Thank you for everyone who have read this story and I truly hope you have liked it also. As sad as it makes me feel this is the last update there's going to be.
Epilogue: Pond of the Lost Souls
The black waters stood still, not a single wave disturbed the surface of the dark pool. Even though he knew what resided in the dark waters he still had to wonder if the beings were really there. Kneeling next to the pool he stared silently into its depths feeling it luring himself to join the others of his kind. Where the nephilim side in him wanted to dive into the water and never resurface the human side, the stronger side, strongly advised him against it. What would wait for him there, within the dark liquid? What would wait for him - a person who had never known of his angelic inheritance? Would he become a shadow, like his kin, and dwell within the pool for the rest of the eternity or would his humanity override the darkness planted to his heart in his birth?
Next to him stood a simple urn, a metallic container to hold the earthly remains of a human being. What had once been a creature capable of loving was now an amount of gray dust that fit inside a small urn. All the feelings and thoughts the person had felt had now been turned into ash to be mourned over by the people who's lives the deceased one had touched by his actions. Only thing left of a man hated by many but loved by more was now standing next to Kurtis. A life no one would love again.
"I never believed I would break into a church here" Someone behind him whispered. He only nodded. In the silence they stood he felt strangely warm like he was embraced with comfort he had never received before in his life. The people who were supposed to love him had either left or simply hadn't care. In their lives they had found something more important to care about. Their pride and work had overcome their love for him.
They both stayed still in the silence like honoring the beings dwelling in the depths of the pool, the beings that knew only a little about a thing called about honor.
The silence was broken when a single shadowy form appeared on the surface. It slid gracefully toward the two of them like it was one with the water, like it was born of the darkish liquid in the heart-shaped pool. Its movements were slow as it carefully divided the surface in two as it neared Lara and Kurtis.
He found strange kind of beauty in this being that was never meant to be. If he could've described the feeling freely it felt like a connection. In him was a part of this being - the part that was dark and mysterious, the part that could be seen in his eyes when they didn't join the smile on his face. And the other feeling, immense sadness burned to the heart of this particular shadow. The feelings planted by the being's human parent - the one that had lived while Kurtis' grandmother had walked among the men. But unlike the other shadows in the pool this one had had heart large enough to store love and mind beautiful enough to understand the concept of that particular feeling. In this pool it was one of a kind not only having known the thing people called humanity but also feeling it.
The being stared at Kurtis with the eyes it didn't have and for a while he thought it smiled with the lips it no longer possessed. A single sigh echoed in the room as the being whispered to him in language that no longer had any words - the language that had no one to understand it anymore. Kurtis slowly moved closer to the edge of the water and leaned toward the being as it raised its shadowy hand from the waters to touch his cheek. Even though the touch was cold and clammy to him it meant the world and beyond.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" The person behind him asked and this time he turned to look at her. She had a bandage around her thigh where the nephilim fire had hit her. Many would've fallen in love with her outlooks but to him there was also other beauty in her than the one that met the eye. In her adventurous spirit was something that ignited a spark in him. She wasn't a porcelain doll that would break from a single touch and she didn't want to be. Those dolls were a reminiscence of the world she didn't want to live in - the world she had been born to - the world were people lived their lives from day to day drinking tea and attending grand parties. It was a porcelain world and the beauty of it was as frail as glass. A single stone could break that world a part but in hers stones were something she stepped on, not capable of breaking her world.
"Lara..." He began, turning to look at the pond again. "The two things he loved the most exist in this room - my mother and his work. The two things he couldn't do without and the things that in the end were his doom."
"But..."
Kurtis shook his head sadly. "It takes more than the faked affection in photographs to love. I was expendable." He couldn't hide the small hint of sadness in his voice and his tone alone spoke more than the words leaving his lips. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, it still hurt and he knew it would hurt forever.
Slowly he opened the urn and looked at his father's earthly remains. In the urn was the proof of where mortality ended and immortality began. The only place a human being could be immortal was in the memories that he left behind. Graves were used again when there was no one to remember anymore but sometimes the person's deeds could carry their soul in the memory of the humanity through centuries and beyond. Legends could be told, folklore of the heroes past - the ones who stood tall when someone broke their knees.
Standing up Kurtis took the urn and held it tight in his arms. Swallowing hard he tilted the urn watching with sadness in his eyes as the gray powder slowly floated through the air on the surface of the water. In the dark of the room the ashes looked like snow in fairy tales, dancing in the air it seemed to Kurtis like his father was leaving his final farewell to this earth he used to love. The shadowy creature slowly glided through the human remains and dove deep into its watery grave.
Kurtis slowly stood up holding the now empty urn in his shaking hands. He knew what or who the being had been and from now until the day he'd die the only memories he had of him mother were her lying on the ground unmoving and soaring through the through the dark waters. He had no picture of her to show him her smile when she could still form the said expression without lying to herself - without having to tell herself that some day she'd have something to smile about again. But someday might never come - it was one of the phrases people made up to fool themselves out of fearing mortality. To fool themselves to think they were immortal.
Lara also stood in silence, questions running through her mind. In a short while she had borne witness that souls existed - both nephilim and human. The essence of the nephilim after their death held an immense beauty even though most of them had lived a life of a monster. In the black pool she thought she had seen the part of nephilim that was angelic - in the pool resided the angels thrown down from heaven. Only after their deaths were they able to hold the beauty of the other of their parents.
After what she had seen in the Halls of Doom made her want to die even less. In the end the fate of all humans were in the hands of the red eyed shadow, the judge. but who is to say that the being apprehended the concept of humanity as the humans did. Would the deeds considered sublime in the mortal world still hold their value in the scales? Would the deeds thought not to be so rightful still weigh down the pan? Or was it to the judge to decide? Had someone given it an ability to rewrite the rules? Had it been gifted morale higher than any human being's? How were the rules written deep down in its mind - would good things come to those who lived their lives in the hope of getting to the better place? Would what was in the heart matter - did the humanity deep down still have value?
She wondered what lay after the death of an immortal being? They couldn't receive what was in order for the mortals but was their fate really to exist in a limbo for the rest of the eternity? Would they be granted an absolution if they were found worthy or would the one who threw them down from heavens hold the grudge until all the time in this world was through? As she stared into the depths of the dark waters she came to the conclusion that in this world nothing lasted forever - not even immortality.
Her thoughts turned to Karel and how he had believed he would inhabit the earth long after both she and Kurtis'd be gone. And she remember the look of disbelief in his eyes as the Shadow Katana slowly drained what he thought was forever from him. They had left him laying in the small chamber the katana still embedded to his chest. At first they had wanted to find out if the blade could forgive him but then Kurtis had told her about St. Anne and how the katana had kept her imprisoned. She remembered thinking that perhaps in this world being existed that didn't deserve their freedom - not even after their death. Karel had been free long enough during his years alive, long enough to have lived too long. Shortly after their escape there had been an earthquake that buried the entrance to the Halls.
As they both turned to leave something fluttered to the earth from Kurtis' jacket pocket. As he picked it up he saw it to be the one he had found from his wallet in the Ruzyne airport - the one portraying his mother and father in their wedding outfits now smiling like knowing their happiness wouldn't last. Instead of being black and white picture the photograph now supported colors but still it seemed to have been taken through a veil of mist. But he had dropped it on the top of Haleakala and never picked it up again. How had it ended up in his jacket pocket? He hadn't even worn the jacket that day. He slowly turned the picture around and only saw two words.
"Thank You"
The End