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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 4132105" data-attributes="member: 812">Interlude IIEverything here cried out for release. Even the paving stones seemed to shriek in endless, hopeless agony. The crumbled walls of palaces and towers shuddered under the unrelenting wail of the wind. This place shook with despair.Overhead, the sky twisted in a dark cyclone, but not of cloud or rain. The dark streaks wound around each other, falling and rising in tumultous discord, and here and there revealing faces, or at least half-visioned features, torn away before they could register any expressions beyond terror and pain.Corpses shook in the wind, bones held together with horrid bits of sinew and dried flesh. So many corpses. So many had died here.And none of them had died well.A dark archway led down into a dark, dank basement. Oiled steel surfaces gleamed with unsavoury cleanliness. The wind was not so loud down here, where heavy stone arches thick with dust and soot hung over the cracked floor. Not so loud to drown out the stuttering rhythm of the young girl gasping once every twenty heartbeats, her thin body twitching on the steel slab. Pipes and tubes ran from needles driven into her limbs. A dial registered some flow of current or fluid.She stared up at the ceiling, not dying well at all.*****"Why should we trust you? You're responsible for this situation in the first place."Metallic limbs clicked and cables wound in steady, quiet whines. Matai Shang drew nearer. Kimiko Torokan tried very hard not to look frightened."You have no need of trust. Logic demands this course. My own self-interest requires it. What more surety can you find?"Torokan swallowed and looked around at the ice-streaked walls. They stood in a great towering chamber, light dropping from high above, reflecting brilliantly all down the immense frozen cascade that hung, as though struck to ice in the midst of plunging down to where they stood, Matai Shang and the Blood Mother.Between them an obsidian staff stood in a curious harness, its upper end tipped with the largest emerald Torokan had ever seen."We'll need some evidence that this thing actually works.""Oh, but of course, Kimiko Torokan. I have arranged a demonstration. Please, take up the weapon."Torokan stared. The greatest enemy the Blood Council had ever faced. The man who had destroyed the last true Blood Mother. She had killed her own friends for associating with this foul creature.She picked up the staff.Shang gestured with a bony hand and cringing minions unsnapped the latches on a huge iron box, far taller than a man. A door on the side flew open and a wild-eyed figure leapt out, skin as white as the ice on all sides.It shrieked and lunged for one of the minions. Blood exploded across the snowy floor."After it kills the second one it will come after us, Kimiko Torokan. Move quickly, I beg you."Torokan, startled out of her sudden terror, grasped hold of the staff more firmly, and the darkness of Shadow rose up all around her, the inky tendrils writhing and seeping into the staff as though drawn against their will.The creature turned towards her and she thrust the staff in its direction. A vivid green line burst from the emerald, striking the blood-covered monster in the chest.It shrieked again, but this time in terror. It clawed at itself, tearing skin in great flaps. Jerking and convulsing, it fell to its knees, begging for mercy.Torokan held on, grimly controlling a rush of sorcery more intense than she'd ever felt. The staff helped her maintain her focus but it was a desperate effort to hang on as she felt the device tearing at the vampire's soul.A sudden blast of Shadow erupted from the creature, exploding away in a dizzying explosion of sorcerous power, and there was nothing. It was gone.Torokan stared. Where the vampire had once been, knelt a man. Weeping. Bleeding from the terrible wounds he'd inflicted on himself. Looking about himself in new amazement.A mortal man."It worked.""Indeed."Shang gestured again and his surviving minion thrust a sword into the man's back. He collapsed with a groan."Of course, he was just formed. The Demon Goddess will require considerably more time. I shall endeavour to keep her busy.""You promised me the Blood Mother.""Indeed. And she shall be restored, Kimiko Torokan. The Demon Goddess is the key.""Will she come? Are you sure she will come?""Did I not create her myself? Of course she will come, Kimiko Torokan. Her pride alone will compel her. And she will be ours."*****Everywhere, the same face. Beautiful.Carved into every surface.Painted across every wall.Her perfect face.Madame Yuek's knees cracked as she collapsed on the mirror-smooth marble tiles of her castle's entry hall. Girl's voices rose high and excited as two young women came tearing down the wide staircase to greet her. She shuddered, and looked down to see dark flesh still gripped in her hand. Something bestial happened inside her eyes and she stuffed the chunk of meat into her mouth, grunting as she bolted it down."Goddess, Goddess, Goddess, You're back. We love You so much, Goddess, we love You so much. Thank You. Thank You. We love You."Madame Yuek raised her head to regard the girls bowing and praying before her."Stand up, Yuri-chan."The girl addressed leapt to her feet, her eyes fixed on the floor in front of her. Yuek ran a hand through the girl's long hair and then seized her by the throat. Yuri's gaze never wavered."Answer this question: Are you afraid?""No, Goddess."Yuek released her."Down."Yuri collapsed to her knees and folded her upper body down to again press her face against the polished black marble. Yuek studied her, thoughtful."You are not afraid that I will kill you, Yuri-chan?"Without looking up the girl answered."It is my most fervent desire that you will kill me, Goddess."Yuek nodded."I will, Yuri-chan. I promise. I."The vampire shook, released the girl and then threw herself down, slamming her face into the marble tiles beneath. Bones snapped and skin tore. Teeth clattered across the floor."Goddess!"She did it again. And again. And again.*****Something like a great cat passed through the field. Black gleaming pelt and a sinuous padding stride, yellow flash of burning eyes.Perez was dead the same moment he realised what he saw. The beast tore him in two with a casual sweep of its talons. Diego had a second to run, but not enough time to scream. He felt a weight on his back; then he felt no more.It was much later and some distance away that Emmanuelle del Valenzia awoke. She found herself naked in a sunny cornfield, a middle-aged woman with deep lines of worry and suffering in her face, but clearly not a woman who'd lived a life of hard labour. She scrambled to her feet, trying instinctively to cover herself. Dust rose up and clung to her bare skin.She looked down at herself and saw blood. Her gaze lifted and she saw the torn bodies."Not again."</blockquote>

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