Mortality: The Story of Mortanius

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Chapter Fifty-Five

He had not returned to the Pillars since the scene of his crime thirty years before. Standing in the grass in front of the platform, he looked up at the towering marble columns as they stretched up into the dark clouds overhead. Once, they were shining white with streaks of gray. But now, the corruption of the Circle of Nine had infected the Pillars themselves, turning them dingy gray and black. Blemishes and imperfections marred their once flawless surface. It was early morning, and a thin layer of mist hovered in the air like a shroud.

He walked up to the Pillars, feeling like there was a huge anchor chained to his shoulders, dragging in the soil behind him. He felt the surge of spiritual energy the moment his foot rested on the marble platform. It felt like an electrical shock tingling his skin, making his hair stand up. A churning anger swirled around him like a maelstrom of nightmares, but he did not close his eyes or try to push it away. He deserved every torturous moment.

“Mortanius … Mortanius … Mortanius ...” the air seemed to whisper, increasing in volume and energy until it was like a scream in his ears. Was this haunting presence just for him, or could others see and feel it as well?

“Show yourself. I know you’re here,” he said.

A figure coalesced from the mist, so thin and insubstantial at first that Mortanius almost thought he was imagining it. But soon it developed into the outline of a person, floating in the air a few feet off the ground.

“Mortanius … Mortanius … Mortanius,” it repeated, hissing the word like an accusation.

He stood in the middle of the platform and let the flow of spiritual energy wash around him like a gale, making his cloak flap around him. But he did not take his eyes off the figure that emerged from the mist, a woman in a dirty white dress, her face disfigured and stripped of flesh.

The ghost of the woman who once was Ariel, Guardian of the Pillar of Balance, rushed forward, her hair whipping around her face, her eyes ablaze with hatred. But Mortanius was accustomed to visions of the spirit world, and little could scare him now.

“Mortanius!” Ariel shrieked, her voice like the howl of a storm. “How dare you come here!” she screamed in his face. “You murderer! You did this to me!”

Mortanius did not flinch as she threw the full weight of her fury at him. Her ghostly hands swung at his face and passed right through.

“Have you come here to mock me? Your very presence makes me sick! You betrayed me! You betrayed the Circle and all of Nosgoth!”

“I was not in control of my body,” Mortanius said calmly. “I was possessed by a malevolent being.”

“A malevolent being that you helped bring into the world!” Ariel shouted back at him. “You and your lover opened up a portal to another dimension! You damned fool! You knew that those creatures could take over your body!”

“Not here at the Pillars … How could I have known?”

“Did you really think they could only control you when you were close to the portal? How could you be so stupid as to believe such a thing?”

Mortanius let the comment wash over him. He had wondered that himself many times in the past few decades. How could he have been so stupid?

“I didn’t come here to explain myself to you,” he said. “Not even to apologize for what I’ve done. I can’t apologize for it anyway.”

Ariel swooped upward and back away from him. “Then why?” she demanded.

“Because I’m trying to fix it. And I need your help.”

She tilted her head back and laughed a hideous undead laugh. “Help? You need my help? You murdered me and doomed me to haunt this place for all eternity, and now you need my help?”

“We can restore the Pillars. We can heal Nosgoth.”

“There’s only one way to restore the Pillars,” Ariel snapped, glaring at him.

“I know. I’ve already put a plan in motion to accomplish exactly that.”

The Pillars were bound to their Guardians, and the health of the Guardian was reflected in the Pillar they served. All of the Pillars were now dark and disfigured, because the members of the Circle had all gone insane. So to heal the Pillars, they must heal the Guardians. Since that was impossible, the only other solution was to kill them.

That’s what Kain would have to do. His mission, although he didn’t know it yet, was to hunt down and murder the corrupted Guardians, and in doing so, restore the Pillars to their former glory. And since he was now a vampire, it would mean that for the first time since the rebellion, a vampire would serve as a Guardian. Mortanius believed that this would strengthen the Pillars and prevent the hylden from gaining a stronger foothold in Nosgoth. As Janos had told him long ago, the Pillars had to remain in vampire hands. If only Janos had explained why.

Ariel looked down at him. “And what about me, Mortanius? What happens to me once this grand plan of yours comes to fruition? Will my spirit be set free, or am I doomed to haunt the Pillars forever?”

“It was my magic that bound you here. Once I’m dead, the magic will fade.”

The truth was that Mortanius had no idea what would happen to Ariel. He still didn’t entirely understand how her spirit came to be bound to the Pillars in the first place. Was it because she died here at the Pillars? Or as it because the hylden used his own necromantic powers in ways he had never known? And if so, why? Was there some reason that Ariel had been bound here in the afterlife? Maybe the hylden had simply done it to be cruel.

“What is this plan?” Ariel asked, still mocking.

“Very soon, a man will come to the Pillars. I need you to speak to him, to guide him in the direction he needs to go.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself?”

“It’s complicated. He doesn’t know my true identity. If I tell him, he’ll treat it as some kind of task he’s doing on my behalf, or even worse, a personal vendetta of mine. But if you reveal yourself to him, you can persuade him to do what must be done. You can convince him of what’s at stake. Besides, he has no reason to trust me.”

“Not trust you?” Ariel laughed. “Whatever reason would anyone have to not trust you?”

Mortanius knew that once Ariel met Kain, she would know his true nature right away, and yet he still had the urge to lie to her, to cover up what he had done.

“He’s a vampire.”

“Oh? Is that all?”

“He’s also the Guardian of Balance.”

Ariel opened her mouth but stopped and stared at him, mouthing words that did not come out. The mocking smile on her lips faded into a blank stare, and her appearance shimmered and became almost fully transparent. She was so surprised that she had trouble maintaining her visible form.

“The Guardian of Balance?” she whispered.

Mortanius nodded. “Yes. Now do you understand?”

“A vampire Guardian … Yes, I think I see now,” she breathed, almost in awe. “But how did you manage it? Did you … did you make a deal with Vorador?”

“No. I’d rather not explain how I did it, because it doesn’t matter.”

“Who is he?”

“A nobleman from Coorhagen. His name is Kain.”

“Does he know?”

Mortanius hesitated. “No, he doesn’t.”

Ariel seemed to sigh, but maybe it was just the wind. She swayed to the left and right and then settled lower to the ground. “He’s right not to trust you. You’re using him.”

“We have no choice. If he’s to restore the Pillars, then it has to be this way.”

“Are you sure?”

“No,” he admitted bitterly. “But it’s too late now to change what I’ve done.”

Ariel fluttered and slowly swooped around him, like a bird of prey circling its target. “Oh, Mortanius,” she said hauntingly, “you’ve always believed that you’re so wise and noble. So much smarter than the rest of us. But you’re just as insane as the rest of the Guardians. You cannot possibly anticipate what this man will do once he realizes what’s been done to him. He will surely fail.”

“Then we’ll just have to wait until the next Guardian of Balance comes along.”

“We might not have that long,” Ariel said. “The Pillars grow weaker by the day.”

“Then we must make sure he succeeds. Will you help me, Ariel?”

She turned her back to him and floated away. Mortanius had hoped that the threat to Nosgoth would be enough to convince her to help, despite what had been done to her. Despite what Mortanius had done to her. She would gain nothing by refusing him, nothing except her own spite, which might very well be enough reason for her to do so. In life, Ariel had thrived on such things. If she refused to speak with Kain, then Mortanius would have to rethink his plan.

But she finally turned around, staring him with one clear eye and one eye scorched red and black. “All right, Mortanius. I’ll speak to your pet vampire. I’ll tell him where he needs to go, and we’ll see if your little plan works out the way you want it to. But there’s something else you need to think about.”

“What’s that?”

“This vampire – Kain – might decide that he doesn’t want to be your pawn. He might choose a different path. We are teetering on the edge, Mortanius. One wrong move could send Nosgoth to oblivion, and you’re pinning our hopes on a rogue vampire. Instead of saving Nosgoth, Kain might very well seek to destroy it.”

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