The Blood and Tears of Norlath
written by Greg Szemiot
Eternal Darkness™ & ©2002 Nintendo / Silicon KnightsChapter 2: The Seal Bearer
The blood of the order stains the hands of many. Years ago they were hunted for their beliefs, and early members, burned at the stake during the witch trials of England. The order has since passed down their traditions, beliefs, and ideals through out the ages, they live in the darkness, and call upon ancient beings to help their cause. Their followers work behind the scenes to save us, and yet humanity will never know, for darkness conceals many things, some, for all eternity. Yet there are some things even the order can not defend against.
The Book of Niraster
Nicole sat at her desk, feverously pouring over manuscripts, notes, and an old leatherboud book from the library. The desk lamp cast a errie glow across the room, causing long, deep shadows to cross the room before fading into darkness. She sat ther, sitting in her comfortable jeans and tee shirt. She moved a loc of her black hair from her green eyes, and silently cursed the lamp for casting a glare on her glasses. She moved to turn the page, but cut her finger on the edge. A single drop of blood fell to the open book. She stood and turned, walking to the batroom down the hall, her dorm room door left open. As she washed the cut and put the bandaid on she heard a gasp from outside the bathroom door, followed shortly by a scream. She heard the sound of running footsteps outside and opened the door in time to see one of the girls running down the hall, mad with delerium. She turned towards he room and saw a flittering, bluish glow coming from her door. But it didn't act like light, it splashed and sparkled. Transfixed she walked forward into the light, pushed her door open and stared. The place where the drop of blood had landed on the pages of the old book was glowing, an intense light pouring from the spot. Sh ran in a closed the book swiftly. As she sat there staring at the book, her breath began to catch in her throat, she started to cough and spasm. As her eyes went wide with panic the book opened itself to the page with her blood on it. A beam of light shot from the page and enveloped her. She fell to her knees, unable to breate and unable to scream. She closed her eyes and felt a dull pain along her back, moving into her neck, and up into her head. She slumped over, and felt the darkness fold in around herself.
"Is this death?" Nicole wondered.
"No, this is a new life, a new mission." she heard, the source hidden from her.
"Then where am I?"
"You are nowhere."
"What, how is that possible?"
"Be calm, do not worry, you are safe."
The conversation ended, Nicole was momentarily confused, unable to comprehend where she was, or what was going on. She sensed herself moving, but her vision was still clouded by darkness. She felt cool air and a slight breeze suddenly and the darkness faded from her eyes, as if smoke on the wind. She was on a hill, moving through the air with seemingly no effort, without moving her feet. She looked down to see a path of smoke ascending the hill, on which she appeared to be riding. Her clothes had also changed, she was dressed in a black robe, it flowed around her on the wind. She was also barefoot. This was all very strange, he mind going numb and no accepting what her eyes told her. Looking back she saw a small grouping of stone, aranged in a circle, sitting on the ground, a darkness emiting from the center. Looking forward she saw a small cluster of robed and hooded people at the very top of the hill. She was pulled into the midst and then, very slowly, the smoke beneath her disipated and she found herself standing in the cool grass.
Nicole heard a voice, calm measure, but it's direction was undetectable, she could not tell from whom it came. "So, this is the next of our people?"
"Yes, she is the next bearer of the seal."
Nicole cast her eyes downward in confusion, as some of the people of the circle murmered and chastised her, saying she could not be of thier proud lineage.
"Silence, our master has decreed she be the next to bear the seal, and so it shall be done. Bring her."
The crowd dispersed, moving slowly down the hill to the circle of stones, where one by one the dissapeard in a flash of white. Two stayed behind, and stood besides her. She could not see their faces behind the hood, which draped down, obscuring all features. Another figure approached from the other side of the hilltop, he was a little hunched, and despite his face being hidden, seemed to emit an air of wisdom, and seemed to be highly respected by the two to her sides. The two bowed respectfully. The figure walked up to Nicole, stading just 5 feet away.
"So, you are the next, the bearer of the seal that has kept our people alive for milenia, the next in our struggle. So be it, bring her to the altar."
"What, what's going on here?" Nicole asked, suddenly alarmed.
The hunched form moved away, back towards the other side of the hill. The two figures on either side of Nicole grabbed her by the arms and lifted her into the air. Then they followed the hunched form into the winds.
Nicole, to stunned and confused to really fight back at the moment, looked down the hill. She saw what looked to be a stone altar, complete with torches, a large ring of stones, and what looked to be a book. What was this place?
Some time later they arrived at the altar.
"You will stand here." the hunched figure said, motioning with his hand toward a small circular stone. Not knowing what she was in for she, she stood on the stone, lost. confused. The hunched man walked to the book on the altar, and removed his hood.
Nicole stared, the man seemed to be missing his head. A pale light eminated from the place his head would have been. As she watched the light seemed to form, mold itself into a head. Features became visible, a nose, a mouth, the eyes. The man, now flly formed, regarded her with deep blue eyes, his face wreathed by silver hair.
"Do not be afraid choosen one. I assure you, you are pefrectly safe."
"Who are you?"
"In times long past I was known as Michael Caine. Since then, I have been known as Niraster."
"What's all this choosen stuff?"
"You are impatient to learn the truth of humanity, you will someday understand."
With that he straightened out, his back no longer hunched, raised his arms to the sky, and started reading from the book infront of him.
As the first verse were uttered, light flowed from the book like water, bathing over every stone surface, but not penetrating up into the sky, or touching the rock on which Nicole stood. After the second verse finished the rock on which Nicole stood glowed brightly with the light, though Nicole actually felt a kind of cold heat on the soles of her feet. She couldn't talk, nor breathe, but for the moment, it didn't seem to matter. The third verse finished and all the light in the area seemed to form a ring about 5 feet from the base of the rock on which Nicole stood, and with the fourth verse, it flowed forward and splashed upwards high into the sky above her. She was bathed in light. She opened her eyes and saw, intense, powerful, pure, light. Looking up she saw the light flow in on it self, as it seemed to rain down on her. As she watched the light rain down around her, it splached on her skin, and seemed to be absorbed into her skin. Like in a spring shower, she closed her eyes and smiled, forgetting the terror, the pain, the darkness, she felt at peace. The rain of light slowed, and then stopped. She opened her eyes.
She was laying on the floor in her dorm, again. She got up, slowly, frightened, cold, alone.
"This can't really be happening to me. I must be halucinating."
She glanced down at herself. She was wearing her jeans and tee shirt again. The normalcy comforted her, maybe it was all a dream. She rubbed her hands, then stopped, her fingers in her right palm, moving slightly. She opened her hands and looked at them. Her right hand had a symbol cut into it, a kind of angular glyph. She traced it, felt the grooves with her fingers. As she stared at it, it seemed to emit a faint white glow. She put her hand in the pocket of her jeans, not wanted to look at it.
"Did I do this? Maybe while in that crazy dream?"
As she said it, she felt the floor shake slightly, and heard a growling in the hallway. In her mind, she saw a large black creature standing in the hall, waiting to ambush her. She dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand, thinking her imagination overactive, she opened the door and walked out into the hallway.
Standing at the end of the hall was a large creature, it was huge. It took up the whole hallway, and was at least 8 feet tall. It turned, and she saw a singular, deep purple head looking at her from the middle of the black mass. It waved it's arms, and a shockwave ripped through the hallway, tearing at her, her clothes whipping in the wind. A second later the walls seemed to explode, dust and plaster everywhere. Nicole screamed, shook her head violently and just screamed.
She opened her eyes, the walls were normal. The creature at the end of the hallway remained though. Scared for her life, but unable to flee, Nicole broke the fire box in the wall, grabbed the ax, and started to walk towards the creature.
The sprinklers had activated, sensing the fire box being broken into. Water sparyed down on Nicole and the creature, the creature momentarily confused.
"This is stupid, you should just run Nicole," she thought to herself, "but I can't run, it's blocking the stairs, I have no place to run. There has to be a better way to do this. This is the only way."
Having settled her self doubt, she walked right up to the creatre, and raised the ax. The creature looked at her, and then swiped at her. It missed, and Nicole started to swing the ax towards the head. As the ax made contact, her right hand burned fiercely, the ax glowed white, and severed the head quickly. Nicole screamed and dropped the ax, gripped her hand tightly until the burning stopped. The ax lay in the water, steam rising from it's surface. Nicole picked the ax back up, looked at the fallen creature before her, and using her left hand, swung the ax in a circle, bringing it down into the creature's body. The gusher of blood opened from the fisure created from the ax, covering Nicole. As it touched her hand, it burned, and seemed to receed away from her palm. Dizy from the pain, Nicole fell forward, her hand touching whe creature, which violently exploded splattering stingy black goo around the hallway. Nicole looked at her body covered with the creature entrails and fainted.
"You should give up, I will claim you," a womans voice said in Nicole's ear.
Nicole awoke, to see a woman standing in a wedding dress before her. The dress was splattered with blood, the womans head held in her hands. Her brown hair held back by a rusted metal headband.
"What?" Nicole asked bleerely.
"Give up, you can't win."
"Against who, I'm in no competition."
"Against me."
Nicole opened her eyes fully, she finally saw just what she was talking to, she screamed and tried to crawl through the black goo towards the staircase. The staircase and the wall seemed to move further away from her. The more she tried to reach the door, the further away it moved. Then the woman was there infront of her.
"Struggle all you want, you can't escape me."
The black good seemed to come alive, forming around Nicole, holding her still. It pinned her arms to her side, her legs clamped together. It raised her up until her was face to face with the woman's head. The woman's teeth were rotting, her eyes were a fierce red. Her skin, on closer inspection which Nicole had hoped to aviod, was rotting, falling away from the bone. When she spoke the smell of decay flowed on her words.
"I will claim you, for you are the first to oppose me with such power. You are the seal bearer, the first in over 4000 years."
"What?"
"You think I don't know who you are. Young fool, you know not what you are to become, yet you have lost your battle."
The woman opened her mouth, exhaling. Nicole closed her eyes and held her breath. When she opened them again, the woman head was slightly closer, mere inches. The stench when she spoke, almost overpowering.
"Your pitiful order, nobody can defy my power young one. I am the begining of the darkness. I was the first, and I will be the last, to reign over this universe."
The ooze of the creature hardened around Nicole. It crept up her neck to her mouth. It seeped into her mouth and held it sightly open. Nicole screamed until her lungs were empty, while she struggled to breathe, the ooze squeezing the life from her. The woman's eyes stopped glowing and a pulsating darkness seemed to form in the back of her mouth which had remained open after her last words. The darkness crept forward out of the mouth before it moved towards Nicole through the air, as if smoke on the wind. Nicole tried to pull away from it, but the solidified ooze held her fast. She closed her eyes, and clenched her teeth, feeling some of the ooze trickle into her mouth and down her throat. The smoke touched her skin, and she felt an imense pain deep in her soul. The pain was so incredible she opened her mouth and inhailed to scream, the smoke entering her body as she breathed it in.
She never screamed. She closed her mouth. She no longer grimaced, the pain had gone. She opened her eyes slowly. They were no longer green, but glowed a fierce red and orange, as if the fires of hades itself were visible through them. She smiled a knowing smile. The black ooze liquified and started to steam and sputter. Soon it was gone.
Nicole stood there. Her clothing altered. Gone were her jeans and tee shirt. Replaced by a black and tattered old dress. Her hair and dress whipped around in the wind emanating from an unseen source. She walked forward, slowly moving down the hall to her old dorm room. With each step the floor creaked, the walls crumbled, the ceiling cracked and chipped. The destruction followed her every step. She opened the door, approached the book, and opened it to the page with her old blood on it. A beam of light shot out as before, bating her in whiteness. She hid her eyes, and let the beam take her back to the altar. Back to Michael Caine. For he was one of the last few who could stop her. He would have to be taken care of before the others.
