Chronicles of the West

Chapter Twenty Two

Silvana strained her ears, listening to the sounds of passion filtering through the walls. Her captors were enjoying one another apparently. When the final lusty sounds had faded she was able to discern the fragments of a conversation. "I don't want to do this" Victor's voice reached her through the walls. Alastair's followed soon after, "No? I thought you loved me Victor." Silence, "I do, but this isn't right, I feel it in my gut". A deep rumbling chuckle, that would be the golden haired man, "I'll give you something to feel somewhere else my pet". She pointedly ignored whatever else was said. She had what she needed… the seed of doubt.

Turning she strode to the window, drawing as close to the cool glass as the wards allowed. She stared up at the moon longingly. "Once upon a time I was powerful and free" she whispered to the night, "Please hurry". The dread filling her heart increased as the hours of her captivity ticked by.

Several hours later, she turned with dread in her heart as the door opened. She locked eyes with Victor. "I need to know" he said, "Why did you come here?". She sighed, he doubted his cause and perhaps she could use that not only to her advantage but that of the world. "We came following a riddle" she admitted, "To slay a creature centuries old in exchange for a wish".

He blinked at her, "A wish?" She nodded, turning back to the window. This might be the one slated to end her life but at the moment, he was no threat. "What would a being as powerful as yourself wish for?" he asked softly. Silvana didn't look at him, "Sight. We intend to wish for sight. For a blind mortal girl". She looked at him then, saw the shadows flit over his face.

"I guess that legend is no more, seeing as how you are here" she whispered, almost bitterly. Victor eyed her closely. This night had brought many truths to light, some he was less willing to embrace than others. "Why are you here Victor? I am your victim am I not, your key?" she asked. He nodded slowly, "Yes".

She turned to him fully, "My name is Silvana. I grew up in a place far from here. I am not what most humans believe to be the truth about demons. Many of us are not. We are not creatures born of evil. We are born of those who will return to hell but that dimension is unknown to you. We have feelings and hearts. We have families. We are not animals to play with in your sick perversions of your so called science. I have friends, and they are coming".

She spoke softly, with conviction. It was easy to end life when you saw it as somehow less than yours. To win him over she appealed to his humanity. If she were a person, rather than a sentient non-human creature, his resolve in her death may weaken, buying her precious time to be saved.

"You don't want to do this do you?" she asked him. To her surprise the handsome man shook his head, "I don't" he whispered, "But I have no choice Silvana. Forgive me for that. I have no other options, I am welcome nowhere else". She shook her head, making a decision in that moment, "You are welcome with me. You have to find your own way in this world Victor, you cannot lean on others all your life. You are the one with the true talent, everything in his plans rests on your. It isn't just my life, it’s the fate of the world as you know it. Will I really be enough to keep him content?"

This was a truth he'd seen tonight. No, she wouldn't be enough and those like her, even the demons themselves would be driven from the far corners of the world in pursuit of his twisted dream. Alastair believed in perfection on earth, but his idea was far more sinister. Disease and hardship were weapons waiting to be harnessed. He had to be immune to them all to do so. His vision filled Victor's head with frightful visions.

A decision had to be made. Time was almost out.

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Ryu walked along the corridor, the scent of living creatures was growing stronger. With a look over his shoulder, he nodded. They'd be seeing soon enough. He looked ahead and clenched his jaw, 'Please be ok Silvana'.

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Victor and Silvana stared at each other in silence for long minutes. "It's here" he said finally, "The one you seek". She cocked her head, "The one with the power to grant the wish?" He nodded, "Deep beneath this fortress lies a cavern and in a great beast made of stone"

A beast made of stone? A statue? Silvana pondered that. "It has a heartbeat" Victor told her carefully, but it cannot awake". She met his eyes, "Cannot awake?". He shook his head, "From what I have been able to discover, the beast was sealed with powerful blood. The blood of an elemental"

Silvana's eyes widened slightly. "If blood sealed it…." She whispered. Victor nodded, "Alastair has been wanting that creature for his army. It will no doubt be very powerful and now that you are in his hands he as the means to wake and control it". Silvana measured her words carefully. "Why are you telling me this?"

He looked back at the doorway nervously, "Because you need to know. I don't want to do this, I have to. Understand me.. Please!" She shook her head, "Victor, make up your mind about what you want to do , who you want to be. No one can help you now but you". He was already fleeing the room, her compelling voice.

He shook his head as he ran. His head hurt, his heart ached and his world was on the brink of change. Torn and confused he headed to that deep cavern, to the sleeping beast. As he neared the entrance he saw a faint light ahead of him. He slowed his pace and cloaked his sounds.

Alastair looked up at the stone creature that continued to elude him. "Not much longer" he purred to the stone visage, "Soon I will own you and all the world. I need nothing else". Victor shrank back along the wall and down the corridor, returning the living areas.

Alastair kept a research journal, one that even he was not permitted to see. It was dangerous, yes, but he knew that the answers he needed could be found there. Carefully searching the drawers of Alastair's dresser he found the worn leather volume. His hands shook as he cracked the cover, his eyes pouring over the last entries.


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The corridor opened to a large stone cavern. A lower chamber of a fortress by the looks of it. There was a stone creature curled in the corner, massive by all accounts, a fearsome carving of cold stone. Toga and Ryu passed it by before pausing to look at it. There, under the layers of rock and time, was a soft pulsing. A heartbeat, faint even to demon ears.

Kurama ran his hands over it, but it did not stir. "Whatever it is, it's been sealed" he whispered to them. On it's forehead lay a symbol, faded with time. "It is. But I'm not" came a deep growling voice. They spun to face the behemoth from the field.

Toga growled at the black furred creature, "What the hell are you?". The monster studied him carefully with a red eye, "I am like you, in ways". Kurama barked with harsh laughter, "You are the result of twisted minds, nothing more than scraps of creatures thrown together".

The creation nodded, slowly, "Indeed fox" it spat, "But this is what I am now and all that is left to me. To be restored I must serve". Toga drew his blade, "Serve?". The creature nodded slowly, "Yes. I was once called many names now I am only Grif. My master bids me bring you down…alive". Ryu snorted, "Alive huh? No good keeping living enemies under foot". Grif gave what might have been a feline smile, "In this place it is, you will become like me and serve until your end".

Ryu smirked "Like hell we will, I'm not about to be anyone's puppet freak". Grif lunged at him, coming up short against the wall. The next moments were a blur, of fur and blood. Toga slashed out with his energy whip, his poisons sizzling against flesh as it struck it's target. Blue crackled around him and Ryu and Kurama suddenly had an idea. Ryu darted and in and cleaved a bit of tail off, kicking it across the room.

The light crackled the tip remained missing from him. Ryu eyed him coldly, "You can only regenerate when those parts of you are close enough. Cuts and gouges don’t work on you". Grif growled low in his throat. Ryu Keh'd. "Only way to get rid of you is to take you apart a piece at a time. Poor bastard".

With his weakness exposed to them, they set after him. Ryu and Toga hacking and cleaving. Shippo and Kurama dragging limbs to the far corners to prevent his healing. It was something that Kurama had not seen in many centuries. A pack killing. He had little liking for it, knew the others felt the same but it was not to be helped.

Long, blood soaked minutes later, the beast known as Grif, fell. They panted as Kurama tossed his severed head into the corridor. The crackles of blue light faded and died and the sinister light in that red eye went out forever. Toga cleaned his blade, sheathing it with a disgusted look his face.

Ryu looked around, located the shadowy steps against the wall. "Come on, we better hurry". The others nodded and began to move toward them. It was then that Ippiku drew their attention. "Umm, some of the pieces are moving". Ryu looked back and saw that he was right, that was more than dying nerves.

"I thought you said he couldn't regenerate" Shippo snapped at him. Kurama put his hand on the younger fox's shoulder. "He isn't. Look". There were three bits of flesh glowing the dimness, not the blue crackles of the Grif healing. No, these were red and the lumps of flesh began to take forms.

Kurama frowned, "Dormant. These were dormant entities within him". Ryu stared in shock as the forms became complete. Two Kuramas peered back him and one Toga. "They can take any form they see!" Shippo shouted. This was not good.