Part 3

"The apprentice? Really?" Vordea asked, sitting on a log deep within a forest. Eigengrau was sitting across from her on the ground, legs crossed.

"Yes. But she has caused an even bigger problem than using All Stop." Eigengrau replied, still showing emotion on her face, this one being annoyance. "She promised Rebecca Montague a cure for vampirism."

"She fucking what?" Vordea yelled, causing birds in the trees to take off and a bear to reconsider his life choices. "Does that stupid trollop know what she's done?"

"I suspect she knows exactly what she has done. It seems we finally must address it." Eigengrau said, her hoarfrost slowly pulsating. "We must address the nature of the curse."

"This is your fault to begin with, you fucking idiot!" Vordea yelled at Eigengrau, her temper getting the best of her. "You're the one who made it a goddamn disease!" Vordea jumped up and started toward Eigengrau, who thickened her frost in response.

"Sargon was the one who forced me to." Eigengrau shot back, arms crossed but still sitting. "It was all of our faults. We cannot repeal the curse, but we can fix it for one unfortunate woman."

"No we can't."

"We can. The Raven King knew this day may come. He long ago prepared the base for a cure, but it requires the blessings of every Inner and Primal in order to work." Eigengrau flatly monotoned, standing up. "Rebecca is an interesting person, but I think taking her focus off the Gods is for the best."

"The less eyes the better. Of course you'd think that." Vordea said, hands on hips. "So, you're saying a cure is possible. What next?"

"The Raven King explained the workings of the cure to me several centuries ago, and each God contributes a single drop of their blood to the mixture, nothing more, nothing less." Eigengrau stated as she pulled a vial out of her robes. "He also explained a... partial cure of a sorts is not possible. It is all or nothing."

"So this leaves Vaust, Sargon, and Zalas, then?" Vordea asked. "I'll strong-arm Agbus, and I think Vaust will be a pushover, but Sargon and Zalas..."

"Will be very difficult. Right now there are two paths we are walking down, and I do not like where one of them leads." Eigengrau looked almost worried, as she began to pace.

"You've walked the shape of both of them, then?" Vordea asked. "If you're acting like this, I don't like it."

"Death. True Death. I will reap all of them on that path." Eigengrau replied, bloody tears forming in her eyes. "Every God will die, and I will be alone. Not even the end of the kalpa will fix it."

"What." Vordea flatly said. She wasn't expecting this.

"You all die. You. Agbus. Sargon. Vaust. Zalas. The Raven King. Every outer God. All of your demons. All of the angels. All the dragons. The heavens and hells empty and I am left alone. The sole God left in a world of mortals." Eigengrau was fully crying now, bloody red tears streaking down her pale cheeks. "This is the seventh attempt, you know?"

"Excuse me?" Vordea said, blinking her eyes.

"I have tried six times to obtain this cure, and it has ended in the death of the Gods six times. This is the last try. If it does not work this time, the encounter is set. We can no longer avoid it, only delay."