The Eyes of Death Book 2 - The Awakening

The Awakening Part 1 - Chapter 11

I looked at him, all color must have withdrawn from my face, "how can you guys all be so... I mean... " words could not come out of my mouth. My Master smiled gently and approached me.

He gave me a hug "relax dear, we are all the same. Now do you realize the gift she bestowed upon you when she gave you her last remaining true blood?" I nodded, jaw opened which he gently closed.

"Tali spent an incalculable time alone, more then even we can fathom. All this time has marked her forever, changed her."

"How, in what way?"

He seemed sad all of a sudden " Well for one she does not share much of her pain, she keeps it bottled up all the time. Only through the five of us and all the questions we asked her over the years, have we managed to piece up some of her past. This is why you think she holds things from you, not to lie to you, because most of it hurts too much to talk about it."

My heart sunk, suddenly I remembered the looks she gave me each time I had pushed for an answer. I could now understand the pain in her eyes.

"I see my daughter that you have witnessed the look." I nodded as he went on "From what we know, she was created by some unknown force, pretty much like all the other gods. But something happened and she got corrupted by the Taint, in an attempt to turn her into a living weapon which they, whoever they are, could use against it. Although it worked, in the process she lost her god spark, the thing that made her a god. Not being a god, she was cast out of their realm, onto whatever other realms existed. So she started traveling from one dimension to the other, until she arrived on an alternate earth. There she created her first born vampire, the woman you met a few months ago."

I was devastated, what had been done to my Tali. "What about the cat thing and the shifting? What has that got to do with it all?"

"Back about the period of the dinosaurs, when we first arrived here on this earth, we had to split up, there was so much land to explore. During that time, Tali became extremely depressed. So much so that her sister sent her a special gift. A familiar that bounded to her on the level of her soul. It was a small cub, her mother and the other cubs had been killed and Tali arrived just in time to save it. Since then the kitten has been inseparable from her, even through death it somehow always finds her. "

"But Tali was a vampire also back then, how did she cope with loosing the kitten every 15 years or so?"

My Master smiled gently "She never shared her secret with me, but just trust me, don't piss off the kitten you bought her the other day, she has already, let's say... Protected it."

I was about to talk about her shifting ability when he beat me to it "And yes, her shifting ability comes from her link to the kitten in a sense..."

" So she is not a real lycanthrope?"

"On the contrary, she is the purest representation of any form she takes. Due to her being infected by the Taint, she has become a polymorph."

He had lost me there "A what?"

"Tali has no true form, I only got a glimpse once of what you could consider her true form but even my old brain could not quite make sense of what I saw back then . But essentially once she gains a form, her magic solidifies it in what I can only describe as its purest version. It's also always based on some event, animal, person, something important at the moment."

It made sense, if at the time the cub had been super important to her, it must have bonded so strongly to her that she incorporated it and became her surrogate mother.

My Master probably heard my thoughts and nodded his agreement.

"Wow that is intense. On another note, why is the Shadow Pack after her and what is that crap about 'The Slayer of Gods'? "

My Master looked at me intensely, measuring his answer before speaking. "The Shadow Pack, hmm haven't heard about them for a long time. Though I'm not surprised they survived. They essentially are a bunch of tainted weres with no real alpha. They consider a powerful tainted angel who lost his soul to BE their alpha."

Ouch "How did an angel loose his soul? Is that even possible?"

He looked back at me with a smile  "He is rumored to be one of the first casualties of the war against the Taint. He is so corrupted that nothing remains of his soul. He is pure taint and, as such, extremely dangerous. If he has you in his sights, then he knows Tali's back. Though from what you say, he doesn't know if she is ready or not."

Someone was threatening my wife and I didn't take well to it, but I tried to hold my anger "And about the slayer thing? You are avoiding the answer Master?"

He signed "You already have all the answers you need. First, you are aware that all Magic as a price, the more powerful the more it's cost."

This was not a question, but a statement so I nodded.

"So let's take that in reverse a bit. Tali lost her deity, has been banned from the home of the gods for at least 20 billion years, has been tainted on purpose by her creator, has almost never seen her sister in all that time and another fact you don't know yet...."

"What is it Master?"

He looked somber, almost sad "She has two children, which she has not seen since she got banned by the gods. Now, how much power do you think she got from such a sacrifice."

It dawned on me, all the small hints she had given me. Also something I hadn't been made aware "Tali has children she hasn't seen in all that time! Who are they ?"

My Master looked at me "that my child, is the one answer that is not mine to give."

"Then Master answer me this, why is Tali hiding and only getting back her powers slowly as her memory returns?"

He paused for a moment then answered "Tali's real power levels are incalculably high. If she were to regain them without the proper knowledge first, she would become a liability."

"Why is that Master?"

"Again, think my daughter, what if someone with ill intent managed to get to her, kidnap her or even worse, kidnap you to manipulate her. Then all that power would be in their hands and she wouldn't have the knowledge necessary to deal with it. She made sure that she gets her power back only when it is safe."

It made total sense, he was right.