So! Finally, the conclusion to this story… yep, that's the last chapter. I wouldn't mind some final comments :)
Chapter IX. Vampire hunting
Of course, everything was properly fixed in the following days, but the unpleasant memories hunted her still. And the fact that she was to meet Bohdi's sire wasn't helping. The former elf had been a very powerful vampire. So, her sire had to be even more powerful. And he was a skilled magic user, capable of scribing a paramount horror like the Rapture of the Father.
Anomen was on the front line again, and he wasn't even wearing the Amulet of power this time. Probably sensing her worry by some sixth sense gifted by his love and priest's wisdom, he half turned around as Imoen was scanning for traps. He gave her a serious look. Of course he would be careful, what was she thinking. She almost smiled.
Matteo was besides him. He looked at least as much determined, but he was smaller, and younger. And he had never fought an ancient vampire before. He was one of the Order's senior knights, but he had not been a lonely adventurer and had always been on campaigns and strategies, not so often with hand-to-hand fighting. Amousca worried for him too. Of course it was the mother's role in all the universes to worry. He was a powerful fighter and cleric, and he was capable of protecting himself before anything could hurt him seriously.
And anyway she could just Red dragon's breathe the whole area if necessary.
She took a deep breath, and set her shoulders. Kelsey and Imoen went to stand on each side of her as the party reached a door. An inquisitor detecting evil told them there were twenty-seven fledgling vampires, twelve full-fledged vampires, and three ancient vampires behind that door.
What a flock, Amousca thought. Anomen will kill the twenty seven in one minute, then the full-fledged in the second minute as they will rush in after their underlings, and the ancient fighters will come straight for us. Sar and undead hunters can take care of those.
"Inquisitor, True sight please," she ordered, voice low.
The inquisitor to her right obeyed immediately.
"Kelsey, keep breaching, I'll keep Spellstriking. Imoen, a few summons and mass spells if you have a chance."
The two mages quietly nodded.
Anomen prepared himself, and just as he was ready to send out the first wave of Helm's power, Matteo bashed the door open with his powerful shoulder. Two startled vampires that were guarding the door turned to them, only to be hit by Helm's power. Those were full vampires and hissed, looking as though they would hold their ground facing the tremendous holy power unleashed by Anomen, but they both fell to dust.
Anomen looked on across the dust. There was a moment of indecision amongst the vampires, and he quickly surveyed their positions. A third of them feeding, a third writing or reading in the far corner, and another third just standing guard near the door.
Instantly, as the security of their crypt was breached, a first set of contingencies went up. Anomen still held his ground on the doorstep, calling forth the power of Helm, while he observed what was happening. No one was under Spell immunity from divination, hopefully, and their predictable Invisibility and Mirror images disappeared with the Inquisitor's power.
Suddenly, there was movement around the feeding area, lesser vampires scattering away hastily, apparently fearing being in the way of their master in such an occasion.
"Why are you here, insects?", Gobas asked, staying his vampires with an imperative move of the hand. He slowly stood, wiping his chin with the back of his hand. There was a young woman, blond and very beautiful, on the floor in front of him. She was lying on her back, empty eyes staring up at the stone ceiling of the tomb, her hair still carefully braided in a pun. She had been bitten in many places, and appeared to be dead; there was no way to tell yet if she would rise again. They had interrupted him in his feeding, apparently.
Gobas was tall, for a vampire, and lean. He was only dressed to the waist, with red and black silk in a sort of flowing monk robe, and the spread of death-white skin that was visible was marked by numerous, thin scars. Several teeth marks were also imprinted on his body, probably from the undeath-giving. His pupils were unnaturally wide and of an infinite black. His nails and lips were painted in black, and his long, black hair was free on his shoulders. His posture was one of confidence and power. He was old and strong, and the air around him exuded of it.
"You have made traffic of one too many spell, vampire," Matteo spat.
"I rejoice that there is another way for me to take vengeance for what has been done by Irenicus and Bohdi," Anomen added. "I am here because we have found a copy of the Rapture of the Father scribed by you. The replication of the foul spell that ripped my lady of her soul will not go unpunished. In the name of all that is holy we will stop you."
Gobas did not appear troubled in the least by the mention of either Bohdi or the Rapture of the Father. "Oh, really? Bohdi was but a weakling. She didn't even have the wisdom to realize that she was not free of me. She was seducing at first, with her elven body and ambitious mind, but in the end she turned bitter, and didn't even taste good. I find it rather satisfying that you eliminated her, if not for the loss of lucrative exchange with her brother. That you killed her is no guarantee that you will kill me. But you are welcome to try, and I will appreciate the sport."
He lowered his hand and the vampires rushed forward, and suddenly it was chaos. The first wave was upon them immediately, and Anomen's and Matteo's ears filled utterly with the disgusting, zombie-like sounds the young vampires did as they attacked them with drawn teeth and nails. They staggered as the bodies crashed into their shields one after the other, all muscles straining to keep their footing on the unevenly-paved ground, and Anomen was suddenly grateful that he wore the Girdle of Fire Giant Strength.
Anomen could ear indistinctly a frenetic exchange of spells from behind him and before him, further into the vampires' chamber. He smiled grimly as wave after wave of magic passed over his head, knowing Amousca was there, making sure he was safe from magic, as much as he was here making sure she was safe from harm.
It was long minutes of chaos, staggering against the weight of the vampires trying to bash them back from the door, calling upon Helm's power and feeling the undeath dispel before it. At some moment a power word exploded right on Anomen's chest, but it was not powerful enough to affect him. Quickly after that, no more vampires came crashing against their shields; they were either vanquished, turned, or would stay too far to be affected.
"First line, forward!", Matteo ordered, as the last wave of vampires turned to dust around them, leaving in the chamber only three vampires cowering in the far corner, and the magic users that had stayed far from the fray.
Anomen and Matteo quickly walked forward, and Gobas's two bodyguards sprang forward to defend their master. Sarevok quickly followed through the door, and so did the knights, lined with discipline and spanning on the other side in a well-practiced move, drawing weapons and rushing on the closest opponent.
Metal clanked and weapons collided as the two bodyguards drew swords of their own; they were ancient, supernaturally strong and quick, and had honed their fighting skills over decades of unlife. Each bodyguard danced about his own score of adversaries, fending and parrying more than one adversary at a time, in an apparently effortless display of skill and speed. Only Sarevok could near their skill while under his own particular power of Whirlwind, and Mazzy who kept sticking arrows in their gut and chest, in-between the moving assailants and the vampires' own mind-shattering moves.
Anomen was desperately trying to get to the magic users – someone had to, because even Amousca, Kelsey and Imoen together could not keep them from casting forever – but one of the very efficient and deadly bodyguards knew exactly that, and was manoeuvring his body to interpose. Anomen hit at him repeatedly with an urgent rage, each brutal hit of Crom Faeyr making the undead's body clench under the physical pain and the burning of the lightning arching through his body. The fighter quickly changed tactics and concentrated all his attention on Anomen, leaving more opportunities to the others to hit at him, and Anomen pushed on in a frenzy.
"Hand to hand on the ancient!", he suddenly heard Amousca yell. "What the hell are you waiting for it's a Wilting he's trying!"
I'm trying, my love!, he swore inwardly. I swear, by Helm, I'm trying!
There was not much time before Anomen recognized a ball of dust flying over the battle. He prepared himself, and was hit by the Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting. He gasped painfully, as all his brother knights had, and the vampire pounced upon him suddenly, stabbing three quick times at the same spot on his shoulder, seriously indenting the Red dragon's scale, and no doubt breaking his collarbone of his shield's arm. But he ignored the pain, and he could still hold his shield. Some of the novices had fallen, not able to sustain such a spell.
But Anomen quickly fell back into a defensive fighting position, as the vampire pushed on with his momentary advantage, but the move was just enough, and Nogam suddenly sneaked between the two bodyguards, followed by another two of his squadron, running forward, bringing his sword up as he ran. He saw the legendary shimmering figurehead of a dragon appear above his head, and vampires lift their eyes to look at it and cringe expectantly. Suddenly a ball of searing fire enveloped him, and the flames licked harmlessly at his armour and clothes, pushed out from the point of impact in a blinding explosion of heat, light and flames.
Both bodyguards shook heavily as their flesh burned. They would not resist for long. Gobas, however, was still protected from fire and felt nothing of this. Kelsey breached him yet again. Amousca tried Magic missiles to see if he still had resistance to magic up his sleeve. The glowing globes of purple energy buried themselves through its undead flesh. One of the undead hunters hit the vampire on the shoulder, breaking the shoulder blade. Gobas took a step backwards, gathering himself, but before he could react another series of Magic missiles hit him, and Nogam's blade beheaded him.
Nogam let out a furious cry in the name of Torm and ran back to assist Anomen, Sarevok, Matteo and the others that were battling the remaining bodyguards. Kelsey and Imoen had fried to ultimate death all of the turned vampires. The remaining ancient vampires fell under the combined strikes and changed to gaseous forms, which floated hastily towards a sarcophagus, one of the many lined against the far wall.
Everyone stopped to take a suspicious look around.
"There is nothing else alive," Amousca stated. "I can see with my True sight."
"Healing," Matteo ordered.
"Lemme help," Imoen said, and she started an incantation. Some paladins, curious, turned to the mage, wondering what she could be casting that would help them.
It was an incredibly powerful spell; everyone was made aware of that quickly enough, when the air between her hands started to churn and blur as in the summer's heat. Everyone's ears started to ring faintly with distinct glorious chants and there was a sudden light opening on Imoen. She finished her incantation and opened her hands skyward.
A blinding ray of white light flashed upon her and a planetar descended upon it.
"Your orders, my lady? This place reeks of an abomination I will gladly partake in the destruction of," the planetar said.
"The abomination we can take care of, ourselves. Will you please raise the brave men that fell here today, ensure that their heart is still pure, and restore those that you can?", Imoen asked.
"Very well, my lady."
The planetar floated first to the woman that had been the last victim of Gobas, and simply made a cleaning ritual for her, as nothing else could be done. Then, she flew to one of the fallen. She started to chant, and after a while her hands glowed white. She laid it on the knight's chest and the young man took a deep breath, opening his eyes. His stare was not focused yet, and he looked into the brilliant eyes of the planetar, a dreamy smile making its way across his lips.
"…must have been worthy… paradise…", he murmured, before closing his eyes again.
The planetar rose the other fallen, and then healed the most badly injured, before finally restoring Sarevok and one of the warrior-priests, protective spell had not lasted long enough. Anomen, Matteo and the other warrior-priests had been walking around and healing the men as the planetar distributed her magic around. Finally, everyone was back on their feet.
"Did anyone think of bringing stakes?", Amousca asked.
"Here, in the bag of holding," Matteo said, putting said bag on the floor and starting to rummage through its contents.
"I hope you have fifteen of them?", Kelsey asked.
"I didn't count, but I took a whole bundle," Matteo answered. He finally pulled the aforementioned bundle of stakes from the bag. He asked one of the nearby knights to cut the binds with his sword, then took two stakes. He ceremoniously walked to his mother. He stopped in front of her. "Your honour, milady." He gave her one of the stakes.
She took it with a shaking breath. She walked forward to the sarcophagus that stood in the middle. It was much bigger than the others, more ornate, with figures made of green and red precious stones, on a thin sheet of gold. There were two scorpions on the side, one green and the other red, and there was an image of the Weave on the lid of the coffin.
Amousca looked at it. She felt cold sweat bathing her as she thought of pushing the lid aside. Gatherings of childhood fears were welling inside of her, nearly paralyzing her. Waat was hiding to the bottommost of her pack. She willed her hand to move, and put it on the side of the heavy rocky lid. She put her other hand beside her first and pushed, slowly.
The lid slid aside, in a deep and muffled sound of stone brushing against stone, and the dim light of the room started to light the inside of the coffin. She started to see the shoulder of the vampire, more and more of the shoulder, until his ear appeared. She almost stopped, but swallowed hard and pushed further. One eye of the vampire slid out of the shadow of the sarcophagus lid. It was dark and black and deep as the demons' eyes. She closed her eyes against the images that were taking shape in her mind, images of the demons as they tortured her or Waat, or of the fear they had driven inside of her head with their powerful minds. She nearly dropped the stake, but stopped herself, holding her mind on Anomen's image when he had come to take her out of Watcher's Keep. The feeling of reassurance going through Waat to her later that night. His eyes on her back and his strong love just behind her.
She stared through the eyes of the vampire as she pushed the lid aside sufficiently to expose his entire face and enough of his chest. She wondered why she was more afraid of him in his death than in his life. Somehow he was easier to fight with magic during a battle then with courage in his immobility, at her mercy. She took a deep breath, determination setting itself as hard as rock in her heart. Gobas, Bohdi's sire… manufacturer of Raptures of the Father.
Her face contorted and anger burned inside of her, and she lifted the stake. She hammered it down with all her strength on his chest, concentrating all her hatred on his heart. Blood spilled on her hand when the stake went through the flesh. The vampire merely squirmed; she was not strong enough to stake it in one attempt. Matteo was besides her and handed her his weapon. It was the Runehammer and it began to glow wickedly as she took it and lifted it over the undead's body. She brought the hammer down and hit the head of the stake with it. The stake went through Gobas' chest and blood spilled again. Suddenly the body started to writhe, and a death spirit escaped it. What had been the vampire dissolved into dust and carrion at the bottom of the coffin.
She took a step back, staggering, and found the comforting hand of Anomen on her elbow.
"It is dead," she finally said. "So is the Rapture of the Father."
"There are a few copies of it here," Imoen said, at a table in a nearby chamber. There were parchments and quills all over. "However, from the correspondences, I think the first and only one he sold was to that lich in the tower."
"Good," Amousca sighed.
"Aunt Immy?", Matteo suddenly said, his stray from protocol noticed.
"Yes, Matteo?", she answered, letting down the scrolls.
"The Rapture of the Father affected you too… You have the right to put an end to another."
She smiled roguishly, and came forward, taking the offered stake. She walked to the sarcophagus of one of the bodyguards. She pushed the lid without hesitation. "Oh, look at you, cutie, Sleeping beauty. Too bad you grow teeth when you wake up. Just shouldn't've messed with Imoen T. Bhaalspawn."
She brought the stake down. Runehammer was once more used to drive the stake though the vampire's chest. After that, Nogam received the honour to put an end to the second vampiric bodyguard, for giving the killing strike. The other vampires were dispatched by young knights or squires, undead hunters for the most part.
"It is done," the planetar said in the end. "I thank you for this opportunity to witness another victory for the light."
"We shall never surrender the fight," Anomen declared.
"Nope. Not a chance," Imoen concurred.
"Well, not until my old bones force it," Sarevok grinned.
The group of adventurers started to cheer and laugh as they left the catacomb, Kelsey burning everything left to dust with Fireballs.
Amousca did not feel like rejoicing with the others. Her children were twenty-one years old. Sarevok was getting old, he was almost fifty. Imoen was too old now to have children, but she was a powerful magic user and would live older than most, as would Kelsey. But the fighters would not, Amousca thought. Sarevok would die young, and she knew that his bones had already started to protest in the mornings from multiple fractures over his long life of fights. She turned to look at Anomen then. He was still strong and full of life, but wisdom was making him calmer and more thoughtful; there were some crow's feet appearing in the corner of his eyes, and some wrinkles on his cheeks when he smiled. A little of grey was starting to creep in his beard, when he wore one, and at his temples. It made him look even wiser.
But he was aging, and she was not. For the first time this day she stopped herself to think about what was happening. She realized that Anomen must have seen it coming before her, and had not said anything, probably aware that it would disturb her. She looked at him as he walked, a little in front of her. The light was getting stronger as they were nearing the door to the crypt. She thought of all those years in his company, of her collection of memories of joy and happiness and fulfillment and love. Somehow, even in the hard moments, when he had been fleeing or away on campaigns, she had always figured their happiness would continue on forever. That they would live happily ever after, just like in fairy tales.
Life was not a fairy tale; her father had been murdered by her half-brother, two of her best friends killed by an ex-elven madman, her soul ripped from her, her love turned a vampire and back, she had gone to hell and back several times, and she had finally fought for an evil god's throne with his own marshal. But her half-brother had changed to become a better man, her soul was restored, as was her love, she had been happily married for twenty-three years, and she had three wonderful children.
Anomen turned, then, just before he stepped out in the light. He smiled warmly as he laid his eyes on his wife. She was so beautiful, even the gloomy shadow of a vampires' nest could not take away her radiance. He saw her sad eyes turn bright suddenly; there were a few tears in them, but she made a smile as she took his offered hand.
Amousca's heart warmed when Anomen turned to look at her and take her in his loving gaze. Well, what did it matter for how long it lasted? She started to understand what it was like to be a human. Everything was more valuable because there was an end to it. So, she would just have to seize the day, wouldn't she? And what would keep that from lasting forever?
She thought back of Gorion's teachings, as she stepped into the warm light of the morning sun, her arm linked with her beloved husband's: Carpe diem.
The End.
