Hello. Thank you again for the reviews (every now and then I re-read something I wrote (like this particular chapter) and wonder if it's total crap. Then I think back at your reviews, and I keep going (-: ) Btw, Aditu, don't worry for your English. It's not my mother tongue either, so I don't judge anyone, eh! Actually you should be proud to be able to speak another tongue than your own (no matter the unavoidable (sometimes very funny) mistakes and accent and all).

-Ahem- Back to this story. Here it takes a kind of turn… so let me know what you think.

Chapter 7. Discovered

She woke with a start, stifling her scream, her heart pounding fast. She jerked her head, and saw Tyrael there, his holy sword drawn, his wings engulfing the room and one touching her shoulder.

"A nightmare," the Archangel sensed, calming down visibly.

She tried to tear herself from the images and infinitely painful sensation of her body transformed to be the vessel of Mephisto. "Yes," Atsanit said. She wiped her face with her hands. "Sorry to have woken… sorry to have disturbed you." She turned away.

His wing left her shoulder, and she almost broke up crying. His touch always felt very comforting. Feeling her sudden shivering of fear, he touched her shoulder once more with his wing.

"You know nothing will hurt you here, Atsanit," he said.

"I know. Please, Tyrael," she said then, her voice controlled and even. "Leave… leave me to deal with my nightmares."

He retrieved his wing in surprise. Then he understood, the senses from his angel's innervision suddenly condensing together, and making sense. "You… love me," he stated.

Her shoulders slumped, and she took a shaking breath, still looking away. "Yes, Tyrael," she sighed. "I am sorry if it is inappropriate, or if you judge me unworthy, but I can do nothing of it."

He floated there in indecision for a moment. It was the very first time anything remotely similar had happened to him. He was an old, powerful and experienced Archangel; it was a wonder that anything managed to surprise him. But this mortal had. He wondered if there was anything at all he could say.

"I am sorry for troubling you," he said at length. "I wished to comfort you from your nightmare. I will leave you now."

She kept looking away as he got out of her room, and closed the door behind him. Then she hid her face in shame. Falling in love with an Archangel. What a… foolish girl she was.

ooooo

She went to destroy the Soulstone the next day. She avoided Tyrael as she slid out of Pandemonium with the stonegate as quickly as possible. She knew what to expect from the Hammer this time and, with Hephasto dead, the Hellforge was not so well-guarded. She quickly made her way through the ranks of the demons and reached the Forge. There she set Diablo's Soulstone upon the Anvil, raised the Hammer, and prayed for the Wanderer and his peaceful rest as she brought the Hammer crashing down. Again the dark power drank of her life and mana to shatter the Soulstone, and again her hand was left numb.

Diablo's Soulstone was also transmuted into a handful of gems and a dozen of wailing spirits as it shattered, accompanied by explosions of fire and a great shaking of the ground. May Hell cower in fear for losing its master, and never spawn another army to invade the lands, she prayed.

She opened a portal, and walked back to the fortress. There she received the congratulations of Halbu, Jamella and Cain. And then, Tyrael stepped forward. She looked at him floating down the stairs, and stopping before her. She knew she blushed deeply, remembering what he knew she felt for him, but stood up to him nevertheless. He was an Archangel, for Heaven's sake, he sure could be gallant about something she did not control?

"I salute you, Hero, who have stood before Mephisto and Diablo, and banished their spirits forever.", he said, as he knelt shortly. "As you were battling here, Baal was on the mortal plane, gathering armies. He is going in search of the Worldstone, the origin of the Soulstones." Then Tyrael explained to her what was Baal's plan. She concentrated on his explanations, and her focus made the embarrassment disappear.

"He… reclaimed his Soulstone of Marius?", Atsanit asked. Her compassion for the weak men was exemplary.

"The man never crossed Hell's gate in Kurast," Tyrael answered. "He was captured by Baal after a few weeks of fleeing."

Atsanit nodded. "The coward met his fate. Although I doubt Baal was merciful out of gratefulness."

Tyrael opened a portal for her, a portal that would lead her to Harrogath, the last Barbarian city on the slopes of Mount Arreat, the great mountain, where the Worldstone was guarded. She stepped through it, greatly relieved to be out of Tyrael's presence.

She tumbled out of the portal on a snow- and wind-beaten stairway, and looked at the city from her elevated spot. It was not big, but it had not suffered much warfare either, apparently; only the gates were scorched with fire burns, but no trace of catapult works. Baal's army maybe was not so bad after all, counting solely on the number of demonic fighters to defeat the Barbarians, instead of a tactical attack that would eliminate their city.

There was a smith downstairs to her left, and an old woman was slowly walking to her on her right. Cain suddenly tumbled out of the portal too. She walked towards the old woman, and was welcomed officially by Malah to Harrogath, city of Barbarians.