The Creators Ch. 14

"I think you do." Tera lit a cigarette from a long holder, and eased herself back into the cushions. "Think beyond your own self-righteousness, Sister. If you are a holy messenger because Diamond corrupted you, then so am I. Otherwise, neither of us are."

"I am wreathed with the black mark of God! You just wear the flesh of a whore!"

"Do you think Diamond chose me for no reason at all then? Does the Holy Mother make mistakes, Sister Julia?"

Julia's glare softened. Her black eyes seemed to turn upon herself in reflection, and she took a deep breath, and nodded. "I have been proudful. You are right, Tera."

"Sister Tera."

"Sister Tera," Julia muttered, and glanced right at me. I pulled myself back into the darkness, but Julia didn't seem to have seen me. "You have placed a muting charm on this wagon?" she asked Tera.

"It's hanging above the door. No one can hear us."

Julia tentatively got onto one knee, then the other. "Will you hear my confession?"

"I'd love to," Tera grinned.

Julia shifted uncomfortably on the cushioned floor, her black-patterned cock waggling between her black-patterned thighs. She fussed with her masculine organ, then decided to just tuck it between her legs to keep her modesty. She folded her hands in her lap, and bowed her head. "I have terrible desires, Sister Tera," she whispered. "I know that the Holy Mother has blessed me with her purpose, and that purpose can sometimes require me to do brutal things, but there are times when I have... urges... and these urges compel me to do things that I know are against the Maternal Path."

Tera fished between her legs with her hooked hand, and began rubbing the metal point between her purple folds. "Speak them to me," she whispered.

Julia swallowed. "The virginal Breytans are the purest souls under my charge. They will be my priestesses, and with their holy wings, they will spread God's word to every corner of the world. They will remain chaste until their dying day—they must—and that chastity is so alluring to me, Sister Tera." Julia's cock was growing hard between her pressing thighs. "It is not that I just want to defile their purity; it is that I want to punish them for it. I know there is no holy justification for it, but it is my desire."

"How do you know it's not what God wants?"

"Because it is written," Julia hissed. "The Holy Mother's priestesses must be virginal. It is why I have renewed my vow of chastity with my holy rebirth." She gulped. "It was why I taped my womanhood closed before I came to this place. I... I did not come here with godly intentions."

"You are an imperfect vessel."

"I am."

Tera smiled as she penetrated herself with the hook. "Something I've noticed about you, Sister Julia, is that you quite enjoy anal stimulation; even more-so than vaginal."

Julia nodded shamefully. "It is abhorrent that I should garner such pleasure from such a filthy place. As you said, I am an imperfect vessel."

"Sodomy isn't a mortal sin."

"But it should still be punished."

"Is that why you asked me to bind and beat you?" Tera grinned. "You religious whores are all the same. Endlessly exploiting the poop-hole loophole, indulging in masochism, and always getting off on shame. I didn't cleanse the sin from you; I let you wallow in it."

Julia turned red all over. "You are right. I should never come here again! I should not seek to circumnavigate God's decree of purity!"

"Or maybe, you should see it as a sign," Tera said slyly. "Maybe God brought you a succubus for this very reason. Of all the sins in the world, lust is the most insidious. You need a seductress to properly police it, or it will run rampant in your followers."

Julia raised her gaze. "What are you saying?"

"Let me take the burden of carnal sin from your shoulders. Keep such filth out of your head, and focus only on the purity of your cause. If you spend all your time making sure your flock doesn't fuck, then you'll never shepherd them to the promised land."

Julia mulled it over for a while, then slowly nodded. "Yes... yes, that must be why you are here."

"Burn the blasphemers and the heretics; leave the sodomites and whores to me," Tera grinned. "I will cleanse them, and those who can't be cleansed, I will make certain they are thoroughly punished."

Julia smiled at Tera. It was the same small smile she'd always worn; quaint and polite, warm and welcoming, but with her eyes blackened and her flesh tattooed to the chin with obsidian patterns, that smile looked more wicked than Willowbud's most sardonic grin.

"Thank you, Sister, for your blessing," she said, and left the wagon. I scuttled from the crack in the wood, and watched as Jade fell in lockstep with Julia, her head swiveling, her hand on her sword. She stopped after about fifty paces, then turned and faced the encampment while Julia eased herself onto the sand, and surrounded herself with a dome of black flame. Jade seemed wholly unnecessary as a guard; there wasn't an animal alive that could get through that. I turned back to the inside of the wagon, and observed Justina's corrupted mother.

Tera was at her stove, humming to herself as she prepared something in a pot. She selected various powders and herbs from her belt, and measured them with a glass vial before adding them to the mixture. After removing the pot from the stove, she carefully decanted the liquid into a beaker, then dropped the beaker into an ice bath. She procured an opium pipe from the counter, and plucked the crystallized concoction from the ice bath to fill her pipe. After taking a deep inhale of the thick blue smoke, she turned right toward me, and blew it in my face. My legs locked, my mandibles froze, and my abdomen curled in on itself. Tera plucked me from the crack, and held me before her glimmering black eyes.

"A yellow-backed spider," she mused. "One bite causes instant paralysis, followed shortly by cardiac arrest. I've used your kind on a few jobs. Very effective. Very discrete. Perhaps you would've dealt the deadly blow if you actually were a yellow-back spider, but alas, you forgot to mask your scent, you stupid, unfortunate soul." She selected one of my legs between her thumb and finger. "Shape-shifters have such a unique odor. They always leave traces of the things they were before. How many yellow-backed spiders have come into contact with eagles, owls, dragons, lizards, and..." she sniffed me, "...horses? Ah, but that doesn't matter. I'm actually much more interested in how you came into contact with Bianca Blackwing; I'm even more interested in how you came into contact with my daughter; but I'm the most interested in how you came into contact with Brandon Sorensen."

I just stared at her with my compound eyes as her purple lips broadened into an evil grin.

"Now, who would have the balls to assassinate the Heat Bringer? I've roamed the circles of the world's greatest killers, and the only one who would even think to attempt it would be... well, me. But I seem to remember this one person... a resourceful girl who once held a knife to Willowbud's throat and lived to tell the tale; a brave soul who once rescued Julia from Corruption when everyone else wanted to run away. I was very curious how Diamond managed to get her body back. It was just left in the bottom of Brandon's tree with no one inside of it, stored away like clothes that would never be worn again. But you know what really gave you away?" Her eyes gleamed at me. "No matter what shape you take, there's no washing the distinct smell of Towerhead cow shit from you. Oh, Angela, Angela, Angela... you were supposed to race to the Pit and rescue Willowbud from Corruption, but I guess you took a detour to your brother's dick along the way. I approve. So he's alive then? That's interesting." She eased back into her chair. "That's very interesting...."

She idly played with my paralyzed mandibles, and chewed on her lip. "What in the world do I do with this information? If I tell Julia, she'll go to Ofan and kill and everyone there. Maybe that will give me some short-term brownie points, but it doesn't solve the problem that I'm one misstep away from the crazy bitch crucifying me above an open flame. I need options." She eyed me curiously, grabbed one of my legs, and ripped it to no avail. Tera chuckled to herself. "And Brandon made you indestructible, of course. You're probably immune to every poison, venom and disease known to man, which makes enslaving you rather difficult, and killing you even harder. Fortunately for me, Brandon didn't make you immune to drugs. Hmm... too many variables. The best plans have the fewest steps. Sometimes, the best plans have no steps at all. Roll the dice, and see where opportunity takes us."

She reached into her belt, selected a vial, and splashed a droplet of it upon my face. My arachnid limbs ballooned and transformed, and in less than a second, I was in my normal body, paralyzed and naked in Death Kiss's clutches. She eased me onto the cushions that decorated the floor, and ran her eyes hungrily over me.

"Well, aren't you a pretty little peach?" Tera whispered. "My god, Brandon did his work on you. You're a teenage boy's wet-dream come to life." She parted my legs, and smirked down at my nethers. "I see you've been busy. Congratulations. Let me just see..." she forked her fingers, and pushed two of each into my ass and pussy, "...ah, but still nice and snug, hmm? And so responsive; you're already getting so wet for me." Tera crawled atop me, and stared into my frozen eyes. "I feel like a yellow-backed spider preparing to feast on her paralyzed prey. What a fun little experience this is for both of us."

She pushed her fingers slowly in and out of me, my pussy lips gripping her knuckles on the way out, my anus popping with each extraction. She opened me and closed me, made me feel the full penetration of her fingers against my coalesced aperture and blushing slit, and then pushed inside once more, rubbing against my trembling walls, kneading my inner-flesh and igniting every nerve-swathed surface. I could do nothing but watch her, every part of my body frozen but my lungs as they sucked and pushed air with greater velocity to accommodate my racing heart. Tera lowered her mouth to my nethers, lassoed my clit with her serpentine tongue, and stretched it until her plush purple lips wrapped around it. Her black and violet eyes swam with amusement, reflecting my petrified face that could not emote the unbearable pleasure that coursed between my thighs. The feeling built and built, growing more intense until it was exploding inside me, and my paralysis only made my torment greater! As sensations washed through me, I could only lie there and endure them, unable to expel them with my thrusting hips, unable to dance in congruence with their waves. I soaked Tera's hand with my release, and she smiled with satisfaction, and licked me clean.

"What to do, what to do...." Tera sighed, finishing her salivary polish of my anus. "With opportunity there is always danger, and I don't see the profit in telling Julia what I now know. Not yet, anyway." She rested her chin on my pelvis, and smiled up at me. "She would roast you slowly, Angela. You'd be screaming for days as she turned you over a spit, and sung joyful hymnals to celebrate your cleansing. Do you understand what kind of evil you're dealing with here? It's the worst kind. It's the kind that thinks it's doing good. No, you're no use to me as a rotisserie, as fun as it might be to watch."

She contemplated me for a while, then sat up, turned off the muting charm above the door, and sifted through her belt. She procured another vial, and hovered it over my lips. "This will cure your paralysis," she said, "if you make a move on me, I'll scream, do you understand?" She waited as though anticipating a reply, then dipped the potion into my mouth. My limbs unlocked, my jaw opened, and my tense muscles became gelatinous. Tera opened the window beside her, and poised her mouth toward it. "In a desert of nothing but orcs and goblins, I can smell you from a mile away, Angela," she whispered. "You can't sneak up on me. If I catch your scent again, I'll tell Julia everything I know."

"You're letting me go?" I squeaked.

"I need a backup plan in case shit goes south," Tera peered out the window, and scanned the area. "You've given me several escape routes. Every good assassin needs an escape route." She smirked down at me. "I'm afraid you don't have much talent for this business. Leave it to the professionals. Now, get that sexy little ass out of here."

"Come with me!" I hissed.

"Why the fuck would I do that?" she sniffed the air, and sighed. "Ah... orcs. Their musk is so thick that I can smell them miles before I see them, their cocks are so big that they rival my arm, and their aggression is so great that they've been known to kill lesser women with just the impaling force of their thrusts. There are millions of them in the Gratoran Desert, and Julia is going to make sure they're all in one spot. There's just so much more fun to be had here. That sounds infinitely more interesting than babysitting your stupid brother in a treehouse." She kicked at me with her heel. "Now get the fuck out of here before I change my mind."

Postlude: Blowing the Embers

ARBITRUS GEN

I bolted through the astral plane as fast as my little legs could carry me. I splashed through the river, soaking myself in the cold water, sending violent ripples across the calm surface. In the distance, I could barely see the regal façade of my iron gate. I looked behind me, and there was nothing but black jungle. I didn't slow down. I sprinted through hundreds of yards of water, keeping my head down, focusing only on getting to my destination as fast as possible. What if she got there before me? I'd left my realm unattended like a goddamn fool! An untethered creature could just walk right in and... but no... no, she was a Sentient, a slave of an idea! She could do nothing to me outside of her wretched lair! Guilt was a liar.

I slowed down, and rested, catching my breath. As the still astral air chilled the water soaked into my cloth, I began to feel the irrational fear creep back into me. She was out there, and she was coming. All I could do was run. Run, run, run. My feet splashed in the water, sprinkling my dripping beard and misting my eyes. My distorted reflection raced below me, the flash of my terrified orange-backed eyes sometimes connecting between the turbulent ripples. I dared a glance up. I was only fifty feet away. I charged across the distance, every footfall seemingly taking an eternity, every splash of water sounding like a trumpet in the desolate void. She was coming for me. She must've been right behind me already! I dove for the gate, reached out, snatched the latch, and hurled myself through it.

I landed on soft grass. Birds chirped pleasantly, the wind whistled soothingly, the tall grass rustled excitedly. I looked up, and let out a great sigh. The realm of Purity was a vast mountaintop valley. Pleasant rolling hills tumbled upon each other, each one carrying some sumptuous crop already ripe for the picking. Castles were nestled into the hovels between colliding hills, and two immense mountain ranges flanked either side of the valley, enclosing it behind infinite walls of rock.

Corruption sat down beside me, crossing her legs and pondering the view. I was too exhausted to scream, and too terrified to move. She leaned back, and let the wind blow through her black hair. Her blazing white eyes scanned the great coalescence of hillsides, and she smiled without looking at me.

"This place is beautiful, Arbitrus," she said, her voice soft and drawling, infinitely seductive, infinitely terrifying. I looked upon the patterns that wreathed her body. They were very familiar to me—I had put them on John so many hundreds of years ago.

"What are you?" I whispered.

She shrugged. "It doesn't really matter."

"Why did Guilt call you the architect?"

"Who is Guilt?"

"She was you."

"Ah, the shell of my memory endures, I see. Yes, I suppose she would call herself the architect, but I don't build things, Arbitrus."

"Why are you here?"

"I am here to speak to another god," Corruption set her eyes upon me, and a chill ran through my body. "There's an idea I have running through my head," she rolled her finger next to her temple. "Binding works by knotting two souls who have a great affinity for each other. Tethering works by knotting one soul to an idea it has a great affinity for. You purified with fire, and so Furok could tether you to the sun. You were sent here to kill Wrath, correct?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't it work?"

"The tether stripped my powers."

"I see. That is a problem." She scratched at her chin. "I can liberate the minds of tethered ones and untethered ones, but I cannot do so to Sentients. I will have to kill these damnable abstractions somehow, but I can't take Julia with me."

"I can't help you!" I said quickly. "I'm no use to you at all! I can barely light my own pipe!"

Corruption ignored me. "I wonder what Petranumen would've done?" she pondered.

"There is no such thing as Petranumen!" I croaked out. "There never was!"

She smiled broadly. "Ah, you know more than you let on. Where did you learn these forbidden histories?" She touched the crescent symbol that rested on my chest. "And how can you still be so naïve when you know so much?"

"I won't die a blasphemer!" I squeaked.

Her smile grew wider. "I'm not here to kill you, Purity. I'm here to conquer death." She looked up at the astral suns, and narrowed her black and white eyes. "But death would never need conquering if life itself didn't hold so many mysteries. Even when I sifted through the vast wreckage of Wisdom's realm, I could find no answers to the question of the spiritual plane."

"You won't find them with me!"

"I'm just thinking out loud. That's what we astral projections do here, in this, the plane of thought," Corruption chuckled. "What is life, hmm? The flesh feels it, the mind thinks it, but the soul is it. The power a Creator uses comes from the plane beyond this one, but what are Creators really? Just a random occurrence of the universe's clockwork? No, no, no. I have a theory, and I think it is quite brilliant. Would you like to hear it?"

I just stared at her, wondering through my dumb terror what awaited me at the end of this soliloquy.

She leaned in, and whispered, "When the planes were one, the Elementals lived for epochs. When the planes split, the dead departed to the spiritual plane, and Vitanimus seeded the growth of society. The population exploded. Heaven was created for a millennium, and it housed the souls of the dead before the blood corona sliver. Then in the blink of an eye—in this timescale, anyhow—the Creators came. Why? Well, I'll tell you what I think. Energy is finite. The spiritual realm has an occupancy limit. When it overflows, it ejects a few souls back to earth, and opens the taps to let them drain away the excess. That's why this batch of Creators came only two-thousand years after your generation; because you and Droktin—the overachievers that you were—killed more people than have lived and died since, and so the spiritual plane was filled to capacity. A few thousand years go by, the dead trickle in, and then the Creators are shot back into existence earlier than ever." Corruption relaxed onto the grass with a satisfied smile. "Yes, I think that explains it quite well. When I conquer death, it will mean the end of Creators for all time. What do you think about that?"

I sat and watched her, waiting for some indication of what was to come. She didn't really care about my answer, or lack thereof. She just stared out at my vast realm, and pondered it.