Diablo 2: Fallen

Chapter 5: "Revelation"
by Lady Jasmine
ladyofjasmine@gmail.com

___

Valerius was in hell. Perhaps that night with Diemma was reason for the Gods' wrath upon him. That had to be it. It was impossible to suggest the sudden illness that had spread throughout the town overnight otherwise.

One thing to be grateful for though was that a murder took place last night and Diemma was still in his bed. This time, the murdered was one of the brothers of Kirsh so it was very little shock to find Kirsh back in the town square throwing propaganda and insults towards Lanai.

"It is the curse of Avellai!" he shouted angrily. "It must be! You are behind it Lanai, I know you are!"

Sporting a black eye, Lanai's gaze shuttered as she glared back fiercely at him, rearranging her shawl to cover herself further. The women that had once stood behind her depending on her protection were no longer in sight. She stood alone in the square against the rage of one powerful man and his crew.

The burly ragtag clique behind him look none too pleased. One was cracking his neck in an obvious show to intimidate the woman while another stocky but muscly fellow licked his lips with his gaze locked upon her.

Lutheric, Zacharius and Evrett were at the scene first before Valerius found the strength i him to leave his bed and the soft woman still sleeping in it, naked.

The hardened paladin was unsure of what to do. Lutheric was usually quick to find judgement, cut down the enemy and call it a day. The enemy was a woman according to the mob.

He looked at Lanai, liking the way her fiery hair glimmered in the afternoon sun. It was hard not to be mesmerized by her brash and sassy attitude despite the world appearing to be against her. She stood tall in her brown and dull-faded dress, kirtle ripped and slippers hardly suitable for the untamed ground as they were barely holding together.

"So superstitious that you'd hurl accusations at a mere slip of a woman like me?" she taunted him, adjusting the basket in the crook of her arm. She patted the greens she had picked and tsked him. "Has the mighty and arrogant Kirsh become a nervous little boy?" She placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward at the waist, "Do you jump at your own shadow?"

He growled as the men behind him egged him on. "You would do wise to shut your mouth! You were a follower of Avellai! How shameful it must be to the only one left of her time."

Lanai winced and quickly returned with her own volley of wrath. "How shameful it must be, yes, to keep someone's legacy alive. I really should find another way to honour someone's legacy, like perhaps you to your father by becoming a spoiled and over-pampered little fool like you."

Valerius arrived in time to see Lutheric whack Kirsh over the head with the hilt of his sword for daring to rush at an unarmed woman. He was quick to then drag Kirsh away, mumbling something about a "proper thrashing."

Lanai barely acknowledged Valerius' arrival until he grabbed one of Kirsh's men and tossed him aside for throwing a glass bottle in Lanai's direction. It shattered several feet far from her, but the burst of broken glass caught her on her ankle

She sitting on the floor, her hands at her ankle, tugging the shard of glass from her ankle despite the shard cutting her hands as she did so. She bit down hard on her lip, refusing to cry in pain as she worked to extract it.

Valerius cued Zacharius to tend to Lanai as he glanced around, looking for Evrett. All he saw was Evrett's back facing him as he ran to give chase down the road. The paladin sighed, now was not a good time for Evrett to leave them!

"She said Kirsh would pay one day!" one man argued, shoving back at Valerius. "She threatened him! And now she's trying to kill us off one by one!"

Another man was holding a clay box full of ash, babbling something about it being what was left of their friend, Balith. Valerius wrinkled his nose and shoved that man away carefully as to not disturb the container of the departed. "Be gone, the Hand will look into this matter!"

A taller man of darker skin and broad shoulders pointed at Lanai and said in a loud voice, "If you are behind this, you will suffer!"

***

Lanai shivered lightly under her shawl. Despite her bravado, she still was scared. Did she wish those men suffered? Oh, absolutely. Did she kill them? How could she? The signs of evil were everywhere: the charred corpses, the nights of thick fog that seemed to consume the town and now the mysterious illness that set fever to everyone's body and mind.

She touched her forehead, ignoring how warm her body felt. She silently whispered a prayer to the long-dead White Lady, her friend, Avellai as she made her way home down the long winding path.

Valerius was the first paladin to catch up to her and speak to her after the altercation with Kirsh. "What happened to your eye?"

Lanai laughed softly and put a hand to her eye, "Oh, that. Someone attacked me on my way home last night."

Valerius' hackles raised immediately, "What?! Why didn't you find one of us to--"

"I woke up the next morning," she said bitterly. I was on my way to find you when Kirsh found me first."

"I'm sorry it happened," he found himself saying though it wasn't it fault.

She nodded and glanced over as Lutheric came back, looking satisfied. "If he bothers you again, please let me know," he told Lanai.

Valerius would have been surprised under normal circumstances. This however wasn't a normal circumstance. A lady stood before them, one of her eyes blackened and radiating of false bravado. It was perfect breeding ground for Lutheric to bash heads in which was mostly what had occupied his choice of conversation during the long journey to Grehnt.

Lanai simply nodded and thanked the gruff paladin before he made his way, shooing the stragglers with threats of some good old fashioned beatings.

"Did you enjoy her last night?" a voice called to him.

The voice had said "her" not "me." Valerius stiffened, this was not Diemma. He relaxed his stance as Lanai quizzically raised an eyebrow at him.

"Was that your idea of another boon?" he asked the voice quietly, wondering what the voice was up to.

"... you used her, didn't you?" Diemma queried him, a mocking tone in her voice.

"I do not call sharing my bed with her 'using,'" he thought back. His eyes met Lanai's. "Lanai, would you like one of our paladins to keep guard of you until Kirsh backs off permanently?"

With a air of nonchalance, Lanai shrugged. "If you have a man to spare, I don't see the harm." She narrowed her eyes. "But he feeds himself."

Valerius wondered if they really did have enough man power to leave one paladin posted outside her door. It was either himself, Lutheric, Valerius or Evrett. Maybe it would be wise if he was the one on guard duty. It would also give him an opportunity to mentally converse with the real Diemma if she were available.

"Do you intend to use this woman as well?" the voice in his head sounded quite jealous. Valerius entertained the idea of doing so, projecting his thoughts to annoy the voice.

The voice huffed angrily, "Then I will use her first!"

A hand lashed out and struck Valerius hard across the face. His cheek stung and his vision blurred for a moment. He regained his composure and grabbed the hand that struck him. Shock struck him as well upon realizing the hand was Lanai's and she was staring at him blankly, her eyes seemingly empty.

"Lanai?" he shook her arm roughly by the wrist he had caught. "Lanai??"

Her red hair shook along with the rest of her body, but no response surfaced.

"I could make this one sneak up on you and strangle you while you watched her door," Lanai whispered, her face devoid of expression. "Wouldn't that be ironic? Or would you sleep with this one too?"

Valerius backed away from Lanai, putting some distance between them. "What do you want?"

"Leave, take your men and never come back. This is my place, I rule here. I need no presence of the Hand telling me how to rule MY home," She backed up slowly, the empty look in her eyes.

Footfalls sounded behind her and Valerius saw Diemma approaching them, fire blazing within casually open arms. "Leave, paladin. You are not welcome in my home," she finished for Lanai. Her eyes were the same as Lanai's.

Valerius casually fled, his hand flexed, ready to draw his blade if it became neccessary. All eyes were trained on him as he made his way down the streets towards the inn. With the rest of his men out of commission temporarily, fleeing for now seemed like the best option.

***

Night time had come and brought the fog with it as well. The night was much cooler now which worked in the paladin company's favour given how the night air was so soothing on fevered bodies.

The men were not faring well. They babbled strange things in their fevered state. Evrett had taken it upon himself to be the nurse to them all. He ran between each patient, replacing the cloth on their heads with cooler ones to give them some bit of comfort as they fought off the fever and pain that racked their bodies.

Valerius took over for several hours as Evrett took that break time to sleep. The young man was pushed past his limits, and if Valerius hadn't relieved him, he would've collapsed and possibly be in the same state as the sick soldiers.

Evrett sat up for awhile, talking to the older paladin.

"So sir, do you think I can be a paladin as good as you one day?"

Valerius pursed his lips in thought. "You could, one day. I think you need to be less naive first off though," he said, forcing himself to be brutally honest even though he was fond of the young man.

Evrett's eyebrows furrowed, "I'm not naive."

"You are, believe me. Anyone who goes around believing good will always triumph even at our darkest hours is naive." He shook his head. "As a paladin, we do have to believe that, but even if that isn't the case, we also have to preserve life no matter what. Even if that life is questionable. It is not our place to judge what is good and what is not."

The young blonde looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "You are right. Are you saying that it is not for us humans to decide what is good or evil?"

"Not just us..." he said as he checked the pulse of a fellow ill comrade. That response received a frown from Evrett. "Let me explain... I've learned that there are people and beings who fit between good and evil. They can change. The question is, can a higher being forsee that change? Until the day they can... no one is fit to judge. I guess it's just my opinion though... Evrett, why did you leave the townsquare instead of aiding Lanai with us?"

When he reached for a cloth, he caught sight of Evrett already stretched out on the bench, snoring.

Valerius sighed and resumed his tending to the sick.

The cool cloth felt nice against his bare hands as he wrung the excess water out back into the chipped clay bowl. He folded it neatly and lay it upon Rikaart's forehead which was dotted with sweat.

In his head, he wondered about Diemma and this mysterious demon threatening them. Why the murders, why all of them pointing to the last follower of Avellai? He blew a strand of his walnut coloured hair out of his face and wiped his brow with his forearm.

"It's possible someone's orchestrating it that way purposely to throw the blame away from him or herself.... It could be Kirsh," he thought, prepping another cooling cloth.

"But if it is him... why kill Avellai? If he's using Diemma, it's possible he could use Avellai too," he reasoned. "Why wouldn't he? She was a famous healer who..."

Diemma's smiling face flashed in his mind for a moment.

He remembered the townspeople yelling about the illness being Avellai's curse and how nervous they were when Valerius showed up in town again.

"Her lover has returned to avenge her," they had whispered.

"Avellai was known for her healing abilities. And she told everyone that I would come back to avenge her... what if one of the things I accomplish inadvertently is avenging her?" his thoughts were swimming madly. He could see the end, but wasn't sure if he was strong enough to continue.

He squashed the cloth in his hand and threw it back hard into the ceramic bowl as he reached for his sword belt with his blade still sheathed. And as he bent down to put his platemail back on, his mind continued to unknot the mystery.

"Last night when Diemma had visited me, she had cut herself," he recalled, strapping his armour in place at a furious speed. "She healed instantly after. She also accused me on several occasions of wanting to use her like so many have. Avellai used her. That's how she was able to heal people, that's how she was able to prophetize my coming."

He ran out the door, thundering down the steps with all the weight his heavy armour added. He ignored Lutheric's friendly wave to partake in the modest meal on the table.

"Diemma's not such a bad being, she used to be an archangel, then a demon... and now I don't know what she is," he reasoned as he broke into a run. "The bards say that she's human... but what if she's not? What if she's caught in between the existance of being an archangel and a demon? Her sisters used her to kill, she couldn't do it of her own will though she had the abilities to.. The perfect neutral... not black, not white, but grey..."

His mind screamed to Diemma, calling her, wanting to see her now to protect her and maybe save her.

"If she's caught between, wouldn't that mean now not only can evil use her, but good as well? That's how Avellai used her. Avellai was able to see the future through Diemma and heal people thanks to her... and that's why..."

His stride slowed down as he stopped dead in his tracks in the foggy night.

"That's why I was able to use her..." he finished under his breath. "That's why I could read her mind, that's why....." He shook his head incredulously. "That's what she was trying to tell me..."

He remembered that when she had reminisced about Avellai, she had said to him, “... I respect Avellai as a woman.” Since when do demons respect a simple mortal? She respected Avellai because Avellai wasn't normal, she was different.

"Diemma knew that I could use her abilities... I can do what Avellai could do because I'm like her..." he said softly.

"A strong one in evil must meet its match of good,” Diemma finished for him, her voice ringing through the night air.

Valerius slowly turned, swallowing away a lump in his throat. "Diemma..."

She smirked, "Good evening, lover, I do hope you enjoy the very last evening you will be alive." Her right hand twitched and a flame grew to life in her palms casting a yellow glow onto her body and into the fog between them.

She swept her hand up and a trail of fire shot through the ground, racing towards him in a neat line. He ran, his legs pumping hard to avoid the broad reach of the fiery wall. The heat was intense, warming his armour as he narrowly escaped the flames that would've spelled out his death.

"Diemma! Don't do this! You're not the evil, you're being used again!"

No response except for another wave of fire racing after him.

He ran again, unable to draw his sword. He didn't want to hurt Diemma. Even if she could heal herself, what if the being controlled her didn't allow her to use her own abilities heal herself? She could die.

A thought occurred to Valerius, could he use Diemma now? He didnt mean to last night, it happened as he was near her.

He inhaled deeply, summoning all his courage as he broke into a sprint towards her, praying this crazy plan of his actually had some merit.

Diemma simply smirked as her hand flew up again and the fire raced towards him. He intended to keep running to meet the flames head on.

"Diemma!" he yelled out in his head, repeating it, hoping she'd hear him.

And he felt it, that strange feeling he got before she spoke.

"Paragon?" she asked in his head.

Willing it to be so, the flames redirected itself, veering hard to the left and weaving behind Valerius to not hurt him.

The woman before him blinked and her face distorted in rage. Her hand lashed out and he felt a force hit him square in the face.

Upon landing on his feet, he watched as Diemma's body fell backwards and land on the ground by a power that Valerius willed to pin her down.

He got up and walked over to her, redirecting every elemental magick she threw at her.

"Paragon... please don't," Diemma's voice whispered to his mind.

"Don't what?" he asked her back.

A strange pain flooded him and he nearly doubled over from the sheer shock of it. It was the vision that Diemma had done everything to keep secret from him. In his eyes, the image of Valerius, his body broken, his limbs severed with the stumps of where his legs and arms were bleeding profusely, and was Diemma there, laughing. Her laugh was suddenly interrupted as Evrett snuck up behind her. Before she could notice him, he had reared back and thrusted a sword through her chest.

Valerius watched, shocked by the vision as Diemma coughed up blood before she set the young paladin ablaze. As the young paladin ran off in another direction, screaming from the flames, Diemma quickly extracted the sword from her body and waited, chuckling to herself as the gaping chest wound slowly healed.

"I was not going to tell you..."in his head, Diemma's voice was quiet and sad sounding. "The last time I told someone a vision... my husband ended up being murdered in the stead of the person I had saw in my vision. I had saved someone and sentenced him to death..."

Valerius said nothing. His eyes widened though everytime the body of Diemma on the ground shot out another magick in attempts to free from the magick pinning her helplessly to the ground. She was still screaming her rage.

"I wanted you to die, but that was before we.... And now I don't. By telling you, this should change it all, shouldn't it? You should be able to stop me... even if it means killing me..."

"I'm not going to kill you, Diemma," he answered her, hearing her sigh of relief in his mind. "I might have before, but I won't kill you now. I will find some way to save you."

"What if killing me is the only way to save me?" she quietly asked.

Valerius was about to answer Diemma's voice when the body before him spoke angrily. "When I get out of this, I will kill you, I will kill everyone! I will kill Lutheric, I will kill Zacharius! I will enjoy killing all your sick friends slowly!!"

Rage blinded Valerius. He knew this demon controlling Diemma would do it too. The paladin's nostrils flared in anger as he unsheathed his blade and raised it over his head, ready to deliver a deathblow.

"I will kill Lanai! I will kill Kirsh! You will have all their blood on your hands--" Diemma's body shrieked even though she was grinning

"Wait a minute!!!" Valerius interrupted her. "You made Lanai hit me... You used Diemma's abilities to make Lanai hit me!"

"What about it?" the body of Diemma hissed, ceasing her struggling.

"Diemma doesn't have that ability..."

"Too true," a voice called.

Valerius whirled around to find Lanai sauntering through the fog, grinning broadly and swaying her hips in an exaggerated fashion. "I suppose if I hadn't hit you, you still would be in the dark about it, wouldn't you?"

***

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