It all started with a mistake.
        We assumed they had been beaten...
        We assumed they had lost...
        We assumed he was alone...
        We assumed too much...
        It was a terrible mistake; one which I was left to correct virtually alone...
        We... I failed.
        I will never forgive myself for the deaths that followed...
        For the war we lost, for the chaos that arose...
        As my greatest opponent once said, their blood is on my conscience, if not my hands...
        I will never forgive myself for having survived...
        These are the words of my sorrow
        I have always hoped that one day I might erase them,
        That I might atone...
        That someday, I would lay my ghosts to rest...
 
 
 
 
 
Prologue -  A future lost
        Victoria Henwood raced through the forest as if her life depended on it, for it did. She looked back, her black hair covering her face momentarily, then being swept away by the wind, giving her clear view of the woman steadily following her. They were running as fast as their bodies would allow, and yet they knew it wouldn't be enough. The barrier was just ahead, all they needed to do was cross it and the threat would be postponed. The trees and bushes themselves seemed to aid Victoria in her race, their thorns did her no harm, their roots did not stand in her way; their leaves and branches seemed to open a passage just long enough for them to run through. She thought it was the wind, but one could never be sure while approaching a witch's domain. Victoria almost jumped through the barrier she knew existed at the border of the forest. She fell on the other side, just as she heard Dessa scream. Victoria pushed herself to her feet and looked back at her friend, horror in her eyes. She knew Dessa couldn't move, she wouldn't be able to cross the barrier, they had gotten her. She saw the tears start to pour down her colleague's face and just for a moment, in an impulse, she almost crossed the barrier to the other side. But she knew better, she couldn't do it, she had to proceed to the top of the cliff and warn Selina that everything was ready. All that they needed was the time and the date. With tears starting to cloud her vision, Victoria said a silent good-bye to her friend, so close and yet so out of reach....
        She ran up the hill, the path was deserted, darkened, as it had always been. At the top of the cliff, she saw Selina's tower, it stood like and imposing symbol in the center of that barrier, reminding the other sorcerers that there was still one they hadn't gotten. She turned around for a brief moment, looking back at where Dessa had been. She was no longer there, in her place, many sorcerers seemed to gather at the edge of the barrier. But they had not managed to break the bond that held it together so far, why would they break it now?
        Victoria arrived at the entrance to the tower, the large wooden doors closed in front of her, a small symbol over them. It seemed to be the only place untouched by the vines that grew throughout all the tower, she never did like them, she always thought she saw them move with the corner of her eye. She banged on the door, screaming Selina's name. The doors did in fact open, but the witch was nowhere to be seen. Victoria shivered slightly as a gush of wind seemed to push her inside and close the doors behind her. She walked up the stairs cautiously, momentarily forgetting all her despair. She went to the top of the tower and there she found Selina standing near the window, her eyes closed. Her black hair seemed to meld with her dress in the dimmed light that shined on her. Victoria approached slowly, not sure if the witch would welcome the interruption. She seemed to concentrate, her amulet held steady in her hands, light seemed to emanate from the encrusted stone held by a silver dragon. Selina opened her eyes and stared at Victoria for a moment, then signaled her to approach.
        "You have finished the project... well done." She let out a long sigh as she sat on the ledge of the window, still facing Victoria. The green in her eyes seemed so devoid of color and energy it frightened the young girl. "What went wrong?"
        "We tried contacting you... You wouldn't answer. Paris and James didn't show up where planned. Marguerite decided we should split up and try to hide. Ronald and Chris went to the lab to make sure everything was ready, Marguerite set off to look for Paris and James, and Dessa and I..." her voice betrayed her for a moment, refusing to be heard. She took a deep breath and finished the sentence quickly, "We were told to come warn you."
        "I am sorry. I was concentrating on other matters. I didn't hear you summon me..." Selina looked out the window again. "James was supposed to tell you the details of our... my history. Did he?"
        "No... he went missing before that."
        "I  will have to do it know then. I'm afraid I cannot show you everything rather than tell you in words. It would take too much of my attention from the barrier. It doesn't matter... Long ago, when my kind was still unknown to mortals, we fought mostly amongst ourselves. Sometimes for no other reason than the fact that we could. I don't really know how it started, but the wars began to escalate, and soon it was only one war, and there were only two sides. There was a battle, ironically, it was named the Last Battle, we killed some of them, the others we imprisoned in another realm, from where they could not escape. We tracked the others down until we had gotten them all, all but one. Since he was alone, we never bothered with him." She looked at the gathering outside her domain and smiled bitterly, "Like they never bothered with me..."
        Victoria suddenly felt her memory charge at her, she spat out, interrupting Selina in mid sentence: "Selina! The Brandeur seem to be gathering at the edge of the barrier; can they get through?"
        "No, " she paused and looked out the window, "they can't." They were indeed gathering on the other side, and it was only a matter of time before they got through. But she already knew that, she had no intention of keeping them out for long.
        "Victoria, listen to me carefully. You all read the books, you all worked hard during all these years, solely because I promised you a chance to change the world... The chance still exists, but now it rests solely on your hands. A banned science gave you the means to build the machine that would restore the rightful way of all things. They should never have interfered with the development of your world, but they saw science as a threat to magic, and they decided to erase it. I'll grant you they didn't do a very good job of it."
        Victoria was about to interrupt her, but she knew well when to be silent, and this was one of those times. Selina went on, her gaze never shifting from Victoria's eyes.
        "I came to you and said that I wished that you build me a time machine. I gave you the books, the information, all the knowledge they thought was forgotten. And you did it... But I have a confession to make, I never intended to travel through time."
        "But then..."
        "I said, and I recall my exact words, that I wanted your help in building a machine that would be very useful to me. That was the truth, but it was not the whole truth. I want you to use it, Victoria. There's only you now. I want you to travel back to a time before the last war and stop it. You see, it didn't all end with the Brandeur and their allies being sent to the Abyss and their leader being left alone. As I told you, in the last great victory my vimte..." she paused, realizing the word was unfamiliar to Victoria. "Clan, for the lack of a better word... In the last great victory my vimte earned, there was only one sorcerer of the Brandeur that we were unable to rid ourselves of. He was their leader and the most powerful. He spent years in isolation, like I do now. But there was a mistake. I stayed behind as a watcher, to observe his moves. We had not known it, but he had a daughter, Naema. When I found out, there was little left to be done... My warning was ignored..."
        "That is simply impossible! He is alone!" Jelin shouted as if the suggestion itself was preposterous. "Stop bothering us with your paranoia. Go back to pretending you're mortal..."
        "She is of his blood!! At least see for yourselves!"
        "You really have forgotten our ways... You'd rather believe a madwoman than one of your own kind..."
        Selina closed her eyes and let herself sink into her memories as she still spoke to Victoria. "The council wouldn't listen to me, so I decided to stop him by myself. It didn't go very well."
        "No one helped you?" Victoria asked, mostly out of reflex.
        "I had one friend..."
        "Selina, you're bleeding."
        "It's of no consequence."
        "Where are you going? You can barely walk."
        "I have to stop him."
        "I'll go with you."
        "No."
        "You can't even stop me from going, how are you going to stop them?"
        She paused for a moment, hearing Alucard's laughter in her mind as loudly as she did that day. "We tried to stop them. But we were no match for him. And certainly not for both of them."
        "And now, child, your little friend is dead. Her blood is on your conscience if not truly your hands... Something for you to dwell on as I slowly take the life out of you..." He laughed again, louder.
        "Let me do it." Naema said.
        "Hold her tight, or she might get away." He warned.
        As Naema focused on her, trying to hold her mind still, Selina gathered the last of her strength and whispered "Vers kal fir..." disappearing from their grasp and into the safety of the council halls.
        Releasing herself from her memories, she continued her story: "United, he and Naema freed their vimte from the Abyss somehow... and another war erupted. Alucard disappeared and leadership of the vimte passed to Naema. Some say she killed him. She took his place in leading the war. It lasted for centuries, it seemed to last forever. And then we started losing, trying to hide in the midst of the mortals... trying to seek the aid of others with equal or more power... We were all hunted down and slaughtered. We were never ready for another conflict, that was the problem from the start. We could do well individually, but when faced with a group, we lost, and we died. They chased us throughout the centuries until there were only a handful of us hiding among mortals. What became of the others, I don't know.  I've lived in search of a way to erase our mistakes, and now I've found it. You and your colleagues managed to give me that."
        Victoria sent her an inquiring look. "How can I change any of that? How will my being there affect anything in such a scale?"
        "You will go back to the place where it all happened and find me. I'm afraid I can't say in which exact moment you'll find yourself in, with the calendar changes and everything else, I can't be certain. You will take my amulet with you, I've made sure it holds most of my powers. It should be enough. You must find me and give me this amulet. I was never a match for Alucard, this is to even things up."
        "Why don't you go yourself?"
        Selina smiled sadly. "I can't. We're not allowed to mess with time."
        "But you are messing with time." Victoria objected involuntarily.
        "That may well be, but I haven't really done anything but tell stories and pass knowledge. I have not spoken forbidden words, or invoked forgotten spells. Those remain buried under the years. You and the others did all the work. You are messing with time."
        Victoria nodded. She was afraid of the task that was being tossed upon her; she wasn't sure she would be able to carry out what her friend was asking of her. She looked out the window for a moment and saw the gathering of sorcerers enlarge, her mind suddenly focused on the one detail Selina had left out. "But what will happen to you?"
        Selina shifted her gaze and looked out the window for a moment, her voice overtaken by the emotion of knowing that she would soon succumb to the evil that surrounded her. "They know the barrier will soon vanish... they feel it weakening. I will let the barrier down, so they will focus on me, it will give you time to get out of sight. We'll take care of the rest as we go along."
         As she finished her words, Selina got up and walked over to Victoria, placing her amulet around the girl's neck. They were standing in front of the tower, Victoria could see the warlocks clearly watching them. She felt so powerless, so defenseless. All she could do was look at them and try not to show all the fear that she was feeling at that moment. She noticed with the corner of her eye, the vines slowly shifting, slowly detaching their eternal grip on the tower.
        "Start walking down... pay no attention to them, they cannot harm you..." Selina whispered as the wind gently pushed Victoria forward.
        Victoria looked back for a moment, hesitating, but finally did as she had been told. She started walking slowly down the hill, not looking at any of the sorcerers that surrounded the barrier. She knew they weren't paying attention to her, they wanted Selina, they wanted her power. If they only knew she no longer had any...
        'Everything will be fine... they will not notice how important you are until it's too late... I'll take you to the machine, but they will notice when I do so... The moment will have to be perfect.'
        Victoria walked a little faster, her pace a little more than a hurried walk. It in no way reflected her feelings; she wanted not to walk, but to run, as fast as she could and scream and cry... She noticed the barrier was broken just as she arrived at the edge of the woods. She turned back, the sorcerers ignored her completely, but they could not have harmed her, not until they realized she had the amulet, then they would have prepared and struck. She saw the sorcerers surround Selina and overpower her easily. She was thrown to the ground like nothing more than a leaf being blown by the strongest wind. She stood up, determined. That's when Victoria saw Naema, she approached Selina and from as far away as Victoria was, she was sure she saw the evil witch smile as she prepared to make the kill. But it was Selina who raised her hand and spoke, Victoria hearing her voice only in her mind. 'The time and place are in your memory... Good luck...'
        Victoria saw Naema turn to her and realize the deceit: 'Get the girl, she has the amulet. This one is worthless.'
        In the blink of an eye, Victoria found herself facing the time machine, she quickly set the coordinates and activated the mechanism. It was only good for one trip, they had made sure of that, so she wasn't worried about being followed, she was only concerned about Selina. She had to stay alive long enough for Victoria to travel back, otherwise, the amulet would lose all its power. She prayed for her friend to stay alive as she watched her world slowly disappear before her very eyes...
        At the base of the tower, Naema looked down at Selina with a confident grin. 'You should have killed me that day.'
        Selina looked up, pure amusement being forced upon her face as a strange smile appeared on her lips. She opened her mouth, but the words were so weak they had to be pushed out into existence. 'Maybe next time I will...'
        With a mere gesture, Naema destroyed her. The tower crumbled and fell, the vines reached for life, but they died moments later. When the Brandeur had left, all that remained was a pile of ancient ruins and dried up plants. That and a broken shell, a strange aura of defiance in her empty eyes.
 
 


***


    A Past Revisited
        Louise Archer found herself standing on the edge of the steepest cliff facing out into sea. She looked down, observing the waves crashing silently against the rocks. She felt the wind slowly surround her, but still, there was no sound. Through the silence, she heard a disembodied voice summon her, calling her by a name she had never heard. She turned around, surprised to find a castle where there should have been only grass and sand. Still mesmerized by the imposing apparition, she noticed she was not alone. Inside her mind, fear and curiosity fought a silent battle, the latter pushing her forward in small and cautious steps. Far away, she made out the figure of a man, although his face was unclear. He called out her name, but it wasn't hers. He spoke, his voice erased by the loud thunder that roared above them. The thunder repeated itself in an awkwardly rhythmic fashion until its fury shattered the image and dragged Louise back to her small house. She woke up with a scream in her throat. Without asking herself why, she cried out with an anger she couldn't understand, "Why'd you leave me behind?"
        Absorbed in the silence that followed, she jumped out of bed as the violent knocks on her door came again. Using the rays of light that came through her shut windows, she made her way to the door. Rubbing her eyes to prepare them for the sudden light, Louise slowly opened the door. An old man smiled furtively and bent in closer, his eyes always moving from side to side. "Has the heir of darkness returned?"
        Louise rolled her eyes. "Good morning, Julius."
        The man hid his mouth with one hand as he whispered. "The ruler of evil is coming for me, I know... He's coming for all of us!"
        Louise simply sighed and yawned. "Good bye, Julius." She shut the door in the old man's face as she mumbled, "Is anybody normal in this place?"
        Julius stared at the closed door and shook his head frantically, "No."
        "Aye, Julius! Stop bothering people at this hour. The sun is barely up." Emma shouted from her window across the street.
        The man glanced at the closed door one last time and hurriedly crossed towards Emma's window. "Have you seen the bringer of death? He is coming. He hides in our shadows an..."
        "And he takes us away when night falls... You've said it all before, Julius. Now go away before I call my husband."
        "But I must warn..."
        "Maurice!" She shouted into the house.
         Julius looked at the streets and the few people there and took off, running from every shadow he saw. But the only shadow that truly mattered was the one that he could never outrun. The one that hid in the corners of his own mind.
 
        A castle... A maze... Being chased... The rain... Falling... Someone... The rain stopped, the darkness took over... She had lost... He had her... But she was not alone... Someone was there... Someone she knew... Someone who knew the truth... Gweneth turned around... and saw her own face in a mirrored wall. She screamed, and she woke up.
        Taking a deep breath, Gweneth tried to remember what she had dreamt of. She walked towards the window and opened it, hoping the daylight would at least erase if not explain her nightmares. As she looked out onto the streets, she saw old Julius running past Louise's door, and just for a moment he hesitated, staring at it; then he turned, and looked at her, his face suddenly pale. With what seemed like a silent cry, he ran away, out of sight. She kept on staring, even though she couldn't really see him anymore, but she could still see the horror stamped across his face every time he looked at her. And she still couldn't understand.
        In the darkness of another house, a young woman sat wide-eyed on her bed, not looking as if she had slept. The windows and doors were shut, darkness ruling absolute. 'Where...'  'were' 'you?' Three voices spoke as one question.
        'In the place of dreams.' She told them, closing her eyes and letting herself lie down.
        'Has something gone wrong?' They asked with one voice.
        'She woke up before it was time... It was like something swallowing the world around you, and just for a moment, you're caught in the nothingness that remains...' She tried to erase the feeling from her mind with no success. "Gwen is getting closer. She revisited that night, that place..." She said aloud.
        'She' 'mustn't' 'remember.' They walked closer, staring at her through the darkness. 'She mustn't know the truth.' They chimed.
        "I can't stop it. I can only delay it." She sighed, slipping away into her own dreamless sleep. "And one of these nights I won't be able to hold her back."
        'And then...' 'they will' 'kill her...'
        'They'll never know.' She replied. 'They don't need to know. I'll handle it.'
        'Then if...' 'when' 'she remembers' 'you' 'will kill her.'
        Even though it hadn't sounded like an order, merely a natural conclusion, she hated them. Just for that moment, she hated them for telling her the truth she didn't wish to hear; and she hated them more than anything for being right.
 
        Gweneth Shear walked out of her home and looked up at the sky. The clouds were gathering quietly on the horizon, threatening to bring rain later in the day. With a strange feeling nagging at the back of her mind, she ventured a glance towards the direction she had seen Julius run off to. She squinted her eyes to try and ignore the sunlight, but she couldn't see him anymore. With a sigh of relief, she continued on her way to the local market, the strange feeling never leaving her mind.
        "Something wrong?" A voice startled her from behind.
        She turned around, her heart threatening to go on a frantic race. She saw the familiar features and smiled, another sigh escaping her. "Selina. Good morning."
        "I'm sorry. Did I scare you? You must have had your thoughts elsewhere."
        "Yes, I did..." They started walking again, slowly, the sun casting their shadows in front of them.
        "Is something worrying you?" Selina asked with a kind smile.
        "This is going to sound silly, but I had a strange dream last night. Much like the one I have almost every night. I can't really remember it, but I know I'm scared... No, I'm terrified of something, or someone... And, this is going to sound crazy, but I think it's me."
        "You?" Selina looked away, trying to maintain the conversation on its casual tone. "I'm sure it's nothing really serious. Everyone has bad dreams."
    She focused on Gweneth's thoughts, trying to slip into the woman's mind unnoticed. She knew it was getting harder and harder to do. Every time she tried to probe deeper, the part of Gwen's that had been touched by darkness awoke.
        "It's more than that..." Gweneth continued. "There's someone else there... And I know there's more to it than I remember..." She stopped walking and her voice trailed off into a heavy silence. Selina stopped beside her and watched her for a moment. Gweneth's confusion seemed to slowly accentuate itself on her features. Her blue-green eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment, then they settled on Selina, the blue swallowing whatever green there might have been. She appeared to have entered a somewhat trance-like state, her mind lost in feelings she didn't comprehend. Gweneth raised her hand clumsily to the base of her neck, rubbing it gently. "I know you... I know who you are."
        "I am your friend." Selina said firmly.
        "I know what you are." Gweneth said with an even firmer voice.
        "Then what am I?"
        Gwen suddenly turned, the question losing itself in the morning breeze. "Her." She said suddenly.
        Selina followed her gaze to where Louise and Emma were talking. "What do you mean?"
        "What was I saying?"
        Selina looked at Gweneth again, the woman's eyes returned to their normal shade, an air of confusion still surrounding them. "Nothing important. I just remembered, I have to talk to Louise. I will see you later."
        "Come by the inn at sundown. I found that text you were looking for."
        "I will." She walked away with a smile on the outside. On the inside, however, she was worried, about more than just Gweneth's memory. Right now, she was no danger, no matter what she said, people wouldn't believe her, Julius was a good enough example of that. The problem was the future, when the consequences of what she had suffered began to show themselves. Then only a fool wouldn't believe.
        "Good morning." Emma greeted her as she approached her and Louise.
        She smiled at both of them, and got a smile back from Louise. "Was that Julius I saw running  through the streets early today?"
        "Yes." Louise answered. "He woke me up. Don't really hate him for that, I was having an awful nightmare."
        "Oh my, what about?" Emma asked.
        "That's the strangest thing. I can't really remember."
        Selina looked into the girl's eyes and tugged softly at the memory of the dream. It came rushing towards her, and with it came a wave of anger and confusion. Darkness enveloped the world around them... A castle, a man, a name...
        "Selina?" It was Emma's voice. The woman's perfectly round face stared at her.
        "Are you feeling alright?" Louise's voice came with somewhat forged concern.
        "You know what that is?" Emma asked. "Hunger, come on, I'll get you something real good."
        "Thank you, but I just need some rest. Last night wasn't a good night for any of us."
        As soon as they parted, Selina returned to her home. She closed the door and windows and the place plunged into darkness, a few rays destroying the homogeneity of colors. She sat down on her bed and closed her eyes, trying to bring back the feeling of Louise's nightmare. In essence, it reminded her of Gweneth's, but the feeling they each had towards the place was different, and that was the part that eluded her as to its understanding. There was a slight movement on the bed. Three voices stepped out of the silence 'Where' 'did you find' 'that feeling?'
        "What do you know about Louise?"
        'What' 'you' 'know.' They answered with a strange tone.
        'Her mother died as she was born...' 'Her father died last spring...' 'Why?' They weaved together different voices and phrases into one.
        "There's something about her, a feeling I can't quite place... I believe Gwen knows something..."
        'You cannot ask her.' One of the voices stated.
        'You cannot enter her mind secretly.' The other added.
        'Let it go.' The third one said with an authority she so well recognized.
        'No. I'm sorry, Victor.' She addressed the last. 'But this time I'm doing things my way. The council all but abandoned us, we shouldn't have to live by their rules. When nightfall comes, I am going to meet with Gwen.'
        The disapproval went on silent, but its presence was no more ignored than if it had been outspoken.
        Gweneth finished braiding her red hair, and went over to close her windows as the last rays of the sun threatened to extinguish themselves. She grabbed an oil lamp and headed downstairs as she heard the subtle knocks on her door. She opened it and greeted Selina with a smile.
        "You look tired Gwen. Should I leave you to rest?" Her friend inquired.
        "No, no. Come in. It's just these nightmares I've been having. It's as if I haven't slept at all. I'll go get the text."
        "Actually..." Selina started, closing the door behind her and walking up to Gweneth. "I would like to talk about something else..."
        "About what?"
        "About your nightmares...." her tone changed, her voice became penetrating. "Tell me what happened that night, twenty years ago."
        Gweneth slowly raised her hand to her neck, and placed her finger on what looked like a birthmark. "Why doesn't it shine?" She asked.
        Selina stared at her, holding her thoughts as still as she could. "Alucard." She whispered, hoping the name alone would trigger something important.
        Gweneth's eyes became a different shade of blue as they widened. Out of Gweneth's lips, the words slowly began to slip away, as if she hadn't been aware of their presence. "To be whole, to be one, to be... Death summons life for life beckons death. One of blood, one of mind..."
        Selina frowned, she knew those words, she had heard it somewhere before. It was a spell, a very old one. It wasn't used anymore. Hadn't been for centuries. It had been banned for requiring a sacrifice. She'd have to ask one of the elders about it, she couldn't quite remember what its purpose was.
        She kept her eyes on Gweneth's at all time, afraid she might slip if she looked away. "For whom does Alucard demand death?"
        Gweneth frowned, her eyes threatening to shed tears. "He was going to... prepare me... to... he was going to kill me... It had to be that night... It had to be that moment..."
        "Why?" Selina pressed. There was no answer, except for Gweneth's confused stare. "Why did it have to be that night? Gwen?"
        Gweneth stared through her, at horrors that weren't there. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound ever emerged. Then her eyes started blurring into green. "What happened?" She whispered. "Why... Why did she die? They saved me... You..."
        Selina held her gaze and breathed the word out as if it were a mere suggestion. "Sleep." Gweneth's eyes closed and she collapsed, an invisible barrier stopping her from ever reaching the ground.
        "I am sorry, Gwen... I can't let you remember all of it. Not now." With a small gesture, she let Gweneth's body carefully slump over a chair and took a seat herself. "Gwen?"
        "What?" She asked weakly. "Did I fall asleep? I didn't realize I was that tired."
        "I'll be going. Just rest. We'll talk some more later."
        "Of course. I..." She wiped a dried up tear and looked up with an uncertain smile. "Was I crying?"
        Selina looked away and shook her head. "No," she lied.
        Gweneth's smile managed to remain through her confusion. "Why can't I remember what we were doing?" She asked, almost amused at it.
       "You will..." Selina replied with none of the same amusement.
       "Soon..." she let out almost to herself and the sky outside as she made her way home. "Very soon..."
 
        Victoria woke up dizzy, images and sounds blurring all into one. Confusion took over her mind and thoughts as she furiously tried to remember what it was she had done. She hadn't realized she had passed out, and for some reason, she didn't quite understand why she was lying face down in the darkness of an apparent desert. She pushed herself to sit up and saw the silent glow of the strangely shaped object hanging from her neck. Then it all came to her, as if a giant waterfall of clarity had fallen on her. She opened her eyes to the darkness, noticing only the stars and moon surfacing from behind giant clouds. She felt the sand under her body sticking to her skin. From what her eyes allowed her to see, there was no way she could be sure of where she was exactly. The last thing she clearly remembered was getting into the machine... In almost an afterthought, she quickly raised her hands and lifted the amulet so she could look at it. The winged dragon seemed to stare back at her from its silver prison as it insisted on carrying on its glow. Slightly relieved, she realized it still seemed to be in perfect shape, not that she thought she would sense if something was wrong with it. Unnoticed, a tear began to crawl down Victoria's face, and she just sat there in the darkness, thinking of the friends she had left behind, most likely lost to death. The friends she would never see again.
        As other tears threatened to follow, her eyes focused on what seemed a meek source of light, almost like a candle. Hearing only the incessant banging of her own heart, Victoria lifted herself off the ground and started slowly towards the figure she made out in the dim light. She hid the amulet under her clothes, hoping it would go by undetected.
        "Who's there?" A man's voice called out, the light source being lifted apparently to eye level. His voice seemed to waver, as if he were terrified. "Who are you?"
        "My name's Victoria... I seem to be lost. Where am I?"
        The old man seemed to examine her over and over, his ever suspicious stare never moving away from her. "You tell me you are lost. You tell me you don't know where you are. We are days away from anywhere but Setterwind. And you do not look like a traveler. You have nothing but what you wear. Are you of the ruler of evil? Do you serve him?"
        "Who?"
        "The ruler of evil? Bringer of death? He moves among us, in the shadows where we cannot see, and he takes us away when night falls..."
        Victoria let out a slow long breath, trying to buy her some time to think of what to say. The bright light began to bother her, but she still couldn't look away. It was as if she were mesmerized by the intensity in the old man's gaze. She took a deep breath. "I serve no evil." She announced.
        A smile seemed to come to the man's cracked lips. "Yes, I see the fire of justice in your eyes. Evil knows no justice... I am Julius."
        Victoria returned the smile. "How do I get to this... Setterwind?"
        "If you follow this road in the direction I came from, it will take you there. There's a place you can stay, it's not hard to find. If you have any trouble, just ask anyone for directions," he gave her a crooked smile, "if you find anyone."
        "Thank you." She replied with a frown.
        "You really should  be careful where you wander to. Setterwind isn't as safe as it seems. Never has been. There was a massacre here once, you know. When morning came, the entire town lay dead... Being on this road alone in the darkness is even less safe."
        "Why? Are there many ghosts around?" She asked with a mocking tone.
        "No..." The man replied, his gaze stretching into the darkness, his face containing a somber quality about it. "No... not at all ghosts. Far worse."
        He continued onward, mumbling things only to himself.
        "Julius!" She called, getting him to stop and turn around. "If we are days away from anywhere but Setterwind, and it's that way... Where are you going?"
        "The cemetery."
        "Why?" She asked, regretting it immediately after, but it was too late, and she could already see the beginning of an answer forming on Julius' lips.
        "Because here, the dead are far less dangerous than the living."
        After a long strange silence, Victoria managed to regain her speech, but she found there was nothing she could say.
        The man turned and continued on his path with a slight limp. Victoria watched him go for a few seconds, observing the strange patterns of light that danced around him as he went. She took a deep breath and turned the other way. She waited for her eyes to adjust as much as they could to the darkness, then she started onward slowly, cautiously, hoping Julius' warnings weren't needed.
        "Help me!!!" The terror filled voice echoed throughout the graveyard, its empty grounds devoid of any living thing that would hear her cries. She ran for as long as her legs carried her, her long dress slowing her down, making her fall against the mud. She looked up, ready to continue running, but he was there, his face only a distant memory locked away by time. As she looked into his eyes, she lost herself, forgetting why she ran, why she feared, why she lived...
        Gweneth woke up, her mouth wide open, drops of cold sweat rolling down her face. She sat up in her bed and calmed herself with the silence of the night. She stared across the room at her mirrored wall. In her reflection, her light blue eyes glowed with the moonlight. Her reflection smiled, even though she did not. Gweneth walked towards the mirror, mesmerized by the way her blue eyes kept shining. She stood in front of her image, glaring at it. "You know I'm here..." it said without moving its lips.
        "Why won't you let me out?" The reflection demanded, reaching out of its glass prison and grabbing Gweneth's arm. She desperately reached out and grabbed a hairbrush nearby, smashing the mirror in one awful scream.
        Gweneth sat up in her bed, still doubting that this time she had finally awakened. She heard the muffled knocks on her front door, but ignored them as she searched her room for any signs of someone else. A lingering feeling told her she was not alone. Was she still inside her dream? Or had something torn her away from that awful reality? The knocks returned and insisted. Gweneth just sat there, hoping the unwanted presence would give up, but it didn't.
        "Who in all the world would come thundering at my door in the middle of the night?" She mumbled as she descended the stairs. When she opened the large wooden door, she could only make out the figure of a young woman.
        "Do you have vacant rooms?" The voice inquired, low and nervous.
        "Yes."
        "I'd like one for the night... Possibly for a few days..." The woman continued, still standing outside in the darkness.
        "Come in." Gwen stood aside, and the young woman slowly entered, finally allowing Gweneth to see the face behind the voice.  Gweneth looked her over, finding something different and almost strange about her, she didn't seem to be from those surroundings. "What is your name?"
        The woman simply looked at her for a second, as if she were frozen. Then, as if the answer had just popped into her head, she spoke. "Victoria..."
        "Well, Victoria, you may stay as long as you need. The price is very reasonable." Gweneth searched the woman for anything besides what she wore. "Do you travel with only the clothes on your back?"
        Victoria felt her heart skip a beat, she froze. It hadn't occured to her that she would need a lie to tell, a believable one. It was only then she realized she didn't have any money. As an afterthought, she looked down at her clothes, for the first time realizing her own clothes had been replaced by something that managed to fit the era. She silently thanked Selina, and then realized Gweneth was still waiting for an answer.
        "Uh... well, you see... I was robbed... On the road. They took everything I had..." Not expecting to find anything, she placed her hand in her pockets, and felt a few coins. "Except for these."
        "Really?" Gweneth could sense Victoria's confusion. Normally she would have found the situation amusing, she might even have asked the stranger more questions to embarass her. There were no thieves on the surroundings of Setterwind, there was nothing for them to steal. She would normally try to see through the story, but this time, she had an insistent feeling telling her that there was more to all this than she could possibly imagine. She forged a smile and merely escorted the woman to the vacant room on the top of the stairs. She left Victoria there and returned to her own room, a single phrase rushing through her mind every time  she thought of Victoria. And as she closed her eyes, her own voice echoed through the darkness, saying the only thing she knew: "Her past lies in the future..."
 
        Selina woke up suddenly, as if she had just awakened from a nightmare, but she hadn't really been dreaming about anything. She noticed the intense glow of her amulet, as if it felt the presence of something immesurably powerful compared to itself. She also felt it. It was as if in some place close by, a great power had awakened. She thought she would sense someone so powerful so close, but she felt nothing. How could there be a power without a sorcerer to maintain it? Maybe she was wrong, but could her amulet also be.
        Two glowing eyes appeared out of the darkness of fur and stared at her, then two other pairs mirrored their actions. 'What' 'was' 'that?' They inquired.
        "You felt it also?"
        'Yes.' Their voices sounded.
        "This is wrong. I can't feel anyone, and yet..."
        'Something' 'is' 'there...'
        "What could it be?" There was no asnwer. They had none. "Should I tell the council?"
        'They' 'will not' 'care.' The choir announced.
        'What did Gwen tell you? You seemed troubled when you returned.' They probed.
        'This has nothing to do with Gwen.' Selina shot back quickly.
        'You disregarded our advice, at least tell us what the result was.' The three argued with one voice.
        "Very well." She gave in with a sigh. "She remembered a spell Alucard was using. She said he planned to sacrifice her that night, but it had to be at exactly the right time."
        'The right time for what?'
        "She didn't really know. The spell was: To be whole, to be one, to be... Death shall bring life for life shall demand death. One of blood, one of mind. Have you heard it before?"
        'No...' two started, but then joined by the third, 'Yes.'
        "Do you know what it means?"
        'No.' They admitted.
        "I was going to ask Ariadne if she had it written somewhere. I will ask her about the feeling we sense."
        'Why have you not gone?' They asked, already knowing the answer. 'You must not dred returning home.'
        "It is not home anymore..." She whispered, remembering the unwanted feelings that clouded her mind each time she returned.
        'Leave now, before the town awakens.' They suggested, chosing to ignore any further discussions on the issue.
        "Very well..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, preparing herself for the coming storm.
        'Send my' 'our love' 'to Adyra.'
        'I will... Vers kal fir...' With those words, the darkness around her dissolved and the bright halls that led to the council chambers appeared.
        She hoped Adyra would come and meet her, or any of the others who still considered her a friend, but as she opened her mind to call to them, she felt none of them near. Not long after, she was met by Turron. The man looked at her as if she were a stranger, but considering the time that had elapsed since their last encounter, she might as well have been. Nonetheless, she greeted him with a smile. "Shai ri ter, Turron."
        The man forged a smile, but even a child wouldn't have found it convincing. He skipped the greetings, 'What brings you once again to our halls?' He asked.
        'I wish to speak with Ariadne, concerning the records.' Selina explained, trying to not let anything, thought or feeling escape along with her words.
        'Ariadne is not among us, but I will send you someone. You may wait in the Hall of Records.'
        She caught the slightest satisfaction behind his words, but could not place it in any particular context. "Thank you."
        He nodded, and was gone. Still feeling as though the worst was yet to come, she found her way to the Hall where all their records was stored. It was a huge room, the roof on top of it trasparent to the sky. It was empty, as it usually was. For a moment she lost herself in the memories of her childhood, when she and a few others would devoure every word of every text under Ariadne's watchful eye. But that had been before the war, before the accident, before...
        'Accident? Is that what you call it...' A man's voice spat out from the silence.
        She had been so absorbed in her thoughts she hadn't even noticed someone else was listening to them. She felt the anger, the despise, the sheer hatred. She didn't even need to turn around to feel his eyes on her. And she suddenly understood the feeling she had noticed behind Turron's words. "Jelin."
        "Who is it you wish to lead into death this time?" He questioned with a scowl.
        Selina turned to face him, rage hiding behind her forced calmness. "I did not lead her into death." She replied.
        "Really? Was it not you who came raving of a coming threat? Was it not you who took ten of us, the only ones loyal or naive enough to go? Was it not you who led them to face Brandeur on his own grounds?"
        "Yes." She admitted.
        "Then... Explain to me how that would have surmounted to anything other than death."
        Selina simply stared at him, using all her strenght to hold her feeling locked up inside. She waited for the heavy silence to prolongue itself long enough to leave his words aside. "To be whole. To be one. To be. Death shall bring life for life shall demand death. One of blood, one of mind. Have you heard of such a spell?"
        Jelin's rage flashed across his face, then settled in his voice. "Maybe. Why?"
        "Just find it for me..."
        He glared at her, then motioned towards one of the older books, one which contained the symbol of the wind. The book came towards them and its pages rested open on the table. Selina approached it and read the spell: "Enli coman. Enli demo. Enli..." She stopped, "Someone translated it... But it is the same spell."
        "It hasn't been used since before the last war."
        "It requires a sacrifice, doesn't it?"
        "Yes. A mortal Ratell must be brought beyond the veil, then sacrificed so that his power may be given to a Shari at the moment of its birth so the joining and other such unpleasantries would be unnecessary."
        "But why would he go to all that trouble? Why would he risk being vulnerable during the moment of the crossing?" Selina wondered out loud, hoping that voicing the questions would some how make it easier to find an answer. It didn't.
        "Who are you talking about?" Jelin asked, his voice showing he was not amused by the lack of information.
        For a moment she wondered if she should tell him. After all, the worst possible person she might have to confide in was Jelin. He hated her because of Kyla, she knew that. Everyone did. But she would have to tell someone, and she assumed that if she could convince Jelin, she would convince anyone. So she tried. "Alucard was going to use that spell, Gweneth being his sacrifice. But who was he going to sacrifice her for? And why would he take such a risk? Even if he did manage to bring a Shari across, he wouldn't be able to rescue his vimte from the Abyss. Unless..."
        'You're doing it again.' Jelin interrupted her. 'You come with some new information you dragged out of someone's mind and you expect us to act on it. In Estla's name! You want more dead on your hands... No one is going with you this time. And nothing you say will change that.'
        His words were clear, his intentions clearer; but behind all that, another feeling slipped by, on purpose or by distraction. The end result was the same, she knew he wished with all his heart she had died instead of his daughter; and nothing in the world would make him believe she was right about anything. Without more information, he would fight her all the way. The council would not even see her. And she knew all of it, just by looking at him. So, without another word, Selina was gone.
 
        Victoria woke up with the sun shining on her face and a soft breeze announcing it was morning. She rolled over in her bed, her eyes still closed. "What a nightmare..." She let out with a still sleepy voice.
        She didn't know if she truly believed it, but the strange smells and sounds the morning brought were enough to keep her eyes shut in fear they might discover what she didn't want to accept. She tricked herself into believing it had all been a dream, a nightmare now long lost in the night. She forged a smile and slowly forced her eyes open. As she took in her strange surroundings, the smile was kept frozen on her face, but every emotion behind it vanishing quickly as she accepted the full reality of where she was. She sat up, holding back the tears she wanted to cry. Keeping her mind busy with something else, she looked down at the amulet that still glowed vigorously hanging from her neck. Victoria held it tightly and walked up to the open window. She stared out at that strange little town she had gone to and wondered. She wondered if somewhere among those strange faces, she would find the owner of that amulet. And with a slight shiver, she wondered how long she would have before she did. How long before it was too late. The sooner she found Selina, the better.
        Victoria tried to sneak out of her room, hoping she wouldn't run into the woman she had met the night before. There would be more questions, like "Where are you from?" or "Why are you here?" or even "How did you get here?" She didn't have any of those answers, and she didn't even know where she could start to fabricate them. She closed her door slowly, silently praying for it not to denounce her. She made her way through the corridor with extreme caution, calculating every step so it wouln't be heard. Then a hand suddenly touched her on the shoulder and she jumped. Her heart racing from the scare, she turned to face the same woman she had met the night before.
        Gweneth laughed once she realized she had actually given the young traveller a scare. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to startle you."
        Victoria simply shook it off, one hand raising instinctively to try and contain the pounding on her chest. "That's okay. No harm done..." She wondered for a moment if she should ask anything about Selina, maybe this woman knew her.
        "I'm looking for a friend of mine, I was wondering if you could help me find..." She let herself trail off as she noticed that Gweneth was no longer listening to any of her words. The woman was just standing there, almost hipnotized by something, her face somber. Following her gaze, Victoria realized it was the amulet. She hid it quickly under her dress, but Gweneth's eyes still seemed to stare at it, their blue seemingly swallowing the green that had been there a moment before.
        "The dragon's fought... The serpent died..." Gwen whispered to herself. Then she looked up at Victoria, whose surprise had frozen her in place. "That amulet is not yours... You are not one of them..."
        Victoria took a step back, her eyes wide open in shock. She was terrified that she had been found out. She was terrified that Gwen could serve Brandeur. She took the amulet into her hands and held it tight, knowing it would protect her. She instictively called Selina, but her friend didn't appear.
        Gwen's eyes seemed to suffer a strange transformation as their colors shifted from intense blue to a light bluish green. The woman's smile returned. "I know someone who has a charm just like that one." She told Victoria as she gestured towards the amulet. Victoria still stood there, frozen, not knowing what to say or do.
        "Where did you get it?" Gwen asked.
        "Someone gave it to me..." Victoria replied hastily. Still wondering if it might be a trick of some sort, and still missing to find a purpose to it, she ventured asking her question. "This person you know... with an amulet like this one. Does she live here in Setterwind?"
        "Yes, she does..." Gweneth answered, wondering why Victoria had assumed it was a she.
        "Where?" Victoria asked with a hidden urgency in her voice.
        Gweneth frowned, finding it strange Victoria might want that information. But she gave it anyway. "She lives just across the street. Why?"
        "The person who gave me this said there were only a few made. I want to see if I've actually found another." Victoria answered. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it surely wasn't the entire truth either. She left it at that and made her way down the stairs, looking back with the corner of her eye, worrying that Gweneth would do something. But the woman merely stood there, watching her go with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
        Not long after Victoria left, Gweneth sensed something different. Something familiar and strange all the same. Out of the shadows, Selina walked out towards her. "Gwen, I need your help."
        "Where did you come from? Were you here while I was talking with Victoria?" Her friend asked with confusion.
        "No... I just came in... Gwen, I need to talk with you... about that night."
        Gweneth looked up at her, still not understanding the subject. "When?"
        Selina tried to look into Gweneth's mind. She noticed immediately her friend's reaction to the intrusion. Trying to make Gwen's thoughts go where she wanted, Selina whispered: "To be whole, to be one, to be..." then trailed off.
        Gwen looked at her, her blue eyes wide open. "One of blood, one of mind..." she whispered almost out of reflex.
        "Why did Alucard want to use that spell?" Selina inquired.
        Gweneth just shook her head. "I tried..."
        "Gwen, why did it have to be that spell? Why did it have to be that night?" Selina insisted.
        "It was when she would come." Gwen whispered as if a long dead secret was being told.
        "Who?"
        "Naema..." Gweneth said slowly. The name seemed to touch something within her. "That's what he called her. Naema..."
        "Why would he take such a risk?" Selina asked herself. "Why would he go to all this trouble for a half-breed? What could he possibly hope to accomplish with that? And how did he know there would be a Shanla born on that night? Unless... unless it was his... But still, why?" She wasn't speaking to Gwen anymore, she was simply trying to sort out all the information in her mind. She couldn't understand it. There were no other Brandeur, and if it had been a child with mortal and Shanla blood, would that child be so important he would be willing to die for it? Then there was Gwen's sacrifice. He wanted to bring her through so that she became one of them. Then he would kill her and grant her powers to someone else. Why go through all the trouble? Unless there was another reason than simply having a child to learn by his rules...
        "Selina?" She heard Gwen call with a wavering voice.
        She left aside her musings and focused again on Gweneth, the woman's eyes still fully blue.
        "I know who you are." Gweneth said as if that were very important, as if a secret was now being spoken out loud for the first time.
        "Yes." Selina admitted.
        "I know what you are." Gwen said with even more vehemence.
        "What am I?" Selina asked calmly, hoping the answer would be lost again in Gweneth's mind.
        "I know what you are. " Gweneth insisted.
        Selina nodded. "Yes."
        Gweneth raised a hand to Selina's throat and touched the small mark at the base of her neck. "I know..." She repeated.
        "Gwen, we should talk about this later..."
        "No!" Gweneth shouted. "I want to know... What am I?"
        Selina's mouth half opened, but the answer lingered there for a long moment, almost an eternity. "You have our blood within you, but you are mortal... "
        "Why did he choose me??" Gweneth asked, her gaze lost somewhere else.
        For a moment, Selina considered whether or not to speak the truth, or even answer. Thinking it might bring forth any other important memories, she explained what she could. "Because you have our blood in you, you may become one of us by a ritual which we refer to as coming across the veil. Alucard planned on bringing you through, but he never finished..."
        Gweneth looked at her once more. "You stopped him..."
        Selina nodded. "Yes."
        "He killed her... and you made me forget."
        "We tried... but the part in you that he touched was too powerful to be made completely dormant... It awakens sometimes..."
        Gweneth looked about as if the explanation had fallen on deaf ears, but every word had sunk into her and made its ground, refusing to be removed easily. Then, turning to Selina, her eyes held on a gaze of pure helplessness. "What am I?"
        "I don't know..." She admitted. Her voice changed, her gaze deepened. "This conversation never happened. I came in through the door and asked to see the text you had found for me..."
        As soon as she stopped talking, Gweneth opened up an uncertain smile. "Oh, I thought you wouldn't be here this morning. I put the text back, but I'll get it. Wait a moment."
        Selina forged a smile and watched as Gwen walked off. "I am sorry. You will remember..."
 
        Victoria stood outside, her feet planted in the dirt road as if they had gotten stuck. The morning sun battled in the sky with a few passing clouds, and the town was just starting to awaken. She stood there, staring across the street at the strange houses, and one of them caught her attention. The door was closed, the windows shut, it looked perfectly normal... except for the small symbol engraved discretly on one of the corners of the door. She had seen it many times before above the entrance at Selina's tower. She rushed towards it, while her mind shouted doubts at her sudden conviction. The symbol could belong to Selina's vimte, in which case it might not be her living there; and for some reason that she couldn't explain, she considered the possibility that it might have been placed there as a misdirection of some sort.
        "No," she told herself out loud. "It has to be her. It is her."
        Still wondering whether or not she should knock on that door without knowing who or what awaited her on the other side, she knocked more loudly than she had planned to. And even then, it seemed faint. She could barely hear anything beyond the loud thumping of her own heart. She waited for a long time, trying to sooth her breathing or slow her heart, but in the end, the fact that no one appeared started to worry her. Had she come too late? Had it all happened? Denial her new ally, she knocked again, the sound pairing with her heartbeats.
        Frustrated, Victoria merely stood there, vanishing options racing through her mind. Her eyes drifted aimlessly across the streets, searching desperately for a familiar face. In the nearby shadows, a figure caught her attention. She turned and stared, first with a faint sense of recognition, then with unquestionable certainty. Victoria would have sworn her breathing had stilled, and her heart would surely be next. As she watched the young girl grow closer, her mouth opened and locked, her eyes filled with horror at the sudden apparition. The sound came out unwillingly, as if it had been pronounced by someone from a faraway time, but the whisper was hers. "Naema..."
        She tried to look away, but she found her gaze was trapped like a fly to the spider's web, and the spider, to her utter despair, was approaching. Almost petrified as her horror increased with every passing second, her mind went into a rampage, finding whatever it could to prove that it was nothing but a hallucination. The girl seemed oblivious to Victoria's inner thoughts as she walked calmly by, not even noticing that Victoria's eyes not for one second drew away from her face. The sound came out as a strangled whisper at first, a question lost in time. "Naema?" Then, regretting a sudden betrayal, it ended abrubtly as if it had never been.
        The girl heard it, though, and she turned slowly as if she weren't sure of what had been spoken, or even if it had been directed at her. She stood there for a second, her eyes examining Victoria and finding nothing that meant anything to her. "What did you say?" She asked.
        Victoria stood motionless, her eyes searching for a mark at the base of the girl's neck. Before she was sure whether or not she should repeat the name and thus erase any doubt, her lips betrayed her and pronounced once more the name that her fear didn't wish to allow. The girl seemed confused. She shook her head slowly, as her mouth half opened. Her voice came out weak, almost trembling. "No... That is not my name."
        Both stood there, each unwilling to tear away. Victoria felt the amulet stir. It was a strange feeling, and even if she were given an eternity, she thought it would not be enough to describe it. It was the first sign she had received from it since they had parted from Selina, from their own time. Victoria looked towards the house, hoping Selina had appeared, but there was no sign of her. And when she looked back, Naema was hurrying away. Her fears and uncertainties aside, she considered if she should follow. Deciding that if she found Selina it would be easier to understand what was happening, she discarted the idea, but still her eyes followed Naema's retreat.


        Selina tried to forge a smile as Gweneth returned to the room with an expression that showed nothing of what had been there minutes before. 
        Gwen handed her the text. "I've had it for years. I can't read it though... I don't know what language it's in."
        Selina looked at the paper and recognized immediately the symbol burned on the top corner. "Where was it found?" She asked.
        "Here in Setterwind. They say it was lost during the massacre a couple of centuries ago."
        Selina tried to fade the recognition of the events from her eyes, but the voices of the past came back to haunt her.
        'Feels like death.' She heard Nyan say with disgust.
        'A hundred or more...' Kyla added in a strange monotone.
        'It's horrible.' Adyra let out, her mind shutting out the screams instinctively.
        Selina turned to them suddenly, realization in her eyes. 'They're being slaughtered!'
        Ariadne, their teacher, nodded silently.
        'Why are they dying?' Victor asked after a moment.
        'Because they are different.' Their guide answered.
        "Will we be killed?" Lia asked, her eyes always focusing on the small village ahead of them.
        "No." Ariadne answered immediately, her tone firm, but behind her words, the most experienced would see the uncertainty.
        "Will we kill?" Victor asked promptly.
        Ariadne merely smiled sadly and led them away. As they left, Kyla lingered behind. "Can we stop it?" she asked, her voice almost a plea.
        'It is almost over.' Ariadne said calmly. 'We must return.'
        'Why did you bring us here?' Selina asked suddenly.
        'For you to see the evil you must live with.' Ariadne had told them. And true enough, they would never forget it. But unknowingly, Ariadne had taught them more than what she had intended, she made them realize they cared.
        Her mind wandered back to that room and noticed Gwen's stare on her, as if waiting for something. "Yes, I've heard the stories." She said simply, the memory of countless screams coming down on her with force, then being locked away as she spoke to Gwen once more.
        "I've seen these symbols before...But I'm not entirely sure what they are." She lied.
        Her eyes ran through the page quickly, and the meaning was clear at once.  She wondered for a moment, who had written it, and if it had truly been the work of those who had died before her. "I think it's a praire of some sort..." She lied again.
        "Can I take it?" She asked. "To see if I ca--" her voice halted suddenly, her gaze lifted towards and through the walls. The paper was forgotten as she stood up.
        "Selina? What is it?" Gweneth asked.
        "Can't you feel it?" Selina whispered, something that resembled fear in her voice. Her eyes were unfocused, and a small mark on the base of her neck seemed to come alive in blood. She looked down at her amulet, it seemed to warn her of something, it called to her. The first warning came as if from faraway, not from her. The second came stronger and left no doubt in her mind.
        Gweneth stood still, as if that would allow her to perceive whatever it was that her friend seemed so focused on. "What? What is it?"
        The answer seemed never to come. The whisper seemed caught in her throat, her voice seemed to have to be forced out. All Selina said was: "He has returned." 
        The words had meant nothing to Gweneth, but as soon as they were spoken, something in her awoke, not for the first time.
        Selina's eyes focused on her again, and they bore something dark in them. "Stay here. Do not leave until I have returned." With that, she was gone, not even bothering to disguise her exit from Gweneth's mind.
        Alone, Gweneth's eyes shifted incessantly, her mind fighting itself, and somewhere inside, terror rising, she knew why. There was no true question forming itself, as her thoughts scrambled... And in the stillness of her own room, a voice that only faintly reminded her of her own said solemnly. "He's come for her at last..."
        Selina phased to the outside and hid among the shadows, using whatever tricks she knew to illude anyone as to her presence there. She saw nothing, the people walked normally, the sun shone, children ran across the grass... But still the odd feeling remained. Someone was there. She felt the illusion, other than her own. He wasn't even trying very hard to go by unnoticed. She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling, letting it lead her to him. Following the intrusion on reality, she stepped in between the moments. When she opened her eyes again, she saw the town frozen. Paralized only in her eyes, and she knew for certain. After all those years, Alucard had finally ventured outside. Through the frozen streets, she saw him moving, his stride calm and confident. He stopped unexpectedly, as one might turn around having just heard their name. It took all she had to hide from him. Still he searched, sensing her presence. She remained in the shadows, observing as he looked about, then dismissed it and continued into the town. She thought of warning Gweneth and the others, but any movement on her part and he would surely notice. She waited until he was farther away and decided to warn the only ones who would have a real chance of acting. The three words took her home, but her mind was still focused on her friends, and the eminent danger walking towards them.

        Victoria was tired of standing there, of waiting, she looked at the ground, almost willing herself to sit down. She was almost giving up and doing as her legs wished, but there would be no place in the shade for her to sit down and she had no desire to withstand the increasingly hot sun. She was just readjusting herself to the contour of the wall when the amulet shone briefly. She stood up and ran her eyes carefully through the streets, no sign of the person she searched for, no sign of Naema... She had no idea what was happening. Almost as an after-thought, she knocked on the door again, gently first, then louder. And like before, there was no response. She had the strangest feeling, it came from deep within herself, or not from her at all, but it was a warning. That was the exact time she chose to go out and search through the streets. It was nothing rational, nothing pondered, it was just a sudden and inexplicable feeling to get out of there. And she trusted the feeling, wherever it came from.
 
        Gweneth walked almost in a trance, her actions seen as if they were not hers. She had barely felt her hand open the door, or her feet take her outside. She took no notice of the sunshine. Took no notice of people in the street. Only one thing was important to her. The feeling. She followed it almost unwillingly. But deep down, she wanted to. Wanted to find him, wanted to confront him. Wanted it all to be over. So she followed it outside and onto the streets, and she found it somewhere, in the shadows of what she thought was real. And that's where she found him. The source of all her fear, all her nightmares... He looked at her curiously, as if he admired the fact that she was there. "I knew you had returned." She said, her eyes with no reminders that their color had ever been anything other than blue.
        "I do not need you anymore. Things have turned out the way they would have."
        "Why come for her now?"
        "You wish answers? To go back to your little friend and tell her all the things I have planned, all the things I will do. Does she already know I am here? Was it her I felt just a while back? And the little creatures, I mean, her friends... do they watch me from the shadows as well? Or do you not even know them?"
        "She knows you are here."
        He smiled. "Listen." There was nothing, nothing other than silence.
        "That is the sound of no one coming for me. No one planning a strike, no one trying to hide in the shadows of the in between... And soon, it will not matter, for my vimte will be reunited in this world. And then... It will be too late." His smile broadened.
        She looked at him with pure challenge in her eyes, but there were no words for her.
        His smile dimmed and he stared at her. "Forget." He said commandingly.
        She stared at him, frozen, no more life in her green eyes.
        His smile returned and he walked away, resuming the path he had been on before. When he was no longer in sight, Gweneth's blue eyes came alive and she moved, a defiant smile emerging. "Sorry, doesn't work that way." 


        Victoria walked away from the noises until the thin streets were empty and silence embraced her footsteps on the ground. Something drew her forward, in her mind, Selina's amulet was now guiding her. The shadows seemed to reach out towards her, a strange drop in the temperature of  her surroundings. She wondered if she might be imagining it, or even if the amulet might be trying to show her something, guide her towards something important. The sun seemed to be lost suddenly behind the clouds. She wondered if she was meant to keep going down that deserted path, or if she was going the wrong way altogether. She stopped suddenly, still confused, still trying to figure out what she was doing. Even why she was doing it. Something came at her from behind and pushed her towards the ground. A hand grabbed her and pulled her towards the shadows. She tried to turn around, but the figure pushed her down and covered her face with a cloth. "Who are you?" The hoarse voice enquired.
        Victoria tried to twist out of her agressor's grasp, but the strong grip didn't allow her to move. She chose, not entirely by her own, to remain still. The voice asked again, the same strange question. Victoria didn't answer. She wouldn't answer, not until she knew who was asking and why.
        "It would be wise to answer me." The voice said, still only a whisper. "Who is your master?"
        Something was pressed against her throat, the metal was cold, the edge sharp. Victoria remained still. "I have no master..." She managed to whisper.
        "Why were you following me?" The stranger asked even more violently.
        It took Victoria a second to answer, her thoughts having to be organized. "I wasn't following anybody. I was just... wandering. I'm trying to find a friend."
        The blade started to press harder, she thought it would slice her throat in half, but it stopped suddenly and withdrew. When the voice spoke again, it was altered, less secure, but it tried to disguise it. "Your friend isn't here. No one is. And if you are wise, neither will you be. Setterwind is not what it appears to be, if you do not know that, you should not be here." 
        Without warning, Victoria was knocked unconscious and as suddenly as her interrogator had appeared out of shadows, the assailant was gone.
     
        The council halls were empty and light. She sent the council a message, saying she wished to see them. There was no reply, no courtesy, so she waited. She felt others inside the walls. She knew they were gathering. She started towards the main chambers with slow and cautious steps, as if the ground beneath her would suddenly give in and the earth would swallow her. The doors opened unexpectedly, and from the distance, she saw the council sitting on the other side of the chamber.. She realized she wasn't breathing, and the air came out slowly as she walked towards the center of the room. The doors slammed shut behind her. She stopped walking suddenly, as something held her still.
        'What are you doing here?' Jelin's voice came tearing. With a subtle wave, she freed herself from his invisible web. She would ignore him this time, she owed him no explanations.
        'You should well know they will not listen to your lies.' She stopped where she stood, and if she hadn't felt the council's attention fall on her, she would have turned to face him.
        'Selina... Of the third spade.' One of the council began, drawing her thoughts away from Jelin.
        'Why do you come before us?' Another asked.
        She held her feelings tightly in place, afraid they would slip alongside her words. 'Alucard has left his domain.'
        There were whispers all around, in words and thoughts. 'Have you seen him?' One of the three asked.
        'Yes, I saw him walking between the moments in the streets of Setterwind.'
        'And you are sure it is him?'
        She closed her eyes and summoned the memory, projecting the image into their minds. 'It is him.' She affirmed. Their silence seemed an agreement.
        'We will discuss this information... You may go.'
        "It's not all. He's looking for someone. I think it has to do with th--"
        'The council will discuss the matter and decide accordingly, when the time is appropriate.'
        'We have to do somethin--'
        'Like the last time you came running home with a plea for help?' Jelin asked with malice.
        The head council stood up and the others all turned to him. 'This discussion is over.' He said simply.
        Selina was about to protest, but she found herself alone on the outside corridors. With a frustrated sigh, she was about to return to Setterwind when a single scene emerged in her mind.
        The man looked up at her with almost admiration. "I would never have thought you of all people should help me."
        "I carry no ill will towards you..."    
        "Thank you, sorcerer... If you ever need... If you..." He sighed heavily. "I am in your dept, sorcerer."
        The scene vanished and she burried it deep beneath her other thoughts. Thinking she might still try to collect an old dept, she whispered the words that hadn't been spoken by another shanla in over millenia. "Legin sela exect misen." 
       
        The figure that had stepped out of her darkest nightmares walked through the walls and merely stared at her.
       "Who are you?" She asked with a strangled whisper.
        "I am the one who will give you the world." He answered with a smile. "Come with me, Naema. I can give you whatever you want. And you can destroy the rest. It will all be at your mercy. Your will shall command the world, your voice shall be the storm that levels this land and shapes it into whatever you please... Come with me."
        Her eyes were wide, her voice strangled. "What creature are you?"
        He edged closer, his stride always calm. "Do not look at me as if I am a monster..." He whispered.
        "We are the same, you and I..." He said louder. "And we are the last."
        Her eyes lost a part of their terror, an edge of curiosity added to her voice. "The last of what?"
        "All these questions will be answered later, Naema... If you will come with me... I will tell you all you wish to know. Do you not know you are different? Can you not feel you are special?"
        Reluctantly, Louise nodded.


        The words Selina had spoken had taken her to a dark forest. The place where answers were sought, and choices made. It was a place disconected from the time they knew. Selina looked around the darkness and made out the figure of a woman coming towards her. The woman's clothes were dark, they melded with the shadows, and around her neck shone a half green, half red amulet.
        The woman's eyes bore into her, but she was not hollow, and she was not open. So the words emerged. "Why have you come here? You are to leave us alone."
        Selina ignored her tone. "Where is Patrice?"
        The woman's face did not move. Her voice hung in the air, making it heavy and harsh. "He is no more, another has his place."
        "I request permission to see the barer." Selina felt the light intrusion, but otherwise ignored it.    
        "She will not aid you." The woman said in a monotone.
        Selina sighed, but still controlled the edge on her tone. "Just tell me where to find her."
        "Very well, but you are warned. Do not interfere."
        The darkness of the forest faded away into a small village. Selina quickly stepped in between the moments that surrounded her and the town was still. 'Barer? Where are you?'
        The reply came suddenly, after a few moments. It seemed intrigued. 'Who summons me?'
        'I am Selina, of the shanla. I need your help.'
        The woman appeared in front of her.  The colors that played all around her reminding Patrice in every detail of its tone. Her skin was pale white, as if no blood ran through her veins, and her eyes were a deep green, the only thing that broke her lifeless complexion. 'What help would I be to you?' She asked.
        "I was searching for Patrice, he owed me a favor." Selina said.
        The barer's eyes were kind. "If it is within my grasp... and if the amulet does not object."
        Selina gave her everything in a single instant. The barer simply stared into the images that flashed before her, inside her. "And what do you wish of me?" She  finally asked.
        "Do you know what he is doing? Do you know of anything like this ever happening before?"
        The barer smiled. "I am younger than you. I haven't even 50 years... But the amulet... no, it does not know..."
        "Or it doesn't say." Selina whispered. In essence, it was a question.
        The barer nodded.
        "And if it turns to war... it will not care..." Selina said with a embedded sigh. The barer didn't have to confirm, they both knew the truth of it.
        "The amulet does not intervene. It sees its survival no matter what may come. It cannot be taken by force."
        "Thank you, barer."
        "Samantha."
        "Thank you, Samantha."
        "There is one thing I can give you... When I was... listenning... last spring, I found a girl whose mind was filled with images of the night sky from above, there was hatred, bitterness, vengeance. She seeked only vengeance. I could not interfere with her, she had been touched by one of yours. Brandeur. She went in search of the ancient grounds which you call Setterwind. Maybe she can be of help to you, there was a certainty in her thoughts."
        "Do you know her name or face?"
        "Her name was Erin." She sent an image along with the name. A young woman with red hair and somewhat pale green eyes hiding herself beneath a cloak as she walked the streets of a small town in winter.
        Selina kept it carefully. "Thank you."
        "Good luck." Samantha vanished again, and Selina remained for a moment.
        There was still one other she could ask for help. He had turned her down once before, but it was worth a try.
        She focused and phased to a large room lit by candlelight. An old man sat by the window overlooking the night.
        "Can it be?" He gasped as she appeared. He looked at her carefully, then a smile came onto his face, his movements almost theatrical. "Fate has indeed awarded a dying old man with one last vision of his one true love."
        "You are not dying, and I am neither a vision, nor your love." She said.
        "And how I have missed your sense of humor, or lack of it. Forgive an old man's attempt at humor."
        She didn't laugh. "You are no older than I, Damian."
        "Ah, but time has forgotten you. I suspect it always will... Now, I see there is something behind that jaded stare. Tell me your burdens and I shall bring down the heavens themselves to unload them... Have you come to kill me?" He asked dramatically. "Though I am betting that if you just sit quietly over there, nature and time shall do the job for you rather quickly. Not so quietly perhaps."
        She shook her head. "You haven't changed in the least."
        "Perhaps old age has caught up with you also. Your eyes aren't what they used to be." He laughed, helping himself up with a wooden cane and making an almost theatrical gesture.
        "There is nothing wrong with my eyes." She said.
        "Then that was the kindest thing anyone has ever said to me."
        'You should have let me bring you through the veil.'
        "It would never have worked."
        "Was what you saw in my mind so terrible that old age and death are so gladly welcomed?"
        "Now love, I have tried explaining it to you. It was not what I saw of you. It was what you saw of the others."    
        "But we are the same..."
        "I am sorry if you still believe that." He forced a smile that soon became as natural to him as breathing. "And besides, there are advantages to being old, you can say most of anything without a dagger being plunged into your back."
        She smiled.
        "Not to mention being able to drag a smile out of you by sheer force of will."
        "Only for now. I need your help... The Book of Fire, who has it?"
        The old man opened up a grin. "I do."
        "There were rumors that it had been taken, that another had read the acceptance."
        "I know." An almost mischievious smile came to his face, reminding her of the last time they met and making her truly aware of the passage of time.
        "I know about the rumors," he said again. "Because I was the one who started them..."
        "War is coming. The last of the vimte Brandeur has left his domain in search of someone, and I don't even know who or why. I think he might be planning to free his vimte."
        "That is impossible. No one has ever returned from the abyss..."
        "No one has ever really tried. We've never had any reason to believe it could be done. Even the nine never thought it possible. But if he has truly found a way,   he must be stopped."
        "The council does not wish to stop him... or they have deemed he cannot succeed. You would not have come for help otherwise."
        "They do not think a threat exists."
        "That will be their damnation..." He said with a sigh. "The book has nothing you can use. There's nothing I can do to help you. If I were younger, maybe I could be of service. I'm sorry."
        "Thank you." She prepared to leave. "In sety med, Damian."
        "Selina, I am old. We may not see each other again."
        "I will come back. And we will meet again, I promise."
        He knew it wasn't up to her, but he took the promise for what it was and smiled. "In sety med, auren."
        With a smile, she was gone.  

        Louise stared at the wall in silence, her eyes lost in the darkness. Her thoughts running in a strange circle, guided by the words she had heard. The promises that had been made. 'I shall leave you with your thoughts...' The voice whispered into her mind once more.
         'I will return tonight for your answer. Be sure it is the right one.' He said. And then, just as he had come, he was gone. She still wondered, even if only for a moment, if it had been real. Wondered if she might have lost her mind. Wondered if it was a strange dream from which she was doomed to never awaken. But the words she had heard still lingered on in the silence he had left behind. And in that silence she knew they were true. She just didn't know anything else. Not even who she truly was.        
        In the small house, Selina stepped out of nothingness and sat down. She noticed the tension immediately.
        'He' 'is' 'gone...' They spoke.
        She let out a sigh, fearing to ask the next question. 'Did he take anyone with him?'
        'No.' They said, their voices unified. 'He met with Gweneth on the streets.'  'We would have followed,' 'but he seemed aware of us.'
        "I was afraid he might see you. Might recognize you."
        For the first time in years, their voices seemed kind. 'Do not worry yourself with us. We are long gone.
At any other moment, Selina would have argued, but now wasn't the time for yet another of their discussions about their fate. She found herself avoiding their stare almost unconsciously, as if there were something she wished they wouldn't see in her eyes. 'I went to the council.' She said. Then, as if wishing no feelings would escape alongside her words, she added with true sound. "They sent me Jelin."

        'Then it did not go well.'
        'They would not think a threat exists...' She said slowly. 'I went after the barer.'
        They walked around her, settling finally in front of her, their usually placid glares slightly different. 'The council's' 'decision' 'was expected.' 'Why' 'ask' 'the barer?'
        It had been a thought, a sudden idea. No harm could have come of it, and she had perhaps received some information. In the situation they were in, all help would be welcomed. She shrugged slightly. "Besides the fact that the barers hear and see everything around them, the amulet holds great power. If it chose to help..."
        'It does not fight wars. It cares only for itself. It is a worthless device, lost its purpose long ago... How is Patrice?'
        "Gone. One named Samantha helped me all she could. There is a girl by the name of Erin. We must find her. Search the streets, look for a face and figure hidden from sight. She seeks vengeance on Alucard."
        'If she is here, we shall find her. What if she has found him?'
        Selina took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Then it's most likely she is dead."
        There was a sudden pause in her words as she thought of Damian. She wondered for a moment, if she should tell them. She almost didn't, there had been nothing truly important in the conversation. But she could never keep secrets from them, they would see through her silence. They always had, especially Victor. "I also went to see Damian."
        'I trust his humor has not changed.'
        'Did he know who has the Book?'
        'Did he say?'
        "No." She said simply, her eyes now open and staring silently into theirs. She would not give them this lie. She could not let them know he still had it with him.
        Their eyes fell on her, a silent accusation hidden beneath a cold stare. "The book can do us no good." Was all she said.
        'Are those his words?'
        "They are mine now."
        They were silent, then started to move out. 'We' 'shall' 'find' 'Erin...'
        "I'll speak with Gwen. He might have said something important to her."
        'Be careful. She might be his now...'
        'I will. Don't worry. Just try to find the girl."
        Without another word, they left, their steps silent in the darkness. Selina wondered how she would know if Gwen was on her side or not. If she could know before it was too late. There was no way of being cautious. They thought Alucard was gone, Gweneth had spoken to him. He might not have cared enough to erase the conversation. He might not have cared at all to try and bring her into his service. With that thought held tightly in her mind, she phased.

        Gweneth's eyes shifted, their color going from blue to green incessantly as she walked back to her home. Her thoughts in a turmoil, she did not know reality from whatever it was she thought she was experiencing. The colors battled incessantly. As she reached the door, she was barely able to open it without difficulty. She found darkness inside, all windows strangely closed. She ventured onward on the faint glow that fought its way inside until the apparition met her half way and she froze.
        "Hello, Gwen." Selina said calmly.
        Gweneth's eyes settled as she lifted a hand slowly and pointed to the outside beyond the walls. "He was here... I saw him... I was... I spoke to him... He's real. He's not a nightmare, is he?"
        Selina shook her head. "No, he's no nightmare. He's very real."
        Gweneth said nothing, her eyes closed for an instant, and when they reopened, the colors battled within them.
        "Gwen? Are you alright?" Selina asked, trying to sooth her.
        "He's come... He said he would."
        His smile flashed in her mind, in her memory. A body lay lifeless before him, before them all. The girl's eyes were empty... A frozen serpent stared lifelessly back at her. She was dead.
        Selina saw the memory and pushed it away, Gweneth's reaction was immediate, but still she said nothing. 
        "Gwen.What did you talk to him about?"
        "He has come for her. Naema... but no..." The blue in her eyes seemed to come alive suddenly. "Louise. It's Louise."
        "Are you sure?"
        "Louise... Yes. He spoke of... He said he would reunite his vimte, and then it would be too late for you to do anything." Her eyes unfocused for a moment. "He told me to forget..." She added with an absent smile.
        "Gweneth, listen to me. I will try to warn the others. If he should return, go to my house and call out to me..."
        Gweneth's eyes still seemed lost for a moment, then they focused, their shade pure blue. "I will."

        Without actually thinking about it, Selina uttered the words which returned her to the entrance of the council halls. They were empty and still as they had always been. She considered simply announcing her presence, but she was sure they would either ignore her or send one of Jelin's friends to meet with her.
        'Ariadne!' She called out as soon as she saw that they hadn't come immediately to her. 'Ariadne! I must speak with you.'
        Not even a moment went by and her former teacher appeared before her. The years hadn't changed her since the last time she had seen the woman, but her eyes, they were different somehow. Perhaps in the way they looked at her, perhaps it was simply Selina's imagination.
        "I need your help. I must speak with the council. I must warn them. Brandeur has exited his domain. He says he will free his vimte from the abyss. He has found a shari, which he plans to make ours. I believe he needs her to reach into the Abyss."
        Ariadne looked at her with schepticism. "No one can reach into the Abyss."
        "He has confidence that it can be done..."
        "How? No one has ever returned."
        "He has found a way, or at least he believes it so fiercely, that he has exited his domain. I think he needs the shari for it, maybe because she is his own blood, or maybe because she's not really a shanla, but he needs her. And he is going to get her, if we don't stop him. If  you do nothing, and by some chance I prevent him from succeeding, he will simply try again."
        Ariadne still didn't seem inclined to agree.
        "Please," Selina insisted. "You must convince them it is true."
        In an instant she sent her everything, Gweneth's words, Alucard's appearance in the town... It all flashed before her eyes in a moment, as if they had become her own livings, her own experiences. "Can you not see it?" Selina finally asked. 
        Ariadne's lips tightened together slightly. 'I can see your belief that it is true.'
        "Then believe in me... Believe in the words through me."    
        Ariadne said nothing, but Selina knew the look in her eyes. 'Thank you,' she whispered only to her teacher as the woman withdrew.
        'Wait here,' Ariadne instructed. 'I shall be your voice one last time.'

        Her thoughts and feelings conceled, Ariadne stepped into the council hall and faced the seven of the council evenly.
        'Ariadne, of the sixth spade... Why have you come before us?' Shalenn, the head of the council, asked.
        'Selina is outside. She wishes to bring new evidence of the threat she has discovered.'
        'She has already been here.' Vernon said. 'She has already spoken.'
        'And you have done nothing about her concerns, so she returns...' Ariadne said blatently. 'She has brought you more to try and convince you of the immediate danger of the situation.'
        'And do you believe her evidence?' Ishra asked.
        Ariadne's eyes widened. 'She would not lie! She would not fabricate evidence to bring before you. That you would even suggest such a thin--'
        Ishra raised a hand. 'Forgive my choice of words. Do you believe in the threat she poses to us?'
        'Do you believe there is a threat?' Vernon joined in asking.
        Ariadne fell silent. 'In all the knowledge we have, there is nothing that would suggest it to be true... But to assume that it cannot be done because we have no knowledge of it ever being even attempted would sound premature. I do believe we should at least investigate the matter.'
        'Your student... former student... seems to convey urgency, why is that?' Netor asked.
        'It would be best if you ask her that...' Ariadne said.
        Netor stared down at her with a grin. The simple fact that she was asking something of him was overwhelming. "Why is it, Ariadne, that your pupils always give so much trouble?" He asked.
        Ariadne returned the smile. 'Perhaps I have taught them well.'
        His eyes narrowed, then his eyebrow lifted as he studied her. "Yes..." He let out slowly. "Remind me to find another tutor to replace you."
        She nodded without a moment's hesitation. "I will. After you listen to her and review the evidence she brings."
        "Very well." Shalenn agreed.
        Before Ariadne could summon her former student, Netor raised a hand. "You should not interfere with her words, even if to support them, even if she asks it of you."
        'Perhaps it would be best if you were not here.' Rhea said.
        Without protest, Ariadne summoned Selina and withdrew from the council halls.       

        Selina felt the gathering inside the council hall and knew at once that Ariadne had been successful. She heard Ariadne call her and she stepped through the walls, for the doors didn't open this time. The hall was filled, some faces she barely remembered, and some she even knew all too well. Her eyes met Adyra's for a moment, and her friend tried to give her an encouraging smile.
        'Selina, of the third spade. You return to us with new words. Speak them.' Shalenn said as soon as she had made her way to stand in front of them.
        Her eyes still darted about the surroundings for a moment, searching for Ariadne, but she could feel she was no longer there.
        'As I said before, Brandeur left his domain and came to Setterwind. He wants to take a shari with him, apparently to take her across the veil. He spoke with Gweneth, the woman he captured years ago.' Her eyes fell towards Jelin, and she took in a sharp breath, returning her gaze towards the council, the control of her feelings threatening to waver. "He spoke with her, and tried to erase it, unsuccessfully. He spoke of reuniting his vimte, and that then it would be too late for us to do anything. I believe the fact that she is a shari born of his blood is important to his plan of reaching into the abyss."
        "That is simply impossible! He is alone!" Jelin shouted as if the suggestion itself was preposterous. "Stop bothering us with your paranoia. Go back to pretending you're mortal."
        "She is of his blood! At least see for yourselves." She asked.
        "You really have forgotten our ways... You'd rather believe a madwoman than one of your own kind..." Jelin whispered.
        'This council knows of nothing that would allow him to reach into the Abyss. No one has escaped. And some have tried it.' Vernon said with a side glance.
        'We will investigate, when we see fit. At the moment, there seems to be no threat. If there truly is a shari with his blood, he might make her one of us, but still that is no real threat.'
        'Then you do not believe he can reach into that place?' Selina asked.
        'No.' Rhea said.
        'We have heard your words, and we shall ponder them.' Shalenn said. And this time, it was the council that withdrew.
        The others began to disperse also, but Selina turned to her friend. "Adyra," she started.
        "You've destroyed the closest friends you had since your parents died. They were your family, despite their blood. And look what it got them. All either dead or worse. We will not allow you to drag Adyra with you through this journey." Reni said.
        It took her a moment to remember him, but yes, she knew him, from very long ago.
        "You're a danger to all around you." Jelin added with a smile. "Mark my words, you are going to destroy us one day. That's why you should stay away... And that's why one day, you'll be called outcast. On that day, I shall celebrate."
        She sighed and stared blankly at him. "Then celebrate and be gone, for I am already an outcast."
        She took a step towards Adyra and merely smiled. "Victor, Nyan and Lia send you their love."
        'Do not speak the names of those you have condemned!' Reni shouted. That's when she started to remember where she knew him from. He was once a friend of Nyan, and Victor even. She hadn't seen him since the early end of the war.
        "It is you who have forsakened them... They are still there." She answered without looking towards him.
        "Only a shadow of what they were remains... And you will stop your lies." Reni said through clenched teeth, something rising with anger inside him.
        Selina understood that he would attack her if she insisted on it, and she couldn't take the chance of that. She had to go back to Setterwind. She focused on keeping her words restricted to her friend. 'Remember the truth, Adyra, and do not forget your friends.'
        Adyra smiled. 'Send them my love.'
        With a last look at Jelin and Reni, Selina was gone.
        Jelin lowered his head slightly, and looked at Adyra with only the corner of his eyes. 'I am sorry for that. It is not your fault, child.'
        Before she could say anything, he withdrew. She turned to Reni, he noticed the look on her face and sighed. "There is nothing he can do, even if she is of his blood." He said with confidence. "No one returns from the abyss. No one ever has. No one ever will..."
        Adyra looked at him, her voice calm. "There's a chance, even if very small, that she might be right. And if he does free his vimte from the abyss..."
        "Then we will send them back." He finished confidently. "We have done it before, it will be no different. Do not worry yourself, Adyra."
        She forged a smile and nodded, but inside, she couldn't help but wonder. And as the others all retreated to their places, she was left with the two little words of doubt dancing in the corners of her mind... What if?

        'Where' 'were' 'you?' They asked as soon as she emerged from the emptyness of her own house.
        'Adyra sent you her love...' She said without delay. Then she took a deep breath. 'The council... They will not listen to me... They do not believe there is a threat. They are so confident that no harm can come of it that they have turned a blind eye to whatever he does as long as he does not get in their way...'
        'Then it is clear what must be done.' The weigth of their voices seemed clear. She turned to them, not truly understanding where their thoughts were headed. The question didn't need to be asked, for they had undestood it in her silence. 
        'We must kill her.' They stated with almost no emotion in their voices.
        "Murder?" She asked with surprise. "Is there no other way?"
        'We cannot kill him.'
        'We must then stop him from taking her.'
        'If she is needed, his plan will fail.'
        Selina fell silent. As always, they made sense.
        'We should kill her now.' 
        'Then we could focus on what to do about him.'
        'If there is anything to be done.'
        "Do you think he will be listening for anything such as that?" Selina asked, suddenly worried that he had come and gone alone. 
        'If what Gweneth said is true, he would not think that he is threatened.'
        "And there is no reason for him to think we know about her. Maybe that's why he's allowed himself to move slowly. He thinks we will not move against him." 
        'And he is right.'
        "I almost forgot... Any sign of Erin?"
        'No.'
        'We will search more.'
        'You should go now.'
        Selina watched their eyes, and tried to bring some of their confidence to her, some of their calm. But the words came empty. All they had were truth. Everything else seemed lost. They repeated their words, encouraging, understanding, reasoning, but they were still empty. She knew them well, the consequences that were at stake, what might await, still only might. There was no certainty of doom, not beyond any doubt. Not beyond her own. In the end, it was all empty.
       
         Selina came out of the shadows and walked towards her slowly in the near darkness in which the girl hid.
        "Who's there?" Louise's voice came weakly. Selina stopped, she felt Louise's confusion. The girl was so frightened. She could hear only their breathing, their heartbeats. And in her mind, the voices came.
        'She must die.'
        'You must kill her now, before he awakens what she truly is.' 
        She stood there, frozen in the darkness, not by anger, not by fear, but by compassion. She heard the words and their meaning ringing in her head. She understood them, and following each, she knew them to be true, to be logic. But the sentiment that grabbed her and held her in place was far beyond logic. It was merely there, burried in her memories. She had known Louise for years, seen the girl grown up. They had never been enemies, even though they had never truly been friends.
        Louise's voice came suddenly. "Selina?"
        The girl wasn't looking at her, wasn't seeing her. Didn't even know where she was, but it was frightening enough to realize that she knew who it was that shared in her darkness. It had started.
        "Why are you here?" Louise asked, her voice being forced to simulate calmness, but beneath her voice, there were her emotions, a turmoil of fear and confusion masquerading anything else that might exist there. And unlike the ones who trained themselves to avoid such waves beneath their spoken voices, her emotions were clear in their private whirlwind.
        Selina stood there, making herself a part of the blackness that surrounded them, her own mind throwing about thoughts in a strange storm. She reached out for Louise's mind, and the girl immediately jumped, startled. Selina drew closer anyway, and looked at her thoughts, her emotions. She didn't realize it at first, but Louise was talking to her, her words whispers between tears, both lost in the silence if Selina chose to ignore them, but she didn't. She drew back and listened, and more than what she heard, the way she heard it, with all the emotions a voice can't confer, made her step back and leave the same way she had come.

        Victoria stirred suddenly. She pushed herself to her knees and slowly raised a hand to the back of her head. Then to her neck. No blood, at least she wasn't hurt. She looked up at the sky to try and see how much time had passed while she was unconscious. She'd gotten there by late morning, it was now past noon. She used all her strength to stand up, but the dizzyness made her lean against the wall for support. Something seemed strange. She had a feeling of danger. As if danger was approaching. She resisted the urge to run away from it and started heading back towards the center of town, and towards the house she believed would be where she would find Selina. The feeling did not sooth though, it continued, as the amulet stirred once more in its prison, as if enraged that its warning had not been acknowledged. 

        Selina stepped silently out of the walls and dropped on the floor. Her face was pale, and her eyes seemed lost beyond them as they gathered around her. The silence lingered, as if it made the air heavier, as if it had a will of it own. Their yellow green eyes questioned her
        'What happened?' They asked when she didn't speak.
        Her silence was no answer, but they knew how to read her silence. Knew how to see between the words. 'Why did you spare her life?'
        Selina's eyes finally closed and remained that way.
        'It was a mistake...' They said in the darkness of her thoughts.
      Selina couldn't bring herself to move. Couldn't bring herself even to form the words. 'She begged me... She begged me not to hurt her...' and I couldn't. I couldn't... Don't you see? I have never killed.'
        'We know it is hard... but it is necessary.'
       'I know... But she hasn't chosen what path to take from what lies before her... How can I choose on her behalf? How could I kill her on the chance that he is wrong?'
       'The consequences of him being right outweight the other.'
       'Go back and kill her now. Before---' Their echoes died, and they knew at once their words were in vain.
       'He is here.' They let out in a unified monotone.
       "He cannot be allowed to take her." Selina whispered. "If it is all true, there will be another war. The ones we have sent into the Abyss will be returned."
       'Do not go!' They said, their eyes wide, their gaze locked in hers. Their voices seemed to join in a single plea, but even they knew it would fall of deaf ears.

        "You are so afraid..." His voice was calm, sympathetic."You should never know fear. Let me erase it from you." He moved a hand towards her. She held it still for a moment until he withdrew it with a smile.
        "Would she really have hurt me?" Louise asked with an absent expression.
        "No, I would never have allowed it. I shall always watch over you." He promised with a smile, but Louise merely stared at the walls.  
        "Let me show you..." He proposed. "All I have said, all I have promised, let me share it with you... then you will see that I am right."
        She looked at him, then let out a long breath. He just looked at her, with that same confidence, that same promise. Louise closed her eyes, her voice trembled. "Very well... show me..."

        Gweneth's eyes widened suddenly, the blue reigning as it had been since Selina left her. She knew what the feeling was, that feeling that had washed over her. He had returned again. This time, he would not leave alone. Without thinking, she walked out onto the street. She knew he was there, somewhere... But she didn't know where exactly. She had barely knocked on Selina's door when it simply came open, the sun washing into the inner darkness of the house.
        Gweneth stepped in slowly, not seeing her friend anywhere. "Selina?"
        "I know." The voice came from a corner, where the shadows still offered comfort. "Do not interfere." She whispered.
        "What..." Gweneth stepped further inside the house, but when her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Selina was no longer there to be found.
        Unnoticed, three figures slipped past her into the sunlight, racing across the streets in the hopes of making their voices heard once more, in the hopes of stopping what was inevitable.

        Louise noticed the absent look on his face as he suddenly raised a hand to his neck, where a small mark seemed to come alive in blood red. "What is that?" She asked.
        "Towards the end of the war, the curse of Ethra was cast upon us. So that none would escape... So that none should live... It was a good day when she died..." He said with a smile that soon vanished. "Come Naema, you shall meet your enemy."
        Louise looked at him, startled. He took her hand firmly in his and led her outside, the door opening and closing without ever being touched.
        They saw Selina standing there, her attention solely on him. With no more than a quick inspection he realized she was alone. She met his gaze evenly, trying to keep her fear bottled up safely inside, out of his reach.
        "I was expecting you." He said.
        His eyes caught hers and for a moment, just before the surge of anger, she caught a glimpse of surprise at their presence there.
         He smiled, his lips twisting apart...
       That smile would be forever etched into her memory, along with the fury hidden beneath the gaze of the dormant beast which hung around his neck as an amulet.
        "A challenge? From you?" He asked with laughter. "Out of the way, child."
        She said nothing. With what she could, she held Louise and sent a swarm of spikes towards him. A mere provocation at best, for they would do him no harm. With a quick reaction, he freezed them and crushed them into sand.
        "Very well." He said. "I have some time to play."
        Selina released Louise immediately, now that the challenge was taken, and prepared herself, watching the movement of his eyes, the gestures of his hands, and most importantly, the slow moving of his lips, for it was in their words that lay the most danger.
        'Watch his words carefully...'  Ariadne whispered as they left for his castle. 'Words of a third spade are precious... and from one so powerful, they are often deadly...'
        He wasn't moving, his eyes seemed to study her, his mind trying to break into her thoughts.
        He pushed and she slipped, Adyra and Kyla being dragged with her as a silent scream from the others echoed into their minds and faded.
        He pushed her, and she held her ground, all her focus intent on keeping him out of her mind, and keeping herself there. She would not phase. He kept on testing her, as if it was a simple trial. As if he were measuring her abilities before destroying her.
        Louise started backing away, distancing herself from the imenent conflict.

        Victoria found the town strangely silent. The afternoon sun hid behind heavy clouds, and the air seemed to grow colder even thought night would be hours away. She was sure she was going the right way, but she realized suddenly that she had no idea where exactly it was that she was going. The first thing she saw was Naema, standing in the void of a doorway, her face strangely absent. Victoria looked away from her with great effort, only to recognize another ghost of her past, Selina, whose face had barely, if anything, changed throughout the centuries. And although she had never truly seen him, she knew the man fighting her was Alucard. They were merely standing there, their lips moving rapidly in a rampage of unintelligible words that were uttered into silence. Selina's hands sometimes moved oddly, and her feet seemed planted on the ground, determined not to let her fall. Victoria had no idea how long they had been at it, and though Selina seemed to be holding her own, Victoria knew all too well, she didn't have a chance. She knew the amulet she carried could be of help, but there was no way she could take it to Selina, or explain everything to her without Brandeur seeing. She convinced herself to wait, and moved further out of sight, her eyes never leaving the scene before her.
        Selina's head dropped suddenly, her eyes closing as one of her hands craddled her forehead. She forced her eyes open, but they were locked on the ground even as her mind fought desperatly from being trapped. Every single trick she had learned seemed to come to her, and she used everything, until she had nothing more but herself.
   
        Louise noticed she was holding her breath. She hadn't even noticed for how long. All she knew was that she wasn't breathing. She tried to, and then she did. Her eyes were dry, but she didn't want to blink, didn't want to miss anything. She could feel it would be over soon, she knew it would be.
        Alucard seemed barely tired, as if it proceeded simply because he chose to allow it. She couldn't tell if it was a façade or not. She saw him raise one hand temptively towards Selina, his hand slowly closing into a fist as Selina's eyes grew wider.
        He seemed to strangle her from afar until she collapsed on her knees, her breathing irregular. She was losing. She knew it. She wondered for a moment, if he would kill her. Then her eyes caught movement behind them. With effort, she focused on the shadow that seemed to be moving. The creature stepped out of hiding slowly, silently. It moved furtively, resembling for the first time the animal it was. A hunter, carefully lurking, calculating, its eyes taking in all the movement around it. The others emerged also and joined, approaching unnoticed. Selina's eyes met theirs for a single moment, all they carried was a plea. Their eyes averted, and the creatures withdrew, none of the others noticing they were even there. She was no longer attacking, she was barely able to defend herself.
        Her essence being slowly drained, Selina collapsed, and he realeased her. She was no threat to him. He turned to where Naema had been watching from and with a simple gesture, called her forth. She still hesitated, for one lone instant, until with a thought he erased any doubt she might have had.
        Selina tried to sooth her breathing, force herself to stand. Her hands were still trembling. She saw as Louise stepped out of the shadows towards him, and she knew her choice was made. There was no longer any doubt. Her hand instinctively reached out for her amulet, its mere presence a comfort. She would not let him walk away. With a deep breath, Selina gathered everything she had for one final attempt. She summoned forth the words her mind had memorized and forgotten long ago. With that simple spell in mind, she forced her voice to be heard again. "Lina lash nen dessra crayer... Tharin... Rah..." She was too weak, and as soon as they were uttered, her words fell into silence.
        With a deep breath, she drained whatever else she had and molded it into her voice. Victoria was startled as the amulet around her neck came alive at the summoning of its true master.
        Unaware of the strength that tried to announce itself, Selina continued. "Ayann nen orvenn... Niamn nen ridna, criter ni nishrah  nen ayann, thir..."
        Brandeur stopped, an unnoticeable flash of surprise taking over his face for one single second, surprise at the fact that her words were actually able to weight on him.
        The strain of it obvious, her words still managed to continue. "Vrei ver thessen nen ver razers..."
        Brandeur felt her for a strength  she should not have, her words seemingly gaining force with each sharp breath. As if there were a stronger echo of her every word locked away in a box just beyond her reach. As if the box were slowly coming open, he suddenly felt a toll on him. He reached forward for her words and heard them, but they weren't as easy to silence.
        Her lips moved quickly as she reached the ending of the spell. "Enlai ayann tarr ahl kel..."
       But before she could say the final words, he threw her against the ground and crushed her, silencing her with unconsciousness. "Children should not play with such spells." He let out with a not so confident smile. He reached towards her, not to kill her, but to mold her into a creature that would do him no harm. He focused for an instant and visualized the form, but nothing happened.
        Victoria watched as he seemed to focus. She knew from her future that Selina wouldn't die, but somehow that brought her little comfort. She held back the urge to run up to her friend, there was nothing she could do. The amulet around Selina's neck reacted suddenly, to whatever it was that Brandeur was trying to do, and with it, so did the amulet around Victoria's neck, it shone bright, and she fought the impulse to tear it away, when for a moment, it seemed to turn into fire and burn her skin. Then Brandeur merely stopped, and the amulet soothed.
        He disguised his effort, thinking her spell must have taken more from him than it appeared. His first step faltered, and Naema was there beside him, a hand on his arm to aid with his balance. With a smile, he recomposed himself and removed it, and holding her hand carefully they were both gone.
        Victoria rushed towards Selina, both amulets reacting at the mere proximity of each other. Selina's eyes opened slowly, and she tried to stand, quickly finding that she could barely force herself to sit up. Not even aware of Victoria's presence, she lowered her head and burried it in hands, slightly surprised at the sight of blood in them. She hadn't seen her own blood in years. Only then she saw a shadow over her and looked up, seeing Victoria standing there, the amulet the first thing that caught her eyes. She looked down at her own, as if checking to see if it was really there. "Who are you?" She asked.
        Victoria kneeled down next to her, not even knowing where to begin. Her words formed and ied before they were even completed into a sentence. The silence lingered between them.
        Selina noticed the confusion and reached a hand towards Victoria. "May I see it?"
       Victoria nodded, thinking Selina would reach for the amulet, but her hand withdrew, and in a single instant, everything came and went from the surface of her mind. Everything she had seen, everything she had ever thought. When it ended, Selina's eyes were boaring into her, widened. "We lost..." She whispered to herself, still trying to accept the world she had seen through Victoria's eyes.
        Selina reached a hand towards the sleeping figure of the dragon and it came to her, slipping from Victoria's neck as if nothing held it there. She took both amulets and closed her hands, melting them away. As the gray liquid came together in her hands, the amulet regained its form as one. She placed it around her neck and it shone briefly, announcing it was awake.

        Drawn by the change, the small creatures approached, their eyes analizing Victoria carefully. Their question hung in the air, and she showed them what she saw in Victoria's mind. They seemed to absorve it, and then erase it, as if they were unaware of what had just been found. Selina tested her strength, trying to stand again, and this time succeding with a small support from Victoria. She quickly survailed her injuries, there was nothing grave. When she looked up again, their eyes were on her. 
        'You should have let us distract him.' They said in reprimand. 
        "He might have hurt you." She answered without looking them in the eyes. "Might have killed you."
       'You should not worry...' They started saying, but their sole voice died, as one after the other, the three pair of eyes joined in the same direction in the shadows, where a figure stood observant. 'Erin.' They let out in unison.
        Selina's gaze shifted immediately towards where the woman stared back at her. 'Erin... Don't be afraid.'
        Erin pulled back her hood, her eyes were challenging, even from afar. "I'm not afraid of you." She said in a normal voice. Through the distance, Selina found her words, even though she hadn't truly heard them.
        'Then why do you hide in the shadows?' She asked. 'Come closer.'
        Erin still hesitated a moment, her face carefully still, no intention shown in them. She approached slowly, her eyes carefully examining Selina, then Victoria. Selina avoided reading into her, but what she knew from Samantha was enough. "I know you seek vengeance on Brandeur. That, we have in common."
        Erin's pale eyes locked on her. "You wish to destroy him?" She asked.
      "Yes." Selina answered before it actually processed in her mind, surprising herself by the certainty of her tone. Then her eyes slipped to the three creatures standing quietly beside her and she knew where that certainty had come from. If Brandeur was merely sent into the abyss, everything would remain as he had left it, unnafected. If all his lasting deeds were to be undone, he had to die.
        Erin's lips thinned into a strange smile, the hatred was clear in her voice. "That is why I am here. To destroy that demon."
      Victoria turned to her, recognizing her attacker, and surprised that Selina had not mentioned Erin. For a moment, she wondered if they had ever met. She shook the questions away with a quick movement of her head. Erin had obviously failed, or not tried at all. For the first time since Erin had revealed herself, Victoria addressed her. "And how is it that you intend to kill him by yourself?"
        Erin removed from her vests a beautifully crafted dagger, patterned with jewels of various colors. She showed it to them as if its meaning were clear. Victoria looked at Selina in confusion. "What's so important about a dagger?" She asked with obvious skepticism.
        Selina reached for it, sliding her finger gently across the blade. There was no mistake, a trail of blood was left on the clear metal. Selina looked at Erin in amazement, then looked back at the red of her blood that now marked the blade.
        "There is only one weapon said to be able to draw blood from a Shanla." She said in a tone just above a whisper, as if it were a secret not to be shared.
        Erin merely smiled. "I know. It was found beneath the sands of the silver mountains. I've carried it with me for years."
        Selina's eyes unfocused for a moment and her voice carried on as a whisper, as if it were only her own thoughts. "It was no more than a myth for centuries... Until... And even then, some never believed it to be real."
        "I guess you can never trust what you hear..." Victoria said with a shrug.
        Selina's eyes still seemed to reach beyond them. "Beware of myths and legends, they are more real than what you believe..."
        "Indeed..."
        Coming from the direction of Selina's house, Gweneth came towards them, her steps quickening when she saw the blood on Selina's hand. "Selina... you're bleeding..." She let out with shock.
        Selina turned to her, the clear blue in Gweneth's eyes staring back at her. For a moment, her words were lost. She owed Gweneth an explanation, in the least. With a glance, Selina observed the streets. There was no one there but them, but they couldn't stay there. With a quiet gesture, she suggested they move. Hesitantly, Erin followed, her eyes suddenly noticing the absence of the three figures that had been there moments earlier. Her gaze darted about the streets, finding no trace of them. Walking slightly faster, she caught up with the others and followed them back to Gweneth's.