City of IF

[Kalanna Rai]

Sorry bout the long wait but it took me a while to work out all the bugs in this chappy. Enjoy!
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Chapter 17: The Heart of the Heartless pt 1

I want only my rest, I need only my solace. Yet I shall have neither till my task is done.
-Fallon

Layla saw the indecision that tore across Ceddon's features and decided to take the problem out of his hands. "Here...you watch the Golden One I'll take the history lesson." With that she took the feather from Faelyon's hand...and was plunged into the vision.

Fallon stooped and picked up the feather, staring at it as it lay, shimmering, in his palm. Layla wanted to reach out and hold him, such sorrow was contained in his actions if not in his expression. But she had no substance here, no being. She was here at the sufferance of another and she would watch, not interfere.

Fallon spoke, his voice low and even yet demanding an answer. "Well Evan...what was the purpose of this?"

Layla looked up, only now noticing the misshapen figure Fallon spoke to. He ambled out of the shadows and Layla was horrified at his appearance. Evan had changed far more than Fallon had in the time that had passed between this vision and current reality. His face was horrific, every feature flawed and warped. His wings were tattered and ragged, his limbs barely able to support him. His teeth were broken fangs in a mouth rimmed by bloodless lips and when he smiled it was the grin of death.

Evan's voice was terrible, the worst sound Layla had ever heard, and his laughter was the worst. It was a good thing he'd improved over the years...the worlds couldn't have taken much of such an abomination, as corrupt as Fallon was perfect.

"Fallon...Fallon...Fallon..." His grin stretched wider. "Amazing isn't it? How quickly people are willing to lay blame for all wrongs done at your feet? I find it horribly amusing, don't you?"

Fallon flicked a tendril of hair from his face, his long fingers closing around Ryzen's feather. "So this was all done as some punishment to me? Don't I take enough beatings for you as it is?"

Evan shrugged. "Eh, that's His doing. Maybe he's trying to improve your character...make you care more for others. Because when it comes to being a heartless bastard...I bow before you." Evan swept low in a perverse bow at Fallon's feet.

Fallon's fist was clenched tight around Ryzen's feather now, the sharp edges of the feather cutting into his skin, the white glimmer quickly turning red...then black. Fallon gazed at it, his soft expression slowly hardening. "No Evan...he's trying to teach you that lesson. I know well how my actions cause suffering in others...why do you think I keep my feelings out of it?"

Evan flexed his fingers, staring at the feather and Fallon's blackening blood. "Huh...that's new. When did you learn that trick?" He reached forward only to stop and look up at Fallon. "Your changing..."

Fallon smiled, that cold cruel smile he'd smiled a thousand times before. His eyes hardened to ice as emotion bled away from him. "Ah, you noticed then. Well Evan your actions have brought about consequences...grave consequences. As the Architect it was my responsibility to see that Creation remained Balanced. That it worked together as it should have."

Everything about Fallon darkened and that crushing aura of his began to manifest. Before Layla's eyes the scholar vanished and the warrior emerged. Power beat upon the air and Evan shrank back. Slowly, Fallon unclenched his fist and the bloody feather whirled upon the air, bourn up and out of sight. "An Entity has destroyed himself because of your actions, seeking to right a wrong he did not commit...because he was told to."

Evan snarled at Fallon and cringed away as Fallon's aura swept down on him. "He was a weak willed fool! It was a simple matter to tell him that his death would solve all problems since he lacked the will to live anyway! Ryzen did what he was told, he only existed because..."

"Because the Master ordered him to exist and that order superceded all others. I know, I was there Evan. So Ryzen gave up his will killing himself in the process, but this does nothing to repair the damage done. It only makes things worse...now we must make sacrifices to match."

Fallon smiled grimly and the winds tore his shirt away, leaving him bare to the waist. Slowly, as his nails elongated slightly and sharpened, he turned his fingers toward his own chest. Without hesitation he plunged them inward, his own hands seeking his own heart. Evan watched in horrified silence, unable to comprehend why Fallon was doing this since Evan couldn't comprehend sacrifice for others. But Fallon wasn't doing this for anyone but himself.

Slowly his hands drew back...holding not a heart but a long black blade that screamed horribly in the cold air. Black blood dripped from it's length and, as Fallon raised it before him, the wound in his chest knit closed without so much as a scar. With a motion too quick to follow, he flicked the black blade from one hand to the other. As he did so, he pressed the tip against the corner of each eye, branding black marks into his face.

With a single gesture, the winds knit around him, reclothing him in a coat of night. Ryzen's feather, still black with blood, fell from the sky and landed on his shoulder. In moments, silver edged the night black garmet and Fallon shifted his grip on the blade. "My heart...given to serve in lieu of Ryzen. To keep the Balance till it may truely be restored the Architect must become the Guardian."

Evan snarled. "And you expect me to do the same? I'm impressed, I'll admit it. It's not every day you see a man rip out his heart and transform it into a blade. But I'm neither Architect nor Guardian...I'm the Sunderer. I do what I will, when I will and it will take far more than that blade to stop me Fallon."

Fallon shifted his stance into a much more mobile one. "You sought to shift blame to me, in hopes of what? You knew I wouldn't react the same as Ryzen."

"I had hoped that he'd kill you before he killed himself. You see, Fallon, I'm tired of being this hideous monster. I'm tired of slinking about in the backs of mortal minds, preying on those too close to the edges of protection. Ryzen couldn't prevent my plan from wreaking havok and he couldn't fix the damage. That was something only you could do and you cannot leave these walls." Evan cackeled. "And now you threaten me despite the fact I can still leave and you cannot?"

Fallon was suddenly moving infront of him, blade arcing downward in a black flash. It connected with Evan and the malformed Entity had one moment to look surprised before he shattered like so much glass. "Ryzen gave up his will ending his life. You, now, give up your mind and your life." As the pieces drifted away Fallon gazed after them with slumped shoulders.

"And I have given up my heart..." For a moment Fallon stared at the blade before placing it in a sheath that wove itself into existance on his back. For a moment he stood alone then he looked toward the empty sky. "Take it..."

And he was struck down...

Layla collapsed, exhausted. A voice called out to her and she was too tired to respond to it. As she lay there, gentle light suffused the place where she lay...her spirit space. "Am I dead?"

"No little one." Hands lifted her shoulders, bringing her into a sitting position. "You are in grave danger however. Evan has struck a blow against you, to prevent you from speaking the truth you have seen."

Layla gazed at this stranger. Who was she? She opened her mouth to ask the question only to find delicate fingers laid across her lips to keep them closed. "Ask not who I am, I cannot tell you. It is not for you to know this for I am not supposed to be here. But there are times when the rules must be broken and now is such a time."

The woman knelt next to Layla and Layla felt jealous envy. The woman was as perfect as Fallon, female to his male, light to his dark. She was cloathed in flowing white garments that swathed her from neck to ankels, her long wings glowing and bright. Her gaze was painfully direct.

"What I now tell you jepordizes everything Fallon labors for. I could easily break the Balance letting a mortal know such secrets as this...but I cannot stand by and watch him falter any longer. Fallon was not meant to be so base and common, so weak and weary. He was given power none of us are capbable of, the power to take what Father makes, these abscent creations of his, and make them into a flowing whole. But now, as he seeks to repair the deeds done in haste, he forgoes the maintinance of the whole."

Layla puzzled for a moment, head swimming. "So what your saying is that in taking over the responsibilities of the Guardian...Fallon has forsaken those of the Architect?"

The woman smiled. "Indeed. If the whole is not maintained, the Balance shall not be destroyed by old wrongs never set right, but by a thousand small injustices and cracks in the foundations of worlds." The woman gripped Layla's shoulders.

"You have been delt a blow by Evan, as I said. Ceddon cannot aid you, though he defends you well. Faelyon cannot heal you, though he stops death from claiming you. Fallon...you must speak to Fallon. I bid you...with all the strength you have left, tell him this." And the woman whispered a word of power in Layla's ear.
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There's that...might have to take off before the whole things done. Dunno yet.

[Kalanna Rai]

Okay, Trying to get two done...
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Chapter 17: Heart of the Heartless pt 2

Ceddon watched as Layla took the feather, his heart twisting painfully as she sank to the ground. He had the unsettling glimpse of her eyes rolling into her head before her lids fluttered closed and he glanced at Faelyon. "Will she be alright?"

"Ryzen has never claimed a life through visions yet." That wasn't exactly the reasurring answer Ceddon had been hoping for but it was all the answer Faelyon seemed willing to give at the moment and he had to content himself with it.

He looked back to where Fallon and Evan stood, neither moving, neither speaking. They both seemed to be waiting for some unspoken signal. Then, suddenly, their positions had changed. Evan was clutching an arm, blood the color of old mold oozing between his fingers. Fallon flicked the gore off his blade and only then did the sound of the exchange reach Ceddon's ears, so swift had the movements been.

Evan cackled. "Damn...you're getting fast in your old age. But you're also getting soft. You knew damn well that blow wasn't intended for you."

"I protect them because I must, not because I want to. You know that Evan...your taunts are old." Fallon shifted his stance, blade returning it's tip to the dirt so that he might rest on it.

"And you're getting weak. The Fallon who cut me down didn't breath hard or grow weary. He didn't take pains to seem less than he was. He didn't care."

Fallon flicked a strand of errant hair from his eyes and suddenly they'd switched positons again. Ceddon nearly choked. How did they move so fast? Evan had another cut on his arm, bleeding even more heavily. Fallon was still leaning hard, looking even more grey around the aura than before. Ceddon tried to feed him even a small power boost and found himself blocked.

"Keep your strength...you'll need it far more than I." Fallon's voice held a tinge of weariness but the steel of firm command was still there. Ceddon could no more disobey that tone of voice than he could cut out Layla's heart.

He turned, instead, and returned to Layla's side. Varathax was in his hands now, a cold chill running down his spine told him he'd need it. Why? Why now was it all on him to be the hero? Callix nudged him, whuffing slightly.

"He's going to expect us to fight again isn't he? As tired as we are that Evan character is going to walk all over us and use our hides to clean his boots. Why can't Fallon just take care of him same as he took care of the others?"

Ceddon patted the kession's neck. "He's as tired as we are, can't you tell? Don't tell me you're blind to that fact."

"I'm choosing to ignore it. If Fallon's beat then we're all doomed."

Ceddon rubbed the kession tiredly. "I know, I know. But he isn't doing too badly at the moment. Who knows, this is Fallon we're talking about. He might be faking it afterall."

It was at that moment that another of those faster than lightning exchanges took place. This time, when the motion stopped, Fallon was standing above Layla, wings wrapped infront of himself. As they peeled back, feathers fell away and blood spattered down. Evan fell back grinning.

"That's more like it!"

Ceddon looked to Callix and the kession snorted. "I don't think he's faking it."

Evan laughed. "Oh my, my...protecting the girl. Well can you protect her from this Fallon?" The exchange was faster than the others but everyone knew something grave had been done when it was over.

Evan was sprawled on his back some distance away, bleeding hard. Fallon was down on one knee, blade the only thing keeping his torso upright. A series of long scratches had shredded the body of his jacket and blood pooled on the ground under him. Yet Layla twitched and jerked, body spasaming.

Faelyon reached down to her with his power and looked up at Ceddon with a pale expression. "She's miscarrying and I can't stop it."

"What!" Ceddon looked at the Golden One with horror on his face. A child? Layla had mentioned nothing of it? Or had she? Callix allowed himself a snicker before rushing to the side of the striken woman. Ceddon, menwhile, felt a deep rage building within him.

"Why can you do nothing?" His voice was cold and harsh as he adressed the Golden One.

Faelyon looked up at him with luminous eyes. "Because I'm not an Entity! I can't undo what they do." Ceddon was suddenly sent sprawling by a heavy blow.

He rolled onto his back quickly in time to see Fallon spring up and charge back toward where Evan stood. The misshapen Entity cackled. "Oh, hurry hurry! She's going to die and all your work will be for nothing Fallon!"

Ceddon's rage burst like a bubble and he threw Varathax, spinning end over end like a massive dagger. As if the great warsword had weighed nothing at all. He didn't realize he'd yelled until much later when he closed his mouth and licked his parched lips.

However, Fallon had taken advantage of Ceddon's moment. As the blade had hurtled toward him, Evan had sidestepped it...and stepped right into a sweeping blow from Fallon's black blade. The hideous Entity had looked at Fallon in shock before collapsing. With a single, fluid, motion, Fallon had changed his grip on the blade and driven it through Evan's heart.

He stayed there for a moment, on his knees next to the immoving corpse of his enemy. Ceddon, stunned that it was over, lay there for a few moments before standing and walking over. Retreving Varathax from where it had stuck, hilt up, in the un-soil, he turned to Fallon.

"Is it over?"

Slowly Fallon pulled free his blade and reached into the wound it left. Pulling free something glimmering he looked at Ceddon with unfathomable eyes. "Almost."

He got to his feet so unsteadily that Ceddon was moved to aid him, throwing the Entitie's arm around his shoulders and supporting him. Slowly the returned to where Faelyon was doing his best to keep Layla alive. Her lips were moving, trying to say something.

"Ceddon...hold her hands. Faelyon, hold her head." Slowly Fallon lowered himself to his knees next to her, sword supporting him. He placed one hand on her belly and took a deep breath. Nothing happened. Fallon's aura was more grey than purple to Ceddon's eyes, he didn't know if the Entity could go through with it.

Layla continued to mouth something over and over again and Ceddon wanted to sooth her so badly. Was she crying in pain? How could he ease it? He looked at Fallon. "Please...do something."

Fallon's keen eyes, blurred by exhaustion, noticed Ceddon's gaze and Ceddon watched puzzledly as Fallon leaned close to those lips. Suddenly, in a single whispered breath, Layla spoke one word.

The word was spoken too soft for Ceddon to hear, perhaps even too softly for Faelyon to hear. But Fallon heard and Ceddon was suddenly slammed back as power rushed into Fallon. His aura swamped over them all, painting the whole of the non world in it's light. It cracked and snapped and boomed so loudly Ceddon thought that there wasn't a living soul in existance that hadn' heard it...and he wasn't far wrong.

That single word spoken and returned to Fallon what he'd left behind so long ago. It returned his power, power he'd sworn never to take from the place of his birth. The rules had been broken, in his favor, but not by him. Ceddon didn't realize the true enormity of what was happening but in the next instant, time snapped past.

Suddenly Layla was large with child and they were no longer kneeling on the cold empty earth of the non-world. They were next to a bed in the castle atop the Ebon Spire. Fallon slowly stood, smiling to Ceddon.

"I'll go now. I'm not much good in places like this. Creation was never a part of my abilities." And like that he walked out the door, shutting it behind him.

Callix snorted. "I should go as well. Who wants an animal bedside at the birth of their child."

Ceddon reached up and stopped the charger from going. "Any man would be proud to have a companion like you present."

And so the Golden One, the kession, and the last Gallaeni left watched and attended as a child was born. A child with his mother's skin, his father's wings, and eyes of the purest blue. A child who would rule Terrina someday...a child born against all odds.

Faelyon said it best. "New life to scar the wounds and bring us past the tragadies that have befallen...into a new age of light. Hold your son Ceddon."
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There's one last part to this chapter.

[Mephistopheles]

Sweet! another chappy! still loving it rai.

[Lilith]

Hold on, one cotton-pickin' minute! THAT WAS WAY TOO EASY!
(Although well-written, I'll give you that.)
What's up your sleeve, Dragoness?

[Mephistopheles]

yeah, what is going on here? is this the end? It is a good story, but his can't be the end, can it?

[The Meaning Of Fear]

ARRRGGGHHH NOOO DON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS!

[NeverNeverGirl]

i smell spin off... Fallon can't just walk away into the night/day/ether - whatever!

Cannot believe i caught this in the last chapters! NOOOOO!

there was a few small mistakes, missed letters, punctuation and the like but the storytelling was brilliant and masterful.

good job Rai - cant wait to see the Fallon Epilogue crossover bit...

(NeNe thinks we should add excerpts from this to our bebo/myspcae sites...)

[Kalanna Rai]

I told you all there was a third part to this chappy. And I'm already posting this on Bebo under the name 'The Fallon Chronicles'...
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Chapter 17: Heart of the Heartless pt 3

Fallon stood on the wall of the castle, gazing out over the endless expanse of seething darkness with that fixed gaze of his. He didn't turn when Ceddon's soft footfalls echoed behind him, just waited. Ceddon settled in next to him, arms crossed as he leaned over the battlemounts. Neither looked at the other though Fallon could sense the questions that were causing a storm in Ceddon's thoughts.

"Ask."

Fallon felt Ceddon's gaze measure him yet again and idly wondered what the Gallaen's opinion of him was now that he knew the truth. He didn't particularly care one way or the other but it was always interesting to see how rapidly peoples views changed.

"Why. Why couldn't you have just told us?"

Fallon looked at the youth, eyes boring through him and into that which he had been created from. "Would you have believed me? Sometimes I find it hard to believe myself. Every day I seem to fade a little more...until now." Fallon felt his power seething inside himself, demanding an outlet.

He returned his gaze to the Dark, watching as it flowed and seethed. Ceddon sighed next to him. "I thought it would have gone away when Faelyon returned. Wasn't it part of his powers?"

"Not entierly. This was Faelyon's world, this was his castle. When he was shattered the Gods' lived here for a time before this Dark descended upon them. It came because it was no longer restrained and only appeared to be at the command of the one who weilded the sphere of Darkness and Magic. Why? Because that was Faelyon's power and this Dark knows better than to harm even a fraction of a Golden One. This Dark...it has been waiting for me."

"What? Why?"

Fallon took in Ceddon's look of shock, took note of Faelyon emerging from the Keep and coming toward them. He waited until the Golden One had joined them before gesturing to the Darkness. "Come, there are a few things I must do."

Before they could speak, Fallon vaulted the wall. The Dark parted before him and he descended to the surface of the blighted world of UnderDark in a shaft of pure sunlight, made violet by the power he could no longer totally hide. He waited for them as they slowly descended behind him, his gaze taking in the land made barren and bitter. Taking in the bleak way even the plants of the Surface scrabbled for survival by feasting on those unfortunate enough to die here.

Faelyon shook his golden head. "It was so beautiful once...my paradise."

Ceddon shrugged. "I've never known it to be other than this. I cannot actually grieve as you do but...it would have been nice to see what it once was."

"So you shall...watch and wait." He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply, a piercing sound that echoed against the empty vault of the black heavens. The killing, pulsing wind that was the Breath speeded up, whirling around them yet it's killing force was muted by the shaft of sun.

The sound of thunder was heard as the Dark seemed to concentrate around them, a swirling malestrom of lightless abyss. An ebony hurricane with that single shaft of light as it's eye. Slowly, the horizon grew light. Dawn breaking for the first time in living memory...a dawn tinged with violet hues.

Where this light touched, things changed. The strangler trees became oak, cherry, willow. The Cabodise became great red deer, bounding through lush forests. Rivers of poison ice thawed, their waters turning pure and bright as the Dark pulled back. Slowly, the world of UnderDark returned to life, brilliant, bold, beautiful life.

And Fallon stretched out a single hand as if reaching out to something. The thunder above them intensified as the Dark swirled down, it's freezing breath coming in great whuffs. Before Ceddon's stunned eyes, it reshaped and reformed itself into something very...ordinary. A horse, as splended as ever a beast there was, condensed from the Dark and stepped forward to nuzzle Fallon's hand.

This horse was beautiful, blacker than sin, moving like the tears of a maiden. Yet could Fallon have had any other steed? The beast made Callix look plain by comparison, it's tack blending against it's skin with only silver buckles and studs to mark where it was. It whuffed against it's master, shifting eagerly. With liquid grace, Fallon mounted and stared down at Faelyon and Ceddon.

"The time has come for me to take my leave. Faelyon," he reached out his hand. Slowly the Golden One came forward and placed the single feather of Ryzen into it. For a moment Fallon gazed at it before tucking it away somewhere and nodding. "One last thing. As the Architect I cannot leave Terrinia in the mess it's in. Here, take this."

He handed to Ceddon a single ebony feather, plucked from his wing. "When you return to Terrinia, break it in half. Things will return to the way they should have been...the way they are most stable."

No visible command was given but Fallon's steed whirled and reared, too anxious to be off. "Wait!" Fallon looked back over his shoulder at Ceddon. "Where will you go? If you ever..." his words dried up and Fallon gave another quick, humorless smile.

"It is good to know I have friends I might call upon in need, slight though that chance is. As to where I go, I cannot say Ceddon. I have no real destination, only the journey itself. I suppose I shall simply go until I am called again."

Fallon turned again and this time it was Faelyon who stopped him. "Fallon...I was wrong. I'll speak for you when next the Golden One's gather. You've been blamed for something you never did...you deserve forgiveness."

Fallon flicked a strand of hair from his face and was about to reply when a ringing neigh broke out. Callix landed with a flourish and a flash, Layla and the small bundel that was her son on his back. She descended, flashing a faux angry glare on two of the three present. She turned a calm gaze on Fallon.

"You were just going to leave without telling me goodbye?"

"Yes."

Layla huffed a bit. "Well...even so. Thank you Fallon. I hated you at first but I'm only mortal afterall. I'm not perfect."

"Neither am I." With that Fallon's steed plunged off across the reborn world. Life sprang forth everywhere, not new creation but restoration. Yet where the steed's hooves touched the ground the grass blackened and the stones shattered until, at last, his speed became so great he didn't touch the ground at all.

It was then that Fallon drew his blade and brought it down before him in a sweeping arc, splitting wide the fabric of the world just long enough for him to pass. There was a violet flash that perminantly tinged the sky followed by a sound like two glaciers slamming together as the rift closed.

And Fallon vanished from the world once called UnderDark...
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Hold onto your hats people...there will be an epilogue in a few days.

[Mephistopheles]

hmm, i am sorry to see this end. it has been a very fun journey, but, i look forward to the sequel. good job kalanna.

[The Meaning Of Fear]

Hmmm.

Wonder what he means by "Most stable"?

Maybe he will revive Ceddon's siblings (Forgotten the names), but with no memory of his existance whatsoever?