4/6/05 Disclaimer: LOK belongs to Eidos. Sarah is an original character, but her dialogue is canned.
Sarah shuddered as she passed one of the blood basins that were scattered through the aerie. Janos had told her it wasn't real blood, the water's red taint was a side effect of the spell that prevented it from burning vampire skin. Sarah still thought it looked gross; she was glad that time had cleared both the lake and the small spring that provided her drinking water.
Sarah filled a bucket from the lake-fed pool at the base of the aerie. She desperately wanted a hot shower, but that was impossible here. The best she could manage was to haul a small amount of water back to her quarters and heat it over the fire. Sarah was lucky that the aerie had been built at a time when Janos' people had use for a lavatory
Sarah dropped her bucket as a pair of eyes appeared in the shadowed depths of the pool. She let off a loud shriek of fright and ran back through the aerie.
When she emerged into the mountain's interior, Janos landed in front of her. Sarah tripped and slid down the ramp.
"What is the matter, child?" Janos asked.
Sarah slowly levered herself off the floor while her rational mind caught up with her. "Raziel snuck up on me," she quavered.
Raziel drifted in the pool and stared at the bucket floating on the surface above him. He was more insulted than hurt at having it land on his head. He swam back up and clambered out of the pool.
By the time Raziel had reached the interior of the Aerie, Sarah had already made her way into the suspended labyrinth. Janos was still standing at the base of the ramp.
"Raziel, it is good to see you." Janos noticed Raziel's gaze and said, "You gave her quite a fright."
"I hate to admit it, but she surprised me as well," Raziel commented dryly.
"How did you manage to get in here again?" Janos asked. "Is there another hole in the defenses?"
"The tunnel is still blocked. No one will be able to follow my path," Raziel affirmed. He paused a moment, and his tone became serious. "Janos, how can you be sure that I really am who you think I am?"
"You were the one who came for the Reaver," Janos asserted calmly.
Raziel shook his head. "I only came here for answers."
"You are the prophesized hero," Janos insisted. "The signs point to you."
"Who is the other one, then?" Raziel asked. "There are murals that depict two heroes."
"I do not know how to identify it," Janos said, his antipathy towards the Hylden sharpened his accent.
Raziel turned towards the suspended labyrinth. Sarah was standing in one of the galleries and watching the two vampires.
"What do you know about this?" Raziel called to her.
Sarah clutched her ill-fitting robes closer to her suddenly trembling body. Her eye grew wide with fear. With a small whimper, Sarah scurried away.
Janos laid a talon on Raziel's shoulder. The ancient vampire sensed that Raziel was about to do something impetuous. "Give her a few minutes. She rarely gives any information without considering it first." Janos paused to give Raziel a scrutinizing stare. "It's disconcerting that she would need to think about her answer."
Raziel shrugged off Janos' talon. "Her reluctance makes me think that you're wrong about me."
A short while later, Sarah, Janos, Raziel, and Kain were all gathered in the library.
Sarah had several of her drawings scattered over the floor. Some of them were copies of murals, while others depicted events in Kain and Raziel's quests. It was Janos who had secured Sarah's assurance of cooperation.
Raziel pointed to one of the drawings. It was a copy of the two heroes mural; the one where neither was being impaled. "What does this mean?" He asked Sarah.
"It's confusing," Sarah sighed.
"Answer me," Raziel demanded. When Sarah paused in thought, he added, "You had better not be concocting a lie."
Sarah shook her head. "That wouldn't do me any good."
"Nor will your silence," Kain reminded her sternly. "Why can't you explain this?"
"I know what happened more than I know why," Sarah said wistfully. "Redeemer and Destroyer. Are you the catalyst to these events, or the answer to them?"
"What is the correct answer?" Raziel asked, remembering that he had believed it was, 'neither.'
"It's confusing," Sarah repeated.
Janos picked up one of the drawings and frowned. The image depicted the incident in William's chapel; Raziel had the Reaver raised above his head, about to bring it down on Kain, who laid against the crypt in fatalistic submission. Janos' talons drifted to the band around his neck.
Sarah noticed Janos' distracted movement and mumbled, "Not yet."
"The answers lie in our innermost sanctum," Janos insisted.
Sarah rooted through her drawings and produced a sheet that contained the diagram for the underground base of the pillars. "Which elements can you summon?" she asked Raziel.
"Light and Darkness, Fire, Water, and Air," Raziel answered.
Sarah had counted the elements off on her fingers. "You still need Earth; that's in Avernus." She paused in thought for a long moment. "You also need to find Turel."
"Turel is in the future," Raziel reminded Sarah. His voice was laced with bitterness towards his one remaining sibling.
"You found him in Avernus," Sarah insisted.
"How did that happen?" Kain asked in surprise.
"I'm not sure," Sarah remarked. She quoted Ariel, "Azimuth, not content with summoning demonic thralls, stole the Time Streaming Device in order to gather creatures from other ages as well."
"Azimuth is just a child now," Kain pointed out.
"Turel is in the future," Sarah conceded. "That is, if Azimuth's really to blame."
"You still haven't answered my question," Raziel pointed out. "Which hero am I, and who is the other one?"
"Have you realized yet that it didn't matter to us which one either of you thought you were, so long as the result was the same in the end?" Sarah's shudder broke the gloating tones of Moebius.
"This is not a game!" Raziel yelled. "How can you know so much, yet not be able to answer a simple question?"
Sarah stepped back in fear. She was so concerned with Raziel's anger that she bumped into Janos. The ancient vampire steadied the frightened girl and enfolded her with an ebony wing.
Janos spoke softly and soothingly. "Whatever you answer, no harm will come to you."
Sarah's reply was muffled, but Janos nodded in acceptance. He drew his wing back to reveal that Sarah was slumped against his chest in exhaustion. Tears trickled in a familiar path down her face. Janos lifted her limp form easily.
"What did she say?" Raziel questioned.
"The one unbound creature," Janos repeated in confusion.
A/N: I had real trouble trying to get all four of them into the same room, but I wanted them all on the same page about some things. I realize that I left the actual gathering up to your imaginations, but I couldn't figure out how to get it to flow right.
For some reason, I couldn't get Sarah to say, "There is no other champion; it's just Raziel screwing up in their favor." I think she was scared; that or she has another issue about it.
I know that Sarah's quotes have the potential to get tiresome; they'll drop out of importance before the vampires decide to throttle her. On a related note, is she singing too much?
Rikku142: She's going to continue quoting, I'm afraid. I hope that now it's changed into a counterpoint for her thoughts, you can at least tolerate it.
Tomlette: You are reading my mind on this... that or I'm taking the most predictable pattern.
John-Paul: Who do I like better? Do some research and then take a wild guess. Yeah, I've noticed the similarities... it goes far beyond physical appearance, really.
Lunatic Pandora1: Where am I going to go next, then? Perhaps you could tell me how to beat my next block before I encounter it? Sarah's being uncooperative. I think at this point, I'm expecting her to suddenly drop dead from fright just so that she doesn't have to take any more angst from me.
Oh yeah, apologies on letting this drop off the page again. Blocks and Real Life...