The doors of Veiron Keep were inhumanly heavy. She knew of course that nobles especially those at the top of pyramid liked there buildings to reflect there wealth and power but this was ridiculous. Susanna had to remind herself that when this place was inhabited the King probably had twenty or thirty guards to pull both of these doors wide open. By any standards this door was far more decorative than actually functional in keeping out attack.

For some reason Susanna had thought that someone... or something would answer the great doors when she knocked but the sound just rattled around the courtyard and inside the hall. Such a loud was slightly unnerving in the dead silence that had fallen since Mahtan had slain the orcs. The courtyard had grown eerily quiet. After a moment Mahtan stood up to the door. He put his fingers in the crack of the door which was wider than seemed safe and pushed with all his might. His muscles strained but inch by inch the door opened. There was no way for him to open it fully but he pushed the doors enough for a single man to fit through.

Mahtan slipped easily through the doors. Susanna was about to follow him when the elf offered her words of caution and a promise that he wouldn't fail her again. What was going on inside his mind. It felt like she was talking to two different and distinct Mahtan's, the one that felt her pain and cared for her and the one that kept her around simply because she was the vessel of Lilith. It was so hard to gauge which one was present at any given moment. She of course knew what it felt like to have two sides to oneself but in Susanna's case she literally had a split personality.

Susanna stayed outside the keep for a couple of seconds before throwing Mahtan's warning to the winds and following him through the crack in the door. Once inside Susanna was amazed. Even stripped of it's valuables and prizes the Keep of Veiron was a remarkable building. With high ceilings and smooth tiled floors. The opposite end featured a beautiful twisted staircase that spiraled in opposite directions at it's branched point. 

Susanna knew it was beautiful but there was something else in the air that made her uneasy. Despite the warm summer's day that had dawned outside the keep was brisk and chilled. When Susanna exhaled she could see her breath before her. Susanna's blood ran colder than ice and she wasn't sure why but the feeling frightened her. They shouldn't be here. For God sake they'd headed the advice of a Storm Demon. [i]Susanna language! Using a word like that here, what is wrong with you?[/i] Susanna couldn't figure out what she had thought. "Storm Demon is offensive?" Susanna asked slowly confused. [i]No that's a rank, the other thing... God.[/i]

Susanna almost felt like laughing but something in the air stopped her. Just then she heard a clattering sound by her shoulder. She twisted and saw an arrow bounced off the keep's doors but saw nothing that it could be aimed at. Susanna looked at it's origin point and spotted Mahtan standing on the lowest step of the staircase. His bow was strung and he had demon in his eyes.

In that instant the doors of the keep slammed shut and Susanna knew that they were in deep trouble. "SUSANNA! NO! GET OUTSIDE!" Mahtan screamed from across the room trying to run for her. In that moment she knew that he had not fired on her. There was something else in they keep with them. Mahtan ran down from the stairs and lost his footing the tile. His body did a three hundred sixty degree front flip that should not have been possible for the stumble he'd made. As he hit the ground Susanna heard a loud CRACK, that echoed off the keep' marble floors and walls. She saw the light leave his eyes. Mahtan, heir to the throne of Reach was gone from this world.

"NO!" Susanna screamed running to his side. She put her hands underneath his head. She could feel the fracture in his skull but there was no blood and he was too far gone for her powers to save. She didn't care. He had saved her life and she owed him that in return. She let her hands start to fill with power. "Dark gods that slumber in the earth, lend me thine power. Whether I stand in house or field or mount..." She was interrupted by a voice.

"Don't bother Susan. That part doesn't come till later and besides, you don't really have to pray after all... I'm already here." The voice seemed to emanate from the keep walls themselves. It was cheerful and kind but cruelly so. The kind of voice that was friendly to your face and stabbed you in the back the moment you turned away. Susanna looked around wildly for the source. "Don't bother Susan I'm all around but I suppose it might be nice to show off a physical form again, it's been awhile." Susanna kept looking for the source of the voice and as she did so she noticed something slither out from under Mahtan's body. It was a shadow, or more accuracy a thousand shadows. They all curled onto one spot on the floor and then started to condense and move upward in a smoky pool. It was hard to describe what Susanna was seeing. The shadows formed themselves into a human woman. She was several inches taller than Susanna and her entire body was black. Not dark skinned but literally black, her skin, teeth, hair, tongue, fingernails and cloths all as dark as Susanna's blood.

The figure appeared to breath in but Susanna knew it must be an illusion. Nothing that monstrous needed to breath. "Now that's just rude, I took the time to give myself form so that you would feel more comfortable and all you think of my hard work is that I'm monstrous. Lilith always did have a thing for strong willed hosts."

Susanna wasn't sure what to say. This shadow woman's demeanor and manors were like Lilith's except a thousand times more precise and meticulous with every word being carefully chosen while giving the air of nonchalance. Susanna couldn't think of anything to say but she managed to choke out a few pathetic words. "You... you... you killed him." She said not quite taking in the reality of the elf's death. [i]Wow dearie. Of all the things you could have said and you voice something everyone already knows?[/i] "I know Lilith she doesn't chose her words very well does she. Once we resurrect the King trash like this will be ours to play with. Of course before we can have a King we need a Crown Prince."

Susanna stared at the shadow form in awe. "Wha... what are you doing?" She asked shocked. "Quiet dear the adults are talking." As she said this the shadow raised one of her ghostly hands and snapped her fingers. The sound reverberated around the hall like the cracking of Mahtan's head had. Black smoke curled from the ground engulfing Susanna, pulling her to her feet. The smoke that surrounded her wasn't what worried her however. When it touched her Susanna felt something forcing it's way up her throat. She began to cough and choke desperate for more air. She could feel everything slipping away when suddenly the smoke vanished and Susanna drew in a grateful breath but when she exhaled black smoke accompanied her breath. She blinked three times and Susanna started to panic. She couldn't feel her limbs any more, or her throat or face. She hadn't felt the breath enter her lungs which could mean only one thing.

"I'm back." Said Lilith a cruel and sadistic smiled curling Susanna's lips.

"Welcome back Lily, we have a lot to do and even more to catch up on." The shadow said smiling. Susanna kicked and screamed trapped inside the body that no longer belonged to her. She let a string of profanity escape her lips but it simply echoed around in her mind refusing to reach her lips. "Thanks dear I appreciate the compliments." Lilith said smiling. Susanna screamed into her mind but this only served to amuse the demon.

"Now Susan." the Shadow Form said clearly just as amused with Susanna's behavior as Lilith was. "If you're done throwing your little tantrum the grown ups have some business to discuss." [i]Who the hell are you?[/i] Susanna shouted. It was clear the Shadow Form and Lilith were the only ones that could hear her. If Mahtan had still been with them he would have been confused as to the one sided nature of the conversation. "Lilith dear, do you want to take this one." Though it was phrased like a questions Susanna knew perfectly well that it was an order to be headed. Lilith and this mist form might have been old friends from there days in the pit but it was clear that the shadow woman was in charge.

"Show some respect human," Lilith said with contempt. Susanna almost felt like this was a practiced routine. "This is the angel that gathered the earth which became the first man. She is one of the originals that hell was created to hold. This is the being that twisted the first soul into a demon. This is the Lord of the Abyss, Abaddon the Destroyer."

Susanna gulped. Her family had never been particularly religious especially after her mother died but everyone knew the names of the original eight. Lucifer, Abaddon his lieutenant, then there was Asmodeus, Sammael, Ahriman, Balan, Baliel, and Molloch. Abaddon was the name that fallen angel that did the mortal bidding of Lucifer. It was her name that parents used to scared there kids into obeying the rules. Abaddon was the monster under every child's bed and she was standing in front of Susanna.

"Thank you Lilith now if you please." Abaddon motioned to the lifeless body of the elf prince. Lilith nodded once and approached the corpse. Susanna screamed in her mind yelling that they should let him alone with the little dignity he still possessed but no sound escaped her lips and the demons around her merely laughed.

Lilith picked the much larger elf up from the ground with little effort and followed Abaddon up the steps. She kept walking further up the keep, Susanna lost count of the number of staircases that they climbed but neither the demon or the fallen angel showed any signs of stopping or tiring. Finally they came a a room high in the sky from which all of Veiron could be seen.

A stench filled the air but Susanna was unable to gag. She could feel the excitement of the demon and her master. Whatever this smell was it had some special significance to them. It appeared to be some sort of study that they found themselves in. There was a great table that had once sat as a desk at the side of the room which had been pushed into the middle as some sort of centre piece. Where it had once sat there was a high backed chair. Susanna knew without looking that this was were the stench was emanating from but she didn't have a choice, Lilith controlled her eyes.

Fused to the chair was the ghastly sight of charred human remains. Though the corpse' cloths had long since rotted away Susanna could see a gold crown that had been burned into the skull. Lilith smiled at the sight of it. "All hail the King of Veiron." She said laughing. "Foolish old man, once you sell your soul it's all over for you." Abaddon said looking at the shrivelled remains with something that if she'd been human Susanna would have equated with disgust. "We must get started, Lilith lay our Prince out on the table for his crowning."

Lilith complied and laid Mahtan's body out as instructed. Abaddon handed Lilith an ornate silver dagger. The Storm Demon used it to slice her wrists and let Susanna's tainted black blood fill one of the kings chalices. Abaddon took the chalice and set to work drawing various symbols over the table around Mahtan's body. A pentagram encased in a circle sat under the elf's chest while the demonic symbol for power was drawn under both his hands along with a variety of others lastly being the symbol that Susanna bore on her neck drawn on Mahtan's forehead. They were ready to begin. 

Some sort of unseen communication passed between the demon and the angel. They stood one at the elf's head and the other at his feet. Abaddon placed her hands on Mahtan's skull while Lilith touched two symbols drawn at the base of Mahtan's feet. The ritual began. Susanna couldn't have told anyone exactly what was involved. There were several chants and passages to do with hellfire and destruction as well as energy that passed between the two and through the body. Susanna did however remember the climax.

Abaddon released her hands from Mahtan's skull and let herself dissolve back into the walls of the keep. Her voice rang out in the stillness calling on a force that lingered in the air. "Keeper of the gate, Master of Crossroads, hear us! Before time began, before knowing and nothing there was an ancient pact sealed with the blood of the Light Bringer" This last statement Abaddon said with pride in her voice. There was a resounding crack like lightning then all sound in the room went deathly silent. Then like a crack in a wall the air before then splintered. From the other side Susanna could hear the screams and cries of the dead and the dying, the tortured and the damned. Standing between this crack and the room of the tower was an old woman dressed in an ancient and patched cloak. She held a staff in one hand and her skin was pale and wrinkled. Her eyes were white with small black pinpricks in the centre and she had deep bags under her eyes like she had not slept since the conception of the world.

"Why does the lieutenant of Lucifer call on the Gatekeeper of the Crossroads?" She asked. 

Abaddon reformed in that moment but Susanna did not think it had anything to do with choice. The light from the underworld washed over her shadow form letting the darkness wash away like dirt in the rain. Abaddon stood in the flesh. Her hair was red and cut short, her skin pale and her lips like blood. She wore a simple dress that would not be out of place on a milkmaid.

The expression on her face was... no, Susanna couldn't believe it. This was Abaddon, she was the lieutenant of Lucifer ruler of Hell. Abaddon couldn't be frightened of anything but that was what he face said. Abaddon solidified her face before she spoke. "Cailleach (Kay-lyx), Gatekeeper of the Underworld. When the angel's fell you were given the right to save the lessor transgressors by my lord in exchange for one deed in the time of his choosing. You saved many from the hellfire creating the safe haven of Purgatory for them, now it is time to see if it was worth it. I call in my Lord's request in order to save him. You know what I want, let it cross over."

The old woman, the Cailleach looked at Abaddon tiredly not in the least surprised. "Messenger, make sure this is what is desired of me. I do not make bargains lightly or often and my price is always high. Make sure you do not waste your opportunity."

Despite the look of terror in her eyes Abaddon stood her ground. "This is what is desired of you Gatekeeper. Let what I seek cross over."

The Cailleach looked at Abaddon with something close to pity. "Very well, I do not take sides in the affairs of the mortals but know this Abaddon. You're time in this world will be short lived. You will see the underworld again when the sun grows dim." With her ominous words hanging in the air the Cailleach stabbed her staff into the floor. The tiles cracked and shadows spilled out of the crack in reality. They covered Mahtan's body making her appear as Abaddon had before the she summoned the Gatekeeper. "Remember child," The gatekeeper said "Power and Control are both matters of perspective." Then the crack sealed itself. Abaddon's solid form disintegrated leaving her as a black shadow form and the being that Abaddon had released on the elf's body swirled into his eyes before disappearing. 

Susanna felt the crack in Mahtan's head push itself back into place though she was no where near his head. A red light glowed from his eyes for a second before they returned in there emerald green form. 

Mahtan gave an enormous gasp as he struggled to pull oxygen back into his lungs. He sat straight up on the table. The Dead Prince of Reach had returned from the land of lost souls. He was back among the living, though perhaps he wasn't completely one of them any more.