Xilanada - Pursuit Of Regretted Truths/Part 9

The spoor of fear was unsettling to Solitary Coil, thick as it was in the Six Poses of Lightning School now. The hotness of blood smell made it more bearable. It helped her pretend this was a battle and not a ritualistic slaughter.

The Six Poses of Lightning School was in chaos. As soon as the sun had fallen, Piiro had slipped into her room and clasped her arm, taking her with him. He wore soulsteel and his head was graced with a very broad hat that hid his face in shadow yet it was still unmistakably him. Piiro as he was meant to be. They'd moved urgently through the corridors, moving hand in hand in public for the very first time. She'd had no time to enjoy it, though.

As soon as he reached the Hall of Audience, the centerpoint of the School, Piiro had stopped in the middle of the chamber and began casting greater Sorcery than this School had ever seen. Rainblown's face had smiled as the Lunar behind it watched, for she knew the spell herself. Summoning the Heart of Darkness was indeed a fitting name for what was happening.

A twisting mass of shadows formed in his hands. Piiro gave her a confident smile and hurled the ball straight above. Released from his hands, it imploded into a point of perfect dark before exploding in all directions, flooding the world with shadow. Sound and sight both faded, distorting the distant cries of alarm from the students still under attack.

For a mile all around them, the night had reached out to embrace all those trapped inside. In those shadows, Hardened Killers hunted and, where they found a student, they struck without mercy or hesitation. Teachers had taken a stand against their suddenly-armed students and had fallen as well, if with more difficulty. It helped that most of the full Professors who taught the advanced courses were accounted for.

Seya was likely taking a stand with her students, but Piiro and 'Rainblown' had both sided with the Hardened Killers here. Xilanada was gone, unlikely to ever return. Sen might be trouble but Coil was rather looking forward to the opportunity to spill his blood. And they already knew exactly where Ava and Glee were.

Coil stepped over the body of another child and tried not to cringe. They were only outsiders, she reminded herself. They were dijellta, deserving to be nothing more than food. They were cattle. They were the wretched, annoying, whiny children she'd had to contend with every day for weeks, at times straining the masquerade of Rainblown to its breaking point.

They were also dying.

Her nails dug into her palms and she took a deep breath as she moved to keep up with the Abyssal. She couldn't help them, even if she wanted to. There was no time. They had to find Glee and find her very, very quickly.

Ahead of her, Piiro's soulsteel clad form was murky in the inky black. Even with her eyes, she could barely see him but his pleasing scent made it impossible for her to lose him and the void of his Anima was somehow darker than the Sorcery, even as it illuminated the path before them. Piiro had drawn that strange knife and moved like a man with intent to use it. She certainly hoped he would.

"We've reached the place," Piiro called back to her, over his shoulder. Sure enough, a whole score of Hardened Killers emerged from the dark, all stationed to strike at the slightest sign of either Professor. Coil came up on Piiro's side and slipped a hand across one of his shoulders, leaning her head against his arm.

"Why are you so certain she's here?" Solitary Coil asked. "She sank into the wall, no? What's to have kept her from coming out the other side, or perhaps traveling its length?"

"Because," Piiro chuckled. "She didn't jump into the wall. She jumped into a shadow that was here. While she can enter and exit shadows, she can't travel between them very well and most definitely not with company. She's not even supposed to be able to take someone else with her. Obviously, she's stronger than our intelligence suggested."

"What kind of Wyld-Kissed can travel through shadows?" Solitary Coil wondered aloud.

"One who isn't Wyld-Kissed," Piiro said, still smiling. "I told you before that we need her for this. Now I will tell you why. In her runs the blood of Erembour, That Which Calls to the Shadows. With her, Malias can bring the summoning circle he's been working on for the last half-decade to full strength. Between Glee's blood, the circle, and the celestial conjunction, Malias will be able to bring her into Creation again."

"Of course," Solitary Coil said smoothly and not entirely without fear. Hseiseh had only been one of her souls and he'd fought Coil herself to a standstill, would have won if Xilanada hadn't stepped in. What hope did Creation have against a creature like Erembour herself? "Why kill the children?"

"So much Essence-rich blood would give Erembour the power to spread the flaw in the prison here and rip it wide. An army of Hell awaits, Rainblown, and when they're done, not a stone will be left standing in Nexus. If all goes to plan." Piiro's indifferent tone suggested he lacked faith in it and his scent put the truth to Coil's supposition.

"So that's why Malias built the School here. To take advantage of that weak point."

"His plans are unusually far-reaching for a Terrestrial," Piiro commented, with just a touch of respect in his voice. "But they hinge on Glee. It's time to get her. But first, there's one thing we must talk about."

Piiro placed his hand on her shoulder and Coil tensed, ready for a betrayal, for him to try sticking her in the side with that dark soulsteel knife of his. Instead, he only stepped just out of sight and hearing of the Hardened Killers. Piiro caressed her cheek and smiled slightly, face shadowed by his hat, but she was still able to see that the pleasantness of gesture didn't reach his pale blue eyes.

"Ah, Rainblown. I know this isn't easy for you. You've come so much further than I could ever have hoped, my love. You've showed heart and stomach and a deeper desire to grasp control of your life than I would have guessed you could. I'm not insulting you, my love, for my respect was high for you before. It's so much higher now."

"Thank you, love," Coil said, lowering her eyes under the unexpected praise. Faint heat came to her cheeks as she remembered when it had been Final Starry Night standing just like this, that light of adoration and respect in his eyes that had made her do anything to please him. She'd never thought another could elicit that response.

Solitary Coil had always known that submissiveness was an integral part of her, despite an overpowering drive to survive at all costs. Luna had Exalted her for her strength of will but the truth of what she was had been brought out by His hands beneath moon-filled nights of ecstasy they'd shared. For some reason, she still thought of her Goddess as a woman because of the inseparable connection between them, but Luna in person had manfully dominated her...and she had loved every minute of it.

Final Starry Night hadn't cared for it.

It'd been a source of bitter struggle and contention at first. In the end, she had yielded a little and she knew she was stronger than she had been because of his need for her aggressiveness. In like manner, she'd brought out the mastery she had always heard lurked in a Solar's soul. Truly, Luna had a peer in Final Starry Night in the arts of love. But cowardice had overtaken him when he became Xilanada and now her Solar was lost to her forever.

Now, she had another. Piiro was slowly becoming a worthy mate in her mind and she was truly starting to respond to him, instead of acting as Rainblown would. Was she falling in love with him? Was that why her heart was beating faster? Was that why fear etched its distinctive flavor across her tongue at the coldness in his eyes? Something was on his mind and she trembled to hear it.

"Rainblown, I need to know if you are up to this. I can...feel your conviction wavering. You didn't like seeing the students die. No, I don't blame you. The path of Oblivion is a hard one to walk and it took me years to love it as I do now. I know it's difficult, my love." He squeezed her hand tightly, her master encouraging his slave in a difficult task. She smiled at him, unable to help her response. "Be strong. Be steadfast. We've almost gotten everything we need and then we can be gone, leaving Malias to whatever fate Destiny has in store for him. Can you endure? For me?"

"Yes," Solitary Coil said, feeling all the old emotions again, the hate and contempt for the outsider that Final Starry Night had tried to tear down. The cold of cruelty was a welcome balm for the pain in her heart at having seen the death of students she'd taught in the old way. "Yes," she repeated, and she gave Piiro a perfectly vicious smile. "I am fine, my love. Do not trifle over me for my cause is yours, now and always. Let us be about it. Let us catch Glee and be done with this place."

Piiro gave her a heart-wrenchingly dazzling smile that aroused her in uncomfortable ways. And then he walked to the wall in short, purposeful strides, reached back and lunged deep into the shadow. His hand seemed to catch at something and then suddenly two women tumbled into view before her.

Solitary Coil gasped as Piiro kicked Glee to the side and struck faster than she could have believed anyone could move, faster even than any Lunar she'd seen in battle. Ava cried out as he buried the weapon in her stomach and she folded over without further sound. Piiro straightened and flicked the knife, as if to sluice the blood from it. Strangely, no drops fell from the blade and the red coat on the metal was disappearing into the artifact's surface. How fascinating.

"No!" Glee screamed. In a rage, the Professor leapt to her feet and her hands suddenly seemed monstrously large, twisted into dark claws. Hardened Killers dived at her, blocking her path to Piiro, and she threw them aside like the drapes to a tent, spilling blood across the floor. Two others blocked her way and suddenly screamed in terror, hurling themselves out of the way.

Coil dashed forward, leapt to the side and ran across the sidewall, avoiding the whole battle. Lunging off the wall, she struck fast as the serpent that was her namesake. She and Glee crashed to the ground in a helpless tangle of limbs. Glee strove to rise and Solitary Coil was shocked to find the woman's skin cracking apart, like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon, revealing a hue beneath as black as Piiro's Anima. Taking no chances, Coil's fingers employed her Crippling Pressure-Point Strike on a dozen nerve centers across the Professor's neck, sides and chest.

Glee shuddered, her body fighting to resist the intrusion of Solitary Coil's Essence. Then Piiro's knife was at her neck.

"I am Secret Glory in Abjection," he said with smooth grace. He leaned forward and rubbed his hand across Glee's face. The silvery skin fell away to reveal an inhuman beauty as black as it was total. Glee's wine-red eyes had deepened into the flames of Hell and only the pale moonlight locks of her hair remain unchanged. "It's nice to finally meet you... Pyarali."

"My name is Glee!" the Professor shouted. "You can't make me go along with your schemes! I won't, I won't let you!" No matter her true appearance or nature, Glee still seemed in temperament to be the old Glee...and regrettably just as loud.

"I'm afraid you have little choice...as you will serve our purpose whether you wish to or not. Come, Glee. Let us be done with this."

"You're...you're really an Abyssal? All along? You too, Rainblown?" Glee's black face looked shocked but her eyes burned with all the twisted hate of the forever-imprisoned, a maddening hate that screamed in Coil's soul for her destruction. Solitary Coil looked away as she got to her feet. It was disturbing, what lay in those depths.

"I know this must be a shock to you," Piiro said with polite consolation, tipping his hat respectfully toward her. "There is nothing I can say to ease this. I serve the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, as Rainblown soon will when we return to her. You have my word that, once our purpose is accomplished here, you may go without further trouble from me. Please...out of respect for your mother, I have no wish to fight you."

"What about Ava?" Glee asked, a look of absolute fear and concern crossing those expressive features. Still her eyes burned with rage, so monstrously powerful it made Coil's head hurt. If that wasn't Glee's anger...whose was it?

"She will be dead within minutes, Glee. I'm sorry. No one can survive the Forgotten and Final Knife's poison. You'll have to be strong and move on," he said softly as the Professor sobbed. "She was a strong woman too. I know she appreciated your sacrifice for her. Remember her death as you do her life; that she was valiant." Piiro bent and helped the transformed woman to her feet. Solitary Coil was surprised again. Glee had to have gained at least a foot in the last minute.

"I won't forget this," Glee said harshly. For once, Coil had no doubts that it was her hate she was seeing.

"No, I don't expect you will," Piiro said musingly. "But we can deal with that later."

Solitary Coil followed just behind Piiro, falling into step with him as she had with Final Starry Night before him. The Hardened Killers flanked them all. Solitary Coil looked curiously at the young students and found them completely disinterested in her. For them, only their orders and their Abyssal teacher existed. There was no trace of any other sentiment in their odor.

It was a short trip to the summoning room Coil remembered, as Glee and Ava had been caught in the Founder's wing to begin with. Piiro unlocked the entrance with a ritually inscribed key, bypassing the considerable wards put upon the door. She smirked as she remembered how she had avoided them all.

Inside, the interior was as it had been before, full of bookcases and elaborate arcane devices. As before, the massive white jade summoning circle lay at the heart of the room. Unlike before, that circle was alight with unholy power. Beneath the reddish glow were streaks of yellow, black and even flecks of green and strange mists rose from what looked like gaps where the circle constructs were supposed to be.

Kneeling before it, Tepet Ajalat Malias was bowed over, face white from more than age. She could see and taste the Essence flows in the room and her esteem for the elder Dragon-Blooded's power rose. He was managing to power a circle she would have been hard-pressed to utilize herself.

Glee stiffened her legs but Piiro's palm to the small of her back moved her on until he stopped her just before the circle. Golden tears fell down her cheeks, a very strange contrast on her black skin, and her face was a mask of grief and terror. For some reason...it bothered Coil, who promptly did what she always did to feelings that couldn't be helped; she buried them.

"All is ready, Malias," Piiro said, sounding slightly tired.

"Then do it," Malias grunted, straining to hold the circle as it continued to gather and draw power from the carefully constructed room.

Piiro's knife flicked across the Professor's forearm. Glee cried out and Piiro grasped her wounded limb and shoved it inside the circle's reach. Drops of black blood that gleamed in the hellish red light fell, and where they touched, an otherworldy hum began to resonate. The room started to shake slightly and Piiro tossed Glee to the side again, clearly done with her. What was that smell of cinnamon from, anyway?

Coil looked at the fallen, sobbing woman and watched her crawl from the room. No one else seemed to care and, honestly, Coil was a little relieved. She wouldn't have been able to say why, couldn't have put it into words, but the heart felt as the heart felt.

Malias spoke soft words that sounded like Old Realm but for the strange reverberation in their utterance and the familiar twist she'd only heard from the lips of demons. Each word, Coil memorized in case she ever wanted to try this ritual in the future, or experiment with other permutations. Surely anything the Dragon-Blooded was capable of, she could surpass with some work.

Glee's fallen blood seemed to hiss on the improbably burning jade of the summoning circle. The gaps in the jade seemed to widen and the blood suddenly boiled into a cloud far larger than the few drops should have warranted. In the center of the dark cloud, something darker stirred.

A tremendous crack of thunder shattered all the glass receptacles in the room and even Piiro's dark Anima faltered as Erembour, That Which Calls to the Shadows, entered Creation.

Solitary Coil gazed on the features of one of the souls of the Ebon Shadow Dragon Himself. For a Demon of the Third Circle, she wasn't as bizarre as Coil had thought she'd be. Beautiful surely, in a way that brought Glee's true likeness to mind, with skin of midnight and eyes that seemed to shine with Luna's love if Coil hadn't known better.

Her black hair gleamed white across the outer strands, as if reflecting a light that wasn't there. The silver robes rustled about her and she gathered them up with one hand as she stepped forward, a large silver horn curved like that of a ram's in her other hand.

The Indulgent Soul that Solitary Coil fought had been larger in size and in stature. But the Vizar had none of Erembour's faded fascination.

"My mistress," Tepet Malias gasped out, like a man setting down a crushing weight. "You are welcome to Creation. May you bring our Master glory." With that, he reached inside the Circle and removed an inset piece, placing it before the circle like a step. Erembour promptly used it as such, stepping down on it and then setting foot on the School's stone.

"Malias," Erembour said in a silky, sultry voice that managed to hold no true passion at all. "Well done. It has been an Age and there is much work to be about. Are these yours?" she asked, gesturing at Piiro and Coil herself.

"Demon Erembour, I am Secret Glory in Abjection," Piiro said, flourishing a deep courtly bow. His face was grave but unafraid. "Deathknight in service to the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears and her proxy here. This is my lover and aid, Rainblown Joybringer."

Coil felt the monstrous power of the demon's will when Erembour turned her gaze upon her. It seemed to flow across her skin like a sandstorm and the tingle it left behind was not entirely unpleasant. Erembour smiled ever so softly and inclined her head...toward her and not Piiro.

"Chosen of Luna...and more. One of the Dune People, beneath the shell you wear. You need not fear the light while I am present, for your people have ever been ones to my liking and likeness. Your Lord chose well for a consort," Erembour said, nodding to Piiro, who was doing a credible job of holding his composure. Solitary Coil doubted her own efforts were enough. "Leave the circle, Malias. Already the blood of the fallen calls through the tear and others will be coming in my wake. Let us not tarry and stand in their way."

Malias followed the slim demon from the room. Coil found herself saddened to see the creature go, and promptly redoubled her concentration. Whatever connection Erembour said there was between them, Coil had no intention of ever serving a demon's wishes, not even That Which Calls to the Shadows.

Glancing at Piiro's face gave her a distraction from the shadowy demon's irresistible allure. It was not a happy face. For her part, Coil bowed her head and waited for Piiro's inevitable question. At last, it came.

"You're not Rainblown Joybringer...are you?" he asked. Though there was little hope in his voice, the frightened desperation that twitched in her nose was the reason he asked. She could only shake her head and tremble. "You weren't always, either. How long ago did you kill him and take his place?"

"Several weeks ago, my love," she said meekly.

"Don't call me that!" Piiro hissed, with such sharpness that her hands came to her ears. When she pulled them away, there were flecks of blood on her fingertips from the cutting power of his voice. "I can't...I don't believe...monster, I should kill you!"

"Blood doesn't lie," Solitary Coil whispered before the murderous hate of an Abyssal, holding aloft her wet fingertips. "I have been with you for weeks, my love. I know how your heart has warmed to me, how pleased you are with me. I am not the God-Blooded lover you knew but I am something more than he was. I can be what he could never truly be, Piiro. My sweet Secret Glory in Abjection," she said slowly, letting the syllables caress themselves across her tongue as she spoke them. "I can be your Mate."

"You think you can take Rainblown's place at my side, now that I know what you are?"

"Your own hand wielded that knife," she said, looking meaningfully at the soulsteel weapon in his hand. "It saw the way to my heart before and I know you still see the way now. What did yours tell you when you drove your knife home before? I swore myself to your cause and I will keep that vow to you because you are worthy of it. Do you doubt that? Do you doubt me?"

"You killed...the only man I ever loved," Piiro said bitterly.

"I would have thought a servant of Oblivion would not begrudge such a thing. He is dead now, and closer to Creation's final end, isn't he? I did to him what you would do to all. Tell me how I am more evil than you."

Solitary Coil grinned as she pressed the point home, saw Piiro's body jerk from the verbal thrust, smelled defeat on him. With all the power of a collapsing sand dune, the Abyssal's face and soul hardened and the relentless cruelty returned that had so inflamed her before. Piiro bowed his head once and nodded.

"So, you're a Lunar. You would take my cause on as your own?"

"I said so before, didn't I? Was I lying then? No. I see in you someone deserving of their Exaltation. You have the vision, the passion, the power that this world needs. We were meant to rule, Piiro, and I would rule at your side."

"Then call me Secret Glory, or just Glory if you'd prefer. Piiro was never my real name. I want to see what you look like. The Lover deserves to see you for what you are, and so do I. Show me."

"As...as you wish," Solitary Coil said, unable to keep the hesitation from her voice. It was so tempting to give him another male form as her own but she intended to battle beside him and there would be no illusion once her Anima shone true. The No-Moon Lunar bowed her head and dropped the hard, angular body of Rainblown for the pleasingly pale curves of her own, becoming Solitary Coil once more.

"You're...a woman," Piiro said, shocked once again. His eyes roved about her, taking her measure as she stretched up to her full height again. It amused her that she was an inch or so taller now. If only the attraction hadn't faded in his eyes as she watched him. He truly was a lover of men, then. Luna damn it all.

"I am Solitary Coil, No-Moon Sorcerer and wise in the secrets of the First Age," she said, through clenched teeth.

"Wait a minute...you're not...the White Dragon, are you?"

Solitary Coil preened at his words, at his recognition, at his fear. She straightened, hands on her hips and, ever so slightly, looked down on him. This was a man of power, yes, but he was no Final Starry Night. He had her husband's passion but not his unbidable sheer strength. Coil enjoyed being dominated but if there was one lesson her husband had left her with, it was that having strength in her own right was to be desired, even in a relationship.

"So you're...Final Starry Night's Lunar Mate. By the Neverborn, what are you doing here? Where's your husband?"

"My husband is dead," she said flatly. "His cowardice killed him where no mortal or Exalted agency could. His might was great but he fell, Glory. I would join you and see you stronger than him."

"Then join me, Dragon," Secret Glory in Abjection said. At last, she smelled what she'd been longing for. At last, she could taste the turning of his heart. He was truly as fixated on one Pole as Rainblown had been. He didn't want her. Not yet. But she would bend his heart, his mind, his body, she would make it hers. Not with her beauty but with her spirit, her lust, and the glory they would win together.

Solitary Coil hoped Luna could see her in the darkness, through the shadows of Sorcery, Erembour and dark pacts. And she hoped that the lack of the moon tonight, Coil's own time, did not mean Luna had turned Her face from Her Chosen. For Coil was now committed to what she was about to do.