[Episode 131406] [Episode 131406]Minutes before sunset, the spirit beset!
"Rei! Rei-ei!" a voice sing-songed the in the dark chambers deep under the 'haunted' temple. "Don't ignore me, Rei!"
The vampire priestess Rei sat in repose, sleeping the death of daylight. The cold stone beneath her was draped with a symbol covered cloth. The cavern was in total darkness, the circle upon circles of painted wards that kept her safe in her inner sanctum hung from ceiling and wall. Black candle, unlit, lay in an interposing pattern of circles.
"Liar! Liar! PANTS ON FIRE!" the voice suddenly screamed.
Rei's eyes snapped open, the acrid stench of a blood tallow candle burning. Without moving her body, her eyes turned to the one spot of red light her home. She thought to herself, I must have left that burning last night. How unlike my careful self. She could feel in her blood that the sun had not yet set, though it was close.
"Girl, you are really trying to delude yourself aren't you?" the voice sang out again. "Wouldn't it be burned down by now?"
Rei sat up with a snap. "Who is there!" Her spirit sensitive eyes tracked across the room, noting all of the wards unmarked, unbroken.
"Nothing but us chickens, Rei."
The priestess licked her lips in sudden nervousness. "Impossible, you have died the soul death eternal, Minako." Behind her, one of the wards twisted as if a wind or body had passed it by.
"You'd think you'd know, as you ate me, wouldn't you? Silly, Rei. You may be of the Urmoz, or Pure Vampire, but that doesn't mean you really know what happens, does it?"
"I think I am more qualified to know about spiritual matters than you, Minako. You are nothing more than the wind of whisper within my mind. Your power, your spirit and essence are nothing more than a part of me!" Rei stood up, still looking around, spotting the ward that was settling down.
"You think you are so smart, so wise, oh Priestess. There are things you do not understand. A butterfly can change the course of a storm. Ami would understand, but it means nothing to you." Another candle flared, further out, flickering as if a breeze passed it by. "What about the vampire Hinaku?"
"He was destroyed just as you, by Fumo," Rei replied in surprise.
"Really? I haven't seen Fumo around recently. Of course, if you had told him all of the fore-telling, he would never have gone after Hinaku, would he? How did it go?" Minako's voice said, echoing around the room.
"The Scion of the Dark Feather shall bleed out the Marred Dagger and destroy him," Rei said aloud. Another ward fluttered. A cold dread was growing in her chest. This should be impossible. Her eyes started to dart around the room.
"But only after the Scion drinks of the Marred Dagger shall he return to his Mistress of the Dawn."
"I never said that telling." The dark haired vampire stopped trying to find the voice with her eyes.
"No, you didn't, did you Rei? You hid that second part knowing that Fumo was, knowing that he would strike out at Hinaku, one of my servants and destroy himself in the end. But Hinaku returned to his Mistress, wearing the flesh of the Servant of Raven. But you didn't know that, as I hid Hinaku when he returned."
Rei snorted in derision. "The Final Death is just that, final! You will not destroy me in a contest of wills and take my body."
Two more candles lit themselves, then three more even as more wards fluttered in a soft seeming wind that was not there. "Do you feel it, Rei? The power of Night arising?"
Caresses of wind touched the ancient kimono that Rei wore across her breasts, a chill breeze touched her lips. "Nothing is going to happen. I have planned too long."
"Venus Rises from Helios this evening. My computer kept track of that, so I could throw a really big party, you know. But I think something more is going to happen, in just a moment," Minako's mocking voice whispered in her ear. "I wonder what color it will be?"
"Are you Fore-Telling?" Rei's look of scorn told large tales of her opinion of Minako's ability in that area.
"Do you want me to? I can draw on yours and my own abilities."
"Speak, ghost."
Minako's cutting laughter chilled Rei's heart. "First falls Love, most loyal of the Crimson. Reborn to Dark Lust."
"Next falls Nature, most stubborn of the Crimson. Reborn to Unswerving Revenge."
"Then falls Thought, most modern of the Crimson. Reborn to Cunning Hate."
"Then falls Spirit, most attuned to the spinning stars and chained to her damnation. Reborn Guide of Hope."
"Last falls Purity, the lost heart of Crimson. Reborn as the Last Queen."
"Unbound the Destroyer will walk. The Rivers Crimson Come, her bidding we shall do. The Dark Crystal will be used on the last night, forever more.
Candle after candle lit as Minako foretold, circles upon circles. Fear gripped Rei as the realization that something out of her control was happening. Something more momentous than she could remember in thousands of years. All of the wards started to flutter in the wind.
"I'm going to be awfully hungry for my Soul, Rei. Living in Undeath we could stand, but Unsouled is a new torment, one all of the Crimson will feel."
Rei felt the sun starting to fall beneath the Earth. As the last light left, her key ward sparked and then burst into flame. As if it were the falling blocks of dominoes, ward after ward went up in moments, circles upon circles. "NOOOOO!" Rei screamed. It had taken her centuries to make those wards, this temple. Much of her power was derived from it. As the las ward burned up, all of the candles suddenly snuffed.
"Your Hunter hunts this evening. I wonder if he will seek you now that you are not hidden, Rei?" Minako said tauntingly.
"Shut up, bitch!"
"Oh, and Rei? I'm coming for my soul now. I'd start running."
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(Posted Sun, 30 Jan 2005 04:45)
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