by Alan Scott
“Yes, old friend,” said Autumn Breeze, “the Cave.”
Cloud Chaser looked around at the terrible, violent yet exquisite beauty of the vista surrounding him. While the cold turned his tears to crystal droplets almost immediately, he managed to say, “It is so, so beautiful.”
“Had you forgotten?” enquired Autumn Breeze.
“Yes.”
“How sad.”
“Yes,” answered Cloud Chaser as he lifted his eyes to the skies and watched his fellow Chosen dance and play on the airstreams that flowed between the tall peaks of the Star Mountains. His eyes were then drawn to a single peak, partially hidden by cloud - the highest peak in the entire range. “Home.”
“Ah, yes,” said Autumn Breeze, “the Draken Peak - the spiritual home of all the Chosen and the place where the forge of the gods can be found.”
“Where the Draken Amulet was created,” thought Cloud Chaser with a smile.
“I am glad that the view brings you happiness, Cloud Chaser,” said Autumn Breeze, misinterpreting the smile.
“Oh, it does, my old friend; oh, it does. But I need to enter the Cave soon. This body is not built for the cold.” With that, Cloud Chaser pushed on through the cold, the snow, and the wind towards the entranceway.
“How fragile the human body is,” thought Autumn Breeze as he followed Cloud Chaser.
***
Joanna Harris swept through the dimly lit corridors, daring anyone to get in her way. It took her a good ten minutes to finally reach her destination - a plain door in an unremarkable passageway. Throwing open the door, Joanna barged straight in.
“Who dares...” began Maria Clough as she turned to face the noise. Upon seeing Joanna, Maria quickly changed her tone. “My lady, I do apologise. If I had known it was you...”
“Shut up,” declared Joanna, her eyes searching the room. “Do you have guests?”
“No.”
“Where is your bodyguard?”
“He is in the bedroom.”
“Call him.”
“Yes, my lady.” A confused Maria then shouted out, “Guard! Come here!”
A heavily muscled and semi-naked man exited from Maria’s bedroom. “Yes, my lady?”
Joanna Harris moved like a striking serpent. One moment, she was walking slowly towards Maria; next, she was behind the man, her clawed hands ripping into his back and breaking his spine. With a scream of pain, he dropped to the floor, blood pouring from his wounds.
Maria’s face betrayed no emotions. She simply asked, “Why?”
“Because you will no longer need him.” Joanna shrugged. “Or should I say, you will no longer need him for his old purpose.”
“My lady?”
Joanna's eyes locked onto Maria’s as she stalked closer. Nearing her, Joanna reached out and grabbed Clough by the throat. Maria’s eyes opened wide, as she clasped Joanna’s wrist with both hands.
“I told you a long while ago that, if you were good, you would become my Dark Herald. I have decided that it’s now time.” With that, Joanna pulled Maria’s face close to hers and ran her tongue up the side of her face. “Mmmm, you taste nice,” Joanna purred. She grasped Maria’s hair with her free hand and, pulling her head violently and painfully to one side, sank her teeth into Maria’s neck and drank deeply.
Despite herself, Maria tried to fight back, but Joanna Harris's grip was unyielding. The pain was excruciating and, slowly but steadily, Maria’s vision faded to black as the pain melted away.
***
Cloud Chaser walked through the Cave's entrance and down a wide natural corridor, which gently curved to the left. After five hundred feet, the corridor changed from the rugged natural look to an altogether different and crafted look. The walls were smooth with precious stones worked into them, depicting swirling geometric shapes. Cloud Chaser placed his hand on one of the shapes and smiled wistfully as he continued down the passageway.
It was an hour later that he finally began to near his destination. As he walked, Cloud Chaser had notice that the geometric shapes on the walls had became less and less frequent until finally, with a mere two hundred yards to go, they had vanished and the walls had became plain and unadorned. Cloud Chaser stared at the open entranceway before him and took a deep breath, held it for a count of ten, then exhaled. “It is do or die time,” he muttered to himself. “How terribly exciting.”
Autumn Breeze flew down one of the many shafts that ran from the outside of the mountain to its heart chamber, his mind working overtime as he tried to work out the ramifications of the return of his old friend. Why had he come back now? What was he planning? Who was going to die?
Exiting the shaft, he entered a huge pitch black cavern. The floor was littered with detritus and, in the air, hundreds of Chosen flitted about. Autumn Breeze flew to the ceiling of the cave and observed the chaos below him. There was something different about this meeting; there was something in the air. There was an atmosphere of excitement mixed with amusement and - something else, something annoyingly out of grasp. What was it? He was starting to feel it, too, now.
At that moment, the room went silent as Cloud Chaser strode into the chamber. It was then that Autumn Breeze knew what the third thing was. It was something he had hardly ever felt before. It was unease.
Cloud Chaser walked into the room and smirked. “I am so glad to see so many of my old friends turning up here to greet my return.”
“But why have you returned?” asked a young female Chosen.
Cloud Chaser continued to walk to the centre of the room. “Ah, Daughter Cloud Chaser, I hope I find you well.”
“Yes, Father Cloud Chaser, I am well. Why have you returned?”
“Ever straight to the point, Daughter. However, I was hoping North Wind would be about.”
“I am here, Past Cloud Chaser,” said a powerful voice on Cloud Chaser's right.
“Ah, yes, I forgot how complicated names were for us - all this past, present, father, daughter. Let’s just make it easy for everyone. Just call me the Midnight Man.”
“Why do you wish to deny your Chosen name,” there was a hard edge to the North Wind's voice, “if you wish to return to the fold?”
“Yes, Father, why do you wish to deny your name?” asked Daughter Cloud Chaser.
The Midnight Man continued to pace the cave and kick a few rocks around. “Because I am different from you. I walk whilst you fly. I can feel emotions every single day and you cannot.”
“We feel emotions,” corrected North Wind.
“Pah, weak watered-down crap,” dismissed the Midnight Man, “and you know that, North Wind. That is why we enter young boys' bodies and drive them to war, where emotions are at their highest. It's only then that we, the Chosen, can feel true emotions.”
A murmur of agreement went round the cave.
“Then, of course, we kill them so that we can escape their bodies,” the Midnight Man shrugged his shoulders, “but they are only humans who breed like rabbits, and culling a few of them now and again keeps the numbers in check.”
“This is true,” agreed North Wind. “They are there merely to be used by us.”
“I could not agree with you more,” laughed the Midnight Man as he kicked another stone, “and I use them until they are mere lumps of meat.”
“Why, Father?” asked Daughter Cloud Chaser.
“Because of the emotions that are created by doing so, emotions that I can harvest, that I can feel. None of you,” the Midnight Man raised his arm and pointed around the chamber, “can possibly imagine the emotions that I have felt.” The Midnight Man walked round the cave. “You cannot possibly imagine the highs and the deep lows that I have scaled or plummeted down. Oh, my people, my Chosen, I wish that, for a moment, you could know the pleasure and pain that I have felt.”
“But you cannot fly the peaks, Father Cloud Chaser,” Autumn Breeze's voice cut through the Midnight Man's rhetoric.
“My name is the Midnight Man, and no, old friend, I cannot fly t
he peaks, for I am earth bound.”
“So, I ask again the question your daughter asked at the beginning, the question you have been evading. Why have you returned… Midnight Man?”
“Ah, old friend, I could almost, just almost, feel the hate in your words. Mmm, surprisingly delicious.” The Midnight Man cast his eyes downwards and shuffled forward.
“WELL?” demanded Autumn Breeze.
“I came looking for something - something I need.”
“WHAT?”
“Ah, well, that would be telling, old friend.” The Midnight Man continued his walk around the pitch black cavern. He could feel the atmosphere of the cave change. There was violence in the air.
“Father, please, tell us what you want.”
“I want what I need to further my plans and goals.”
“And what is that?”
The Midnight Man’s foot caught on a small chain that was half-buried under the sediment that was lying on the cavern floor. “Ah.” Bending over, he ran his fingers down the chain to the thing that was attached. “Ah.”
“Answer your daughter's question!” demanded North Wind.
“Well,” said the Midnight Man, standing up, “well, well, well. They thought it would be safe in a vast pitch black cave - a cave that could only be entered from the highest peaks in the Star Mountains and defended by creatures mostly made of air - creatures that had no real interest in its abilities.”
“KILL HIM!” screamed North Wind, suddenly understanding.
The Midnight Man grasped the Draken Amulet in his hand and laughed maniacally as his other hand warped into black and red tentacles that lashed out and ripped apart a Chosen. “I shall tell you what I want. I want to be a god and I want to kill all the other gods.”
“You are insane,” said North Wind.
“Yup, you are most possibly right,” grinned the Midnight Man as he killed another Chosen and drank its soul via the Draken Amulet.
Autumn Wind swooped down and grabbed the Midnight Man from behind, trying to lock his arms to his sides. “You are not my friend,” he whispered into the Midnight Man’s ear.
“No, I’m not,” replied the Midnight Man as a barrage of small stones, soil, and rocks hit his chest and face, drawing blood. The deadly black and red tentacle plunged into the incorporeal body of Autumn Wind and ripped him apart from the inside. As it did so, it drained his soul and used its energy to repair the damage that the Midnight Man had sustained a few seconds ago.
A blast of freezing air struck the Midnight Man, sending him sprawling across the floor. “DIE!” screamed North Wind as he let loose another arctic blast. Frost clung to the Midnight Man's clothes and face, and he shivered as the cold penetrated deep into his flesh. Pushing himself up to his knees, he lashed out with the deadly Draken tentacle, which ripped apart another Chosen. Renewed by the energy from its soul, the Midnight Man stood up as the cold and frost vanished from his body.
“Die, yourself!” shouted the Midnight Man as he flung the tentacle towards North Wind who quickly backed away from the deadly touch, allowing other Chosen to swoop in and attack the deadly intruder.
Buoyed up by the souls that he had drained, the Midnight Man found his reactions and speed had greatly increased. With a wicked snarl, he let loose his new abilities and lost himself in an orgy of destruction and violence.
***
Maria Clough awoke to an uncontrollable burning hunger within her and sat bolt upright from a prone position. Her wild eyes desperately searched her room. Standing by the window was Joanna Harris, who was quietly talking to herself. There on the floor was Guard, who was painfully dragging himself along the floor towards the bedroom.
A hiss escaped Maria’s mouth as she smelt the salty, coppery blood. Her entire body shivered as the smell heightened her hunger. Joanna Harris turned her head slightly to look at Maria. “Feed.”
Maria sprang forward and leaped onto Guard’s back, causing him to yell out. Ignoring his cries, Maria grabbed his hair, pulled his head to one side, and sank her newly-formed vampyric teeth into his neck and began to slake her dark and unholy thirst.
“Welcome to the true Brethren of the Night, Sister. Feed, feed deeply and long. Once you have finished, we will talk. Later, once you have adapted to your new life, we will go out and spread chaos and destruction within the Twin Kingdoms. We shall then make it our mission to find and kill this Mancer before he can harm my poor, poor son.” Joanna Harris spat on the floor. “Mancer must die.”
Caught in a full feeding frenzy, Maria Clough did not hear a single word uttered from Joanna’s mouth.
***
Tears poured from the Midnight Man’s face as he knelt in the centre of the vast cave. All around him lay dead Chosen. “What have I done?” he asked the world. “What have I done?” he repeated as he ran his hands through his hair.
“You have destroyed the Chosen, Father Cloud Chaser,” said Daughter Cloud Chaser.
“Ah, Daughter, you have survived. That is good. That is good,” said the Midnight Man as he wiped away the tears and stood up.
“How could you, Father?” asked Daughter Cloud Chaser. “How could you do this?” She swept an all encompassing arm around the pitch dark cave.
The Midnight Man closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Because it felt good,” he said with a smile. “Oh, Daughter, the emotions... I have never felt them so strongly before - pain, power, guilt, remorse - the euphoria of it all, Daughter.” The Midnight Man put his hands to the side of his head. “The power of being able to kill everyone was so, so sweet, yet when mixed in with the pain and grief of killing your own kind, it lifted the sensation to a whole new level.”
“There are barely sixty of us left.” Daughter Cloud Chaser drifted closer to her father. “Sixty,” she repeated.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Only sixty?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, my.” The Midnight Man put a hand over his mouth as if in shock.
“It will take centuries for us to recover, if we recover at all.”
“Do you know what I feel, Daughter?”
“No, Father, what do you feel?”
“Total indifference.” The Midnight Man laughed out loud.
Daughter Cloud Chaser slowly shook her head.
“Do you know why we are called the Chosen?”
“Of course, Father. Because we were Chosen to protect the Draken Sky Forge that lies at the top of this mountain range and, more importantly, to protect the Draken Amulet - an amulet so powerful that… well, you know what it does.“
“Well, I guess we are Chosen no more.”
“No, Father,” said Daughter Cloud Chaser, sadly. “We are now simple Aer’ver.”
Ignoring his daughter, the Midnight Man looked round the pitch black cave. “Now, other races would have locked the amulet away in a safe, placed guards, etc. etc. - all that does is tell everyone where the amulet is! No, we had a far more cunning plan.” The Midnight Man grinned. “It was so wonderfully simple. We found the biggest and darkest cave in the tallest mountain in the tallest mountain range and we simply dropped the amulet on the floor in that cave.
“You cannot shadow-door in, as no one outside the Chosen have ever seen the inside of the cave. To climb the mountain is suicidal. If the cold does not get you, then the avalanches would - avalanches set off by us, the Chosen.
“However, if by some miracle you did get to the cave entrance, you would need to get past the cave defences - the designs on the walls, each design relating to a different trap - fire, electricity, air. Only a Chosen can walk past unharmed.
“So having survived all that, you are met by a pitch dark vast cave. Anyone lighting a fire would have it extinguished straight away by Chosen as they swooshed about.” The Midnight Man held his arm out and ran a little ways before dropping them by his side. “It was only by chance that I found the amulet almost three centuries ago,” the Midnight Man grasped the amulet in his right hand, “and
when I did, I knew I had to have it. I wanted to use it. I wanted to feel the deep, deep emotions it could bring. However, I needed a physical body for it to work.”
Daughter Cloud Chaser slowly drifted towards her father. “Does that mean...”
“It means nothing, Daughter,” said the Midnight Man with a dismissive gesture.
“So what now, Father?”
“Ah, I am so glad you asked, daughter of mine. Right, I need to go.” With that, the Midnight Man turned to jog out of the cavern via the route he had entered.
***
Gideon Sandhu stood on the highest spire of rock that rose from the Brethren’s island fortress, looking out at the violent ocean as it threw itself upon the black rock. He always found solace being where so few could reach him and watching the constantly changing moods of the sea.
“Sandhu,” the Midnight Man called directly into Gideon’s mind.
“My lord?”
“Gather the true Brethren and have each of them ready - twenty of the finest Midnight Guard and twenty of our most depraved fanatics.”
“As you command, my lord.”
“Oh, and Gideon, tell Miriam to bring twenty bottles of God’s Fire with her.”
“Yes, my lord,” replied Gideon before he felt the link being broken. A thrill of anticipation rippled through Gideon’s body. At last, the Brethren were entering the war.
***
“Mother!” called out the Midnight Man.