Unhallowed Shadows

by Stefanos Kottas

  “He asked for help and once again I refused him. How many more nights must I spend regretting those refusals? How many sleepless nights must I spend, wondering what would have happened, had I said yes? How can you refuse a mother beseeching you to save her child? And yet, exactly like she had no choice, I had none either, for how can a man truly admit that his entire life had been one long mistake? Each decision hasty and thoughtless, his existence doomed to witness the destruction of all that he held dear? One thing is certain, though. The Darkness is approaching and only this child had the strength to avert it; a child lost in the sands of time, in an era yet unseen. I swore to her that I could protect this child; that I would save her descendant, but she did not hear me, for she was lying dead at my feet. It is better this way, for I lied. Her child will die and I very much fear that this will happen by my own hand”.

  The bunker eventually ended, the elevator went no further. A hastily dug tunnel led even deeper underground. Erica could sense the tons of bedrock pressing down over their heads and even she was experiencing the dread felt by any human who ventures too far down from the surface of the earth and the open skies. She could only wonder who and why would build a temple this far under the ground.

  The young woman was walking quietly next to her, holding a flashlight. She had given nothing but her name to Erica: “Lahifa”, which meant “the one who helps”. Erica had heard many stories about the order to which Lahifa belonged, those Arab warriors who were holding the demons at bay, away from the humans. She could not take her eyes off her and no matter how much she wanted to, she could not avoid making comparisons. This young woman reminded her of herself, before she became a vampire. She looked pure, with an air of confidence about her and a flame springing eternal from within, stemming from her spirit and the strength granted to her by her God. This last observation was considered to be taboo, while she was growing up in the Order of the Silver Sun. None of her tutors, not even her own father, was able to offer an answer as to how people who did not follow the same religion with them had such powers. This was also the main reason the two orders would not communicate and cooperate. Each was responsible for its sector and stubbornly refused to tackle this rather important issue. Even Erica, who as a young girl displayed an insatiable curiosity, quickly stopped wondering about it. After all, her own God granted her impressive powers and this was good enough an answer for her.

  The silence weighed heavily between them, so Erica decided to break it:

  “Could you tell me exactly where we are going?” she asked Lahifa, and then added: “Or, maybe, why you’re not trying to kill me?”

  Lahifa turned to her; quite neutrally, she answered that “she would see for herself soon enough”. Indeed, it wasn’t long before they had reached the end of the tunnel and walked inside an enormous natural cavern, which immediately reminded Erica of the place where Archytas had imprisoned the Creature. As in the case of that prison, here too there was a small ziggurat, built at the center of the cavern. The years had not been kind to it; a large part of the structure had collapsed. She could detect the places where the Order had attempted to restore the temple, without particular success. Wooden boards were strewn about and beams supported the entrance to the temple. Unable to restore the structure to its original condition, as it was impossible to bring this far underground the necessary machinery, the knights had commenced the painstaking process of collecting all that could be salvaged from the temple. Already around the cavern they had placed numerous containers, statues and carefully removed parts of murals, along with piles of books, all placed in glass displays. Erica approached slowly, carefully observing each find, without waiting for Lahifa, who was trying to start a generator close to the entrance. The old generator, with a tired groan, began turning and gradually the entire cavern was lit by thin fluorescent bulbs which had been placed all over the place.

  The young vampire stood before a statue depicting a female angel holding an infant, her wings wrapped protectively around her arms. Chiseled tears decorated the face of the winged creature, which was staring in terror at some unseen enemy before her. The detail in the statue was stunning and Erica felt her skin crawl.

  “I think it is time for a history lesson, at least insofar as we have managed to reconstruct it”, said Lahifa, behind her.

  She held the young vampire from the arm and went on to lead her amongst the finds, pointing and explaining what they were seeing.

  “Thousands of years ago, in a time before the coming of our prophet, there were no demons or angels on Earth. It was then that the first humans slowly took their first steps, along with the gradual rise of the first empires. Think of a time before Babylon even existed, before the first vampires, Naram-Sin and all the others”, she said, pointing at murals depicting men toiling in the fields, building houses and temples. “Heaven and hell were planes of existence separate to our own world. Angels and demons had been battling each other since the dawn of the universe, attempting to vanquish each other. Our planet had remained unnoticed in this never-ending struggle, but luck was something mankind never truly had by its side. A comet, different to all those we have been able to observe with the modern instruments available to us now, struck Earth. The impact pulverized a large part of what would become known as Europe and the entire planet entered a prolonged, deep winter”. They were standing in front of a mural depicting a black meteorite falling from the sky. “The few humans who managed to survive realized, when this long and cruel winter ended, that they were no longer alone on this planet. Shadowy creatures now lurked in the dark, while the humans themselves had changed. The first traces of magic were already flowing in the blood of some special humans, those who represented the very best humanity had to offer at the time. These holy warriors slowly emerged, men and women, with a single purpose in their lives: to protect us from all that was unnatural”.

  They were now standing in front of a mural depicting a human army, similar to the one in Erica’s memories from the life of Naram-Sin. Before the soldiers, in such a manner as to show that he was not one of them, stood a man whose face resembled that of Archytas. Lahifa, noticing the look in Erica’s face and realizing she had recognized him, gestured to all the various finds around them and continued her narration:

  “All these things around us were made by one of those charismatic men, Archytas, which is but one of the names he was known by in the course of history. The ancient Greeks had named him Hephaestus and he was considered by them the god of constructions and inventions, unaware of the fact that the human inventor known as Archytas and the one they considered a god was one and the same. Archytas led the humans against the source of the shadows, a parasitic creature, which had arrived on Earth with that meteorite. This creature, wounded by the impact and unable to survive on its own the conditions in Earth, which were alien to it, infected a human, by entering his body. This human at first would have had the choice of resisting it, but the Creature charmed him, granting him unique powers at that time. Gradually, his humanity was erased and the host became one with the Creature, in mind and body. Archytas led the human army against it and managed to defeat it, deep within the mountain where the meteorite had crashed. Instead of killing it, however, thus eradicating it once and for all, they imprisoned it and entered a pact with it: it would grant them eternal life, in exchange for them sparing its life and assisting it, thousands of years later”.

  They left behind them yet another mural, depicting the leaders of the human army standing around the Creature, which, trapped under the golden net woven by Archytas, granted them its powers, by transferring its unholy magic to them.

  “Why would they agree on such a pact?” exclaimed Erica, annoyed. “Not to mention that there are plenty of gaps in your story! I have seen part of Naram-Sin’s memories. Archytas was not seeing the Creature for the very first time the day they went to do battle with it!”

  It was Lahifa’s turn to show surprise. She paused for a moment, her mind working feverishly.
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br />   “I know nothing of what you say. Please allow me to narrate the story the way we know it, as it has been passed down to me by my father, the Great Ayatollah, and afterwards you can tell me your version of it. Now, as to the reasons behind the pact, inside the temple we discovered some texts in which Archytas spoke of the pact… Let me show them to you”, the young woman replied and led her to a table where a glass display contained several pages.

  She pointed to a particular page and Erica immediately began reading it, her brain automatically translating the ancient language:

  “I managed to better secure the Creature with my trap, renewing the protective runes around the cavern. Its screams were all but insufferable, but I was determined to put an end to this sordid affair. Naram-Sin had managed to get up and the others were tending to him as best as they could, while I was preparing for the ritual that would have to be performed in order to eradicate the Shadow once and for all. Each time it would stop screaming, it tried to convince us not to kill it, to allow it to live. It would promise us everything under the moon and the sun. No one paid any attention to its ramblings, I had warned them that this would happen. How could I have known that in the end it would be I who paid heed to it! Before I could commence the ritual, it began cackling. “You will not kill me”, it said with conviction. “I have seen the future”, it continued. “So have I”, I responded. “I have seen a future free of you. I have seen cities of gold, resplendent in their prosperity and culture, free of fear and misery”. The Creature went on with its cackling and I was about to ignore it and move on with the preparations, until it spoke these words which I shall never forget: “You haven’t seen what happens next…” The Creature then exhaled a tall and thick pillar of smoke. This pillar formed a small cloud and, looking at it, we all saw what I had seen in my vision, but also what came next. We saw the cities of gold, the prosperity and the happiness; a peace of such depth that humans were able to fully dedicate their efforts to the arts and the letters, forgetting how to fight and defend themselves. The golden cities kept on growing for over two centuries… until the demons descended upon the Earth; hordes of those vile creatures, legions, taking advantage of the now peaceful nature of men, ripping apart the entire planet, leaving behind them nothing but ruin and death. “You’re lying”, I stuttered, but deep inside I knew that this was the true course of the vision and what I had seen before was not complete. “Please allow me to show you what will happen should you choose to let me live and accept my gifts”, said the Creature and yet another pillar of smoke rose from within it, revealing the next vision. We saw other cities, these ones not of gold, but of metal and strange stone. We saw metal contraptions, people living in cages, we beheld misery and starvation, but we also saw other things, such as humanity taming the nature and the skies, dreaming of exploring the stars. Most importantly, we saw humanity endure! Before the cloud of smoke dissipated, taking along with it this vision, we saw ourselves, as we were standing at that point, in this cavern, still alive in that oddest of eras, observing from afar the humans, as their eternal guardians. “And what’s the catch?” I asked the Creature, charging my question with all my might and magic, so as to discern whether the answer offered to me was truth or lie. The Creature simply responded: “At some point, thousands of years from now, I shall need your strength to defeat these demons”, and my powers told me that it was speaking the truth. The men around me turned to me, waiting to hear my response. I do not know what happened at that moment; was the Creature able to somehow trick me? Did it manage to cloud my judgment with its magic? Was the failure all mine? Perhaps all these unanswered questions are nothing but excuses of my own to explain my mistake, but I was unable to detect any lie or revisit my own vision, or do anything that would have proved that it would be a grave mistake trusting that unholy Creature. Only Naram-Sin amongst us tried to make us see, to avoid entering that pact. Only my loyal friend served as the voice of reason in that moment, but in the end even he succumbed, seeing us all accept the agreement”.

  The passage ended at that point and Erica stood for a long time over it, trying to process all that she had read. Next to her, Lahifa continued with her narration, pointing to the rest of the murals:

  “Please try to understand that, with the exception of the texts, many of the images depicted here concur with our version of the events. Our two Orders have been communicating these past months and my father helped us as best as he could; what I’ve been telling you is the best explanation we have managed to reconstruct from the sources”.

  Erica nodded, signaling that she accepted that, and the young woman proceeded.

  “The Shadow kept its promise, but the leaders soon discovered that, at the same time, it had managed to trick them. Immortality came at a steep price and the leaders, who had returned to their lands as vampires, fell like a plague upon the human race. The demons, seeking new worlds to conquer, sensed the presence of these so called ‘protectors’ and did not invade Earth, at least not at first. And yet, the magic radiating from our world ever since the impact of the meteorite proved far too tempting. So the demons gradually began sending scouting parties in secret, attempting to lure the humans into joining their eternal battle. The angels, who were quick to realize what was happening, began in turn to send their own ambassadors.

  “Soon it became clear that this tactic was not producing the desired results and that it would lead to a conflagration that would consume the entire planet. Angels and demons arraigned their forces, ready to do battle over this world, until a solution presented itself, through the people both sides had been trying to recruit to their cause. The humans who had agreed to participate in the war did not want to see their world end in utter ruin, and for that reason they attempted to reach an agreement with both sides. The archangels and the archdemons, impressed by their initiative, which constituted an unprecedented development, agreed to enter into negotiations in order to decide the fate of this unusual world.

  “During one of many such meetings, two beings belonging to the exact opposite sides of this universe met: Leonard, a powerful archdemon and a true savant of the black arts, and Serenity, a beautiful archangel and a master of white magic, the likes of whom would never be seen again. Where the archdemon would seed destruction, her angelic presence would bring an end to wars, able to calm even the wildest of spirits. Her sharp wit made her uniquely suited to the role of a diplomat for the angelic army, which in turn suited her, as she abhorred violence, while Leonard’s twisted mind always came up with new ways of corrupting nature and destroying his enemies.

  “It was this extreme antithesis which brought them to the attention of each other. Leonard set about corrupting Serenity, seeing her as the ultimate conquest, a creature of the purest light, while she was determined to bring peace to the most fiendish mind she had ever encountered. Against all odds, Serenity managed to calm Leonard and see what had been hiding behind that demonic mask: an unquiet and brilliant mind, a being which, centuries ago, had been pressed into serving at the demonic legions. Archdemon and archangel soon became inseparable and for a time in the course of history all was well. Earth was safe, the invasions had ceased, the vampires had returned to the shadows and humanity was free to attain its destiny, unburdened by fear”.

  They were standing before a mural depicting an archdemon and an archangel holding a human baby between them, while everything around them was being consumed by flames, and Lahifa continued with her narration:

  “All this came to an end when Serenity became pregnant by Leonard and gave birth to a human baby which inside, in its soul, held both angelic and demonic powers. Most angels and demons opposed this birth, for they considered it an affront to all the goals they had been pursuing for millennia and demanded the death of the infant. Only few chose to defend the couple, to no avail. Hunted mercilessly, Leonard and Serenity sought refuge at the Fortress of the Angels, one of their oldest settlements in a world other than our own. For ten days they managed to hold out in that bastion
and for those ten days the couple kept sending pleas for help to anyone who might be able to do so: to the humans, requesting shelter, to the vampires, beseeching them to protect them, to the archangels, pleading for mercy. Leonard pledged eternal obedience to the dukes of hell and the secrets of the dark arts to the human warlocks, in exchange for their help. None of them actually helped them and on the morning of the eleventh day, the demonic legions and the angelic armies managed to breach the gates of the Fortress”.

  Erica was looking at another passage from Archytas’ writings:

  “I had to see. My festering curiosity would not allow me to stay away. My magic engulfed me and transported my shadow to the citadel, moments before the gates were breached. I must admit I did enjoy the spectacle, the beauty of that place and the beauty of all that destruction around me, without realizing the degree to which the Creature’s powers had affected me. I saw the man, of whom so little I knew, furiously torching the invaders in their dozens, breathing from within him fires belonging to the deepest pits of hell. It was not enough. I saw his wife holding their newborn child in her arms and immediately I knew what she was planning to do. A white flash radiated from within her, enveloping both the mother and the baby. She walked out on the balcony, while her husband was turning his attention towards the entrance to the room at the very top of the palace they were in. He did not look at her, so engrossed he was at what he was doing, or else he might have attempted to stop her. Serenity stepped on the balcony and focused her powers on the baby she was holding in her arms. An orb of light enveloped the infant, which became one with the energy around it and quickly, like a shooting star, it crossed the sky and was gone amongst the clouds, faster than anyone there could have reacted. For a few fleeting moments the assault was halted and everyone turned to look at the woman standing on that highest balcony, that tearful mother, who had just sent her own child to another time, lost to the sands of time, to some alien world. Using magic, the way her husband had taught her, she created a long, black knife and, holding it with both hands plunged it straight at her heart. Her body fell over the balcony but it would never hit the ground. A blinding flash engulfed everything and suddenly I found myself back in my body; the spell, which allowed me to visit distant places without physically being there, had been shattered. I tried to recast it, to return to that citadel, but failed. It wasn’t long before I realized that Serenity had sealed Earth away from all invading powers, thus protecting us all, but at the same time trapping us here. I tried looking for the child and that was when I first sensed that dark presence in the depths of my mind, the Creature which, through us, was also searching for the infant in question, for purposes unknown to me at the time. Fleeting, I detected the presence of that tiny being and realized that, very much as we were looking for it, it too was looking for the right moment to be reborn into our world, with that subconscious need to survive, displayed by all infants. I sensed its dormant strength, the presence within it of both its mother and its father and immediately realized that many would be seeking this child, each one for their own purposes. I tried to warn the infant, to let the child know about the Creature, but my mind blurred. I felt the cold touch of the Creature creeping in my thoughts and I was drawn to a never-ending nightmare. My consciousness became something alien in my mind and its place was taken over by voices dark and inhumane. “Do not trust anyone”, they would whisper, “they mean to kill you; they mean to use you. Kill them. Kill them all”. I saw my hands forging a towering brazier, lifting massive stones in a desert, to build a temple. My companions were there with me and I was screaming for them to help me, but no one could hear me. It took me centuries to recover, to regain some measure of control over myself. Yet, this self I no longer trust. I write these words for my good friend Naram-Sin and anyone else who might discover them. The demons and the angels are coming and the Creature is preparing to fight them. It means to survive and it will stop at nothing to secure that goal. Find the child, find it and protect it. Only this child has the strength to avert the incoming Armageddon.