Realm Wraith (52 page)

“I-Ivannos?”

David smiled. “You finally remember.”

Chapter 17

Rayne stared at his old friend, trying to make sense of this. After all this time, the man he had known since childhood was something else entirely. None of this could possibly be real, he thought to himself.

“I don’t understand,” he stammered. “I thought you were—”

“Human? I can take mortal form.” David’s commanding voice held so still and silent everything around him seemed to freeze in reverence.

“But your world was—”

“Yes. You were the one responsible for my death so many years ago. I have not forgotten that, nor will I ever.”

He reached up his free hand, offering it to Rayne, who clasped and shook it, still bewildered.

“You may have forgotten,” David said. “But our pasts have intersected many times.”

“But you—but we only met in secondary school! This has to be some kind of trick! You can’t really be—”

“I know this must be very confusing for you, that’s why I’ve kept silent all these years. I have been watching over you for a very long time.”

Rayne pulled away from him. “This whole time, I thought you were my friend but you’re—”

“I’m not your enemy, Rayne. What’s between us is complicated.”

“Then for God’s sake, explain it!”

David—rather, Ivannos—exhaled, and beckoned for Rayne to follow him.

“We have a little time now,” he said, as the two beings traveled through the crowds of slack-jawed oblivious, one a man with a burning golden aura and a spear in his hand, the other a snake creature from the very depths of Hell. None turned their way as they passed, none cared to see what walked among them that day. “I banished Azaznir temporarily, but he will return. We might have days, we might have only hours. I can tell you what you wish to know, if it’ll help pull your heads together. But you must return to the Abyss, because you are the only one with the power and the will to confront him right now.”

“You used that spear? I don’t understand. How—? If you’re Ivannos, why are you here? Why do you have that spear? The one that—” Rayne rested a hand against his head.

“Even deities can be reborn,” Ivannos said as they moved through the park. “Words can’t describe how much I hated you back then. I rejoined the cycle of life and death, and spent eons cursing fate before I was reborn as a new world. After spending so much time alone, I resolved to become a world of life again, and leave my bitterness behind.”

“So, you’re Earth now?”

“I am. But shortly after my rebirth, that’s when
he
appeared.” He spat the words. “Azaznir brought you along with him, an imprisoned wretch trapped in physical form. And he buried you within my core. I almost died again that day. You remember that at least, don’t you?”

Rayne shuddered, as he indeed did. A planetary collision, earth and fire cast into space, a world liquefied into molten magma, proving easy for the fire god to imprison his enemy deep within its heart.

Ivannos said more. “At first I was furious. You were completely unable to free yourself, so I let you suffer. But, after two billion years of listening to you screaming in agony, my rage turned into pity. I felt sorry for you, suffering for so long, even after what you did to me. I once thought no punishment would be too great, but—”

“You always were a compassionate soul; it’s part of your nature,” Rayne finished for him. “I suppose you can’t help it.”

“Just as you can’t help being what you are. So I decided to help you. I guided you out from deep within the planet. I shifted the tunnels and crevices along the crust to give you passageways so you could burrow your way out. It took several million years, what with you dying over and over, but one day, you finally burst free, at the bottom of the ocean.”

The world flew by these two entities as they traveled, land and ocean passing beneath them, a thousand ages of the Earth rushing by in Rayne’s mind even as the trees and cities of the modern era rushed past his eyes. He remembered the pain, the torment. But he remembered Ivannos’s guidance, the overwhelming joy of cold water after billions of years in his own personal hell.

“So you saved me out of charity?”

“It did shut you up. But there was another problem. Your physical body was immortal, and indestructible. It was not meant to give you power, but to keep you chained to the material world, so that you could die a trillion deaths and know the pain of each one, yet never return to the Abyss. You took to my oceans, becoming more of a nuisance than a threat. But you were still alone.”

“Who are you calling a nuisance?”

Ivannos turned to look at his demonic companion. “Eventually I felt it best to approach you, in mortal form, so that we might speak. You recognized me. You sneered, and taunted me about Ivnyaatir, telling me how your only regret was that you couldn’t corrupt my soul along with everything else. And I put up with your scorn. I didn’t really expect all those years of torment to change your nature.” He noted the guilt on Rayne’s face. “You don’t have to pretend to be sorry. You did recognize that I was the one who set you free. That was when you arranged a bargain with me, something that would be mutually beneficial to both of us.”

Rayne remembered a promise pulling at his mind, though he did not recall the details.

“Neither of us wanted you trapped on Earth. So, I agreed I would do everything in my power to restore you to the Abyss. In return, you would protect this world, from both your own whimsy and from any other unnatural threats to its well-being. As treacherous and manipulative as you can be, being the snake that you are, you were still a creature of your word. I thought it a fair trade.”

“
Creature?
”

“Of course,” Ivannos continued. “You are also the type to find loopholes and exploit them. When humans appeared, you recognized that, while fragile, their minds and ability to reason could be of use to you. You toyed with my life forms, granting them power as you pleased so they would advance more quickly.”

“Well, I’m sure I had a good reason,” Rayne protested.

“You were too hasty. God, I was so angry with you, but you assured me, with those forked tongues of yours, that you would not let it go too far. The end of the world would be bad for both of us, after all. But the humans were savage and primitive. They used their newfound knowledge to fight each other, which I’m certain you knew was going to happen. To prevent complete destruction, you appeared before them as a dark god, giving them a foe to turn their weapons towards. You antagonized them for centuries, until they’d finally had enough, and one civilization managed to learn your true name from a madman who sacrificed his very existence to learn it, and carve it upon a stone. That stone became a cursed artifact, untouchable, yet they still risked everything to carve it apart, and etch it with protective spells, forming it into a spear. This spear.” Ivannos held up his hand, letting Rayne see the golden weapon, its entire shaft burned with runes.

Being so close to it was strange. In the grip of this deity, this holy arm became his bane. And yet beneath Rayne understood, the name he had borne since before the passage of time, a part of his very existence was written there. Not something to fear, but to embrace as a part of his being. It was difficult to imagine something as simple as a name could disrupt him, even kill him, yet remain so closely woven to him.

“No mortal could wield it, even with the protective magic. To grasp it for too long brought madness, understanding of things not meant to be understood. But when I learned of the weapon’s existence, I decided I should be the one to hold it.” Ivannos grimaced. “I knew it was dangerous to wield the name of a demon god, but you were my responsibility. So I took it and faced you in battle. You fought me with everything you had. I thought at first that you didn’t recognize me, and it was a matter of pride. Even though you sought death, you couldn’t simply allow something you saw as beneath you to end your life. Then I realized you knew exactly who I was, and the real reason you fought me.”

“Why was that?”

“Because you’re an arse.”

“Oh
really?
”

“The fight raged for weeks. The weapon damaged you, but it wasn’t enough. I needed a truer strike, somewhere more fatal. When you were finally exhausted enough, I climbed my way atop your heads and drove the spear directly into one of your skulls.”

Rayne winced, remembering the battle in his mind as Ivannos retold it, and the clear memory of that weapon violating his cranium, piercing into his very soul. His body had perished that day, but he lost even more than that. He had lost himself.

“Did you know that it would have such a terrible effect on me to, well,
slay
me as you did?” Rayne asked.

“I did not know what would happen. But I didn’t care so much back then. As long as it killed you, my end of the bargain would be upheld. But in the moment I struck you, I realized the terrible power the spear held. And by bearing it, I took the very act of your destruction and made it a part of me. The spear fused with my soul that day, and we are inseparable now, sharing our existence as one.” He drew Rayne’s attentions back to the spear, and it glowed with the same brilliant golden light before vanishing into his arm. “I suppose it gives the two of us a permanent connection. Maybe in the end, you got to corrupt me after all.”

“I was wondering where that came from. I didn’t recall seeing it in the hall closet.”

Ivannos shook his head. “But I digress. I understood what had happened as your body turned to stone and your soul became lost. You were drawn to Limbo as a mindless shade. I could not follow you. I waited, to see if your soul could recover from such a grave injury. A thousand years passed, and I sensed your return. You had been reborn in the body of a human, and you did not know me. You did not even know yourself. Your spirit was still damaged; incomplete. I decided then that I would watch you until your soul was restored, because I still hadn’t fulfilled my promise. That, and I didn’t trust you, even without your full power. You’re far too dangerous.”

“So you approached me as a human? Became my friend?”

“I think deep down, you knew me, and knew our history. You were always drawn to me in the end, every lifetime. I quickly learned I couldn’t just blurt out the truth. You were still too damaged to accept it, and your mortal body limited your existence. It ended badly. Very badly.”

Now they stopped, somewhere else in the world. A sandy beach walled the grey ocean waves on a cold day. Rayne did not know where they were, but it felt as if they had crossed through many countries and seas to get here during their walk. Off in the deeper waters, obscured by heavy fog and faded distance was a large rock formation, broken and worn down after years of exposure, a rock carrying a faint resemblance to a large serpent that branched into seven smaller ends. Rayne spoke nothing of this, but observed it with growing recognition, understanding why they had stopped here. Nearby, a small beige snake slithered its way through the sand, hidden in the yellowed grass growing by the shore. Ivannos turned his gaze to it, and Rayne looked as well, feeling a familiar connection to the creature.

“It’s strange to think,” he joked, trying to lighten the tension. “If all life on this world comes from you, that you would have animals on this world just like me.”

“I didn’t create those things.” A hinted smile crossed Ivannos’s face. “But they fit into the ecosystem surprisingly well.”

“You mean I—?” Rayne changed the subject. “So now Azaznir is—?” He turned his eyes to the golden light in Ivannos’s sight.

“As formidable as my spear is, only your name exists at its core, so its power is the most devastating to you. It still brings pain to other demon gods, and I had the element of surprise on my side, so I was able to drive him off. He’ll lick his wounds, but if something isn’t done, he’ll be back.”

“Why? He knows I’m not trapped inside the Earth anymore. What’s the point in destroying this place when it’s me he’s after?”

“He’ll do it out of sheer spite. You know he will.”

“And you need me to stop him.”

“I kept my half of the bargain and helped you return to the Abyss. Now you have to keep your end. You promised that you would not let anything happen to this world.”

“But you’re not the one that sent me back; it was Darrigan that—” Rayne trailed off, mouth slackened.

“That’s right, I made arrangements with that reaper to put your soul where it belonged. You’re not slithering out of our bargain.”

“I wasn’t going to, I just thought—forget it. You did exactly as you promised.” Rayne coiled up on his tail, looking out to sea. “I suppose I see this world as mine too.” He smiled a small, wicked smile. But the smile faded as he pondered what Ivannos asked of him. “But I don’t know how to stop him. I couldn’t stop him in the past, and I wasn’t a mental wreck then.”

“Rayne—no, Nen’kai. Your soul is restored; it’s recovered from your past trauma. You’re just as powerful now as you were then. It’s only your memories, and your perception that have become skewed. As long as you repress your nature, your memories will never freely return. You still cling to being human out of habit, when you’re not.”

“But that’s all I know.”