Completing the Tests

Lent awoke. Instead of finding himself in the temple, or in a cave, he was outside again. "Is this real? Or is this still a test?" Lent wondered. To the east, the sun rose, and in a panic, Lent quickly covered his eyes. At first he thought he would be obliterated by sunlight's touch, but the rays only caused a discomforting irritation. He felt weak, and couldn't find the means to summon his dark gift.
"Hello?" Lent called out. No reply. He walked along the ashy ground of Dark Eden, with the scent of brimstone hanging over the air. The land was deserted, totally devoid of life. Lent was hungry, and needed to feed soon. "The blood chalice." It was gone...The encroaching sunlight beat down on him, so Lent made his way to the mountain's edge, hoping to shade himself in the tall rocks. He nestled himself in the rocks, and crouched down low. Trying to huddle himself close, his foot slipped and revealed a small crack. Small pebbles fell down, and by the echo Lent could tell that it was the opening of a cave. This was just what he needed, and with that he clawed his way and made an opening.
Lent slipped down the small opening he made for himself. Sunlight stretched inside, but clouds of dust covered the rays, and he was hurt no longer. The sounds of a steady stream beckoned him, and Lent realized that it was not water. It sounded thicker than water, and the scent of blood was in the air. He knew what this meant, and rushed to the fountain. Indeed, it was an ancient blood fountain. He drew the blood into himself telekinetically and felt its warmth move through every fiber of his body. His health was restored, and sunlight's touch would not weaken him so much. Thus sated, Lent left the cave to look for other survivors.

Kour sat silently in the dark; the only movement was his breathing in and out. He tried to probe the mind connected to the voice behind the rock. "That won't work, ridiculous mortal." Kour was already irritated at having been interrupted. Now insulted, the little patience he had left wore thin. He took another deep breath. "Fine then, who are you? Since you already know who I am." "Well, you see… I guess you could say that you already know me…so to speak. We've already met… in a way." "Stop the riddles. I have no time for this." "You have all the time in the world, my dear. We both do." "Enough!" Kour shouted as he rose to leave.
"Ah, it seems that patience is not for the old either, is it Kour?" The voice within the rock paused to laugh, then continued. "Ok, ok, enough fun. We're in a sort of time warp… the space in between 'moments,' if you will. Hence, we have all the time in the world. As for me, well… my real name is Sujatha. Although others have called me Deva. No, no, not your precious Priestess Amar who conveniently stole my identity. I'm the real one."

Jessie's feet lightly touched the ground as the next illusion gained substance. She was in a snowy valley surrounded by mountains. It was quite calm and peaceful, like the last illusion had been at first, but Jessie fully expected for something bad to happen. As if not to disappoint her, the ground began to tremble. With a surprised gasp, Jessie realized that this was no earthquake. Hordes of demons poured over the small passes between the mountains. Jessie was surrounded and they were coming closer and closer. Jessie drew her sword and prepared to fight. In the last illusion, when she cast the rings of fire, it had not cost her any energy. She realized that her spells here were illusions, too, and she decided to use some of them without concern for her energy level.
When several of the demons were within range, Jessie cast another 'rings of fire' spell and wiped them clean out of existence. More demons surged forward to take their place. Jessie cast a few of her magical shields in case their attacks actually hurt like in the last illusion. Jessie grabbed her sword-tip with her free hand, drawing the blade across her chest, then she released the tip and swung the sword out in an arc. Green lightning appeared between her free hand and the sword-tip and as soon as the sword was far enough away, the lightning shot outwards. It flew away from Jessie, expanding as it went along, and razing a path all the way to the top of the mountain in front of her. Like before, more demons appeared to fill in the gap and it was as if nothing had happened. Now the demons were in range for melee combat. Jessie would not have the time or the room to cast a spell with such a large area of effect.
Jessie began to fight the demons with her sword, chopping, slicing, and dismembering in all directions. As she fought, she gradually entered a battle frenzy. She went ballistic, killing demon after demon after demon without any concern for the injuries she sustained. She only cared about one thing—fighting. Jessie was completely out of control.
From somewhere in the depths of her mind, Jessie realized what was going on. She struggled to regain control of herself, to save herself from becoming a mindless killing machine. Slowly she was able to force herself to calm down. Bit by bit, she brought herself back to sanity. The demons nearest to her had already been slaughtered, so she had enough space to cast a 'rings of fire' spell. This time, the spell was incredibly powerful and cleared away all demons in sight. No more came to take their place. Jessie thought she could sense laughter as this illusion slowly melted into blackness. Jessie could sense another message from the mysterious presence that seemed to be in control of the illusions: "Very impressive, but can you handle this?" Jessie was starting to get really annoyed. Was this place truly meant to test her or was it merely a trap to keep her occupied while her friends fought the Nerayan?

"Why should I believe you?" Kour asked the voice behind the rock. "For all I know you could be the Priestess out to deceive me once more. And this…a time warp? Hmpfh. Doesn't look or feel any different to me." "Doesn't it? Feel the rock." Kour humored the Deva and moved closer to the wall from which her voice came. He tried to place his hand on the solid rock, but instead it passed thru as if invisible. He then moved his body towards the solid wall without stopping. As he passed thru, he saw not solid rock but the elements of rock. He stopped, mesmerized at the sight before him. He saw the building blocks of all life, the basis of all things. He saw the elemental molecules, perfect tiny spheres suspended in space and time, holding the structure… the appearance of rock. He arrived on the other side to see the seated figure, the possessor of the voice.
"Well, it's about time!" the Deva smiled and rose from her seated position. Kour questioned her, "What trickery is this? Why was I able to pass thru?" "No trickery. Just the way things are. And because time is frozen, so is movement. You could pass thru 'solid' rock for several reasons, really. Shall I continue?" Kour nodded... he was beginning to understand. "Firstly, the rock is not 'really' solid, now is it? You saw that for yourself just now, did you not? Secondly, time is suspended and so is movement. The elements are not moving. The barrier that normally exists by that movement... is not there. That is the secret… the trick to it, if you will."
"Very well." Kour looked around the cave. They were surrounded, encased in rock, no visible exit in sight. "So we can move about at our leisure?" The Deva nodded, a smug look on her face. "Well then, what are we waiting for?" Kour smiled as he offered his arm and the two made their way towards what used to be the impassable.

A new illusion began to form around Jessie. Before she could even tell what it was, she shouted, "Enough! What is going on here? What is the purpose of this place?" The illusion dissolved back into darkness, leaving Jessie alone. A movement behind her caused her to spin around and reach for her sword. She found herself facing an ancient vampire. She sensed that he did not mean to attack, so she left her sword alone and straightened up to face him.
He began to speak and Jessie realized that he was the presence she had sensed earlier. "The purpose of this place is to test all who come through here. To make you face your worst nightmares and see if you pull through." Jessie thought for a moment, then asked, "How do you know what my worst nightmares are?" He replied, "With most, it is a simple matter to sense their thoughts and fears. With you, however, I could not sense your emotions very well. I had to guess. I saw you in that village so long ago, so I recreated that as the first trial. For the second, I took a chance that you would lose control if I got you to kill enough demons. You did not disappoint me."
Jessie thought this over, trying to remember if she had ever seen this vampire before, especially near that village. In her memory, she had been focusing on the people around her, trying to save them and trying to save herself from the horrific creatures. She replayed the painful memory over several times in her mind. On the last time through, she noticed a shadow on the ground. It looked like it belonged to an ancient vampire flying overhead. Perhaps this vampire was telling the truth. Or perhaps he was very dangerous and could reach into her mind. She asked him, "Are you the guardian of this place, then?" He thought for a moment, then said, "Yes, I suppose I am. It is my job to ensure that only those who are worthy escape their trials." "Where are my friends?" The ancient vampire looked sad for a moment and responded, "They are meeting their own worst fears as we speak." "Where are they?" "They are undergoing their own trials to..." Jessie cut him off. "I said WHERE are they?" Then she realized.
All this while, she had believed that Izael would repair the seal and then it would be happily ever after. Something floated to the surface of her thoughts from the deepest depths of memory. The seal that held the Nerayan at bay wasn't in this dimension. It had been placed in another dimension, a terrible place devoid of life. At the time, it had seemed like a good idea because no one in their right mind would be willing to go there to break the seal. But then the Hylden were banished there, the dimension was sealed off by the Pillars, and the Nerayan passed into legend before being forgotten completely. Poor Izael. He didn't stand a chance in that place. And if she knew Novanus and Gadorian, they wouldn't let Izael go alone. Where was Abel? Jessie had to find Abel.
Jessie spoke to the ancient vampire, "So, you are holding us here while Izael goes to the Hylden dimension to bring to Sword to the seal. Fine. I won't tell anybody. But let my other friends go." "I'm sorry. I can't do that." "Alright. At least let me rejoin them until this is all over." "I don't know if I can do that, either." Jessie was getting angry. She drew her sword and shouted, "You've seen what I can do, so why do you just stand there and taunt me? Let me see my friends!" With that, she charged at the vampire. He sighed, stepped out of the way, and opened a pathway into one of the other paths. Jessie replaced her sword, nodded at the vampire in thanks, and stepped through. She found herself in a place full of light. She walked forward, not really able to see anything other than the white light, until she came to a figure standing still and looking very sad. It was Abel.

Jessie walked over to Abel. She couldn't be sure, but it almost seemed as if he could see her. "Come," she said. "Izael and the others have work to do, and it is unlikely we will see them again. But there are still some loose ends we have to tie up together. For one thing, where is Lent?" She waited for Abel's reply.

Lessa saw Novanus smile as he looked at her. "Coming?" Novanus asked. Lessa looked back the way she had come. The others would be ok. She had nothing to hold her here now and she had promised Vorador that she would stay with his old friend Novanus. "Of course. You need looking after," Lessa said, smiling. She walked towards the portal and together Novanus and Lessa stepped through. Just before Lessa entered, she sent a message to her father. Miles away, Vorador was in sanctuary when he felt a fleeting touch of one he loved dearly. "Goodbye, my father," whispered the voice he knew so well. With blood tears running down his face, Vorador bid farewell to his only daughter, the daughter he had raised from a mortal five year old… "Goodbye, Lessa, my daughter."

Abel thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know where Lent is. Let's go find him." He started to walk off, but Jessie placed a hand on his arm to stop him. He turned to face her, curious, and found her looking around in all directions. She shouted out, "Where is my other friend?" The ancient vampire appeared before her, sighed, and motioned for them to follow him. Jessie and Abel walked behind this mysterious vampire until he stopped. Beyond him was what appeared to be an exit. He spoke to them, "Right through here is your friend. All of your other friends are...busy." He seemed very miserable as he delivered this news. Jessie felt a wave of sadness, but suppressed it. Now was not the time. She and Abel walked through the doorway to find Lent waiting for them. Abel went over to Lent and began talking, but Jessie was not paying attention to the conversation. She was talking to the ancient vampire. She said, "Tell me the truth. Are my friends dead?" He replied, "Truthfully, I do not know. It is likely they survived the trip to the other dimension, but they have no way of returning. That is all I can tell you. I'm sorry. I did not want it to end this way, believe me." Jessie could see a glimmer of red in his eyes and realized he was on the brink of tears. She said calmly, "They will be the last you have to send there, I assure you. Once the seal is repaired, the Nerayan will be blocked out forever. I will see to that."

She turned and walked over to Abel and Lent. The ancient vampire shimmered out of sight. 'He must have been a ghost, then,' thought Jessie. She felt sorry for him, but she was still angry over the loss of her friends. Wordlessly, she led the way out of that place, over the dark lifeless ground, away from Dark Eden. She grasped both of their hands and teleported to a nice peaceful field not too far from Meridian. "What will you do now?" she asked Lent. He looked sad for a moment, then said, "There is some personal business I must take care of." As he was walking away, Jessie called out, "Let us know if we can help! Goodbye!" and Lent was gone from her line of sight.

As they were whisked away to safety Abel couldn't help but feel... empty…unrelieved. He knew that with Jessie's interference, his trial had not been properly executed and thus had not ended for him. Though the conversation with Lent was brief he found that, though he was still wary of his trustworthiness, he would consider aiding him in his search for Kain, but until then he was going his own way. Abel was thankful for that, at least. "I know what I must do," he said quietly though the question was not directed toward him, "I still have to find Kain."
He stood apart from them only to gaze across the terrain he had only felt and heard before. Rotting, decrepit, dying. But still it was beautiful, he was lost already in the sight of the landscape. If anything was said to him then he most likely didn't hear. He wanted to take in everything in case the gift of sight was only temporary. Jessie watched Abel see everything for the first time. She was very happy for him, but she could sense a trace of discontentment within him. After letting him explore for a very long while, she walked over to him. "What's wrong?" she asked. He said despondently, "You interfered with my trial. I will never know if I would have passed on my own." Jessie began to laugh. When she saw the hurt look on Abel's face, she immediately stopped. "I asked the ancient vampire there if your trial was over. He said you only had one more test: flight. If you can overcome your fear of flying here, in the real world, I'd definitely say you passed. Now come on, I will teach you." Abel looked at her strangely before Jessie realized that her current form had no wings. She turned her head in embarrassment for a brief moment, then took Abel's hand. "Come with me," she said. "I have something I want to show you." She teleported both of them to the heart of her sanctuary. Abel was too surprised to say anything, so Jessie just let him explore. It was about time someone else enjoyed her collection of artifacts.
Jessie teleported through the rock face, into her materialization chamber. She stepped over to the middle and emitted a burst of energy. The energy coursed along the rock face, focused, and came back to her. After the glow subsided, her form was clearly vampiric. She had wings, but did not look like an Ancient. She looked Necromantic. As a wraith, she felt more of a connection to the idea of dying and returning. She teleported through the rock face back into the heart of her sanctuary. Abel was nowhere in sight. She took a moment to muse over everything that had just happened.
She stared at the paintings on her wall as she considered the fate of her friends. The Nerayan no longer probed her mind, so she could only assume that her friends had succeeded, but at what cost? If they had even survived, they would be trapped there in that Hell. In time, Jessie might regain her ability to travel between dimensions, so perhaps she might be able to rescue them sometime in the future, but perhaps she wouldn't be able to. Perhaps she wouldn't want to. If they changed like the Hylden had, Nosgoth might be safer with them trapped. A blood tear traced its way down Jessie's cheek. Enough of these thoughts. Her friends had not sacrificed so much for her to lapse into despair and allow Nosgoth to fall while she wallowed in sadness. She took a deep breath, wiped the tear away, and went off to find Abel.
He was sitting in a room full of trees, vines, and flowers. It was quite beautiful and Jessie was glad that this was one of the first sights Abel had ever seen. She walked over to him and said, "Well, now I'm ready to teach you how to fly. Are you ready to learn?" Abel snapped out of his reverie and looked up at her. "I don't know," he said. "But I will give it a try." With that, Jessie teleported them both to a very small cliff that overlooked a field of flowers. She ran off of the cliff, extended her wings, and flew in a large circle around the field. She was laughing with joy—it had been so long since the last time she had flown. She came back and landed lightly next to Abel. "Now, you try," she said. Abel took a deep breath, ran to the edge of the cliff, and jumped.