The unkindness of ravens shot downwards as one, filtering through the thick canopy and avoiding the interwoven branches.He consolidated into one body just before he hit the earth.He stood up.His coat of many feathers covered him.Legion was waiting for him by the base of the broken tower.A set of steps appeared by their feet and spiraled down into the darkness.Legion was putting something back in between two folds of skin as he approached.
“What is that?”Weryn thrust out his hand as he asked.
Legion hesitated.Weryn showed a hint of fang.Still with reluctance, Legion plucked out what it was and handed it to them.He was shocked for a moment to see a ruby the size of a pigeon egg in the palm of his hand.It was not the size of the gem or the potential cost of it that shocked him.This was a soul gem.They were usedexclusivelyby Kaly Vampires to store the souls they used for their black magic.
“How did you get this?”Weryn’s voice was low, almost conversational.
“From a Kaly Vampire I killed,” Legion answered.
That was, of course, logical, but it did not fully answer the myriad of questions in his mind.
“And how did you learn to use it?”Legion asked.
Had Legion been associating withKalyVampires during the War, befriending them as they had Eyros Vampires?
“From another Kaly Vampire before I killed them,” Legion answered.
“I see.And how did you know it would workhere?”Weryn asked.“Now that I’m thinking on this, it seems awfully strange that it would be so easy for us to enter a secret Kaly passage to yet another secret Kaly passage that would lead us to the most secure place Kaly has outside of Lasting.So explain it to me.”
It would be better if I killed them here and now.Just end this.Legion has outlived their usefulness.They disturb me.Why can’t I just kill them and be done with this?His mind voice sounded exhausted even to his own ears.
They are still your Childe, Weryn!Ashyr’s voice was back, stronger than ever, sounding horrified.I loved that you treated every member of your Bloodline as if they were born from you.As if the youngest and weakest were as important to you as your oldest fledglings–
Legion is different!They are not… sane,Weryn confessed.
Perhaps not.Because you are not.And you sired them into further madness,Ashyr sounded disgusted.And now you think you are done with them!Give them a Second Death!It’s easy!
You don’t understand, my love, I–
You are one that doesn’t understand!You are responsible for what you’ve created, Weryn.You don’t get to get out of it so easily!Ashyr hardly sounded like himself anymore.
Legion shifted from foot to foot.“Because the first Kaly Vampire I killed wasn’t a Kaly.”
“What?”Weryn snapped.
His mind was focused on this moment rather than an argument with a ghost.
Legion’s long snout bunched.“The Eyros Vampires I knew believed that Kaly had sliced their soul into pieces and hid them in other Bloodlines’ bodies, in other Kaly Vampire bodies, too.Dozens of them.Maybe hundreds.Hard to know.I did not believe it until I met one.”
“The one with this jewel?”Weryn held up the jewel between them.
Legion nodded.Its raw-fleshed ears flickered.“Yes, and then I met another.”
“Another Kaly slice?”
Legion nodded once more.
Weryn tilted his head to the side.The truth was that this did make sense.How many battles had he gone into believing that Kaly was on the battlefield, that he’dkilledthem, only to have the bastard reappear in another body once more.He’d thought that it was simply Kaly’s ability to leap from body to body, but whenever they’d done that–in the past–that body had ceased to functionbeforebeing killed.Kaly always wanted to get away before the pain started and the shutdown of organs.But that hadn’t happened on those battlefields yet Kaly had always escaped him.If there wasmorethan one out there then… that made all the sense in the world.
But it also means I have a lot more of them to kill.
“And that Kaly slice justtoldyou everything you needed to know about this jewel and how to use it?”Weryn couldn’t hide his disbelief.
This had to be a trap if that was how this had gone down.But Legion shook his head.
“I showed it to the Kaly slice, but it would tell me nothing.It was only because Elgar was there that I learned what it was.He heard the Kaly slice’s final thoughts,” Legion answered.
“Elgar?Isn’t that one of Eyros’ Children?”
