Chapter 13

Now.

There was a time when I would never consider what I was about to do, I absently wondered if I was growing cold and cynical in my old age. Murray and I stood in the elevator, waiting for it to reach my office, dawn was fast approaching.

"I don't like elevators." Murray says looking nervous.

I frown at him.

"You know how you and magic don't get along." He says.

I nod.

"Well me and technology don't see eye to eye." He says.

"We could of taken the stairs." I say.

"We could of teleported." He says.

I shake my head no.

"Lets just hope we don't get stuck." He says.

The elevator dings its arrival.

"See no problem." I say as we exit.

The elevator door shuts and opens a few times behind us, the ding keeps sounding before the lights go out in it and the sounds die.

"Told you" Murray says.

I shrug and walk to my office, I check my watch, 3:50 am, still have time. We enter my office and head to my living section, Murray follows behind, we enter the bathroom. There in the tub is Coralie, she is tied and bound with chains, she looks ghostly pale and has lost a lot of blood.

"If I didn't know you better Id say something kinky was going on here." Murray says.

I ignore him, I heft her over my shoulders, she moans slightly.

"You can stay here if you want." I say.

Murray nods.

"That might be a good idea." He says.

I take Coralie up to the roof, we take the stairs the rest of the way, I put her on the floor and remove her gag. She is part delirious from blood loss, I pull out a baggie from my pocket ripping the end of it I wave it under her nose.

She lunges forward as much as her chains allow, I hold it to her mouth and she eagerly drinks the pint of blood.

"Coralie I need some answers from you." I say.

Her eyes slowly show recognition, she is starting to come around.

"You will have to kill me." She says weakly.

"Well actually no, I won't be, the sun will." I say nodding at the sky.

She looks over.

"You wouldn't" She says.

I shrug, the daughters are not like the sons, the sons would burst into flames near instantly it would almost be a quick death. The daughters on the other hand take a little bit longer, the first dehydrate and start shrivel, it takes less than an hour, its a slow painful way to die, eventually they do catch fire and burn slowly to death.

She stares at me, I take a seat across from her watching her, we stare at each other for several minutes, I see the first signs of dawn approaching, I know she has an internal clock that is warning her, she starts to look more and more nervous, I say nothing.

"I thought you had questions." She hisses.

I shrug and say nothing, the light is starting to get brighter, she is looking around nervous, I still say nothing, we stay like that until the first signs of the sun can be seen, she looks like she is sweating.

"Going to be a beautiful day." I say.

She just stares at me.

"You know Lilith could go outside, she once met me in broad daylight, of course she was covered from head to toe." I say.

She is still staring.

"You know actually I am a little disappointed in myself." I say.

"It won't last long, you will be dead soon enough." She says in a whisper.

I shrug.

"How? If you bring Lilith back?" I say.

She looks defiantly into my eyes.

"I am just going to throw this out there, if you do bring her back, I highly doubt she will kill me." I say.

She snorts.

"In fact she might be very very angry at the one that opens the pit." I say.

She just stares at me.

"You know the reason I am disappointed in myself?" I ask.

She doesn't say anything.

"I failed you, I failed the daughters, I was supposed to be a guide for you, a moral compass if you would." I say.

She looks toward the rising sun, I can see pain on her face.

"I Let myself be pulled into the politics, the minutia of day to day life, I thought you didn't need me anymore, hell I started pulling away around the rise of sumner." I say.

She has her eyes shut, she is trying to scrunch in on herself.

"I justified it as letting your people grow up, Id pop in when I felt like it, stay for 20 years and run off again. All you ever had from the past 5000 years is an absentee guardian, the "weekend dad" If you would, Id show up wow you guys with some gifts some information here and there." I say.

She is starting to whimper.

"I made that mistake with Elise you know, I saw she was a strong leader, and I stayed with her longer than I had before, and when I left she got bitter." I say.

"You know Lilith sacrificed her self to shut the pit, I couldn't do it, she could and the only thing she asked for saving the world was for me to watch over her daughters." I say.

I sigh to myself, I stood and walked over to her, placing myself between her and the sun so my shadow fell across her.

"where did you plan for the ritual to take place?" I ask.

"go to hell." she hisses.

"Coralie, I will leave you out here, I suspect I know where it is already, if Elise opens that pit she will have no control over whats in it, at best she will get a very pissed off Lilith, who to be honest I wouldn't mind seeing again, but at worst it could destroy everything." I say.

"if you want to see Lilith than why stop her?" She ask.

"Because Lilith wouldn't want this to be happening." I say.

She looks up at me.

Then.

I held Amrita in the temple as she wept, she kept staring at the spot where Lilith had entered the portal, The wolves circled us, the largest came forward and bowed his head, I nodded to him and he turned and left.

Siddhi entered the chamber flanked by four of her sisters, she took in the scene of me holding Amrita on the floor and Cains body nearby, she looked around briefly and I saw a tear going down her cheek.

"Shes gone?" Siddhi said.

I nodded.

"She said this could happen." Siddhi said, I could see her shoulders slumped.

"How many left?" I asked.

She gestured to the four with her.

"Just us, my daughter and Lorien are still at the cave." She said.

I nodded, Lorien had been deemed to young to come, she was Liliths last daughter after Amrita. Siddhi walked over to us and knelt by us, she ran her hand through Amrita's hair.

"She left me instructions, I am to be in charge, but we are to listen to you Idin, she said to heed your advice as if it came from her." Siddhi said.

I frowned at that.

"Why?" I asked.

"She told me that with time you would understand Idin, she said we needed you." Siddhi said.

I nodded slowly.

"She told me something similar." I said.

"What do we do now Idin?" Siddhi said.

"How bad is it out there?" I asked...

"Most of the populace fled, the soldiers are all gone, we scattered them to the winds." She said.

I nodded.

"He was trying to build an empire here." I said standing, I carried Amrita with me, she clung to me.

"It is impressive, these structures." Siddhi said.

I nodded as we walked toward the temple exit.

"He united all the nomadic tribes in the area to build all this, to bad his goal was to destroy everything." I said.

I looked around at the area around the temple, I had called this place home for months.

"What did he call this place?" Siddhi

"Bāb-ilim" I said.

She frowned.

"What does it mean?" She asked as we walked from the temple.

"Gate of the gods." I said