The Darkness Within Lessa

Jessie sped through the Spectral realm without wasting time on the ghoulish creatures that tried to get in her way. She was focusing on the beacon hidden in one of the closed-off rooms of her own private sanctuary. At length, she came upon the mountain in which her sanctuary was hidden. She phased through the mountain wall in just the right place and emerged in her own little world separated from Nosgoth because no one else knew how to access it. The walls of this place were specially designed to focus her raw energy and allow her to create a material form.
Jessie moved to the center of the cavern, but then she hesitated. What form should she take? She wanted a powerful form, but not one that would take too much energy. She also had to consider the fact that if the Nerayan did manage to corrupt her, her friends would have to be able to defeat her. After much deliberation, she opted for the form she had just lost, but with a few improvements.
Jessie's form began to be visible in the material realm as a glowing white ball of light in the center of the cavern. The light got brighter as more of herself entered the material realm. When she had willed enough of her energy through the conduit between realms that her sanctuary provided, she began to convert the energy to matter.
There was a bright flash as her energy suddenly expanded outwards, little white slivers going in all directions. The energy packets hit the walls of the cavern, followed along little tracks carved into the walls, and left at just the right places. The cavern focused the energy back to the center, like a lens, in just the right way to allow Jessie to control it. First, she formed a skeleton. Then she added muscle, flesh, clothes, armor, and finally her sword. She checked over herself to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.
She walked over to the rock wall where she knew the exit to be, pushed in the right place to activate the button, and the door opened before her. She walked through to the central room, where she had retrieved the HeartStone earlier, and the door closed behind her. She looked around to see if there was anything she could use and her gaze settled on a pair of daggers. They looked just like miniature versions of her sword. She put them in their sheaths and concealed one on each wrist. Then she grabbed a pouch containing a very special herb—the antidote to the Wraithen poison her daggers used, just in case one of her friends was injured by her weapons. She glanced over everything one last time, then decided to focus in on the combined signatures of Novanus and Abel. Just this once, it was worth the energy to teleport.

Izael awakened from his dream. He felt dizzy and when he looked around, he could see that sun was about to rise. Everyone else was asleep. What had awakened him? Then he heard it again, a soft female voice whispering his name. LESSA! Izael stood up and walked into the forest. There, in a clearing, stood Lessa. "You made it!" Izael said. Lessa gestured not to speak too loudly. "Follow me, I must tell you something. I am not yet prepared to tell it to the others." Something was not right, Izael could sense it. However, he did as she asked and followed her deeper into the woods, into a small clearing. A smile came over her face. "Now, they will not hear your screams." Izael backed away, his hand reaching for Albornia. He remembered Novanus' words, "Mastering Albornia is like mastering yourself." But how could he ever use it against Lessa? "What's wrong with you? Lessa? LES-" Izael couldn't speak further before she attacked. However, her attack was blocked. "Lent? What's going on here?" Lent couldn't really answer because the next moment he was hanging in the air, Lessa's powers having paralyzed him. Izael felt that same dark presence reach for him. It used his weakness, unwillingness to hurt his friend, and before Izael realized it, he was hanging in the air too. He tried to scream, but couldn't. Lessa laughed. "You really thought YOU could oppose us? Pathetic human. You are no savior." Finally Izael realized. The Nerayan. He felt himself suffocating. "You don't even deserve a swift death for your arrogance. However, there are others even more foolish than you. You were only a pawn. Join us, or die knowing your friends will suffer even more than YOU EVER DID." A wave of pain struck Izael. He couldn't scream, he couldn't defend himself. He writhed in unseen agony.

Suddenly Lessa let out a scream. Izael was released. He looked at Lessa, who said, "Run. Tell the others I am sorry." Lent turned to look at Izael and say, "Go, get the others here." Then Lessa attacked. Lent could block some of her attacks, but was forced to back away. Then he was hanging in the air again. Izael drew Albornia. "Now try killing me, you vile beasts!" However, time was running out. The sun would rise soon. Izael made one desperate attack, and managed to surprise the entity possessing Lessa. She fell to the ground, bleeding from a deep wound on her chest. "Yes, kill your friend. It will not matter much for us. You are already doomed, sooner or later." Izael attacked again, this time making Lessa scream in agony as she received another deep wound. His third cut missed. Izael realized he was blinded by his tears. This fight couldn't go on for long. However, Lessa seemed to be able to gain control of herself for a while. Lent dropped to the ground again. He blew to the object hanging around his neck, and Lessa froze. "C'moon, we gotta get her to the shelter. She will fall asleep and will not be a danger...at least for a while."

A green flash woke up Admar. He yawned, then looked to where the flash had come from. A form was materializing in the center of the glow. The form gained substance as the glow subsided into a shimmer of bright dust. He couldn't make out who was there, and then he was fully awake and comprehension dawned. "Jessie?" he shouted, waking up the others. Jessie smiled and said, "Yes. I'm back." Admar asked, "Is that how you gain a material form?" Jessie laughed, almost wishing it was that easy, before she replied, "No. That was only teleporting. Building a material body requires much more energy and concentration." Abel came up to them, greatly relieved to find Jessie alright. Jessie was equally relieved that the Nerayan had not taken advantage of Abel's contact with the HeartStone to possess him.
Novanus walked over and Jessie jumped, then said, "Oh! You're you!" Novanus joked, "Last time I checked." Jessie laughed, then tried to explain herself, "When the Nerayan were trying to possess me, I briefly touched their mind. They were very happy about possessing someone, someone with a vampiric energy signature. I had feared it was you, considering the lengths they went to in order to draw you into the Astral realm. But if you're fine, and Abel is as well, who did they get?" Then, after a moment of considering, "Where is Lessa? Uh-oh! It's got to be Lessa they have! And Izael is missing, too. This does not bode well."

Lessa was in a dark place where she was bound to the blackness by chains. She could hear the Nerayan whispering, trying to get her to tell, but she would not. She had been singing the song for hours. Vorador had said it would ward against evil. She didn't know if that part of it worked but it kept her sane. She had seen flashes of what it had been doing with her body, holding Lent in the air, and attacking Izael. Then she had felt pain, and seen Izael's tear-streaked face behind his sword as he hacked at her. She did not mind, it had to be done. Now she could feel the Nerayan's anger at being so close to killing Izael and failing. She laughed. "What's wrong, oh powerful one? Missed your mark?" Lessa taunted. She was rewarded with a jolt of pain that brought her to her knees. "YOU ARE IN NO POSITION TO TAUNT US, DARK ONE!" came the booming voice. "But you have failed, and the fact that you're here tells me you no longer control my body, so there is hope. If they have sense they will kill me," Lessa replied. The voice returned, "No, they will not kill you. They care for you too much. No, you will live and we will finish what we have started." "You may have me bound here, but I have shown I can stop you and, given time, I will break free of this place and cleanse you from my mind," Lessa said smiling. She had time, for she had realized that it took them great amounts of energy to control people when they faced resistance. All Lessa had to do was wait.

Admar spoke out, "We have to try and win her back from it, my lord. We can't just leave her. And what about Izael and Lent?" Novanus began to think. He wasn't the same vampire he had been just a few days ago. So much had happened that had influenced him more than two millennia of life had. They would save her, but if she was under the power of the Nerayan, then the fight would be for Lessa to win and not them. Izael and Lent were another matter.
"We better get ready to leave and find them." Novanus turned and walked to pack away his belongings. As he reached out, his right arm felt as if it was burning with a feeling something akin to water touching vampiric flesh. He knelt down with his back to the others, who were busily organizing themselves. He then rolled back his right sleeve. Novanus' eyes went wide. A band of pitch black skin covered almost a fifth of his forearm. It had never been there before. It was in exactly the place where the Nerayan had grabbed him in the astral planes. What was wrong with him? He rolled down his sleeve and attached his belongings to Seth's saddle. "Are we ready," he asked. Various nods of agreement indicated the answer. Novanus walked Seth into the forest in the direction that Izael had last taken.

Izael and Lent were progressing slowly. They had to drag paralyzed Lessa with them, and then paralyze her again when she awoke. Izael felt exhausted. They had been walking slowly for hours, yet they seemed to be no nearer to their camp. Izael was afraid they were lost. Worse, he had to fight back against the Nerayan, who were like a dark cloud in the back of his mind. He couldn't go on much longer. He simply couldn't. At least he had left his armor back at the camp. Suddenly Lessa came alive again. With a quick move she threw Izael off from her with one hand, while ripping the whistle from around Lent's neck. Izael flew through the air for a while, then landed heavily against a tree with a thud. Lessa walked to him, smiling evilly. "Foolish human. We have being playing all along, sapping your strength until you're too weak to confront us." Lessa raised her hand and punched Izael in the face. Izael's nose broke and blood dropped to the snow. The thing that had taken over Lessa's body lifted Izael's head and forced him to open his mouth. "Now, what happens to a mortal when he drinks the blood of a vampire?..." The thing laughed at the horror in Izael's eyes. "NO!" Lent kicked Lessa to the ground. "Izael, RUN! GO! I will hold her with my life." But Lessa was up again, saying, "Your life holds no meaning. You cannot paralyze us. Poor human, how do you think you can win? And what comes to that...child, he cannot run anymore. We are sorry, but this IS the end." Izael floated closer to Lessa, unable to move. He struggled with his mind. He had to break free. HE HAD TO! With desperation, he broke from the spell, but he was already too close to Lessa's body. Lent could only watch as she landed a furious kick on Izael's chest. Izael screamed. He felt his ribs break. He flew through the air and landed on his side, his left hand breaking with a snap. Izael felt it was hard to breathe. One of his bones had obviously pierced his lung. He could not heal himself before that bone was removed. Lessa walked closer and smiled, then she kicked Izael again. Luckily, the pain was too great to bear, and Izael blacked out.

Novanus burst through the trees atop Seth. He focused all his will on locking onto the movements of Lessa's body. He couldn't risk a direct assault on the Nerayan, but he could disable its host, he hoped. The thing that was Lessa turned, her eyes showing pure hatred for Novanus. Novanus had never thought he would ever see her direct that look at him. Lessa's body hissed, jumping towards him only to meet a crushing blow from Lent's fist part way through the air.
Novanus began to feel the strain upon his mind. He just couldn't break through the Nerayan's power upon the body. He scanned the barrier protecting Lessa's body. He could find nothing. No weakness of any kind. Nothing. Novanus was about to give up when he noticed the smallest chink in the shield. 'Thank you, Lessa,' Novanus thought to himself. He didn't know if the gap was big enough for him to be able to affect Lessa's body, but he was going to try. Novanus forced the mental impulse which locked a being's muscles through the chink and Lessa fell to the floor, rigid. Novanus looked at the wounds on Lessa's body. They were deep, but already her fast healing abilities had begun to work. With his eyes, Novanus began to see the flesh slowly begin to knit back together. He picked her up and laid her over Seth's saddle. He looked into her eyes. No longer did he see the hatred; instead, the eyes were filled with total fear. The Nerayan had abandoned Lessa. Soon Novanus... Soon your will shall crumble, and you shall be ours.

Novanus held his right arm as searing pain flooded through it. He forced the pain to the back of his mind and turned to Lent and Izael. He crouched over Izael and began uttering a spell of the Ancients. With a sickening crack, Izael's ribs moved back to their original position. He was healed but asleep. Novanus turned to Lent, picked up Izael, and smiled as he walked back to Seth. He began walking the horse back to the others but before he left the clearing he turned to look at Lent, beckoning him to follow. He then pushed on into the dense green undergrowth of the forest.

Night fell quickly and Kour worried they might not reach the entrance in time. To his relief, up ahead and emanating a warm orange light, the entrance sat in utter contrast to the icy blue coolness of the mountain exterior. The cave walls were smooth and warm, the air humid and stale. With a nod, Kour motioned to Orugarde and the two began their way down into the winding depths of the dimly lit Grotto.
The path grew steep and narrow, forcing the two to descend single file for a time. Eventually the way widened and leveled off into an underground sea of liquid molten lava, explaining the intense heat they had felt on the way down. Carefully making their way around the rim, Kour thought the lava pool more resembled hot blood than molten rock. To the right, the path widened into a small chamber where a figure, seated with back turned, stirred a large, dark metal pot over a wood fire. Kour's arm held Orugarde back and the two stood in silence, mesmerized at the silent movements of the creature in front of them.

Jessie walked through the forest slowly with Admar and Abel. Moments ago, Novanus had felt the extreme necessity to reach Lessa quickly, so he and Seth had set off to scout out up ahead while the others continued slowly on foot. Jessie wondered how Novanus was doing against a Nerayan-possessed Lessa. Jessie also wondered where Izael and Gadorian had gone. 'They are probably up ahead, fighting against Lessa's body,' Jessie concluded.
After a short while, Admar decided to break the silence with a question that had been nagging at him since Jessie's reappearance. "So, what's it like? Dying, I mean losing a form, or whatever just happened to you?" Jessie considered the question carefully, then said, "Well, for real or not, no one likes dying, and I'm no exception. However, it's not really that painful. It's more like a sadness, a sense of loss and emptiness. Then the Elder God draws me into his lair and I have to escape in order to regain a material form." Abel listened to this exchange, curious to hear Jessie speaking so openly about it. He wondered out loud, "How did you escape this time?" Jessie replied, "I didn't. Not really. The Elder God let me go because if the Nerayan break through, he will slowly starve to death. He knew I would fight against the Nerayan, thereby serving his ends, but I don't care. At least I didn't slip and tell him how I regenerate energy without consuming souls. With that information, I don't even want to know what the Elder God would become."
Admar astutely asked, "But doesn't your sword absorb energy for you?" Seeing a look of amusement on Jessie's face, Admar continued, "I mean, that's what Izael told me you said." Jessie replied, "Yes, I did say that. But the sword is only part of it. Now, where are the others?" Jessie had the desire to terminate the conversation in case they were being spied upon. The abilities of her sword were basically common knowledge to all who knew her, but she couldn't risk revealing some more sensitive information.
A sudden loud sound just up ahead caused them all to freeze in place, tensely waiting to discover who would come out of the dense undergrowth before them.

Gadorian sat atop the hill, watching the sunlight reflect off the lightly falling snowflakes. Everyone around him was falling victim to the Nerayan. He and Izael alone, as wards of the sword, had any real resistance against it. And yet Izael was a human, and thus had other weaknesses. Gadorian could only watch his friends wrestle with these demons, oblivious to the torment they faced within their own minds. By his very nature as part of the weapon to fight the Nerayan, he could not fully comprehend the suffering they inflicted on their victims. He could only watch, but for how much longer? Their only victories had been reclaiming what was rightfully theirs, they had caused no damage to the evil threatening Nosgoth. This charade was useless, it could not go on any longer. The time had finally come. The beginning of the end.
Soon, perhaps less so than he thought, Gadorian and Izael would have to travel the Path. He cringed at the very thought. He had traveled at least once before, but he had long repressed the terrible memories. Novanus would have to lead them to the shrine, and the group would be able to aid them in the Trials, but only the brothers of the sword would be allowed to walk the Path. He and Izael could enter, but each would have to face his journey alone. A tiny dimension created specifically for the traveler, knowing his strengths and weaknesses, and testing them all along the way. No two paths had ever, or would ever be the same, for no two souls can ever be identical. All of this to ensure the absolute purity of the seal. The way would be long and arduous, and perhaps neither of them would return, but if they succeeded, the scourge that was Nerayan would again be safely locked away. But what would happen to lady Nosgoth, her people, and Gadorian's friends while he pressed on through his own personal hell? If he never returned, he would never know. Thus, if he should lose his life in the coming battle, he might as well get to know those he would be leaving behind. Gadorian walked down the hill back towards his friends as the last rays of sunlight shimmered along his path