Chapter 67

December Twenty-fifth 6:30 p.m. EST

"I don't understand why you are teaching me this," Balathu protested vehemently, "Even if there were enough living masters left in the world to perform the ceremony, I would never repeat your mistake and summon another Outsider to our universe."

"All will become clear shortly," Lei responded, "For now, though, you must learn."

Gritting his teeth, Balathu spent more than a subjective week memorizing the complex incantations that had brought about the fusion of a human and something incomprehensibly alien. Finally, he was able to repeat them back to his instructor without error.

"Good," she said, with a satisfied but curt nod of the head.

"Now will you explain?"

"I have told you that disaster is imminent. Only yesterday, my keeper rejoined her former master, Arthur, a vampire who I thought was truly dead. To my dismay, I discovered that he is not only very much active, but is planning to throw the world into anarchy. To accomplish this, he has brought about the creation of massive numbers of my kind. Although I cannot get an exact count without the use of my flesh, I would estimate, based on what I overheard eavesdropping on his conversations, that there are now as many as a hundred thousand vampires in the world."

Stunned, Balathu interrupted with a whispered, "By Utu's beard, that's horrible. Even if every member of my Order had their own Sun's Anger, it would take us decades, maybe centuries, to hunt them all down, and the damage they would cause in the meantime..." A shudder passed through his body at the thought.

His eyes widening with sudden comprehension, he blurted out, "But, wait! You said you only learned that yesterday, but you told me almost a month ago that there was a threat. That's not the impending disaster you were worried about, is it?"

Waving a hand dismissively, she replied, "No, it is merely one of the causes, along with the stake that is sticking from my chest. While Arthur and his new minions could be troublesome, the threat they pose is inconsequential in comparison."

She hesitated for more than a minute, chewing on her lip in agitation. Finally, she said, "I now believe that the Outsider was very much aware of what we were planning on doing to it during the fusion. It accepted the summons anyway. Even now, with more than seven thousand years behind me, I am unable to fully comprehend the perspective of a being that could live for ten times that or more. I now believe that it knew that this day was inevitable. To such a being, what would a wait of a few trifling millennia matter?"

"What day?" Balathu asked, mystified.

"We only suppressed its mind. We did not - could not - destroy it. For more than a month I have felt it stirring in my depths, growing in strength even as I become ever weaker. Now I know why.