//------------------------------//
// il Peccato Più Mortale 
// Story: Ombra della Lama 
// by Vedavyasa 
//------------------------------//

	It took nearly eight months before I found the next Sanctuary. The Cult of Artemis obviously received my message, during that time I heard of only two attacks and there was not a single gryphon to be found in Canterlot. Blind luck eventually brought me to my destination, another of the odd gates. This one was connected to the base of a statue however, not in the sewers. I was fully armed, and so I simply entered. Nopony would know where I had gone, but hubris was with me and I believed I would have no issues in this Sanctuary.

I was proven wrong the instant I stepped in to the gate. If I had not been a pegasus, I would have fallen some hundreds of hooves to my death. Slowing my descent by opening my wings, I drew my sabre and prepared for combat. This small concession to paranoia saved my life when I landed in a group of twelve gryphons, all armed with the poisoned bone daggers associated with their cult. Surprise was my ally in this fight, and three of them died before they understood the situation they were in. Another ran off, screaming “The Shadow is here!” at the top of his lungs. Such was my reputation among the Cult that at the mention of me I heard screaming echoing down the tunnels.

I would have laughed if I was not so hard pressed against the eight remaining gryphons. They were not skilled fighters, but they were ferocious. Their fear was plain to see in their eyes, but they used it to drive them on rather than be controlled by it. Such was my black luck, to be fighting eight terrified gryphons with no hope of escape or reinforcements. I decided to turn their fear in to something I could use, and so I made no attacks of my own. I simply countered attacks against me, and I could sense that they were beginning to believe me somehow untouchable. It took several minutes, but their attacks slowed to the point I could overwhelm them. Using my wings for balance, I reared on my hind legs and attacked them with both my sabre and my hidden blade. I cast aside the shadow and I became the storm that destroys all.

Seconds later, eight gryphons lay dead. The long fight and flurry of attacks tired me, but I knew that if I left now the rest of the foul creatures would escape. I felt I had no option but to press on and trust to la grazia del fato, and so I walked through the tunnel the young gryphon had ran down several minutes before. As I walked, I searched with my third eye and found, much to my confusion, nothing. It seemed as if all the gryphons had abandoned their home. Walking in to one of many caverns, however, I began to sense a very large group ahead of me. They had intended to ambush me. A pony without my gift would have had no hope of surviving such an attack. As it was, I would have difficulty fighting such a force.

I left the main tunnels, and found my way to an opening high in the walls of the cavern the gryphons were waiting in. They were approximately thirty in number, and they had the young and elderly in a connecting, smaller cavern. I decided to make use of my throwing knives while I could, and I killed thirteen of their number before they located me. I fled then, intending on splitting their group to hunt them individually. It nearly worked. Instead, they split into groups of three, leaving four behind to guard those that could not fight. I believed that three enemies would be simple, and for most of the groups it was indeed. The last group, however, was a problem. These gryphons were better fighters, and they screamed tales of their god at me as they attacked. They were far more devout than most of the Cult, and they nearly killed me. The last of them drove his dagger in to my chest before I could kill him. The pain threw me in to a rage, and I ripped out the offending weapon and drove it through the top of his skull, shattering it.

Having done what I could, I escaped. I again needed to be carried in to the Royal Hospital, although this time I was not delirious. I must have built some immunity the Cult’s poison, for I remained lucid through my recovery. I was fully aware as I watched my old master die. 




Translations


il peccato più mortale=The Deadliest Sin

la grazia del fato=the grace of fate