The Creators Ch. 10

"We need to find out more," I said quietly. "We need to find out who this Life Giver was."

"More missing pieces." Justina sighed. "There isn't a record even half as old as these things could be."

"You sure?" Lucilla asked, tapping her bible.

"Princess, puh-lease," Justina laughed. Lucilla glowered back, and Justina's eyes darted down.

"I've never been a devout follower of the Maternal Path," Lucilla said softly as she opened the book, and caressed a page, "but Julia has made it her life's work, so I've become an expert by proximity. I know you're a high-minded new-age atheist, and it's very trendy to bible-bash, but this piece of literature is the oldest record known to man."

"Every line from that book has been turned-over and analyzed a thousand times, and not an ounce of truth has ever come from it!" Justina hissed.

"We're not dealing with facts, Justina; we're dealing with sentient thoughts," I said. "If they think the maternal bible is true, then we need to think as they do to understand them."

"It's more than that, Tera," Lucilla said, looking very serious. "There are secrets to this book yet to be unlocked, secrets that died tens of thousands of years ago. This bible mentions the tethering of the astral suns. Were they tethered beforehand, or were they tethered to keep Joy alive?"

"Lucilla, what are you saying?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

"I think these Sentients might be old enough to answer some of the greatest questions about this book," Lucilla said. "Who knows how much of this bible is literal history? The Sentients themselves might even be in some of the latter chapters!"

"...and the joy in my Holy Mother's words." Angela whispered. She hadn't said a word since she'd mentioned that Hatred called Corruption 'Black,' and I realized it was because she'd been playing-over Hatred's words again, and again, trying to find that missing piece that had nagged at me insistently, always poking at the back of my mind. "This was once a warmer place, of kind eyes on morning's face, I remember the song of birds, and the joy in my holy mother's words. It was the answer to the question, 'who made you?'"

"No," Lucilla said firmly. "No, that's ridiculous, Angela."

"On the first day, The Holy Mother created life, the land on which it walked, and the sun with which it shined." Angela replied.

"Life, earth, fire." I muttered, my heart sinking.

"Corruption's a human, Angela!" Lucilla growled, incensed by the blasphemy.

"Tera's a succubus, and Flora's a nymph," Angela replied quietly. "How does the bible describe Satan? Pointed horns, long tail, devilishly handsome? Does he live in a world of darkness, like say, a nocturnal predator?"

"An incubus," I whispered, the words barely coming from me. "A rapist of seduction, but not of force."

"The Holy Mother is called the Holy Mother because she is literally, the mother of holiness," Angela said levelly to the increasingly-anxious Lucilla. "She gave birth to the first Creators."

I looked over at Justina to see her fervently reading Halok's bible, her eyes squinting as she rapidly scanned down the lines. I looked over at Angela to see her putting a calming hand on Lucilla's thigh as she seemed to physically wrestle with the idea.

"You know I can't believe that, Angela," Lucilla hissed.

"Why not?" I asked, "If it's true, then it could be the secret to neutralizing Corruption!"

"Because if it's true, then the thing holding Julia together is a lie," Angela said, giving Lucilla's thigh a comforting squeeze. Lucilla nodded, wiped the tears from her eyes, and stood up.

"Please tell me when you hear from Diamond again," Lucilla said to Angela as she grasped the doorknob, then turned to me, and gave me a grave look. "Tell me as soon as you can, Tera, before it's too late." And she was gone with a slam of the door, the sound ringing in our ears, and echoing from the walls.

"What the hell did she mean by that?" Justina asked.

"We're running out of time," I muttered. "Can't you feel it? Everything's barreling to something horrible, but no one knows what, and no one knows when. We all just know it's soon."

JULIA

I wasn't too oblivious to not notice that Lucilla was doing something secret. I suspected she was putting up safeguards for us, in her own way. I knew it had something to do with the elves, but I didn't question any of them. I trusted Lucilla, and I understood why she no longer trusted me. I didn't even trust me anymore. How could I, when I was pressing myself against Night Eyes, moaning her name, tasting her lips and feeling her inside me? She'd dissipated through the walls like an apparition in the night, but I wasn't surprised. I knew she'd come, and I knew she'd give me what I needed. Just a taste; not like before. All I needed was a taste, and that's all she would give me. It burned its sweet euphoria in my lungs, sent ecstatic tears to my eyes, and carved a manic grin across my face. It made me move like a whore atop Night Eyes; my hips shifting, my belly flexing, my breasts jiggling in ripples that traversed my chest with each drop of my body. She sucked the milk from me, her teeth biting playfully, her grin as wicked as mine. She came inside me, and I locked my thighs around her waist, and held her until every last drop had been soaked into my womb. She finished my cock off with her mouth, taking me deeply, looking up at me with eyes full of submission. She swallowed most of it, then let the rest spray across her face, marring her complexion for me, marking her as mine. I tasted my seed on our kiss, and reluctantly pushed the morsel of Corruption she'd given me back into her lungs. Just a taste. I could handle a taste.

"I'm done playing our game," Night Eyes said, her slender form silhouetted against the moonlight as she did her belt.

"It's for the best, I guess," I replied.

Night Eyes looked up sharply. "That's it?"

"Call it a tie?" I grinned at her. I knew her too well; I knew she'd pull this on me.

"Fuck you, Sister," Night Eyes laughed her sardonic laugh, and I added my melodic giggle to the mix.

"I'm going to repent for my sins tomorrow," I said, tearing the sheets of the bed, and adding fresh ones. "Will you join me, or are you just going to watch?"

"I'm not much for martyrdom," Night Eyes replied. "Besides, I have a reputation to protect."

"So do I, that's why I'm doing this," I snorted. "And to atone for my sins, of course."

"Of course," Night Eyes grinned in the dark. Then she was over the side of the window, and out of sight. I sighed, and finished making the bed. I burned the old sheets, blew the smell out with some hot convection, then walked nakedly to the door. Jade was outside, trying to hide her knowing smile.

"Don't you give me that smirk, Jade," I crinkled my nose at her. "Just because I was corrupted, doesn't mean I forgot what I saw you doing earlier today."

"I meant no offense, Your Holiness," Jade said, forcing her lips into a frown. I looked at her, still clothed in that blasphemous outfit. I hadn't ordered the Breytans to remove them yet, and it wasn't due to oversight. I wanted them to wear them. I snuck a hand up the slit of Jade's robes, and felt her tremble when my fingers slid up the crack of her ass.

"When it's just us, Jade," I said in a hushed voice, my fingertips caressing her rim, "I want you to call me 'Mistress.'"

"Yes, Mistress," Jade whispered through a voice tight with arousal. I pressed a single finger into her tight filth, feeling the rim dilate, then hug each knuckle as the finger sank to maximum depth. Jade's face flushed with lust, her body curved, her thighs parted. I twisted my finger, moved in and out, then withdrew, leaving her vacant, wanting, unsatisfied. I liked doing that, denying people; it made me feel powerful in a way my actual power didn't. I would satisfy her later, of course, but she'd be thinking of my finger every second between now and then, building the anticipation, the need, the devotion. And when I made her come, the release would be amplified tenfold due to the delay, and she would be more grateful because of it. More mine than she already was. My priestess, my whore. Don't think of her as such!

"Let's go," I said, sucking my finger as I looked at Jade. She guided me down the hall, down several flights of stairs, and through a secret door that neither Lucilla, nor her elves knew about. I nodded, and Jade stopped. I illuminated the dark hall with my palm, and walked to the door at the end. I opened it, and heard a whimper. It wasn't a frightened sound, but a desperate one. Flora Autumnsong lay on the floor, her hands shackled to her sides, her feet shackled to the floor. She begged me with wide trembling green eyes, but I just smiled my kindest smile, and shook my head.

"You must resist the temptation, Flora," I said, sitting cross-legged by her head. "Only through pain can we heal."

"P-p-p-please!" Flora stammered. "Please touch me!"

"No," I smiled, very-much enjoying the way she thrashed. "You are very fortunate that Jade found you before someone else did."

"Let me come!" Flora whined, thrusting her hips in the air. She'd been found stumbling through the remnants of the brothel district, laying with whatever drunk hobo she could find. She'd scratched her itch so many times that I wondered if she'd succumbed to Tera's slavery on her own, but she was still herself. She just needed to last the night, and she'd be better. In the meantime, I would get the information I needed.

"That story you were telling me—the one about you and Tera having that race;" I said, leaning back, "I'd like to hear how it ends."

The Maternal Bible: Chapter Four, Page Four:

There was a time before time. In the beginning, there were but two. The Holy Mother walked upon the earth, and the demon walked below it. She was virginal and pure of sin, and he was odious and filled to the brim. In the dark of the night, he crawled up the ladders of the cosmos, and snuck past the seraphim. He found her alone in her chambers, and he gazed upon beauty he was never meant to behold. She awoke from her slumber, and because she was innocent and good, she smiled upon the demon. He had never felt such unfettered love before; he did not know what to do with it. In his confusion and rage, he forced his evil inside of her, and fertilized the seed of man. He showed the Holy Mother pain. He showed her jealousy. He showed her hate. As he mounted her and thrust his organ, the Holy Mother did not cry out, or weep, or even whimper. She did not see the evil that was before her, but only the loneliness of the man. With infinite compassion, she accepted his violation. She wrapped her legs around his waist, beckoned his lips to hers, and moaned with pleasure. He could not understand it. He beat and brutalized her, but she did not cease her ecstatic exaltations, nor did she cease the sinuous motions of her womanly hips to stir his raping phallus. With her hands upon his shoulders, and her breasts upon his chest, she beckoned the demon to love her, and he did. For even the blackest of all evils could not dim the light of God. She took his seed, she took his power, and she took his hatred. She took his evil, and she pacified it with her good.

And so mankind was conceived from the seed of evil and the womb of good. And when their lovemaking was finished, the Unholy Father wept with shame. The Holy Mother took him into her arms, and embraced him lovingly. She told him that the pain he felt was good, for it meant he was healing. Only through pain can we heal.