Kaiser closed the thick oak door behind him as he entered his private sanctum. He heard the loud creak of the joints and the thud of the heavy door echoed through the tower. The echoes reminded him of how lonely he has been throughout his life; now in his last few hours could he truly felt the dull pain in his heart.
He took two glasses of the finest Imperium crystal and his prized bottle of wine from the small cabinet he kept under his desk. It was a well - seasoned vintage, thirty years of age and was only opened on three occasions. He held the two glasses in one hand and the bottle in the other and walked towards the balcony. There were two chairs there, along with a short table. All three were made of the finest oak and gave off a rich rose wood aroma, which was very pleasing to Kaiser and ¡K another.
As he poured the wine into the two slender glasses he thought about it, but knew he never regretted it. Never has he regarded the thousand of lives and the rivers of blood that flooded the fields, deserts and the forest to establish the Imperium. He did not do it to fulfill some will of some God the priests of the Imperial Churches worshipped. He didn¡¦t do it for the Emperor either. Everyone he met in his life was mere chess pieces, toys he played with if he was interested and discarded or ignored when he wasn¡¦t; except for one.
He set in one of the chairs and raised his head to admire the beautiful night sky with all the stars twinkling like the precious gems on some cosmic jewellery. He hasn¡¦t done quite enough of that he realized, to appreciate the great cosmos, of such power he could never imagine and yet of such magnificent beauty. He spent the better part of his youth slewing the foes of some unseen barons, fighting their trivial little battles as a mercenary and the better part of his manhood directing troops to massacre the men and women who dared to go against the Emperor he served.
He looked towards the other chair and sighed. If he concentrated hard enough he could still imagine her sitting there with thick black glasses too big for her, dressed in the fanciful robes of a mage and the hastily arranged blond colored mop she had the audacity to call a hairstyle. Her mischievous grin as she caught him staring at her and the few silent moments when they weren¡¦t discussing battle strategies and appreciated the night skies together. That faint smile as she look lazily at the wonderful blackness of the night, the occasional sigh that so stirred his heart.
Kaiser has let tears fallen from his face many times, sometimes it was in deep despair of a desperate battle, sometimes it was from the sheer joy of a well fought one or sometimes, in his bed where the darkness and coldness overwhelmed him. But he has only truly cried twice, the uncontrollable weeping at the sight of each cold dead body of his parents during his years of growing up. Now, at his last moments he allowed all the constant despair and coldness he felt to overwhelm him, to take control of him like some gleeful demon eager for its toy.
He doubled over in his chair in agony, almost hearing the evil sniggering a demon imp makes when it finally finds a breach in the mental walls of his prey. He did not fight it, as he had often had to do. Not because of the mindless fear that grips a person in the face of staggering odds or the dark endless pits where madness thrived but of the firm conviction that it wasn¡¦t his time yet. He would fight Heaven and Hell together to make sure they did not claim him before he was done.
Now however, since it was time he allowed himself to glimpse the memory that so marred his soul. The great burning fire, the occasional screams and cries of pain as the cold sharp steel pierced the unprotected flesh and the laughing. The laughter was not evil, it was sweet and innocent, any sound she made was sweet and innocent. He saw her, standing in front him in his fanciful mage robes marked with many arcane runes; her long blond hair flying in the drafts of the great fire burning around her, her oversized glasses with one lenses missing and the large rune scythe she favored as a weapon in her hands, stained with the crimson red of blood.
Blood was all over her; her hair, her face, her hand and her robes. None of it was hers of course; she was too good a war magi for the Imperium soldiers to wound, even if it was Kaiser¡¦s Black Calvary. He remembered the assuring smile she gave him as her eyes hardened and she swung her massive rune scythe back, prepared for her final battle. Perhaps that¡¦s why he loved her so much, she never gave up. Not when she was the imprisoned comfort slave of a local baron, in the desperate war against the old Imperium or at the civil war that forced them to take sides. She faced life with such zeal and life that Kaiser was so envious of and almost jealous and yet she had such wisdom that carried her through the adventures they had and the battles they fought.
He never let down his guard of course; it was too great an insult for a woman of her abilities. He parried every one of her blows, swinging and stabbing with great ferocity that was also met with skillful parries and counters. They were a whirlwind of steel fighting through the burning inferno of the Federation Hall. They didn¡¦t cared about the heat, they didn¡¦t care that men and women were still dying around them, they didn¡¦t care about the arrows and spears flying around them, all they cared were each other.
He loved this aspect of her, her total devotion towards the fight and never giving up. No matter how hard he tried he could never managed her passions and will power to live so he was caught by surprise when she let his sword slipped past her defenses, right past the runes that reinforced her robe, past the flesh that guarded her bones, past her soft intestines and right through the other end.
Kaiser was shocked at this sudden turn of events. She could have defeated him; he wanted her to defeat him. He couldn¡¦t possibly live without the knowledge that there will be no one to walk with him in the tranquility of the Imperial forest, to debate with him of the advantages of monarchy and democracy, to sit together with him on his balcony and spent their time to dawn in silence.
There was only one word he could say as he held her in his arms. ¡§Why?¡¨
She was in great pain, but she still managed a smile and looked him in the eyes. She tried to raise her right arm to touch his face; Kaiser quickly clasped it and held it to his cheek. It was surprisingly smooth, not like the calloused skin of his hand.
She coughed and grimaced from the pain. ¡§Because, we¡¦d just end up killing each other. And don¡¦t even dare to lie.¡¨ She managed a grin, ¡§You were planning to do the same I just did it first.¡¨
Even to the end she knew him, never had one been so able to understand him so utterly. He didn¡¦t want her to die. There was so much more he wanted to share with her, so much more to debate with her and so much more he wanted to hear her laugh.
A single tear rolled down from her eye. ¡§Because, people like us are born to kill each other. The world can accept only one of us, if one of us don¡¦t give up there¡¦d just be endless bloodshed. We couldn¡¦t have really beaten the other. But¡K¡¨ She grimaced again in pain and her hand weakened, she was fainting away fast. She felt his face weakly, touching it lovingly. ¡§But most importantly I guess I¡¦m just too much a coward to see your blood on my hands.¡¨
He didn¡¦t know what to do. For the first time in his life he didn¡¦t know what to do. His whole world was falling to pieces, he couldn¡¦t even trust himself to think of what to do next. All he could think about was wishing and hoping she wouldn¡¦t die.
She took another painful shallow breath. ¡§Leave me here, and end this battle. End the war and never let anyone stop you. You must complete our dream, never let it be a lie.¡¨ She took her hands away and let herself slip out of his grasp and lay down on the stone floor. ¡§Now go, never let what we believed in to be a lie.¡¨
Kaiser never said another word. He took up his sword, and turned. The first Federation soldier that charged at him never knew what happened to him, the next one didn¡¦t as well.
And the next.
And the next.
Until there was no single living being that dared to go near him. Even the bodies of his Black Calvary lay around him. He didn¡¦t care who he killed, anything living that went near him died. There will be no exception. There must be so much dead clogging the pathways of the dead so that Hell itself knew that Cassandra Windweaver was coming and to fear the next coming wave that would follow Kaiser.
Kaiser tore himself mentally from the memories; even at the end he would never let the daemons have the satisfaction of losing his mind to whatever cursed realm they ruled in. At least, not yet.
He took up his glass of poisoned wine and took one final moment admiring the reflecting images of himself, an tired man and he could almost see within in facet of the crystal glass the souls of those he left behind ¡V Henya, Tanai, Kolaf ProudHorn, Emperor Fenman and so many more¡K every one whose death he was responsible for glaring at him, judging him.
He cared not what they think. Now the Imperium was stable, the other races subjected to series of purges and genocide that would leave them helpless against the might of the Imperium. What he was born for was done, over.
¡§For myself, and the dream.¡¨ He said quietly as he dipped the glasses towards his mouth. The sweet nectar pouring down his throat. It took but a split second for the poison to take effect. It was a special sort of scorpion venom cocktail, mixed to ensure that its victim spent his last moments in great agony.
The pain was simply a dull drumming in the back of his head. It was nothing compared to the fond memory of Cassandra smiling, sighing and laughing, a laughable spittle.
As he lay dying, in his last moments he managed to gasp out one final phrase before the eternal darkness took him.
¡§We were not a lie.¡¨
