Didja miss me? ;) A few days ago I was hired for my first ever paying job as a writer. I thought it would be auspicious to finish old projects before moving on to others. So here we go, after Goddess knows how long, the conclusion of Scattered Ashes!

Note: the epilogue will be up within the next three days.

13- The Finishing Move

As Raziel stepped through the warpgate, a strange tingling rushed from his wings and through his shattered body. His steps nearly faltered and he touched his claws to his head, overwhelmed with- impossible to describe. Conclusion? The moment before a freefall? Some vast apex had somehow arrived at his feet, and it was as if he had spent hours climbing a mountain and just now looked down. Of its own volition, the Soul Reaver half-manifested on his arm, sending a spiral of light along his flesh. The coiling of the blade brought him back to awareness.

He stood next to his daughter as the warpgate's glow faded, and the symbol of a spiral loomed above their heads. He noticed Ishtar looking intently at it. Apparently, she no longer cared how reckless she was with the power.

Raziel's spine tingled. Who knew. She seemed different now, almost on fire.

"You'll have to excuse me," Ishtar said, "if I don't accompany you to the pillars."

"Ah," Raziel said with an air of resignation, "another clandestine errand? I would have guessed. And of course, it would be an impossibility to acquaint me with its nature?"

"I'd hope not," she said with a touch of pique. "But why don't I show you." The eyeless vampire stepped away from the warpgate and strode down the hall to the chamber's door. Yes, she kept her sight. He would have to ask her how it worked, once all this was over.

A brief tingling in his left wing intensified into a light burn, then faded away.

"Now," Ishtar said, "do try to control yourself."

Raziel's only answer was his raised eyebrow.

"Just believe me."

She swung the door open, and immediately Raziel heard the hissing of the devolved vampires. No wonder the Soul Reaver had willed itself into being. He lowered the blade, his stance wary. Ishtar could defend herself, so let them try-

"Control... yourself."

She stepped just outside the doorway, one arm swept back to hold the door open for him. Hooves shuffled, but nothing attacked. Ishtar looked on with the same expectant patience.

Raziel let his muscles relax. Another game. For being his daughter, she was too much like Kain for his tastes. He stepped through the door, met the red-eyed gaze of a Dumahim with bared teeth. He felt the Reaver's hunger as his own, and it was just barely in check. It only grew as his eyes surveyed the crowd of vampires now staring at him with hatred they didn't bother to hide. Gods. They clogged the path; there were hundreds.

"What is this?"

The door swung shut behind him and Ishtar's arm fell to her side. "Think of it as a shift of alliance."

"With these debauched creatures?"

"What would be more fitting?"

Raziel's eyes half-shut. That was Kain's voice. Why was he not surprised...

The lesser vampire scuttled out of the vampire lord's path. The emperor had an eager, hungry look that the reaver of souls had not seen in ages. "Like the sickeningly obedient servants they are, they will follow their-" -here he made a lazy wave of his claws- "beloved patriarch into perils from which they will not emerge."

"This is a poor time to pamper your ego, Kain."

"I wasn't referring to myself..." Kain mock-bowed at him with a leering grin. "...my dear firstborn."

"At any rate," Ishtar said, directing an eyeless glare at Kain, "we will ensure you are not interrupted."

"We meaning this herd of degenerates?"

Kain made a sound of disgust and looked toward the sky, arms crossed over his chest. "Such a lack of foresight... no, Raziel, tonight all the clans of Nosgoth will be working to ensure *your* success."

"All six," Ishtar added, her claws curling at her side.

"Well." Raziel cast a dry look at his progenitor. "You flatter me. And to think, at Avernus you spoke as if we would never meet again."

"You should have known better." Kain turned away, toward the path that led to the Abyss. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a godly confrontation to initiate." He nodded imperiously at the Dumahim, then cast the teleportation spell and disappeared.

Ishtar exhaled, closing her eyelids for a moment. "Go on," she said. "I'll join you when there is a lull in the battle."

Raziel nodded and forced the Reaver into dormancy. He wouldn't need it just yet. "Take... care."

"Of course."

The Dumahim parted to let him pass. It was not long until he reached the Sanctuary of the Clans.

********************************************************

Ishtar waited to follow him until he reached the Sanctuary. It must have been mildly shocking, seeing the huge double doors reduced to a puddle of metallic sludge. A good thing Kain had remembered that detail. They could not chance Raziel entering the spectral world.

The winged vampire walked toward the Sanctuary, and the Dumahim crowded farther from her than they had for Kain. It was terribly laughable. She was rather glad that she had no responsiblity to order them around. That was Kain's task, though he had done little more than give them an area and tell them to defend it. At this stage of their devolution, however, it was unlikely they had the capacity to understand more complicated orders.

The crowd thinned as she neared the Sanctuary until she saw the grassless hills, free of vampires, rolling up to the building's base. It had been magnificent. It was still, even if its former glory had faded, but it was a different majesty that shown through the ancient rock. The building had endured much. She saw it in the six faded clan banners that frayed at their ends and, in the central tower that dissolved into the mist high above, in the two giant torches that saw more rain than fire.

Raziel's last child looked on all this, feeling much like a pebble set next to a mountain. "Look upon my works, ye mighty," she whispered, "and despair..."

The veil was approaching, that point where the forces of the universe changed due to Raziel's momentous decision. At last, here was a fate she could not foretell. The Sanctuary still stood at the falling of the veil. Beyond that point, the future was as unforseeable as it was for mortals.

But the present was still open to her. The Abyss crawled with spectral creatures emerging into the physical realm. The entire Rahabim clan had gathered to stop them. The waterfalls swarmed with moving figures and, in some places, flowed in a thick red and green sludge. Some demons managed to reach land, where the other clans immediately set upon them. There were so many, on both sides.

Ishtar looked into the Abbey with its still waters, the Silenced Cathedral and its pipes stuck full with spiderwebs. They had been deserted. The human citadel stood just as empty, except for the occasional half-mad survivor stumbling through the ruins. The moment of inconceivable change had come. She almost felt the earth holding its breath.

The vampire turned just in time to face the wave of Turelim tearing into the Dumahim ranks. The first of them trotted cackling toward the Sanctuary, moving on all fours like dogs. Ishtar smiled faintly. They'd come to play their part as well. If only Turel could see them now.

Ishtar spread her wings and the dark power rose within her, rising within her in a relentless spiral. She rose into the air, staring into the smoke-filled skies and at the same time watching the Turelim come running towards her. The power kept building, even after the point when it should have released. Blue sparks flickered on the rocky ground and burst into life. Over her head, a blue-flame oroborus flared into blinding brilliance.

The power built and it overwhelmed her. She needed more, only a little. Ishtar shut her eyelids. This was her last battle. She would make it count.

The Razielim raised her arms and every hill burst into blue fire. The flames rose in twisting pillars, joining with others until a wave of fire rushed down from Ishtar and crashed into the Turelim. The flame of the Dark God destroyed them as no ordinary flame could, unmaking them as if tearing through sheets of silk. Even their ashes dissolved in the inferno.

Ishtar sighed with the power's release. But it did not leave her. It would not now that Raziel was so close, and as long as she protected him, she had no doubt that it would not be exhausted.

Very well, she thought. Make it count.

The vampire flung her head back and the air drew her up, suspending her between pillars of blue fire beneath the oroborus. Above her, for the first time in centuries, the giant torches at the top of the Sanctuary burst into flame. Her body shuddered as the power channeled through her, rich and limitless. It was worth it, she thought. All of it.

Her mind faded, submerged beneath the overpowering tide of the Younger God.

********************************************************

The reaver of souls staggered upright. There. Consuming the pillars was not as simple as it seemed. It felt as if a swarm of insects scuttled through his veins, trying to gnaw their way free. He stumbled blindly toward the Pillar of Balance, the last and only one left. When he had consumed the others, they had simply vanished, leaving only empty air behind.

Soon the burning sensation tapered off, and Raziel leaned thankfully against the Pillar of Balance. Now he saw why Kain and Ishtar had created such a stalwart defense- the addition of every pillar felt akin to tearing down his mind and rebuilding it again.

Now there was only one left.

Raziel brushed his claws along the throne Kain had built around his charge. No doubt consuming pillar would kill its guardian as well. It was childishly pleasing to know he would bring about Kain's death after all.

"Oh, little soul." The familiar voice stopped him. "You know not what you bring upon us..."

The reaver of souls turned. Ariel, the former Balance Guardian, regarded him with one transparent blue eye. The other half of her face presented only an eyeless skull looking blankly back at him.

"No, Ariel, I am only too aware."

The spirit looked away, her ephemeral hands clenched into fists. "Would you blind yourself so well? Can't you see what it is you have become?"

"The change is quite visible." Raziel unfurled his wings and indicated them with a wave of his claws. "A beneficial enhancement."

Ariel drifted backwards, eyes closed. "I told you Ariel remembers what others have forgotten... and what I see is no benefit of yours."

"To each his own."

"Raziel, he has *ensnared* you!" She came closer, her hands making a begging motion. "The cycle of history cannot endure this forever. The world has seen too much sport made of corruption and decay."

"Ah, I will craft a uptopia for your express pleasure."

One blue eye narrowed, but the skull remained expressionless. "May your empire build nothing more than a city of rats and dust."

Not optimistic, that. But the wraith had uttered so many riddles, he no longer cared to understand their meaning. "I trust you know what follows."

Ariel said nothing.

She floated in place, and Raziel raised the Reaver in the air, poised to slam it into her. He thought he saw her flinch. Then the wraith blade met Ariel in a shattering of light and energy. Sparks erupted and fizzled out, and Raziel's arm shook with the impact. Behind the sound of the Reaver claiming the ghost, he thought he heard her scream.

And quite suddenly it was over. Ariel was gone. Instead there was the Reaver, humming with satisfaction and now a glowing yellow-white.

Raziel lowered his newly-imbued weapon. The stirring of the Dark God strengthened within him, and the present slowly open to his sight. He had seen this before, he thought suddenly. A foreign thought from the growing power. There was much to do now. With Ariel gone, only the Pillar of Balance itself remained.

The imbued Soul Reaver flashed once as if in protest, but it was gone before he could be sure.

********************************************************

Outside the walls of the Sanctuary, Ishtar dropped to one knee in exhaustion. The rocky terrain around her was covered with soot and scorch marks, which were the only evidence that scores of demons and Turelim had tried to push their way through. And, she thought with a tired smile, not one had passed through the massive doorway behind her. The sight was beginning to falter, but it no longer pained her to think of it.

Only one more errand and, finally, rest.

The winged vampire waited patiently, just as she had outside the citadel days ago. No rush. But it was still a relief to hear the soft buzz of a teleportation spell at work. Ishtar's wings drooped with released tension.

"Well," she said.

The power brought her a hazy image of Kain smirking. "This has been a ravishing performance, my lady."

"My pleasure."

"Here. Accept this as a token of my appreciation." An image of the gift flashed in her mind, and her tail flapped against the ground. "Or, shall we call it a parting gift?"

"Thank you," she said flatly, accepting it as he handed it to her. "It will be... useful, I am sure."

"Of course it will."

"And I hope you schedule your own departure with as much enthusiasm."

Kain seemed unperturbed. "It would be poor form to complete the drama with a whimper."

Ishtar nodded. How he could be so cheerful about his imminent demise, she could probably never understand. But in his own way, Kain was almost reassuring.

Though probably not on purpose.

"Good luck to you, Kain," Ishtar said.

"If it pleases you to say so."

She heard the buzz of the teleportation spell and knew that Kain had gone. Trust him to think of everything, she thought, gripping his gift in one hand. Her steps, though weary, were confident as she turned and walked into the Sanctuary.