The Creators Ch. 06

ANGELA

They were all eating breakfast at the table when I woke up. Sitting, laughing and chatting like a happy-fucking-family. Without a doubt, this was the most bizarre thing I'd seen in Willowbud's brothel. Not the public displays of rape, or the makeshift practices of gladiatorial matches, but this. Astrid wasn't wearing her armor, but a nightgown. She wasn't scowling silently behind her mistress, but laughing gayly with Tera, who was naked, as always, and daintily dipping a teabag into a jar. Willowbud was wearing a fucking skirt and parked on my brother's lap, and Brandon was smoking a goddamn cigarette. One orgy, and all of the sudden the whole world turns on its head.

"Angela!" Willowbud called to me, an actual smile on her face, and not a smirk. "We missed you last night!"

Willowbud was absolutely glowing with love on the outside, and positively blackened with Corruption within. I'd never seen the Sentient so prominent before, so obviously influencing the nymph. Corruption stared into Brandon's eyes, caressed his face, kissed him softly on his unknowing lips. The four of them didn't know; they couldn't see what I was seeing. They couldn't tell this whole thing was a farce, a lie created by a cancer. I plastered a smile on Justina's face, and walked to the table.

"This is my cousin," Willowbud said to Brandon, taking the cigarette from his lips and putting it between her own. "She is actually insane."

"She is?" Brandon smiled, giving me a knowing wink, and then turning to Willowbud. "Then what does that make you?"

"Oh, I'm batshit," Willowbud smirked at Brandon, passing smoke between their lips, "but you know that, don't you? What did you say last night, 'I know all kinds of things?'"

"I am wise beyond my years," Brandon grinned, his hand traveling up Willowbud's skirt, "and you are way too experienced for yours."

Astrid laughed at something Tera said, and then, in the least deceptive way I could imagine, slid an astral gemstone to me. She somehow managed to look more conspicuous than if she'd literally vomited the rock onto my head, but I guessed subterfuge wasn't part of the valkyrie repertoire, and Willowbud was otherwise occupied. I looked inquisitively at her, and then placed the gemstone in Justina's piercing.

"I know everything," Astrid said mentally, trying to appear casual by reading the newspaper upside down.

"Great," I groaned, taking the newspaper and turning it around the right way, scowling at Astrid's blushing face, "the woman who can't lie knows all the secrets; whose brilliant idea was that?"

"You're being rhetorical, right?" Astrid said mentally, letting the paper drop to the table, wisely realizing that she couldn't act her way out of a cardboard box.

"Yes, Astrid," Tera sighed on the other end, apparently using Brandon's earring, "we all know who the genius of the group is."

"In His Holiness's defense," Astrid said, gulping awkwardly, "I did try to kill him."

"Next time, just finish the job," I groaned, putting my head in my hands, "then at least I can die, and this nightmare of stupidity will be over."

"But, you can't die," Astrid said, cocking her head in confusion, "if His Holiness—"

"Oh my god!" Tera yelled, looking at the newspaper. All four of our heads whipped around, even Corruption looked lazily over her shoulder. Tera's hands were shaking as she read the headline, the paper crackling in her trembling fingers. She let the newspaper fall to the table, and all our eyes widened as the bold print was revealed.

The Heat Bringer in Terondia: Her Holiness, Sister Julia Glendian Assassinates Princess Lucilla Flitari of The Elven Empire.

Now it was a game of who could pretend to be the most surprised: Willowbud, or Brandon. Willowbud gasped believably enough, Brandon drooped his expression in his typical stupor, and the rest of us pretended to be shocked for both of their sakes. Goddamn it, this was a mess.

"Let me see that," Willowbud said, reaching for the paper. She opened it and looked-over the words, her mouth moving as she read, revealing her lack of schooling. Brandon read over her shoulder, and Corruption peered with equal interest.

"Holy shit," Willowbud mumbled, "she blew up the palace tower, disintegrated the princess, and then escaped the city undetected. They think she went south, to Grundinar." Willowbud scanned the paper again, and then frowned. "Sorry Astrid and Tera, but you guys only made it to page six. Fucking Heat Bringer stealing all my press."

"This is huge," Brandon said, taking the paper from Willowbud. "The Creators have returned! I always thought they were bullshit stories told by travelers."

That was believable enough, I guessed.

"Eh, they're a bunch of assholes," Willowbud said, taking the paper from Brandon and tossing it on the table. "The world's just fine for a few thousand years, and then they come along and fuck it all up. I'll tell you one thing though; there is no way Julia went south to Grundinar."

"Why do you say that?" Astrid asked.

"Because the elves have that border sealed tighter than your mom's cunt," Willowbud replied. "No, if Julia escaped the empire, she went through Arbortus." Willowbud chuckled to herself, "The Heat Bringer in Arbortus; what a mess that could be."

"The Earth Former in Drastin," Tera smirked at Willowbud. "What a mess that could be."

Willowbud glowered at Tera, and shifted uneasily in Brandon's lap as Brandon pointedly didn't react to what Tera had just said. This house of cards was one mouse-fart away from blowing over. There was a tense silence in the room, and then Brandon broke it with all the grace he could muster.

"Yeah, that sure would be bad," Brandon laughed nervously, "kind of like the Life Giver in a cemetery! Hahaha, am I right? Because... you know... everyone's dead... in a... cemetery..."

"Holy shit," Willowbud laughed, tousling Brandon's hair, "you are the cutest fucking thing in the world, you know that?"

"I know all kinds of things," Brandon grinned up at her. The two gods connected lips, and the rest of us collectively rolled our eyes. Even Corruption cringed a little.

WILLOWBUD

"I couldn't help but notice," Brandon said as we watched Tera and Astrid slaughter their way through a team of centaurs, "that your cousin is your slave."

"So?" I asked, shrugging my shoulders and glancing at Angela, who was sitting as far as she could from us in the box. "Half of her is still free, so I don't see the problem."

Tera jumped onto a centaur's back, immediately enslaving the beast and riding it around the arena, much to the joy of the crowd. Astrid flipped through the air and jumped on another's back, her strong legs keeping her from being bucked off, her strong arms preventing the enraged beast from stabbing her. The two women rode side-by-side, making a mockery of the rest of the mounted warriors, and turning the spectacle of death into a comedy act. Astrid opened her wings and ascended, carrying the centaur a hundred feet above the arena. The hoofed half-man thrashed uselessly between Astrid's legs as she cupped her hand to her ear, and egged the stadium on. The people screamed and stomped, working themselves into a frenzy, begging the valkyrie to drop the poor beast. When Astrid was satisfied with their expressions of need, she opened her legs. The call of the crowd grew louder with each foot the screaming beast fell until he broke upon the sands to a deafening roar. Astrid swooped along the front row, high-fiving spectators as Tera lassoed a centaur with her whip whilst riding horseback atop his comrade. This was a fucking joke, but it was the best competition I could get on short notice. At least my fighters were making the most of it.

"Why is she your slave?" Brandon asked.

"You know how it works;" I smiled at him, "succubi can only be enslaved if they fail an enslavement. Justina tried to take me, and it backfired. I don't feel like giving her another chance."

"Did she ever have a chance to begin with?" Brandon asked, eyes twinkling.

"No," I said, scrutinizing his expression, "she didn't." But something tells me you knew that already.

"I think you should let her go," Brandon whispered in my ear, his hand reaching up my skirt, "you don't need a slave to fuck when you've got me."

"Why do you care?" I whispered back as I spread my legs, gasping as I felt his fingers push between my moist petals.

"I'm somewhat of a humanitarian," Brandon whispered, wetting his pinky with my dribbling nectar, and pushing it all the way into my anus, causing my back to arch from the couch, and my teeth to press excitedly against my lip, "and I wouldn't want my girlfriend to make me a hypocrite."

"Is that what I am to you?" I breathed as the rest of his fingers slid into my slit. "Your girlfriend?"

"Is that what you want to be?" Brandon smiled back as his thumb found my clit. My lips trembled in the heat of his lust; my body bent to his passion.

"Yes," I whispered as he tenderly violated me, "do you want to be my boyfriend?"

Brandon stared into my eyes, chewing his lip. Why do I want him to say 'yes?' I thought as anxiety tore at my throat. Why do I want him to want me?

His expression softened, and he smiled warmly down at me, causing my heart to grow light enough to float from my mouth. "I do," Brandon laughed, seeming to be surprised by the revelation, "I really do."

Our smiling lips connected, our tongues entwined, and the victory horn sounded in the arena. The usual applause and cheers rang out around us, and then a terrible shriek cut through it all. The crowd went silent, and I opened my eyes to see Tera writhing in agony with a centaur atop her. The beast Astrid had dropped didn't die from the fall, and he'd used the last of his life to cut open the succubus in her moment of triumph. Astrid darted across the arena and beheaded the centaur, but I knew it was too late. Tera was slit from sternum to navel, and she was spilling guts all over the sand. I looked over at Angela, and saw her face ashen and trembling, on the verge of sickness. Brandon had tensed to a rock beside me, his face drawn to a grimace, his hand pulling out of me. I found myself not giving a single shit for Tera, which was a relief, because everyone else seemed pretty broken-up about it. The benefits of Corruption usually did outweigh the detriments, so long as the Sentient wasn't trying to get me in a relationship.

"Well shit," I grumbled, "I guess Astrid's going to be a solo act now."

"Willowbud," Brandon said, taking my hands and looking intently into my eyes, "can I trust you?"

"As much as you can trust a snake to bite," I laughed, uncomfortable with the seriousness of his tone, wishing he'd be as apathetic to Tera's death as I was. "Why?"

Brandon didn't answer. He got off the couch, and walked toward the balcony of our box. It was then that I noticed Astrid had picked the dying succubus off the ground, and was flying right for us.

"What are you doing?" I yelled at Astrid, "Leave her on the sand to die!"

Astrid ignored me. She flew into our box and draped Tera on the floor. My aunt was barely alive. Her violet eyes were bulging, her breaths were gurgling and rattling, her bronze flesh was as pale as death. Her wound was over a foot long, and revealed everything inside her.

"Astrid, put her out of her misery," I groaned. "I don't need to see her like this."

Brandon knelt before Tera, and she pushed him away weakly, slapping at his face.

"Don't!" she coughed, looking from me, to Brandon, eyes bloodshot and panicked. "Don't!"

"Don't?" I asked, looking from Tera to Brandon, "Don't what?"

"Can you save her?" Astrid asked Brandon. Why was everyone ignoring me? What the fuck was Brandon going to do?

"Cover me;" Brandon said to Astrid, "they don't need to know yet."

Astrid nodded solemnly, and shielded our box with her wings, blocking out the sunlight and the crowd. I stared dumbly at her, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on when I felt something sharp pressing to my throat.

"This is dipped in Nightshade," Angela whispered in my ear, "just one scratch is all it will take, Willowbud. You shouldn't leave packets of poison in the trash; you never know who might go digging in there."

"Angela," Brandon said, shaking his head at the girl holding a wooden spike to my throat, "we'll never save her if she doesn't trust us."

"Fuck you, Brandon!" Angela yelled back, "You don't know her! You're in Corruption's favor, so you get the boyfriend treatment, but the rest of us have to deal with the real Night Eyes! I'm not fucking moving!"

"What the fuck is going on?!" I hissed at Brandon, not daring to move my neck, not daring to kill Justina lest Angela's hand slip, "What do you know?!"

"I know all kinds of things," Brandon smiled sadly back, "and I know that I can trust you. Angela, put it down."

Angela tensed behind me, seemingly prepared to disobey the man she somehow knew, seemingly ready to push the spike into my throat and end it all. She breathed a reluctant sigh against my neck and let the spike drop, and I wheeled around on her, feeling earth and rock beneath me, feeling a million different ways to exact my revenge. Something stopped me. A whisper in my mind, a feeling in my chest. Corruption couldn't talk to me, but she still spoke with painful clarity. 'Don't do it,' the feeling seemed to say, 'show restraint, but only for now. Later, Willowbud, later. You can kill her later.' I stopped myself, staring at the stone-cold eyes of Angela. She wasn't afraid to die at all. Somehow, I knew that killing Justina wouldn't do a fucking thing to her. Angela wasn't the insane-half of my dearest cousin; Angela's eyes belonged to the man I was falling in love with, the man glowing with sapphire power behind Astrid's stretched wings. The Life Giver.

Tera's wound stitched together, the color came back to her flesh, the light came back to her eyes. Brandon caressed her face soothingly as she thrashed in pain, and then relaxed as the final cut closed, leaving her perfectly fine on the stones, her blood staining the ground beneath her. Tears welled in her eyes, and she sobbed silently as Brandon planted an affectionate kiss on her brow, and whispered soft tenderness into her ear. I gaped at the scene, and slowly trailed my gaze to Astrid.

"You knew?" I hissed at her. She nodded. Betrayal and deception. I had been made a fool of by everyone. Tera, Angela, Brandon and Astrid had all been laughing at me behind my back. The rocks spoke to me, the earth called for me, but Corruption's anarchistic indifference wasn't there to help me pull the trigger. I would've flattened the entire arena, I would've broken Drastin into pieces, but Corruption didn't encourage me to, so I didn't do it. No, I just stood there like a gawking moron, staring at Astrid, and then staring at Brandon. He looked at me with comfort and promise in his eyes, and Corruption told me to go to him, to embrace him, to kiss him, to love him. My equal in all things, my peer in power. Her next prey.

I ran away. I turned on my heel, gripped with a terror I couldn't describe, and I sprinted into the dark corridors beneath the Pit. A stream of people moved outside the concourse, and I skidded to a sudden stop, not wanting to be surrounded by eyes who knew me, only wanting to find the darkest hole in the world, and crawl into it. I made my own exit in the wall beside me, and ran through it; burrowing the earth before me as I charged into the darkness, creating a tunnel to nowhere. I ran until my heart thundered and my lungs breathed fire, until my legs ached and my feet were bloodied. I fell to my knees in the darkness, scraping flesh from sinew, feeling blood running down my shins. Tears dropped from my eyes, wetting the cold stones, shimmering faintly from the keyhole of light that shown a mile away.

"Why are you doing this to me?!" I sobbed to Corruption. "Why are you letting me feel? You're supposed to take the pain away! It's what you promised me!"

There was no answer in the void, no comfort from the thing that had raped its way into my mind.

"I've cast you out before," I whispered. "I can do it again. I swear I'll do it."

But I knew that was a lie. There was no guilt left in me to tear Corruption from my soul, no shame or broken heart to cleanse me with pain.

"Willowbud?" a wonderful voice called from the bowels of my hole. Corruption's heart fluttered alive, and so did mine. I thought about running again, but where would I go? I could either charge back into the earth, or into the Life Giver's arms.

"Willowbud?" Brandon called again; his voice closer. He glowed an ethereal blue in the darkness, looking every-bit the god he was. The perfectly-circular hole I'd made shined with his light, and bathed me in its soft luminescence.

"How long did you know?" I asked him, voice ragged.

"From the beginning," Brandon said, sitting cross-legged next to me.

"You were that boy in Gloria's house, weren't you?" I whispered, "The one hiding behind the door when I killed her?"

"Yes," Brandon said.

"She's still alive, isn't she?" I asked. Brandon nodded in the dark, his features glowing beautifully.

"Who is Angela?" I asked, resting my head on his shoulder, unable to stop myself from seeking the comfort of his warmth.

"My sister," Brandon said, kissing the top of my head, "and an infantile Sentient."

"What?" I whispered.

"It's why Angela can see Corruption," Brandon said softly, pulling me into his arms, surrounding me with his love. "Sentients aren't astral beings; they're souls Life Givers preserved, but didn't bind with."

Somewhere within me, I felt a swell of realization, as if a question I didn't know I'd asked had just been answered.

"So," I said, nestling myself into Brandon's body, surrendering to the comfort Corruption wanted me to feel, "you'll have to bind with Angela to save her."

"That's right," Brandon said, pulling me close, "but I'm having second thoughts."

"Willowbud doesn't love you, Brandon, Corruption does," I said, not self-identifying with the woman whose name I carried.

"I know," Brandon whispered, his lips moving against my hair. "Willowbud loves Astrid, doesn't she?"

"She was warming-up to her," I replied, "but Willowbud never felt love; not romantic love, anyway."

"Tera, Astrid, Angela and I are all trying to get Willowbud back," Brandon said, "maybe then she can feel something."

"She doesn't want to feel anything," I whispered hoarsely, "it's why she melded with Corruption in the first place."

"It sounds like Corruption is making her feel quite a lot." Brandon replied.

"And Willowbud is very angry about it," I sniffled. Another moment of silence, broken softly by the sniffles of my grief, and the whispers of his breath. God, it felt good to be in his arms. To feel him encasing me in affection, to feel his warmth radiating into mine.

"Do you think we should stop seeing each other?" Brandon asked softly.

"It would be the smart thing to do," I replied, cringing as Corruption seared her disagreement into my chest.

"I never did do the smart thing," Brandon chuckled. "Everyone keeps telling me how much of an idiot I am."

"You really are a dumbass," I giggled through tears, scooching deeper in his hold, craving the touch of him.

"The Heat Bringer's an assassin, the Earth Former's melded to a Sentient, and the Life Giver is a dumbass," Brandon laughed. "The world is doomed."

"It really is," I sighed. Brandon held me in the darkness, his glowing flesh illuminating us, a comfortable silence lingering between us. I could've sat in his lap forever; I could've nestled into his warmth until the sun burned out. I knew it was Corruption's love, but I still felt every inch of it.