what price victory?

The Wasp Queen was pursuing me relentlessly. I could feel her shadow over me when the hellgate began to implode. Immediately she was ripped from her trajectory and drawn towards the collapsing crimson gate erupting plasma into the sky as it died. Then I noticed that she was still the same distance away...and the portal was getting closer!

Of course. Erebus and Vesprium were neighbors and enemies along the river Styx. My children by Sekhmet must have scattered far away by now, but I was now being drawn in along with my greatest foe!

Then I felt Xavael's arms hook under my shoulders. My wings were bending with such agony, as if I was made to fly while tied down with boulders. I felt like I was trapped on a wrack, and the angel was screaming along with me.

"I'll not let you go, Beloved! Not after searching a thousand years!"

I looked up at the angel's eyes, now bearing stormclouds behind the pupils, complete with twin flashes of lightning behind those shimmering orbs.

"This won't work, Beloved. This is killing the host. I won't sacrifice Jeremiah. One...one last kiss, Beloved?"

I felt hir tears roll down my cheek like warm drops of sunlight as their lips touched. I tried not to pay attention, but there were millennia of memories and wishes shared in that final, sweet moment of contact.

"Goodbye, my sweet Angel...Please care for..."

The horns snapped from my brow and the wings ripped from my shoulders Xavael keened as we watched Bloodwing's spirit solidify.

"I shall keep your homeland safe, Beloved! I SWEAR!"

In the portal, the Queen had been pulled in until only her head was visible. I saw my grandson Koen crouched on the top of the portal's rim, clutching some strange device for dear life and staring at the Founder's predicament in horror. Her jaws snapped angrily...

The sky erupted in dueling waves of absolute darkness and blinding ruby, that slowly withered away to an expanse of lue sky and golden sun. Koen hovered where the portal had been. Veins of darkness pulsed from the base of his alien staff back towards the Bloodwing's Revenge.

"Victory is ours..." said the angel in a voice with the beauty and anguish of a symphony in mourning.