Mortality: The Story of Mortanius

Chapter Fifty-One

Mortanius walked the streets of Avernus for hours, until night fell and the moon rose in the sky. His mind wandered and spun around as he tried to understand what he had done, what he had truly become a part of. He had to come to grips with the truth. Like Azimuth said, he had been foolish. But it was more than just a stupid mistake on his part. He had willingly allowed Azimuth’s cult to continue for years, even when he knew from the very start what it really stood for. He participated in her delusional gatherings and put up with her increasingly fanatic behavior, he had all but endorsed her obsession with beings from another world.

And for what? What had he accomplished? He told himself over and over again that he stayed with the cult to keep an eye on it, to steer it in a safer direction, to watch over Azimuth to make sure she was okay. He thought he could protect her. Stupidly, he believed that if the cult ever got out of hand, or if Azimuth’s obsession with the hylden ever went too far, then he would act. He would notify the Circle and tell them everything.

But he never did, and with each year that went by, it became harder and harder for him to recognize at what point the cult went too far. Looking back, he should have told the other Guardians years ago. But he kept holding back, kept justifying his actions, kept waiting for some unmistakable proof that things were out of control, and when that fateful moment came and went, still he hesitated. He should have gone to the Guardians the day after the hylden first took over his body.

Why didn’t he? Why did he keep their secret? Why did he allow Azimuth to slip further under the sway of the hylden? He had failed her completely, failed himself, failed the Circle.

Mortanius shook himself from his self-guilt and looked around. The night was cloudless, and the moon gave enough light to see by. He realized that had wandered all the way to a local flower garden near the edge of the city. Finding a bench, he sat down and groaned as his legs and feet protested his long aimless walk. He was not accustomed to walking so far.

He set his elbows on his knees and then buried his face in his hands. Down below Avernus Cathedral, a demon hungered. Mortanius had done nothing to stop it. And now he was a party to murder, regardless of what Azimuth called it. They had not wielded the knife, but they had killed a man just the same.

The demon was not from Nosgoth, but Mortanius didn’t believe it was from the hylden’s dimension either. It demanded blood, so did that mean it was somehow afflicted with the same disease as the vampires? Had the hylden cursed another race to such a fate? Mortanius realized that the realm to which the hylden were banished might well have already been the home of another race of intelligent beings. Was the demon the wretched descendant of such a race?

None of that really mattered, though. The demon’s identity was unimportant. The real mystery was how it had come to Nosgoth in the first place. Mortanius could not fathom how the hylden had done it. Azimuth’s weak excuses and flimsy explanations were clearly falsehoods. Either she was lying to him or she didn’t even know the truth herself. Mortanius suspected it was the latter.

If the hylden had the power to open a portal to send the demon here, why not come through themselves? Mortanius did not believe that the banishment only affected the hylden’s physical bodies but allowed them to send other creatures through. That made no sense at all. The banishment must have blocked off their dimension entirely or else it would have been meaningless.

Mortanius lowered his hands and sat up straight. An idea floating around in the back of his mind somehow came to the surface. The realization stunned him. Not just the fact of it, but he was stunned that he had not made the connection sooner. How had he been so blind?

The Pillars were made to keep the hylden out. Ages ago, Janos had called the Pillars a lock upon a gateway. Mortanius had always known that the hylden’s banishment was directly related to the existence of the Pillars, but it was such an obvious thing that he never considered the consequences of that simple fact. And suddenly, all sorts of little details began piling up, things he had noticed but had never connected.

Azimuth had built a device capable of viewing other dimensions, but no other Guardian of Dimension had accomplished such a feat. Thesandrine, Azimuth’s predecessor, could never have created such a powerful artifact. It had never occurred to Mortanius that the reason Azimuth was able to build the Dimensionscope wasn’t because she was a more talented spellcaster than Thesandrine, but because the boundaries that separated the dimensions were weaker than they were before.

The Pillars had banished the hylden, but Mortanius gradually realized that if the hylden were able to extend their influence into Nosgoth so much that they could actually take physical control of human beings, then their banishment was no longer complete. In tiny ways, they were returning to Nosgoth, like a tiny crack in a dam letting water seep in. If the Pillars were a lock, then the lock had grown corroded with rust over time. It wasn’t just the dimensional boundary that was growing weak, it was the Pillars themselves. The Pillars, after thousands of years, had lost some of their magic, some of their power. The hylden, perhaps sensing this, pushed their way into Nosgoth the only way they could.

The Guardians had to be told. Mortanius’s first instinct was to contact Moebius, his oldest and most trusted friend, but he couldn’t anticipate how Moebius might react. His hatred of the vampires was so intense that he might actually be pleased to learn that they were in contact with the vampires’ ancient enemy. He might even join Azimuth’s cult. Mortanius doubted that, but Moebius sometimes behaved in unpredictable ways. For now, Mortanius balked at telling his old friend.

But who else could he tell? Bane was the Guardian of Nature and might be appalled to learn that Nosgoth was at risk, but like Moebius, he sometimes held strange beliefs. Bane might feel that the hylden’s possible return to Nosgoth was a good thing, since it returned Nosgoth to its more natural state since the extinction of the vampires, which he had never fully supported. Mortanius wasn’t sure he wanted to confess to him either. DeJoule, the Guardian of Energy, was very close with Bane and would almost certainly take his side in any debate on the issue.

Malek was perhaps Mortanius’s best option. Malek hated the vampires as much as Moebius, but he was more pragmatic, and not so blinded by his hatred that he would welcome creatures like the hylden. Once he saw the demon lurking underneath Avernus, he would want to destroy it right away. He’d probably try to leap down and slay it himself. Mortanius was absolutely certain that Malek would agree with him that the hylden must be stopped at all costs.

Anarcrothe, the Guardian of States, would probably agree with Mortanius as well. They had been friends for many years, and had a similar outlook on the world. It was also an open secret among the Circle that Anarcrothe was not overly fond of Azimuth, for private reasons. He would almost certainly take Mortanius’s side.

The other two Guardians, Ariel and Nupraptor, were hardly on good terms with Mortanius, but he didn’t think either of them would want the hylden gaining a presence on Nosgoth. Ariel, in particular, as the Guardian of Balance, would …

He jerked upright as if he’d been slapped.

Ariel. How could he have forgotten? Years ago, she came to his home and told him that something had upset the balance of Nosgoth. He didn’t remember how long ago it had been, but it was probably twenty or thirty years at least, before Azimuth had made contact with the hylden. They had a long talk about her powers as Balance Guardian, and Mortanius recalled that his theory at the time was that war was brewing, and that was the cause of the imbalance Ariel felt.

But he had been wrong. It wasn’t some impending war which never came. It was the Dimensionscope. Mortanius realized with horror that their own actions caused Nosgoth to fall out of balance. He had not discussed the imbalance with Ariel since that day at his estate, but he knew that he had to tell her right away. The hylden had managed to send a demon into Nosgoth, proof that the barrier between their dimensions was weakening, and that meant the Pillars themselves were weakening. If Nosgoth was out of balance before, then it must be close to tipping over completely by now, and Ariel would surely have felt things growing worse.

He stood up. It was long after midnight, and he was tired from walking for so long. But he could not sleep. Surging panic and his own sense of guilt made him feel wide awake. He would not wait another moment.

He cast the incantation to send a message.

“Ariel. It’s Mortanius. I know it’s late, but I need you to meet with me right away. I have … terrible news. I need to speak to you about something extremely important. Please come to the Pillars as soon as you can.”

Once the sending spell was complete, he instantly cast the spell to teleport himself to the Pillars. He popped into existence in the grass about fifty feet away from them. It was nearly pitch dark, the moon partially obscured by clouds. The air was warmer here than in the city of Avernus. By the time Mortanius walked up onto the Pillar platform, he had dots of sweat on his forehead, but whether it was from the temperature or his own nervousness, he couldn’t tell.

Ariel wasn’t there yet, but that was no surprise. She might well have been asleep when he sent her the message, so it would probably take her some time to get ready. Mortanius used the time to figure out exactly what he was going to say to her. He considered reducing his own blame for what Azimuth had done, claiming he was ignorant of what her cult had been doing. But he knew it was pointless to deny his own culpability. Everyone knew that he spent much of his time in Avernus. No one would believe he was blameless in what took place there. It was better to simply admit that he had let things spiral out of control in his attempts to protect Azimuth.

And if they chose to punish him for his failures, then so be it. Mortanius was long past caring about his own personal consequences. He had failed not only Azimuth and the rest of the Circle, but he had failed himself as well. He would accept whatever punishment the Circle saw fit to give him.

Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe there was still time to repair the damage, to strengthen the Pillars and end the hylden’s corrupting influence. Maybe it wasn’t too late for Azimuth to realize the error of her ways. Maybe it wasn’t too late for Mortanius to make up for what he had done.

There was a crackle of magic nearby, and Ariel stepped up onto the platform. She wore a plain white long-sleeved dress, and her hair was pulled back with a simple white band. As Mortanius suspected, his summons had woken her from sleep.

“Thank you for coming at this late hour,” he said.

She nodded. “You said to come right away. What have you discovered, Mortanius?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but then he looked away, trying to find the words. “I’ve been a fool, Ariel. I should have contacted you years ago. Azimuth and I have been working on a … a secret project at Avernus Cathedral. We uncovered something. I thought we could contain it. I thought I could handle it by myself. But it’s gone far beyond my control ...”

“What is it? You said this was about the Pillars.”

“It is. I know what’s causing the imbalance that you told me about. I think I’ve known for years, but I didn’t want to accept it. It’s worse than either of us imagined.”

Ariel stepped in front of him, staring intently. “Tell me.”

“The creatures that the vampires went to war with in ancient times. The ones they banished. Azimuth found them, found the dimension they dwell in. We made contact.”

Ariel grabbed his arm, her fingers digging in like talons. “You made contact,” she repeated, her voice like ice. It wasn’t a question, it was an accusation.

“They can’t come through into our world. But they can speak to us.”

“How long?” Ariel said. “How long has this been going on?”

“Twenty years.”

Her calm exterior broke. “Twenty years!” she shrieked, pushing him away. “Are you insane? You made contact with another dimension and you didn’t tell anyone?”

“It was Azimuth,” he said lamely. “It was her discovery and she wanted to keep it from the other Guardians long enough to study it without interference. I agreed at the time, but she kept putting it off and I let her take charge. I was trying to protect her, or maybe I was just trying to make her happy, I don’t even know anymore.”

“You let your feelings for Azimuth get in the way of your duty?” Ariel said incredulously. “You, of all people, let yourself be controlled by your emotions?”

Mortanius wiped his hand across his face. “I thought I could keep it under control. But Azimuth won’t listen to me anymore. She’s obsessed with the hylden, she talks of them as if they’re gods.”

“The hylden? Is that what they call themselves?”

“Yes. There’s a hidden catacomb deep beneath Avernus, and down there we discovered murals like the ones at the vampiric temple on the island in the Lake of Tears, but these ones are from the hylden’s point of view. They portray themselves as innocent victims of a genocide by the vampires.”

“Do you believe that?”

“No, but Azimuth does. She’s obsessed with them. She even formed a … a cult dedicated to them. I’m so sorry, Ariel. I’ve failed everyone.”

Ariel looked aghast. “A cult? They worship these creatures?”

“Yes, and it gets worse. The hylden, they … they somehow sent a creature into our world. Not one of their own, it’s something else. A huge beast that Azimuth trapped in a deep pit. But it’s intelligent and it can speak, and it demands blood to sate its hunger. And Azimuth, she … she sacrificed someone, and I was forced to help her.”

“Forced?” Ariel blurted out in disgusted disbelief. “How could they force you to do something like that? Who was this person they killed?”

“A criminal.” Mortanius shook his head bitterly. “At least that’s what Azimuth told me afterward. I don’t know how to explain this, Ariel, but the hylden can … can manipulate us. If we’re in close proximity to the magical device that Azimuth uses to contact them, then they can … they can take over our bodies and control us. It’s how they can speak to us ...”

“This is insane! You’re insane!” Ariel screamed at him. “They can control your mind, and you waited twenty years to tell anyone?”

“I can’t explain it,” Mortanius said again, shaking his head as he stared at the ground, unwilling to meet her gaze. “I don’t know anymore. I think maybe they ...”

“Maybe they what?” Ariel snapped.

But Mortanius couldn’t answer. He felt it creeping upon him like a chill up his spine. He clenched his fists involuntarily and let out a gasp. “No,” he breathed.

The hylden were there, forcing their presence on him. He resisted and staggered backward, choking out a curse. They were trying to take over his body here at the Pillars! They had never tried to gain control of him so far from Avernus! How was it possible?

Mortanius shook off their overwhelming presence and tried to run, tried to do anything, but he knew he couldn’t resist them. He nearly fell to his knees and he thrashed as if he was having a seizure.

“Mortanius? Mortanius, what’s going on?” Ariel said, reaching out for him.

“No,” he choked out. “No, not … here. Ariel... get away ...”

“Mortanius!”

The alien consciousness penetrated his mind and the entire world went black.

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