Darkening

MysticShadowWanderer

Disclaimer: Stupid Satan in a cup!

Chapter Five: Kaji

The first thing that beckoned me to awaken was her scent. The second thing was the feeling of her small fingers running through my hair. My eyes opened to stare into hers, and she smiled at me.

"You still have all your charm," she whispered.

I smirked and kissed her quickly. "I ought to be able to use that godlike speed for something, right?"

Her grin widened and she chuckled quietly, shaking her head slightly. It was then that I noticed the silver chain around her neck. In all our hurry last night, I hadn't really observed much of anything. My hand stretched out to lift the chain and hold the pendant up where I could see it. As I studied it, I realized that it wasn't a pendant, but rather a tiny phial, and that it was tightly sealed to prevent the blood inside from leaking.

"Mine?" I asked.

"As am I," she replied.

The thought was comforting; after years of waiting, she still wore the blood that she'd taken from me when I first began my rebirth. Magick was likely keeping it in liquid form, as it seemed unlikely that it would have lasted so long.

"Diabolos," she whispered. "I love you."

"I know," I said with a smirk. I leaned forward to kiss her again. "I love you, as well."

She smiled happily and nestled into my embrace, her naked body sliding against mine in a way that was most tantalizing. At the moment, though, I just wanted to hold her. It was enough to be close to her, and feel her heartbeat next to mine.

"You smell the same as you used to," she murmurs against my skin. "Almost."

"Almost?"

"You smell wiser, older," is her response. It was a bit bewildering to me, because I've never had the gift to interpret scents like she could. "You've gained more power." Her lips caressed my collarbone briefly. "You are more dangerous now. I'm afraid for you."

My hand comes up to stroke her head comfortingly. "There's no need to be, love."

"Just promise me that when you start your trials tonight that you'll be careful." She breathed in deeply. "I like you this way. The danger... it's exciting."

She nipped at my skin and I took her lips in a gentle kiss that built slowly in intensity. For the first time in a long time, she made it pleasurable to wake up in the morning.

"Are you sure about this, sire?" Skopos questioned, not for the first time. "If we lost you..."

"I am sure, Skopos," I assured him again. "I understood what would happen when I began the rebirth process, and now I must go through the trials. I will not be kept from my throne."

I briefly considered leaving instructions with Skopos, but, remembering that he'd gotten plenty experience while I was gone, decided against it. He would have no more problem ruling during my trial period than he did during my rebirth and remembrance. Gathering my nerve and my cloak, I nodded to him as I passed, stopped to kiss Licentia quickly, and walked on.

The feeling of solitude pressed itself upon me almost immediately as I made my way toward the Dirus Province; I tried to tell myself that it was a trick of my mind, but at heart I knew the truth. Only those doomed to die traveled this road, only those with no hope left. But I refused to resign myself to that fate. I would not die here, there was still too much for me left to do. I would live to see death rain down on the world of the living. They would know me as the teacher of pain and suffering; Licentia would be by my side as the herald of torment.

Why I desired this above all else, I wasn't entirely sure. Of course it was in my nature to love blood and misery, but why I strove to make my place in the world as what one might call a type of supreme ruler was somewhat beyond my reasoning. I'd always wanted this, though, that much I knew. Before my rebirth, I'd felt the intense need to show the mortal realm just how powerful we could be, and teach them the proper respect for my people. The truth of the matter was, the number of humans that were even aware of our existence was dismally small; it was the same with all those that dwelt within my realm, though.

The Dragonlord, who reigned over the territory adjacent to mine and was a sometimes-ally, had long voiced his discontent with the utter ignorance of the human race. For as long as I could remember, which was quite a long time, he'd been all in favor of opening a full-scale attack upon the mortal world. The other members of our High Council, however, always restrained him; the planning would simply have taken too much effort and have been too much of a risk with the threat that was facing me. Having the supreme ruler of the High Council assassinated would have thrown the entire realm into disarray in an instant. When I thought about it, the council was really more of a formality than anything else, a sort of meeting place for the rulers of each territory to converge and voice their opinions. In the end, my word was decisive, and anyone who thought to challenge me was killed. Most of the members of the council rarely even bothered to make an appearance at meetings, partly because of their hatred of each other (and me), and partly because they knew that I looked after my own peoples' interests with little regard to anyone else's. Despite the fact that I was generally disliked by the majority of the other territorial leaders, I was respected and feared, and that bode perfectly well with me. That was the way our world worked, and I reveled in it.

The air was stifling and completely still as stepped up to the roadside hovel. It was small, dilapidated, and made of old, rotting wood. Even I had never been here before, but I knew that this particular building was old enough to be considered ancient. If it's choice material wasn't enough (wood hadn't been used in our realm in thousands of years, mainly because of the lack of trees), the carvings on the walls and surrounding rocks would have been sufficient. Not many people knew the ancient languages, but a small grin crept onto my face as I read the equivalent of ancient graffiti. This road having only been used by prisoners sentenced to the most painful deaths imaginable and those having to be tested as I was about to be, the carvings were less than polite. There were a few that were simply names (unrecognizable, of course), but I read some things that even I wouldn't care to repeat. Some of the fresher marks flung scathing insults at none other but myself, and I read with distracted interest, but it wasn't anything that I hadn't heard before. One could hardly expect to be liked by prisoners you'd sent to be tortured and killed in ways that the mind could scarcely comprehend. I was too concerned with the tasks ahead of me to give much attention to the words of dead men.

As all before me that underwent the rebirth process, I was sentenced to go through three trials to prove my worthiness. Rebirth provided a host of new power for those who were both strong enough to complete the ritual and to survive the tests. My original reason to be reborn was practical. At the time, the quickly dying people of Diakonos harbored the fierce desire to see me assassinated. The race had long been used as my peoples' slave labor, but because of their inherent weakness, were being worked to death, a problem that was rather meaningless for us but that they were more than just slightly angered by. The remaining three thousand or so were desperate to see me dead, and while they were frail, they were cunning, and we had little doubt that they would fail in the attempt. The situation was unavoidable, and it was best that I choose then to come into the powers that I would gain with the rebirth. With conditions that were ideal, I had an option that would render me rather unvanquishable. The time was right. But now I had to pay the price for my choice, which I did not regret.

The trials progressed in their difficulty. The Trial of the Flame was not overly challenging, but long and unpleasant; it was meant to wear down the one being tested. The Trial of the Silence was not only arduous but extremely painful. The Trial of the Time was one that was not often administered, and I had to admit that I was somewhat surprised that I would be to put to it. The Time was an infamous name, whispered from person to person but never spoken of without a sense of dread. Though most of my people would never have to take any sort of trial, the Time was still frightening, even though exactly what it entailed was unknown. The only certain thing known about the Time was that everyone who had thus far been put to the task had gone insane and died shortly thereafter. Even with my newfound strength and my skill with my darkening, I was apprehensive at the thought of attempting the Trial of the Time.

Pulling myself out of my deliberation, I stepped through the sagging doorway of the hovel, and was instantly assailed by the scent of death. Though Licentia was the one who was gifted with scent, I was the master of death. The smell of this demise was old, unfathomable even. It was the kind of heavy odor that came from deep sorrow and excruciating pain, and that hung in the air until the world's ending. This was what I wanted the entire world to smell like under my rule. I breathed in deeply, losing myself momentarily in the morbid beauty of the aroma.

But there was something more important at hand, and I had to face the reality of what was before me. There was but a single door on the opposite side of the hovel; I reached out and shoved it open with force. The scene of the other side of that door was vastly different from that which was just behind the hovel. I stepped through the door, knowing that if I failed, no one would be able to find my body.

I had heard plenty theories and religions during my time in the Earth realm, and I decided immediately that if there was anything that resembled the Christian Hell, this was it. I stood on a rocky outcrop, just barely large enough for me to be able to stand on without tumbling to my death, above a pit of flames that seemed to be bottomless. To my right, there was a thin, steep staircase that was carved into the rock wall. Looking up, I could see nothing but rock on all sides of me that faded into black where I could no longer see.

"Well this is disagreeable," I mumbled through a sigh. There was no one about, no instructions to be heard or seen, so I started the descent.

I was only able to take three downward steps before the intensity and closeness of the flames became a concern. Usually fire was nothing that I had to trouble with, because of my power over it, but it was clear that the first trial wouldn't be so simplistic. With another sigh, I closed my eyes briefly to concentrate. The flames flickered, but refused to be extinguished, and I growled low in my throat. I did not like to be denied, but I did what I could and pushed the flames nearest me away. It was the best I could do.

Five hours later and I was still climbing down stairs while holding back the flames. The stairs continually got steeper and thinner until I was forced to practically scrape myself along the wall, which was slightly painful. To use one's darkening for such an extended period of time was wearying, though I wasn't close to being depleted. Still, when my attention would slip, as happened more than once, to my great shame, the flames would leap at me and I would have to push them back while attempting to put out whichever part of my body happened to be on fire.

By the time I reached the floor of what I had come to think of as a canyon and the flames shot up into nothingness, I could feel blood dripping from several places of exposed skin, and I could smell my own flesh and hair smoldering. My entire body ached as I removed my half-burned vest and blackened shirt. Thankfully, I'd made the decision to leave my cloak with Licentia, and now praised my foresight.

Leaving my ruined clothing at the base of the stairs, I dragged myself across the canyon floor to the next door. It was unlikely that I would get any sort of a reprieve, and I knew that the flames would return at any moment. My body protested as I flung the door open, but I didn't have the luxury to rest and heal my wounds before I moved on.

The next trial awaited me, and though I was less than eager to face it, I stepped through the doorway to meet the Trial of the Silence.

I wrote this a while ago... like two weeks... so here's the old A/N...

A/N: I just realized something. :sheepish look: The "darkening" is kind of similar to the Stephen King thing with the "shining"... Oh well. I didn't steal it from him, and it's a different concept, sothereha! :sticks tongue out: Anyhow, I just got back from vacation, and while I was there I wrote all of... oh... five sentences, maybe. But I do have a kickass new statuette of Anubis, so maybe he can inspire me :grin: I learned how to tie a bowline knot, too. At the original Benjamin's Calabash Seafood place, actually... I don't think the waitress was too pleased when I yanked out my shoelace to practice the knots in the picture on the wall (yay for ship-themed restaurants!) I can't get the knot out of this string though...

Oh yeah... the story... Let's see, what went on...? Not much that isn't fairly self-explanatory, I think. This stuff just makes itself up as I write it... I had NO clue what the Trial of the Flame was going to be. It actually came to me only after I wrote the part with him standing on the outcrop. Cool, huh?

Translations:

"Kaji" - "a fire; on fire" (boring, but it works)
"Diabolos" - Greek; "accuser, slanderer" (the root of the words "devil" and "diabolical")
"Dirus" - Latin; "fearful, threatening" (root of "dire")
"Diakonos" - "servant" (don't remember what in the hell this is the root of...)

By the way, you may or may not be wondering about the disclaimer, depending on whether or not you remember what it said. My friend Aisu and I wanted ice cream at exactly 4.37 Thursday morning. Because it was vacation, my dad bought about five million boxes of ice cream. So, obviously, we got out the Moose Tracks, because, well, why on earth would you want to eat anything else? I was trying to scoop the stuff out but it was REALLY frozen, so it was extremely difficult, and because it was 4.37 AM, I wound up expressing my frustration by saying "Stupid Satan in a cup!" I'm not sure why, but I think I meant to say "This ice cream is like Satan in a carton," or something that would have been at least SLIGHTLY coherent. As it was, we wound up staying up until 5.30 AM, because we couldn't stop laughing about Satan in a cup. It WAS highly amusing. Then the next night at dinner, some little girl had ice cream, and Aisu goes "OH MY GOD! SHE'S GOT SATAN IN A CONE!!!!" Good times... Ever tried going to your local ice cream shop and asking for "a chocolate Satan in a cone with rainbow sprinkles"? Do it. It's worth it. There's also the thing about Duane E. Scott, the elevator Necromancer, but that's a story for another time...