When Talion left, he had gone aboard the ship. It wasn't hard for Sal to find him either. He was in the med bay, doing an autopsy on Mistral's body. On a tray beside him, were bloody red crystals of a type he had never seen before... though he instinctively knew that they were Tass… but they were something different too, something important.

 Talion didn't look up from his task. "My apologies for running out on you but this was a task that needed handling quickly."

Sal watched the procedure as he spoke. "Of course. And I'm keenly interested in whatever you are doing with my friend's lifeless body," he sounded upset, but there was no threat in his voice, "but that can wait a moment. I need to know more about Sariel. You know he is free, I'm sure. He, or at least being of immense power who claimed to be him, stopped by my party on Halloween. Do you trust him? Can I trust him?"

 Talion sighed. "When a mage becomes an archmagi, the process causes the body to undergo a series of transformations, none of which are conducive to that body being usable again. Their organs crystallize into Quintessence, a special type of tass. When she returns, she will do so in a supernal form, not a physical one... and she will have great need for this quintessence in much the same way you would have great need for blood after an extended topor. I did say that you probably didn't need to see this."

 He didn't look up from his work, instead taking great care to do his work without unduly damaging the body. "Yes. You were in the Museum when the collector died. That was Sariel's doing. The Collector pulled him from my memory without truly understanding what he'd unleashed. Now there exist two Sariels. The original has devolved into a being you call 'Cthulhu'. The second is my memory of him before his degeneration. He has a body now, thanks to the Collector, and can move about freely.

 I trusted the Sariel from my memory, and I'll believe him to be trustworthy until he proves otherwise... but I cannot say how his infection of a Fey Lord may have altered him. That said, it's quite unlike him to drop in without a reason. Do you know why he chose to visit you?"

He listened quietly to Talion's explanation of what he was doing with Mistral's corpse. He seemed satisfied by the answer.

After Talion asked why he Sariel chose to visit Sal, he answered. "He wanted a favor. When a god shows up on my doorstep asking for a favor, I figure it's best to at least hear them out. I told him, that as long as I was convinced he meant you no harm, I would do the favor. He said that was reasonable. He also transmuted the vitae substitute I was serving at my party into demigoddess vitae, courtesy of Nefertiti, as a way to make up for scaring my guests. He seems like a pleasant sort. Surprisingly down-to-earth, for a god. Tell me, when you knew him was your name 'Necros,' or was that a nickname he had for you? I mean, I never thought you had always been called Talion, but 'Necros,' and 'Armageddon,' or was it 'Apocalypse'... these names don't have the nicest connotations."

 Talion paused his work for a moment when asked about his name. However, he recovered quickly. "Yes. It was a name I took a long time ago, after I thought I'd forsaken humanity completely. The funny thing about hero prophesies is they never tell you the price the 'hero' has to pay. They said I would protect my kingdom and my line would reign for 2000 years... and it did.

 … but, by that time, they had become twisted and evil. When I witnessed the full extent of their depravity, I cut short my lineage and took on that name. For a very long time, I resented humanity. I resented the gods. I resented everything... then Sariel came along with that down-to-earth demeanor and invited me to tea.

 When Dar... when our world faced its darkest hour, Sariel sacrificed himself to save our world, for all the good it did. The planet was overrun with monsters, every living thing had been corrupted, and the other gods had fled. I was born under a second prophesy... that I would one day destroy my world. I thought that, with enough power, I could somehow stop that from happening... but, as the monsters closed in on my portal out into the wider multiverse, I finally realized what would drive  me to raise a hand towards the world where I was born... so I freed Sariel and set Ardain ablaze.

… that was when I dropped the name 'Necros' and was given the name 'Apocalypse'... but I have always been Talion. My nicknames may not have the nicest connotations but they fit a filicidal planet killer like me quite well."

Somberly, Sal said,"Monsters... that word has different meaning for different people. For over 200 years, I thought that nothing could actually be more monstrous than the worst humanity has to offer-- Kindred included. You've shown me creatures whose monstrosity goes beyond morality... whose very existence corrupts the world around them. Abyssal creatures: are they what overran your world?"

 Talion's eyes unfocused. It was that thousand yard stare that happens to soldiers who've seen too much. "Abyssal? No... nothing so mundane as that. What I warred against were Elder Things, creatures with neither names nor classification. Most were sealed away by gods who couldn't kill them. All the research I did lead me to believe that they were survivors of a previous cycle of creation. It seemed Ardain was a prison for these things... and, when the gods fled, the shackles that bound them broke and loosed them all upon the world.

 I needed help so I reached out to other worlds. I offered a wish in exchange for the wisher's soul, taken at the time of death so that they might have a full life and enjoy their wish... but, when the soul was claimed I sent them to hell... or, at least to what remained of it, to train them.

 Those that passed were given mechanical bodies that could survive the war... but the term 'War is hell' doesn't even begin to describe what the fighting was like. I had a great many soldiers begging me to return them to the underworld after they fully understood what it was they fought.

 You saw the graveyard. You saw the dog tags. They were all victims of that bloody war. It galls me to know that it was all in vain."

Sal was silent for a moment, than said, "Please, please tell me there's no 'Elder Things" on this world. Tell me, at least, that your world wasn't sacrificed in vain, as well."

 Talion was silent for a time. "I wish I could but honestly I don't know. I wasn't present for the resolution of my actions. When I freed Sariel, he was suffering from something akin to a vampire's Frenzy. He attacked me and our battle rent a hole in reality. I was flung into a void creature's... stomach for lack of a better term... and found myself imprisoned there for nearly 3 millenia as far as I can reckon the time. Time doesn't truly exist as a concept in the Void so all that time may only have been a few hours. There's no real way to tell.

 During the time I found myself trapped, I became so hopelessly disoriented that I'm not sure I will ever find my homeworld again. I can only hope that the purge claimed them before they reached the portal network."

Sal said, "We can hope. Sorry to have brought up such sad memories. If there's something else you'd rather talk about, I'm all ears, or if you prefer, I can leave you to work in peace, now."

 Talion resumed his work. "No. It's quite alright. It's not something I meant to burden you with. It's just that it would be impossible to understand my relationship with Sariel without context.

 If it is any consolation, I do not believe that any of the Elder Things are present on this world. I've not seen any of the Omens that portend their arrival. If one ever does arrive, you will notice changes to the world at least on the scale of what happened at today's ritual."

Sal nodded, and said, "About that: Should we be prepared for trouble from the Lupines over damaging their patron?"

 Talion was focused on his work but answered. "Absolutely... though they already hated me before so it will be par for the course for me. The rest of you, on the other hand, prepare for a less than cordial greeting if you meet any of them."

Sal shrugged. "Kindred relations with the Lupines have rarely been cordial. Apparently, they hate the way we smell. The feeling is often mutual, but fortunately, Kindred don't have to smell anything if we don't want to. Of course, that just means they'll like me even less."