By Terra Incognita
| I awoke to a painful rhythm ringing through the walls of my cavernous
refuge. I screamed till the walls of my cocoon split apart and I
fell forth a mass of withered flesh and festered blood. The sound
continued as I lost consciousness and I feared I might have died collapsed
on the floor.
"Hamuel?" a faint whisper, "Hamuel are you alright?" I awoke to the withered face of an old friend. "He’s awake," I heard Gaiden say to someone beyond my vision. "Good," I heard the mighty voice of Mael ring throughout the cavern. As I stood up I looked around for the other Razielim that had joined us in our sleep. "Where are the others?" I muttered in a weak voice. "Either dead or still asleep," Mael said with a worried look upon his brow. "We are the only one’s who escaped the cocoons alive," Gaiden said as he wiped the dried blood and cocoon residue from my armor. It had been long since we first lay down in this dank cave to sleep off eternity. The lucky ones would die in their hibernation, and the unlucky would die conscious, and the damned ones would awake to a festered world again. I was damned. "What was the sound that shook us from rest?" I asked Mael. "The melody of the Cathedral, I suppose," he sighed, "it seems the humans managed to keep it away from our forces." "You still consider yourself part of the legions?" I said with tempered fury, "you still say "our" and "us" when you speak of them, those who slaughtered our brothers and sisters and forced us into tormenting hibernation in these smelly decayed caves?" "They are still our people no matter what wrongs they did to us. But it is time for change. I am sorry." My superior apologizing to me caught me off guard, but I did not show it. "We should wake the others," I said turning to the deeper part of the cave. "No," Mael said as he grabbed my arm, "the cocoon protected us from the melody, most of us. If there is to be another blast, or many more for that matter, it is best they sleep through it or die painlessly." I nodded in agreement as we silently performed the grim task of picking up the bodies of those who did survive the song. In the small pile of withered corpses I found my friend and lover Kaelia. She gave me comfort during the harsh times we faced with her now empty eyes. Had I enough energy I might have wept. After the sobering work was done we turned our attention to exiting the cave and viewing the world that we had not seen since we last laid ourselves to the hibernation. We did not know whether it had been hours, days, or centuries, but we soon found out. A small tree was growing in this place once, at the foot of the cavern. Only in this place so far away from the center of Kain’s empire could such things grow. It was once a weak shrub that one might accidentally crush with careless step, but when we walked out from the entrance of the cavern we could easily see that it had grown. It was now a huge thing, with branches that seemed to stretch for miles and crisscross like a drunken spider’s web. It’s trunk was massive, so much so that, if we had tried, all three of us would not have been able to touch the end of each other’s claws when we would embrace it. The tree had grown, matured, and died in the seemingly instant we had slept. "It’s been decades since we began the sleep," Mael said, awestruck at the natural sight before him. "Centuries," Gaiden whispered. We made a slow way down the path to a road, now decayed and barely visible. We searched the countryside looking for better indicators of the time that had past. Riverbeds that were dry were now full of scorching water. The sky was now free of the smog that had blocked out the cursed sun, and for Gaiden’s sake we were happy it was night. Gaiden was silent through all this while Mael and I discussed what we should do next. Gaiden had always been silent. Just a newborn to unlife he was mutilated at the hands of Kain’s armies before he had even learned how to defend himself. A group of Dumahim had captured him, piercing his flesh so that it would not heal over but only sting a agonizing pain, and dipping his newly budding wings in water so that it would slowly burn away. It was I who saved him from such torture, only to carry him with us through the torment of hunted life. "Where are we going?" he ended his silence. "To our home," Mael whispered as we climbed up a rough hill. "Do you think there will be other vampires there?" "No," I said, "the song must have killed most of them. All I fear is humans." So we walked for hours, silent now except for the occasional comment about home, or Mael’s worry over those who we left behind, sleeping in tormenting limbo. It was not long till we saw the clouds of ash getting thicker, though much thinner than when we had seen them centuries past. As the dawn neared our already tired bodies gave out, and we sought shelter in another cave to keep from the burning morn. The hunger was agonizing. Even in sleep we still used up energy that required blood. Once Mael had searched for human blood before we slept. Instead he only found a group of Turelim who immediately impaled him. Some of the warriors, including myself, set out to find him. We pulled the iron spear out of his body and he rose to his feet as blue sparks emanated from his body. It was with these sparks we found our way in the dark caverns where we slept. We never did find any humans. When night came again we continued our quest to reach our homeland, half hoping for sanctuary, half wishing for an end to our misery. Sometimes we were not sure of our location, as upheavals during our absence had altered the land, but we soon found familiar ground and our resolved was restored. We happened upon a lowly human along the way, and even in our weakened state he was easy prey. He had apparently been wandering the land alone for some time as he was quite deranged when we found him. I like to think we put him out of his misery. With fresh blood flowing through our veins we finished the march home, and found it thankfully empty of any intruders. We took staves and fresh clothing from the armory, just in case we faced anything hostile. Our discovery was only spiritually relieving; we found nothing of any special use in the city. It was early the next night as we prepared to return to the caverns to sleep again we heard footsteps coming from the main courtyard of the castle. As we sneaked upon the rooftops we looked down and saw a decrepit figure walking slowly up the steps near the fiery altar. He felt the flames with his vampiric-looking claws and seemed to radiate isolation. It was Gaiden who first said it. "Father!" he screamed as he stood up. The figure held his ethereal blade up and pointed it at Gaiden. His eyes widened and he immediately dropped the pulse blade. "Father!" Mael and I both yelled at the same time as we jumped down from the rafters. We ran to him and dropped to our knees as he held his arms out. He stepped back several times and looked upon us. There was conflict in his empty eyes. "You must die," he whispered. The three of us were silent. The shock that came from hearing this perplexed us. "But father..." Gaiden begged in a hushed voice as he crawled to our father. He held his blade up and prepared for attack. "Go," he said, "if you are not here I will not have to kill you." "Why would you need to!?" Mael stood to his feet, respects aside. "Vampires are a plague upon Nosgoth, they must not exist," Father said, still preparing to strike. Gaiden collapsed to the ground, crying on the feet of Father. Father set his blade aside reached down to his child. He stroked Gaiden’s short black hair. "The humans will kill you, no matter what I say," Father whispered, "you must go, for your own safety." "Why do the humans not kill you, Father?" I asked, still on bended knee. "Yes, why is it you defend them," Mael asked, his head down in reverence. "Because I protected them, because I was their Avenging Angel." It was then we noticed something odd about Father’s wings. They were no longer like that of a bat’s but like those of a bird’s! "Then we can be too," Gaiden whispered, "all of us." "All of you?" Father looked to Mael. He looked up at his master, "Yes, Father. There are eight more of us. There were once nineteen of us all together, but the song of the cathedral killed some of us." A shocked look came into Father’s eyes. "I...played the melody," he hung his head down, "I was trying to exterminate all the vampires of Nosgoth." For a moment there was silence. "You didn’t," I said, "we found evidence that there are more still alive, fresh tracks far from here." Father looked gave us a distressed look of disappointment. He suddenly gave us an expression of excitement. "Where are the rest of my children?" It took us a week to bring everyone back to their normal level of energy. The humans were more than happy to share some of their blood with us. The following days were of ease and enjoyment. The humans gave us endless entertainment, and we told the younger ones our stories of adventure and survival. They laughed and cried, and in the end saw us as heroes. But we knew it could not continue this way. At one time when we could not find Father, I left the human city and made my way to the Sanctuary of the clans. Eventually finding my way to a large open area with a large circle of pillars, I saw the father. He was beating upon one of the walls of the chasm. It was flat and had many odd swirling symbols upon it. "What are you doing, Father?" I asked. As he whirled around I fell to my knee in respect. "Do not worry about such formalities, Hamuel," he said. I walked up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. "The Elder is silent now," he said, "I was hoping I could have him turn you and your siblings into ethereal creatures, like myself. Then the humans would no longer fear you." "They entertain us and we amaze them with stories..." "An act," he said suddenly, "an act of fear. They will not keep you for so long." He paused, "I will return." After his comment his body became translucent and he soon disappeared. Within a few seconds he returned. "I forced my way into the Elder’s chambers," he said, "he will make you like me." "How did you do it so quickly?" "Time in the spectral is very different than the material world. Things happen much slower. In the seconds I was gone I had been arguing with the Elder for hours." "Is there anything we have to do?" A worried look came upon his face. "The Elder says you must all enter the Lake of the Dead," I stepped back, shocked at the requirements for my salvation. The rest of the clan did not take it as well as I did. There was much debate, but in the end we decided that being away from Father was worse than burning in the Lake. To protect our wings we wrapped them in thick cloth and held them close to our bodies. He wrapped our necks and faces in thick wrappings and wore caps to protect our hair. Despite all this preparation we still were afraid. The pain was excruciating. The burning and the stinging all over my body forced screams from my mouth and they added to the harsh melody I heard from my brothers and sisters. The fire tore through my body and ravaged my flesh. I cannot remember when it stopped, only that it did, and I am thankful. When I awoke I was in a chamber made of what appeared to be flesh and stone. A swirling blue light above me prompted memories of that awful descent, and I looked away. I found at eye level the mangled bodies of my siblings. The cloth had protected us well; those with wings still had them intact and no one’s face and body had been as badly damaged as Father’s. Many of them were adapting to the new blue/green world we were in. Some found the world disturbing, others found it entertaining. Either way Father soon arrived and the foolery stopped. "Come this way," he said, extending a hand. The next few minutes were filled with lessons in survival and comfort, as well as our first Sluagh hunt. Father had somehow gathered several dozen in one large area for us to play with. Soon we were full of ethereal energy. We found that we had gained some of the skills of Father, and in the material realm we felt water without fear for the first time. But of all of us I think it was Father who had the most pleasure in our new situations, for now he was no longer alone, and his days were now filled with wisdom-sharing and exuberance rather than pointless monotony. We were with Father now, and he was with his children. |