Fan Fiction ❯ The Soul Reaver and The Spirit Shield ❯ The Water Forge ( Chapter 29 )

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Hurry, we've only got a few hours before Kain kills Moebius!" shouted the reaver of souls over his shoulder to the priestess on his heals.

Panting, Jenise called back to him, "I'm running as fast as I can!"

"You should have set the dials a day earlier in time."

"I set it to when you wanted me to!"

"Look! The pillars are up ahead! We're almost at the stronghold!" encouraged Raziel.

After emerging from the time streaming chamber in the poison swamps of Nosgoth, Jenise and Raziel began the trek to the stronghold. Along the way, they had overheard a conversation between a few vampire hunters, who were unaware to the time travelers' presence. What Raziel and Jenise overheard came as a shock: the rumor that was circulating was that a rogue vampire had been single-handedly murdering the pillar guardians of Nosgoth and that said vampire was headed towards Moebius's stronghold. Hearing this, the urgency of arriving at the stronghold quickly became evidently clear. If they did not arrive before Moebuis's death, then they may not find the Heart of Darkness.

The duo crossed the open field containing the pillars of Nosgoth. Had they more time; Jenise would have stopped to marvel at the pillars. Though already corrupted, they were not in as near a state of decay that she was witness to during her time. Exiting through the gate doors, Raziel and Jenise came to the pathway serving as the route to the stronghold.

Along their way, Jenise made a realization, "It's odd…we haven't encountered any vampire hunters other than the two we saw earlier."

"I've noticed too," added Raziel, "and as much as I find them a nuisance to fight, I don't like the feeling I'm getting from their absence."

Rounding the last corner, the cliff overlooking the lake came into view. The view they saw was completely unexpected by Raziel. The cliff they knew which stood tall over the lake was now only a mere few feet to the surface of the water. Apparently, the lake had flooded during the springtime thaw. The lake level was twice as high and the distance across the lake had grown threefold.

Raziel's eyes carefully scanned across the inaccessible edifice. The giant double doors, which had previously served as his entrance to the stronghold, were almost completely submerged in water. There was no way the doors would budge against the increased pressure. And even if they could budge, opening them might flood the inside of the stronghold. That is, if it wasn't flooded in water already.

So, the mystery of the missing vampire hunters had been explained: with no way for vampires to breach the stronghold from this side, then there be no need for anyone to guard this area.

"We're going to have to find another way in," Raziel pointed out after realizing there was no other entry on this side of the stronghold.

"How are we going to do that?"

"We'll have to go around. Obviously Kain can't get through this way either, so there has to be another way in."

The warriors decided to back track, searching for an alternate route in the mountains that may have been overlooked before. After a few minutes, they came across the overflowing stream that crossed the road.

"Do you think if we followed this stream we'll find another way to the stronghold?" the priestess asked as she approached the bank.

"Yes. This stream must lead to the stronghold. The lake surrounding the keep is the lowest point in these mountains. The stream must flow into the lake."

With Raziel's affirmation, they began following the channel downstream. As they continued, the mountains around them closed in, tightly hugging the stream. With the excess water, the banks were flooded over slightly, and the warriors found themselves treading through ice-cold water up to their knees.

The stream seemed to twist and turn more so than the road they had abandoned only moments before. Eventually, the riverbed began to slope downhill, and as it did, Raziel and Jenise came across a twenty-foot tall waterfall. Standing at the top, the duo looked downward for some means to overcome the obstacle. Off to the right, and about halfway down, there was a ledge.

Pointing at said ledge, Raziel inquired loudly over the noise of the waterfall, "Do you think you can reach that ledge if you jump?"

Jenise took a moment to judge the distance between herself and the ledge. Ten feet down, but thirty feet away. If it had been a little closer, she was confident she could make the jump. But at that distance, and the poor footing on the slippery rocks beneath her feet, she was very uncertain. Seeing the look of doubt in Jenise's eyes, Raziel offered a solution.

"Grab onto my back, and I'll carry us both to the ledge."

"Are you sure you can jump that far?" Doubt was still etched on the priestess's face.

"Trust me."

Jenise seemed almost reluctant when she grabbed hold of Raziel's back. Crouching down, the former vampire crept up to the edge of the waterfall.

"Ready?" he asked before committing himself to the leap.

"Ready," Jenise replied warily as she clung tighter to the reaver's back. The sight of the jagged rocks below did not look too pleasant.

From the crouched position, Raziel pushed upwards with his legs, sending the pair straight up into the air to gain some much needed height for the descent. When he reached the pinnacle of his jump, Raziel outstretched his wings, and the duo slowly glided towards the cliff.

With the gentleness of the descent, Jenise ventured to open her eyes. As she did so, she peered over Raziel's shoulder and watched as the ledge drew ever closer. However, her previous doubt manifested into horror as a realization hit her.

"We're not going to make it!"

"Don't worry! We'll make it!" Raziel tried to sound confident. But the truth of the matter was, that when he made his judgment on the jump, he forgot to account for Jenise's added weight. Alone, the reaver of souls would have easily landed on his target with several feet to spare. Now that there was the weight of two pulling on his wings, he was uncertain of the outcome.

Jenise watched as the top of the ledge came near before it disappeared as they descended below the edge. The priestess clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the impending danger of the rocks below to hit her. When she felt a sudden stop, she reopened her eyes, slowly but curiously.

"I can't hold us forever. Hurry and climb up," Raziel instructed Jenise, a bit of desperation in his voice.

Jenise looked up to see that Raziel had caught hold of the edge at the last moment. Without having to be told twice, the priestess climbed up Raziel's back and pulled herself onto the ledge. As soon as she was off his back, the vampire wraith pulled himself up as well, though with greater ease than his counterpart.

The duo walked along the ledge to the other side, where below was solid ground. Raziel confidently leapt down, whereas Jenise did a hang-drop to the bottom. They walked up to the riverbank, where it wasn't nearly as rocky as below the waterfall. They took a moment to examine the stream. Just below the waterfall, a pool of water had formed before it flowed off to the opposite of the ledge the pair had previously landed on.

As Raziel and Jenise rounded the pool of water, the former vampire stopped in his tracks. After a few steps, the priestess noticed his absence at her side and stopped as well. Looking back at Raziel, she found him staring at the waterfall, a look of bewilderment on her face.

"What is it?" she inquired.

"Do you…Do you see that?" he asked, pointing at the waterfall. Jenise gazed at the object of Raziel's attention for several moments.

"What do you see?"

"Stay here a moment," the former vampire instructed as he leapt into the pool of water. All Jenise could do was watch with a confused expression, as he crossed the fifty-or-so-foot pool. As he approached the waterfall, Raziel looked back a moment to Jenise. She remained in place, still confused. Raziel then turned his attention back to the waterfall, where he disappeared behind it.

"Just great," Jenise muttered to herself irritably. "We come all this way and now he decides to go off on a little adventure. It's not like we don't have anything more important to do right now."

As Jenise was complaining to herself, Raziel climbed behind the waterfall into the small chasm hidden behind it. Standing in front of him, was another set of the double doors with the unmistakable picture of the ancient vampire etched on its surface. Above the door, there was a new elemental symbol. This symbol was a picture of a circle. From the top and bottom points in the circle, a curving line was etched in the stone, out and around the circle of the design. The lines came back towards the center with a small spiral at the end, meeting with the base of the opposite line.

Eager to discover the secrets within, Raziel used the wraith blade to open the doors. After stepping into the finely crafted corridor, the doors behind him slid shut. On the reverse side of the doors, was the same symbol Raziel had seen moments ago. Obviously, he'd have to find the new element in order to open the doors once again.

Raziel walked down the corridor, and as he turned the corner to the left, he came across a small pool of water. Looking down into the clear liquid, he noticed that the pool was in actuality, a flooded tunnel. Jumping in, he swam through the underwater passage. After several minutes, he emerged from the water and found himself in the southwestern corner a hollowed out section of mountain. Apparently, by the consistent use of hollowed out mountains, the ancients preferred to use such geological formation for their architecture.

Raziel crossed the open area and noticed on the ground in the center of the marble floor, was the forge. A recess in the floor surrounded the forge. From each direction, empty channels led to the forge. Raziel followed the channel in front of him with his eyes. When it met with the far wall, the channel continued through a carved out section of the wall. The other three channels where built this way as well.

Curious as to what lie above, the former vampire approached the carved out section of wall. He noted that the channel was too steep to climb. Determined to find a way to the top, he spotted the symbol of the spectral realm, and shifted planes. Doing so caused ledges to emerge from the walls of the structure, enabling Raziel to climb to the top. Once there, he located a conduit, and returned to the physical realm.

At the top of each wall, the channels continued and led to giant fountains of water. The fountain was a perfect circle made of stone. The center was a design made of stone, where water would spray out. However, these fountains had been frozen over by the recent winter months, and the high altitude had not allowed them to thaw as of yet.

Raziel realized that he would have to thaw each of the fountains in order to activate the forge below. But first he had to locate a fire font for which to re-imbue the wraith blade.

The former vampire leapt back down to the ground below. Carefully inspecting the chasm, he noticed a block in the southwestern corner that seemed out of place. Going over to the block, Raziel dug his talons into its surface. With a mighty tug, he pulled the block out of its place.

To Raziel's dismay, an immoveable gate blocked the pathway he had revealed. Again switching realms, Raziel passed through the gate and continued down the winding tunnel. Eventually, he came across another conduit, and returned to the material world. A few turns later, and the former vampire found the font he had been searching for. Placing the wraith blade over the font, the element of fire was drawn from its basin. The blade consumed every last essence of the element before it relinquished its hold over Raziel.

Satisfied, the vampire wraith turned back towards the main chamber, shifting to the spirit realm and phasing through the gate. He climbed the ledges along the north wall once again. When he shifted to the material plane, he summoned the fire reaver, and searched the fountain for a place to insert the imbued blade.

On the backside of the fountain, Raziel found the symbol of fire, and inserted the reaver. With the added heat, the ice within the fountain began to crack, and then shattered as it instantly thawed. The fountain came to life, water sprayed into the air before coming back down and into the basin surrounding the spout.

After a few moments of being active, the water level in the basin began to rise until it reached the lip of its stone confines. The edge of the stone over the channel was slightly lower than the rest, which allowed for the water to flow freely from the fountain. The liquid spilled into the channel and followed its course down the incline in the wall and towards the forge. Once there, it filled part of the stone recess surrounding the forge.

With the north fountain complete, Raziel set out to repeat the process for the south, east, and west fountains. Each time, the water level within the stone recess would rise a little more. As the water from the forth water reached its destination, the forge activated with a tremendous rumble.

The water within the recess seemed to come to life, willing itself into spires of water and cascading downwards into the center of the forge. The forge began to vibrate as the blue aura of the elemental energy pulsed from the center of the forge.

Raziel strode over to it, knowing exactly what to do. He thrust the reaver into the font, allowing it to take control. Raziel was pulled skyward as the wraith blade absorbed all the energy the forge had to offer. Once sated, the reaver subsided and Raziel landed on the ground once again. With all the energy sapped from the forge, the fountains on the far sides of the area grew silent once again. Mission complete, Raziel headed for the exit to meet back up with Jenise.