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Riddick lay collapsed on the Necromonger throne for several long moments before Vaako dared to look up. When his wife had used one of the Quasi-Dead to speak to him, he had known the Purifier was in the room. He had known Aster was listening. Every conspiracy - for that was what it had become - required at least one who could guarantee the loyalty of the religion. Vaako could bring the army, his wife the politics, and Aster could provide the final matter and seal Vaako's rule. Vaako knew Aster well. He knew he would never take power for himself, though it was not unknown for Purifiers to kill in order to keep.
But he had underestimated Aster. It was not until his ship had lifted that one of his captains had reported that he could not find the senior Purifier. And then Vaako had known. Aster would only stay behind for one reason: Riddick. He had stayed behind to report to the Furyan. To tell him Dame Vaako's news.
There had been three people living who could have killed the Lord Marshal and Vaako doubted that Riddick would have let Aster live once the news had been delivered. It wasn't the Furyan way, to leave an enemy alive at your back. It also was not the Necromonger way. There two beliefs were not as dissimilar as the Furyan leaders had liked to pretend. Vaako had known better. It was only logical that the Furyans should have joined ranks with the Necromongers. But Furyans were stubborn to the last.
Vaako knew that as well as any.
And as Vaako looked up at his new Lord Marshal, he knew he could kill him. Kill him now and take the throne. The army would follow, though the Purifiers would cream bloody murder. It went against their honor to kill a commander unable to fight back. But Riddick had beaten their best at his best. None would call Vaako a coward for taking this time as his own and taking the throne that should rightly have gone to him.
But Vaako did not move. He knew he could never explain his reasons to his wife, but that was his fault and not hers. His control had been perfect. He had mocked the Lord Marshal's belief that a Furyan would kill him, but inwardly he had trembled. No other argument could convince him of his destiny half as well as Rea's news had.
It had been foretold. It had been prophesized. A Furyan would bring down the Lord Marshal. Aster or Riddick of Vaako. There were none other. But Aster was weak and Vaako had been ordered to kill Riddick. Then there would have been only one.
Vaako.
But he had been unable to kill Riddick. Twice he had tried and twice he had come close. But to come close was to fail and success was all that mattered.
You keep what you kill. He could have kept Riddick's destiny for himself. And though Riddick had claimed it now, Vaako could still kill the claimant. He could take a battle ax and strike the head off Riddick's shoulders. He could plant the sharpened blade in Riddick's chest and watch the throne be bathed in blood. It would not be the first time.
But Vaako would not do it. Riddick was a better fighter and as a Furyan, Vaako understood that some were better than others and that the strong should rule the weak. Riddick had bested Vaako. Riddick had bested the Lord Marshal. And so the throne should go to Riddick, in the Furyan way.
And the thought did not bother Vaako, as a Furyan.
But as a Necromonger, it rankled. One not of his faith sat on the throne. All men could be converted but it was unheard of that a Lord Marshal not be a convert, not have moved up through the ranks, never have watched worlds fall and marveled with his fellows at the sheer power. Vaako could well remember watching Lord Tiv revel at the fall of Furya, could remember his hate that never entirely faded. Lord Tiv had not known that his commanders had allowed converts and Vaako had known that if Lord Tiv had discovered his secret, death would come swiftly.
So Vaako had told no one. Even Rea thought he was a convert from another distant world. Any Necromonger could have turned him in, and so Vaako kept his secret.
And he had kept Aster's as well, as Aster had kept his own. As they both moved up through the ranks, positioned themselves close to Tiv, Vaako could almost hear Aster's asking. Will you kill him or shall I? There had to be revenge for Furya. The blood of their families called out, but they bid their time as fellow Furyans died around them, the last of their kind.
Never forgive, never forget. Not even conversion could change that. A son of Furya would have to take revenge for her murdered children and destroyed world.
Riddick had done that. He had known what Vaako never could. And so Vaako's head stayed lowered.
And who better to lead a Furyan than a Furyan? Riddick and Vaako would alike, Vaako knew, but Riddick had bested him. Vaako could serve a man who had bested him but was no convert.
They all started as something else.
After a long moment, Riddick groaned. He staggered to his feet, steadying himself on the arm of the throne, and the entire army stood as one. Vaako could almost feel his wife's angry gaze burning into his back, demanding to know why he didn't take the chance. Vaako wasn't sure he could explain it. It was a Furyan thing. Rea was many thing, but she was no Furyan.
Vaako knew his duty. He cleared his throat and lowered his voice so only Riddick could hear. "Dismiss, my lord?"
"Yeah," Riddick said, looking around. "Dismiss."
The army sighed as one and broke ranks. All around Vaako, soldiers disappeared down hallways or against walls, but he stayed where he was. Riddick would need him. This was already a day of days indeed, but it was not yet over.
Vaako approached Riddick, hands clasped in front of him, and bowed. "May I show you to your quarters, my lord?"
Riddick shrugged and pulled his goggles down over his reflecting eyes. "If you want." With an effort, he straightened and looked directly at Vaako. "You look familiar."
"I am Vaako, my lord. High commander of the fleet."
Riddick winced at the term of address. "Don't call me that. I'm nobody's lord. Name's Riddick."
Vaako stepped over the fallen corpse of the Lord Marshal and tugged the four-faced helmet off Tiu's head. Vaako turned around and offered it to Riddick. He was careful that his smile did not show. "You keep what you kill."
Riddick swore under his breath. "Listen, Vaak, I don't want the job. You take it." He pushed Vaako's arm back towards Vaako's body. There was an awkward pause after Vaako restraightened his arm. Riddick cursed again. "You need to kill in order to promote," he said, not really a question. "Just my lucky day."
"I can't kill you," Vaako replied. There was no shame in it. When Riddick had been an enemy, yes, but Riddick was his commander now. There was no weakness in truth. "You need not worry."
Riddick rolled his eyes. "I don't have time for more honor bullshit."
"No," Vaako said. "I do not have the skill to kill you." He held the crowned helmet limply in his hand. If Riddick would not accept it now, then Vaako would place it in the Lord Marshal's quarters for him.
"You didn't try hard enough."
"I did." Vaako looked around the deserted throne room. "My lord, your quarters?"
Riddick scowled. "Sure. But stop calling me that."
Vaako said nothing. He started walking down a corridor to his left, confident that Riddick would fall in step. They passed down hallways, a silence approaching comfortable between them. The Necromonger guards on duty saluted them as they passed, but neither returning the salute. Riddick did not speak until Vaako lead him past the racks of new converts.
"Do you expect me to go through that?"
Vaako kept his eyes steadily ahead of him as he formulated a careful answer. "There has never been a Lord Marshal who was not a Necromonger. Only two Lord Marshals were not converts. The first created our society and the second was born before the Purifiers discovered how to stamp out breeders."
"Breeders," Riddick repeated. "Is part of the process cutting off your balls?"
Vaako almost smiled. He had had the same remark for the commander who had persuaded him to convert. "Sterilization, not castration. Our beliefs do not allow us to have children nor to mutilate our bodies."
"So you and that fancy wife of yours never got it on?" Riddick laughed. "I may be gullible, but I wasn't born yesterday."
Vaako palmed the door lock and lead Riddick through. "There is nothing wrong with sex, only procreation. We believe that death is the ultimate and perfect state a man can achieve. Bringing children into existence runs could to that philosophy."
"So suicide," Riddick mumbled. He pushed the goggles up to see better in the darkened ante room.
"We take a convert or die mentality. All will die eventually. If you do not accept the truth willingly, you will accept it unwillingly. We kill our enemies so that they may embrace the truth. And, though we miss them, we do not mourn those lost because we know that they have achieved greatness in the Underverse."
"Underverse." Riddick repeated and then snorted. "Load of bull. You Necros really can't feel pain?"
"Once you accept the truth, pain can no longer touch you." Vaako flashed Riddick a bare-toothed smile. "But you don't believe that." Vaako hadn't either when he heard that. He still didn't believe it. He was Furyan enough to know science when he saw it. "What really happens is that the pain is shot through your mind as such a high rate that the pain receptors in your brain numb and shut down. You know things should hurt, but they do not." Vaako tapped the side of his neck, drawing Riddick's attention to the conversion mark. "The probe enters through here. It takes seven days of pain for the strongest to break, but," he paused. "If you go through the process, it may take longer. Furyans are tough to break."
That name got Riddick's attention. "Do you know that from experience?"
Vaako pressed his lips together and smiled secretly. "We all start as something else."
Riddick stopped walking and started staring as if he was trying to memorize Vaako's face. "You're Furyan."
"I am."
"This entire fucking army..." Riddick growled.
"No," Vaako cut him off sharply. "Just you and me. None else survived."
"Sure about that?"
"Very." Vaako cleared his throat. "Twelve of us made it off planet before the destruction. Twelve."
"Counting me?"
"Yes. Ten converts on the Hyacinth and two on a commandeered transport."
"You remember Furya?"
"I do." The transport had traveled into an ion storm and its transponder had been lost. Vaako had no way of knowing where Riddick and Anj had gone, or what Riddick had gone through. "I was sixteen when it fell. You were hiding out in the meeting. Your absence was conspicuous, but I saw you in the shadows."
Riddick shrugged. "Possible. I can't remember anything before thirteen years ago."
At which time, Riddick had been thrown into a maximum security jail. That much Vaako had learned from Aeron. Furyans prized a warrior nature and a resistance to conform. The Riddick Vaako remembered had both qualities in abundance. But Vaako was not surprised that Riddick didn't want to remember.
He had been there the day Riddick had killed his own parents and then stabbed himself in the arm with the bloodied blade, foreswearing the past. All twelve survivors had been there. It had been Aster who had licked the blood off, threw the knife in the dirt near the transport, and told Riddick to take his brother and leave. Aster. He had later sworn off violence and devoted himself to religion, but at seventeen they had all been bloodthirsty.
"What were we?" Riddick continued. "Cousins, friends, lovers?" Riddick sneered at the last word.