The contact jolted the Sidhe back into some semblance of clarity and he inhaled sharply, never looking away from the carnage below them, spread out across the plains, but somehow better able to process it so that it didn't threaten to overwhelm his senses and his mind. Still, he struggled to answer, knowing that even as he remained silent more people were dying - deaths he could prevent.
Perhaps that was it; the knowledge that he had that much power at his fingertips, the knowledge that he'd been born for this moment and that every single moment had been leading to it was...weighty. Very much so. And what if he didn't live through this? There were no guarantees that he would. No one knew what the dagger would ask of him. Some thought it to be what he desired most.
Nik already knew he would not give up Kaulu, nor their child....but would he give up his own life? To save hers, theirs....yes. He would. But in the same breath, he prayed he didn't have to.
"I'm scared." were the words he chose to speak and they were not untruthful. He was scared, terrified really, but it wouldn't stop him from doing what he'd committed to accomplishing. Still, the Sidhe's hand tightened gently on Kaulu's before his pale blue eyes finally met her clear obsidian and Nik didn't speak, he simply pulled his wife close and kissed her passionately, fear and hope, desperation and determination in that one powerful action. He pulled away only slowly, his hands admittedly shaking as they lifted from her face and smoothed back her hair, his forehead against her own. "I love you." His eyes opened then as he pulled back enough to kiss her forehead before looking into her eyes again. "I love you, Kaulu, and no matter what happens, I will always love you. You have made me happier than I could have ever dreamed of being."
Nik kissed her once more before she could reply, knowing that if she did, he might lose all nerve. The Sidhe pulled back again only when they were both breathless and this time he truly backed away, his touch slipping from her own longingly. Instead of soft, warm flesh then, his hand found cold, unforgiving steel. It nearly seared his skin as his palm made contact with the hilt of the dagger and it seemed to Niklomaus that he was instantly gone from the world he knew.
The battle swirled about him, a myriad of colors and sounds all jumbled together, and yet each one clear and precise in his eyes. Each death was powerfully felt, each life the same way. Above it all was the sound of screeching growing louder and closer, a black storm he knew he was witnessing before either army did. The Shaydes were here.
And so was the eclipse, the moon covering the sun, sending the world into a darkness only made more terrifying by the attacking Shaydes, creatures of shadow and midnight. Screams started to escalate, the rate of the dying accelerating. The two incidents collided almost at once and Nik knew there would be no more waiting, not as his world suddenly went soundless but for a whispering voice, ancient and powerful, neither merciful or cruel, but certainly demanding.
"Vessel."
"Naishsck une Vailae."
"You seek the power over Life and Death." There was no need for answer and Nik gave none, merely waiting, somehow calm and completely so where he'd been nothing but uncertain before. There was no room for that in this place. Not when his people were dying around him. "What would you give Vessel? What price would you pay?"
"My life." It was said without hesitation, but the power that swirled around the Sidhe in a tight coil of energy and swirling colors beyond description seemed to instantly reject it. "Your life is not desired."
"I will not give you their lives." The need to explain who he spoke of was lost in this place for the dagger searched him continuously, a force that even the Elements could not keep at bay. It was their strength, though, that was keeping him ALIVE. The power of the dagger was consuming, stealing his strength even as they did nothing but converse. Without the Elements creating a channel of power through him, the dagger would have long ago sucked out his soul.
"Their lives are not desired."
Even in this place, Nik could feel relief, but with it came puzzlement. "What is desired then?"
"Power."
"My power? The power of the elements?"
The energy seemed to swell, almost violently and Niklomaus felt the Elements struggle to keep him stable in the wake of it.....and then felt another kind of sensation ripple through his body. It was a feeling he'd come across before, like the times he'd challenged the Elements, Vulcan especially. It rose up now like a frothing wave and the energy of the dagger shuttered to feel it, the voice hissing out what sounded like an accusation.
"Raiden!"
The name hit Nik squarely, sweeping over him and he accepted it instantly, knowing it to be true. Raiden. Yes, that was his name, had been his name, still was in some ways. He was Raiden. He was Lightning reborn. Yes, how could he have forgotten that? No matter, he knew now and this time when the energy swelled against him, he deflected it with far more ease. How could he not? He was part of the dagger. He'd given his power and life-source into it for it hadn't been a mere lightning Elemental that had stood with the other twelve to make the dagger, but Lightning himself, Raiden. He'd not been there for the Elemental's sake, but for the sake of Vulcan, Aura, Poseidon and Gaia, for his siblings. He had linked himself, his very power and life-force into the dagger so that only those of his line could wield it, only those who were linked to his siblings could feel its power. He'd done it so that perhaps, one day, the world might be saved from it one day. What he'd hardly expected was for his very essence to be saved by the very weapon he'd help create, that he'd be cast from said weapon into the world once more when the prophecy made was time to be fulfilled. He had not thought to be reborn into a mortal body, but here he was.
And now he knew.
"You shall have your power and you shall give me the power of life...and of death."
"No. The rule is one. Life or Death."
"I possess four powers. Two powers for each choice."
The energy hummed with agitation, with the choice presented to it, something it was not used to and finally it descended upon the Sidhe, the answer given plainly with the action. Protests from Vulcan, Aura, Poseidon and Gaia were ignored. He knew the risks. As he lost their powers, he would lose them in this place and without them their energy would leave him. The dagger might very well kill him yet. Niklomaus, Raiden, he didn't shrink from the knowledge, though, and as the power of the dagger started to consume him, it was Kaulu's face that kept him resolved.
---
By the time the eclipse had gone, the Shaydes were no more. They'd simply disappeared. Only those privy to the knowledge of the dagger would understand that they had been destroyed utterly. Their threat was gone with but a thought, in a moment they were nothing but a memory.
More miraculous yet, however, was the complete lack of bodies upon the ground. Whether dead or dying, every person now breathed, stood. There was not a death to be found among the Chaktawe, the werewolf or the Sidhe....but for that of the entire Sidhe royal family. King Donn, his son, his wife and his daughter were gone. It sent the Sidhe into something of a panic, but in time they'd decide on a new leader and they'd remember this day. They'd remember what fighting the Chaktawe had cost them. Oh, there would come a generation that did not remember so keenly, that did not heed warning, but that was the future. Now, in the present, the Chaktawe people were safe from war.
The dagger was safe, too.
It was gone, back to its Grove, awaiting the next Vessel. It had left the current Vessel lying in the sand, pale and nearly dead, in a state that refused to abate, one he could not be woken from. There was no answer from the Elements, no explanation. There was only the living and the dead as proof of what he'd done. There was only the barest stirring of life within the Sidhe to give hope that he might wake to see it.
---
For nearly three months, there was no change.
Nik breathed, his body accepted nutrition without a fight - though, somehow he almost seemed not to need them - but he would not wake. Healers suggested he never might, that his mind was gone even as his body lived, but those who loved him refused to accept it. So they waited. It was all they could do. They waited and they prayed, and they hoped.
It wasn't until they neared the last day of the third month, a season of storms for the Chaktawe, that Niklomaus showed the first signs of waking; movement and facial expression, flickering lids and roaming eyes.
Princess Kaula was summoned immediately.
