The Twilight Inn

[Kaitan]

The spear hits Kaitan near his right shoulder. It punches through the skin and bone easily. The sound of the bones giving before the spear mimics the sound of the whip itself. The spear exits Kaitan's chest and embeds itself in the planks of the floor. Kaitan writhes like a pinned insect and still tries to claw his way toward the stairs. Kaitan's tissue begins to tear as he pulls himself forward.

[Dmitri Darken]

"Stop struggling," Dmitri said, his boots clicking against stone as he moved closer. "You've delayed it long enough. It all ends, eventually, with lonely and terrible misery. Just stop, and let us guide you into rest."

Aurora watches from the side, her walking stick still shining with an intense light. She made sure her brother was well within that light.

[Kaitan]

Kaitan thrashes one last time before becoming still. His skin crawls like a living thing, flayed by the intense light. Indeed, it is more painful for him to hold still than to resist. He shudders in pain and keeps his face averted from the light.

Isn't this what he had wished for for so long?

Yes (No)

Hasn't true death been his sole aim for all this time? He has finally conquered his tired morals, conquered his foolish religion, finally found his way out-- what is there left?

Nothing
Soon this will all be forgotten

(Fear)

(The darkness has teeth)

The machine has been set in motion

(It can be stopped)

(There must be more)

Show strength for once
This is no less than what I deserve

(I want more)

(And I will have it)


Too late.

[Dmitri Darken]

Dmitri reaches up, grasping the lance with his hand. Silver-white flames that have neither heat nor cold race down the length of the weapon, causing it to change. The bottom portion sticking through Kaitan expands, becoming the blade of some massive axe while still inside of him.

[Kaitan]

The expanding blade cuts Kaitan's right arm most of the way off. His arm hangs loosely, dangling like the poorly butchered wing of a chicken. This time there is blood-- much, much thicker than water.

The only thing that keeps the axe from bisecting Kaitan's wasted form is its off-center position-- one of its blades cuts through his side and enters open space before the other can snap his spine. The wound begins to heal even as it is carved, but too slowly. Much too slowly.

Kaitan, no longer pinned by the spear, removes himself from the axehead by pulling himself away with his left arm. The sound is like steel on stone, only indescribably wet. With immense effort, he stands. His right arm and shoulder dangle limply like some ghastly tentacle. Creeping fingers of blood, unnaturally thick and dark, inch down his arm and abdomen.

Kaitan turns toward Dmitri and the light. The flesh on his face begins to peel back before its onslaught, revealing what looks like a mass of writhing gray worms coated with a delicate cobweb of beautiful scarlet. His lifeless eyes begin to boil in their sockets like pools of tar. Dark tears run down his rapidly disintegrating cheeks.

The remnants of his lips peel back in a snarl. With the last of his strength, he lunges at Dmitri, fangs bared.

The impact is less substantial than a collision with a shadow. Kaitan collapses weakly against his foe.

[Dmitri Darken]

Dmitri rolls with the blow, turning to the left as Kaitan moved into him and spinning behind him, shoving his boot towards the center of the vampire's back. He had let Kaitan move right past him... and further into the scorching light, while blocking his exit.

The light grew even more fierce. So strong did it shine through the eternal night of this cellar that waves of it tore their way off of Aurora, hungrily feasting upon all within reach.

[Kaitan]

Kaitan lands on all fours. He struggles briefly to get to his knees and fails. He falls to the floor.

It occurs to him that his life is going to end in the light. This pleases him. He can almost imagine that he is lying on the fields of his homeland, under the warm light of the sun. He can almost imagine that the last decade was nothing but a nightmare, that he'll wake up with his sister watching over him. "I missed you," he'll say, and he'll be able to see-- actually see!-- her confused smile, see her lips move as she asks him what he means. He'll shake his head, he'll smile, and this time there will be no fangs in his mouth, no reason for Farah to be afraid.

The real Kaitan tries to smile, but the mindless, fixed grin of a skeleton is all that his wasted face is capable of producing.

Kaitan's heart longs for to stay within this pleasant fantasy forever, but something lurking in the back of his skull-- some ancient reptilian part of his brain-- reminds him that he's not in bright Benalia. He is in the basement of an old gray building, in the slums of a city that is still alien to him, and it is cold despite the light, and getting colder every second. He will die with blood on his hands, and there will be no shining afterlife for him. Soon the light will fade, and there will be nothing but darkness and cold for ever.

He has already been forgotten and now he will die alone. This time there's no coming back. This is what he deserves.

The black world grows darker still. Isn't this what he always wanted?

Can't I at least die on my feet?

Silence is the only answer that the vampire receives. The last candle flickers and dies and it is all as it should be.

The machine stops for no one.

[Dmitri Darken]

One final flash to burn him to dust, and it is over.

The twins spent no time on him. They didn't mourn for the dead... only for the living.

The two went on their business, once again directing the small creatures that had been watching the struggle.

Few knew that Velius started his great empire in an inn...

[Pherz'l Zur'an]

*A man in a dark cloak, the hood drawn over his face, stands leaning against a grey building opposite the Twilight Inn. He watches the place calmly, tapping his gloved fingers rhythmically against the folds of his cloak.*