In the darkness Corrine sat, the room had no light save for the gentle flicker of a candle at the far end and the snaking energy stream that encircled her arm and created a dance of shadow across her face, her sparkling blue eyes fixed against some distant point as she felt the weight of the planet’s life force wash over her… every moment of every day it’s relentless touch reached through her… the agony of countless billions of dead souls was hers to share.  Corrine’s gaze fell to the sparking energy that coiled around her… she needed to ‘speak’ to the ancient.  She reached behind her and gripped the hilt of her knife.<br/><br/>The blade slipped from the sheath at her back… it was carved from pure obsidian and mounted on a hilt that was delicately etched with ancient death symbolism.  Her eyes briefly caught their reflection as she raised it slowly to her lips… they parted and she drew the fine edge across her tongue.  Her mouth was suddenly filled with the rich taste of blood, its scent redolent and a metallic tang filled her senses and reached deep into her subconscious… her eyes flickered closed and she was cast into a cascading spiral of dark heat as her conscious mind got caught within the eddies of the planet’s energy stream<br/><br/>The swirling sensation stopped…<br/><br/><em>… Corrine’s eyes opened and the heated breeze caressed her face, she was stood atop an ancient Mayan pyramid, the shifting skies were on fire and the jungles echoed to the screams of the damned.  Corrine was not alone, but then she was never alone… she bought her right arm up and looked… the snaking energy that she was so used to seeing writhe about her was no longer there, she smiled.  In this twilight of her deepest subconscious she was able to freely commune with the ancient spirit within her.  From behind she felt the coolness of a presence cross her.<br/><br/>At once she dropped to one knee… her head bowed as the shadow of Itzpaplotl fell across her, a voice like twisting metal echoed through the air around her…. “Child… rise to me…we are one… equals… we bow to no-one.”<br/><br/>Corrine slowly rose to her feet and turned, her face flickered with a smile as she gazed upon the ancient.  Physically the mirror of herself, but for the dark Aztec symbols of death carved across her face and the searing red fire of her eyes, the air behind her shimmered as she walked with a searing grace.  <br/><br/>“Child… it comes… the last war… the world will be bathed in blood and pain shall be their lasting legacy….”<br/><br/>“…pain…” whispered Corrine.  How well she knew pain, how it both crushed and renewed her.<br/><br/>“Go child… I am with you… always..”<br/><br/></em><br/><br/>With a sharp gasp Corrine’s mind was rocked from the stream and returned to the world around her, her eyes flicked open still burning with the dark fire that had been instilled within her.  She rose to her feet and slipped her blade behind her back, the taste of her blood still heavy in her mouth and trickled down her pale face and dripped to the floor.<br/><br/>She turned her gaze to the candle for a moment… narrowed her eyes and snuffed  out the light as the air was crushed from around it.<br/><br/>Her chambers were sealed and slightly out of sync with the rest of the ‘world’ around her… there was no physical way in or out… she needed the solitude, it helped her to balance her mind, to focus and allow her to recuperate.  She walked softly towards the wall, her form taking on an almost imperceptible shimmer as she altered her body’s resistance to the stone… the coolness and the history of the rock washed through her before she emerged into familiar surroundings….<br/>