7.3

Zyrdicia pondered how to contact Azriok. The matter couldn't wait. He used Howler Demons as servants just as Zyr used Fosfor Demons. There was a chance that by summoning one of his Howlers, she could use it as an intermediary to communicate with her dark angel. It seemed absurd to attempt it in broad daylight in the limited privacy afforded by a tent. The Howler's cries literally could wake the dead. The tent walls would do precious little to keep her activities discrete.

She shoved all of the furniture to the tent's edges, clearing the center area. Using the Tenaebran energy coursing through her, she experimentally cast an insulating field of magical ether around the emptied space. The field blanketed the space inside it in darkness and trapped sound. It might work. She set up a ring of black candles within the field's pitch darkness. Beyond the candles, she drew two perfect, concentric circles in the ground. She adorned each with a complex series of Tenaebran runes. The outer circle would bind the demon and prevent his escape. The inner circle would protect her should he become unfriendly. The demon would only have access to the ringed area between the two enchanted circles. She worked carefully and diligently, focussing on each rune. She painstakingly inspected every inch of the protective image. She was too weak to fight the demon right now; she would have to rely on the circle's protection.

When she was satisfied that the preparations were perfect, she called her dagger and drew it across the palm of her left hand. The cut was deep. She let large drops of her blood fall on the ground within both circles. Its scent would help attract the demon. She then retreated into the inner circle and began chanting the summons. She called it with a simple phrase, invoking the Howler in Azriok's name.

She chanted the Tenaebran words. Soon the demon's tell-tale howling filled the air. It started as a low groan and grew in pitch and volume. A red glow completely surrounded her before coalescing into the horned form of the fiend. The demon pressed against the invisible barrier afforded by the inner circle, opening its mouth to bare its fangs.

She addressed him in Tenaebran, the language of his master. "I, Zyrdicia, summon you to serve as my emissary to Azriok, the Fairest Sephiroth." The hissing sound of the hell-tongue subdued the creature somewhat.

Its red eyes narrowed. "For what purpose?"

"My purpose is my own. Can you communicate directly with him while you are here?"

"No."

She suspected he was lying. "Then go to him and tell him Zyrdicia wishes to speak to him. He will send you back to me with a message."

The demon looked suspicious. She was releasing him back to Hell. A summons never ended so easily. She was also demanding to communicate with his master, something no mortal ever did. The creature sensed this was no normal interaction with a sorceress.

"I command it in Azriok's name," Zyrdicia insisted. The demon could recognize that her magic was not of Azriok's making, but he could not disobey such an order. He disappeared.

Zyrdicia sighed heavily. She was well aware that she was not in control of this demon. She was treading in dangerous territory in such an exhausted condition. She trusted Azriok to send it back to her in a more pliant state.

It returned voluntarily a few moments later, as she had expected. Its demeanor was entirely changed. It bowed before her. "Lord Azriok sends his favorite mortal greetings and affection."

Zyrdicia smiled. She knew the message was genuine when she heard the words "favorite mortal."

"He commends your resourcefulness in using me to reach him. While I am in this world, however, he is unable to communicate directly with me."

"How am I supposed to reach him?" she asked, crestfallen.

"He bids you to summon him into your dreamworld. He can protect you from the dream fiends. He will follow your summons to find you there."

The idea that Azriok could personally come into the dream space was alien. It was always populated by a particular species of dream demon, creatures uniquely suited to the liminal space between her consciousness and Tenaebra.

"He warns that if you do not summon him, he will be unable to locate you. Zyr may try to prevent it."

"Was that his only warning?"

"You are in danger. You are in dire need of Azriok's assistance."

"There must be some other way for him to reach me!"

"There is none."

Anguish erupted in Zyrdicia's psyche. In her dreamworld, she was utterly vulnerable. There, she was without weapons and without magic. The demons who haunted it had every advantage. She believed it was impossible for them to kill her, but they could shred her flesh and make death look like a comforting alternative. Were Azriok to ever envision vengeance for the half-dozen deaths she had dealt him, her dreamworld would be a perfect venue. She would be defenseless there.

"You must trust him. Sleep, daughter of Zyr!" The creature's deathly howling became eerily low and soothing. It was lulling her to nap.

She shook her head angrily. "Stop it, damn you!"'

It ignored her. The droning song continued, nudging her exhausted consciousness to submit to it. Normally she could have opposed it easily, but its call was irresistible in her present state. She felt slumber reach out for her and wrap her in its powerful tentacles. As she submitted, she mumbled the words to banish the demon. His howl disappeared as she sank into oblivion.

Dozens of tiny dream fiends awaited her arrival on the other side of consciousness. She knew they were from Zyr. They flew at her head and hissed warnings in urgent, terrifying tones, "Do not trust Azriok!"

"Azriok is your enemy."

"Azriok lies to you."

"Azriok means you harm."

"Azriok seeks to destroy you."

"Azriok wants to devour your soul."

She batted them away and felt their teeth sink into her arms. They attacked her in a vicious swarm. Their teeth and claws distracted her from focussing upon summoning her former lover. She sank to her knees and bent forward, burying her face in her arms. They tore into her back, ripping chunks of muscle from it.

"AZRIOK! I NEED YOU! COME TO ME!" she screamed the Tenaebran words telepathically, repeating them in her head as the demons viciously exposed the bone of her spine.

The temperature dropped suddenly. The demons vanished in an explosive red burst. Azriok's cold, pale hands wrapped around her body and pulled her up from where she still crouched. The dark angel pressed her gently against him and encircled her in his immense, black wings. Her wounds vanished as he held her. She looked up at him in wonder.

In his true form he was at least two feet taller than she was. The black depths of the Sephiroth's huge, almond-shaped eyes sucked her in as she stared into them. His beauty was that of the darkness of a moonless night, full of mystery and unseen peril.

Feeling his arms around her for the first time in a century, her resistance to him faded. She clung to the only being in the universe whose presence dissolved the loneliness that lived in her heart. "I've missed you so," she gasped.

"I know," he whispered soothingly. "You forget I know you better than you know yourself, Deesh."

He always used the Tenaebran syllable in her name that meant "possession" as a term of endearment for her. As a child it had infuriated her.

He continued, "Your desperation to banish me from the places you inhabit is your effort to kill the part of you that still yearns for me. As much as it saddens me, I've tolerated it because I understand you as no one else ever can."

"You aren't angry at me for trapping you in Tenaebra?" she inquired meekly.

The darkness of his sudden scowl sent a shudder through her. "That was very foolish, even by your standards. You have curtailed my ability to protect you from your father." His stern expression dissipated and filled with fondness. "If I didn't adore you so, I would turn my back and leave you the languish alone in Zyr's web."

"But wasn't the last ploy to kill you clever?" she smiled. She had tricked him into meeting her in the Astral Plane. She contacted him telepathically and begged him to help her, claiming she was under attack and in desperate need of assistance. That he would help her was never a question. He always came to her when she was in danger, even after their difficult history. When he arrived, she had ambushed him with magic. He never fought back in such situations. It was as though he couldn't bring himself to harm her.

"Yes, precious, it was very shrewd. You learned well. I never imagined that you would dare to use the strategies I taught you against me." His expression melted into a mask of angelic innocence. "Alas, you have ensured that there will be no more meetings between us in which you try to slay me. If you attempt to attack me in Tenaebra, I shall be forced to destroy you. Nothing would disappoint me more."

"I can't go to Tenaebra. You know that."

"That's one of your father's lies. He wants to keep you tied to the world of flesh vermin. You are strong enough now to cross over without risk. The Sephiroth part of your soul has blossomed and thrived. You are so much less human than you used to be." She knew he intended it as a complement and nuzzled against him. "There would be no danger in Tenaebra if you were in my company. You can come to me anytime you desire. Call for a Howler to tell me to meet you at Hell's gate." His voice dropped to a whisper as inviting as a warm breeze stirring in the darkness. "Tenaebra is the most beautiful place in the universe. It is a dark playground that defies imagination. You would appreciate it as no mortal could. "

The affection radiating from his face filled her whole being. "Oh, Azriok. If it could be home to a creature like you, it must be truly wondrous," she sighed.

"Come with me there now, Deesh."

"No, not yet. Let me savor your presence in my dreamworld."

"You used to love to travel the cosmos with me."

She smiled dreamily, remembering. "Those were happy times."

"You remember when I took you to Luminaria and taught you to hunt Seraphim. The image of your cherubic face licking drops of golden blood off of an angel's severed wings is still dear to me."

"I'll never forget the taste of it. It was sweeter than honey."

"Do you hunt them still?"

"No. I haven't returned to Luminaria since I killed you the first time. Returning there without you would only fill me with sadness." For the first time in her life, she understood what regret was. Banishing Azriok was easily the most senseless act of self-torment she had ever perpetrated.

"Six centuries pass quickly enough, precious. We shall return there together when I am free. Would that I had been able to speak to you like this before your reckless folly."

She remembered why she had called for him. If she didn't get to the point soon, she would lose herself in the delight of his closeness. "Tell me what is going on with Zyr, Azriok. I need to understand."

"Zyr and I are at war in Hell. The object of the conflict is you. The decisive battle will be waged in your world."

"Am I the object figuratively or literally?"

"Both."

She felt a knot in her stomach tighten. It was what she had suspected; hearing it from him made it worse. "Why?"

"Zyr plans to enslave you as part of an inane plan rule the universe as its sole god and supreme being. You already know why he created you. I won't allow it to happen."

"The Twilight Prophecy?" she asked, incredulous.

"Yes, Deesh. He's already begun to weave you in his web. You have to tell me how to find you in the material world. Your magic insulator blocked my demon from discerning your location when it visited you. I know that Zyr sent you on an errand recently. He selected the place carefully. It will be the location where his plot against you unfolds. Tell me where it is! I can send an army of Howlers to destroy that world. They shall wake the dead and rip the land apart. We will stop Zyr's plan before it moves forward. Tell me, beloved."

Had he not called her "beloved," she would have had no hesitation trusting him. Hearing that word reminded her cruelly of exactly what her relationship with him was not. She almost wished that the word could have genuine meaning from his lips. She knew him well enough to know that he used it only to gain her acquiescence, just as he did physical affection.

"What is his plan, Azriok?"

"The Twilight Prophecy reveals his intention very clearly. It is nothing but Zyr's wish for the future."

"It makes no sense. Much of it has already been contradicted by reality."

"The version you know has been adulterated by little human minds incapable of properly understanding the Tenaebran verse. I arranged to hide a tablet for you under the Temple, in the catacombs. It contains Zyr's original language. It will help you understand his strategy."

She sighed. "The tablet was discovered a few days ago. Before I could get to it, Zyr sent a Fosfor to destroy it."

Azriok frowned. "How did he know?"

Zyrdicia shrugged. "You could answer that better than I could. How was the original verse different?"

"Zyr never intended to create more than one half-human offspring. He always intended for you to be the only one. His work was already complete when the humans trapped him in Tenaebra." He watched Zyrdicia's eyes widen. "You are his sole means of replicating his soul infinitely within the human race. He still very much intends to use you as a progenitor for the new species which will collectively house his soul."

"But your Edict..."

"Preventing vile, mortal men from befouling your being with the seed of a new species of flesh-vermin is the Edict's only purpose. It was my declaration of war against your father, my first line of defense in preventing his vision for your future from coming to pass. Since I could no longer protect you in person, I used the most powerful magic at my disposal to protect you for all time. "

"Then Zyr's plan is futile."

"If I'm destroyed in Tenaebra, the Edict vanishes. Once you are trapped in Zyr's web, he will try to kill me to free you from my Edict. He will fail. I promise. But you have to tell me where you are now."

She frowned. There was something else he was not telling her. "Why did he choose this particular location?"

"He prepared it for you. Within the place's material chaos he has entrenched a carefully engineered plot. He planned it for centuries."

"Planned what?"

"Your enslavement to his cause. Tell me where to find you!"

"Eventually, perhaps." Something about his warning did not ring entirely true to her. Too many details were missing. He might very well be telling her the truth, but she could not bring herself to trust him completely. Those innocent days were long gone, though she desperately yearned for their return.

"Azriok, why didn't you ever come into my dreamworld before? You always sent the dream demons to torment me."

"You already know why."

She thought a few seconds before answering, "You wanted them to torment me so that I would summon you, so that I would need you."

"Yes, I hoped you would summon me to protect you. As for your need of me, that fact is as inescapable as your Sephiroth soul. It defines your very being."

"It never occurred to me that you could come here."

"Your dreamworld is neither part of Tenaebra nor part of the material world, but simultaneously exists in both. I've searched for it a very long time. It is infinitesimal, a plane unto itself which is smaller than a grain of sand. Without your voice to follow, I would have never located it."

"And now?"

"Now I'll always be able to find you. Whenever you close your eyes, I will await you."

"You won't send beasts to harass me anymore?"

"Never. I shall protect you from them. I will never be far from you now. You cannot kill me here, so you have no choice but to submit to my affection while you dream."

"Then I'll imbibe a sleeping potion so that I can slumber for eternity," she laughed, reveling in the fondness of his tone.

His wings fluttered briefly, then his form melted in front of her. He transformed himself into a more human-sized manifestation. She brushed her cheek against his long, raven locks. He held her face between his hands, resting his pointed, black fingernails against the soft skin of her cheeks. A single scratch from his nails meant certain death for a mortal.

He angled his head, swallowing her with his eyes of infinite shadow. Somewhere in her mind, a voice told her to pull away, to oppose his power over her. She silenced the voice, relinquishing her will to the inexorable force of his darkness. She was home.

He moved his face toward her. Her lips parted to meet his. She had forgotten how cold his tongue was. It was like kissing an ice storm. They kissed with their eyes open, transfixed on one another. The familiar sharpness of his pointed teeth delicately drew blood from her tongue and lip. Its taste filled her mouth as they kissed.

His hands moved to encircle her thin waist. He discovered how much her body had changed since she was sixteen. The waif-like frame he remembered was no more. He enfolded her in his wings again, pulling her firmly against him while smothering her in sharp, biting kisses. As his teeth sliced her skin, he sucked hungrily at her mortal blood. She knew that it had been a very long time since he had enjoyed the warmth of blood sacrifice. He delighted in the blood's warmth.

She sensed instinctively that he had morphed in order to take a form with male genitalia, a physical attribute he lacked in his true form. The change was entirely for her benefit. Azriok experienced no physical pleasure from the human sex act, but he understood the effect it had on humans. Few things amused the dark angel as much as seeing his favorite mortal shudder in ecstasy at his touch.

In the surreality of the dreamworld, she was suddenly naked in his arms. When he looked into her eyes, she knew he could see how desperately she still craved him. She felt the force of his mind descend upon her. She quickly buried the thoughts of her location in Aparans, scattering the knowledge into her mind's deepest recesses. She held him at bay elsewhere in her psyche, allowing him to fill her with his consciousness only up to that point. Within her mind, she let him explore a century's worth of experiences and thoughts, sharing the life he hadn't been able to know. As he did so, the years faded away. It was as though she had always been with him. She gasped in awe as the timeless, enormous psyche filled her with its chilling darkness.

The physical aspect of their union mirrored their psychic connection. She submitted eagerly to the only lover she had ever known, a demonic god fascinated by her pleasure. He felt like ice inside of her. The cold thrill of it overwhelmed her.

Like an incubus, he was not bound by the physical constraints that effect mortal men. He watched her face subsumed by wave after wave of elated bliss. From within her mind, he sensed her exhaustion. She shivered in his heatless arms and embraced his presence in her mind.

Only now did she understand why she always felt so alone, why it took all her friends in Lyr to hold the sadness at bay with empty laughter. Having grown accustomed to the intense, spiritual closeness of such a creature in her youth, his absence from her adult mind felt as though a piece of herself was always missing. With his soul still permeating her being, she felt whole for the first time since their parting, and she hated herself for still needing him so.

"Tell me where Zyr has sent you, Deesh," he whispered gently. She didn't answer. She felt his mind press harder against her. Her mental faculties had grown strong over the years. She knew he was surprised at his inability to get past her defenses.

"Let me protect you as I always have," he prodded.

"Not yet. When I feel Zyr's noose, I'll call for you."

His angelic lips brushed her cheek, lingering against its softness. "It may be too late then. We have to act now. If you will simply trust me, everything will be like it used to be between us."

She wished that could be true. She knew he was lying. Somehow deep within her soul, she sensed it. It could never be like it once was between them. She had worked too hard to destroy that childhood utopia.

"Tell me," he prodded gently. In the aftermath of her body's ecstasy, the sensation Azriok's skin against hers was wondrous. The frigid electricity of his touch engulfed her.

She was silent. Resisting him now was even more difficult than killing him had been the first time. A conflict raged in her soul. Part of her wanted to belong to him as she once had. The other part of her was filled with self-loathing over her attachment to him.

His arms tightened around her. His wings fluttered and he returned to his true form. So tight was his grip that as his body elongated, her feet left the ground. "If you won't tell me, I won't permit you return there. I will not allow Zyr to move forward with his plan."

"The choice isn't yours to make," she answered sadly.

"If taking you with me to Tenaebra is the only way that I can protect you, so be it."

"My Howler knows how to find your body, if not your exact location. He can return to the point you summoned him. I'll send him to fetch your flesh so that we can reunite it with your dream spirit, and your dream spirit with the rest of your soul. Your body will only be comatose a short time."

"Azriok, no! I'm inside a protective circle. The Howler can't get to me. My body will die if my spirit stays outside it for too long!"

"Deesh, you forget that it was I who taught you those protective runes. I certainly know how to circumvent them. There is nothing to fear." He whispered soothingly in her ear, "You shall be with me forever."

"No!" The danger of dying was very real. Even if she survived the trip into Hell, as no human ever had, the spilling of her mortal blood there would consign her soul to the underworld for eternity. Shedding a single drop of it meant that she would never leave the Plane of Darkness. Sex with Azriok always involved bloodletting. In her mind, the two were so intimately intertwined as to be inseparable. Her heart raced as she recognized the perverse justice of his actions. He intended to trap her in Hell with him.

Time did not exist in Tenaebra as it did on earth. Her companions and her possessions would all decay and vanish. Even worse, friends and enemies alike would think she had died.

She tried to push him away but he was far too strong. It was like pushing against an ocean. His shadowy wings spread out and snapped against the air. He flew upward, still holding her tightly against him. She panicked and screamed. She struggled desperately against him. His beautiful, innocent face turned to watch her writhe and fight against his grip as he flew. They moved ever closer toward a point of darkness at the far end of her dreamworld. She knew Tenaebra was on the other side.

When they approached the boundary, her panic turned to terror. She thrashed and tried vainly to free herself from him. His eyes narrowed, and he looked behind him, concerned that something pursued them. He flew faster.

Just as they reached the gate, she fell into a pit of darkness. She screamed again. Somehow he still held her arms. She fought with renewed vigor, certain she was already in Hell and desperate to escape. She had never known such terror.

Strong hands shook her violently. Azriok's voice called out in the darkness. "Zyrdicia, wake up!" She struggled to push him from her and free herself. She had to get away. Somehow she had to get back to her dreamworld so that she could return to the material plane before the Howler snatched her body.

The unseen hands shook her again in the darkness. "Wake up!"

She tried to extricate herself from his grip on her shoulders. He wrapped one arm around her and held her arms with the other. "No!" she moaned, attempting to pull away.

"Be still. It's just a dream."

Her eyes flew open. She could not recognize her surroundings. She was certain she was in Tenaebra. She gasped for air, still terrified. She tried again to free her arms.

"Calm down! It's only a nightmare!" Dirk Blackpool's voice brought her out of the horror. Her breath came in short gasps. Her eyes moved frantically, searching for any trace that this might be an illusion, layered into Hell.

"The dream is over. You're safe." His voice sounded so much like Azriok's. She shivered. She closed her eyes, willing the panic to ebb. The words were not Tenaebran. They were mortal speech. "Do you know where you are?"

She frowned and nodded, unable to speak. He felt the tension in her body wane and released her arms. She opened her eyes, allowing them to focus and realized he had been leaning over her on the ground, where she had collapsed within the enchanted circle.

She had escaped. She wasn't Azriok's captive in Tenaebra. Her heart still raced.

The insulating magical barrier surrounding the circle had long since expired. Had the Howler returned, it would have been able to discern her location. Aparans would have been obliterated. The escapade was a series of near-disasters. Every time she slept, she would now risk facing the ordeal again.

"You are shaking," the prince observed. His arms moved around her. He lifted her from the floor of the protective circle and set her on the bed. As he set her down, she entwined her arms around his neck and rested her head against his chest. She needed the simple succor of physical touch. Its grounding warmth rooted her back in the material world. In the absence of Portia or Magnus or any of the others she relied up on Lyr, she didn't particularly care whom it came from. She struggled to calm her mind. The encounter with Azriok was too much to process immediately. In a span of a few moments her universe transformed from bliss into horror

His fingers stroked her freshly washed, unbraided hair. He inhaled deeply as he caught ephemeral the scent of her perfume.

"If you hadn't awakened me at that moment, you would have never been able to," she whispered.

He reassured, "It was just a nightmare. I get them often myself."

"It was much more than that." Looking at his face, she could tell he had not been awake long. He was unshaven. In fact, he looked as though he had just tumbled out of bed. She blinked in confusion. "How did you know to come?"

"A rather insistent voice in a dream told me to."

"What kind of voice?" she asked suspiciously.

"It sounded like metal grating against stone. I've never heard anything like it."

"Zyr." She sighed. "What did he say to you?"

"It told me that you were in grave danger and I should go to you immediately." He tactfully omitted the fact that the voice had also warned him that he also would never possess her or conquer Tronin if he failed to follow its instructions.

I'm so sick of hearing that I'm in danger today, she thought. "You came at the voice's urging?"

"Of course. The security of my greatest weapon against Camarand is very important to me." His arm moved to wrap around her slim shoulders. "I first checked with the guards posted outside your tent. They hadn't seen you in hours. Then you screamed. I feared someone had gotten into the tent while you were sleeping. I rushed in and found you struggling against invisible spirits in your dream. It was difficult to wake you."

Her eyes were far away. The emotional intensity of the encounter with Azriok dominated her consciousness. The euphoria of their recent intimacy still lingered in psyche, juxtaposed to a fear of him she had never known before. Azriok's protectiveness of her had always been the single, fixed element in the cosmos upon which she could always rely. In the span of a few moments, that protectiveness had become monstrous and horrifying.

"You look as though the world just ended," Dirk remarked.

"In a way, it did."