The Creators Ch. 17

"What good will that do you?"

"It'll keep me awake," I muttered, and shaped another rock. "I can't go to sleep, Astrid; my head's a terrible place for me to be right now."

She was silent for a moment. "You haven't had terrors for weeks."

"Well, let's just say she's on my mind right now," I said, and hurled another rock. It went wide by fifty feet, and exploded against a shale formation. I collected another stone from the shoreline, shaped it, and planted my foot. The sonic image of the surrounding miles filled my subconscious through my heel, and I saw a lone woman walking toward us.

"Shit," I growled, and turned to Astrid. "Angela's coming. Make her go away."

ANGELA

After tossing and turning for a few restless hours, I'd finally determined that sleep wasn't going to happen. Brandon had done his best to wear me out—using both genders, a few different species, and a creative implementation of octopus tentacles—but even deific-level sex couldn't silence my cluttered mind. I suspected I wasn't the only one, so I journeyed out into the Ofanian rainforest to find sympathy with other restless souls.

I walked between the tall trees, and located Justina's baobab. When I got within fifty paces, I could hear the soft moans of pleasure emanating from the canopy. She was nesting with Deja, and I doubted I'd be welcome. I walked over to Bianca's tree, and heard similar soft sounds coming from the high branches. She and her daughter were enjoying their last peaceful night, and I would not disturb them. I walked past the Ionan encampment, where the thousands of valkyries nested in the treetops, folded in their white wings. I walked along the river until I reached the edge of the caldera lake. There, a dark figure stood in my path, her blue eyes split with reptilian pupils, her patterns thrumming from her pallid flesh.

"Can't sleep either?" I asked Astrid.

"I don't need to sleep anymore," she replied. "Sometimes I'll pretend to for Willowbud's sake."

"Sometimes I'll pretend to when Brandon's asking for anal," I snickered.

"I suspect you don't pretend for too long," Astrid snickered back.

"Oh, I make him work for it. Just because I want it, doesn't mean he's getting it for free."

"And then you bend him over and fuck him in the ass."

I burst out laughing. "Exactly!"

"You're a trouble-child, Angela Sorensen," she said, and stepped into the moonlight. "Why are you coming this way?"

"I'm just wandering. Is Willowbud awake?"

"She is." Astrid cornered her eyes to the left. "She's watching us right now, and telepathically asking me to make you go away. You make her very uncomfortable."

"I don't mean to."

Astrid snorted. "Please, Angela."

I smiled humorlessly back. "How would you feel if I stole Willowbud from you, and had her fuck me in front of you while you sat in the corner and watched?"

"Honestly, I'd probably get off to it."

"Not if you knew I was in love with her."

Astrid's smile faded, and she nodded. "That would not please me, no."

"So there doesn't really need to be anything else said."

Astrid turned over her shoulder, and stared at the tree-line. Her eyes emoted the silent conversation she was having, and by her expression, it wasn't a pleasant one. Finally, she turned back to me.

"I think, Angela, that there are still some things that need to be said. Come with me. Now."

I almost objected, but the absolution in Astrid's expression was hard to deny, and honestly, she scared me when she was like this. She offered me her hand, I closed my fingers with hers, and we walked into the darkness of the trees. Willowbud was standing by the lake, skipping stones across the water. I suspected she wanted to appear as though she'd been doing it for some time, but I hadn't heard any splashes. She shaped a rock into a thin disk, then launched it across the calm water, sending it skipping dozens of times before it clattered upon the far shore. When she reached for another stone, she acted as though she just realized we were there.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," I replied.

"Can't sleep?"

"Nope. You?"

"Nope," she said, shuffling in place. "How's... never mind."

"How's Brandon? Oh, he's fine. Sleeping like a baby without a care in the world. He thinks we're going to—and I quote—'kick so much ass that we'll be cleaning shit out of our toenails.' I guess ignorance really is bliss."

"Optimism isn't the same as stupidity."

"You and I know better."

Willowbud shaped another rock into a disk, and inspected it. "Astrid thinks that you and I will like each other if we have sex."

"Astrid's clearly never heard of hate-fucking."

"Oh, I'm well-versed in it," Astrid replied, stepping between us. "Willowbud is being obtuse; I didn't ask her to have sex with you. I asked her to talk to you. This needs to happen before the sun rises tomorrow, and it's too late."

I looked at the nymph behind Astrid's shoulder. "I'd rather just fuck her."

"I'd rather be literally anywhere else in the world at this moment, but here we are," Willowbud said. "So, let's talk."

"Fine then," I said, and stepped past Astrid toward Willowbud. When she became visually uncomfortable with our proximity, I stopped. "Well, what do you have to say?"

She tried to hide her anxiety with a cough. "When I first saw you through Corruption's eyes, I knew you were in love with your brother long before he did; maybe before even you did. That's why I did everything I could to keep you from him. That's why you hate me, and I'm sorry."

"Cool," I said. "So when this is all over, you can find literally anywhere else in the world to be. Stay away from Brandon, and you and I will never have to have this conversation again."

"Angela..." Astrid growled behind us.

I ignored her, and continued looking at Willowbud. "I'd say that's fair."

Willowbud nodded slowly. "I'd say so too."

"Great," I smiled coldly, and turned around.

Astrid grabbed me by the arm. "Division is a greater foe than the enemy," she hissed.

"Don't mistake unity with harmony," I hissed back.

"You will regret walking away from this."

I smiled balefully at her. "What did you expect, Astrid?" I pulled my arm away, and walked into the darkness of the trees.

I walked past Deja and Justina's nest, then past Bianca and Arya's. The night still felt so young, but it was somehow over. I paced around Ofan, trying to find some distraction, some penultimate catharsis before I had to face tomorrow.

"I do so love to see stupid country girls walking alone at night," a husky voice said from the darkness, a pair of blazing red eyes staring at me. Gloria emerged from the shadows, naked and splattered in the blood of some fresh kill. "Sometimes, I like to read the local papers the next day just to have a little giggle knowing they're skewered alive by meat-hooks in my basement."

I shrugged my shoulders in a display of vulnerability. "Can you help me, Miss? I'm lost."

Gloria chuckled, and sauntered over to me. "The allure is gone now that I know how you taste," she took me by the chin, and elevated me to gaze at my throat. "You never were innocent. You haven't been innocent since the day you died. You're a huntress, and like me, you're searching the night for something to squeak when you bite it."

"Maybe you can help me find it," I whispered.

Her smoky eyes twinkled back. "Vampires hunt alone; we're not too keen on sharing." She turned her gaze to the wildlands that surrounded the tropical peak. "I spent far too long in Drastin whittling away my days playing a gangster. Civilization is domestication for a predator. I lost myself in those stone streets and alleys; I'll look to find myself once more in the heat of the jungle." She smiled at the moon. "We build a shell around ourselves the longer we stay in a cage. We build it until it becomes the cage, and we self-identify with it. When you run through trees and crawl through mud, you wear away the calcified shield. When you smell blood and bite through flesh, you scrape away the last of the veneer. When you don't even know your own name, Angela, that is when you know who you truly are."

"What are you talking about?"

She giggled almost girlishly. "You will never understand, for you are no true vampire. You are no one without your brother, which is why you are so lost now. Go back to him, and find yourself before tomorrow."

In a flash, she disappeared into the night. I frowned, and shivered a little, though it was still quite balmy out. I looked over my shoulder to the baobab where Brandon slept, and walked to it.

Interlude Three: Serenity

CORRUPTION

I stepped through Diamond's gate without looking back. I heard her shriek of rage, then I heard it be silenced by Xaya. Rocks floated from the vined floor of the jungle, pulling the roots and tendrils of the foliage up with it, upending the soil that had become so thick. I walked up the steps, and the forest floor rose with me. It became a hill beneath my stepping stones, rising from its previous position like a wave that crested at my pace. It followed me all the way up to the dimmest star, and to the gates of Serenity.

Angela's realm was by far the most modest—even more modest than Modesty's, who was ironically quite arrogant of her own humility. The realm of Serenity was only bordered by a short flagstone wall, and the gate was a charming wooden slab of picket on a well-oiled hinge. I opened it, and was presented with a scenery of pastoral simplicity. Quaint rolling hills, welcoming oak trees, a babbling stream twinkling in the yellow astral sun, disturbed only by the gentle creak of a mill's wheel that sat beside a darling cottage. I pushed my foot into the soil, and in an instant, everything was consumed with my jungle. The cottage was eaten from the inside out by a snarling tree, the stream was turned into a raging river, the hillsides and fields were ravaged with violent displays of flora and fauna. But I could not take this mind, not when the host was gone. Just as my great jungle did nothing to mankind's cognizance, this reimagining of Angela's realm was but a cosmetic change. Still, it did help me understand it better. It let me see her darkness, and Angela Sorensen was far from pure.

I sat on the soil, and observed the memories around me. I sat for a very long time. Some of the revelations concerned me, some of them horrified me, but as I got closer and closer to the present, the fear slowly began to fade. My darkness touched many of Angela's memories, and the memories of one person were so blackened that they appeared to be burnt right out of the landscape. I touched the face of one memory, and a smile slowly broached my scarred lips. Indeed, unity and harmony are not the same thing, Angela.

Part Four: Trinity Uplift

DIAMOND

Just as the dawn crested the Gratoran Wall, I floated to the top of the Trinity Uplift, and marveled at my work. Corruption had spread like a plague to her willing hosts, and had turned the already-disorderly ranks of orcs into chaos. The beauty of the epidemic was that there were no victims. Oh, several thousand people were already dead, and many more were maimed or outright destroyed, but even those unfortunates who were being pounded into the sand, raped, or even tortured for amusement—all of them wore the same manic smile on their faces. One woman had donned her husband's head as a hat as she straddled two thrusting bulls. An old man was furiously stroking is uncooperative flaccid cock as he circumnavigated the chaos from a safe distance. I even saw a toddler wobbling around without any coordination just to stab people in the foot with a knife he'd found. The Breytans had tried to quell the madness, but they were too few. One by one, the white-robed warriors were consumed by the raging ocean, and one by one, they rose from the ranks with blackened eyes and terrible grins. These delightful little stories played out by the thousands for as far as the eye could see, and in the distance, I could see the chaos spreading like a wave, churning the black sea of bodies into a maelstrom. A few hundred feet below me, Jade Tao watched it all, her posture emoting nothing as she stood guard over a cart laden with black katanas.

Mom stood beside me atop the outcropping, and stared at the biblical end times with wide black eyes.

"Isn't it beautiful?" I grinned.

She blinked. "I... I am conflicted."

"This is what your seraph wanted. This is what God wanted. Didn't you say you were the rapture?"

"This isn't what she meant," Mom shook her head. "This can't be."

"What did you think the end of the world would look like?"

"This is not the end!" Mom snapped. "It is the rebirth!"

"Birth is a nasty, nasty business. Don't you remember mine?"

Mom glared at me, then turned her hands to black jets of fire, and hovered over the outcropping. "I am putting a stop to this."

"Doesn't that make you a blasphemer?"

"Do not speak to me of blasphemy!" she snarled. "You, who besmirches God's name at will! You, who denies her very existence!"

I shrugged. "I don't make the rules, Mom; I just play the game. You told me that Corruption wanted me to gift her chosen few."

"Her chosen few!" Mom hissed. "HER CHOSEN FEW! Look at what you have done by giving the unwashed masses the holy enlightenment! They have gone mad! They were not meant to bear it!"

A grin formed across my lips. "Oh... I see what this is about." I drew my gaze across the dunes of bodies, then back to my mother. "Your holy seraph sure gets around, doesn't she?"

Mom burst into flame with such force that it melted the rock beneath my feet, but the heat only tickled me. I walked into her infernal radius, my sardonic grin shining in the roaring black.

"You thought you were special to her?" I giggled. "She would've bound to anyone, but you destroyed a whole city of candidates just to even your chances."

"You know nothing of her!"

I laughed harder. "She lives in my head, MOM!"

"YOU ARE NOT WORTHY TO BEAR HER!"

"But she's mine! She's all mine!" I cackled. "I am the messenger! I am the interpreter of the divine!"

"YOU ARE NOT THE INTERPRETER!" Mom roared, then hissed, "You are but the vessel!. An empty chalice fit to hold water! A slave fit to carry a weight!"

I stepped over the side of the outcropping, holding myself with the great tonnage of water that flitted in the dry desert air. "I am the word of God," I whispered to her. "You've spent your whole life listening for a voice that would never speak to you, but she speaks to me, Mother, and now she speaks through me, and you are not listening."

"You're the devil."

"Maybe I am," I grinned. "Maybe you are. It's so hard to tell what is righteous and what is evil when the two are the same."

Mom thrusted her hand before me. "Do you see those markings, Diamond? They are the script of God herself! She has marked me and bound me to her seraph, and no lies you speak will ever dissuade me from the truth I know! I am her chosen one! I am her deliverer!"

I took her hand in mine, and ran my fingers down the markings on her wrist. "This love you feel will fracture at my whisper."

"You know nothing of love!" she snarled. "Not from anyone! Not from me! I killed the only woman who ever felt a thing for you!"

I just smiled, and stepped away from her. "Sister Tera," I called over my shoulder, "come over here."

TERA

I pulled the pin from the grenade, and cooked it in my hand. With my fingers gripping the handle, I stayed the volatile chemical reaction that would turn me into a splatter. I took a steeling breath, knowing for certain that it was one of my last, and I stepped from my cover.

Why the fuck did I come here? I thought to myself as I made each tortuous step toward the pair of gods. In what universe did I think walking into this situation gave me a better chance than making my escape and risking crossing blades with valkyries? Sweet god above, what an idiot I am!

Both deities had their gazes trained on me, but I only had eyes for one. I stared Julia down my whole journey, displaying my innocence with my posture. She didn't quell her aura of flame as I approached, but held it steadily, watching every step I took until I could feel her heat on my flesh. Her gaze was like a laser, scrutinizing me, distrusting me even after everything I'd told her.

"Remember what we talked about," I said carefully as I plodded ever forward.

"A snake doesn't change her nature," Julia replied coldly.

"I told you this would happen."

"But you never told me why you had to be here."

"I don't know what Diamond wants from me."

Diamond didn't respond, but turned to her mother instead. "Lower your flame, or your director of sin will burn."

Julia just narrowed her eyes at me.

I held my arms out to my sides. "I have been with you since the beginning. You must see that I am one of the chosen few."

"My daughter has chosen many."

"Your daughter has chosen poorly," I said carefully, not daring to look at Diamond. "You are bound to God's angel—she is just the carrier of her word. She is the misguided voice, but you are the beating heart."

"You are a treacherous whore who spills lies like spittle."

I bowed my head. "I am what I am, but I have always been loyal to you. There is only one liar here." Now I dared a glance at Diamond, who was watching me with an amused smile. "The seraph has chosen the wrong vessel before."

Diamond giggled. "Oh, you are a tenacious one."

I looked back at Julia. "The seraph has searched for her vessel since before they counted time. They call her the 'most ancient one.' Only God is perfect. Even angels make mistakes."

Now Diamond's smile was fading. "Get over here."

"Look at the patterns on your flesh!" I growled to Julia. "Corruption has taken countless minds, but has she ever left her mark upon them? No! The seraph chose you, but an interloper keeps her away. A blasphemer holds her hostage." I lowered my voice. "Or maybe it's worse than that."

Diamond's smile was gone.

I got on my knees before Sister Julia. "Who was the demon that held you hostage in the womb of Arbortus? Did she not defile you, deform you, rape you? No, no, no, she did far worse than just that. She stole your heart. She seduced you from God's very light! Who else could Passion have been but a servant of Satan set on your path to lead you from your destiny? Is that not what the devil does? But you were stronger than she was! And when you slew her with God's light, what rose from the ashes?" I looked at Diamond. "A far more insidious demon. A hell-spawn of your own flesh."

"I would stop now if I were you," Diamond growled at me.

"Let her speak," Julia said softly. The hot rage on her face was gone, as was the fire upon her flesh. She dropped to the outcropping, and stepped between me and Diamond. I groveled at her feet.

"The devil has been working against you your whole life!" I hissed. "He becomes more desperate with every step you take upon the Maternal Path! You must know that if you are the champion of God, then Satan has one of his own!" I kissed Julia's toes. "A new Creator was born at the eve of your triumph, stepping between you and God's angel before the final trumpet could be sounded! What else can Diamond be but the last card the devil could play before his hand was empty?!" I looked up at my dark savior. "He always saves the best for last."

Julia looked down at me, her face impassive. Then she gave me an imperceptible nod. I felt her toes clench beneath my lips. She wheeled on Diamond with her fist closed, and struck the space her daughter had just been. Diamond spun easily beneath the strike and delivered a devastating kick to Julia's stomach. Julia crumpled around her daughter's heel, her eyes bulging, the veins showing clearly on her head. She fell beside me.