162. Of war, weapons and a little bit of hubris

Cassandra Pendragon

While I took the first steps in their direction, I tethered on the verge of another dream. As I gradually became more and more aware of where I was and what I had done, regret, hope, anguish and anger replaced the cold detachment I had felt. The innocents I had burned, the soul I had destroyed and the wounds I had inflicted on Ahri gnawed at my conscience, but burning brightly underneath was a bonfire of fury at what had been done to my family.

A crushing weight settled on my shoulders and I felt my thoughts wander, unable to cope with the maelstrom of emotions. If it hadn't been for the ragged breaths of my friends, I would have crumbled then and there. As it was, every movement felt like I was pushing a small mountain uphill but as so many times before, I couldn't do much more than push through, leaving it for later. With an herculean effort, I shoved the rising images and scenes back into the past where they belonged, buried my fear deep down and tried to do what was necessary.

A flash of light and the spikes fell to the ground, their edges glowing. The cage I simply ripped apart and before the last, twisted poles of metal hit the floor, I was already pushing energy through my changed wing, moving form one to the other to make sure none of them would die on me. Indiscernible groans and fluttering eyelids were my only reward but as long as they kept moaning, they were breathing and that was all that mattered for the moment.

Darkness rose at the edge of my perception while I went form one to the next, repeating the same movements over and over again. A fleeting touch, an explosion of light and on to the next one. I struggled to remain anchored in the present but the urge to close my eyes and allow the battles of the past to claim me, became stronger with every second and as much as I fought to stay with my family, I knew I wouldn't be able to for much longer, I couldn't even see the room I was in anymore. My vision was reduced to the faces of those I cared for, unnaturally pale in the flickering light. Like ghosts they watched me, a silent choir of the damned, whose song brought me ever closer to losing myself, faces from my past sporadically appearing before my eyes. One second I was tending to my brother, the next I looked into the eyes of a long dead girl, her empty, accusing gaze fixed on me with the patience of the doomed. One moment I was gently lifting up the limp body of my mother and the next, she turned into an ironclad warrior I had laid to rest under a purple sun. I wouldn't be able to stay for much longer, I needed help.

Desperately I reached for Ahri's presence deep within but unfocused as I was, I barely managed to get a hold of her. In my stupor, I blindly tired to bolster our link with more power from my core, dragging us closer together. Dumb luck prevented me from accidentally frying her brain when I finally found her and clamped down on her thoughts. Her mind, familiar and ancient, full of fire and passion, gave me something to hold on to and with a guttural scream that made the small chamber tremble and annihilated any residual magic close by, I pulled her through.

Sparks burst forth from my tattoo, crimson and vibrant, and a second later, she stood before me, her wings a glorious halo behind her. Her multicoloured eyes filled my vision and I thought I managed a smile as I shakily extended my hand. "Help them," I whispered. "I don't know how long I can hold on anymore."

She whirled around, taking in the scene around her for the first time and the fires behind her back burned brighter. "What has he done," she hissed. "Cassy, we need to…" I couldn't follow anymore. My knees buckled and I stiffened in anticipation of the unavoidable moment my face made contact with the filthy floor, but it never came. Soft tails caught me and I was pushed forward, falling directly into Ahri's arms. "I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I never meant to hurt you."

"Don't worry about me, it wasn't that bad. I even managed to keep the demon and the rest of the Bloody Wolf alive, even though it was close. I don't know why, but somehow your magic listened to me, partially at least. Listen, Cassy, Mephisto told me this might happen. You're probably going to be stuck in the past for a while. We'll somehow patch them all up, trust me, but if there's anything else I need to know, you have to tell me now."

"I love you." Her fingers brushed a few strands of hair from my face and the smell of pine trees engulfed me when she leaned forward to kiss me.

"I love you, too. Don't get lost in the past, I'll be waiting for you when you wake up."

"Thank you…" My consciousness drifted away but there was one more thing I had to know.

"Ahri, I… can you forgive me?" She kissed me again.

"Silly goose, that wasn't really you, and even if it were, there would be nothing to forgive. You're not a saint, Casandra, you never were, but you're no devil, either. He had it coming. We'll talk when you wake up, if it's even necessary by then. Good night, princess." I closed my eyes.

Tranquility and bliss, the sea of memories hadn't changed but this time, I had no control. Like a feather on the wind I was swept along, towards a dark looming depth, one of the places I had struggled to avoid that last time around. Azure, light filled water turned into churning waves of darkness and from one moment to the next, before I even had the chance to collect my thoughts, I was falling down a long, cold tunnel, digging deeper into my past than I ever had before. My senses reeled, I began hearing colours and smelling sounds as my environment changed from a pitch black abyss to a confusing display of light and motion.

I was on a destroyed planet, a lifeless chunk of rock, drifting through space. Craters and the occasional spark, where residual magic was discharged from the broken surface, were all I could see. Hundreds, thousands, millions had died here in a war that hadn't been theirs to fight. Casualties of chance, victims of cruel circumstances that had ended their life as casually as i would have squashed a fly. What had we become? A scourge for all that lived, blind to the suffering we caused in our useless struggle for supremacy?

Sighing deeply I rose into the air, my senses spreading out to find the one existence I knew had endured. A tingling at the edge of my perception, a cluster of energy just behind the horizon. There he was. Space split apart as I pushed myself forward, covering uncounted leagues in the blink of an eye. A gargantuan mountain of black scales rose before me, its sides quivering with every ragged breath. Even on the brink of death, he was still strong enough to shake the world.

Bleary eyes, glazed over with pain and fatigue opened, each one as large as a building and I felt the faint rumbling of his breath as it shook the earth.

"So, you have finally come. Here to finish what your children could not?" His voice was deep and full, despite the echo of his imminent death, it still held the power to annihilate lesser species and even I could feel the unshackled might that crashed against me with every syllable.

"No… no, Im not. Those weren't mine, I've never been a part of the madness my family has unleashed on the cosmos. I never wanted you to exist in the first place, but I'm also not going to let you pass into the void unnoticed. You've earned as much, we owe you as much and for as long as I live, you won't be forgotten."

"Pretty words and empty gestures… where have you been, for all those years? How many could have been spared if you hadn't decided to hide like a coward? You claim you're no part of this? It was your family who made us, who pitched us against each other to fight for the throne at their side, was it not?'

"I won't deny it, patriarch. But I've never raised my hand, neither for nor against one of the races. As much as I wasn't part of their creation, I won't become a part of their doom. I'm only here to bear witness, to remember and carry the dark truths of the moment into a future that might yet have a chance to see the light. Do you know why I can't become involved?"

"Afraid you might be proven to be far more mortal than you assume? Afraid you might have to begin anew?"

"No… forgive my candour but none of you could touch me. Even at the hight of your power, none of you would have been able to face me. Even amongst the immortals, I'm feared. No, I stayed away because… because you shouldn't be and destruction is, but the only outcome. Your life and that of your children… sentient weapons to wield in a conflict we couldn't resolve among ourselves. I'm sorry, but in the end, the only way forward leads to your death, yours, your brothers' and sisters'… they have to die so creation can live. Only when the immortals come to understand that they won't ever be unchallenged, that the balance between angels and demons is necessary so the cosmos doesn't crumbled under the reign of one or the other, will their be peace. And that can never happen for as long as they fight at your side since from your very first breath, your whole existence has revolved around subjugating those that were created with you."

"Then, why are you here? Only to watch the last incarnation of freedom die? Eager to see mortal creation once again suffocate in the grasp of an immortal destiny?"

"Quite the contrary… I'm here to take back what was once mine, if you'll let me." That stunned him into silence and I couldn't prevent a small smile from forming on my face.

"You could have chosen to fight with us, long before. Why would you wish to do so now?"

"I don't. I'm not going to participate. This has to end, but not by my hand. But while I've watched, I've learned a thing or two. You're right, we should no longer be a driving force in the mortal realms. When the dust has settled on this war, I want to make sure that there's no repetition, I want to make sure, every brith brings with it its own choices… I want you and your siblings to be the last beings who are bound to a purpose… I want to set it right, to return freedom to those who stand to lose it. As I always have. Have you never wondered why you even came to be? Valour, freedom, justice… the immortals already knew about those things, hence they could even make you. And if they know, they'll act, spreading ideas across the cosmos like a disease. "

"So, you're here to tell me I've fought and lived in vain?" I sighed.

"No… the opposite is true. Here, let me show you." I moved my wings, conjuring a revolving sphere of light. It pulsed, once, twice and then a ghostly scene appeared before us, glittering in silver and blue as images from the past came to life.

We saw a cave, even though the description didn't do the place justice. It was more like a breath taking dome, filled with shimmering crystals and arcane symbols. At the centre, a fire burned with all the colours of creation, a muscular man with snowy white wings kneeling on the floor close to the flames. He was deep in meditation, primordial energies swirling around his raised hands, each strands carrying with it the very essence of the universe.

Slowly, carefully he weaved the radiant light into another form, a ring of purest white. With every stand of power he entangled with the growing construct, his body aged, wrinkles started covering his smooth skin, his wings dropped to the ground, their weight to heavy for him to support. His hair grew and turned from a deep brown into the lightest silver. After a few seconds, even his defined muscles withered away until all that was left was a hollowed out husk, a glowing circle of light pressed against its chest. One final smile spread across his face, before his body was engulfed in white hot flames, leaving behind a fine cloud of ash, a trail of sparks where his core had raced towards the chasm and a perfectly crafted ring on the floor.

The scene blurred, as if viewed underwater and when the images cleared again, we were at a different location, deep within the void. Matter and energy danced around us, following the mad choreography of chaos while a group of angels hovered above the stream of souls. They sang, their voices a beautiful, ordered contrast to the mayhem all around. Each note made the eternal river before them react, it shook and frothed until a tiny particle was ripped from its depth.

The soul floated through the void, a brilliant glow that even outshone the glaring lights until a torrent of blinding, white energy smashed into it and carried it back to where it had come from. But now it bore a mark, the mark of justice. Before the images disappeared again, we saw the smirk on the angels faces as they put away the very same ring, whose creation we had witnessed just a moment before. Now though, its immaculate, white lustre was interspersed with streaks of the deepest black and its perfectly polished contours showed stylised lines that seemed like a creature was rearing its head just below the surface. A creature with several, scaled wings.

When the distorted colours returned to normal, we saw a fiery sky, black clouds and crimson lighting a cacophony of chaos above our heads. Around us, hundreds of demons stood, their eyes fixed onto a dark altar, where the angel of valour laid in chains, the ring on his chest. If it hadn't been for its dominating aura that even reached us from the past, we wouldn't have been able to recognise the thing. It was pitch black, shaped like a thirteen winged dragon and its pure glow had turned into a dark, pulsing flame.

A growing tide of magic circled through the assembly and little by little, each demon added a piece of its own power to the rising wave. A mighty thunderclap shook the sky, lightning streaked through the reddish glow and the angel screamed. A flash of transcendent energies, his core was ripped from his body and passed through the ring, its radiance changing from a soothing white to a purple, oppressive flame. The body on the altar combusted and the magic in the air ignited, forming eight raging torrents of light that shot off into the distance. Hundreds of voices whispered: "now they are ours," and the scene shifted, one last time.

Stars and planets came to life around us, sparkling dots of life among the cold infinity of the universe. Little by little, they went out, their light swallowed by and expanding, ravenous darkness that tore through them, devouring everything in its path. At the forefront, eight mighty warriors battled against each other, their constant struggle tearing apart the worlds they set foot on. One of them was the perfect likeness of the gargantuan dragon in front of me.

Each one of them was a harbinger of destruction as they brought war to untouched regions of space and left behind nothing but devastated wastelands and crumbling reminders of the civilisation that had fallen prey to their fight. And above them, angels and demons fought for supremacy, for the right to call those incarnations of higher concepts slaves to their will.

One by one, the warriors fell, slain by their own kin in a struggle, caused by the warring aspects of their beings. Angels had made them, but the essence of the demons burned brightly in their hearts, fuelled by the allegiance of the artefact that had given them life. With every death, the opposing forces of their existence were set free, the unbound energies combining when they left their host. A bluish glow appeared wherever one of them fell, an eerie light that seemed to pierce through reality itself.

With a wave of my hands I dispersed the magic and the scene vanished. The next moment, I pushed more energy from my core until my wings hummed with power and the pure silver took on a distinct, blue sheen.