Monsters Page 9

  `You are... an intruder... shadowy one...' he replies. `I did not... invite you...'

  `Look into my mind.'

  `I... did not... hear you well... I think...'

  `Look into my mind. I know you can do it.'

  `Only if... you open... your mind... for me... And... why would you...?'

  `I want you to know what I am.'

  He glances at Flora and watches her battling his skeletons for a few seconds, then he turns his head back to me.

  `So be it... shadowy one...'

  He reaches out his hand and I open my mind before him. His magic begins to take effect, and I know he is about to understand my true being. He stays rigid for a while, then he suddenly startles, and takes a step back.

  `You... you...'

  `Yes. That's what I am.'

  `Leave... shadowy one... Leave... now... I shall not... pursue you... Or... the young one... Go...'

  `No. I'm staying.'

  `I... said... Leave...'

  `You understand now what I am. You understand now what I can do to you. If I let this demon come to surface from within me, it will tear you apart. You have not the power to survive it.'

  He remains silent. If it weren't for the battle of Flora and the skeletons, it would truly be a deathly silence in here. A minute passes like this, until he finally speaks.

  `What... do... you... want...?'

  `That you do not resist. I will cast a spell on you. It will make you do my bidding, but you will not be my slave forever. I will only be able to command you three times. After that, you will be free to go.'

  `What... if I... refuse...?'

  `Then you will perish.'

  Another minute passes in silence, but then he turns towards Flora and the skeletons. He raises his hand, and the skeletons cease to attack.

  `Enough... young one...' says the lich to Flora. She reluctantly stops and turns towards him.

  `What's the matter? Are you giving up so soon?' she asks.

  `You... disappoint me... young one... After all... I did... for you... You bring... this creature... here... and force me... into slavery...'

  `You brought this on yourself, Belwor. You never should have sent me after those thieves.'

  `Is it... my fault... if you... were perhaps... careless?'

  `Shut up! Shut the fuck up!' she tells him, with a very angry look on her face. It seems the lich sent her on some assignment, and she wound up in trouble. Whatever it was, must have scarred her in some way.

  `Flora, please...' I tell her. `Leave him be.'

  She looks at me and the anger slowly fades from her eyes.

  `Fine...' she says, and then she smiles. `Just do it, Jase! I want to see it!'

  I open my magic pouch and remove the dragon heart. I place it on the ground in front of the lich. Then I face him and begin casting the spell.

  It takes a while to recite the incantation. Slowly the spell takes effect, and the lich does not resist it. The dragon heart erupts in flames as the spell is completed, and the lich's body lights up brightly for a second. He is now in my power.

  `Now... Shadowy one... What... do you... want with me...?'

  I pull out the cage gem and point it towards him.

  `I will seal you in here for now. Do not resist this, I command you!'

  He bows his head, and I unleash the power of the cage stone. He is enveloped in a bright white light, and his image becomes blurred. He shrinks to the size of a fly, becoming a brightly glowing wisp-like creature. The cage gem sucks him in, trapping him inside. It is done. The fifth lich is finally in my power.

  `Is that all? Is it done?' asks Flora.

  `Yes. He's locked in the cage stone now.'

  She smiles widely, with a wicked pleasure.

  `Excellent, Jase! That son of a bitch deserves it!'

  `What did he do to you?'

  `Nothing. He just wanted me to fetch some pathetic gold chain for him. It was a pain in the ass.'

  `Something has happened, hasn't it?'

  `Of course. Why else would I be so pissed off at him? It's nothing worth mentioning now, after all this time. What matters, is that I finally got even with this son of a bitch...'

  Very well. She does not wish to speak of it. I can understand her. I, too, have lived through things I hate to remember. I nod, and put the cage stone in my pouch.

  `So... what will you do now, Jase? Are you still staying in Kurt Aurach's castle?'

  `Yes.'

  `When are you going back to fight Jenathar?'

  `Soon. I'll teleport back to the castle, speak with Aurach, and he will probably send me back the following day.'

  `Are you going back to Gatestown?'

  `No. I can't get to Jenathar like that any more. However, Aurach has a friend. A planar traveler, whom I can find in Mor'peri. He can get me to Re'Cas.'

  `Mor'peri? How exotic! What will you do then? After you kill Jenathar?'

  `I'm going after Th'Mesh.'

  `Your demonic father, right?'

  `Yes.'

  `You will hunt him down, right?'

  `Yes.'

  She pauses briefly, and then she smiles at me and steps close.

  `I'll go with you, Jase.'

  `No. That's not a good idea.' I tell her, shaking my head.

  `Of course it is. I will help you fight him. I will help you hunt him down. I'll help you against Jenathar as well, and whomever else stands in your way. But against your father especially! You know that I can help you.'

  `Flora, you just don't understand...'

  `Oh, but of course I do. You want him. You crave him. Every piece of you, every... every drop of blood in your body... wants him...' she says. As she speaks of my blood, she cuts into my flesh with the tip of her fingernail, drawing my blood. The wound seals almost immediately, but a drop of blood spills on her finger. She slowly licks off that drop, and smiles in pleasure.

  `I can taste it, Jase! Every drop of your blood wants him... As do I!'

  I stare at her, in disbelief, not willing to understand what she just said.

  `How can you possibly...'

  `He is the ultimate game, Jase! Your father is the ultimate prey, and I will help you hunt him. We will take him together, you and I...'

  `He is not like some wild animal. He is a Demon Lord. He can kill you with a finger...'

  `Yes. I know. But that only makes the hunt all the more exciting!'

  She puts her hands on my shoulders.

  `I'll be by your side, Jase. I'll help you. You stood by me when I fought what was then the greatest fight of my life. Now I will stand by you the same way in the greatest battle of your life.'

  She unbuckles the clasp of my cloak and lets the cloak fall to the ground, then slides her hand down to my chest and unbuttons part of my tunic. She then slips her hand beneath it, and smooths her palm across my chest.

  `I missed you, do you know that?'

  `Flora...'

  She unbuttons my shirt even more, and slides her other hand beneath it, smoothing her palm across my back.

  I glance at the skeletons standing idly by the throne of Belwor. They've been standing there ever since the lich told them to stop. That's where they'll stay until their master tells them otherwise. Flora notices where I've glanced.

  `Ignore them, Jase! They're only mindless skeletons...' she says, and she pushes my shirt off my shoulders.

  `Flora... This is...'

  `This is what you want, too. I know it...'

  She leans close and kisses me. I no longer resist her. I let her pull my shirt off me completely, and embrace her. I kiss her back longingly.

  She caresses my back with her hands, and then slightly pushes her nails against my skin. She pulls her hand up and down my back like this, and for a brief moment I feel like she's cutting into my skin. She presses the nails of her other hand against my chest, and I feel the same as with my back a moment ago. Our lips part, and she leans back for a second. She pulls her hands in front of herself, and I see that my
blood is on every one of her fingers. Just a small drop, but it is my blood. I glance down at my chest. There is no wound. She cut me so slightly, that I barely felt it, and it all sealed up so fast. She licks my blood off her fingers one by one, and then she leans back. She embraces me and rests her head on my shoulder.

  `I feel it in your blood that you missed me, too.' she says, whispering in my ear.

  `I did.' I tell her.

  `Then let's make up for the time we lost, Jase. Right here, right now. Let's make each other feel alive, like we never felt before!'

  *

  Let's make each other feel alive, like we never felt before! That's what she told me. That's what we did. Although I know not what an outsider would have thought of the way we did it. Right here, in an old abandoned crypt, with skeletons watching us.

  We ignored them. Sure enough they did nothing. Not when we undressed each other, not when we united. Mindless skeletons, she said. She was right. They were like statues. But I get the feeling, she would have wanted us to unite right here and right now even if they hadn't been so mindless...

  She was wild. Fierce. Violent. Nothing like she was three years ago. Back then, she was gentle. Now, she is anything but. Yet, I don't mind. I don't mind, because I know, I feel, that our union caused her untold pleasure tonight.

  I did not count how many times she cut me with her nails, how many times she bit me slightly with her teeth, how many times she spilled my blood in a wound that I barely felt and sealed up instantly, how many drops of my blood she drank. But I don't care. I just care that it made her feel alive. She was happy this night, and it felt good to me, that I could make her happy once more, after so many years. Even if under such circumstances.

  I was gentle with her, while she was rough as a wild predator. But I didn't mind. At one point, she asked me to be more forceful, to pull her hair, to sink my nails in her back, to spill her blood, to bite her. I didn't want to, but she was asking like she really wanted it, so I did it, carefully. This prompted her to be even more rough with me, but I didn't mind. She was finding pleasure in my arms in this violent union of ours, and that's all that mattered to me. To know that she was happy... that was my pleasure in this night.

  In the end, we just lay embraced on my cloak stretched across the cold floor of the crypt, covered only by her thin cloak, resting. We were both exhausted to our limits, like we had fought a tremendously difficult battle. But there was no fight. There was only her and me. A night during which we made each other feel alive through a most wicked, violent form of union that can possibly be conceived.

  We lay there, resting, and then she whispered to me.

  `Don't ever leave me again, Jase. I know you worry for me, but I am stronger now than... than when I was a wood elf... That demon in you can't kill me any more.'

  `Don't taunt it, Flora.' I said, slightly shaking my head.

  `I'm not afraid of it. I've no reason to be.'

  `Perhaps you're right. You are indeed much stronger.'

  `Yes. We belong together, now more than ever. We are monsters, you and I. We fit together now...'

  `No, Flora. You are no monster. Only I am... Only I am...'

  She smiled, and rested her head on my chest.

  `I know what I am, Jase. But thanks anyway... You've always been so good to me. Like no-one else ever was...' she said, and she closed her eyes.

  She slowly fell asleep, and I've held her in my arms ever since.

  And I just can't fall asleep. It's not because of the demon. The demon inside me has been silent. It, too, knows well that it cannot kill Flora any more. She is indeed too strong for it now.

  No, what makes me stay awake is what she told me. We are monsters, you and I, she told me. No, Flora. You are no monster. Only I am, I told her.

  But I lied. I lied, and she knew well. She was correct. She has changed greatly. She has not only accepted that she had become a vampire, she has also come to enjoy her new existence, and then went one step further. She lives for the hunt, as she calls it. That she feeds on blood, is not wrong. Blood is simply what sustenance she requires as a vampire. We all must feed, and she is a predator now, so it is only natural that she must hunt for what food she needs. Simply that she feeds on blood, does not and never would make her a monster.

  But what she calls hunt, is not feeding, but the meaningless slaughter of dangerous creatures just for her pleasure. Perhaps she seeks to test her skills, to see if she can do it, but in the end, she finds pleasure in the kill. She kills for the sake of this pleasure. She's become something that I never imagined she would. A ruthless killer, taking lives for pleasure. We are monsters, she said, and she is correct.

  But I do not hate her. No. Not in the slightest. I hate myself. For all this happened to her because of me. It's my fault and mine alone. I can't undo it, but I will meet my punishment when this is over. I will not run from it, I will not try to wiggle my way out of it. When Th'Mesh dies, I, too, will perish. I will accept my fate, as my punishment for the many horrible things I've done in my life, and that now includes what happened to Flora because of me. Will I ever find peace in death like this? Certainly not. I will be free in death, but I will find no peace, and nor do I deserve it. She was such a wonderful being... And now what has she become because of me? I deserve my fate...

  Interrogation

  Private Quarters of Eric Shyrn, City of Re'Cas, present day (1 year, 1 month, and 10 days before Twilightfall)

  Interrogation. Such a mundane task. Dragging information out of unwilling subjects is a task for executioners, not me. But this kind of interrogation is something only I can do. For an executioner can pry nothing out of the subject, if the subject is already dead.

  But I, being a black magician, can interrogate the dead. All it takes is summoning the soul of the dead subject from the Afterlife under appropriate conditions. The subject is bound to answer and bound to speak the truth. Torture has never been so efficient.

  I've done it before. Several times in fact. But this one... This one has proven much more difficult than I expected.

  It's been two months that I killed that dragon. I have his heart, laying in the middle of the pentagram on the floor of my darkened room. The perfect catalyst for this kind of spell. Summoning the souls of the dead does not require anything extraordinary, but the subject's heart serves as a catalyst that can speed the process, and conserve magical energy. Yet, I have not been able to summon the wretched creature!

  This is the sixth time I am attempting it in the past two months. If I fail once more, I don't know what more it will take to succeed.

  I focus on the heart and begin to cast the spell. I chant the incantation and make the accompanying gestures. The air around me begins to crackle with electricity, and the spell starts to take effect. Drawing power from the dead dragon's heart, the spell reaches into the Afterlife, and seeks the dragon's soul, to drag it here before me.

  Time passes. A minute. Two. Still nothing.

  Another minute. Another. And then... he appears!

  Inside the pentagram, a ghostly floating dragon head appears before me, that of the dragon I killed.

  Success! At last...

  The dragon frowns at me.

  `So, you little bungler...' he tells me, in a deep draconic voice. `You managed it. Good for you, but don't think much of yourself! If you had any real power, we'd have spoken long ago!'

  `Silence! Just answer the questions I have for you!'

  `Go ahead, night elf. I've nothing to hide.'

  `You posed as Jason Vogan. You gathered a smaller army of peasants and rallied them against the Supreme Council.'

  `That I did. Don't you have any questions?'

  `You and your brethren have been doing this since the real Jason Vogan destroyed Gatestown. Your peasants have done nothing but brag so far. What were you hoping to accomplish with all of this nonsense?'

  `Ha! You'd think one such as yourself would know that by now.'

  `I have assumptions. I want con
firmation. Now answer me!'

  `Well what did you think we wanted to achieve? We want to conquer your pathetic continent! Return the favor for what your kind did so long ago.'

  `Just what makes you think that these peasants will be of any help to you?'

  `More than you imagine! Can you imagine what a full scale revolt all around Ess'yer can do? Can you imagine what it could lead to? If every peasant on your continent turns against you?'

  `You don't have so many supporters.'

  `Not yet, but we're close. That is, we were close at the time when you killed me. Perhaps my brethren have already gone much further in the time since past.'

  `A band of poorly armed, untrained peasants poses no threat to us. No matter how many of them there are!'

  `Of course they do. What will your battlemages do when they run out of magical power and their wands run out of charges? Nothing! You'll be left to rely on muscle and steel. There aren't enough Enforcers to stop everyone! There isn't enough militia to prevent the fall!'

  `The Supreme Council has power enough to stop any rebels in their tracks. They will personally intervene if necessary. Your peasants cannot stop them. Are you aware of this?'

  `We are.'

  I see. They want lure the Councilors out in the open... But what good would that do, unless... Unless they have more than just a few spies in Ess'yer...

  `What were you planning to do about it?' I ask, suspiciously.

  `Kill the Councilors, of course.'

  `How?'

  `Any way we can. My Queen has no specific plan of action yet. Her last plan failed. For now, she waits.'

  `What was her last plan?'

  `You know it. She hired an assassin to kill them. The one we now know as Jason Vogan. But he failed to get through Gatestown. He burnt it to the ground, then vanished. The Councilors still live.'

  `Do you know why he failed?'

  `No, but it doesn't matter. He was a mere human. A lesser. He was doomed to fail. A task such as this can only be accomplished by one of us.'

  They're here... They're already here... That's what he's saying!

  `You want to kill the Councilors yourselves?'

  `I can only speak for myself. If my Queen had ordered me to kill them, I would have.'