From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison)
Subject: [DQ]   The vampire settles into repose.
Reply-To: hutch@ibeam.intel.com
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 92 15:28:50 GMT

Dragon Quest, Week Seven, Intermission

Lancos and Valgar had gone, ShockWave-as-SunStorm was passed out in his room,
and 'Raelf was left with Kadrys.   And Alita remained, the lovely woman whose
acerbic, provocative repartee from earlier had been toned down, once she saw
that it was having the opposite effect from what she had originally intended.
SunStorm's spirit remained trapped in the diamond structure which 'Raelf had
identified as an ancient "cosmos probe".

The Dark Master remained an enigma, and an undiminished menace.  The giant
had to be rescued, the probe sent away, and the Dark Master's plans thwarted.
But how to do so?

'Raelf and Kadrys were in disagreement about the success of a frontal attack,
with Kadrys being for a subtler, more indirect approach.  'Raelf felt that
this was impossible since they did not have the upper hand, and that the
only way to get it, was to move with strength against the enemy, and they
DID have some clues about how to do that.  Yet, he also admitted the risk.

And Alita's comments had been useful, for a change, in clearing up the
weak places in both plans.  And the spheres which 'Raelf had placed on
the table, the icons of Truth, Malice, and Free Will, had remained intact
and unbroken, although the occasional flirtatious remark from Alita to
either man, caused some shivering of the delicate structure of Truth.

It grew quite late.  The early-early shift began to drift out, and there
was the usual hour lag when only a few tables were occupied.

'Raelf noticed that another icon had appeared on the table, the icon of
Necessity, then another, the Eros.  He blinked (red-black-blue-yellow)
and casually dispersed the icons before him.

"It's late, and I'm kind of tired.  Alita, would you like to accompany
me to the common room?  Or would you prefer an escort to your home?"

The sky-blue woman gave him an enigmatic glance.  "What, NOW you want to
get physical?  Well, I'm not sure, big boy, you're really cute, but you
hurt my feelings earlier."

"That was because I was distracted.  I really didn't mean to offend, but
my life has been so focussed on other things, I kind of forget sometimes
about the more pleasant pastimes."

"Well, walk me home, and I'll consider your offer for later."

They stood, and he pulled a black poncho over his head, flickering colors
along the edges.  An arm, gallantly offered, gallantly taken, and they
strode out the door.

Kadrys stared at the table, where the icons had dispersed.  The Truth
icon had not evaporated into fog, it had shattered at 'Raelf's touch.

Then, not having entered through the door, a creature came from the back.
It was semi-birdlike, and yet, somehow reminiscent of a weasel or stoat.
The body, similar in shape to that of an ostrich, was covered in fine
downy feathers, and the head, on a neck that was thicker around and shorter
than an ostriches', was large, with a musteline shape, and no beak or bill.
Soft feathers of a contrasting color covered the head and ran down the
neck.  Its wings were odd, with a sort of hand-like arrangement at the end.

The eyes, large, liquid, flickered in rainbow colors.

It strode up to Kadrys, and in a mellow, feminine voice, spoke.  And
it spoke in an ancient dialect of Elvish which, Kadrys knew, only one
person here, besides him, could speak without accent.

"I take this form in honor of she who gave it to me, who was my child,
and out of need for her sight."  It moved a chair, and settled next
to Kadrys.  "First I need to apologize.  Earlier tonight, I ignored
you, refused to speak.  The danger of paradox was severe, and I could
not trust myself to speak with you for fear I would reveal something
to my earlier self."

Kadrys sighed.  So.  As he had surmised.  He shifted position and
leaned forward.   "Your child?  You never told me you had a child."

The creature dipped her head in a gesture of embarassment.
"The circumstances were painful.  Maribel was my first sentient from
another species, as a friend.  She was a very gentle fem, a healer
and midwife, and had the gift of the prophetess.  She foresaw the
death of her queen, and was denounced by the guild of healers as
a witch, and poisoned, then burned.  I had been visiting there, in
the form of a lesser creature, and had befriended her, and they called
me her familiar and tied me and threw me into the flames with her."

The eyes glistened blue-gray.

"She was the first that I had saved from death by taking her essence
into myself, and it was a painful experience for both of us - I was
not so skilled as I am now, and had not learned to heal others."

"The parts of her which were her spirit, were frightened, yet she
found our kind of life fascinating.  I returned with her to the
Home place, in time to find that we were at war.  My family, and the
family of one who had been my friend and lover.  We worked a deal out
between us.  Both families would cede the interest in what we had
conflicted over, to a new family."

"There is a ritual and a tradition to the formation of new families.
When 'arElya and I joined essence, we had to search for those parts
of our character which were most profoundly our nature, and give of
that.  We had to give up, completely, that which was our first meal
of life.  Maribel, in my case, and Turhaec, in 'arElya's case.  So
we exchanged essence and budded off, between us, the core triad of
the new family, which then merged itself to be the First of that
family.  My own First was present, and the Third of 'arElya."

"By the rules of conjoining, we cannot see one another until the
new family has established itself - a matter of at least a half
a millenium.  I see, with the Sight that Maribel holds, that
this will not happen before my death."

Kadrys leaned a hand forward, gingerly, to touch the head of the
creature.  "I grieve for you, for your loss."

"It won't be a grievous thing, Kadrys, thouygh it will be painful.
Death wears many forms, and perhaps I can find my way around it,
though I pray, not the way that you have."

The vampire's reaction was an almost indecipherable expression:
the echo of pain, of a profound loss.

"If I still prayed, I would also pray that you not find my way
around death.  It isn't a true escape, being locked away from life,
from afterlife, and from true death."

The aviomustelian blinked, red, grey.  Her head lifted up off the
table where it had been resting.  One wing-like hand reached into
a pouch worn on a thong around her neck, and drew forth a heavy
medallion, covered with small gems in a complex pattern.

"The things I have to say concern your future, Kadrys."

"You were always the most rational, the most controlled of us.  Even more
than myself, and with greater cause.  It was a great shock when you broke
and betrayed us."  The liquid eyes flickered again, deep blue, deep black.

Kadrys felt numb.  He would break, betray his friends?  He picked up the
metal goblet he had been toying with earlier.

"Our enemy used words of power, in the language of one of the hells.
They fed your curse, twisted it, added strength to it, until your spirit
was overwhelmed.  This is why even Lancos forgave you later.  But he doesn't
really like being undead.  He regrets that you fought, and he regrets killing
you, but he regrets even more dying of the injuries you did him, because
the curse passed on.  He has been trying to follow your example.  I think
he will fail, that he will be discovered and killed.  He isn't as good at
being inconspicuous as you are."

"What are you saying to me?  This sort of thing is anathema to me, I
would never betray my friends.  I despise the vampire-curse, and I will
never pass it to another."  Kadrys gripped the goblet, bending it.

"From my perspective, you already have.  Or, in this speech, will have."

The vampire felt a cold, hot emotion, something beginning to resemble
the feelings he had felt when alive.  Why was he being told this?

"In this body, this configuration, recalling the spirit of my daughter,
her mystic skills are available to me.  She was a healer, a sort of
religious function for her people.  As a prophetess, her sense of time
was more potent, in its way, than my own.  Her sight sees the thread of
time closing into a great snarl in a few moments.  I can use this, as
it hides us from our enemy.  You must trust me to do the right thing."
the voice was melodious, compelling.  The bejewelled medallion came to
life, and began to glow with a color from another place.

Kadrys realized that magical energies were being directed at him, yet
they were not malevolent.  "Do what you must," he choked, feeling a sense
of pressure building around him.

The room spun, a sense of infinite pressure, of being squeezed flat and
yet inflated in impossible directions, and the voice said, "NOW!"

   *   *   *

In a place near the end of thought, beyond the place where stars and
planets walk in the guise of people, at the true nexus of realities, the
darkness spun around them, neither warm nor cold.

The voice spoke in the darkness, the ancient rule of divination.
"The vampire settles into repose."

Three coins spun.  Tail, head, tail.   "K'an, the abysmal, Water."
Three coins spun.  Tail, tail, tail.   "K'un, the receptive, Earth."

The voice spoke.  "Tetragram 8.  Pi, Holding Together, Union"

"The Image is of water on the earth, of holding together.  The kings
in antiquity thus bestowed the different states as fiefs, and
cultivated friendly relations with their vassals."

"The Judgement is that Holding Together brings good fortune.  You
must inquire again, whether you possess sublimity, constancy, and
perseverance; if so, you will be faultless.  If you are uncertain,
if you come too late, you bring misfortune."

"Again, six at the top means, he finds no head for holding together.
Misfortune."

Three coins spun.  Head, tail, tail.   "Ken, Keeping Still, Mountain."
Three coins spun.  Tail, tail, tail.   "K'un, the receptive, Earth."

The voice spoke again.  "Tetragram 23.  Po, Splitting Apart."

"The judgement, It does Not further one to go anywhere."

"The Image is of the mountain resting on the earth, of division, of
separation, fragmentation.  The mountain builds the earth below it.
Thus can those above ensure their position, only by giving generously
to those below."

A decision was confirmed, and the voice began a gentle chanting,
and over the top of the chant, it spoke again, in a whisper of rocks
burning in a vacuum.

"In this place above places I call on those who have woven fate.
 I call on those who use the lives of men, and their deaths.
 Your instrument will be destroyed by the test he will undergo.
 The investment of thousands of eons will be wasted for nothing.
 You have the power to prevent this.
 You owe him greatly, and I call on you by that debt."

"You who use him, heed my rede, fulfill your duty by him."

They came, and the voice stilled, and its presence departed.

The darkness rang with color.  The smell was overwhelmingly bright.
Consciousness left the vampire, as though he were in his earth.

   *   *   *

He awoke.

The sky was a thin, pale blue.  In this place, the light came from all
around, but it was not painful.  It was a gentle pleasure, as delicate
as smelling a daisy, as rich as sipping blood... Kadrys looked around
him.  He stood in a grassy meadow, his leather cloak around his shoulders,
a walking-stick in his hand.   Before him, an austere, simple fountain,
and in the pool of that fountain, a small orrery in miniature, a sun
dancing around a world on the back of what had to be a tarrasque, of
immense size.  The moons, planets, graceful stars each in their sphere...

"Do you like it?"  came a voice from behind him, a voice he had never
thought to hear again.  At the sound, eyes that had been as dry as dust
for countless centuries, filled with tears.  He whirled, heart torn in
anguish and joy.

"Imariye'!"  And covered his eyes, because her face was too brilliant to
gaze upon.  The brightness faded, became tolerable.  He reached a hand
towards her, but the brightness increased again, a warning.

"Kadrys, my love, do not weep..." she smiled, in the same sweet way he
remembered so well.  He returned her smile through his tears, beaming
widely, in an unconscious grin of purest happiness which had been an
impossible gesture fore him, ever since his teeth had become fangs.

She reached hesitantly towards him, flinched, then stepped back,
lowering her hands in defeat.

"This place will sustain us both, and we can visit here for a while,
but we cannot touch.  It would destroy us."  She gestured to the bench,
carved from stone, lacy and delicate in marble and granite.

His arms, outstretched, fell to his side.  The prohibition brought
back a painful memory, of Imariye' shying away from him, horror in
her eyes, when he first moved toward her, freshly undead.  But at
least, in this place, they could be together...

The vampire sat on the seat by her, carefully avoiding the touch of her
hand.  She smiled, and began to tell him a story.

And in the orrery, if you could see something that small, on the back
of the tarrasque, in the middle of a tiny puddle, at a crossroads
place, there was a city, and a building, an Inn, and a note in a spot
where Kadrys used to sit, written in the common tongue, in plain block
lettering, and placed under a crumpled metal cup.

It reads, "I am called away, I will join you if I can, when I can.  K."


[ADMIN]  Due to circumstances beyond our control, Kadrys is in
temporary retirement from active frequent posting.