He couldn’t he allowed to continue, but she couldn’t get hold of him to stop him. Maybe words would delay him.
“Garou! ” she cried, still clinging to the gate, below his climbing figure. “What the hell are you doing? ”
He didn’t respond. How dare he ignore her!
“Listen to me, scum! ”
He paused, looking down at her, a frown on his lupine face.
“Why?! ” she yelled. “Why are you here? Why do you open the gate. 7”
He watched her silently, seeming to measure whether he should speak or not. He made his decision. “I followed you here, Zhyzhak. Your trail was obvious. ”
“Impossible! No Gaian can walk the Labyrinth without taint! ”
“You destroyed the Labyrinth behind you as you went, " he said, shaking his head, surprised at her ignorance. “It had no power over me. ”
Zhyzhak growled, angry at herself for her lack of awareness. “How long? ”
“I caught up with you around the Fifth Circle. I’ve shadowed you ever since. ”
“Why? You think you can destroy the Wyrm? ” Zhyzhak couldn’t help barking out a laugh as she said this.
“Free it. ” The Garou turned away from her and began to climb again, reaching for the fifth bolt.
Zhyzhak stared at him, confused. Why would he try to free it? What sort of trick was this? She wracked her violent brain but saw no solution. She had won the Ninth Circle, hadn’t she! By slaying its warden, she had won the right to abase herself before the Wyrm and beg a btx>n.
Or had she? It was the Circle of Deceit after all. Perhaps she was the deceived. Maybe this Gaian was just another trick of the place, designed to confuse her. If it sought to free the thing behind the gate, then surely her goal was to destroy that thing.
Yes! The thing behind the gate was the answer. It was the true manifestation of the circle’s test, not the warden. If she killed it, she would win.
She peered between the bars, looking into the deep gloom beyond for some glimpse of the creature. There, in the muck, chained to the far wall, was a coiled snake. It appeared to sleep, although parts of its body jerked and thrashed as if it experienced a nightmare. The thing was thin and weak, obviously starved. The chains held it tight and chafed its scales. It sat on a bed of its own dead skin, shed over a period of years.
She smiled wickedly and opened her mouth, heaving her stomach in and out, stoking the bellows that the Green Dragon totem had given her when she first pledged fealty to it. She coughed forth a stream of green flame. It shot across the length of the cell and into the snake, who awoke instantly, screaming and writhing, its chains rattling as it tried to escape the blistering fire.
Something heavy crashed into Zhyzhak, knocking her from the gate. She plummeted into the water and smashed into the floor, her submerged mouth gulping in a gout of sludge.
The Garou straddled her, his claws flaying her hide. Only her leather fetish saved her, armored with spirit powers. As he tore the last of the leather aside, ready to drive his hand into her chest, she rolled over, throwing him off.
She understood now: As long as he didn’t attack her, she couldn’t touch him. But he had broken his own spell by hitting her.
She leaped up from the water, surfacing in time to see the Garou climbing again for the bolt. She leaped again, slamming into him before he could get halfway up. She grabbed him by the neck and squeezed, using all her strength to crush his windpipe. He gagged, weakening. Instead of struggling to fight her grip, his eyes roved up and down her body, searching for something. Zhyzhak laughed at the ridiculousness of it.
The Garou reached out a single finger and pressed it into her rib. She spasmed, releasing him and flapping backwards, her limbs out of control. The pain overwhelmed her for a moment and she almost lost awareness, her rage rising to respond to the threat. She snarled and resisted the urge, realizing that this foe was no normal Garou.
She looked up and saw the Garou just as the fifth bolt clanged open.
She spat into her palm and summoned her power, transforming the spit into a glowing ball of balefire. She flung it at the Garou and hit him between the shoulder blades. He howled in agony and fell, splashing into the water.
Before he could recover, she coughed again, sending a gout of flame in his direction. It burned his fur and he rolled in the sludge, trying to extinguish the fire.
She unwrapped her whip from around her waist and snapped it at him, its barbs biting deep. He was weak— cunning, perhaps, but no match for her strength. He surprisingly dodged her next blow but came too close to her in doing so. She lashed out with her claws and tore away a piece of his thigh.
He limped away, breathing heavily, cringing from the pain all over his body. He glared at her and began to speak. Before he could get out a single word, she snapped her whip again. It slashed open his forehead and he collapsed. His labored breathing echoed throughout the room but he had stopped moving, his eyes closed.
She stepped up to him, ready to end it with a raised claw, when the furious clanking of chains from the cell distracted her. She turned to peer into the cell and saw the snake slipping from its bonds. She howled in anger and ran to the gate.
She snarled, calling upon a simple power taught to Black Spiral Dancer cubs. She poked her head through the gate and kept pushing, squeezing her body through the small opening. Her bones melted to allow her egress, reforming as soon as she was free of confinement on the other side of the gate. She oozed her entire body into the room and marched over to the snake.
It writhed, dancing to avoid her. She shot a claw forward and snatched its head. Without a moment’s hesitation, she bit the head off and crunched its skull to pieces, swallowing them down.
It tasted awful. She spat out a scale and picked another from between her teeth.
She walked back to the gate and squeezed her way through it again.
The fallen Garou opened his eyes weakly, watching her warily.
“Take that, fucker! ” Zhyzhak barked. "I killed your friend! ”
“You devoured the Devourer, ” he said, weakly rising on wobbling legs. “Now you will always be hungry. Not even the entire universe will satisfy you. ”
Zhyzhak cocked her head. “What the fuck are you—“ She gagged as something thrust up from her stomach into her throat, fighting its way into her mouth. Her jaws were pried open and a massive snake’s head slithered out as she uncontrollably vomited it up.
It kept coming. Yards and yards of snake, growing as it hit the water, coiling and circling the room. And still it came, bursting forth from within her, growing ever larger, sprouting wings and hundreds of arms.
It looked back at her, its eyes sparkling with malice.
A tail finally slithered from her mouth and she finished belching the beast forth. The tail grew a large fin, which traveled up the dragon’s length, fanning out over its head.
Then it bowed to her, waiting her command.
Zhyzhak stared at it, stunned. Then she laughed, great roaring guffaws. She understood now. She had won. She was more powerful than the Malfean general or the Dukes of Malfeas. Her reward was power unrivaled in history. She commanded the Wyrm's supreme manifestation, the ancient dragon of destruction.
“Get me back to Malfeas! ” Zhyzhak cried.
The dragon spread its wings and the ceiling burst apart. Above, the ruins of the Temple Obscura crumbled to the side, the tower cracking into pieces as it hit the ground. From the open crater, Zhyzhak squinted up into the storm-wrought sky of Malfeas.
For a bare moment, the dragon disappeared. A vast swirling vortex of energy roiled in its place. Every imaginable destructive force—fire, lightning, crushing earth and sharp ice—gathered into its single point. It drew her vision in, sucking at her sight with its awesome gravity. Then it exploded outward, spreading across and beyond the horizon.
She barely noticed a movement at the comer of her eye. She spun and saw the Garou scrambling up the wall, almost to the top already, rushin
g to escape. She almost let him go. If he could get through Malfeas, then let him warn his brethren about her, to tell them about her new power. But then she remembered the humiliation he’d put her through.
“Devour him! ” she snarled to the Wyrm.
The dragon’s snout shot out and swallowed the Garou whole in one bite. Zhyzhak began to cackle, but it became a growl as she saw the Garou’s face just before he disap-pea red into the dragon’s maw. She snarled, confused. He had displayed no fear, none of the bowel-loosening terror she wanted him to suffer. Hie bastard’s final insult to her was to smile and whisper a word she had barely heard. What was it? She struggled to understand the sounds. Chimera? One of the Gaian’s cursed totems. The fool had called out to his totem at the last. Pitiful. She yould eat this Chimera herself.
“Bring me my army! ” she yelled.
The dragon spread its wings again and shot into the sky. It hovered just below the clouds, where every being in Malfeas could see it. It opened its huge jaws and roared.
“You’ve got to believe me, ” Evan said, pacing back and forth in front of a snow bank a few yards from the center of the camp. “I saw it—a giant mist engulfing the whole area, pervading everything. The Talon is here. Now. ”
Aurak sat with his back against the snow bank. He nodded his head slowly, digesting what Evan said. He held a compress to a wound in his stomach. One of the Pentex commandoes had shot him with a silver bullet. It was nothing life-threatening, but Evan could see that it was painful. Aurak had insisted that his fellow shamans see to the wounds of the others before he would allow them to use their mystical powers on him. Their spiritual energy had limits, and he felt it was necessary that all the warriors be healed first, despite Painted Claw’s insistence otherwise. The War Chief felt that Aurak was more important but had been unable to sway him.
If worst came to worst and another attack began, Aurak could call on his will to ignore the pain—a power known to the Wendigo. But he knew that would tax his mental reserves so he frugally chose to suffer the pain for now.
“Crying Bird’s vision is strange, ” Aurak said, grimacing as he shifted his weight from one side to the other. "I have heard legends of a few heroes who walked the Path of the Milky Way, the road our ancestors take to reach Gaia after their deaths, but they are old and say very little about that road. ”
“I’ve never seen a Garou ghost before, ” Evan said. “It’s pretty chilling. I’ve heard of human ghosts, though; they’re supposed to be cursed, not like our ancestors. Our ancestors return to us as spirits, part of the natural cycle, after they’ve taken their place in the ancestral realms. Crying Bird and the others.... ” Evan shook his head, shivering. “Their spirits hadn’t departed yet. They waited to show me the vision. ”
“They were not yet part of the ancestors’ realm, ” Aurak said, nodding, “but they did the bidding of the ancestors. The ancestors chose you long ago—perhaps from before your birth—for a special task. I think the Heartsplinter is your task. It is your nemesis, the thing that prevents you from bringing together our tribes. ”
“Then why won’t anybody else listen to me. ’" Evan said, throwing his hands up in frustration. “You’re the only one who believes me about what I saw! ”
Aurak nodded and looked over at the rest of the camp. Painted Claw paced by the fire, scowling, talking with his warriors. He occasionally shot an angry glance at Evan but then turned away, purposefully distracting himself with some other affair: a report from the perimeter guard or a request from a wounded warrior.
“It is the Talon, ” Aurak said, sighing. “It distracts them and does not allow them to hear your words. ”
“Why do I see it? ” Evan said. "I expect you to see it— you’re an elder. But I’m not that strong yet. And I’m not even a Theurge. ”
Aurak frowned. “But I cannot see it. I only know it by what you tell me and by the strange behavior of the others. ”
Evan stopped his pacing and looked at Aurak. “But... I thought you could sense its presence. ’1
Aurak shook his head. “Sense it? No. I read the clues in our people’s behavior. I suspected it was here, or at least somewhere close. Your vision only confirms my suspicions. ” “Then again—why am I the only one who can see it? Is it because of the ancestors? Did they give me some power? "
Aurak shrugged his shoulders. “I do not know. You are meant to confront it. That I know. You and the Heartsplinter are connected in some way. Cries-at-Sundown knew it as soon as he heard your name. Perhaps the ancestors worked for many centuries to bring your spirit forth so that a champion would exist here and now to fight it. ” Evan shook his head. “Then why didn’t they warn me before now? Why spring it on me out of nowhere? ”
“Sometimes, to speak of a thing is to give that thing power over you—or to alert that thing. If the Heartsplinter knew you were near, would it have come this way? Maybe it would have gone west or east instead, and caused havoc among those who could not see it and so could not fight it. Secrecy is a type of power, for us as well as the Wyrm. ” Evan shut his eyes and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know what to do. ”
Aurak leaned forward. “Think about what you have experienced in the past: Your pack discovered the Defiler Wyrm’s servants. What is the lesson the Defiler teaches? Wounds that remain untreated do not heal and become infected. It infected the spirits of many Garou. ”
Evan knew the Wyrm’s three aspects: the brutal Beast-of-War, the ever hungry Eater-of-Souls and the secretive, supremely corrupting Defiler. “Loba Carcassone found out about the Defiler Wyrm’s minions, ” Evan said. “The Seventh Generation cultists. Loba’s a tribemate of Albrecht’s. Nobody believed her but him. When he became king, he made everybody else see the truth by gening them out in the field to fight them. ”
“Good. It must be confronted, like the Heartsplinter. But where does it hide? “
Evan frowned. “It’s not hiding. It’s all over the Penumbra. But only I can see it. ”
Aurak shook his head. “That is not what I mean. Where has it hidden all these years? You said that the banetenders only bound its heart. That means the rest was free. Why was it not discovered? "
Evan thought for a minute. “It’s called the Heartsplinter because it hides in our hearts. Not literally, though. I guess that means it masks itself with our emotions. ”
“And what is the strongest of those emotions? ”
Evan's jaw clenched. “Rage. It hides behind our rage. That’s why we can’t see it. Anytime its actions might reveal it, they’re misinterpreted as rage—aimless anger. ” “Our rage is its camouflage. Rage is our pain at Gaia’s wounds but it is also the means by which we block that pain. It keeps us from looking within. All our anger is sent outwards. We miss what is hidden inside. That is how the Defiler Wyrm gets its power. The Heartsplinter does the same. ”
Evan sat down, tired. “So it’s using our rage against us. Probably even making it worse. Obviously, giving in to rage is out of the question; it probably has power over Garou who are lost in frenzy. ”
“We must think of the bane as two aspects, ” Aurak said, leaning back, his eyes watching the night sky. “The bane itself, one of the five Talons of the Wyrm who was bound by the banetenders—this is its heart. Then there is its power, capable of reaching far beyond itself, creeping into the hearts of Garou and enhancing their anger. It does not possess Garou like a normal bane does; it uses its power from afar to unleash their rage and help them bring about their own destruction. ”
“If it can do that when bound, what can it do now, when it’s free? "
“It can make us destroy ourselves, ” Aurak said, looking back at Evan. “It has used its power to keep the tribes angry at one another, to prevent reconciliation. Your task is to achieve that reunion between lost brothers and sisters. You are its nemesis. You must each confront the other. ” “How? ” Evan cried, spreading his arms out. “It's a formless mist! ”
“No, ” Aurak said, waving a
finger at Evan. “It cloaks itself with mist. Somewhere within is its heart, the thing the banetenders bound. You must find that and strike there. "
Evan stood up. “Then I need to go back into the Umbra. That’s where I can see it. ” He reached over his shoulder and lifted his bow. “Will my arrows even stop it? Only three of them are bane arrows. "
Aurak thought for a moment, sighing. “I think all your arrows will hurt it. You are the Healer of the Past; it is the wound. In your hands, arrows are knives with which to cut out its poison. ” Aurak grunted and leaned forward, gripping his staff. He then stood up, wavering unsteadily for a moment before catching his balance with the staff. “I am going with you. ”
Evan shook his head. “They need you here. Besides, you can’t see it. ”
Aurak raised his eyebrows. “So? That did not stop me from figuring out more about it than you. ”
Evan hung his head. “Yeah. I’m really out of my league. ” “No, ” Aurak said, smiling. “That’s not what I meant. I just want you to give an old man some credit now and then. I may not be able to see it, but I can figure out its tricks. I’ve been around a long time, you know. Garou don’t get as old as me without some cunning. ”
Evan smiled. “I’ve got to say, I’m relieved to hear it. I didn’t want to do this alone. "
“Do what alone? ” Painted Claw said, appearing behind Evan. He had moved so silently that Evan hadn’t noticed him. Aurak seemed unsurprised.
Evan turned to face him. “I’ve got to go into the Umbra and fight the Talon. Aurak has decided to accompany me. ”
Painted Claw frowned. He opened his mouth and then shut it, as if trying to think of something to say. He shook his head and crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. The scouts have not reported anything. "
Evan sighed. This was the same response he’d gotten earlier. 11 was as if Painted Claw’s brain disconnected whenever he mentioned the Talon.
Aurak stepped forward. “Evan and I are going to scout the Umbra. If we’re not back before dawn, come look for our bones. ”
World of Darkness - [Time of Judgment 02] - The Last Battle Page 23