http://clampfix.fanworks.net/tb-fix/darkness.txt </head><body><pre>Uhm. *waves* Hi? I'm Meia, or at least, a lot of people call me Meia, and I'm fairly new into the CLAMP scene. I blame my friend for making me watch CCS and getting me an instantaneous obsession with Yukito. (Then Subaru, then Kamui, then... yeah.) This 'ere be a snippet/prologue-esque thing to a story idea I've been working out... T'is a Tokyo Babylon/Valdemar crossover (Yes, nothing is sacred) and it contains spoilers for the plot of quite a few of Misty's books, so if you haven't read The Black Gryphon, The Last Herald-Mage series, and Winds of Fury, you might want to skip this. I apologize if I've gotten any of the information wrong, but then I haven't had the chance to borrow Winds of Fury from my friend anymore... CC would be nice, and aye'm also wondering if any kind souls ou'tharr would be nice enough to look through a rather choppy prologue to another TB story I'm working on, a rather bad alternate reality 'fic... Anyway. Aye'm boring y'people long enough. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Darkness Which Returns When Skandranon witnessed Ma'ar's suicide upon the activation of the deadly magic-releasing device which subsequently set off the Cataclysm, he had no way of knowing that the dark Great Mage's spirit still lived. When Vanyel killed Leareth, the one known as "Darkness", in a Final Strike, he had no way of knowing that he would have been reborn. When Firesong destroyed Mornelithe Falconsbane's spirit-house between the Astral Planes, he had no way of knowing that the one who called himself the "Darkness Who Returns" had escaped his clutches. Perhaps he assumed that without the safe-haven between the dimensions, the spirit of the one who had once been Ma'ar would have been caught within deadly, uncontrolled Gate energy like a fly within amber. He had been taught never to assume anything. And Kiyamvir Ma'ar, who had lived a thousand lives, was nothing if not resourceful. The shell of a certain Sakura tree, it found, proved equally suited to the task once accomplished by pure magic. There, it watched. Living within the Sakura, leaves being its touch and blossoms its eyes, as worlds died before it. It watched as Velgarth lost its magic, gryphons sickening and dying as magic no longer collected within them and cleansed them with each breath. It watched as Companions lost the pearly-white hue that node-magic bleached them to, eyes dulling, coats greying. It watched as, on the day of the death of the Queen's Own's Companion, no silver figure stepped delicately out of the Grove to take the place of his predecessor. It watched as the Tayledras dwindled to but one, small Clan, wiped out when the Pelagir forests collapsed upon itself, tainted magic draining--Leaving only the taint. Through all this, it survived, hiding within its totally unmagical host. Innocuous beauty, hiding a twisted evil. That fit, and it liked that. It continued watching, as a new world was reborn. One where magic was seldom practiced, where the smallest spells cast could have a deadly backlash. Where blood-magic was a lost art. The country it lived in now--Japan--was in a state of turmoil, and the emperor was trying futilely to get a Clan of white-magic casting weaklings to use their power in order to reinforce /his/. It was interesting to watch. Perhaps, if it got the chance, it would actually offer its services to that emperor. After all, it had had a millenia to study the new form of magic, and was quite sure that it could deflect and protect himself against magical backlash. And if the emperor happened to be one of the victims of what they called 'sakanagi', well, too bad, wasn't it? ***** /Splash./ /A drop of blood./ /Only a tiny speck, crimson lost within the gnarled pattern of the trunk, but it was enough./ /It was enough./ It laughed, almost--relieved? that the spell it had improvised so many years ago had worked, as it stretched, enjoying the feel of having a body again, after so many centuries. It prepared to force the other soul out of what was now its body, until it noticed something strange. The other soul was still closely tied in with the body's life-force, and destroying it would mean death. That complicated matters a little... But a small thing like that didn't matter. After all, it was now the Sakurazukamori--And it would live forever. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: Ee-yeah. Ma'ar and all those mentioned people all belong to the great writer known as Mercedes Lackey, the really nifty Sakura tree belongs to CLAMP, so does Tokyo Babylon and all that funky stuff. Don't sue me please, I have no money ^^;;;x ~Meia ~~~~~~~~~~~ Paul> Home of the Hello Kitty Tarrot Card set! Meia> ...The cute and the satanic in one nice package. Paul> Tarrot cards aren't satanic... Meia> Paul: Who says I was talking about the Tarot cards? :P</pre><p><a href="./">Back</a></p><p><a href=http://www.dreamhost.com/donate.cgi?id=216><img border=0 alt="Donate towards our web hosting bill!" src=https://secure.newdream.net/donate1.gif></a></p></body></html>