With a final thrust, the last of the walking corpses finally settled. Pulling her spear from the stilled body, Seras walked over to where Kain stood, over the body of the thing he had been fighting. "What was that thing?"
Kain frowned down at the creature. It was humanoid, and could have passed, at a distance, for a human. It was dressed as a fool, with bright, clashing colors, and gray skin. At first, Kain had though the thing to posses two spiked tufts of hair on either side of its head, but closer examination proved that they were, in fact, very thick horns.
When they had stumbled upon the creature, it had immediately started playing a strange, double flute, and the eerie melody it called forth began reanimating the corpses around them.
"I do not know," Kain admitted at last. "It must be one of the creatures that the Planar Azimuth has inflicted upon Nosgoth. That it has gotten so far away from Avernus can only mean she has been release such other-worldly creatures for longer than I had thought."
Seras grimaced at the thought. "Bloody wonderful. So, where are we heading, next?"
"The Valentine estate," Kain replied as they started navigating their way through the roads of Coorhagen again. "They were a family of wizards, although the most recent heir to that family barely had the magic to light a candle. If the mansion has not been destroyed, then its library may yet possess a useful spell book or two."
"Ah, another old 'friend,' then, I take it?"
Kain shook his head. "No. The Valentines did not associate with any who did not possess magic... and in life, I had little interest, and less ability, in such eldrich arts. It has only been since my death, that I have been able to wield such magics." He paused, and then pointed, "And it seems we may be in luck. There it is now."
Seras looked at the mansion in question, but to her eyes, there was nothing that set it apart from any of the other grand houses they had past. IT was then that she noticed the first snow flakes falling. "Oh! Snow!" Seras had always liked the snow... it brought back memories of her father.
Kain's sudden hiss of pain drew her mind back to the present. She whirled, and stared in shock at the trails of smoke that sprouted up wherever the flakes touched Kain.
Seras didn't think. She just grabbed Kain and ran for the mansion he indicated. With a quick kick, the door caved in, and they were inside. "What was that about?!" Seras demanded after dropping Kain to the floor.
Kain sourly looked at Seras as the pain receded. The only saving grace of this had been that no one had witnessed the humiliation of him being carried by his companion. "I believe I have mentioned that Water burns vampires such as I. Even a gentle snowfall can be lethal to our well being. And it seems that the protection I acquired to rain doesn't hold for snow."
"I... didn't realize it was that..."
"Yes," he replied curtly, "It is that severe. And I do not wish to discuss it further. Since we will be here some time, let us find the Library and... Damn it!"
>The final curse was given, of course, due to the state of the mansion. From the outside it looked fine, but the inside had obviously been struck by a fire. Scorch marks covered the walls, and the ceiling creaked ominously.
"Look like that guy you were talking about may have lit one candle too many..." Seras said, trying to lighten the mood.
Kain just shot her a dark look.
_-=^=-_
Combing the remains of the mansion had resulted in a meager half dozen books still in a useable condition. Kain dismissed half of those out of hand, and was currently working his way through one of the three volumes he hadn't discarded. Bored with the waiting, Seras decided to peek into one of the rejected tomes, and was surprised to see it was completely blank.
"Well, I guess I know why this one isn't useful..." she mumbled to herself. Trying to keep herself occupied, she started examining her newly acquired weapon.
As she was looking it over, something caught her eye. Curious, she looked back at the blank book she had opened, and stared in wonder as words formed on the page.
I took this well crafted blade from the home of an arrogant, and a little perverted, nobleman that Kain tells me possessed far too much money, and far too little sense. He tells me that it is lightly enchanted to retain its razor sharp edge and be difficult to break no matter what it hits. Makes me wish that I'd paid more attention when Lady Integra tried to teach me how to fence...
Seras blinked as the words formed. Those had been her own thoughts! She decided to pocket the book. Maybe she'd use it as a diary of sorts...
Kain's triumphant laugh drew her attention once again, and she made her way back over to the other vampire. "I take it you have some good news?"
Kain held two of the tomes in his hands. "Yes. Not the all-powerful spells I had hoped to find, but these books contain useful spells nonetheless. In particular," he said as he held out one of the books, "One of the spells in this book is quite interesting, for it will allow me to exploit the petty prejudices of man, Minor grievances would escalate into murderous rage." He gave a cruel smile, "And, the sweet terror of when the spell wears off, and they find their hands covered in their neighbor's blood."
Seras shook her head at the thought. Was she an anomaly of a vampire for not finding such a prospect pleasant... or was this simply an aspect of the male love of violence? Or did she really care?
She walked up next to him to take a look at the book herself, when the floor they were standing on gave a loud moan. They only had time to share a single glance of concern, before the floor broke away, and both of them found themselves falling into the darkness...
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(Posted Sat, 18 Jun 2005 23:18)
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