Chapter XI: A new threat

Ian and Skye
Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 1999.
Used with permission.

Life was becoming much too quiet in Gethsen and both Angelan and Lucy could see in Venetia's eyes she was getting bored. Damian seemed to be as gentle as a lamb by now and neither Chyraz nor Azrael had dared to pop up again to ask for Herrikhan's glove. The whole strigoļ society seemed to have accepted that Venetia be the guardian of it. But then, once, almost at dawn, as Venetia and Lucy were already awaken - or not yet asleep - someone pounded on the door. Lucy, the nearest, opened the door on Damian, looking quite haggard.
"Hello, Lucy. Where's Vicky?"
Despite the fact he now knew her real name, he still called the girl Vicky. He was able to affirm without even blinking that Venetia and Victorina were two different persons, for he hated Venetia and loved Vicky.
Venetia was instantly at the door.
"What's up, Damian?" she asked.
"Come," he said and his tone was such she preferred to obey at once.
"Stay here, Luce, and don't open to anybody, except me," she warned before leaving, taking a jumper just before closing the door on her.
Damian was walking fast in front of her but as the sun was almost rising, if was quite understandable. Damian stopped in ruins near Venetia's house, a place he had equipped as he often left late Venetia and preferred to be as near from her as possible. Here he was safe from sunbeams and could continue to see Venetia. He turned to the girl and took her hands in his, kissing them lightly.
"What happened, Damian?" repeated Venetia, surprised by this tenderness - not that Damian wasn't tender with her, but he rarely came in such a hurry just to be tender.
"He's back," he simply said.
"Who's 'he'?" asked Venetia.
"He's my master, my Sire," explained Damian. "The Triad was quite feared, but him... he's so much worse than we three were!"
"How much?" said Venetia clinically.
Damian shook the head.
"He's not a mere strigoļ, Vicky! No one can face him without fear! You know I'm not someone who's easily frightened, but his return terrifies me..."
"Why?"
"Because I will lose you..." whispered Damian, drawing her to him.
"Why the Hell would you lose me because of him?" exclaimed Venetia.
"He's my Sire, Vicky. I'm quite a gentle Sire compared to him," explained Damian, nuzzling her neck with his lips. "He will take back his hold on me and make me his puppet... He will break my will and replace it by his own. He will make me turn against you and kill you..."
"Ooh! That's a nice program indeed! But if I have something to say in that, I'd say he won't reach the second point. He won't even finish his first one."
"You can't, Vicky," sighed Damian, discouraged. "He's so powerful, so clever, so hateful..."
"I can be hateful too," affirmed Venetia. "Especially when I have that."
She waved her left hand in front of Damian's eyes and he saw the black leather glove covering it.
"Herrikhan's glove..." he whispered.
"Herrikhan's glove," confirmed Venetia. "Herrikhan's glove, which makes the gods and strigoļs shiver for fear!"
Damian gazed lengthily at the glove.
"I tried to kill you for this glove..." he said slowly." And I did kill you and then, I killed Ileni."
He looked at her almost imploringly.
"You know why I killed her, don't you?"
"Yes, I know: you killed her to avenge me."
"She was only a little girl, but she had so much hate in her!"
"At the end, she didn't know anymore whom to hate: you for having killed me or me for having seduced you. She lost all she loved: her mother..."
"Your mother," Damian interrupted her.
"Little Cin," said Venetia with a sort of anger in her voice. '"Little Cin, who hated her eldest..."
She closed her eyes a short instant and Damian held her more closely. He half-understood that Venetia had suffered from her mother's indifference and her father's absence.
"So, she lost her mother, her only love and her sister. That's a bit too much for a little girl. She did really love you, Damian."
"But my real love is you!" protested Damian.
"If I had known that, to defeat the Triad, I only had to seduce the leader, it would have been easier," Venetia teased him. "Perhaps that's what I should do with your Sire. What's his name, by the way?"
"Sergeļ."
"That's not a name from here," noticed Venetia.
"But I forbid you to do this! You're mine!"
Venetia half-laughed and then said seriously:
"No, Damian, I'm not yours. I don't belong to anyone but myself. My heart may be yours, but that's all you've got from me. Only one understood it."
"Duncan, isn't it? You still remember him and you can't forget him!" accused Damian.
"No, Duncan didn't understand it; he was on the point to do so, but died before. No, this only one is Rusalkan. He's the only one to understand that will of freedom I have, maybe because he has the same."
"Draz..." said slowly Damian. "I thought a moment he had betrayed me, but he had never served me. He had always served you. He did even warn me I shouldn't trust him! I consider him as my rival, you know," he added with a light tone.
Venetia threw him a dark glance and shrugged.
"Stupid," she sneered. "Do you know where your Sire is?"
"In Gethsen. I don't know anything more. He's clever. He knows lots of us would like to kill him."
"Will the strigoļs be with me or with him?"
"At first, with you. Then with him, because he will have made them his puppets."
Venetia chewed mechanically her lower lip.
"So they will betray me at the first occasion... Alright then, it's my kind of fight: alone against the whole world!"
"Not alone! I'll be by your side!" protested Damian.
Venetia gazed lengthily at him and then said softly:
"No, you won't. You said a moment ago he would force you to kill me. I don't want you to suffer this. Go away from Gethsen, Damian, and come back only if I tell you so... or if you hear I'm dead."
"I can't abandon you!"
"You will," affirmed Venetia. "Because if you become Sergeļ's puppet, I will have to kill you, Damian, and it will break my heart..."
Damian closed his arms on her and held her tightly.
"I love you, Vicky," he whispered. "I couldn't bear to lose you..."
"I know, Damian, but I am the dhampyr of Gethsen, it's my task. People trust me for that; I may trust nobody, I won't betray others' trust in me."
Damian nodded, understanding;
"So I must leave?" he asked painfully.
"Yes, you must. You must leave now. Farewell, Damian."
She disentangled herself from his arms and left without turning back. Damian was on the point of calling her back, but the words died on his lips. He lowered the head and gazed sadly at a sunbeam playing at his feet.

When Venetia came back home, she found Beth-Lynn on the threshold and the door was half-opened behind her. A cold bony hand twisted Venetia's heart and she tried to enter. Beth-Lynn prevented her from doing so.
"No, wait!"
"What happened to Lucy?" asked Venetia, the mouth dry.
Another voice intervened:
"He took her with him."
Sane had opened the door; she was standing in full light and nothing happened to her. Behind her stood Vladan, as pale as his betrothed. Suddenly defiant, Venetia stepped back, her hand on her stake; despite his dislike of her habit, Damian had never succeeded in making her change her mind about it. She glanced successively at her friends, concentrating on her Sight, and she sighed sadly.
"I see... He took Lucy with him, and your souls too..."
"No, you're wrong! He gave me my soul back!" smiled Sane. "I feel whole and so alive!"
"He took your will, broke you, made you his puppets!" persisted Venetia, still trying to brin her friends back to reason.
"No, you broke us with your way of thinking and living!" said Vladan. "He showed us the right way to follow. We will live, but you will die. No one will be able to remember you, but we will be the memory of the world."
"As long as I'm alive, you will be nothing," retorted Venetia firmly, understanding it was too late for Sane and Vladan.
But what of Beth-Lynn? She was standing there, saying nothing, seeming unconcerned. Venetia examined the situation coldly: Sane and Vladan were hostile, Sane being the closest to her, and Beth-Lynn seemed apathetic. With a lightning gesture, she drove her stake in Sane's heart. To her great surprise, the dhampyr only laughed. She threw the stake away in a negligent movement and smiled, a dreadful smile showing white fangs.
"Well, Viny dear!" she said. "You don't know me well enough if you think you can kill me like that. I know your bad manners!"
"You can nothing against us!" added Vladan. "He made us invulnerable!"
"Oh dear, oh dear," said Venetia haughtily. "I do hate when people call me 'Viny dear'!"
Her lips curled on a grin as she suddenly seized Sane's throat with her left hand. Vladan didn't move, looking at her with a mocking smile, his arms folded on his chest.
"You know my right hand is like lightning, but you forgot the left, Sane dear! As you're my friend, I'll give you quick death..."
Sane struggled, but Venetia received all her blows without even wincing. Her fingers were curled up like claws on Sane's throat and she didn't open them before Sane's body become limp.
"You can't!" exclaimed Vladan, losing his calm. "You can't kill us, he promised us!"
Half weeping, he knelt beside Sane and took her in his arms, rocking her dead body against him. Venetia threw him a pitiful glance; one swift blow and Vladan's body slowly fell on the ground. Then, with a dead-pan face, she turned to Beth-Lynn.
"What about you? What did he do to you?"
"He's very charismatic, you know," replied slowly Beth-Lynn, as if she hadn't heard. "He popped in, simply gazed at Sane and she became... what you saw. It was a bit harder with Vladan, but then, Vladan was so full of hate for you that he had a way to manipulate him."
"He awoke the strigoļ part in them; well, the strigoļ part for Vladan and the fiend part for Sane. And you?"
"Oh, me! He just kissed me."
Venetia held out her hand toward her friend who stiffened, but then, it wasn't the left hand. Venetia gently forced Beth-Lynn to turn the head away and she saw the red marks on her neck. Beth-Lynn had a livid smile and collapsed to the ground, as if she had only waited for Venetia to discover those marks. Her eyes still open, she clung to Venetia's hand.
"Stay with me... the three days... He won't harm Lucy as long as you're not there. She's only a lure to trap you. Don't let me become a strigoaļca!"
Venetia didn't answer and Beth-Lynn added feverishly:
"I swear it to you, Viny, I'm not lying! She's safe! Maybe you think I'm trying to revenge because of Angelan, but no..."
"Why did you leave Angelan?"
"Each time he took me in his arms or kissed me, I wanted to die, to become like him, so I would have been with him for all eternity. And I knew, deep inside, that I didn't want to become a loajnice..." breathed Beth-Lynn, closing her eyes.
Venetia nodded; now, she understood better. And she stayed three days with her dead friend, giving her the peace when she opened again her eyes.

Lucy, curled up in a dark corner, her arms wrapped around her knees, was fighting back her tears. She looked up shyly and shivered from head to toe. He was there, in front of her, and he was so utterly handsome that it was disturbing; and yet, she was only seeing his back! He wasn't the last bit worried with her, knowing fully she wouldn't attack him. What's more, he was glowing purple; Venetia had told her to be careful with purple strigoļs and now she had a new proof her sister was right, for she had only to take one look at him to know he was dangerous. Once again, she wished to be like Venetia, strong and willing: Venetia would have known how to fight that kind of strigoļs.
She sighed as she remembered the voice of someone she had thought to be her friend:
"No need to bother with her. You couldn't do anything with her. She hasn't the single drop of hate within her. She gave it all to her sister."
Sane's tone was disdainful and yet, Lucy had discerned something else in it: Sane wanted to be the only one for her new master. Vladan already didn't exist anymore to her eyes. Lucy sighed again. She knew what was waiting for her: she was due to become a loajnice. Waiting for that dreadful moment, she had lost track of the time and couldn't have said how many days had passed by since the day he had kidnapped her.
Then a soft voice called her name and she raised up the head, surprised.
"Angelan!" she exclaimed with both joy and relief, throwing her arms around his neck.
"Hush, Luce. I'm here, now, everything will be fine," he whispered to her, wrapping his arms around her.
Lucy closed her eyes, feeling suddenly more self-confident.
"Hurry up, Angelan," said the distinguished voice of her gaoler. "She will be there in minutes."
He left the place and Lucy immediately disentangled herself from Angelan's arms.
"You're with him?" she asked incredulous.
"I'm where you are. If I have to be with him to be with you, then so be it!"
He saw in Lucy's eyes how her world shattered at those very words.
"You're setting up a trap for Venetia," she said slowly.
Angelan didn't reply and she knew she was right. Suddenly a terrible anger seized her and, her eyes blazing with fury, she shook Angelan by the shoulders none-too-gently.
"But you intend to set up a trap to my sister! Do you understand? My sister! And you think I'll let you do it? You think I'll let her die, just because of your egoism? And if she wins, what will you say? 'Hello, Viny dear, I was protecting Lucy'? Well, guess what, I won't let you do! Sane said I couldn't hate someone; now I feel I can! Guess who!"
"She wants to separate us!"
"She doesn't! She would never do such a thing, because she pushed me to go with you!"
"He will reunite us for all eternity!" pleaded Angelan.
"I don't want eternity without my sister!" yelled Lucy. "And I don't want eternity at all!"
Angelan looked at her quite lengthily and left the room without a word. Lucy's gaoler entered soon after.
"What did you do to Angelan?" he asked politely. "I've never seen him so desperate!"
Still angry, Lucy forgot all her fears and retorted fiercely:
"I don't want your eternity! Keep it for you and give me my sister back!"
"No one want my eternity till they taste it. And once they've tasted it, they thank me for it."
He approached her and, gently, forced her to tilt her head on the right side. Lucy felt suddenly very weak, unable to resist, as if he had drained all resistance from her.
"Don't worry," he said softly to her ear, his voice mesmerising. "It won't hurt you..."
As she felt her vital strength leaving her, Lucy closed the eyes and murmured a last prayer:
"Viny, you promised me... You promised me..."
"And I'll keep my promise, Luce darling," said Venetia's quiet voice.
Lucy opened the eyes painfully and what she saw behind her gaoler was most certainly a dream or an illusion: Venetia was there, like an avenging angel, a dark avenging angel. Lucy blinked once or twice and Venetia was still there, with this reassuring smile of hers she used to calm down the fears of the young Lucy. The smile was a bit tense, but she was smiling nonetheless, as to encourage her sister. Lucy smiled back and then fully realised what he was doing to her. She struggled in vain and then implored her sister:
"Viny..."
But in the dark eyes, she saw it was already too late; Venetia tried nonetheless:
"Siscoļ, let my sister go!"
And she titillated his neck with her stake. Reluctantly he let Lucy go; the girl had a dreamy smile for her sister and collapsed gracefully on the ground. Venetia didn't lose her smile, but the adamantine glow in her eyes hardened a bit.
"Hello, Sergeļ," she said with Victorina's seductive voice.
It seemed to her that air was charged with electricity as she said that name.
"Her blood has a delectable taste," replied the strigoļ as if he was making a compliment.
"Mine tastes even better; that's what a strigoļ told me."
"I'll tell you later," promised Sergeļ. "Now, if you excuse me, I have other things to do. We are called to see each other again, beauty," he added, seizing her chin in his long elegant fingers.
Then he stole from her a wild kiss, biting lightly her lower lip. She remained stunned as he suddenly disappeared. In an angry gesture, she wiped her lips with the back of her hand and murmured hatefully:
"I'll teach you the price to pay for calling me 'beauty', you'll see!"
Then she knelt beside Lucy and, the eyes still dry, she lifted the lifeless body in her arms.

Lucy opened the eyes and recognised the ceiling at once: it was her own room's ceiling. On the right, a dark slim silhouette was looking through the window.
"How do you fell, Luce?" asked Venetia, turning toward her.
"A bit weak, that's all. Am I... am I alive?"
"Of course, you're alive, but in another way."
"So I'm a strigoaļca," said Lucy slowly. "You promised me, Viny!" she whimpered then, feeling half-betrayed.
"I'll keep that promise of mine, Luce. I thought that perhaps you had some last things to tell me, for I do have: I killed Beth-Lynn three days after your disappearance and both Sane and Vladan found eternal peace that very day."
Lucy looked lengthily at her sister.
"And now you have to kill your sister... What - who - do you have left?"
"Gerkelan... for the moment. Rusalkan, as ever. Damian, even if I feel it won't last long. As for Angelan, I think it's already too late."
"Yes," agreed sadly Lucy. "He still loves me, but he wants to kill you."
Venetia shrugged.
"Everybody wants to kill me, but not Angelan."
"But he said..."
"No, Luce. Believe me, Angelan likes me. But he says what Sergeļ tells him to say. He's only a puppet now. Sane and Vladan were acting the same way. They spoke Sergeļ's words, they voiced his thoughts, not theirs."
Relief appeared in Lucy's eyes and Venetia felt her heart sinking.
"Viny? Can you... can you..."
She was unable to finish her sentence, but Venetia understood. She knelt by her sister and bent down to kiss her brow.
"See you to the other side," she said softly.
Gently, she stroke Lucy's brow with her left hand and, mentally, she activated the powers of Herrikhan's glove. Lucy closed the eyes to never reopen them.

Rusalkan started when Venetia appeared suddenly before him. He saw immediately that something terrible had happened to her.
"Vic?" he asked gently, using his voice to show her he was here for her." Tell me what's wrong..."
He dared not to take her in his arms; since that day he had carried her home in his arms, he wasn't sure to be able to control himself each time she was near. The last time, when she was half-dead, had already been hard enough...
Venetia looked up at him and he only saw the deep sorrow in her dark eyes. He understood at once what he had to do. Forgetting everything that wasn't her, he stepped forwards and drew her gently to him. Venetia hid her head against his shoulder and, for the first time since Lucy's disappearance, she let flow at least the tears she had been fighting back. Rusalkan rocked her in his arms, humming softly an old lullaby with a soothing voice.
"Draz, I killed Lucy tonight," said Venetia with a choked voice.
Rusalkan tightened his hold on her as if he wanted to make Venetia's pain his and he kissed gently the jet-black hair. Venetia looked up at him; never before had she noticed how tall he was. He was much taller than she was and he looked so strong and reliable, like a solid rock. Gently he wiped away her tears.
"What happened?" he asked her again.
In few words, she told him the whole story. He frowned.
"Sergeļ... Purple, you said? I thought he was dead."
"You know him?"
"To know is a big word for that. I've heard of him. You remember, you told me about those dhampyr meetings. The same thing exists for the strigoļs and they have leaders too. The leaders are generally glowing purple."
"In Damian's lair, you were glowing purple. They should have seen you as one of their leaders!"
"Some purple strigoļs are fellows quite a bit crazy and they refuse to lead casts."
"Casts?"
"You have quite a great number of strigoļ casts. In Gethsen you have two of them, without including the outlaws like Angelan or Gerkelan. And Damian, now. Where is he, by the way?"
"Outside Gethsen. Sergeļ is his Sire. I don't want them to meet again."
"You should be with him."
"I have a vengeance to execute, Draz!"
"I'll help you," offered Rusalkan.
"No, you won't. I would order you to go with Damian if I didn't know you wouldn't obey. But you'll stay clear."
"That's the second time you ask me that, Vic. I'm warning you now, I won't accept a third time."
"There won't be a third time," Venetia said solemnly.
Rusalkan didn't reply; he understood fully what it meant. He fixed Venetia's lips who licked them nervously.
"What's up, Draz?" she said.
"I know I don't have the right, Vic, but allow me to do so even so..."
He lowered his head and lightly kissed her lips, several times. Each time, his kiss was very light, as if he was forcing himself to act like this - or was restraining himself from really kissing her. Then he looked again at her; she was staring at him in wild disbelief, but Rusalkan noted mentally she hadn't even tried to struggle.
"Much better," he said, taking a good look at her.
"What?" asked Venetia, her voice a bit unsure.
Rusalkan shrugged.
"Your lips were glowing purple."
"Purple!"
"I guess Sergeļ kissed you."
"Yes, he did. Which colour are they glowing now?"
"Red, with a touch of my light. I'm sorry, I can't erase a colour without replacing it by another."
They remained silent a moment, a bit embarrassed, then Venetia disentangled herself gently from Rusalkan's embrace.
"Draz, what do you feel for me?" she asked suddenly.
Rusalkan's eyes hadn't anymore their mischievous sparkle as he half-smiled.
"What do you want me to feel for you?" he replied.
"I don't know. Lots of my friends think... thought I love you. I don't really know. I don't know what I feel for you and I'm not even sure I want to know. You're always there when I need you, you rescue me like a knight in shining armour, you never reproach me anything, you seem always happy with what I give you, without ever asking for more. Nobody is as understanding as you are..."
"Yes, I'm happy with what you accept to give me," agreed Rusalkan. "I know how much you like your freedom, I know you can't stand any hindrance and I know also that if I asked for more, I would lose you. And I care too much for you to stand to lose you."
"Would you be able to feel for me what I'd want you to feel?" asked Venetia, trying to laugh.
"If you want me to hate you, no, I can't do that. But I can conceal feelings you wouldn't want me to have for you," he replied seriously.
"I want you to be my friend, Draz, to be someone I can always rely on... and who can rely on me too. Because if you were to be more than that..."
"What would you do?" insisted gently Rusalkan.
"I'd leave Damian for you," she said softly.
"Sometimes," said Rusalkan slowly after a long silence, "I wonder if you didn't sacrifice yourself so that Damian wouldn't harm anybody else."
Venetia waved quickly the hand and Rusalkan knew he was at least half-right.
"That's not the moment to discuss of that, Draz..." she said. "I have to avenge Lucy but... but I'm afraid."
Rusalkan put his hand on her shoulder.
"Why?" he asked simply.
"Because I know I'll die. I should be hateful, so I wouldn't care, but I'm only sad..."
"I can change that, don't worry for that," Rusalkan promised her.
"If I win, you'll be the first one to know it," she promised in return.
"Not Damian?"
"No. If I win and arrive here, what will you say to me, Draz?"
"I'll take you in my arms, holding you tightly, and then I will say 'I'm sorry, Vic'."
"Yes, you'll say that, but Damian will burst out of joy and exclaim: 'Oh Vicky, I'm so proud of you!'. He won't understand, you will. That's why I lo... like you so much, Draz."
"I think it's time for you to go, before you say something you'll regret later. Here, let me change your state of mind."
He took Venetia's head between his strong hands and the girl felt an powerful wave of hate sweeping through her body. Her eyes shone like diamonds but the light within wasn't reassuring at all.
"Thanks, Draz. I think that now, I'm able to fight the prince of darkness himself! How did you do that?"
"I'm a nazdravan, am I not? I could follow you under a wolf shape if I wanted so."
"I wouldn't like it," said Venetia, feigning severity.
"I wish you the best of luck," said Draz matter-of-factly.
"Sure, laddie, sure," said Venetia with her impertinent smile and he wondered how she could sound joyful after the loss she had just suffered. "So long, Draz!"
"See you later, Vic..."
"You know I'll come back. Dead or alive, but I'll come back."
She left the room on those words.

Outside it was pitch black; she walked a bit in the night and then, raised up her clenched fists toward the sky.
"Chyraz, Azrael, I call upon you!" she shouted.
The Angel appeared almost immediately before her.
"Hello, life stealer," he said gleefully.
"Hello, Azzy," she retorted. "Do you still want this?"
She showed her left hand.
"Of course. But you weren't really willing to give it up last time I saw you."
"Last time was another time. Things changed since then. I'm ready to give it to you... to one condition."
"Which one?"
"I want you and your three dogs to follow me till Sergeļ's lair and to help me to kill him for good."
"That's not nice to call them 'dogs'," remarked Azrael.
Venetia shrugged.
"I'm not nice either. Do you agree, yes or no? Will two angels walk against Sergeļ tonight or only one?"
"Which one?"
"Me. The avenging angel. That's how my sister - and some others - called me."
"Herrikhan's glove against our help? That's not a fair trade. You're the loser in it. Why do you propose it?"
"My sister is dead, Azzy. So I don't care anymore for what can happen to this world. I'm almost sure I'll die tonight, as you said yourself to me. So are we agreed?"
"I would be stupid to refuse such a deal," shrugged Azrael. "Cain, Abel and Seth! Come here, we have some work to do!"
The three strigoļs appeared almost at once and the face of the eldest brightened up when he saw Venetia.
"Oh! Cain, is she your love? Quite nice, indeed!" said the blond strigoļ Venetia supposed to be Abel.
She said to Cain:
"I understand why you could have wanted to kill him; I'd like to myself."
Cain smiled as Abel protested. Seth, a silent strigoļ with red hair, smiled discreetly too. In a few words, Azrael explained them what they had to do. They agreed quite enthusiastically.
"You can be killed," Venetia warned them. "And you'll have to kill other strigoļs. That's forbidden by your laws."
Cain shrugged.
"Except if a leader opens a blood hunt. And I am a leader. Don't worry for that."
Venetia had a light laugh.
"I do like him! Where did you find him, Azzy? You don't glow the right colour, dear strigoļ."
"Oh! Sorry!"
Under Venetia's very eyes, Cain's colour changed from bright red to dark red.
"Now I understand better," she muttered. "Alright, let's go!"
Azrael and Venetia took the lead and they really looked like two angels. Venetia, dark and determined, the hard glow of vengeance shining in her eyes, and Azrael, as dark and determined, the cold glow of death sparkling in his gaze. No weapon except Venetia's stake and Herrikhan's glove; even if they knew fully that the stake would be of no use, Venetia liked to have it under the hand.

Text © Azrael 2000 - 2001.
Ian and Skye. Copyright © Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 1999. Used with permission.
Set Gothiquesque, from Moyra/Mystic PC 1998.