14- Sacrifice
The soul reaver gazed up at the final pillar. It stood alone- not even rubble marked the existence of the other eight. He had not been able to imagine the Pillar of Balance without immediately seeing its supports, and the sight was both pitiful and unreal. As the power blossomed in his mind, pushing the boundaries of his consciousness utnil it seemed to encompass all things, Raziel thought he saw a flicker of what the pillar had been... something even greater than the monument of his dream. History in its roiling vastness lay mapped and charted before him.
Raziel laid his claws on the black throne built around the pillar's base, his burning eyes still fixed on what had once been the center of all life in the physical world. Interesting, he almost felt reverent.
"I would wait for that."
He saw Ishtar emerge from the doorway before his eyes found her. "For enjoying history before it is extinguished?"
The vampire ascended the stairs to the raised platform, not quite joining her father. "For the extinguishing."
"Yes... Kain will want to savor the melodrama."
"Give him time." Her rat-like tail gathered in a coil at her feet. "It will not be long."
She was so much like Kain. Her words had the same affected air of regret that he had mastered.
Raziel turned to fully face her, his eyes settling on the decorative staff she held. It was from their territory, that much he could tell by the shape- thin until the top, which widened to form two thick horns. A small bronze emblem bore the clan Razielim symbol. "I would have thought you had outgrown that toy." At her blank look, he nodded toward the staff.
"Ah. Yes..." Ishtar ran her claws along the staff's length, one black wing curling around it. Her eyelids ceased to blink over her empty sockets. "It-" Her head snapped toward him. "Tell me of your reign. Tell me what you plan to do after all this."
Raziel raised a hairless eyebrow at the sudden change.
"Tell me. Please."
"You do not think contriving a course to be premature?"
Her grip on the staff tightened. "Raziel."
It was the terrible earnestness he had seen at the cathedral. Was he doomed to forever guess what passed his daughter's mind? Was it something she feared now, or after the battle had been won?
"I would- will-" Raziel paused. "...make manifest the higher possibilities of vampirism. I will disentangle the webs of Kain's contamination and unfold what we might have been."
"What is that?"
"You. The new vampires are to be born in your image." He said it as the thought came to him, but feeling went into the words. Only days ago it would have been different. But the man-made hell of the Sarafan- ah, that had changed so much, so much.
Ishtar leaned her forehead against the staff. "Then that is the new world." Her voice was quiet, dim. "Vampires and their vampire god." Her eyelids closed, and she nodded to herself. As if taking strength from that, her back straightened and the staff tilted loosely in her grasp. "Raziel, I believe I have a promise to fulfill."
"Hm?"
"To tell you the story of our clan. In a way that makes sense," Ishtar added with a small smile.
"Surely-"
"No, it can't wait. Oh, I am sorry. But the Pillar of Time is gone, as is time itself. We have none, you see. So this cannot wait."
"Your riddles are less decipherable than Kain's."
A small dot of light appeared in each of Ishtar's eye sockets. The flesh inside looked blue. "But you will understand mine, Raziel...
"We knew what had happened when you did not come back. Cidyr took your place as ruler of the clan. He helped us gather humans without straying too far from the walls... but we had nothing to be afraid of. When the other clans saw us, they ran as if we carried a vampiric plague.
"We followed Cidyr even when his own wings sprouted- one from his back, the other from his skull. We followed him even as we watched him go mad."
Raziel's voice dropped. "This is hardly the time for macabre histories."
Now he could make out the light in Ishtar's eyes- blue fire, disembodied, suspended in the shape of a ring. "It cannot. The entire clan descended into madness and their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. Strane gathered six of them to flee the clan territories. At that point, we had not yet begun to destroy ourselves."
Raziel shifted his weight on his hooves. Was she trying to say something important? Or was there something else...?
"The seven fled east, and as before no one chanced an encounter with them. All the way to empty Willendorf they fled, expecting Kain to strike whenever they weren't looking. Slowly their vision ceased to focus on eluding Kain and focused instead on determining whether we had a future anyway."
"And so Strane sired you," Raziel said. "I know this."
"But the disease-inheritance followed us." Her voice quickened. "We grew more powerful, more quickly. All that... scattered divinity, flooding into us."
"Enough!" Raziel turned toward the Pillar of Balance. He noted that the yellow-white Soul Reaver burned in sympathy with his own subdued rage.
"Wait, Raziel!"
He raised the wraith blade.
"WAIT!"
His mind bent as the word echoed through space, through the wraith blade that flared as he stumbled backward, through centuries of time.
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"Wait!"
Morek dodged behind a hall corner, letting loose a stream of agitated babble when he fell to the floor. The third toe growing from the middle of his right hoof made him too awkward, but his pursuer had only the right mutations.
"Morek! Morek!" A furious whisper, then an outstretched arm pulling him into a ruined doorway.
"Get off me! Get off me!"
"Shush, you fool!" Someone's hand in the dark closed over Morek's mouth until the young vampire grew calmer. "Who is it? What did you see?"
"She's the one," Morek gasped. "She killed Xellan, I watched, I saw her do it."
"Calm down, be still. Who is it, Helena? Why-"
"No, no, no..." Morek turned his face against the stone and half-sobbed.
The other did not reply for a moment. "Not Ishtar."
A half-squeak escaped him. "Ishtar, she's going through the halls now, she's hunting us-"
"No. She would not."
"It is her!"
"Quiet. I will speak to her." The other vampire left the doorway and stepped into the light. Morek huddled against the ruined wall of Willendorf Castle, a soft whimper in his throat. Maybe he had been wrong, maybe Strane would prove him wrong. It was too late to run in any case, because Ishtar emerged from behind the corner.
Morek's break caught in his throat. She was terrible, powerful, even though the changes had not been too extreme. A mane of dark blue hair swirled at her shoulders, and her talons were longer, the claw slightly separate from the rest of her finger and wickedly sharp. The only other thing to set her apart was her eyes: pure black against her pale vampire's skin, without color. He hunched closer to the wall.
"Oh." She stopped walking and bowed to the vampire. "My lord Strane."
"My child." Strane's hands moved to her shoulders, which were not covered by the vest she wore. "I feared you had been lost."
"No, my lord." Ishtar lifted her black eyes to meet his. "Don't fear for me."
"I do not know who would do this." He shook his head. "We must leave. Only three of us remain... and this murderer."
"Who remains?"
"You, myself, and Morek. Just now he watched Xellan die." He shook his head again. "Terrible. Did you see?"
Ishtar swallowed. "No, my lord."
"Mm, I am glad. They could have seen you." Strane turned to face the doorway. "Morek, come. We must leave."
Morek buried his face in his arms, so he did not see the quick slash that ended it. His head snapped up and Ishtar held her sire's body, which pumped blood down his chest and to the floor. A fan-spray of crimson began to drip down the walls. When he looked at Strane's body, he saw that the head had almost been severed.
Ishtar dropped the crude dagger. "Forgive me." She eased the body to the ground, slowly turning him over so he lay on his back. Strane's golden eyes stared glazed at the ceiling- it was hard to tell if he had known what was coming in the last instant of his life. The bloody vampire looked regretfully over her sire's corpse. Then the expression faded and she bent over him, her mouth closing over his.
Morek's eyes widened at the debauchery, but quickly he realized that something much deeper was happening. Ishtar's black eyes closed and she seemed to suck something in. The change was imperceptible, than slow, than picked up speed. Her face contorted as the flesh of her back rippled, trembling, new growth pushing its way through. She let go of her mouth's grip and screamed, blue hair falling all around her. Tension broke, flesh burst, and blood-covered limbs tore loose, shining wet and new from her back. She rocked back on her heels, the change so rough that her lungs drew in breath, as her new wings hesitantly waved behind her.
Ishtar's eyes opened. Already she had recovered. She stood up from her work, seeming to emerge from a bloody cocoon as a dark goddess.
Morek sprang up and rushed toward the exit at the other end of the dark room. Maybe she would still be weak or awkward. It was his only chance.
Looking backward, he saw her shadow outlined in the doorway.
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The ground came back into view. Raziel stumbled again, regained his balance. He had seen it in the space of an instant. He turned, his head throbbing, and saw Ishtar, wings at rest, the dark goddess in her final form.
He touched a claw to his head and let it fall again.
"We grew more powerful," Ishtar repeated, her words slow and heavy. "But only I was untouched by the madness. I saw them... in time, killing themselves, me. And we should not have survived, if we would die the same death as if we had stayed."
Raziel could only stare at her. "You killed them all."
She lowered her head, and as it had so long ago, her dark blue mane fell about her face. "It was the better thing, the good thing, the best thing. I... was the only fledgeling after the Fall. I was the only one born with a touch of... the plague, the God, already in me. It could not harm me. It annihilated all the clan except me."
Ishtar raised her head. The blue fire grew brighter in her eyes. "I took from them what I saw you would need. I took the piece of the Younger that each one had, and so it multiplied inside me."
Raziel clipped his words; he would have lost control if he did not. "And Turel?"
"Turel... after Willendorf, I came to his territory. The remnants of our clan stationed themselves there, finding no purpose in their madness save to destroy those who were not afflicted. I gathered their power, and when all was done... I arranged that Turel would find me."
The soul reaver let out a strangled chuckle. "Did he seize your eyes, or did you spare him the effort?"
Ishtar shook her head. "My... ah... a Razielim did that to me."
Raziel made the strange half-laugh again, paced in a random direction, finally stopped and looked at her. "You." The wraith blade burst into a dull, bristling roar. "Language has yet to fabricate a word for you. To name yourself a fledgeling of mine-" His white eyes seemed almost on fire. Ishtar's wings sank toward her back. "-but to be- what shall we call you? Kinslayer? Betrayer?"
"Fratricide."
The word rang between them, and the wraith blade died on Raziel's arm. A fair name, for the both of them. Gods, he was tired of all these justified wrongs. Ishtar, not Kain, had destroyed his clan, or destroyed what the plague had left untouched. Yet he could not be angry at her, because it was for him. He could not be angry at anyone, for everything was done for his sake. Perhaps, if she had told him- but no, he would not have come with her this far.
And another knowing voice whispered in his mind- of *her* sacrifice, *her* life spent in the shadow of forever seeing her own death, *her* relentless pursuit of an uncertain future. Suddenly the world was far too ambiguous for his liking.
Raziel shook his head, even though he knew the thoughts would not clear. "Why have you related this to me now?"
"So you know... so you remember." Ishtar toyed with the decorative staff she was still holding. "Soon after the Pillar of Balance is destroyed, the fabric of the world changes. The most fundamental forces are altered- even time. Past that point, I can see nothing."
Raziel turned his eyes to the Pillar of Balance. It was the last goal, the final gateway. There was nothing from here but a plunge into darkness.
He shut his eyes, just for a moment. "Thank you."
Ishtar did not reply, for at that moment the ninth pillar shuddered so the walls all around them trembled. The vampire and the once-vampire backed away, watching as the pillar, once tilted, slowly righted itself. A light emanated from within the stone, growing more brilliant until its green shade was consumed by pure white. With a final groan it burst upward and downward at the same time, crashing through the roof and burrowing deep beneath the earth. Then all was still, and a new pillar of white and gold stood before them. After an untold length of time, the Pillars of Nosgoth had been restored.
And that could mean only one thing.
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Kain lowered the axes, his ancient eyes sharpening as the battle lust faded. The vampires weren't losing, if one went by how many on each side had fallen. Yet it looked as if they were, if only because their numbers were finite while an endless stream of their enemies poured from the Abyss. The tide had slackened for now. Near the door leading to the warp gate, the last remaining Dumahim wiped their weapons clean. Their armor was stained with at least ten shades each of blue and green.
Perverted creatures. But they still knew how to fight.
"Lord Kain..."
He turned, his blood red colors swirling unnoticed behind him. The words were spoken by Rahab's firstborn. Dachlin was not as strong as his sire had been, but he was still impressive; the amount of damage needed to show him down had to be massive, and so it was. The Rahabim's claws, stained both blue and red, held shreds of the torn webbing that had connected them. Gouges lined his body like tiger stripes, and his red eyes were impossible to see in the blood splashed over his shark-like face.
Kain nodded to him. "The Elder has been unkind."
"But so... have we." Dachlin pulled himself forward, his tail flopping weakly in the blood trail he left on the stone, before giving up, lying flat on the ground. "Not many... come forth. Their numbers... thin."
"Then you have done well."
Dachlin's glowing red eyes slowly blinked. "Thank you... my lord..." They widened again slightly. "My sire... said... we would make... the empire... proud..." His eyes closed, and the warrior's maimed body lay still.
Loyal and orderly to the last, Kain thought. Ridiculously so.
Some of the Dumahim flinched as the Emperor of Nosgoth turned toward them. Ah, small pleasures.
"You'll follow his example, won't you?" Kain said, tapping Dachlin's head with the flat width of one axe.
Several Dumahim simply stared. One bowed.
Kain smirked appreciatively and turned away. No doubt Raziel had destroyed eight of the pillars by now. Yet the last must still remain. Clever girl, Ishtar, clever girl. Be so kind and delay him a bit longer.
The vampire lord left the Dumahim, emerging from the rock tunnel into rays of weak moonlight. His own flags waved feebly above him, the color leeched to black and gray by the night. The sounds of the five waterfalls feeding the Abyss grew louder, as did the faint sounds of struggle below. On the rim of the whirlpool, the Rahabim preyed on whatever emerged from the swirling waters.
Kain walked over the crumbling bridge and stepped onto the giant rock outcropping overlooking the Lake of the Dead. The moon, low in the sky, did not shine down into the water, and he could only hear what lay below. Traitors had died here. His son died here and rose again. It was his turn.
His arm reached back and he hurled Malice spinning into the darkness. He did not even hear the splash.
"Come out, squid!" Still only darkness and the sound of moving water. "Come out, avenge this poor showing."
The moonlit shapes of Rahabim prowling the edge of the Abyss, the movement across the lake of Dumah's banners, darkness and moving water.
The earth groaning, the heavy rasp that was the sound of a leviathan breathing. All movement stopped for the entrance of the beast. Something vast glistened below, slick and undefined in the darkness. The stone at his hooves shuddered as if all the earth's water were rising up to meet him, and when the impossibly large bulk of the Elder rose from the depths, he could have believed it. Each tentacle was too wide, too long, to distinguish from the others. He could not even see if the thing had eyes, or if it did, where they were- its bulk was too colossal to pick out something so insignificant. It rose dripping water and settled on the opposite cliff, the one that led to Dumah's territory. Moonlight dabbed it with horrific glowing tones, as if a titanic mass of shadow and silhouetted tentacles were not enough.
Kain forced a smile and mock-bowed. "Truly, your kindness exceeds all bounds."
No eyes turned toward him, but he felt the weight of its gaze brimming with dark power and the primal force of the fundamental elements. "Your arrogance exceeds all bounds." Its voice shook in the air between them.
"You do me wrong."
The Elder's voice rumbled wordlessly somewhere in its massive bulk. It seemed as if the waterfalls answered, their roars suddenly angry and vengeful. "This decaying world will be thankful for it." Sinuous shadows rose into the air, arching over the Abyss and waving high over Kain's head. He knew he had no chance.
The Emperor of Nosgoth raised Havoc in a salute, a wry smile crossing his face. It had been interesting. He would need something new to mark the last battle. Luckily, he had prepared.
"Morituri te salutamus!"
And Kain, Balance Guardian and vampire lord, leapt into the battle he had always known he could not win.
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Ishtar lowered her head. So Kain had been slain at last, but she did not have the heart to see his demise. Better to imagine that he showed as much bland enthusiasm at his end as before. She did not know the proper way to die in this case- to impart some earnest message at her end, or to simply pass along, having done her part.
Raziel stepped onto the remains of Kain's throne, which had splintered apart when the pillar was renewed. His wings blocked her view of his face.
"You should consume it quickly," she said.
"Yes." He lowered one wing to meet her gaze. "There is no more time."
Ishtar turned away. She paid no attention to the consuming of the pillar behind her, because by now she had the scene memorized. The pillar turned to light, more glowing than glaring, and flowed into Raziel's eyes and mouth as if pouring through a funnel. It passed right through the cowl covering his face and glowed from behind it before vanishing somewhere inside him. Then a dark splinter, the soul of the guardian that had not yet had time to merge completely with the pillar- it broke off and floated free for a moment. As if making a decision, it plunged into the wraith blade. She couldn't tell if Raziel noticed.
The soul reaver fell to one knee from the impact, but quickly regained his feet. His symbiotic weapon now ran black and red over his skin. That and his black wings made him look the part of a Dark God, a savior who had descended to hell and returned to divinity on the other side.
"There..." Raziel said. "There."
Ishtar gazed at the raised platform they stood on. All nine pillars had been destroyed, and the Sanctuary had nothing to show that it was not abandoned. The clan banners had faded... the throne had shattered. There was nothing there.
Her talons squeezed the staff in her grip, Kain's parting gift. She could not falter now.
"Now all tasks have been performed." Raziel raised the new Soul Reaver experimentally. "Save one."
"No, Raziel." Her wings, kept rigidly straight, betrayed nothing. "There is one more... but not for you."
His hairless eyebrows furrowed.
"As you are," she said, "you cannot defeat the Elder." She paused. "Do you understand?"
Raziel slowly tilted his head. "What riddles are you weaving now?"
Ishtar shut her eyelids. "You will understand, father."
He did not comprehend when she gripped the staff in both hands. An instant later he did, or a flash of seeing in time showed him what she intended. He sprang at her, a blur of blue, black, and red, but it was too late.
"Ishtar..."
Ishtar fell to her knees. The staff had struck true, through her chest and out her back. He would not have to finish her after all... Dimly she registered that her fingers, still gripping the staff, were turning wet.
Ah, Turel, you have had your vengeance after all.
Raziel was in front of her, his white eyes larger than she had ever seen them. "Why?! My *child*..." His claws touched the staff protruding from her chest.
"Leave it. Had to be... I..." It was quickly becoming difficult to speak. "...only one... could harbor... the gift."
She saw Raziel, days ago, pulling a tomato plant from the ground.
"Knew... pillars... not enough." Raziel's claws in her hair.
"Could... c-c-c-c..."
She saw herself, turning flames into stone.
"Needed... to give you... more."
Raziel regaining his wings.
"Killed... every... one... give you... all of it."
The vision blurred. It was Kain, holding two bloody axes, walking up the bridge to the Abyss.
"All... the God... I could." Ishtar forced herself to swallow. "Take... it... all...."
Blindness fell over her. Raziel pulled her against him, saying nothing, his forehead against her skull. He had to understand, she had to know if he did. She opened her mouth to speak, but her tongue could not move. Her entire body felt limp and empty.
Ishtar lay still. Everything faded. Regret, the stone under her body, memory, the blood falling from somewhere. The lights dimmed, the cast took their final bows-
A last spark of the sight flared up. She saw his wings, black, scaly, muscular, a mirror of her own, curled around her and catching the blood that would have fallen to the floor. She had known them, once. They had haunted her.
But they were too distant now. She watched them float past her mind, blank, a vision of neither horror nor sorrow.
Then it passed completely, and with a final bow, Ishtar left the stage.
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Raziel was everywhere, and everwhere he saw mourning. His sight expanded outward and glimpsed the patterns that made up the universe, all of which rippled with Ishtar's death. Yet he was part of her mind, that part of her that rejoiced she had shown no weakness at the end. All the shards of godhood she had gathered from so many Razielim found their way into his being. She was part of him, every layer of consciousness and each one's perceptions. Even his new form resembled hers, but it was greater- it marked the true heir of the Younger God, when she had been a regent.
He left the Sanctuary of the Clans. He passed through the tunnel that led to the Abyss, unraveling with a thought the single Sluagh that appeared. Bodies, blood, and ashes marked his way. He passed between Kain's faded banners, over the rotting plank bridge, and stopped at the cliff where he had been executed. A closing of his eyes, and blue fire burst into being over his head. It was an oroborus, his symbol, the Younger's symbol, Ishtar's symbol, in which the end was the beginning.
At the other end of the Abyss, the Elder awaited him. Raziel felt no hatred- he had left that behind with Ishtar's body.
He wondered, suddenly, if he could have killed her.
The other Dark God rearer itself up so moonlight found the tip of its body. It was even more massive than it had appeared in the underworld. Raziel walked to the edge of the precipice. He bore the staff that had killed his daughter, that bore the symbol of the clan he had birthed, the clan he had sacrificed.
"Elder." The stone shook with his voice.
Tentacles slid against each other in the darkness.
"Raziel." The waters shook with his.
"Shall we end this?"
"We shall."
The mountains trembled, the waters thundered, and for the first time in millennia the Dark Gods went to war.
The soul reaver gazed up at the final pillar. It stood alone- not even rubble marked the existence of the other eight. He had not been able to imagine the Pillar of Balance without immediately seeing its supports, and the sight was both pitiful and unreal. As the power blossomed in his mind, pushing the boundaries of his consciousness utnil it seemed to encompass all things, Raziel thought he saw a flicker of what the pillar had been... something even greater than the monument of his dream. History in its roiling vastness lay mapped and charted before him.
Raziel laid his claws on the black throne built around the pillar's base, his burning eyes still fixed on what had once been the center of all life in the physical world. Interesting, he almost felt reverent.
"I would wait for that."
He saw Ishtar emerge from the doorway before his eyes found her. "For enjoying history before it is extinguished?"
The vampire ascended the stairs to the raised platform, not quite joining her father. "For the extinguishing."
"Yes... Kain will want to savor the melodrama."
"Give him time." Her rat-like tail gathered in a coil at her feet. "It will not be long."
She was so much like Kain. Her words had the same affected air of regret that he had mastered.
Raziel turned to fully face her, his eyes settling on the decorative staff she held. It was from their territory, that much he could tell by the shape- thin until the top, which widened to form two thick horns. A small bronze emblem bore the clan Razielim symbol. "I would have thought you had outgrown that toy." At her blank look, he nodded toward the staff.
"Ah. Yes..." Ishtar ran her claws along the staff's length, one black wing curling around it. Her eyelids ceased to blink over her empty sockets. "It-" Her head snapped toward him. "Tell me of your reign. Tell me what you plan to do after all this."
Raziel raised a hairless eyebrow at the sudden change.
"Tell me. Please."
"You do not think contriving a course to be premature?"
Her grip on the staff tightened. "Raziel."
It was the terrible earnestness he had seen at the cathedral. Was he doomed to forever guess what passed his daughter's mind? Was it something she feared now, or after the battle had been won?
"I would- will-" Raziel paused. "...make manifest the higher possibilities of vampirism. I will disentangle the webs of Kain's contamination and unfold what we might have been."
"What is that?"
"You. The new vampires are to be born in your image." He said it as the thought came to him, but feeling went into the words. Only days ago it would have been different. But the man-made hell of the Sarafan- ah, that had changed so much, so much.
Ishtar leaned her forehead against the staff. "Then that is the new world." Her voice was quiet, dim. "Vampires and their vampire god." Her eyelids closed, and she nodded to herself. As if taking strength from that, her back straightened and the staff tilted loosely in her grasp. "Raziel, I believe I have a promise to fulfill."
"Hm?"
"To tell you the story of our clan. In a way that makes sense," Ishtar added with a small smile.
"Surely-"
"No, it can't wait. Oh, I am sorry. But the Pillar of Time is gone, as is time itself. We have none, you see. So this cannot wait."
"Your riddles are less decipherable than Kain's."
A small dot of light appeared in each of Ishtar's eye sockets. The flesh inside looked blue. "But you will understand mine, Raziel...
"We knew what had happened when you did not come back. Cidyr took your place as ruler of the clan. He helped us gather humans without straying too far from the walls... but we had nothing to be afraid of. When the other clans saw us, they ran as if we carried a vampiric plague.
"We followed Cidyr even when his own wings sprouted- one from his back, the other from his skull. We followed him even as we watched him go mad."
Raziel's voice dropped. "This is hardly the time for macabre histories."
Now he could make out the light in Ishtar's eyes- blue fire, disembodied, suspended in the shape of a ring. "It cannot. The entire clan descended into madness and their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. Strane gathered six of them to flee the clan territories. At that point, we had not yet begun to destroy ourselves."
Raziel shifted his weight on his hooves. Was she trying to say something important? Or was there something else...?
"The seven fled east, and as before no one chanced an encounter with them. All the way to empty Willendorf they fled, expecting Kain to strike whenever they weren't looking. Slowly their vision ceased to focus on eluding Kain and focused instead on determining whether we had a future anyway."
"And so Strane sired you," Raziel said. "I know this."
"But the disease-inheritance followed us." Her voice quickened. "We grew more powerful, more quickly. All that... scattered divinity, flooding into us."
"Enough!" Raziel turned toward the Pillar of Balance. He noted that the yellow-white Soul Reaver burned in sympathy with his own subdued rage.
"Wait, Raziel!"
He raised the wraith blade.
"WAIT!"
His mind bent as the word echoed through space, through the wraith blade that flared as he stumbled backward, through centuries of time.
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"Wait!"
Morek dodged behind a hall corner, letting loose a stream of agitated babble when he fell to the floor. The third toe growing from the middle of his right hoof made him too awkward, but his pursuer had only the right mutations.
"Morek! Morek!" A furious whisper, then an outstretched arm pulling him into a ruined doorway.
"Get off me! Get off me!"
"Shush, you fool!" Someone's hand in the dark closed over Morek's mouth until the young vampire grew calmer. "Who is it? What did you see?"
"She's the one," Morek gasped. "She killed Xellan, I watched, I saw her do it."
"Calm down, be still. Who is it, Helena? Why-"
"No, no, no..." Morek turned his face against the stone and half-sobbed.
The other did not reply for a moment. "Not Ishtar."
A half-squeak escaped him. "Ishtar, she's going through the halls now, she's hunting us-"
"No. She would not."
"It is her!"
"Quiet. I will speak to her." The other vampire left the doorway and stepped into the light. Morek huddled against the ruined wall of Willendorf Castle, a soft whimper in his throat. Maybe he had been wrong, maybe Strane would prove him wrong. It was too late to run in any case, because Ishtar emerged from behind the corner.
Morek's break caught in his throat. She was terrible, powerful, even though the changes had not been too extreme. A mane of dark blue hair swirled at her shoulders, and her talons were longer, the claw slightly separate from the rest of her finger and wickedly sharp. The only other thing to set her apart was her eyes: pure black against her pale vampire's skin, without color. He hunched closer to the wall.
"Oh." She stopped walking and bowed to the vampire. "My lord Strane."
"My child." Strane's hands moved to her shoulders, which were not covered by the vest she wore. "I feared you had been lost."
"No, my lord." Ishtar lifted her black eyes to meet his. "Don't fear for me."
"I do not know who would do this." He shook his head. "We must leave. Only three of us remain... and this murderer."
"Who remains?"
"You, myself, and Morek. Just now he watched Xellan die." He shook his head again. "Terrible. Did you see?"
Ishtar swallowed. "No, my lord."
"Mm, I am glad. They could have seen you." Strane turned to face the doorway. "Morek, come. We must leave."
Morek buried his face in his arms, so he did not see the quick slash that ended it. His head snapped up and Ishtar held her sire's body, which pumped blood down his chest and to the floor. A fan-spray of crimson began to drip down the walls. When he looked at Strane's body, he saw that the head had almost been severed.
Ishtar dropped the crude dagger. "Forgive me." She eased the body to the ground, slowly turning him over so he lay on his back. Strane's golden eyes stared glazed at the ceiling- it was hard to tell if he had known what was coming in the last instant of his life. The bloody vampire looked regretfully over her sire's corpse. Then the expression faded and she bent over him, her mouth closing over his.
Morek's eyes widened at the debauchery, but quickly he realized that something much deeper was happening. Ishtar's black eyes closed and she seemed to suck something in. The change was imperceptible, than slow, than picked up speed. Her face contorted as the flesh of her back rippled, trembling, new growth pushing its way through. She let go of her mouth's grip and screamed, blue hair falling all around her. Tension broke, flesh burst, and blood-covered limbs tore loose, shining wet and new from her back. She rocked back on her heels, the change so rough that her lungs drew in breath, as her new wings hesitantly waved behind her.
Ishtar's eyes opened. Already she had recovered. She stood up from her work, seeming to emerge from a bloody cocoon as a dark goddess.
Morek sprang up and rushed toward the exit at the other end of the dark room. Maybe she would still be weak or awkward. It was his only chance.
Looking backward, he saw her shadow outlined in the doorway.
********************************************************
The ground came back into view. Raziel stumbled again, regained his balance. He had seen it in the space of an instant. He turned, his head throbbing, and saw Ishtar, wings at rest, the dark goddess in her final form.
He touched a claw to his head and let it fall again.
"We grew more powerful," Ishtar repeated, her words slow and heavy. "But only I was untouched by the madness. I saw them... in time, killing themselves, me. And we should not have survived, if we would die the same death as if we had stayed."
Raziel could only stare at her. "You killed them all."
She lowered her head, and as it had so long ago, her dark blue mane fell about her face. "It was the better thing, the good thing, the best thing. I... was the only fledgeling after the Fall. I was the only one born with a touch of... the plague, the God, already in me. It could not harm me. It annihilated all the clan except me."
Ishtar raised her head. The blue fire grew brighter in her eyes. "I took from them what I saw you would need. I took the piece of the Younger that each one had, and so it multiplied inside me."
Raziel clipped his words; he would have lost control if he did not. "And Turel?"
"Turel... after Willendorf, I came to his territory. The remnants of our clan stationed themselves there, finding no purpose in their madness save to destroy those who were not afflicted. I gathered their power, and when all was done... I arranged that Turel would find me."
The soul reaver let out a strangled chuckle. "Did he seize your eyes, or did you spare him the effort?"
Ishtar shook her head. "My... ah... a Razielim did that to me."
Raziel made the strange half-laugh again, paced in a random direction, finally stopped and looked at her. "You." The wraith blade burst into a dull, bristling roar. "Language has yet to fabricate a word for you. To name yourself a fledgeling of mine-" His white eyes seemed almost on fire. Ishtar's wings sank toward her back. "-but to be- what shall we call you? Kinslayer? Betrayer?"
"Fratricide."
The word rang between them, and the wraith blade died on Raziel's arm. A fair name, for the both of them. Gods, he was tired of all these justified wrongs. Ishtar, not Kain, had destroyed his clan, or destroyed what the plague had left untouched. Yet he could not be angry at her, because it was for him. He could not be angry at anyone, for everything was done for his sake. Perhaps, if she had told him- but no, he would not have come with her this far.
And another knowing voice whispered in his mind- of *her* sacrifice, *her* life spent in the shadow of forever seeing her own death, *her* relentless pursuit of an uncertain future. Suddenly the world was far too ambiguous for his liking.
Raziel shook his head, even though he knew the thoughts would not clear. "Why have you related this to me now?"
"So you know... so you remember." Ishtar toyed with the decorative staff she was still holding. "Soon after the Pillar of Balance is destroyed, the fabric of the world changes. The most fundamental forces are altered- even time. Past that point, I can see nothing."
Raziel turned his eyes to the Pillar of Balance. It was the last goal, the final gateway. There was nothing from here but a plunge into darkness.
He shut his eyes, just for a moment. "Thank you."
Ishtar did not reply, for at that moment the ninth pillar shuddered so the walls all around them trembled. The vampire and the once-vampire backed away, watching as the pillar, once tilted, slowly righted itself. A light emanated from within the stone, growing more brilliant until its green shade was consumed by pure white. With a final groan it burst upward and downward at the same time, crashing through the roof and burrowing deep beneath the earth. Then all was still, and a new pillar of white and gold stood before them. After an untold length of time, the Pillars of Nosgoth had been restored.
And that could mean only one thing.
********************************************************
Kain lowered the axes, his ancient eyes sharpening as the battle lust faded. The vampires weren't losing, if one went by how many on each side had fallen. Yet it looked as if they were, if only because their numbers were finite while an endless stream of their enemies poured from the Abyss. The tide had slackened for now. Near the door leading to the warp gate, the last remaining Dumahim wiped their weapons clean. Their armor was stained with at least ten shades each of blue and green.
Perverted creatures. But they still knew how to fight.
"Lord Kain..."
He turned, his blood red colors swirling unnoticed behind him. The words were spoken by Rahab's firstborn. Dachlin was not as strong as his sire had been, but he was still impressive; the amount of damage needed to show him down had to be massive, and so it was. The Rahabim's claws, stained both blue and red, held shreds of the torn webbing that had connected them. Gouges lined his body like tiger stripes, and his red eyes were impossible to see in the blood splashed over his shark-like face.
Kain nodded to him. "The Elder has been unkind."
"But so... have we." Dachlin pulled himself forward, his tail flopping weakly in the blood trail he left on the stone, before giving up, lying flat on the ground. "Not many... come forth. Their numbers... thin."
"Then you have done well."
Dachlin's glowing red eyes slowly blinked. "Thank you... my lord..." They widened again slightly. "My sire... said... we would make... the empire... proud..." His eyes closed, and the warrior's maimed body lay still.
Loyal and orderly to the last, Kain thought. Ridiculously so.
Some of the Dumahim flinched as the Emperor of Nosgoth turned toward them. Ah, small pleasures.
"You'll follow his example, won't you?" Kain said, tapping Dachlin's head with the flat width of one axe.
Several Dumahim simply stared. One bowed.
Kain smirked appreciatively and turned away. No doubt Raziel had destroyed eight of the pillars by now. Yet the last must still remain. Clever girl, Ishtar, clever girl. Be so kind and delay him a bit longer.
The vampire lord left the Dumahim, emerging from the rock tunnel into rays of weak moonlight. His own flags waved feebly above him, the color leeched to black and gray by the night. The sounds of the five waterfalls feeding the Abyss grew louder, as did the faint sounds of struggle below. On the rim of the whirlpool, the Rahabim preyed on whatever emerged from the swirling waters.
Kain walked over the crumbling bridge and stepped onto the giant rock outcropping overlooking the Lake of the Dead. The moon, low in the sky, did not shine down into the water, and he could only hear what lay below. Traitors had died here. His son died here and rose again. It was his turn.
His arm reached back and he hurled Malice spinning into the darkness. He did not even hear the splash.
"Come out, squid!" Still only darkness and the sound of moving water. "Come out, avenge this poor showing."
The moonlit shapes of Rahabim prowling the edge of the Abyss, the movement across the lake of Dumah's banners, darkness and moving water.
The earth groaning, the heavy rasp that was the sound of a leviathan breathing. All movement stopped for the entrance of the beast. Something vast glistened below, slick and undefined in the darkness. The stone at his hooves shuddered as if all the earth's water were rising up to meet him, and when the impossibly large bulk of the Elder rose from the depths, he could have believed it. Each tentacle was too wide, too long, to distinguish from the others. He could not even see if the thing had eyes, or if it did, where they were- its bulk was too colossal to pick out something so insignificant. It rose dripping water and settled on the opposite cliff, the one that led to Dumah's territory. Moonlight dabbed it with horrific glowing tones, as if a titanic mass of shadow and silhouetted tentacles were not enough.
Kain forced a smile and mock-bowed. "Truly, your kindness exceeds all bounds."
No eyes turned toward him, but he felt the weight of its gaze brimming with dark power and the primal force of the fundamental elements. "Your arrogance exceeds all bounds." Its voice shook in the air between them.
"You do me wrong."
The Elder's voice rumbled wordlessly somewhere in its massive bulk. It seemed as if the waterfalls answered, their roars suddenly angry and vengeful. "This decaying world will be thankful for it." Sinuous shadows rose into the air, arching over the Abyss and waving high over Kain's head. He knew he had no chance.
The Emperor of Nosgoth raised Havoc in a salute, a wry smile crossing his face. It had been interesting. He would need something new to mark the last battle. Luckily, he had prepared.
"Morituri te salutamus!"
And Kain, Balance Guardian and vampire lord, leapt into the battle he had always known he could not win.
********************************************************
Ishtar lowered her head. So Kain had been slain at last, but she did not have the heart to see his demise. Better to imagine that he showed as much bland enthusiasm at his end as before. She did not know the proper way to die in this case- to impart some earnest message at her end, or to simply pass along, having done her part.
Raziel stepped onto the remains of Kain's throne, which had splintered apart when the pillar was renewed. His wings blocked her view of his face.
"You should consume it quickly," she said.
"Yes." He lowered one wing to meet her gaze. "There is no more time."
Ishtar turned away. She paid no attention to the consuming of the pillar behind her, because by now she had the scene memorized. The pillar turned to light, more glowing than glaring, and flowed into Raziel's eyes and mouth as if pouring through a funnel. It passed right through the cowl covering his face and glowed from behind it before vanishing somewhere inside him. Then a dark splinter, the soul of the guardian that had not yet had time to merge completely with the pillar- it broke off and floated free for a moment. As if making a decision, it plunged into the wraith blade. She couldn't tell if Raziel noticed.
The soul reaver fell to one knee from the impact, but quickly regained his feet. His symbiotic weapon now ran black and red over his skin. That and his black wings made him look the part of a Dark God, a savior who had descended to hell and returned to divinity on the other side.
"There..." Raziel said. "There."
Ishtar gazed at the raised platform they stood on. All nine pillars had been destroyed, and the Sanctuary had nothing to show that it was not abandoned. The clan banners had faded... the throne had shattered. There was nothing there.
Her talons squeezed the staff in her grip, Kain's parting gift. She could not falter now.
"Now all tasks have been performed." Raziel raised the new Soul Reaver experimentally. "Save one."
"No, Raziel." Her wings, kept rigidly straight, betrayed nothing. "There is one more... but not for you."
His hairless eyebrows furrowed.
"As you are," she said, "you cannot defeat the Elder." She paused. "Do you understand?"
Raziel slowly tilted his head. "What riddles are you weaving now?"
Ishtar shut her eyelids. "You will understand, father."
He did not comprehend when she gripped the staff in both hands. An instant later he did, or a flash of seeing in time showed him what she intended. He sprang at her, a blur of blue, black, and red, but it was too late.
"Ishtar..."
Ishtar fell to her knees. The staff had struck true, through her chest and out her back. He would not have to finish her after all... Dimly she registered that her fingers, still gripping the staff, were turning wet.
Ah, Turel, you have had your vengeance after all.
Raziel was in front of her, his white eyes larger than she had ever seen them. "Why?! My *child*..." His claws touched the staff protruding from her chest.
"Leave it. Had to be... I..." It was quickly becoming difficult to speak. "...only one... could harbor... the gift."
She saw Raziel, days ago, pulling a tomato plant from the ground.
"Knew... pillars... not enough." Raziel's claws in her hair.
"Could... c-c-c-c..."
She saw herself, turning flames into stone.
"Needed... to give you... more."
Raziel regaining his wings.
"Killed... every... one... give you... all of it."
The vision blurred. It was Kain, holding two bloody axes, walking up the bridge to the Abyss.
"All... the God... I could." Ishtar forced herself to swallow. "Take... it... all...."
Blindness fell over her. Raziel pulled her against him, saying nothing, his forehead against her skull. He had to understand, she had to know if he did. She opened her mouth to speak, but her tongue could not move. Her entire body felt limp and empty.
Ishtar lay still. Everything faded. Regret, the stone under her body, memory, the blood falling from somewhere. The lights dimmed, the cast took their final bows-
A last spark of the sight flared up. She saw his wings, black, scaly, muscular, a mirror of her own, curled around her and catching the blood that would have fallen to the floor. She had known them, once. They had haunted her.
But they were too distant now. She watched them float past her mind, blank, a vision of neither horror nor sorrow.
Then it passed completely, and with a final bow, Ishtar left the stage.
********************************************************
Raziel was everywhere, and everwhere he saw mourning. His sight expanded outward and glimpsed the patterns that made up the universe, all of which rippled with Ishtar's death. Yet he was part of her mind, that part of her that rejoiced she had shown no weakness at the end. All the shards of godhood she had gathered from so many Razielim found their way into his being. She was part of him, every layer of consciousness and each one's perceptions. Even his new form resembled hers, but it was greater- it marked the true heir of the Younger God, when she had been a regent.
He left the Sanctuary of the Clans. He passed through the tunnel that led to the Abyss, unraveling with a thought the single Sluagh that appeared. Bodies, blood, and ashes marked his way. He passed between Kain's faded banners, over the rotting plank bridge, and stopped at the cliff where he had been executed. A closing of his eyes, and blue fire burst into being over his head. It was an oroborus, his symbol, the Younger's symbol, Ishtar's symbol, in which the end was the beginning.
At the other end of the Abyss, the Elder awaited him. Raziel felt no hatred- he had left that behind with Ishtar's body.
He wondered, suddenly, if he could have killed her.
The other Dark God rearer itself up so moonlight found the tip of its body. It was even more massive than it had appeared in the underworld. Raziel walked to the edge of the precipice. He bore the staff that had killed his daughter, that bore the symbol of the clan he had birthed, the clan he had sacrificed.
"Elder." The stone shook with his voice.
Tentacles slid against each other in the darkness.
"Raziel." The waters shook with his.
"Shall we end this?"
"We shall."
The mountains trembled, the waters thundered, and for the first time in millennia the Dark Gods went to war.