Thanatos: Chapter 8 — Yet Water Hath Proved The Smartest Grave

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Choked by ferns and broken up by roots, upon inspection it was clear that no one could seriously trust the remains of the path to guide one to ones destination.

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The carriage driven by Manet clacked its wheels against the rough country rode out of Paris. It had taken the party out of the city and winding back toward the river, its intended path eventually intersecting with the point Vanitas designated at the start of their journey. The day was pleasant, gentle, and the weather promised no complications to the forest's bucolic, dreamlike atmosphere. However, regardless of the idyllic weather, the four were stuck in a stuffy compartment, all silent from the sleepy monotony of the long ride. Vanitas was dressed as he always was, never conceding to weather or circumstances a departure from his usual robes. Dominique was almost similar in her knightly white uniform. However, these clothes were chosen by her for their suitability to the field as well as its style, so in truth she was not any less comfortable had she picked other clothes. Jeanne and Noe were the only two who looked any different. Knowing they would have to traverse the untamed woods, they had both donned rustic garb. Noe carried nothing in hand. He was satisfied with the protection his vampire claws would afford him. Jeanne, however, carried a curious bag with her. Noe knew the contents of the bag came from the de Sade armory, but not much else.

At last the jumpy motion of the carriage came to a halt. The compartment shook as Manet climbed from his seat to open the door, letting in blessed fresh air. The four climbed out to a rough clearing dotted with saplings. The road was hugged close on both sides by the trees, with the clearing marking a break in the woods. To their right the path continued on into the distance, the nearest town still kilometers away. In front of them the clearing proceeded for several meters before it terminated at the forest edge. It took careful observation to realize that the remains of a path was visible at the boundary of the forest and clearing, with it winding into oblivion amid the trees. Choked by ferns and broken up by roots, upon inspection it was clear that no one could seriously trust the remains of the path to guide one to ones destination.

While the others were still stretching and blinking away the bright sunlight, Vanitas was already making this observation. He had stuffed his hands in his robe pockets, casually looking upon the path without an ounce of concern, seemingly, of the danger of this adventure.

He figured it was time to reacquaint everyone with the task at hand.

"If you look over yonder," he called out casually to the others. "You can see the path we are here to take. I daresay most of it has been obliterated by the weeds.

Turning to face the others, he observed what each was doing. Dominique was still stretching to undo the stiffness brought about by the journey. Noe was looking around lost in thought, but Jeanne's attention was on the path. Her brows wrinkled in concentration.

He rested his hands on his hips. "Jeanne, you're the expert here. Do you think you can guide us through this?"

She considered the question, and after a pause said, "Yes, we will be able to follow it just fine."

"Yes! That's just the confidence I wanted to hear from you," he said, turning to beckon Dominique and Noe. "Gather around, everyone, Jeanne will lead the way."

Noe waved his hand in the direction of the forest. "If you concentrate on leading us, we will focus on staying on guard. I dislike how an ambush can strike from anywhere once we're in there."

"I see one of us has the events of last night weighing heavily on his mind." Vanitas smiled at Noe sardonically. "Wouldn't it make sense that they'd do something else after they failed the first time?"

"Be serious, this is no laughing matter." Noe replied irritably.

"I'm inclined to agree with Vanitas," broke in Dominique, resting one hand on his shoulder and the other on the hilt of her sword. "He has an attitude problem, but his judgment is sound. If we're going to meet with trouble I expect it to be when we reach the second key."

The archaeologist raised his hands in defeat. "All right. Let's just get moving already."

Vanitas swept his arm towards the woods. "Lead the way, Jeanne. We are relying entirely on you."

With that Jeanne confidently stepped forward with the other three following her. Entering the forest immediately shaded them in a canopy, through which filtered dappled light and shadow. The ferns reached their waists, growing in abundance where the sunshine permitted. Although chaotic, it was beautiful, and Noe considered this place worth revisiting, despite the vague anxiety resting in his chest. Vanitas's warning hung heavily in his mind. The Ram could create spies out of any living thing. The birds, beetles, toads, and worms could all be turned into a communication network ready to notify the Ram, like the threads of web, the slightest rustling of which calling forth the spider lying in wait.

Dominique, meanwhile, briefly considered turning her saber into a jungle machete. However, its blade lacked the proper weight and shape to make it suitable for hacking apart plants. She awkwardly swung at the ferns a couple of times only to be laughed at by the alchemist. Flushing, she ceased the pointless exercise and sheathed her sword with a huff. Jeanne was oblivious to the pair, focused instead on picking her path forward, confidently and without hesitation. Her confidence was a credit to her experience, but more than that it was her vampire abilities that left little ambiguity in her interpretation of the trail. For Jeanne, it was a surprise that ceased to be surprising, the way her transformation had made greater achievements trivial and made trivial her goals from before. But this thought was kept far from her mind as she was absorbed by the job at hand.

Noé shoved aside some troublesome branches and stepped up to the alchemist's side.

"Vanitas?" he asked.

"Hmm?" the alchemist replied, a bit absently.

"I wanted to ask you some more things, since it looks like we'll have a bit of quiet for the time being."

"Ask me anything, Noé." Vanitas said, half listening.

The only sounds of the forest besides the party were the high and incessant chirping of the birds.

"Have you ever met a vampire like me before?" Noé said quietly.

At that, Vanitas finally paid proper attention and looked at Noé's face. What he saw was the weight of Noé's thoughts from before, the realization of his disappeared mortality. Such thoughts made Noé's gaze turn inward, his violet eyes not seeing the forest in which he was walking.

The alchemist scratched the back of his head as he considered how he would navigate this conversation. He settled on answering plainly.

"No, I hadn't," he replied. "Your case is unique. I don't think the Ram has ever before created vampires to serve him."

Noé laughed grimly. "Well, that didn't work too well. He's allowed us to defy his will rather easily."

A moment of silence passed as Vanitas considered Noe's words.

"Yes, there is that. But often what he offers can be appealing. To particularly hopeless sorts, I mean."

"Because he can make people less human?"

"Precisely so." Vanitas met Noé's eyes, his gaze like bits of sky lost under the vault of leaves. They conveyed the deep familiarity he had with this problem. "Manipulation is a sophisticated art and creatures like the Ram have become quite skilled at it over the centuries. Access to this side of the Border is difficult to obtain. The best way to get across is to own another person's will, lengthening ones reach. It just turns out that many people would rather abdicate having a will and thus do so readily."

Noé thought about this a moment. "I do wonder if another reason they go to him is so they don't have to cope with the curse they've been given."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe life is hard enough to want to escape living it. But perhaps immortality is hard too, but differently. Maybe if it's bad to live, it's even worse to live forever."

At this Vanitas was silent. These were disquieting thoughts.

"I wish I could advise you on this…" Vanitas said slowly. "But I truly have no experience to rely on. Maybe…"

"Is there truly no way out?" Noé said, his anguish seen more on his face than heard from his voice.

"Noe–"

Dominique's voice cut through his reply before it was fully spoken.

"We've found it!"

The men turned their attention to her and saw a break in the forest. They staggered over tree roots, and at last they broke out of the green labyrinth to reach the unfettered sunlight. What greeted them was a spectacular sight.

The river was before them but at a distance; Noe guessed that if he stood at one side of the town square that brought him to the burial urns, the edge of the river would have touched the opposite side. In the space between a large man-made pool stretched in a precise circle tangent to river and forest, the water deep and yet uncontaminated with any water plants or scum. At the center stood a Roman column, and at its base was an inscription, unreadable from the distance at which the four were standing. Seen just under the surface was a stone path, reducing the water to ankle depth so that visitors could reach the center.

"To think a place like this remains here, unknown and uncommented upon by the common people?" Vanitas said to himself quietly. He spoke up more loudly. "There is a force at work obscuring recognition of this pool."

"But how were we able to find it then?" asked Jeanne.

"We could find it because we already knew what to find," he replied as he walked on ahead. "It's that kind of magic. We know our destination and so the path to it reveals itself to us."

The other three followed after him. Dominique was carefully gripping her scabbard with her left hand, ready to draw her sword at a moment's notice. Noé took note of that and decided to follow her lead, preparing for attacking guards. This whole place felt peaceful. He could imagine returning when he wanted to escape the pressures of his university role. But it was deceiving. The Ram's guards could be hiding anywhere and it was unlikely this place was left undefended.

Vanitas got to the monument first with Jeanne close behind, then with Noé and Dominique following a little further away.

"Aaaahhh, time takes another one." Vanitas said, wiping a hand across the worn blank stone where the epitaph was once engraved. "But alchemical means protect the inscription. We need not ever fear coming to one of these and leaving empty handed."

"That's great to hear," Noé called out over his shoulder, facing the pool around them so as to be ready for a fight. "But please just take the inscription so we can leave."

"Be patient, dear Noé," replied Vanitas, grinning while he copied the key onto his notepad. "Enjoy the scenery. This was once a monument to a great man, you know."

"And yet these days almost nobody knows about it."

It was at this moment that the Ram's appointed guardian for the second key fragment struck.

An ordinary eel, through supernatural interference, was made into a giant beast, a manner of swimming serpent that could constricted buildings and snatch a whole man in its jaws. It shot out of the water at Noé. This time he was ready for it.

It was too big and moving too fast for the archaeologist to do much better than dodge. Leaping out of the way, he looked back in time to see it's sinuous form rush across the path back into the pool. He leapt to his feet and immediately returned to the group.

The four stood back to back with each other, like the four directions of a compass rose. Amazingly, a beast of that much bulk instantly disappeared into the depths. Not one of them could get a sign of its movements.

"Damn, this is exactly like the graveyard," grumbled Dominique under her breath. "What I would give for a chance to find the key's protector BEFORE we get to this point."

Vanitas wiped the sweat from his brow. "But we're in luck." He pointed down the path they came. "If we get back to the forest, we can escape the monster, with it having no means of pursuit."

"If," said Noé, brandishing his claws. "If we can get there."

At that moment the eel slid out of the pool with outstretched jaws. Dominique and Noé were ready, both of them slashing at the dark body. They drew blood. However, the weight of the beast was more significant than either of their shallow blows. Vanitas and Jeanne were able to fall low to the ground in response to the eel's lunge, but Noe and Dominique were taken fully by the snakelike body and knocked into deeper water.

Noé was shocked by the depth. The path they walked on was shallow, but barely a pace away from it was a watery abyss. He could see the dark outline of the giant eel twist and flow through the water as it strained to bring the rest of its body back under water. Noe awkwardly swam up in his heavy, waterlogged clothing, discovering the clifflike support of the path connecting the center and shore, and clambered up underwater foot- and hand-holds.

He gasped for air. The brisk sunlight and beautiful trees were an unsettling contrast to the trails of blood diluting the water's surface. Struggling to his feet, instead of keeping track of his compatriots he raced to think of some viable strategy against the monster. His claws were sharp and doubtless he could strike deeply, but there was so much bulk he feared he would be crushed to death before landing a killing blow. His eyes scanned his surroundings and found the forest guide. Something about Jeanne's posture caught his eye, slightly crouched with her back to him, the bag from before dropped to her partially submerged feet.

Just in front of her there was the eel, raising its head out of the water. Noé's breath caught in his throat, realizing both he and Jeanne were directly in its path.

It lunged and the loud crack of the raised shotgun split the air. A spray of blood erupted from the eel's face.

The eyes, Noe thought. Why didn't I think about the eyes?

The point blank shot ruined the monster's charge and it changed direction to dive back into the water.

"Noe! Jeanne! We need to leave now while we have the chance!" Vanitas was racing by them. Noe finally saw Dominique, sword in hand watching the eel swim back into the water, leaving a flowering spread of blood in its wake.

Without any further hesitation they ran into the forest. They traveled fairly deeply before they stopped, realizing no good would come about if they got lost, and while no pursuit was possible, if only for the moment. The four were gasping, trying to calm down their racing hearts.

"Jeanne, I wish I had the presence of mind you have," gasped Dominique, leaning over her knees and looking a bit like a doused cat.

"I can only credit luck," she replied, looking at the shotgun she had kept a tight grip on while making a break for it, still smelling of gunpowder. "If I hadn't dropped the bag when the eel struck me, the gun would've been waterlogged." She laughed, if a bit grimly.

"I think I'm starting to see better that we need to stop the Ram as fast as possible," said Noé. He scowled. "To imagine monsters like that roaming our world in greater numbers…"

"I can give at least a little bit of good news," Vanitas broke in. "Remember what I said? You have to know where this place is to get to it. Others will be safe from the pool with the giant eel."

Noé sighed. "Yes, I'm not coming back here."

"But imagine, you could feed a whole village with the size of it."

"Enough Vanitas!"

"Now, now, I can't let you get worn out by stress yet. We're hardly done."

"Enough Vanitas…" Noé leaned against a moss-coated tree trunk. A pensive moment passed. "I think we're getting better at this."