Mortality: The Story of Mortanius

Chapter Twenty-Two

They performed the Pillar ceremony in the middle of the day with a crowd of over two-hundred people there to witness it. They cleaned Ellendra up and dressed her in a lovely blue tunic with the vampiric rune for Balance on the front. They put her hands against the Pillar with her parents by her side and declared that she was officially the new Guardian of Balance. When it was done, everyone cheered and threw flowers into the air to commemorate the occasion. The first Guardian discovered since the rebellion deserved a huge celebration, and Ellendra certainly received one.

By contrast, the vampires performed their ceremonies in the dead of night, with no witnesses except the other Guardians. They claimed the ceremony was a sacred event, but they treated it like some kind of shameful secret. Making a human into a Guardian was something done under the cover of darkness. Mortanius was determined to make their own ceremony into something to be proud of, something everyone in Nosgoth could take part in. If Vorador himself had chosen to attend the ceremony, Mortanius would have let him.

There was some concern about a possible attack by the half-breeds or even the remaining vampires, but even Moebius thought it was unlikely that they would try to interrupt the ceremony for a new Guardian. The Pillars were a holy site for all of them. Stopping the ceremony, or trying to harm or abduct Ellendra, would accomplish nothing. Vorador and his kin chose to stay away, but Mortanius was certain that some of the spectators in the crowd would eventually get news to them.

Ellendra and her family would spend the night at the Home of the Guardians, and in the morning she would touch the Pillars once more for the second half of the ceremony. Mortanius had no idea what she would experience, but it would be nothing like what he or Moebius had experienced when they began to feel their powers. What exactly did the Balance Guardian have control over? Aleph, the previous Guardian, had never spoken about his powers, so Mortanius could only guess at them.

When the sun set and cast the Pillars in shadow, the celebration eventually died down and the crowd dispersed. The Home of the Guardians was still packed with people continuing the festivities, but Moebius was more than capable of being in charge, so Mortanius took a moment to leave the building and get some fresh air.

It was dark outside now, the moon obscured by clouds. Mortanius walked silently out to the Pillars, not needing much light to see where he was going. Even in pitch darkness, the Pillars seemed to glow with a faint light all their own as they rose to the top of the sky. Mortanius stepped up to the Pillar of Death and brushed his fingers across its cold surface.

Death and Time, and now Balance. Six more Pillars remained: Dimension, Energy, Nature, States, Mind, and Conflict. Six more Guardians to find. Now that they knew they could recognize a Guardian when they saw one, Mortanius felt a weight slide off his shoulders. It might take a few more years to track down the remaining Guardians, but they would be found. Mortanius couldn’t help but wonder what the others would be like.

He turned when he heard a familiar sound, although one he had not heard in years. A rush of air overhead, the ruffle of wings, and the soft thump of feet landing on soft dirt.

“Hello, Janos,” Mortanius said. “It’s been a long time.”

The vampire straightened and folded his wings behind him. He regarded Mortanius carefully and then sighed when he looked up at the Pillars, his expression softening.

“Yes,” Janos said, his eyes skyward. “A long time.”

“You took a risk coming here.”

“So did you,” Janos replied evenly. “Out here in the open, all by yourself, without your guards. I could kill you if I wanted to.”

“You could. But if you murdered a Guardian, that would make you as bad as me.”

Janos looked around, as if to assure himself that the Sarafan warriors weren’t coming up behind him. There was no one around, even though the Sarafan usually did patrol the Pillars on most nights. For the moment, the two of them were completely alone. In the distance, Mortanius could see lights flickering from the Home of the Guardians.

“You should have seen the ceremony,” he said. “It was very nice. I couldn’t remember all the words, so I improvised a little bit.”

“And the new Balance Guardian?”

“Her name is Ellendra. She’s nine years old, but she’s very smart and mature for her age. I think she’ll grow into a very fine Guardian.”

“That’s good,” Janos said. “I know where two of the other Guardians are.”

Mortanius felt his breath catch in his lungs, but he forced himself to look away and then waved his hand dismissively. “We don’t need your help to find the others.”

“I know you don’t. I wasn’t offering my help.”

“Then what? Bragging that you found them before we did?”

“I could tell Vorador where they are. I suspect he would be very interested in getting his hands on them before you do.”

Mortanius let the words hang in the air between them. “Is that a threat?” he asked after several tense moments. “Are you going to let Vorador turn a child into a half-breed like him? Is that how desperate you’ve become? Do you think it will make a difference?”

“The Pillars must remain in vampire hands,” Janos said, as if that was all the explanation he needed. “We can keep the children from you, turn them when they become adults. Vorador has places to hide. You’ll never find them if he doesn’t want you to.”

“They aren’t truly Guardians until they touch the Pillars and inherit their powers,” Mortanius replied. “All you’ll accomplish is preventing the Pillar from having a Guardian at all.”

“Then we’ll wait until after the ceremony. You have plenty of soldiers, Mortanius, so maybe you think you can keep them safe. But your soldiers won’t be enough if Vorador brings all his forces to bear, plus myself and the other vampires.”

“So you’ll kidnap the Guardians now?” Mortanius said, almost amazed at the audacity of it. “You’ll steal children away from their families and force them to become half-breeds? If you or Vorador try anything like that, you’ll unite the entire human race against you.”

“We have allies, lots of them.”

“I know you do. But your allies believe that the vampires are a noble and honorable race. They think Moebius and I overthrew you to gain control of the Pillars for ourselves. If you kidnap the Guardians and turn them by force, you’ll prove that we were right all along. I don’t doubt that Vorador has the resources to challenge us, but I promise you that if every human on Nosgoth is united against you, then even Vorador won’t be able to hide. Are you really willing to risk all that?”

“The Pillars must remain in vampire hands,” Janos said insistently.

“You already said that!” Mortanius snapped, suddenly angry. “That’s what you always say. That’s what Aleph always said. The Pillars must stay in vampire hands. You always say it, but why? Why don’t you just tell us why?”

“We were going to, when you were turned –”

“That’s a lie and you know it. Lora was a half-breed for over a hundred years and she still didn’t know anything about the Pillars.”

“Lora was … problematic,” Janos said lamely. “She resisted our teachings. She fought against us.”

“Moebius and I fought against you too. Would we have been kept in the dark for over a century? I bet you didn’t even tell Romanen the truth.”

“We told him some of it.”

“Some of it?”

“We needed to make sure he was ready to understand it all.”

“Spare me your excuses,” Mortanius spat. “You and your damned secrets. You always had to keep the truth hidden and lord your knowledge over the rest of us. The truth can’t be so shocking that human beings can’t be trusted with it.”

Janos shook his head in defeat. “You’ll never understand. How could you understand?”

“Stop treating us like stupid animals! If you’d been honest with us from the beginning, then maybe Moebius and I wouldn’t have rebelled against you in the first place. Just tell me, Janos. It’s far too late for you to keep your secrets anymore. The Pillars belong to the human race now.”

Janos bared his fangs in anger, the first time Mortanius had ever seen him do so. “The Pillars belong to the vampires!” he shouted in a fury. “We created the Pillars! We sacrificed our very mortality for them! Humans were living in caves and wearing animal skins when the Pillars were built! The vampire civilization has lasted for a hundred thousand years!”

“And now it’s over,” Mortanius said. “How many of your kind are even left on Nosgoth? One hundred? Less than that? Pretty soon the vampires will be extinct, and humans will inherit the Pillars anyway. Whatever secrets you’re determined to keep are completely meaningless now.”

Janos glared at him. “The Pillars are entwined with the fate of Nosgoth itself. They are a gateway, and a lock upon that gateway. They are more powerful and more important than you could ever understand. There are things in this universe that human beings simply cannot grasp.”

“Keep telling yourself that,” Mortanius said. “I prefer to believe otherwise. If you won’t tell me the truth, then I’ll figure it out myself. I have access to all your records, as limited as they are. But I’ll learn the truth.”

“Maybe it would be better if you didn’t. The truth might destroy you. But I promise that there will come a time when you’ll regret what you have done.”

“I’m not the one who started this. I gave you a choice. If you had let Moebius and I stay human, then the rebellion would never have happened. But that’s right, the Pillars have to remain in vampire hands? Well, they aren’t in vampire hands anymore. All of the Guardians are human beings now, and nothing you can do will ever change that.”

Janos glared at him and then looked away, his clawed fists clenched. He let out a long breath and regained his composure. “Where did we go wrong with you, Mortanius? When you first became a Guardian, I thought that the Pillars had chosen wisely. Moebius was a problem from the very beginning. We should never have let you and him become so close. He was a bad influence on you.”

“Don’t blame Moebius for what I’ve done. I promised you when I was still a child that I would never let you turn me into a half-breed. I was just keeping my promise.”

“You had such potential,” Janos said sadly. “I truly believed that you would realize the error of your ways and submit to the ritual. And once you became one of us, you would realize how important it was that vampires control the Pillars.”

“You were wrong.”

“Yes, I was wrong. But even so, I never imagined that you would … that you would ever betray us. That you would seek to kill us.”

“You should have,” Mortanius said. “After all, I’m the Guardian of Death.”

<--Previous Chapter|Next Chapter-->