Heart's Darkness

by H D A Roberts

  I cast Mage Sight, but I didn't really need to. I was already crying because I knew what had happened.

  Maggie was dead, and I knew exactly who had killed her.

  Because she was a Revenant.

  There were two types, the ones made by Death Magic, and the ones made by the Black. The Death kind, the less dangerous kind, were souls trapped in their own bodies, often willingly in order to avoid a final death.

  The other kind... the Black kind, were much, much worse. The body was reanimated and completely repaired; the animating force of the Soul was then replaced by a twisted Black-Magic mimic. The Revenant retained the body's memories, most of the powers they had in life and their intellect. But they also come back hungry, hungry for flesh and thirsty for blood, above all for the target of the raising. I'd imagine it was me. The last time I'd seen this spell cast it reanimated everyone Jennifer Hopkins had ever loved and lost, including my predecessor. This casting appeared to be a bit more selective.

  My eyes were streaming with tears and my chest compacted with grief. I honestly didn't know what to say, what to do. Maggie had been one of the sweetest, gentlest people I'd come to know. I had started to love her simple kindness and her inherent goodness; the innocent way she looked at the world.

  And now... and now she was just gone.

  Cassandra was still standing next to me; she had her guns out and ready, but not pointed at Maggie, she was Cassandra's friend, too.

  "Matty, what's going on?" Cassandra asked.

  "She's a Revenant," I managed. The Maggie-thing smiled, revealing teeth that were stained with something dark, shreds of flesh lodged between them.

  "Revenant?!" Cassandra said, "Oh, God, no..."

  "Go get help, Cassie. And I think it would be best if you stayed out of the line of fire, this one's going to be bad."

  "I'll not just leave you," she said, tears in her own eyes, now.

  "This is Archons' work," I said, raising my shields, "Trust me?"

  She nodded and backed away slowly, her guns trained on Maggie, who was staring right at me and only me. Finally my Warden was away, hopefully to call Demise and Hopkins for help.

  "Alone at last," Maggie said, sounding just as she always had, but twisted; cold and vicious.

  I just stared, I didn't know what to say.

  Sending Cassandra away was dumb. It was the safest course for my friend, but the one person who should not face a Black Revenant is someone who loved them. I'd cared for Maggie, very deeply, and now I didn't know what to do, because the true danger of the Black Revenant wasn't the enhanced strength, the regeneration, or the Black Magic; no.

  It was the hope. The awful hope that you can reach the person inside the monster.

  I knew that. I'd spent hours convincing Tethys of that very thing when she'd been faced with her great love just like this.

  But when I was faced with it myself, all I could think of was helping her, bringing her back. I was an Archon, surely there was something I could do?

  "Nothing to say, pet?" Maggie asked.

  More tears streamed down my face.

  "I'm sorry," I managed.

  "You should be. I'm only dead because of you. If I'd never met you, I'd still be alive."

  Every word lanced into my heart, a shard of agony. Because she was right.

  And yet it didn't matter, not really.

  Because if we'd never met, she and her then-master would have mutilated Crystal and the rest of the girls at the Red Carpet, not to mention all the innocent people in that casino. I'd done the best I could, I knew that, and I couldn't have done anything differently, for to do so would have been to sacrifice my people.

  So why did I feel like it was my fault?

  "And to think that I loved you," she said, "Such a small man, what would you be without all that power?"

  "Not to toot my own horn, but a genius. I've been tested," I said, trying to project confidence and cool. I was just buying time. I needed help, lots of help. I wasn't even gathering energy; I was too shattered by grief. It was all I could do to talk to her without weeping like a child.

  "And what's that worth to a coward?" she asked. Tears were flowing down her cheeks as well. She took a step towards me. I took a corresponding one back. I knew those tears were false, but seeing them still hurt.

  It's not Maggie, it's not Maggie, it's not Maggie...

  "Enough that I've lived this long without ending up in prison, or the graveyard... yet," I managed.

  Her eyes darted dangerously at me, her lips forming a sneer.

  She laughed, an ugly, gurgling sound. I could smell rot on her breath, even from steps away.

  "In another life, we would have made such a team," she said with a smirk.

  I nodded.

  "In this one I loved you very much," I replied, "and for what little of the real you may be left, I'll make sure that Solomon pays dearly for what he's done."

  "Oh, I wouldn't worry, once I'm done with you, I'll be returning for him. He has little or no idea what he's doing. He created me for a purpose without thinking about what would happen when I was done. What do you suppose a heart tastes like?"

  The tangent was so jarring, I was shocked into silence.

  "I think yours will taste bad; withered, nasty. I think that your heart is shrivelled and broken, and I think that seeing me like this was the last straw. I think you're already dead, Mathew Graves. I think that your body just needs someone to give it a little push."

  She slowly drew a broken sword from a scabbard and then, before I could even try to stop her, she jumped for me, hard. She swung, and the blade slashed through... my Illusion's neck, dispersing it.

  She chuckled again.

  "Fool me once, shame on you..." she said, drawing a gun.

  She fired and the bullet smacked into my shields, which an Illusion had been hiding. I was very surprised; how had she found me so quickly?!

  When she came again, I was ready, and though it broke my heart, I threw a Shadow Lance.

  Which she parried like it was nothing!

  It hit the grass and exploded. She rushed me again, but I called my Shadows and they threw me into the air, high above her. Even under attack, I couldn't bring myself to fight properly. I was holding back, having trouble bringing my strength to bear. That first Lance had been small, a fraction of what I was capable of.

  I lashed out with a Shadow, and she darted out of the way, so fast. I expanded it into a cloud, and she was smothered in darkness, but she didn't need air, and she was apparently quite able to see where I was, as she looked right at me, high above her, and out of reach. She threw her sword and it bounced off my shield. She drew another gun and opened up on me with both of her firearms.

  I breathed, trying to calm down. She was no real threat to me. My shields were up and strong, my Shadows were now in place, and the bullets weren't Enchanted. I had time, time to think, time to plan...

  Or so I thought.

  She screamed.

  It was different this time.

  Uglier, nastier, and laced with something... terrible.

  It lanced through my soul, bypassing every defence I had, and my Magic failed on the spot. Everything from my Shields, to my Shadows, Mage Sight... it all lost energy, and I dropped out of the sky like a stone.

  I screamed as I fell, and she leapt into the air, catching me in a vice-like grip as we soared through up and onto the roof of one of the buildings bordering the park. She slammed me down, smashing the slate with my body. I felt my shoulder break, and then her head was at my chest. She bit down hard and tore a chunk of my shirt and jumper away with her teeth.

  She roared in triumph as she darted down again, straight at my unprotected flesh. I somehow got my good arm in the way, which was somewhat protected by the sleeves of a thick blazer and jumper, but I still felt teeth through the layers of cloth.

  And when her head pulled back, there was a golf ball-sized chunk of meat missing from my arm.

  I screamed horribly; an
d tried to call Magic, but she grabbed my wrist and bit down again, my blood smearing around her lips and chin as she tore at my flesh. My world dissolved in white-hot pain, agony searing me as another chunk of me was ripped away.

  And then she did it again... and again.

  She was eating me alive.

  I thrashed against her, desperate and screaming, my mind on the verge of breakdown from the pain and the desperation that came from knowing that I was about to die a horrible death... and that I couldn't do anything to save myself.

  Almost frantically, I tried to call my Magic again, but another bite stopped me from forming a Spell. Even my Shadows were just out of reach, my brain still half-scrambled by her scream. I felt myself start to go into shock, and I cried out, desperate and afraid, pulling every ounce of focus I could muster into a Magical scream for help, sent right down the fragmented link to my Shadows.

  I didn't really know what I was doing, it was all instinct and fear...

  But something heard me anyway.

  It started as a subsonic roar, one I'd felt before, but barely recognised in the state I was in. Maggie noticed it as well, and she halted her feeding long enough to look around her, searching for the source. The roar became a shriek, and the sky above us split open, revealing a gaping tear in reality, through to the Shadow Realm. Dozens of Elementals spilled out, each one resonating with my fear, each one terrified...

  And angry, so very angry.

  They looked like a mix of aquatic creatures, some like eels with flippers, some like sharks, but these were the relatively small ones, no longer than a wolf, some as big as a pony. Behind them swam something else, something different. Something bigger... much bigger.

  The Leviathan.

  If I had to describe him, I would say that he looked like a great Sea Dragon, made of Shadows, with two pairs of fins like a whale and long spines along his back. Huge and powerful, he could turn a city to rubble given the provocation.

  And he was pissed.

  Maggie, or the Maggie-thing, never stood a chance. The first ten little ones hit her as she turned to face them. They repaid her in kind for what she'd done to me, their fangs tearing chunks out of her arms and face as they flashed by. She turned and lashed out, but missed them all. And lost a hand for her troubles; something about the same size and shape as a crocodile bit it off.

  Desperately, I called my Will. To my surprise, I felt it respond, and I blasted her off me before casting a painkiller spell. I groaned as it took effect, and the agony dulled to an ache. I cast a hasty Triage Spell, and made the mistake of looking at my arm.

  I found it hard to hold onto my dinner as I saw at the ragged and horrible wound. I could see white bone through the torn mess of red meat. Blood was still spurting from damaged blood vessels, but it slowed to a halt as the Triage Spell took effect. Suffice to say, the damage was bad. Parts of the major veins and arteries had been ripped away completely, along with the nerves; my hand was numb below the wound. There would be no fixing that quickly.

  But that wasn't the problem at that moment, because Maggie was back.

  She swatted a couple of the elementals away and leapt back onto the roof, shreds of my flesh dangling from the side of her mouth as she came for me. I got a shield up and she bounced off, smacking into a chimney, which collapsed.

  There were screams from surrounding streets as brick and slate crashed to the ground. The sounds were quickly drowned out by the hunting cries of Shadow Elementals as they swung around and back for my would-be murderer.

  The Leviathan swung by, but its jaws closed on nothing as Maggie was elsewhere and coming back for me. He was too slow to catch her, and using his breath attack would smash the buildings under us and any people in them (thank God he was intelligent enough to realise that and sentient enough to understand the implications).

  I couldn't run, my legs were weak and shaking. My brain was working fine, but my body was useless what with broken bones and what amounted to mutilation.

  I really thought I was about to die.

  But then I felt my Elementals' tense as Magic flowed into the area, and not just a little; whopping amounts of power. Suddenly, they were gone, back into the Shadows as the night was rent by lightning, and not from the rainclouds above my head this time. Great forks of it smashed into Maggie's chest as she leapt for me, infinite hunger in her eyes and my blood on her lips.

  Her chest exploded and she was flung back, thrown to the ground, but already her wounds were closing, and she was up on her feet. Revenants were hard to destroy; generally you needed to take the head and destroy the heart; only one won't do it.

  I added my Shadows to the attack, and made them sharp, they took an arm, but I needn't have bothered, because suddenly Kron was there, blink and you would have missed her.

  She was wearing armour, bright and shining with power, her form flickering with electricity. She held a golden hammer in her hand and brought it up with blinding speed. That first strike knocked Maggie's head off like a golf ball, the sheer force of the impact making it explode in gore. Another strike and the Revenant's chest imploded, a black mess blasting out the back of her, heart and all.

  The body ignited, fire flowing from the hammer. A gesture from Lady Time, and a pulse of flame followed the head as well, rendering Maggie's remains down to ash, harmless once again.

  Just like that it was over, and Kron was standing at my side on the mangled roof, her weapon hooked onto her belt.

  A word to the wise: never piss off Lady Time, just some sound advice for you. She made me look like one of the Pixies, which should give you an indication of how powerful and dangerous she was.

  She knelt next me, her eyes compassionate.

  I didn't know exactly how long she'd been around, but she was well over a thousand years old, though she didn't look much beyond her mid-twenties. It was her eyes that gave her character and gravitas. Strom-cloud grey and piercing, they stared right into the heart of you. We often butted heads, but I'd never felt safer than I did right then as she leaned over me and smiled reassuringly.

  "It's alright, Graves. You're safe now," she said.

  I believed her. I relaxed, sending my gratitude into the Shadows.

  We serve the One, the Leviathan whispered back, his consciousness already flowing deeper into the Shadow Realm along with the others. And then he was gone, though I could still feel some of the smaller ones waiting nearby, in case I needed them.

  I sagged, exhausted. Kron took a quick look to make sure I wasn't going to bleed out, and then helped me to stand, making sure to grab the unbroken shoulder. She opened a Portal, and I saw my lawn. I sighed as I staggered through, weaving my way towards the door, assisted by Kron's steady hand. My legs gave out on the front doorstep, and I fell to my knees, shock setting in again, no doubt.

  Jillian and Bethany were on guard duty and darted forwards. I yelped when Jillian touched my broken shoulder, the spike of pain cutting through my numbing Spell. Bethany took one look at the mess that was my right forearm and recoiled, going a bit green.

  It looked even worse in the light. A lot of the dorsal muscle was just gone, leaving a wide, ragged hole, eight inches long and three wide. My arm bones were clearly visible (if somewhat stained red), complete with tooth marks and chips. That was some nightmare fodder right there; the human brain is not built to easily process the sight of its own bones...

  Into this bedlam came Kandi, who took one look at my arm and barely managed to turn her head away from me... which meant that she vomited onto Bethany instead. The poor Warden got more than a little in her mouth and, already on the cusp after seeing my arm, hurled as well...

  It was chaos, and the smell was simply awful, cutting through my trauma and shock, like a demonic version of the beckoning scent fingers that come from a Walt Disney pie. The stench invaded my senses, and, with that, my stomach finally lost its battle with nausea, and added a third heap to the floor.

  Needless to say, nobody covered themselves with glory,
but most of us did manage to get covered in vomit.

  "Oh bloody hell," Kron said, guiding me around the mess and into the hall, where Demise and Tethys had just reached the bottom of the stairs. She cast a series of Spells that threw the vomit off everyone (bless her) as she helped me walk.

  "What happe- what's wrong with your arm?!" Tethys almost shrieked, darting to my side.

  "Slight accident," I managed to mumble.

  "Has Vallaincourt returned yet?" Kron asked.

  "No," Demise reported, her tone clipped and professional even as her eyes were on my wound.

  I was having trouble remaining upright. I'd cast the Spell that would increase my blood cell production, but I was feeling dizzy and ill (Again! I'd just gotten rid of those symptoms...).

  "Ensure she's on her way," Kron ordered, "and fetch me his chef."

  "His chef?" Tethys asked, standing very close, but afraid to touch me in case she hurt me.

  "He'll need to replace large amounts of tissue, that means protein, that means meat," Kron said, and then to me, much more gently, "This way, Graves."

  She led me into my garden and carefully lowered me to the ground against my tree. Miss Jenkins came in at the run seconds later and Kron took her to one side. Tethys knelt down next to me, tears in her eyes.

  "Hey, it's fine," I said, smiling at her, "This kind of thing happens all the time."

  She choked on a laugh and grabbed my thigh. I think she wanted to take a hand, but one was next to a grizzly mess and the other attached to a broken shoulder...

  "What happened?" she asked.

  I told her, and her eyes narrowed in fury.

  "That man needs to die horribly, Mathew," she said once I'd finished, "I've had enough!"

  "Me too," I said.

  My mind was getting a bit clearer, so I decided to start working on my wounds. The shoulder, at least, was relatively easy to repair, so that was where I started. A few simple Spells slowly drew the jagged edges of my clavicle back into place, while another pair reattached the ball joint to its humerus. When they were in position, a final Spell started fusing everything back together. It was itchy as hell, but at least it wasn't painful (not with the overpowered Numbing Spell I had in place!).