Elegy

her a shrug in return; there was no helping it now. The truth might as well come out.

“I’ve been an Arbiter for less than a day,” she said, somewhat bitterly. D’Arden ached for her, having to face a confrontation like this so soon after her ordainment. Acolytes needed training; he’d been a fool to bring her here.

Khaine’s eyes blazed with interest and amusement. “How is that possible?”

“I have no idea, Khaine,” D’Arden said, echoing the bitter tone of Elisa’s statement. “She’d been bitten by a manna spinner. I gave her a dose from the heartblade to try and save her life. When I offered her body to the font, it revived her instead of dissolving her.”

'Interesting,' Khaine mused, stroking his chin. As he approached closer, D'Arden could see that the cool blue eyes that had once belonged to his mentor were gone entirely – instead there blazed bright red light that usurped the entirety of his eyes. He was built more powerfully than D'Arden remembered, his arms bulging with muscles and blazing with strange red tattoos that appeared to be some sort of ancient language, all alive and burning with the power of the corrupted manna that had overtaken him.

'What say you, little one? Do you still stand beside him now that you have seen the power that I wield?' Khaine finally reached the bottom of the staircase and reached out one hand towards Elisa. She stiffened, but wisely she did not move as the disproportionately large hand stroked her cheek almost tenderly. 'You have none of the training that my misguided former apprentice carries, none of the values of 'purity' and 'light' that would keep him from attaining all of his goals in life in a matter of moments. What say you?'

D'Arden felt himself tensing with rage also, his knuckles turning white as they gripped the handle of his manna blade. How dare he touch her with his corrupted fingertips, allowing the corrupted manna to flow through her? D'Arden knew though that Khaine well understood what he was doing; Elisa was not properly exposed to the pure manna yet – she'd only had two doses from the heartblade and would barely be considered an infant by the standards of the Arbiters. She was much more susceptible to his corrupted touch.

'Get away from her!' D'Arden shouted, swinging his blade at Khaine. The older man stepped backward quickly, and the blade sliced through the air only inches from Elisa's face. She flinched backwards and stumbled a step or two away as the manna blade cut through the air before her.

Khaine laughed again at his ineffectual attack. 'You see, dear child,' he said to Elisa, 'This is what those values achieve and attain: nothing more than a blind attack that could have just as easily taken off your head as mine.'

D'Arden found rage welling up inside him. This man had been everything to him once, and now he was openly mocking the very ideals he'd taught D'Arden to believe in. He struggled to fight back the anger, knowing that it would only blind him to Khaine's next illusion, whatever it might be.

'I knew they'd send an Arbiter,' Khaine said, studying one hand dispassionately. 'Of course they would, once they felt my power growing here. I never expected, though, that they would send you, Tal. Did the Grand Master even tell you that I was the one who'd been sent here five years ago? Did they even begin to hint at what you might find here in Calessa?'

'Of course they told me,' D'Arden lied boldly. 'I knew exactly what was going on here, and so did they. In fact, I volunteered to come here just so that I could be the one to put you down.'

Khaine laughed again, and the sound boomed off the walls. 'Such a brave boy, lying to your Master like that. The manna tells me more than you would ever imagine, Tal. Did you know that once you learn to see the manna clearly, you can see how it changes in a person? Even the poorest, most miserable of peasants has manna within them, and that manna can be changed or it can be manipulated, and those people can be utilized in ways that you would never imagine.'

'That's ridiculous,' D'Arden spat. 'Only the Arbiters have enough manna within them to be read. The amount of manna in the normal person is miniscule, undetectable even by the most well-trained eye.'

Khaine wagged a finger at D'Arden reproachfully. 'Oh, how little you know. The manna itself is within everything, within everyone in the same amount. Arbiters have no more manna inside of them than anyone else.'

'You're not making sense, Khaine,' D'Arden said, narrowing his eyes. 'Of course an Arbiter has more manna within them. That's why the heartblade exists, that's why regular exposure to the fonts is so necessary. That's how we survive, by tipping the balance of our bodies and our souls toward the manna.'

Elisa was merely standing back, a few steps away, watching the two of them. There was fear in her eyes, and she seemed to be regarding both D'Arden and Khaine with the same amount of fear. That only enraged him more. He was supposed to help this girl, now that he'd inadvertently cursed her with the heartblade. This was supposed to be her chance for a better life. He'd be lucky if she would ever let him near her again after an experience like this.

'You're wrong, Tal.' Khaine said this in such a way that brooked no argument; it was not a counter to D'Arden's statement, but simply a statement of fact. 'The heartblade is a special enchantment. It does not contain manna, but instead an agent that at once both lends resistance to the deadly energy of raw manna and forms an instant addiction that cannot be broken. It draws you back to it with its own energy, requiring you to take sustenance from it. The manna from those fonts is killing you as surely as time is killing you. It dissolves your being, a tiny mote at a time, relieving you of your humanity until one day your soul is swept away in the font, and you are gone forever from this place.

'Don't you see, Tal? The manna is not pure or corrupted. All of it is deadly. Every exposed font in this gods- forsaken world is deadly. All of it is corruption, and we are all a part of that corruption. Humans are not meant to live in a world like this, we are not meant to exist in a place with this kind of energy. The Arbiters simply fight to keep the balance tipped towards the side that they have chosen, so that they can more easily control the power of the land to their own ends. Once my power spreads and all of your 'pure' manna is driven from it, new things will grow in the shadow of the Red.

'Men will adapt, just as they always have.'

D'Arden fell back a step, thunderstruck. He could not believe the words that were flowing from the mouth of the visage of his old mentor, and yet somehow, everything seemed true. His head was reeling. If any of this were true, it would invalidate his entire existence. Everything he had fought for, bled for, nearly died for would be completely gone.

'What about Calessa Heights?' D'Arden demanded. 'That is not adaptation! That's nothing but madness!'

'An unfortunate side effect of a cleansing fire is that some things get burned,' Khaine replied patiently. 'There were some there who did not respond to the power of the Red, and it spread like a sickness. The good Captain Mor was good enough to board up the place to keep it from spreading further – after, of course, he spoke with me.'

Damn it! D'Arden cursed himself inwardly. Even Mor is in the pocket of this monster! How did I not see it?

A broad smile spread over Khaine's face, revealing wickedly sharpened teeth. 'I see you realize the depths of your plight now, Tal. Yes, I have been watching you since the moment you stepped foot in my city. At first I was amazed that they had sent you, so naive and so unwitting into this place. Then, as you began to realize just what was going on here, I began to get angry. I had Mor plant that boy with you, all the while intending that he would die, to see if I could break your resolve.' The smile darkened into a dangerous frown. 'I see now that it was pointless. Instead, somehow, you found one of the few who my power had not touched at all, and somehow cast her dice in your favor, though it is supposed to be impossible.'

So even Khaine hadn't known about the heartblade's secret; that it could even change someone later in their life and give them the power of the Arbiter. That helped D'Arden to feel slightly better, and he was able to pull back his blinding rage from the edge of a foolhardy attack on his enemy. He stole a glance at Elisa, who was still watching the both of them fearfully, and shook his head.

'Words are words, Khaine,' D'Arden said at last. 'You stand here before me and speak of things of which you have no way of proving. It matters little how much your words ring of truth. Even if they were lies but you believed them fully it would change the manna in your favor, and the both of us know it.'

'Would you then like a taste of my power, Tal?' Khaine grinned wickedly once more. 'I would be happy to demonstrate it for you.'

D'Arden lowered himself into a combat crouch, gripping the handle of his manna blade tightly in both fists.