, there was treachery within the circle of guardians. This caused Nosgoth to fill with corruption. Because of this corruption, a predatory race of beings is trying to invade our world. If they succeed, they will enslave the human race."
"But...why...am I...here?"
"The pillars have new guardians now. And they have all been gathered to fulfill their duties as guardians. They have been waiting for the last guardian, the balance guardian. And now you have arrived."
Rauha was silent a moment as she made the connection. "B-but...I am not...the...guar-dian! I am...just a...girl!"
"Rauha, you are the guardian of balance. You are the most important of the guardians. I know this may seem to be a large burden for you to bear, but you must accept your destiny."
"How would...you know my...destiny!"
"I have known since they day you were born. I've been with you since your first cry, since you first opened your eyes to the world around you."
Rauha's eyes widened in surprise. The woman's voice was unmistakably familiar to her. And the woman's claim to have known her could only mean one thing.
"Are you...are you her?" the girl inquired timidly.
The woman nodded with a smile. She pulled back her cloak, to reveal her identity to the girl. The woman was beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Rauha recognized her instantly.
"You are! You are...the one from my...dreams!" she cried as she ran up to the woman. Rauha confronted the woman with a desperate hug. The woman gently returned the embrace.
"I-I never thought...I would...really meet you... I know I am...the guardian...but...I'm afraid..."
"I know it may seem frightening, but do not worry, Rauha. As my predecessor, I know you shall fulfill your destiny with excellence."
As the shockwave passed, and the blinding light subsided, Raziel and Jenise found the guardians temporarily unconscious, and found Kain very disorientated. One by one, the guardians began to rise to their feet. At first, it seemed as though nothing had happened, but the guardians began to sense a change within themselves.
The three onlookers seemed to notice this change as well. They could sense that the guardians' powers and abilities had somehow been elevated to their peaks. But at the same time, their powers had been balanced out so that they were all equal in their strengths and weaknesses. Not so obvious to their onlookers, was that they could all sense the newly acquired connection taking hold between them.
The last of the guardians to rise from slumber was Rauha. However, she seemed to have had the most drastic change. This was what shocked Raziel and Jenise the most, as well as the rest of the group. Rauha no longer took the form of a thirteen-year-old girl. She seemed to have aged by at least ten years in a matter of moments. The power that radiated off her was magnificent.
Rauha approached her audience with silence. Kain and Raziel were the two with the most disbelief. Her appearance and aura seemed strikingly familiar, yet at the same time, unique to herself.
Kain could not help but voice his thoughts. "You look almost like-"
"Ariel," the new balance guardian confirmed.
Kain was about at the end of his rope. He had tried all he could think of to convince Rauha that she was the new balance guardian. It did not help matters that she hadn't a clue what the pillars were in the first place. Kain found himself giving the new guardian a crash course on the recent history of the pillars.
Kain's difficulties did not end there. Rauha's carefree spirit was like splinters beneath the vampire's skin. The girl seemed not to care about the fact that she was a guardian, let alone the most important one. Every time Kain attempted to get through to her, Rauha's attention was elsewhere, whether it was watching the sky or chasing butterflies through the field.
Kain had also quickly discovered, that for one reason or another, Rauha could not speak. This only added fuel to Kain's fire of frustration. He had no way of knowing if any of the information he had given his pupil had sunk in.
Desperate, Kain had even attempted establishing a mind link with the entity within Rauha. As he tried to do so, Rauha struggled against Kain, but the stronger vampire won out. When he overcame the child's tantrum, he placed his hand on her forehead once again and waited. But he heard nothing. He waited a moment longer before releasing Rauha. The girl bolted from Kain's grasp and immediately headed towards a patch of dandelions.
Kain thought about his predicament a moment while watching Rauha gather a fistful of the yellow flowers. Perhaps he could not initiate a conversation with the spirit within her. Perhaps only Rauha could. Or maybe the spirit itself?
The sun had traveled across the sky to indicate early afternoon. Realizing this, Kain had decided he had wasted enough time trying to get through to this girl. Whether she realized who she was or not, he was just going to take Rauha to the pillars and let Raziel and Jenise deal with her. He was not a babysitter anyway.
"Rauha, it's time to go," Kain tried to speak to her as calmly as possible as he approached the crouching youth.
The thirteen year old rose to her feet and turned towards Kain with a wide smile on her face. Kain sneered at her cheerful expression. Rauha thrust a bouquet of thirty or so dandelions towards Kain, offering them as a gift.
"What use are those to me? I do not need those weeds."
Rauha's smile faded at Kain's refusal. Her arms dropped down in front of her, barely clutching the flowers. She drooped her head down and tried to stifle her tears, but could not prevent the barely audible sniffle. Kain sighed in exasperation. This was the last thing he needed.
"Alright. If it makes you feel any better, I...like...those flowers."
Rauha's head snapped up, the bright smile had returned despite the stillborn tear in her eye. She thrust the flowers once again towards Kain, who this time, reluctantly accepted them. Unexpectedly to Kain, Rauha wrapped her hand around one of his massive claws. He was slightly taken back by her boldness, but he figured this would be easier for him than chasing her down. Concentrating, the vampire cast his teleportation spell and they vanished from sight.
Raziel had paced from one end of the pillar base to the other for about the millionth time. Jenise had sat quietly and watched him with an amused expression on her face. He could get so worked up at times. Though, Kain had been gone quite a long time now. The reaver of souls hadn't taken nearly this long to find Taliba.
The guardians had passed the time by introducing themselves to each other, since from this point onward; they would be a vital part of each other's lives. Along with telling each other a little about their lives, they had also given demonstrations of their powers. Most of them anyway.
Drogo refused because of his beliefs that the dead should remain dead like they were intended. The wizard Roshan refused to demonstrate his power, but for less noble purposes. Once he had found that no one in the group had heard of him, the great Roshan, he withdrew from the group. Instead he watched quietly from the side, angry that Jenise had figured him out so easily. Nobu, who was from Uschtenhiem, had never even heard of him either.
Taliba had demonstrated her power by looking into the past and reciting a moment of a few of the guardians' histories. Sophia read a few of the other guardians' minds, with their permission. Nobu foretold the participating guardians how their lost loved ones were doing in the dimension of the afterlife.
Cosmo used his power to cleanse a patch of the ground of its toxins. Alma showed her abilities by vitalizing the previously cleansed earth with grass, flowers and shrubbery. When Galen was asked to demonstrate his abilities, he said he had been doing so the entire time. When he was questioned about this, he simply stated that it had been nearly two hours since Raziel and Jenise teased or bickered each other. The groups shared a chuckle over this, including Roshan, who had almost completely gotten over his anger.
The group suddenly went silent as a new presence was felt, along with Kain's returning presence. Raziel stopped in his pacing and stared expectantly at the pillar gates. Kain slowly made his way towards the pillars with Rauha still grasping his talon and the bouquet of dandelions in his other hand. As he came into view, Raziel released a chuckle he could no longer suppress.
"If I had known you were out on a date, I wouldn't have been so impatient for your arrival, Kain," snorted the reaver of souls.
Kain growled with irritation as Rauha released Kain's hand and ran off towards the pillars. Kain watched her go as she ran passed the other eight guardians towards the new object of fascination.
"Aw, she's so cute Kain!" Jenise added with a laugh. "Where did you find her?"
"In Coorhagen, like I said," Kain growled quietly between gritted teeth.
Some of the other guardians tried to introduce themselves to Rauha, but the young girl seemed to be ignoring them as she stared in awe at each of the pillars. Alma was the most persistent of the guardians, being grateful that she was no longer the youngest looking of the group. Not that that was a bad thing, but when you look like a child, you tend to get treated like one.
The remainder of the guardians watched in puzzlement at the odd behavior of their newest member. Rauha's strange antics raised a few questions and concerns. Taliba and Roshan approached Kain with these concerns.
"Is that young girl the last guardian?" Roshan inquired.
Kain turned his attention from Raziel and Jenise. "Yes. She is, without a doubt," he added for emphasis, "the guardian of Balance."
"But she still seems to be...such a...child," Taliba persisted.
The master vampire sighed...humans and their idiocy. "She is still yet unaware of her duties. But you, time guardian, should be able to 'see' that she is indeed the Balance guardian."
Taliba took the hint offered to her. She closed her eyes in concentration. The group in her immediate presence, except for Kain, waited patiently for her confirmation. After a few long moments, she opened her eyes with a look of surprise on her face.
"She is. She truly is the balance guardian. All we have to do to get her to realize that is-" The time guardian was cut off by a crippling shockwave, followed by a blinding white light.
While Taliba was looking into Rauha's future, the girl had been circling the balance pillar, studying it meticulously with curiosity. As the time guardian was about to unlock the secret to helping Rauha, the girl placed both her palms on the pillar and closed her eyes. At that moment, the shockwave erupted from the balance pillar, outwards towards the pillar gates, knocking all of the guardians unconscious.
Kain, being a guardian as well, suffered from the shockwave as well. Being a vampire, and being not from this era, he was weakened from the blow, but not unconscious. Raziel and Jenise seemed unaffected from the shockwave, but the blinding light was another story. Once their vision returned, they were left in utter disbelief.
Rauha opened her eyes and found herself in a blank, white vastness. She sat up off the ground, looking around with worried eyes.
"Do not be afraid Rauha," a woman's reassuring voice filled the void.
Rauha spun around, and found a mysterious woman standing before her. She wore a pure white silk cloak that hid her identity. Rauha stared at her with wide eyes.
"Rauha, do you know where you are?"
The girl shook her head 'no'.
"This vastness we are now in is inside the pillar of balance."
Rauha stared questioningly at the woman.
"You may speak your mind her, child. In this place, you are not bound by your limitations."
Rauha opened her mouth, but was hesitant with doubt. "W-why...a-are...we...here?" she struggled the words, surprised that she had actually spoken.
The woman smiled with pride at the girl's achievement. "Rauha, you are here because you must realize your destiny."
"M-my...des-tiny?"
"Do you know what the Pillars of Nosgoth are?"
"Kain...told me...some..." Rauha replied in thought of the vampire's lectures.
"Yes. The pillars keep Nosgoth healthy and uncorrupt. Each pillar has a guardian. Many years ago, there was treachery within the circle of guardians. This caused Nosgoth to fill with corruption. Because of this corruption, a predatory race of beings is trying to invade our world. If they succeed, they will enslave the human race."
"But...why...am I...here?"
"The pillars have new guardians now. And they have all been gathered to fulfill their duties as guardians. They have been waiting for the last guardian, the balance guardian. And now you have arrived."
Rauha was silent a moment as she made the connection. "B-but...I am not...the...guar-dian! I am...just a...girl!"
"Rauha, you are the guardian of balance. You are the most important of the guardians. I know this may seem to be a large burden for you to bear, but you must accept your destiny."
"How would...you know my...destiny!"
"I have known since they day you were born. I've been with you since your first cry, since you first opened your eyes to the world around you."
Rauha's eyes widened in surprise. The woman's voice was unmistakably familiar to her. And the woman's claim to have known her could only mean one thing.
"Are you...are you her?" the girl inquired timidly.
The woman nodded with a smile. She pulled back her cloak, to reveal her identity to the girl. The woman was beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Rauha recognized her instantly.
"You are! You are...the one from my...dreams!" she cried as she ran up to the woman. Rauha confronted the woman with a desperate hug. The woman gently returned the embrace.
"I-I never thought...I would...really meet you... I know I am...the guardian...but...I'm afraid..."
"I know it may seem frightening, but do not worry, Rauha. As my predecessor, I know you shall fulfill your destiny with excellence."
As the shockwave passed, and the blinding light subsided, Raziel and Jenise found the guardians temporarily unconscious, and found Kain very disorientated. One by one, the guardians began to rise to their feet. At first, it seemed as though nothing had happened, but the guardians began to sense a change within themselves.
The three onlookers seemed to notice this change as well. They could sense that the guardians' powers and abilities had somehow been elevated to their peaks. But at the same time, their powers had been balanced out so that they were all equal in their strengths and weaknesses. Not so obvious to their onlookers, was that they could all sense the newly acquired connection taking hold between them.
The last of the guardians to rise from slumber was Rauha. However, she seemed to have had the most drastic change. This was what shocked Raziel and Jenise the most, as well as the rest of the group. Rauha no longer took the form of a thirteen-year-old girl. She seemed to have aged by at least ten years in a matter of moments. The power that radiated off her was magnificent.
Rauha approached her audience with silence. Kain and Raziel were the two with the most disbelief. Her appearance and aura seemed strikingly familiar, yet at the same time, unique to herself.
Kain could not help but voice his thoughts. "You look almost like-"
"Ariel," the new balance guardian confirmed.