Chapter39
Air entered once again through spastic lungs as consciousness returned to its aching body. Kurtis slowly opened his eyes as coldness filled the space around him. He prayed that the memories running through his mind had been a dream, and that he would roll over to find the sleeping Lara Croft lying beside him, gently breathing as life flowed through her body, waiting to awaken.
That's when the prayer was proven false.
Kurtis felt a dry substance across his hands as he opened his eyes to their full extent and took in the vision before him. He ran his fingers through the pile of black ash that graced the floor before him, and realized that his memories had not been a dream.
The remains of the wraith Mariana fell from his palms as he brushed the dust away.
Kurtis was still, afraid to move from fear that his eyes would meet the dead figure lying behind him.
The fears were stalled however, as a noise sounded beside him. A doorway in the room's side wall suddenly lifted itself open, granting entrance into its unknown contents. The sudden action was familiar somehow, much like the occurrences that would happen after his tests had been completed, after he had proven his honor to his past lineage. Kurtis closed his eyes, knowing what his test had been, and knowing that Lara Croft's body was behind him, dead and cold to the touch, an ultimate sacrifice that had granted his way toward the next sacred scroll, toward the Vial.
He cursed the horrid artifact, not caring if he found it, wishing he would die, wishing Mariana was still alive to kill him. He shook his head, disagreeing with himself. He had to know, had to understand what kind of power could be so important that the woman he loved had to be sacrificed, had to be murdered by his own hand.
He slowly lifted himself from the ground, ignoring the pain, he wasn't worthy enough to feel, not after the act he had recently completed. He slowly walked to the newly opened chamber, forcing his eyes to focus upon it, not wanting his eyes to meet the horrid reality that waited behind him, the reality that Lara was dead.
He forced the images away, bringing himself forward, toward his unwanted destiny.
His feet met the room's interior.
The space wasn't large enough to be classified as a room, a closet if anything. It was constructed of the same brown marble that plagued his mind with memories. Inside the space's center was a raised podium, identical to the ones he had found in Utah, Samandira, and the cemetery in Cerkezcoy. But this one was different, different in the way that-
He gasped. The podium was the same, but the object upon the podium was not. He saw no ancient piece of decayed paper, no sacred testament to his next objective, but his objective itself, the glass casing tightly closed by a golden cap, a thick red substance within its hollow, the Vial of Kindred Shadows.
Kurtis shook his head with confusion as he backed away. This couldn't be the true Vial, it was impossible. The knight at his past home had stated that five tests were to be completed in his search for the Vial. He had only completed four, those of Honor, Faith, Importance, and his fourth test having just been completed with the destruction of Mariana, the purpose behind it he wasn't sure, but nevertheless it had to be one of the test, otherwise he wouldn't have been given entrance to the newly opened chamber, to the Vial.
Something was wrong, something he had done, something he was supposed to do but hadn't. He placed his hands upon his head with confusion as he turned away.
Kurtis stopped, his body and mind had stalled, forgetting about the horrid image behind him, forgetting the reality that awaited once his surprise over the Vial had passed. He saw her, the limp body that he loved, the long legs and pale skin, now conforming into ghastly positions by the stillness of death, a death inflicted by him. He closed his eyes knowing that this moment had to take place, knowing that he had to confront his terrible act.
The eyelids parted, forcing him to look upon his destruction, his guilt forcing him to walk forward and take responsibility for what he had done, making him to want to kill himself.
Lara's dead body grew nearer as he continued forward, his gaze never wavering from her form. He stopped as he stood beside her, his feet only inches from her loosely held arms, a lone tear of sadness falling from his eyes, a tear saying goodbye, to himself as much as her.
He had made up his mind as he watched her stillness, made up the world's mind. He would end it, end it all without giving a fuck about the consequences. The Lux Veritatis had taken his life since the day he was born, and now they had taken the only thing he had to live for.
He grimaced with a fake smile; he would take it all back.
Kurtis closed his eyes as he turned away, more tears falling from his heightened emotions of sorrow and hatred. He returned to the small chamber that housed the object that his life had been created for, still confused by the means that it had appeared, how his final test had been completed.
He stopped with realization. Maybe his final test hadn't been completed.
He stared at the lucid blood of Sir Augustine as it wavered before him, beckoning him closer, calling him to complete his destiny. He entered the small enclosure and cautiously directed his hands toward the object, being cautious out of habit, not fear; he didn't have fear anymore, simply because he didn't care.
His fingers graced the cool touch of glass as his hand wrapped firmly around the object taunting him, around the Vial of Kindred Shadows.
A weight seemed to physically lift from his shoulders as the artifact met his palm. He stared at the object he held as he backed away from the small chamber, a silence overcoming the space around him, the silence of peace.
But their was no peace, their would never be peace.
Lara was dead and his quest for the vial was not yet completed, though he held the object of his journey in his hand. His tests had not all been completed, one remained.
Kurtis teeth began to tightly clench at that moment as he stared at the vial and then turned back to Lara, back to his hatred. This wasn't going to happen, this couldn't happen.
He stared at the ceiling as rage consumed him, he couldn't hold it in any longer.
"What's my final test!" he screamed to no one, but hoping that someone would hear, someone not of this world. He looked back to Lara as he whimpered with sadness, "Walking away and letting her die!" he stopped as he slung his arm backward, his fist tightly wrapped around the glass vial ready to throw if forward, ready to watch with pleasure as the crystalline surface cracked upon the marble floor, ready to destroy the Veritatis hope just as they had destroyed him. He stared at the ceiling as he sighed. "Fuck you!"
Kurtis forcefully slung his hand forward, loosening his touch, releasing his fingers from their grip and letting the Vial-
His motions instantly stopped as his thumb met the outer surface of the glass tube, met something he hadn't noticed before, a roughened marking.
Kurtis cursed himself for not throwing the Vial and ending his torment, his curiosity had stalled his advance. He angrily lowered his hand as he studied the artifact.
A slight indentation graced the casing's side; it was lettering, a sentence marked their for him to read. He followed his elders wishes, translating the verse that tortured him so. "Revive the Veritatis through the blood of the founder."
The information was pointless, just fucked-up gibberish that his ancestors had thought was important
Kurtis shook his head as he slung his arm back once again, nothing would stop him this time, nothing would stop him from destroying-
His motions stopped, this time stalled by more than a physical feeling, this time from a mental one. He lowered his hands once again as his mind reflected, reflected on the words that had just been delivered from his mouth, words that created assumptions that should never be proven false, the disappointment would be to great.
"Revive." he repeated the words of the indentation aloud, "Revive."
Kurtis gripped the Vial tightly as he turned to Lara, hopeful ideas and thoughts making themselves known, ideas that couldn't possibly be wrong, but more of ideas that had to be right.
He ran to her limp from, even beautiful in its horrid state of death. He leaned down to her, lifting her upper body in his arms, cradling her against his chest as he stared at the Vial with rising hope, praying that his thoughts would prove correct.
Kurtis stared at the gaping wound within her waist, her shirt covered in blood as the lucid essence of death continued to pour from the fatal injury, slow to thicken. He held her body firmly as he pressed her forehead against his cheek, softly whispering his words of love though he knew she couldn't hear them.
He stared at the Vial in his palm as he smiled. What did he have to lose? Even if the Vial had to be used on a living being, he was going to destroy it anyway.
Kurtis bit his lip with anxiousness as he pulled away the golden cap that sealed the ancient glass casing, the cap that kept the blood of Sir Augustine from rotting over the past 1400 years.
He looked back to the wound at Lara's waist as he breathed spastically from anxiousness, from fear. The wound was a direct route into the blood stream, a direct root to reviving the Lux Veritatis, to possibly reviving the woman he loved.
His hands shook fiercely as he lowered the vial to her waist, carefully stretching Lara's wound with his other hand, opening her stomach further, making sure that no incidents could occur.
He looked back to her features as he lovingly kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry." he spoke lowly knowing what his act would do, knowing that it may bring her to life and knowing that that life would drastically change, knowing that she would become one of him, something that he hated though he owned the title himself, a Lux Veritatis.
Kurtis nodded his head, agreeing with his assumptions. He wasn't being selfish, this was something he had to do, something to regain his dependence in himself, and rid his hatred.
Kurtis closed his eyes, breathing heavily as he tipped the surface of the opened vial, tipped it toward the opening at Lara's waist, pouring the ancient blood into a new container, a permanent placement, combining the bloods of Sir Augustine and Lara Croft.