I stared down at little Raivyn, her eyes shut, skin ashen and mouth stretched wide in a cry of hunger, baring a pair of small fangs.
"What are you waiting for?" Hades chuckled from the comfort of his throne. "Your little Mistress is hungry!"
Yes, what an exquisite punishment my father devised! Demotion from Crown Prince to Nursemaid for my replacement! I would have to balance carefully how much of my own blood to feed her and when...to keep her content and at the same time prevent my own life force from being drained away.
I looked back at Hades as I slowly rolled up my sleeve. "If she is a vampire, then she cannot age.."
"With your ichor, she shall slowly grow to maturity..very slowly indeed.."
Calmly I offered my wrist to the infant, pressing it gently to her mouth. Instantly I felt the fangs sink into my vein. After a few seconds she ceased feeding, and I hurriedly rubbed my wrist as I whispered incantations to seal the small wounds. I heard coughing sounds from the bassinet and looked down with concern.
"What is wrong?" Growled Hades. "Barely a minute at your new station and you have already failed? Your punishment shall be.."
"Hold, Father!" I raised my hand as I peered more closely. With the Doctor's skill I picked Raivyn up in my arms and examined her. Her skin was flushed pink, her pulse and heat beat fast, but normal for a human infant.
"As you see, Father, I have achieved my first success in raising your new Princess by curing her of her vampirism with the antidote in my bloodstream!"
The Death God rose from his throne. "IMPOSSIBLE! Cerberus would have smelled such treachery and torn you to pieces!"
I grinned, as my language shifted to Latin..reflection of the old Senator's wordsmithing that would have done any Devil proud! I cradled Raivyn protectively in my arms.
"This was the Doctor's idea, and the Demon only followed in blind trust! And as the Doctor was unconscious until the merging so there was no treachery to sense! Further there was no antidote until you merged us, Father! We each consumed half the formula during what would have otherwise been a very enjoyable breakfast. The Doctor, being only human, fell deathly ill from his portion, but it was a risk he gladly took."
Hades clenched his massive obsidian hands into trembling fists as I continued.
"Since Princess Raivyn is cured of vampirism she is devoid of any evil taint. As a newborn she is free of any shadow of sin whatsoever!"
With that Raivyn belched onto my robe a substance I shall not describe.
"That does not count. Now where was I? Oh yes! By Your Majesty's own rule, no innocent may dwell in the Court of Erebus! Therefore it is my duty as her duly appointed Guardian to escort her back to the world of the living!"
The steel floor shook as the King of Erebus approached and crouched to look me dead in the eyes. Even when I was close enough to feel the heat in his angry eyes they were still lost in a sea of absolute darkness with the rest of his face.
"YOU, impudent DEMON, CANNOT take the Princess to the Upper World, for YOU are NOT innocent!"
I stared back calmly as I repeated my earlier statement.
"Did you not hear me, Father? I REPENT!"
Hades took a step back as pure light radiated from my body.
"I do not repent betraying you..In doing so I had sought to overcome Good and Evil both by twisting my soul into a Paradox..but now I see.."
The twin serpents, who had embodied my darkest traits, tore through their hiding spaces under my shoulder blades, and for the first time ever they completely extricated themselves from their host body, finding it uninhabitable. They writhed on the floor helplessly.
"The answer is..APOTHEOSIS! I renounce any claim to your throne or the Court of Erebus! I abandon the Path of the Incubus! I exorcise the Demon from my own soul! I REJECT ETERNAL LIFE! I EMBRACE MORTALITY!!"
I spread my crimson batlike wings, which immediately sprouted scarlet feathers. As the Demon King lunged for me I rose skyward with the child in my arms, buoyed by Divine favour.
2 comments:
Divine Favour.......haven't met her, where does she hang out on The Grid?
Note: This replay is a repost from my blog at http://amberpalowakski.blogspot.com/
I stand in the gardens of my Ballroom Pavillion, with my beloved 98, with a nervous half-hearted attempt to continue my project on my Wiccan Ritual altar, at this point the cauldron. I couldn't keep my mind on my work as the setting sun's rays splashed off of the golden chalice and platten, the silver of the minature Anthame version of Fiochmhar Fearg and the candle sticks sparkling with an uncommon warm amber hue. I wanted to finish the altar and it accoutrements with increased urgency, not only to cure the were of his affliction, but now rescue my daughter, if such an endeavor were possible. I was standing more than working, pacing more than standing, hoping for the best, fearing the worst. We had just earlier before arrived home from Kittiwickshire, after recieving a telegraph from a friend of Doctor Mason's, informing us of a package the doctor wished to deliver to me. As soon as I had arrived at the manor, I had sent my coachman post haste to the Victoria City train station, to pick up the good Doctor on his arrival from parts unstated by him.
But I had known where he was. Having had used my scrying ball earlier, after receiving a tip from a friend, the last I had seen of him was he lying unconsicous in Hades, at the feet of the Nameless One Himself, the Keeper of the Dead, along with his former possessor, Bloodwing, before he had been merged once more with the Demon. But worst of all of it, the Keeper had my own precious daughter, my other child still not cured of Vampyrism, little helpless Raivyn Elizabeth. The Nameless One had charged Bloodwing-Dr. Mason with raising my daughter. I had fainted at the sight, and never saw what more had progressed.
Now trepidation mingled with yearning for succor to my heart-twisted predicament battled within my chest. Filled at times with nervous giggles, and at others with wrenching sobs and stinging tears, I wringed my hands as I once again fumbled and made another mistake with my cauldron. I sighed, frustrated that Doctor had not yet arrived.
"Surely he should be back by now," I thought, while I gave 98 a reassuring if tight-lipped smile.
I don't like people seeing me in weakness, especially my fiance.
"You're a Baroness," I reminded myself, "a strong woman of Caledon. Comport yourself as such."
Suddenly I tilted my head, my superior Sidhe ears hearing the distant cloppity clop of Foighne, my carriage horse. I heard Meán-Oíche and Iontaofa whinney their greetings from the stables, and Foighne snort an his answer in return. Shortly I saw Sean drive the carriage up along the rail to the pavillion. With only the gentlest of tugs on the reins, Foighne lived up to her name, and stopped, patiently awaiting her next command. Leaping off the seat as only a youngling could do with dextrous sureness, he quickly doffed his pitchely and bowed to me, before opening the coach door to allow Dr. Mason out.
"Sorry, m'Lady, for the delay, it appears that there was a train wreck once more between The City and the Moors."
I nodded in understanding to the boy, and smiled softly so as to let him know he was not in trouble, then turned my attention to what I felt at this time would be the most important vistor to my estate, even more so than the Guvnah or the Vicereine...considering the circumstances.
Helped down by Sean, Dr. Mason descended from the carriage, bundling something protectively in his cloak, to safe-guard it from the night vapours of the mists that began to arise and swirl about malevolently in Moors. A lone wolf howled in the distance, and I shuddered, hoping that the were would not make his presence known at this most momentous of occassions.
The familiar, soft cooing and gurgling I heard emanating from under his garment sent my heart with a thrill. I KNEW the Dr. had my Raivyn, yet there was something different about her voice. She sounded so much more....alive. Dr. Mason bowed deeply with a practiced flourish, while deftly producing little Raivyn Elizabeth to me at the lowest extent of his genuflection, extending her in his arms toward me, an offering made of greater friendship than any could give to a Mother...the return of her own child, the one she swaddled, the one she nursed in her bosom, the one she comforted when the wind howled wild in the wintry nights after Samhain.
It was then that I noticed Raivyn looked different...less pale, less defiled, more pure, more innocent, more like a new-born infant should look...more alive. And Doctor Mason looked different too. He looked vibrant with life...and with power. My Sidhe senses could almost feel the air crackle with something indefinable, like he was stronger than ever before, and yet more vulnerable than ever before. Clearly there were things which took place of which I was unaware.
"Your Grace," he cmost courteously announced (he always called me "Your Grace", though I prefer the much more humble "m'Lady", or "Lady Amber"), "May I present and return to you your daughter."
Like the river swollen with the spring rains, whose banks could no longer contain the overflow, tears flowed down my face, washing away the debris of make-up, allowing the light of the soft glow of the after-susnset heighten the unsurpassed natural beauty that is only to be found in that of a mother with her beloved child. I looked at the Doctor with joy, my body trembling no longer from anguish of the soul, but repalced with a spiritual ecstasy I could not expain unless you were a mother whose own child had been endangered, but was returned to you nurturing arms, unharmed and healthy.
I was astounded.
"But doctor....how?" I could not get much more out.
He explained how that he was know both Bloodwing and Dr. Mason, and that each being had half the antidote, that would not work till they were re-merged. That he was now mortal. That he was finally freed from the grips of the Keeper, by renouncing Him, in a surprisingly reverse parallel decision akin to the Keeper's denial of Yah Hawah as recorded in Milton's "Paradise Lost". And that by allowing Raivyn to feed off of him, the antidote passed on the child, *my* child, *my* daughter!
"How could I ever repay you," I queried. But in a blink of an eye, he was gone, no answer given. More powerful indeed, even if now just "merely" mortal.
Now I lay in bed, with Raivyn Elizabeth and Elijah Bastillion contedly suckling, neither desirous of blood, just the milk of life my body willingly, lovingly, desirously gives to them, strengthening them so they may grow. I now owe Dr. Mason three debts, for curing me and my two children of our Vampyrism. And while the invocations to Cth**u used to restore me and Elijah may come back to haunt us both later in our lives, in a way removing a known curse for a possibility of a greater curse later in life, I am pleased to know that at least one scion in the fortune-plagued Bauerhoff family will walk into life unhindered by Vampyrism, lycanthropy, or a Cth**u-come-calling!
Post a Comment