Disclaimer : So sorry for the long wait. I beg your forgiveness. (prostrates self) So much to do. Computer crashing so much. Stress with faulty floppy disks. Oh the things a 17-year-old writer contends with! (shakes fist in frustration) All this crap and Eidos still wont sell LOK to me. I mean 5 bucks isn't much but they could do better with their rejections. Attack dogs are sooo late 60's. (waves hand dismissively)
Cold Fire Phantoms
By Semdai Bloodquill
Chapter Four : Sorrow
Twisting in the dark. Lost in the grip of oblivion. Losing hope for...what? Want all this to end. Dark. Dark and cold. Dark and cold and endless hungering.
Some thing close. ...touches me. Draws me up into... I feel I know...or should and can't remember. Falling down. The hungering again. Touch me again. Pick me up again. Swirling to no end. Why is there no end? There must be an end. Where...
...feel blood. It's warm. Reminds me of... Can't remember the taste of blood. Too long ago. Smells like you. The old you. Sad. Sad. Missing something... Blood... makes me remember... I want to remember... I miss... reminds me of you...
Where are you?
It's dark. So very, very dark. And cold. So lonely. Hunger and suffering. Make it stop... Please...make it all end...
I don't want to suffer anymore...
Kain slowly opened his eyes, aware of the heavy scent of blood that hung in the air like a rotting stench. He lay of his side, the Reaver clutched tightly in his bleeding hands. Kain sat up, somehow unable to release the sentient sword from his bloodied hands. Athillo and Zangai were nowhere to be seen. Even their scents were gone, it was as if the pair had never been.
The blade jerked in Kain's hands, cutting deeper into his palms. The sword screamed in his head, its melancholy voice like a dirge in his ears. Haunting. Crying. Rendering. Sundering. The blade flared to life all of a sudden. Its icy flames shivering up Kain's arms, stinging like cold bees.
I don't want to suffer anymore!
" My god!" Kain gasped at the pain in his arms. Feeling left his flesh until there was only burning, icy nothing. The sensation grew stronger and spread upward. " Raziel! What are you doing?" Kain struggled to form the worms. He felt as he had while under the tyranny of Moebius's staff, only a thousand times worse. " Stop, Raziel!" If his heart had still been within his body, Kain was positive it would have frozen over. " Raziel! Please! RAZIEL!"
Kain!
Something psionic threw him back. Kain just lay still for several seconds, catching his breath and collecting his wits. The sword went flying from his hands. It twirled end over end in the air for several turns before falling back to the ground. It landed perfectly vertical in the mud, hilt up, skull crosspiece blazing, icy flames receding like the ebbing ocean tide.
Kain just stared at the sentient weapon, suddenly afraid of the deranged soul of his oldest son.
" Raziel," Kain slowly reached for the hilt of the sword.
A clawed hand reached from behind and stopped Kain from taking up the sword. Kain looked up to see a pair of dark, forest-green eyes looking back at him. The owner of the eyes wore his long, dark red hair in a loose ponytail that draped over his shoulder. A gray tabard covered the lower half of his lean face and hung down the length of his back.
" Don't touch it," the green-eyed vampire warned, for he was indeed an undead, " the sword will drain you if you are not wary."
" Who are you," Kain demanded, jerking his arm back away from the newcomer.
" My apologies, my Lord," said the vampire, " My name is Terwaz." The red-haired undead backed respectfully away from Kain and bowed.
" You are late, Terwaz," Athillo chided from his perch in a towering cypress tree.
" When did you get here," Kain exclaimed. How had Athillo sneaked past him so silently? How had he covered his scent so effectively?
" I never left," Athillo replied calmly, " Zangai did, though he's been back for a while now." That made no sense to Kain. What were these creatures claiming to be vampires who had an Ancient as their mother?
" I see," said Kain, trying to keep his dignity.
" What kept you," Athillo asked of his elder brother, " I expected you several hours ago."
" Ran into some opposition."
" Hunters?"
" A fair few." If Terwaz was bothered at all by Moebius's mercenary hunters, he showed no sign of it. " Enlil is beside himself with excitement, almost followed me here. Absolutely batty about meeting the great Lord Kain."
" Why didn't he come?" Athillo seemed puzzled over the news of his second brother.
" Mother has him and Rancor out on patrol," Terwaz explained.
" Am I correct in assuming we are close to your home," Kain interjected, looking up at Athillo as he spoke.
" Very," was Athillo's answer.
" Just beyond that cliff," Terwaz added, pointing the way. Kain followed the course with his eyes. They had arrived at the northernmost reaches of the swamp, beyond those dismal crags was the mountain village of Uschtenheim. Beyond the dreary human settlement lay the great canyons that had once served as the home of Janos Audron.
" We should hurry on," Zangai called from his perch atop the cliff Terwaz has indicated, " Mother will be anxious for our return." Kain wondered to himself if he should be surprised at this point.
The climb into the canyons was not difficult. The four vampires, with their great gripping talons, had no trouble finding hand-holds in the crags.
Uschtenheim itself lay deserted and decayed, a wretched remnant of better times. Kain had to wonder what could have so effectively destroyed the isolated town.
" It's about time you showed up," huffed an indignant figure who appeared to be standing guard from his place on a surviving parapet, " we expected you sooner." The guard was a powerful- looking vampire with angry, yellow eyes and ebony colored hair. His clothes reminded Kain of the garb he and his sons had worn during their reign.
" Since when does the continuum of history answer to the will of Rancor," a second vampire guard on the adjacent parapet interjected, " you are indeed most imperial, Brother." The second vampire was well built as well, a little taller than his companion, but not quite as tall as Athillo or Terwaz. His hair was the same inky black but his large eyes were a striking indigo blue. Kain assumed that these must be the eldest brothers, Rancor and Enlil.
" I? Imperial?" Rancor snorted in distaste. " I was merely stating a fact."
" And now you are the great historian of Nosgoth," Enlil grinned, then turned his attention to the new arrivals. " Never mind him. He's so full of himself you'd think he was the Elder God."
" I take it you all are brothers," Kain ventured.
" That's correct," Enlil confirmed. The blue-eyed brother leaned casually on the edge of the parapet. " And you must be the legendary Lord Kain."
" How is it that the five of you know me, yet I have never met you," Kain asked.
" A fine question indeed, my Lord," Enlil replied, " at this point in history the Pillars have only just fallen. Your younger self has yet to raise his legions and dominate Nosgoth. The answer is fairly simple actually."
" Like you Lord Kain, we are also wanderers through time and history," Athillo added, " we have traversed through the entire skein of our world's history. We are the ghosts who have no time or purpose. We belong everywhere and nowhere. We are phantoms in a cold fire."
" Time is but a loop," Zangai joined, " and we, loose stitches in a universal cloth. Where a streamer might seize upon a chance, a fatal slip, and thus plunge the fate of planets into chaos."
" Moebius used to say that," Kain stated suspiciously.
" Where do you suppose he learned it," Athillo pointed out.
" You fall astray with your explanations, my sons," Luciel said softly from the shadows. All eyes turned to the ancient vampiress as she melted from the gloom of the ruined city. Her great, sad eyes fixed on Kain. " You cannot begin anywhere except the beginning." She bowed deeply to Kain. " I have been waiting a long time for you, Scion of Balance. At long last, we finally meet."
To be continued...
AN : Oh it's a good day for the writer. I finally beat SR1 yesterday. Pathetic thing is SR1 was the first LOK game I started playing about 2 years ago. I never beat BO2 or even played BO1. Very pathetic.
I'd also like to input a sort of special feature about the five brothers now that all of them have been introduced. Each of them is unique in his own way and their names were meant to show this. To help illustrate, here are the meanings of each brother's name.
(In order of their ages from oldest to youngest) Rancor : Latin word for 'Resentment.' Enlil : the Hindu Lord of the Earth. Terwaz : from the Norse rune for 'Warrior.' Athillo : from Shakespeare's Othello, the Moor of Venice. Zangai : the Japanese word for 'Ruin'
Hopefully this tidbit will help the readers understand a little more about each brother's personality. Some are obvious, like Rancor
And speaking of readers...
To Smoke - Thank you for the explanation. I am enriched by your wisdom and honored by your dedication to reviewing every chapter. Thank you! (sobs in happiness) As for Luciel, well... more will be said on her in future chapters.
To Healer Ariel - (for chapters 1 and 3) Zangai and Athillo do have rather atrocious table manners. (giggles) No worries my dear, (hero stance) for I have taken it upon myself to ensure that a truly plausible and happy ending is accomplished for this tale! HAHAHA! (gets hit by flying, kamikaze watermelon)
To An Unidentified Entity - What an interesting name... I am honored to have refreshed you and caught your attention and stimulated your curiosity. Thank you for your support.
To Varyssa - Ah... dear Varyssa, like Smoke, never fails to review a chapter. You deserve an author who doesn't make you wait so long for new chapters. (prostrates self) Please forgive me! So glad you like Raziel in the Reaver situation.
To Gold Seraph - That's such a pretty name and your beautiful, long review was very uplifting. Defiance did have a very well-done ending, no matter how pissed the Raziel fans were to see him go. You don't have to worry about a cheesy ending, I strive to make my fanfiction as true to the originals as I can otherwise I'm not satisfied with it. Thanks also for the advise, I've been really sick for the past week and it just proves what you said. Many thanks.