Breathe Life Into

There is the story of Pyrogenes. After taking a thousand curses, the craft fell upon him to breathe life into those whom death had stricken but whose blood still retained some vestige of warmth. Pyrogenes took no importance in the trappings of renown or status, and so kept quiet his power, using it only to revive the beloved departed of those few close to him. Even they he swore to secrecy, and for he was a man who picked companions worthy of trust, his ability remained hidden from the craven world.

It was only at the Battle of Thermopyle that Pyrogenes was revealed as touched. The rivers of blood that stained that day took his closest friends. Pyrogenes hunted for their bodies, breathing vitae back into they who had passed the veil, and they rose and were renewed. But though breathing life could call what was gone back from oblivion, it did not mend all damages to the body. So when Pyrogenes' brother, a legionnaire, was revived, he lay down to rest, his body still broken with wounds. When the sun set, Pyrogenes met him again, thinking him twice dead or forgetting in the horror of that day if he imparted to his sibling the gift of second life. Pyrogenes breathed life into him once more, but waking he drew an unworldly scream, and his body turned blue and shriveled as he convulsed into eternal darkness. So breathing life a second time was fatal.

The scream shattered the heavens and all had seen what Pyrogenes had done. The soldiers left alive tried him as a murderer, for though none were more grieved than he, his breathing life had been seen and they feared it. Two soldiers restrained him as the crime of kin-slaying was recounted unto Pyrogenes. Not a word passed his lips nor expression disturbed his face during the trial. When his guilt was pronounced, a soldier unsheathed his sword to execute him. But before the blow could be struck, Pyrogenes became a scarab and flying into the air vanished from sight of those beholden