Amalia's coach rolled to a stop just before the gate to Balgrad castle. It was Amalia who stepped from the coach first, clad in a simple traveling dress and cloak. But it was who stepped out behind her that drew the stares from the few eyes watching at that late hour. The Countess Katerina had been gone for the last decade, but none in the city had forgotten her. As always she stepped from the coach, and stood for a moment, surveying all before her, and letting all around her gaze upon her. She was radient in her beauty. She stood in a dark formal gown, her hair pulled up and away. No mortal or Cainite had ever looked so glorious, save perhaps Lilith herself. As the two women approached the gates to the castle, they were greeted by the guardsmen in hushed tones. Several of them were old enough to remember the Countess, and they marveled that her beauty had not changed. The two women walked unhindered through the halls of the castle. No guard would question Lady Amalia, and fewer still the Countess who they knew from a decade before. The Countess Katerina deftly lead them through the hallways until they stood before the door of the Prince Reynold's personal chambers.
Maria and Roccio quickly walked down the halls of Balgrade castle, argueing, as always, about some minor facet of the churches opperation.
"I can't imagine why the Prince isn't awake at this later hour. He will put an end to your insolence." Roccio said.
"Oh, I can imagine why he still lies in his chambers," Maria responded, "But you're wrong, it will be you who the prince scorns! Florentia should never have left you as Primogen!"
As the two Lasombra childer walked through the halls towards the Prince's waiting room, they passed by a pair of beautiful women quickly walking the other way. One was Lady Amalia, the other was....
"Isn't she..." Roccio began.
"Dead?" Maria finished.
The two Lasombra turned and hurried after the pair, curious to see what was going on here.
Katerina did not pause for a second when she reached Reynold's door. The guards went to stop her, but with a look from Katerina's dark blue eyes, they slumped against the wall, and said no more. Then, with a word, she blew the heavy oaken door to Reynolds room off its hinges and boldly walked in, Amalia close on her heels.
Lying on the bed, the sheets pulled away, was the Prince Reynold, lying naked upon his huge bed. And sitting on top of him, a look of joy on her face, was Madara, equally naked. The pair lying on Reynold's bed looked towards them in surprise, that turned to Horror when they recognized Katerina.
Madara dropped away off Reynold, pulling the sheets up around her and her new found lover.
"My, my, my," Katerina says in a wry voice, "When the cats away, how the mice do play." Katerina smiles and turns to Amalia, "What an interesting thing we've found here, isn't it?" Katerina walks to Amalia's side and puts her arm around her, kissing her lightly on the cheek. "Very interesting
indeed." she whispers in a deadly tone.
Amalia unconsciously flinches away from Katerina, her eyes riveted to Madara.
"How...how could you do this to me!" she finally manages, her voice no more than a croaked whisper.
Sister Maria stands, eyes widened, mouth gaping at the sight before her. She stares next at Katerina. Then back at the naked people on the bed. Roccio covers his eyes with both palms of his hands.
It takes Madara a second to recover from her shock-- now there are...four people standing in the doorway staring at them!! "This is a nightmare..." she thinks, but then Amalia's words sink in, and an anger flares up within her until she finally leaps from the bed to stand before the spectators. "Do this to you? Do this to YOU?? How DARE you!!" Madara cries, and then points to Katerina, her eyes never leaving Amalia. "You come here with your...your NEW lover-- who you have dressed in the dress *I* had specially made for you and gave to you, in order to mock me-- and then ask my how *I* could do this to *YOU*?? I saw it all, Amalia-- ALL! You and...her, together naked and making love! You cannot convince me that you might have been being controlled by her, because I saw how passionately you kissed her, and I saw the way you caressed her, and it was the same way you used to kiss and caress me! And again when you slept with her in the crypt, you kissed her when she was already dead!"
"And Amalia...dear Amalia, I heard your words!! I KNOW you never loved me or cared for me-- what an incredible actress you are! 'Just using her to get what I want from her...' 'it's so touching the way she would do anything for me and loves me so much...' oh yes, I heard your words, Amalia, and I heard how you were prepared to offer me to the Kupala as a servant in order to please him!! And YOU burst into the Prince's chambers to ask how I could do this to YOU!!" Madara starts laughing maniacally until she finally has to sit on the edge of the bed. She puts her fingers to her eyes and catches her breath...regaining calm and composure. When she looks up again, she is the perfect picture of decorum and tranquility, albeit still naked.
"Amalia, I understand the nature of woman now, and I understand your own love of learning and magic. I understand why you would want to run off with Katerina...to learn her magics so you can increase in power. I want to wish you well, and tell you that I am bowing out graciously to leave you two to one another. I do not hold any animosity for you, because your final betrayal opened my eyes...opened my eyes to the love my Prince has had for me for so many, many long years, and for the love I have for him in return. We will leave the kingdom this night, and you may have it to do with as you will. We will no longer be here to stand in your way," Madara says, nodding to Katerina passively. "Now..." Madara says, standing and wrapping a sheet around her and moving over to sit beside the Prince protectively, "...if you would all please leave and give us the dignity of dressing if anything else needs to be discussed before our departure?"
Amalia stands dumbly before Madara's tirade, the words sinking into her skull and settling into her belly like poison.
"You...you would dismiss me so quickly. You have s...so little faith..th...that you would not even speak to me before running t...to another..." Bloody tears spill from Amalia's eyes as she chokes to get her words out.
"I never betrayed you. Never! You saw a vision of me kissing her corpse? You saw me in person moments after that, going mad, trying to claw through the stone floors of my manor to escape what had happened. I was not in my right mind. It was only you..." she stops, choking back a sob. "It was only you who brought me back from the brink of insanity."
"I have loved you with all my being since we first expressed ourselves, Madara. I have never lied about that. If it were not for you I would have fallen long ago. You...you were the one who kept me whole, who brought my humanity back..." Amalia closes her eyes, turning away from the sight of Madara sitting on Reynold's bed. "I would never sacrifice you to Kupala...I have been fighting Kupala! I..." sobs finally break free from her throat, tearing through her like a maleostorm. "I lied to Katerina to p-protect you from her..."
She looks up, realizing for the first time that Katerina IS wearing the dress that Madara had made for her. She buries her face in her hands, sobbing, unable to speak any longer.
Katerina takes Amalia in her arms. She rocks Amalia back and forth slowly, "It's alright my beloved. You're with the one who truely loves you now." Katerina glaces through the window at the horizon where a storm gathers. Lightning flashes in the distance, and the winds were already picking up in Balgrade. Katerina whispers to Amalia, "See dearest, only we truely love and understand you. I know this is painful for you to see, but I knew that you had to see Madara for what she truely was, so that your heart would forever be free." Katerina then looks at Madara over Amalias shoulder. And the look on her face is a mixture of sheer hatred, combined with....complete victory.
Roccio shifts uncomfortably. He grabs the still staring Sister Maria by the shoulder. Maria smacks Roccio on the back of the head. They leave the room together. As they shuffle down the hallway, you hear a muffled feminine chuckle. Then the two muffled voices whisper simulataneously, "The city is OURS!!"
Madara looks at Katerina with a look of pity and compassion. "I know you wish Amalia to see me as someone like yourself, but who I truly am is someone who can only love completely, honorably, exclusively, and eternally. I do not feel any hatred for you, Katerina, I only wish you could find peace, and be someone who could give peace to others. Perhaps you would be happier if you learned the...ways of Chivalry?" Madara gives a wry smile, looks down, and then looks back at Amalia.
"Perhaps what I did for you and gave to you made you feel something akin to love for me-- despite the dark dealings you were entrenched in. If that is the case, and if I was able to help you by bringing you back from insanity, then I am glad. But Amalia, that is where our paths divide. You see, I would have fought tooth and nail...literally...to get away from Katerina-- running out into the sun, if necessary-- just knowing that the pain I would be causing my lover would...be too intense for her to handle if she found out. As for my pain, I did not run to another lover, the one who truly loves me ran to me. I would have turned back into an animal and run away with the wolves if I could after what I saw you do and say! Oh how I bled and wept, Amalia!! How angry I was! But after Giacova's treatment of me...once bitten, twice shy, Amalia. Even if I believed that you do love me, I could not go back to a place filled with danger, demons, and constant betrayal. Betrayal to me..." Then Madara lets her eyes fall on Katerina. "...and betrayal to her, as well."
"I would never have entreated the aid of a demon-- especially after all we had gone through with Soreaxe! I thought you wise, Amalia. We on the path of Chivalry would rather die than allow the one we loved to be exposed to such danger!" Madara raises her arm in entreaty. "Please...both of you...turn from this path and seek peace and love together. Amalia-- you are a good, gentle person capable of great things and intense love. Please remember that as you struggle back out of the hell you have created-- God willing, Katerina helps you and does not leave you when someone else catches her eye and can serve her purposes." Madara looks at both women with an intense look of hope in her eyes.
Katerina smiled that infuriating, knowing smile then. She looked out the window, where the storm grew closer. Jagged bolts of colored lightning tore the sky, and the winds howled throught he shutters of the castle. Somewhere deep in each of the assembled Canites minds, they thought they heard a voice, mere whispers really, carried on the winds.
They whispered but a word.
"Fear."
Katerina looked back at Madara and Reynold. "Oh what quaint fools you are." she said calmly, that smile never leaving her lips.
The prince who has been silent all this time finally stands next to Madara. He has been silent feeling his place was not to speak between these two, but now he must.
"We are no more fools than you. You both should know how love twists things-- brings others together or tears them apart."
He looks to Madara. "Get your things."
Looking back to Amalia and Katerina. "We are leaving, right now. We're leaving the castle and then the city. Let us pass, and you won't ever see us again nor hear of us. That is what we are doing. We can make this as peaceful as possible...let us go."
Katerina laughed. "Poor naive Reynold. Do you really think that the love you bear for that pathetic creature will save you?" The storm outside had reached epic proprotions. Lightening and thunder tore the sky. The winds howled, drowning out all sounds from outside. And the rain. It was pouring down in blinding sheets, pounding against the roof of the castle. "Poor Reynold, so young and foolish. Who still thinks that the Clan Ventrue is honorable and true. Its amazing that you ever became prince. Of course, without me, you never would have done it. But, when that idiot Giacova left, I didn't have much to work with, did I, so I had to make due." Lightening flashed behind Katerina as she spoke. And somewhere it seemed that the voices the Cainites had been hearing were growing louder.
Reynold's eyes narrow at her and he gathers up his breeches and puts them on. "We are leaving Katerina, say all you want, but in the end...I know which of us here is the pathetic creature," he says putting on a shirt and pointing at Katerina. He uses the power of his blood as it begins to flare red hot. "You will move from that door and you will let us pass by and leave the city in peace."
Katerina chuckled, feeling Reynold mind pushing against hers. "Oh please. Surely even you must know that your pathetic mind tricks are nothing to me." Lighening flashed behind her, and from all around, the shadows seemed to move, almost of their own violation. And the quiet whispering that they had heard for the last few moments grew stronger and stronger, until they could almost make it out.
"Fear o' you cainites."
Reynold grabs Madara's sword from beside the bed and holds it out in front of him. He puts Madara behind him and keeps his left arm out to keep her from being in front of him.
"What witchery it this?! Katerina, let us pass! The city is yours, Amalia is yours! What more would you have??"
"See, dear Reynold, that is your problem. That has always been your problem. You lack vision." Katerina looked at Amalia, kissing her on the cheek. "What do I want? I want everything." She smiled at Amalia again, "And I will share the world with Amalia." Then she looked back at Reynold and Madara, with murder in her eyes, "But as for you two, I will feed you both to the Devourer of Souls."
Amalia stands motionless beside Katerina, hair falling in a curtain around her downturned face. At Katerina's last words, she slowly raises her head, eyes cast outside, towards the storm. "He is coming," she whispers, lips barely moving.
Madara obeys her prince as he tries reasoning with the witch, and quickly gathers her shirt and breaches, dropping her sheet to put them on-- all the while trying not to let Katerina's barbed words get to her. "Pathetic creature, indeed...the mere servant of a demon," she thinks. Her senses are so filled with tension and danger-apprehension that she almost expects the ceiling to come crashing in at any second, and without thinking she moves all of her extra blood to her muscles, bones, and tendons to be ready to defend her Sire at a moment's notice, or cloak them both in shadows and run from the room with him, if necessary.
She looks around frantically, and spots the Prince's sword a few feet away. She dashes from behind the Prince's protective arm, pulls the sword from its sheath, and stands at the Prince's right side-- holding the sword out in front of her and placing her left hand on his arm. She leans her head in without taking her eyes off of Katerina, and whispers to him, "My love-- as long as I am your bodyguard still, I will defend your life with all the strength in my body. The demon comes-- at your command I will speed us away in shadows."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Katerina whispers, looking from Reynold to Madara, "Too Late."
The shadows leapt and howled with the wind outside, and the lightning came so quickly outside to be nearly blinding. A howling gust of wind blew the shutters open. And as the wind screamed through the window, they could hear clearly now the voices that it carried.
The voices of of the dead.
The ghosts were easily seen now, the once shadows leapt and danced in exhaultation, howling the praises of the one who had killed them so long ago, and who they feared even more in death. In a chorus of voices they sang.
"Fear 'O Cainites."
"Your time has come."
"Menthu the Master"
"Menthu the Murderer."
"Menthu the Devourer."
"The Slayer has come!"
All around the room, they danced, and where they went, the walls started to bleed. No, not blood, for the stones themselves were melting. The huge candelabra that hung in Reynold room, started to twist and melt as well, and though no candle on it burned, it seemed to glow with a sickly blueish light. Against the wall, flames burst forth, etching a burning doorway to the outside world. And in the burning doorway, they could see a dark form rushing towards them. Through the door way, astride a huge daemon steed, sat a towering being, clad in the blackest armor, and covered in runes of death and destruction. Skulls hung from its belt, grim trophies from long past battles. It stood over ten feet tall, and its steed was no smaller. But where it should have touched the ceiling, there was nothing, for reality itself melted and bent to suit it's simplest wishes.
And as its great horned helm looked over the pitiful creatures at its feet, and its burning eyes beheld them, they felt the crushing weight of its presence. Their minds buckled and broke, as it tore forth their memories, their earliest pains, and their most secret desires. Instead they saw. And they new it for what it was. This was no Kupala, but THE God of War that stood before them. Visions of countless battles fought and won. Demons and Gods fled screaming from its dreadful power, and mortal souls slain in the millions, through the countless centuries, to feed its never ending hunger for war and death.
Its fell steed pawed the floor, and sparks and arcs of lightning jumped from where its hooves touched the melting stone beneath it. All around the War God, spirits howled and cried.
The Cainites there, so young and foolish, felt the pain, the sorrow, and the fear, that this...THING had caused down through millenia of time. But through it all, they felt one thing most keenly. The felt its overwelming hunger.
Amalia's face slowly awakens, her whole body filling with Rapture as Menthu pauses before them. She sinks to her knees and presses her forehead to the stone floor, unable to speak as the raw power of the being before them buffets her. The final broken barriers crumble, and Amalia at last gives herself freely to the Devourer, body, soul, mind, she wordlessly offers herself as an empty vessel for Menthu's Will.
Madara stood, clutching Reynold's arm now, staring all around her as the room began to twist and deform, and she was terrified. HOW could Amalia-- even Katerina-- serve THIS without being insane already!? If only she had kept the Prince at the cliff-- convinced him that it really WAS safer than the city! They could have taken their respite from the sun in the wolves' den, and then fled far, far away...oh, but she knows that neither of them would have made that choice without perfect hindsight, and now-- like Katerina said-- it was too late.
Madara drops the Prince's sword from nerveless fingers and quickly turns and wraps her arms around her lover in an iron grip. She looks up at him, and even through the terror the Prince can see determination. "Reynold...do not fear...if we die, we die together...and at least we were given last night and this night before our deaths. If I am to die after just one day with you...knowing you love me, and knowing that you know I love you...then I die content," she whispers, and-- placing her head on his shoulder-- she turns just enough to be able to watch, through tears of blood, the demon...this...Menthu deliver her fate.
Reynold holds Madara to him, still holding the sword out in front of him. His eyes grow wide at Menthu's awesome appearance. It is something from a nightmare his sire spoke to him about. The ones they secretly war against. Reynold can feel the heat within the room and he listens to the voices in his head.
"Menthu...Menthu..."
He holds the sword up higher defensively and clutches Madara to him.
"I love you Madara, I always have I always will..." he says quietly. He stands up a bit straighter and gathers what he can of his courage.
"Katerina...what have you done? What have you brought to this place?"
"What have I brought?" Katerina laughed, "Only what was always here. Who do you think it was who allowed you to take control of the city? Who do you think it was that protected you from the Kupala? And held the powers of Yorak in check? You owe Menthu more than you will ever know. And now, he comes to collect what is rightfully his."
Then the vast consiousness that was Menthu turned its massive head towards Amalia. Its eyes burned as it looked towards her, and its words filled the room, more in the assembled Cainites minds than in their ears. "Truely you are my child now. Look now upon those who have betrayed you, and forsake them, as they have forsaken you. It is me who you belong with, come with me. Serve me, and all thy desires shall be yours. Pledge your loyalty, and what thou ask will be granted." Then all the spirits howled as one, and lightning burst behind the God as it waited for its newest childs answer.
Tears of gratitude spill down Amalia's cheeks and she raises herself off of the stone floor. "Merciful Lord, all have forsaken me save you, when you had more reason than any to cast me away. Through all my sins you have forgiven me. I am yours, Master. My only desire is to serve you."
Following her Master's bidding, she turns to Reynold and Madara, eyes burning. "Your gift of Mestet to me holds true, my Master. For it is today that I finally know Hate. I would christen him today, if it pleases you, by cutting out the lying tongue of a whore."
Madara releases her hold on Reynold-- although she keeps a hold of one of his hands-- and steps just in front of him, eyes narrowed. "Then you can start by cutting out your own, Amalia...then move on to Katerina, for you two are the only lying whores in this room!"
Reynold steps up and points to Amalia and then to across the door.
"Amalia! Move aside! Now! Tell this demon to go on its way! You've proven yourself to it, now we just want to be left in peace!"
Amalia tilts her head back and laughs, a hollow, mocking sound. "I am sure that all you want is to be left in peace. But I'm afraid that is just not possible. I trusted you, Prince. I believed in you. I served you more faithfully than any sovereign could have wished of a servant. The fact that you, too, betrayed me will not be forgotten. Nor will it be forgiven. Take one last look at your beloved, fool. That is the gift I give to you. One last chance to see her face before Mestet tastes her flesh."
Menthu looked towards Amalia, its massive horned helm nodding. Then it turned to Madara and uttered several harsh words. Madara's eyes grew wide as she was seized by some invisible force, her arms and legs held out from her body, and her mouth forced open. Menthu then motioned Amalia towards her former love.
Reynold moves in front of Madara raising the sword, using the power of his blood he can feel himself grow stronger, quicker, tougher.
"Amalia, don't do this! You have what you want! Katerina stands before. Take her! She is yours! I will not let you do this!"
Menthu gestures with it's gauntleted hand, and Reynold was lifted into the air and hurled against the wall. The molten brick gave way with the sickening sound of crunching bone and tearing muscle. Again, Menthu urged Amalia on.
Amalia advances slowly, revelling in the aura of fear that pours out of Madara's body. She draws the shining knife from its sheath with a muted hiss and holds it aloft, poised above Madara's open mouth. She grasps hard on Madara's hair, wrenching her head back further, though the magick is more than enough to keep the woman immobile.
"Never again will you speak a lie. Never again will you utter empty promises." Amalia hovers over Madara, her eyes cold and dead as she stares at her former lover. Then with the speed of a striking snake she reaches down and cuts the tongue from Madara's mouth, then hurls it across the room, cackling in triumph.
Madara lets out a moan and tries again to thrash against the force that holds her. She knows she could flesh-craft her tongue back, but fear of what the three monsters might do next if she does causes to her leave herself be for now. Instead, she retreats back into calm-- what left of it she has-- and sends out her mind to the one person who has ever loved her unselfishly: Reynold. She shifts her eyes to look at his crumpled form.
"My Reynold...my love...my Sire...awaken and run far, far from this place. I will always love you...I will never forget you. Please never forget your Madara, but do not fear for her. Whatever pain these creatures cause me I will consider my penance for letting you suffer in silence for 10 years. Whoever looms over me, I will close my eyes and picture you, and I will not feel the pain. I love you, I love you, I love you..."
Menthu watched in silence as Amalia finished her grim work. Then it stepped forward to finish Madara once and for all. As the God approached her, the deaths head of its helm began to shift and melt, and a gaping maw streached forth to devour her torn and broken body.
But before it could act, Katerina spoke up.
"Wait, I would that you grant me a boon." Menthu turned back to the Countess, its shadowy maw shrinking back to the dark helmet it had been.
"For decades during our stay here I was forced to endure the insolence of that pathetic whore. I served you well during all those years, so grant me this. Grant me revenge! I would have her suffer a thousand years for every moment that I was forced to look upon her wretched face, a thousand torments for every snide comment and remark that she ever spoke. Make her scream in agony so that I might rejoice in her pain."
Menthu looked at its eldest child then, its first and most beloved, and nodded its aggrement. It spun around, faster than could be seen, and its taloned hand slashing through Madara's fragile body. She screamed in pain as its claws ripped through her body, as it wrenched her from her confinement and turned back towards the burning doorway from where it had come. As the War God entered the burning door, it turned and looked back at Katerina and Amalia for a moment, the disappeared into the darkness beyond.
Katerina smiled and took Amalia's hand. She pulled her close and kissed her quickly. "Welcome dearest sister. Forever more will you belong with us." Then Katerina pulled Amalia up into the saddle of Menthu's towering steed, and turned the deamon towards the burning gate, following their master back from whence they'd come.
Reynold's mind is a haze of pain and fog, yet through it he can hear her voice wafting to him. Awakening him just a little. He weakly crawls towards her and then feeling her still connected within his mind.
"Where ever you go, I will follow! Where ever they take you I will find!!! I swear it! I will not rest till I have you back, Madara!"
Feeling the connection break he rolls over on his back and uses what last strength he has left and screams.
"I WILL TEAR THE WORLD APART FOR YOU!" and the world goes black...
