by Eric Vall
Even though he was grumbling and groaning, his voice still had a soothing effect to it, and it only enraged me more.
“Show yourself or let her go!” I yelled as I pulled the God Slayer from the void pocket and gestured towards the still eating cat.
“I will do neither,” he purred. “As I said before, I still have things to show you. Now put your little stick back in your pocket and follow my voice.”
I ignored his urgings and stayed put near Carmedy’s struggling form.
“No, I will not leave her, not like this.” I boomed as I slammed down the God Slayer, and my dark power swirled around it as the three curved blades appeared from inside its wooden staff.
“Oh, for god’s sake,” the deity muttered in annoyance.
There was a loud crackle in the air as the high back chair, the table, and the food placed upon it disappeared from view. Carmedy sat in open air for a second, her arms still moving and reaching for the food that wasn’t there, but soon she stopped, too. I ran towards her but with a snap and a flash, Carmedy vanished as well.
“Before you threaten me again, she’s safe,” the deity’s voice soothed. “You will find her and the others soon enough. I will be there too, so don’t worry.”
I glanced back at the space where Carmedy had just been, then nodded. Though I wasn’t sure where the god was observing from, he must have seen my gesture because part of the far wall fluctuated like the gold was melting, and then it parted to reveal another hall like the one I entered in through. I didn’t want to do as he asked, but if I was forced to follow him to find my beloved minions, then I would.
And then I would destroy him.
I was halfway through the brightly lit hall when I heard something similar to the sound of coins clinking together. I moved my feet faster, and when I came to the archway at the end, I held onto it for support, nearly toppling down into a river of moving gold wonders. Not only were there coins bobbing in the luminescent liquid, but there were also jewelry, crowns, goblets and doubloons, and great slabs of gold with ancient etchings on the surface.
Smackdab in the middle of this ocean of undulating gold was Rana. She was laying back on one of the floating slabs, and her fiery curls spread out against the surface as one of her hands moved lazily beside her. She was absolutely serene, her lids closed and a small smile on her pink lips as she dipped her hand into the clinking coins and pulled out a few. She brought them up to her face as her bright blue eyes opened and examined their surfaces dazedly. Then she suddenly jumped to her feet, tossed the coins back in, and stretched her arms above her head. As I watched in horror, my voice rising in my throat to stop her, she leaped off the slab into the churning sea of gold.
Rana jumped head first with her arms outstretched in front of her like a practiced diver. Her head and torso broke the surface but then stopped, leaving her rear and legs sticking out. Her legs kicked madly as I heard her muffled screams coming from below. I raced forward to try and help, but a solid wall of air stopped me from moving, and all I could do was watch as she struggled to pull herself out, her screams rising in pitch as she panicked.
“A thief that doesn’t steal from friends or family is still a thief in the end, don’t you agree?” the god whispered in my ear.
I bristled at his sudden nearness, but when I turned to strike out at him with the God Slayer, his essence was gone. His loud laughter vibrated in my ears as I held the God Slayer tightly in my hands, but I glanced back at Rana, who was struggling harder now but was still not managing to make a dent in the moving metal.
“Why are you showing me this?” I growled, and I felt his essence return but keep its distance from me.
“A strong god like yourself should be able to answer that question without my help.” He sighed loudly, and I felt him move around me to gaze out at the fox-woman’s kicking boots. I tensed my whole body and jabbed out with the God Slayer, but it sliced nothing but air as his laughter reached me again. “You’ll need to be quicker than that, Dark One.”
That name … Cethin called me the same name before. I stopped myself from reacting and kept my avatar’s expression calm. My minions hadn’t learned that side of me yet. I had coaxed their most inner secrets out of them no matter how much they fought, but they were still ignorant of my past when I resided in the heavens among the other gods. Sensing the presence around me, I knew I had never met or encountered this god before, but he knew of me and my past. I didn’t like to think back on those times, of my savage days, of Isolda and what happened after. Those were painful memories for me, and as painful as the things my minions shared with me, mine were tenfold compared.
“Take me to the next,” I commanded, and as before with Carmedy, the gold river disappeared with a loud snap, leaving Rana hanging upside down in the air. Then she was gone, too. Without the moving sea of gold objects, I now saw that the room swirled downward, and a staircase carved into the wall circled down with it. I felt the warm presence shift and move forward ahead of me, and I held the God Slayer in front of my body in case I saw another chance to attack.
I was starting to realize what he wanted me to see. None of it made sense yet, but I knew there were two more rooms to visit. I would have preferred a dungeon with traps and monsters. This seeing my minions struggle and not being able to help them was setting my insides on fire. I wanted to rip this deity to shreds, wanted him to feel pain for hurting my women. Nothing could hurt me. Yes, my avatar could be destroyed, but I could easily make a new one. What I realized troubled me the most was seeing my beloved minions being trapped and hurt over and over. Carmedy, unable to stop eating, Rana drowning in the gold she loved so much, and I still had more to endure.
As we journeyed down deeper into the mountain, I could indistinctly hear yelling and screaming, the sounds of thousands of men trampling against a broken land. I stopped, pressed a hand to the golden wall, and listened hard to the sounds of anguish that rose up from below. These were the sounds my minions said they heard earlier. Annalise had said she heard people yelling, Carmedy had heard bacon frying … but what did all of it mean? Why was I being shown these things? And why couldn’t I intervene?
The staircase stopped at the bottom of the pit, and this was the only place the light didn’t reach. Around me, torches crackled and snapped in the darkness. The yelling grew louder as I pushed on, and then I neared another archway, this one broken and cracked unlike the others before it.
When I stepped through it, my feet landed in tall grass that blew in a slight wind, but that’s not what caught my attention. All around me, men in suits of armor were fighting, and I recognized a man’s helmet as he ran past me holding his bleeding arm. These were Tamarisch soldiers, easily identified by the helmets shaped into a bear’s head. A roar ripped through the ranks, and I saw Annalise through the carnage as she fought against the invading enemy. Her movements were clean and confident as she stabbed into men left and right, her long chestnut hair billowing out behind her untied, and her face, though tensed and fierce, was still as beautiful as ever, my warrior queen.
She used both of her swords in tandem and felled each man who dared to challenge her, but as I observed, each man she cut down was replaced with another much bigger and stronger opponent. She was faltering, slowing down, and it was plain she had already used up most of her strength. I gripped the God Slayer tightly in my fist as I watched the biggest enemy so far slam into her, and her heavy booted feet dug in the ground and slid back a few feet. The enemy’s warhammer was massive, the biggest I’d ever seen, and with Annalise recovering from the blow, he raised it above her head and brought it down.
“Stop!” I shouted, and then the scene disappeared. Annalise, who cowered on the ground, her arms lifted to protect her head from the oncoming blow, was gone with a whisper.
“A warrior who wishes so badly to fight … stuck in an endless battle,” the deity said in my right ear, and I roared as I stabbed out with the God Slayer, but the blades only hit the tarnished gold wall beside m
e and left a small gouge behind.
“Yes, yes, you are quite clever,” I sighed. “Let’s see how clever you are when we finally meet. I’ll gut you like a pig and wear your intestines like a scarf.”
It was clear what was going on here, what type of trick this god was trying to pull. Knowing this, I calmed my emotions and steadied myself.
The deity only chuckled under his breath and opened up another door directly next to me.
“That’s all fine and dandy, Dark One, but I’m sad to tell you, I don’t have any intestines for you to wear.” He let out a peal of laughter, and I felt a gust of warm air brush past me as he moved on, but he was too stupid or arrogant to realize I had figured out his little game already.
One more room, and he was mine to destroy.
This hallway led upward, and as we went, it returned back to its brightly lit, opulent splendor. Up ahead, a golden door waited, a lot like the one we came through earlier but much smaller, this one only seven feet tall. I caught a flicker out of the corner of my eye, and for a second, I could have sworn I saw a man there. I laughed to myself. His power was waning, and soon he would have to show himself to me and face his death.
Once I reached the doors, I lifted my hand to open them, but they swung open for me, and an unearthly scream hit my ears. I dove inside as soon as they parted enough for me to pass, and the sight that greeted me nearly brought me to my knees. The room was dark, but I could see Morrigan clearly as she weaved back and forth.
The elf was on her knees in the middle of the floor, her mage markings on fire and burning into her flesh. Fea and Macha circled above her head and cawed loudly in distress. She threw her head back as she screamed, and her hood fell away to expose her wholly black eyes as they searched the air for an unseen attacker. The marking in her forehead blazed brighter, and smoke wafted up from its elven letters. She batted at herself, but as she did, her hands glowed with dark purple power and assaulted her body with dark magic.
My eyes narrowed in on her hair, and from the snow-white roots, black crept up and slowly spread to all of the length of it and turned her long locks completely dark like Carmedy’s. Morrigan tentatively reached for the hair that hung down to her waist, but as soon as her glowing fingers touched the once-white hair, it burned it away with a sizzle and puff of gray smoke. She cried out, her eyes widening in horror as she realized what had happened to her hair and what she did by touching it.
“Those who wish for dark power will receive it tenfold … but not know how to properly wield it.” The twisted god giggled into my ear, but I attempted to ignore his pestering as I kept my eyes on my lover.
She held out her hands in front of her like a blind woman, and tears spilled out of the corners of her eyes as the color changed from deep purple to chartreuse. She shook her head vehemently, lifted her hands into the air towards Fea and Macha, then sobbed loudly as they cawed in warning and avoided her deathly touch. Morrigan, my Morrigan, who hid away from others and enjoyed the company of animals, was broken by the rejection of her pets, the only friends she had since childhood.
“You have made your point with your illusions,” I said.
“Oh?” he said, and then Morrigan, Fea, and Macha faded from view.
Then I was alone with the deity. The room brightened behind me as if a torch was suddenly lit and my turned back was hit with a wave of heat. I turned to face the man I’d seen briefly earlier, and he stared back at me with a knowing smile.
He floated in the air, his legs crossed over each other and his chubby little fists resting on his knees as he smiled down at me. His entire being was made out of gold except for the eyes which were two rubies that seemed to be pressed into the flesh of his face. He was rotund, though not as fat as the lava god, and his bald head shone like it was polished to perfection. If I hadn’t seen him earlier, I would have thought he was merely a golden statue.
“Now, you may look upon me,” he said proudly as he lifted his hands and gestured to his whole being. “What do you think of my teachings? Every sinner must learn and know their sin before they can be reborn. Do you think your minions have learned their lessons well?”
“My minions may have their faults, but they are not sins,” I hissed through my teeth.
The gold deity raised his eyebrows with the smile still in place.
“Sin is a sin is a sin,” he said dubiously with a snicker. “Is not lying a sin? Cheating? Stealing? Murder? Your minions are sinners, and you, Dark One, are the biggest sinner of them all. I’ve accepted you here to be bathed in my warm light and be born again.”
“The only thing I’m going to be bathed in is your blood,” I snarled as I slammed the God Slayer down onto the ground, and it came to life for the second time here in this dungeon.
“Oh, there you go getting all riled up again! Can’t you accept the gifts I have to offer? I haven’t even shown you your sins yet.” He chuckled as he pressed his hands to his chubby belly and laughed heartily, but what he hadn’t realized yet was I already figured him out.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” I inquired as I tilted my head to him, and his expression broke so quickly it was like a bubble popping midair,
“Of course not.” He snickered as he watched me circle him, dragging the wooden haft of the God Slayer behind me.
“You say I haven’t seen my sins?” I said thoughtfully. “Each of my minions was trapped in their dream world: Carmedy with food, Rana with gold, Annalise in battle, and Morrigan with her dark arts, but each of those dreams was skewed. They got everything they wanted, but it turned sour for them.”
With that, I snatched up the God Slayer and tore its magical blade through the air. The open space I had been walking beside ripped at the seams to reveal a second world behind it, the real world.
“Am I not in my very own dream world right now?” I sneered, and the golden deity’s face fell in shock and then horror as he realized I had figured it all out.
The space around us, this false world, warbled and shook then disappeared just as my minions had. I floated in the air for a second then dropped steadily to the floor. I held the God Slayer confidently in my fists as I faced off with the rotund god before me. I took a quick scan of the room and realized we must be in this god’s nexus. All of my minions were here, unconscious but safe as they floated in the air in their own dream worlds. I could feel their hearts, and though their heart rates were slightly elevated, they were safe with me here now.
“You figured it out, Dark One,” he said ruefully, but a small smile still tinged at the corners of his lips. “How did you do it?”
“Annalise,” I smirked as I pointed at the swordswoman’s head with the tip of God Slayer and kept my eyes on the floating god above me. “As per Tamarisch tradition, woman do not wear their hair down or unbraided unless they are in private with their husband or father.”
“Whew,” the golden god cried as he scrunched up his face and snapped his finger in disappointment, “caught me by a technicality.”
“You were not the first, and you won’t be the last,” I assured as I gave the God Slayer a few test swings in my hand and felt the power rush up from my body to meet with the divine weapon. I swung it up and then out before I tucked the staff under my arm and held it tightly to my chest. “Now, wake up my minions, and I’ll have mercy on you.”
“As you wish,” the golden deity said as he bowed his head respectfully to me. He lifted one chubby arm into the air and snapped his fingers. The air below my companions fluctuated, and slowly, their eyes opened from their deep slumber. This time, the color in their iris’s was returned to normal.
Carmedy was the first to land on her feet, and once she did, she raced over to me, her eyes wide with tears at their corners.
“Master … ” she cried in relief as Annalise and Rana also ran over to stand at my side. Morrigan was the last, her long hair held between two fingers as she examined it closely for any changes. I touched all of them with tender hands to check to see if any of them
were hurt.
“We are fine, Master,” Morrigan assured as she took my hand softly in hers, “but are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, I’m unhurt,” I said as I reached out and petted Carmedy’s soft fur. “No one can hurt me as long as my minions are safe.”
“How very chivalrous of you, Dark One,” the deity said under his breath, but no one paid any attention to him as we checked each other over. Once we had made sure all of us were unharmed, I turned back to him with Rana tucked tightly to my side.
“You’ve returned my minions, I must thank you,” I said as I too bowed my head to him, but when I looked back up into his eyes, mine were glowing red with rage, “and now, it is your turn to die.”
“Wait, what?” the golden deity screamed, but before he could react, the fox woman broke away from my side, two of her elven daggers already flying through the air.
They hit their mark perfectly, one rooted in his belly and the other in his throat. He struggled to speak, but the only sounds that came up were gargles and hiccups of air. My minions fanned out around me to create a protective barrier as I spun the God Slayer over my head, and the magical weapon came to life under my hand as my dark powers seeped into it. A wide sphere of dark magic formed over my head and spread out to create a flat disk that shuddered and shifted. Then the black hole widened, and I yelled with strain as I pushed all of my power into it. Veins of red bloomed to life through the swirling black mass.
The golden god still hung in the air and pulled the elven dagger out of his protruding belly. Unsurprisingly, the blood that spilled from the wound was also golden and dripped to the floor like pools of honey. I screamed out once more as I pulled back the God Slayer in a split second and slammed it into the middle of the spinning black mass. As my weapon penetrated into its form, the blade stretched the dark magic into a curling cone and shot it out towards the god. He had no time to escape as the point pierced into his belly, and the outer edges came around and swallowed him whole. The remaining black orb constricted and vibrated as the god inside fought against his confines. Golden blood dripped from the sphere as it moved feverishly, then with one final snap of all of his bones, the orb blasted apart and spewed the god’s mutilated corpse to the ground.
