The Creators Ch. 16

"I am sorry, Honor," I muttered, "but there is no place for you in heaven."

I sent a single pulse of flame through the abyss. It washed over the obsidian pillars, burst through the vacant corridors, and blasted from the entrance so far above. The great architecture of Droktinar was revealed to me in the form of glowing red rock that stretched the entire breadth and height of the atrium, illuminating the immense void above me, the spiraling staircases now iridescent red, the balconies and ballrooms all luminous with heat. The behemoth outline of Honor was shown in all her wondrous size, her legs spanning from the top of the atrium to the very bottom. The black outline crumbled and flaked away, then dissolved into ash that floated upward with my convective winds. The radiant heat glowed from the obsidian for a moment longer, then dimmed slowly until the shadows consumed the last features of the magnificent hall. Only blackness remained. Only blackness, and the iron door at the end of the hall, embedded into the last depths of Droktinar's belly, wreathed in garish reds that painted the shining floor with its warning hue. I walked toward it. My footsteps plodded upon the smooth obsidian until the red luminance cast an aura about me, penetrating even the black fire that wisped from my flesh. I reached out and touched the iron handle. My hand passed through it.

"This is astral," I said to myself.

I closed my eyes and hovered my hand over the handle. Grab, I thought, and felt cold iron wrapped in my fist. I opened my eyes. I had two right hands. One hovered before the door, the other grabbed it. My astral hand was devoid of the flame that wreathed my physical one, and when I tried to think "fire," nothing happened. I would be without my gifts in there. I glanced down at my astral hand. The markings of Diamond still painted my astral flesh, assuring me that God would protect me in this place. I pulled with my astral body, and the iron door screeched open.

Interlude Three: A Helping Hand

CORRUPTION

Wrath and I stared at the horizon. Beyond the jagged peaks that marked the boundary of his realm, there was an immense column of black smoke. A second ago, the astral plane seemed to have been sucked into an infernal void. The horizon had blackened, the sun had dimmed, and a great wind had rushed through the world, toppling fortresses and sending stone men flying like autumn leaves. Wrath and I had been slammed against the wall of the arena as the front half of the risers was torn away like paper, and the audience was catapulted into the heavens. The infernal patterns on my body had illuminated, cutting through the maelstrom of dust and debris that was kicked up by the shockwave. I thought the hell would never end, but then it was over, and Wrath's realm righted itself like nothing had happened.

"Honor!" I gasped.

"The Destroyer," Wrath clapped his hands. "What a beautiful thing that was! Never in all my years have I seen such a display of POWER!" He laughed jovially for a moment, then the drum sounded, and he snapped toward the east. A grin slowly crept across his face. "Holy Mother," he said, "we have a guest."

I launched myself upon him. With my stone in hand, I stabbed through his back, through his spine, and through his heart, but to no effect. Wrath wasn't interested in me any longer, and the wounds I dealt him meant nothing at all. He walked toward the east even as I slashed his heel tendons, cut through his bone, and rendered him an amputee. He continued without so much as a grunt, walking upon air with his stumps until the illusion of his legs came back into being. There was no body to wound.

"Stop!" I screamed. "She belongs to ME!"

Wrath looked back at me with a bemused grin. "You've already claimed your mortal, Holy Mother."

"She is soul-bound to me!"

"I'm not interested in her heart."

"Do you know what she will do if you meld with her?!" I screamed. "I have tasted her mind, and have seen the mania of her rage! If you take her, she will not leave you another soul to claim!"

Wrath laughed boisterously. "Excellent! Then I shall finally have the warrior to end all war!"

"You can't—"

"Why can't I?!" Wrath roared, reeling on me. "Who are you to tell me that I cannot meld, and know life once more?!" He thrust a finger down at me. "You, who knows how to feel? You, who knows how to love and hate? I can only touch the surface of life, scratch, and claw like some rat through the trash, searching for scraps that I once tossed away with such nonchalance! Do you think I am ignorant of what I am?!" He kicked me away like I was nothing. "What can I do, but move toward life like a moth to flame? I am devoid of desire, a slave to compulsion, a prisoner of an idea that I must endure in perpetuity! You speak to me as if I have a choice! HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHAT YOU CREATED?! Wrath turned away. "I free you from this place, Holy Mother. Go back to the Untethered One, and whittle away your precious life with whatever purpose suits you."

He took one step forward and was gone with the boom of a drum. I scrambled to the top of a hill and scaled the walls of a fortress until I was atop the ramparts. Even from such a height, I could not discern the detail of the distant jagged mountains, but I could still hear the drum boom like thunder across the sterile landscape.

"The Destroyer!" Wrath's voice sounded from hundreds of miles away. "Welcome to my home! I have—"

Darkness. Heat. Someone was screaming. It sounded like an animal. Energy rushed past me, moving with the force of suns, disintegrating the very fabric of the plane beneath my feet. The soldiers melted like wax candles. The fortresses collapsed like they were made of snow. The soil turned to dust, and the hills were flattened. I was falling. Down, down, down I went, plummeting into an infernal hole, my hair floating in the void where air once was.

I was standing on a black plane. There was nothing above me, nor below me. There was no astral sun, nor was there the barren wasteland of Wrath. There was simply... nothing. Just me. Just me, and an open doorway. Julia Gendian stood on the other side of that doorway and stared at me. The symbols on my flesh were more radiant than they'd ever been, and they luminated the darkness, painting the Heat Bringer in monochromatic whites, contrasting the depthless patterns that touched her pallid skin. We stared at each other from across planes of existence.

"Corruption," she whispered and dropped to her knees.

I just stared at her, my mouth void of moisture, my heart beating high in my throat.

Julia touched her head to the floor of Droktinar and began to pray. "Praise be to God, for letting me bear witness to her embodied word," she whispered. She raised her head and looked at me. "Why do you carry my patterns?"

"Because we are bound," I said back.

"I am bound to a Sentient?" she whispered and looked at her flesh. "I thought it was just Diamond's meld that gave my patterns their hue. I thought God had left her unmarked, but I am not even bound to her? How am I..." She narrowed her eyes at me. "Forgive me, Corruption, but how can a soulless thing bind?"

"I am not soulless," I whispered back.

"If you are not the word of god, then..." she slowly raised herself to a kneeling position. I could practically hear the iron box in Diamond's realm creaking open. "...then..." Julia pondered, and her eyes lit up, "...then you are a seraph."

"Yes," I said, trying to emote as little relief as possible.

Julia's face broke into a radiant beam. "I am soul-bound to an angel?"

"To God's messenger, my love."

A black tear ran down her cheek. "Has a woman ever been so blessed as I?"

"Not blessed; chosen," I said and stepped toward her. "Chosen by the Holy Mother herself to carry out her purpose."

"To build her holy kingdom on earth! I have worked so hard! I have done so much! I have proven—"

"No," I whispered. "That is not your purpose."

"What?!" she hissed. "How?! I have done everything in my power to—"

"Shh, my love."

I stopped just outside of the threshold, reached through the planes of existence, and touched her cheek. The euphoria opened upon her face when my astral flesh met hers; her pupils dilated, her eyes streamed, her mouth fell agape with orgasmic pleasure. I brought her receptive ear to my lips and spilled my prophecy.

"You are not a Creator, Julia Gendian. You are the Destroyer. God did not put such power in your hands to build."

"What does she want of me, seraph?!" she whined, struggling to maintain her prostration as ecstasy coursed through her.

"This world must be renewed," I whispered. "Raze every city, flatten every temple, and burn every written word. Leave nothing of the old world but ash, and Diamond will breathe my blessing into those chosen few who are left."

"But—"

"Are you questioning God's will?" I hissed.

"No!" she whined back.

"Will you do her bidding?"

"Yes! Always!"

I released her, and she fell gasping forward, her hands breaching the threshold between planes and reaching for me.

"Don't leave me!" she cried and looked up at me through a tangle of red hair. "Do not go back to my daughter! She is unworthy! She is a nonbeliever! I have always been the Holy Mother's most faithful servant! Meld with me!" She blubbered up at me with worshipful eyes. "We are already bound in love! Make us whole!"

I frowned down at her, and she quailed like I'd struck her.

"Forgive my blasphemous jealousy, seraph," she whimpered. "I know that I am unworthy of your vision."

"You are forgiven." I stepped back from her and wrapped my hand around Wrath's iron door. I waited until she raised her trembling gaze to mine, then I pointed to her patterns on my black flesh. "Remember that your daughter may have received my vision, but not my heart. I fell in love with your pain, Julia. I saw that it was holy."

"I understand," she hissed, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

I looked around the plane outside of the door. "Why did you kill Wrath?"

"Because he terrified me."

"As he should. He was a hell-spawn made from the satanic Life Giver. All creatures who make domiciles of this plane are servants of the devil, and must be touched by God's black truth, or sent back to where they came. Do you know where Fedar's Gate is?"

"No."

"Once you pass through Droktin's Pass, follow the Gratoran Wall south until you reach the old mines. There is another demon, a far more dangerous one that lives beyond that portal. I will need your help to kill her."

"Why wait? I will go with you now to kill this interloper!"

"No," I said, holding my hand out to stop her. "There is no realm on the other side of this door. This plane is not meant for mortals; it is a raging sea with only a few islands, and those islands are owned by the devil."

Julia blinked up at me. "You mean Vitanimus?"

I heard the hinges of the box creaking open once more. "There is no one named Vitanimus, Julia. That is a lie," I said and shut the door. There was no realm now; only the endless jungle and immense sky of stars. I dropped to my knees, pushed my hands into the familiar soil, and let out a long, shuddering breath.

Part Four: Party Time

DIAMOND

I blinked awake. The night sky blanketed the world overhead, the darkness broken by millions upon millions of stars that formed an immense belt across the sky. I'd never seen the desert sky before. Looking up at the sky from the Drastinar countryside had been akin to looking up at an enormous domed ceiling, for the humidity made it nearly impossible to see anything but the brightest of dots, but looking up at the sky from the desert floor was akin to looking through a window. That was, until Tera's stupid face got in the way of it.

"Oh, thank god!" she cried, threw her hands up to the sky, and called to the heavens, "you really are real, aren't you?"

"The Water Dancer has returned!" someone yelled.

"Praise be to the Holy Mother!"

"Praise be!" someone else shouted.

I groaned and climbed to my feet. Gosh, I was tired. I might've been out cold for the whole day, but I'd been getting my mental butt kicked by Xaya for the duration. I was in no mood for people, but I knew I would be later, so I rubbed my eyes and assessed the world around me. My immediate surroundings were filled with white-robed Breytans, and there were quite a bit less of them than there had been when I left Drastin. None of them seemed all that happy to see me. Beyond the immediate ring of valkyries, were thousands—no, millions of orcs stretching across the desert dunes, their fires twinkling to the horizon. They were becoming louder by the second as news of my awakening traveled backward, and their excitement began to shake the very ground beneath me.

"Holy smokes, Mom's been busy," I muttered, then raised my voice. "Hi everyone! I'm Diamond the Water Dancer!"

An unintelligible roar swelled from them, filling the desert with the voices of millions. The only time I'd ever heard a sound comparable to it was when I was out at sea in the midst of a hurricane. How the heck was I going to get any sleep tonight?!

"Shut up!" I yelled, and row after row went silent until the last echo faded. "OK people, I've got two rules! First rule: nobody interrupts my nap time! Second rule: I want tiramisu at hand at all times. Who has any tiramisu?"

A few desert frogs croaked.

I rubbed my brow. "Tera, find a chef for me."

"You got it, boss," she said cheerily and strolled into the crowd.

I turned to Aiko. "Aiko, if Tera tries to run away, cut her legs off."

Tera paused at the perimeter, clenched her fists, then stomped into the crowd with a growl.

"Hey," I said, turning to a gawking male orc, "what's that thing everyone's got between their eyes."

"It is the crescent symbol of the Holy Mother, Sister Diamond," the orc said.

"Hmm..." I frowned, pulled the scant amount of moisture from the air around me, and sent an arrow of water through the man's eye. He collapsed, and so did a few hundred people directly behind him. I overshot a little.

"Ok, new rule everybody!" I yelled. "If anyone calls me 'Sister Diamond,' I am going to kill them and everyone behind them. My name is 'Water Dancer,' OK? It's a really cool name that I thought up all by myself. Also, the Holy Mother is a made-up bedtime story old people tell themselves before they die. Dead is dead, there is no afterlife, everything just goes black, and then you're gone. The end." And with that, I hopped from the wagon and marched over to the Breytans. "Rika, Micah, and Hina," I called three of them. "Make me a featherbed with your wings. Oh, and pull your boobies out so that I have something to play with."

ASTRID

I fished through my pouch until I found it: my second-most precious possession. My cigarettes. It seemed that nearly dying, losing my mind, and becoming a different species hadn't erased the bad habit I'd formed in the Screeching Siren. Perhaps I would've kicked the addiction if Gloria wasn't there to constantly enable it. She carried a sack large enough to fit an elk carcass in, and as far as I could tell, it was filled with nothing but wine and tobacco. I flicked the flint lighter with a little too much urgency, then let out a deep sigh of relief as I filled the air around me with smoke.

"I know that feeling," Willowbud chuckled behind me.

"Shit!" I yelped and punched out my smoke against the bark.

"You think I didn't taste it on you every time we kissed?" she laughed and leaned against the tree with me. "I don't care if you smoke."

"If you quit, then I should quit too."

"I only quit because Corruption was the reason I smoked in the first place. You don't have to quit for my sake."

"It is a disgusting habit."

"Eh, it depends on who's doing it. A ninety-year-old grandma hacking up a lung? Yeah, that's gross, but a sexy vampire-valkyrie lighting up? Hot as hell."

"I one day plan to be that ninety-year-old woman, and I do not want to be hacking up a lung."

Willowbud laughed. "You think we're living past next week?"

"I always enjoy your optimism."

"I'm starting to tire of your sarcasm."

"I quite like it," I grinned at her. "It's such a fun form of lying."

A sound came from the west. It was a sound I once coveted, but now it sent a chill up my spine. Millions of voices had risen from the Gratoran Desert in a great roar, then settled into silence.

"That doesn't sound good," Willowbud muttered.

"Nope," I said, fished into my pouch, and pulled out another cigarette.

"What happened to 'I don't want to be hacking up a lung when I'm ninety?'"

"Yeah, but you said it looks sexy now," I said with a square between my teeth, "and besides, we're not living past next week, so what's it matter?"

"Well, when you put it that way..." Willowbud said and reached up for one.

"Remember that whole speech Gloria gave you about convincing versus conviction?" I sneered, wagging the cigarette just out of her reach. "I think you failed that test just now."

"Eat my ass," she growled and snatched the square from my thumb and forefinger. "I just need an excuse to get out of that room anyway."

I glanced back into the tree. The scene of solemn strategy had given way to revelry. Bianca and her Ofanian captains stalked the party in lascivious golden garb that highlighted everything and concealed nothing, Angela wore a dress with a scandalous neckline that reached her pelvis, Justina wore a pair of thigh-high socks and a skirt that didn't come close to covering her ass, Gloria wore an elegant gown that had the back cut out all the way past her perfect pale buttocks, and Brandon had on a bathrobe which didn't quite cover is saggy balls. It reminded me of many of the nights spent in the Screeching Siren, and I felt a pang of nostalgia for those terrifying days.

"It's gonna be an orgy real soon," Willowbud chuckled.

"Then we shouldn't delay," I smiled at her.

She just shook her head and smiled ruefully back. "You should go in. I'd just ruin the atmosphere."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Everyone in there loves you. Half the people in there want to kill me."

"That never stopped you from a good party before..." I sighed and rested my head against the bark. "I'm sorry, Willowbud, I didn't mean it."

"Yeah, you did," she replied, lighting the smoke between her lips. "It's OK, I get it. Night Eyes was just more fun than I am." She pulled the cigarette from her lips and coughed. "Fuck. No reason to start now if I'm not even going to live long enough to enjoy it." Stamping the cigarette out on the ground, she sulked away from me with her hands in her pockets. "Go have some fun. Don't worry about me."

I rolled my eyes. "For someone immune to guilt only a month ago, you sure are laying it on thick now."

She turned around and shrugged with a smile. "Brandon tried to hold my hand today, and I had a panic attack. A little birdie told me that you sucked off the High Guard of Ofan in front of everyone just to prove a point. Don't let me limit you. You'll just resent me if you do."

"You made me this way, Willowbud."

"Should I apologize?"

"I've got half a mind to drag your whiny ass in there."

Willowbud let out a long sigh and glanced at the tree behind us, the windows aglow with warm light, jubilant shadows, and laughter emanating from within. "I would rather face down Julia right now than walk into that room," she said.

"Then that's why you need to do it."

"Why, Astrid?" she asked me. "What's in there for me?"

"The closest thing to family either of us has left."

"Yeah, well neither of us have a great track record with family, do we?"