Chapter Twenty Four
Demon
A sudden cataclysmic scream shattered the sacred silence as all eyes flew away from Sage and the stone to the origin of the screech. Deep in his heart, a dark nameless fear awoke within Sage as he turned his body and eyes to the source of the song.
Elli floated within a growing cloud of crimson. Pulling back from the female's body, from beneath the dorsal, through the organs and piercing the heart, was a small sliver of sharpened bone. The eyes of Elli gazed on, cold and traumatized with pain as Nartec withdrew his bloodied spear and sneered as he swam over her dying body. "I won't go alone…"
Beyond words, Sage rushed to Elli, ignoring Nartec and his gloating jeers. Within him, something hurt as if he too had been impaled with that spear of destiny, as his body felt both cold and fired, while his mind thrashed in sorrow, grief, anger, rage and non-acceptance.
"Elli! Elli!" Sage cried as he charged up. He felt the pressure and the pain from an attack, as his flukes suddenly felt like fire, but his emotions cut the body from the rest of him. No notice was paid to the battle cries of the orca and dolphin warriors that charged the blood-lusting narwhal. His eyes were full of horror as he pressed her head up, the life within her eyes fading. "Elli! Elli, will you be alright?" Sage asked, his mind begging though his heart broke within the acceptance of truth.
The dying eyes of his mate gazed at him, her body shivering with cold as the waters clouded denser with the scarlet waters of life. "I… am sorry, my Sage," she sung in sweet irony. "I wanted… to spend the moons… with you… I wanted to… bear your young… And I… wanted to forever be… part of your… singing… Now… I am part… a verse of… your song…"
"No, no," Sage nuzzled her cooling skin, as the waters continued to grow redder and darker with the blood of the heart he had long longed for and had had, and now lost. Tears wet his eyes as they began to flow constantly. "Never, you will never be just a verse of my song… You'll always be with me… Remember our vows Elli? Remember them?"
Shivering again, Elli's eyes dimmed, "Yes… My Sage… Forever and a… day… Forever and a day… We'll always be… for forever… and… a… and a…" Her breathing became short, harsh and raspy. Elli's eyes rolled about for a few moments, before she fell into the final sleep.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to do something, but there was nothing Sage could do as he floated within the bloodied waters. His body, his mind, his soul… It was all empty…
Not entirely… A small spark existed. A spark that erupted into a flame, fanned by the hatred, the pain and the anguish Sage had suffered. For twelve long moons, a recluse he'd been… A creature that allowed the deaths of his entire pod manipulated him… The love of his life hurt beyond compare… Death of his best friend the song-master Gol… The death of his mate…
Be warned Seer… a faraway voice warned. Hatred leads to self-destruction as the angel of darkness in your soul seeks to expend you as we warned you of…
But Sage was no longer listening. Hatred began to consume Sage, every inch of his mind, body and soul was devoured. Darkness spread to every pectoral, every fluke, every point of his body. His eyes flooded with the abhorrence for everything living…
Why does anything have life while I lose all around me? he asked himself.
With a flash, the star markings upon his chin flashed from white into black. The kind, wet eyes of Sage boiled into globes of odium for anything and everything. They fixed themselves upon the battle against the narwhal, which was bleeding and looking very pained as the orca racked their jaws upon him and the dolphins rammed their snouts.
"Enough!" Sage bellowed, his song roaring with the hate, anger, frustration and loathing for the creature that was Nartec. For the hatred of all life. Nartec had taken away the love of his life, Sage's life, and now Nartec had lost his source of power, but Sage still had his. He had the power, and he was going to use it. Glaring towards Nartec, his demonic eyes terrifying the narwhal even from so far away, Sage hissed dangerously, his song a twisted and distorted verse of his own carol, "He's mine!"
Charging forward, his speed increased with the powers of rage bottled within, Sage blew through the warriors whom scattered at the charging orca calf, slamming into the belly of the narwhal, sending the monster Nartec reeling into the water in pain, towards the marble pillars that gated the city.
The narwhal screeched and rounded to counter the next attack, but Sage was already on top of him, ramming his body hard into the pillar. With a satisfied snarl as he heard several bones crack and observed cracks crawl through the marble gate, Sage back-finned before charging again, slamming hard into the exposed head of the narwhal before the narwhal finished registering the pain from the first attack.
With the force, the entire pillar crumbled, the cracks giving way as Nartec's heavily injured body was thrown through the gap, cracks appearing deep down inside his body upon his thick skull. Panting in fear, Nartec gasped to Sage, "Mercy… Please have mercy…"
The Seer is lost to reason… This must end this before he kills the source of hatred and fully becomes a Dark Angel forevermore…
The demon that possessed Sage listened not to the voice of the Asterite, nor Nartec's pleas. Instead, it rounded upon Nartec, who by some miracle still had his tusk intact after that onslaught, and pushed the body back towards the conclave, throwing the body from the water in a breach, causing the narwhal to crash down in the waters near, weak and battered and bleeding.
"Please Sage…" Nartec beseeched his hoarse, weak and desperate song as his eyes flashed in great panic at the all powerful Seer that attacked him. "Forgive me for what I have done…"
Uton turned to Foxin in fear, horrified at what he saw Sage doing. Never before had he seen such rage in the quiet singer from his pod. "Is… Is this the power of the Seer Sage uses?"
"No," Foxin answered, her voice worried beyond comprehension. "This is the power of the mythical Dark Angel, a Seer corrupted with hatred and apathy. We must stop Sage before it's too late and the Dark Angel tears his mind forever…"
Screams of pain echoed throughout the bay as Nartec's flesh was raked with the teeth of Sage, who tore chunks of flesh and spilling the waters ever more with Nartec's cerise blood. The narwhal looked little like the creature that'd arrived beforehand with the Vortex. The congress of dolphins and orca watched mortified at the slaughter their so-called hero now committed.
Rounding towards the weakened Nartec one last time, Sage's demon grinned across his face. This toy was played with enough. Time to finish it off and find a new one.
Opening his jaws to lay the finishing blow, allowing the narwhal toy to peer down the gullet, a song pierced the madness of Sage's mind. A stab of light among the darkness…
"Sage," it pleaded, the song of a female voice he somehow knew. "No more."
"Stop it! This isn't the pod-mate I remember…" a male cried out. Somehow, he knew this voice as well…
"Let him be… How far into the savagery will you go to beat the savage…?" another voice called out. Then another and another and another, all barking at Sage to end this senseless slaughter.
A ghostly song hissed, "You are not the Sage I feel in love with… Come back to me…"
"My child, you are stronger than this… Above this… Fight it…"
The songs… They tore at Sage's mind, as the demon Sage clawed to remain in control and kill, as the Sage that once was fought to expel the dark seraph within forever… Thrashing his head and screaming, Sage closed his eyes as the inner demons conflicted…
"Big brother?" a voice called and Sage opened his eyes. There, floating before him was a small dolphin, deep hurt in his eyes. The dolphin looked near tears of fright, "Come back and sing… I want you to be normal again… I don't like you like this… No more fighting… Please…"
Sage blinked… The dolphin… Perfect toy… No! Ecco… Kill… Little…
The black stars faded as the eyes of Sage slowly softened, his tense muscles letting up. Giving a long mournful wail, Sage realized the monster he'd briefly become, appalling everyone he knew. He truly now was a demon dolphin. The Asterite had warned him and again he'd failed to take heed…
Sudden movement!
Sage flicked his flukes with a powerful and sudden burst of strength to throw himself from the waters, twisting his body backwards as Nartec used the last of his sapped energy to charge upon where the conflicting Sage had lay only moments before. Turning his body as the droplets of water cascaded around him, the mid-morn sun sparkling upon them; everything seemed as if it moved in slow motion…
The charge of the death pike…
The cascading drops…
The turning on his body to land belly first within the water…
The tilting up of the head and the look of fear upon the eyes of Nartec…
The crashing of the orca's bulk upon the narwhal's head…
The feeling of the skull giving way underneath him…
The sharp shards of bone driven deep within the twisted brain of the narwhal…
And then, the final splash of scarlet, azure and white…