[h1][center][i][u]"A Mother's Task"[/u][/i][/center][/h1]

Lorelai smiled at the sleeping Lotte,  stroking her hair softly.  The newest addition to the Von’Strauss legacy.  She wondered in her own mother felt this way.  On one hand she was delighted to finally have someone to pass her knowledge down to,  on the other she wept for the strength their shared legacy would require.  All mothers hoped for strong children,  but very few would enjoy the knowledge of how strong Lotte would have to become.

Lorelai sighed and leaned over to scoop up Lotte’s pet mouse,  who was sleeping comfortably near the girl’s head.  Lotte needed a familiar,  and Lorelai was the only one left who knew how to forge one.  She checked the would-be familiar,  and was satisfied that she spell she’d placed on it the day previous had absorbed enough of Lotte’s essence for the task.

She walked into her rarely used walk in closet,  a whispered word triggered the candles along the walls,  filling the room with flickering light.  Sousiel stood against the back wall,  blood dripping from a small cut in her palm.

The wall pulsed a deep red,  recently infused with Sousiel’s blood.  This was the reason she rarely used this closet.  A gateway to the inferno,  responding only to her familiar’s blood,  stood now ready for use.

[color=92278f]“Mistress,  are you sure now’s the best time?  You haven't even rested yet,  I worry.”[/color]  Sousiel handed Lorelai her blade and cloak.

[color=00aeef]”Time will not wait for me to heal.  Ours is a legacy of iron Sousiel.  I cannot waver.”[/color]  Lorelai tossed her cloak around her shoulders and fastened it in the front.  [color=00aeef]”Pandemonium yawns open, and I’ll make my way to the forgemaster soon enough.”[/color]

[color=92278f]“You have a month before night ends Lorelai.”[/color]  Sousiel tip toed to peck her mistress’ cheek.  [color=92278f]“Be swift.”[/color]

With a nod Lorelai pushed against the wall with both her hand and will.  Her hand slipped through,  and everything went dark.  She floated as a disembodied mind through the vast dark between worlds.  A mortal mind might have gone mad,  no light,  no sensation,  and no sense of time,  but Lorelai was accustomed to these journeys.  Constructing an elaborate mental palace she strolled through its hallways while she waited.

She felt a tug,  and with an act of will she woke.  Her eyes opened in a desert of black sand.  Looking up she could see the bottom of the world overhead.  Stretching from horizon to horizon, it was a vast ceiling of rough red stone,  punctuated here and there by massive stalactites.  Twisted demonic figures skittered across its surface,  predating on one another with inhuman abandon.  Before her Lorelai saw her goal.  A black iron tower stretched into the sky as far as the eye could see.

The Iron Gauntlet of Pandemonium.  There she would find the forgemaster.  She squinted her eyes against the scorching wind and pushed on.  How many of her clan had made this journey before her?  Did her Grandmother walk this path with the would-be Sousiel in her arms?

[color=92278f][i]”What’s it like?[/i][/color]  Sousiel spoke in her mind.

[color=00aeef]”It’s… amazing.”[/color]  Lorelai replied aloud.  [color=00aeef]”I’m walking in the footsteps of my forebearers.  I can almost feel them around me,  such powerful wills.”[/color]

[color=92278f][i]”That’s what it takes to tame demons,  both within and without.”[/i][/color]  Sousiel sounded pleased.  [color=92278f][i]”Push on Mi’lady,  I’m here with you.”[/i][/color]

Lorelai did,  she walked for days under the unabating infernal heat.  It became apparent on the third day that walking wouldn’t be an option,  so she called to the great devourer worms swimming through the black sands to bear her forth on their backs,  and they couldn’t refuse.  She dined on their flesh,  and drank their bitter blood for hydration.  Feeding the would-be familiar from the rations she’d prepared instead of herself.

A week passed before she found herself before the vast tower.  Her house emblem was seared in the center of a large set of steel double doors.  [color=00aeef]”I’ve arrived.”[/color]

[color=92278f][i]”Tell me what you see inside.”[/i][/color]  Sousiel seemed excited.

Smiling wryly Lorelai pressed her hand against the doors.  Heat radiated suddenly from the Draconic image as it turned a deep red,  then the doors swung open slowly.  Lorelai stepped inside,  her boots sending echoes through the vast interior.  She found herself on a long bridge over a chasm,  the tower was hollow then?  Looking down she could see a faint red glow,  and when she stopped moving she could hear what sounded like metal striking metal in a steady rhythm.

She was formulating a plan on how she was going to get down there when a sudden wind sent her cloak whipping about her.  It bore voices,  screams of the damned.  It bit as winds bite,  but at her will not her body.  Lorelai pressed the screams out of her mind.  What was this howling wind?

[color=92278f][i]”Zephyr,  voice of the damned,  it hunts you mistress.  Someone has come here before you.”[/i][/color]

Lorelai couldn’t bind what she couldn’t sense.  The winds,  Zephyr,  were too chaotic to pinpoint.  Each time she tried to open her magical senses her concentration was broken by a chorus of screams in her mind,  and the physical winds were threatening to send her toppling over the edge.

Lorelai was losing,  and quickly.  Her ritual dagger opened her palm.  She was in the middle of a spell to bolster her will when she noticed something curious.  The wind whipped greedily around the small blood splatter on the ground.  She still couldn’t gather her will,  but it was nearly concentrated enough to bind.  Suddenly a thought occurred to her.

[color=92278f][i]”Mistress!?[/i][/color]  Sousiel protested impotently as Lorelai pooled up blood in her palm and leapt from the edge of the bridge.

The wind gave chase,  a face appearing in the center as it gathered its strength.  Lorelai was already well out of its range of influence however,  and her mind was finally clear.  As she plummeted into the dark she mustered her will in a scream of dominance in the Dragon’s Tongue,  here in the abyss Lorelai was royalty and this Lord would bow to the crown.

Zephyr realized its mistake too late.  It desperately attempted to discorporate enough to diminish the bindings,  but already Lorelai’s will wound coils of domination through its essence.

Looking down Lorelai saw the stone ground rushing up to meet her,  and demanded that Zephyr bear her aloft.  The raging winds nearly peeled the skin from her face as they slowed her descent,  and by the time she reached the ground she landed as lightly as stepping from a carriage.

Looking around she saw sconces with lit torches,  the walls bore cells that contained twisted grey humanoid shapes devoid of facial features.  They stretched pleading arms through the bars towards her as she made her way to the sound of the forgemaster’s hammer,  Zephyr reluctantly falling into step behind her.

It took her several hours to find her way through the labyrinthine prison.  Zephyr quickly dealt with the few small threats that lurked in the darker corners.  Finally she found a door with an anvil crudely carved into it.  With a breath she steeled her will and pushed the door open.

On the other side was a massive vaulted room.  Its walls were decorated with ornate weaponry too large for any human to wield.  Shadows danced around the room from the light of the vast bed of coals.  Working the forge was a giant.  nearly twenty feet tall,  long knotted grey hair cascaded down his back and shoulders.  His skin was a burnished bronze,  scars covered his impressive musculature.

He turned to face Lorelai.  His voice was deep and booming as he spoke.  “Ah,  another Von’Strauss here to grant their daughter a playmate,  it’s been so long.  Mistress,  tell me please,  what's become of your house?”

Lorelai responded grimly.  [color=00aeef]“We only number three now,  purged by Digard’s paladins a decade ago.  I am Lorelai Von’Strauss,  I come on behalf of my daughter Lotte.”[/color]

“Lorelai?”  The giant mused.  “Sousiel’s mistress then.  We expected great things from you Lorelai,  did you become great?  Or is your blood thin and feeble?”

[color=00aeef]”I’m in no position to speak of my greatness,  I’m at war.  Let the victor’s allies extol their praises.”[/color]  Lorelai removed the tiny mouse from her pouch.  It was terrified, but unharmed.  [color=00aeef]”My blood still runs thick though,  and hot as hellfire.”[/color]

“We shall see,  it will be needed after all.”  The giant reached down and gingerly plucked the mouse from Lorelai’s hands.  Turning he retrieved a bowl and placed it in front of Lorelai.  ”Blood for the tempering,  your Grandmother’s was mighty,  we’ll see if you’re her scion in truth or not.”

[color=00aeef]”I suppose we shall.”[/color]  Lorelai opened her forearm with her ritual dagger.  Blood wept from the wound,  trickling down her arm and into the bowl.  After a minute the giant stooped down to retrieve the blood,  and Lorelai applied her healing poultice to the cut,  sealing it nicely.

Lorelai wished she was taller,  as the anvil stood too high for her to see what the giant was doing as he worked.  She could see magic gathering in torrents though,  as the forgemaster performed whatever artisanry it required to create a familiar.

Suddenly his craggy face broke into a surprised grin.  “Dragon’s blood!  There might be hope for the Von’Strauss after all!  Burns with a mother’s insane rage too.”  Lorelai arched an eyebrow as she elected to save her questions for the end of this process.

Several minutes passed,  until finally the giant wiped his brow.  “It’s finished,  Zehir is its name.  Make sure Lotte treats it well,  it’s one of my finest works.”  Stooping the giant deposited a small girl with mouse features on the ground in front of Lorelai.

She checked over the unconcious girl,  and once she was satisfied everything was in order she draped her cloak over her nude form.  Looking up at the giant she posed the first of her questions.  [color=00aeef]”Tell me forgemaster,  what is a Dragon?  My family calls themselves dragons,  but I’m starting to think there’s more to it than that.”[/color]

“And you wouldn’t be wrong mistress.”  The giant chuckled jovially,  sending reverberations through the room and Lorelai’s frame.  “What do [i]you[/i] think a Dragon is Lorelai?”

[color=00aeef]”I’d always assumed it was a reference to the serpent in christian mythology,  and demons as a whole.  After all, Dragon’s tongue is the language of demons not dragons as far as I know.”[/color]  Lorelai mused.

“Close,  but tell me.  What did the serpent do in the story?”  The giant asked.

[color=00aeef]”Tempted Eve into original sin,  with the forbidden fruit.”[/color]  Lorelai responded simply,  wondering where the giant was going with this.

“Correct,  the sin of knowledge.  Terrible wisdom is the crime of witchcraft.  With that dreadful knowledge the two were forced from their naive realm of dreams,  to forge their own destiny through the dark and blood of reality.  They were confronted with their inner demons,  and struggled against outer ones.”  The giant sat,  getting comfortable as he continued his story.  “So,  would you say the serpent uplifted or damned them?”

[color=00aeef]”Life without reflection is not life.  Cruelty begets understanding and strength.  I don’t know that you can uplift someone without damning them in part.”[/color]  Lorelai frowned.  [color=00aeef]”Where is this going?”[/color]

“Yes,  the point.  Sometimes I forget that mortals value their time more than we denizens of the pit.”  The giant let out another small chuckle.  “The point is,  who is the bearer of dreadful wisdom that forces man to confront reflections of the darkness that lurks within them?”

[color=00aeef]”You mean…”[/color]  Lorelai trailed off.

“Yes.  The Dragon is not some beast that lurks down here,  or some metaphor to aspire to.”  The giant continued grimly.  “You are the Dragon,  and each fallen Von’Strauss is a serpent that could have been,  but never was a Dragon.  Follow your feet to the end of your path Lorelai.  Spread your wings and breathe your flames.”

Lorelai nodded,  still stunned at the giant’s revelation.  Scooping up Zehir she left the room,  the giant’s laughter echoed behind her.  [color=00aeef]”Sousiel… bring us home.”[/color]

[color=92278f][i]”Yes mistress.”[/i][/color]