Gods of Shadow and Flame

by M. H. Johnson

  Finally, after all the trials and hardships they had overcome, all the vile serpents seeking to destroy both their clans that they had slain or sent fleeing, sweetest happiness was at last possible for them. For all of them. If only Jess could see that. He prayed it wasn't too late.

  Joshua shuddered with relief when Jess froze and turned, gazing back at him.

  It was here and now that he must reveal his heart, tell her how he felt, lest he lose her forever. Somehow, he knew this was so. Yet she spared him only a single haunted glance before shaking her head resolutely and plunging toward the maze entrance.

  "Jessica de Calenbry, I love you!" He gasped as he said it, racing right behind her, grabbing ahold of her hand just as she entered before being overcome by sudden vertigo, sensing somehow that this maze was terrible and potent in ways he could barely conceive, nothing like the gentle nest they had made such sweet love within the day before. Yet he did not let go and Jess did not break his grip as she gently led him deeper within the dizzying maze, down paths and trails Joshua knew he would never find again, even should he spend all his days looking.

  “So,” she said quietly, taking a deep, shuddering breath. “Now you know.”

  "Know what? Jessica, all I know for certain is that we both nearly perished back there, but somehow you managed to save both our lives. And thank the angels above for it!" He stopped, strangely hesitant. "Jess, what happened to you back there?"

  "It had nothing to do with angels." Eyes heavy with regret gazed gently into his own. "Something far darker, dearest Joshua. For all that I would have loved it, had the fates spun me a different tale to tell.”

  Joshua took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Nodding his head in sudden acceptance, noting the changes apparent with just one supernatural encounter. Eyes once a gorgeous sky blue now amber, his lover's beautiful locks of gold hair showing fiery highlights once more. "I understand now. You are a Delver. It is not something you can suppress any longer. And thank the gods for that gift, dark or light, whatever the fate Delvers are tied to. For I suspect that were you not one of the rare few able to thrive in living nightmare where others would surely perish, were you not able to feed upon the powers of Shadow and make them your own, that demon would have gotten the best of us."

  Gently, he stroked a lock of hair that had escaped the warrior's coif she had bundled it in before strapping on her helm. "No longer silken blond, but a strawberry hue. And your eyes, my love. They are now far more amber than blue." Joshua gave Jess's hand a gentle squeeze. "It is okay, dearest Jess. I understand. There is a cost to power. It leaves its mark upon us. As a prince of the realm, I understand that burden all too well. And I just want you to know, dearest Jess, that whether you come to my side with the pristine blue eyes of a gentle maiden, or the crimson orbs of a true Power more divine than mortal, I still will love you with all my heart and soul."

  And with those words Jess shuddered, her breath catching in her throat, and much to Joshua's visible awe and wonder, what came out was a heart-wrenching sob. So suddenly he almost stumbled, Jess turned about to hug him fiercely with a grip so tight he gasped, shocked at how terribly strong she now was, gazing into his own eyes with tear-filled irises of darkest amber. "By the gods above, it eases my heart no end to hear you say that. To know that you don't reject me out of hand."

  “Jess, no time!” Joshua shivered at those words, a spectral voice emanating from a source he could not see. Yet being no fool, he immediately understood what must be the source of that odd, otherworldly voice.

  Jess nodded in response to those words, gazing solemnly at Joshua once more. “And here is where we must part, my heart. For my destiny lies through the portal ahead, and yours in the gentle world I leave to you to guide as best you can, in the days to come.”

  With that Jess gave the gentlest of smiles, softly kissing his cheek before turning and entering the very heart of her maze.

  "Jess! Wait!" Joshua ran towards her even as he suddenly swooned with dizziness, feeling himself gently fall to the ground, diving into what seemed an endless mound of soft, fragrant rose petals. Petals that were even now raining down upon him with all the colors of the rainbow, massive rosebushes arching impossibly high, a gorgeous summer sky far, far above, for all that it had been darkest night but moments ago. Joshua blinked in confusion and wonder, desperately trying to right himself, almost too dizzy to move. "Jessica!"

  Jess turned to face him then, and Joshua could see the almost hauntingly beautiful pillar that sparkled like rainbow quartz, pristine and beautiful, at the very heart of her maze.

  "It will be all right, Joshua. You know the way back home." She then turned once more to the sparkling pillar, gazing at something resting upon its surface.

  “Come, my queen. It is time.” And Joshua gasped in awe and wonder, beholding for the first time in his life the shimmering black cat gazing back at him with such knowing sapphire eyes. He said not a word to Joshua, but he knew the cat was aware of his regard, staring back at him with the same curiosity as he. But only for a moment before turning back to Jess. “Are you ready?”

  Jess nodded solemnly, eyes shimmering with either terrible power or quiet tears, it was impossible for a dazed and befuddled Joshua to tell, dizzy as he was with wonder and terror both, unable even to right himself from the impossible bed of rose petals he found himself lost within.

  All he could do was gaze at his beloved as his one anchor of hope and sanity in a world gone strange and terrible.

  "It is time for the final Choice to be made, is it not, my beloved friend?" Jess's words, though little more than a quiet sigh, seemed to resonate through the maze in all its entirety, her every whisper somehow conveyed by the restless rustling of countless rosebushes, all in utter synchronicity with her every feeling and whim. Of this Joshua was utterly certain, though he knew not how, able only to gaze at his betrothed just a few feet away, yet seeming of a sudden worlds beyond his reach.

  "Jessica!" His plaintive cry, for all it seemed lost within the majesty and grandeur of the terrible beautiful cathedral of roses he lay lost within, was nonetheless enough to pull his beloved's gaze toward his own. He gasped and shuddered, trying with all his will to avoid looking away from the fierce depths of her haunted gaze, knowing that somehow her soul was weighted by burdens he could not bear to fathom. He grimaced and endured.

  He would not deny his heart, no matter the cost to his already swooning psyche.

  "Jessica, my heart. I beg of you, stay by my side!" He grimaced with the intensity of his own confession, his heart raw and bare before her. "I love you, Jessica. I don't want to lose you to the madness of Shadow that I know even now you prepare yourself to venture into. My heart tells me it is a place from which you will never return!"

  Her familiar’s brilliant sapphire orbs bored into his own, taking silent, awful measure.

  Joshua trembled, feeling utterly stripped bare of all pretense, intuitively knowing the strange familiar with his far too knowing gaze could see into the blackest depths of his far from perfect soul. He shuddered as if someone had walked over his grave, but refused to look away from his angel, no matter the struggle, caring not the least that she was far more than the innocent girl they had both lost themselves in the fantasy of pretending she was. Burdened, he saw, with both power and responsibilities arcane and terrible, weights upon her soul he feared would pull her from his side forever.

  Calmly, the sapphire eyed cat turned his head back to his mistress. "Choose wisely, my Jess. The choice you make now can never be undone. If we lose the brother who fought by our side through countless battles in worlds dark and terrible both, we lose him forever!"

  Slowly, Jess turned her tear-filled countenance to smile gently at the man whose heart had been so captured by her wit, elegant grace, sensual form, and most of all, her fiercely loving and loyal heart. Her gaze turned wistful, as if lost in a timeless moment etching her lover's graceful features into her mind's eye for what Joshua feared would be the last time.


  Her eyes, haunted with longing and terrible wisdom no girl should ever be burdened with, seemed to pierce Joshua's very soul.

  "I am sorry, my love. For though I adore you with all my heart, and would face down the legions of the damned to save you, so too my duty and heart compel me to make that sacrifice to save a friend who has been with me since forever, if ever is the age of Dawn. A brother who has fought by my side through countless ordeals, whose loyalty and love I could count on from the very beginning. He would move Heaven and Hell to save me. I can do no less for him."

  "Jess." One word, quietly spoken, yet a terrible weight was behind her familiar's eyes. Jess's trembling form spared her love one final aching sigh before gazing once more at her familiar with a fierce nod. "And so will it be, Twilight. My choice is made!"

  Joshua winced as his beloved smashed her hand against the pillar's shimmering surface, to be immediately surrounded by a blazing corona of light. Desperately, he forced himself to look on through squinted eyes and shuddered with the majesty of it, Jessica's bloodstained armaments of bronze had miraculously transformed, as if by the magic of dream itself, to wondrous accouterments out of legend.

  Upon her now brilliant fiery locks rested as perfectly articulated a helmet as he had ever seen, fastened to a hauberk of glistening mail. Joshua gasped, realizing such artifacts could only be mithril, the powers of dream and magic given purest form, flashing as brilliantly as the pillar her hand rested upon.

  Gone was the pitted blade of but moments before, her gauntleted hand now holding up high a shimmering sword that even he could sense resonated with a terrible potency; an artifact pulled out of realms of myth and wonder, shining brilliantly with the glory of a pristine rainbow, yet simultaneously dark as the starry void of a moonless sky.

  His lover's crimson gaze met Joshua's own with a final gentle smile, Jessica now surrounded by a corona of ethereal light and song. Joshua trembled with wonder to see his beloved spreading vast wings of ebony and ivory before disappearing in a flash of light.

  Joshua screamed, his heart suddenly pierced by unimaginable sorrow. A shuddering breath and he stumbled to his feet, all dizziness suddenly gone. He gazed about wildly, but the vast arboreal cathedral was now utterly empty, save for the soft rain of rose petals gently coating his sobbing form.

  56

  The din and cry of combat, the screams of endless Fallen. A sea of enemies monstrous and foul, crashing in endless waves against the shores of valiant resistance; four heroes whose souls blazed as paladins, weakening those cursed spirits that hissed and flinched before the brilliant light radiating from champions that would not fall. It was a light so terrible, so beautiful, that even the mightiest of titans gave pause; clumsy and uncertain, their hearts pierced with a terrible ache, even as their once indestructible flesh was cleaved and sundered, hamstrung and impaled with inhuman speed and fury by those sacred four who dared to take on the very forces of Hell.

  And into that lifeless plain of choking fumes and horror, a burning light could suddenly be seen racing across the sky like a shooting star, blazing across the blood red heavens by an act of fiercest will.

  The girl who had loved a prince and dreamed of happiness such a short time ago now gave a fierce cry of exhilaration as she raced through mad stormy skies upon wings of fire and dream, even as her soul screamed with the terrible burden of each and every door within her mind opening at once, all powers and forces she had wielded through endless scores of lifetimes now flooding her immortal soul. Every experience, every sorrow, every triumph, every lesson roaring through her mind in one glorious maelstrom of ecstasy and agony both. She shrieked with the sheer wonder and terror of it, even as she prepared to crash into the vast armies of Hell.

  She understood with profound and utter clarity why Aurelia, Queen of Faerie, had bound her Delver's strength, leaving her in a frame as mortal and frail as any human. It was the only way she could be given the gift of clear thought. Only free of a Delver's passions could she make a choice utterly and completely her own. And only in doing so, committing that sacred act free of impulse, with full acceptance and awareness of the consequences, choosing to enter that rainbow pillar serving as a linchpin between worlds, sinking into the very heart of the Mirror of Truth even now clenched tightly as a buckler in her hand; only with that inviolate, irreversible act could the key be turned, unlocking all the power and potential of all the lifetimes she had lived within her Moonlit Garden.

  A garden she had raised from the very pits of Hell, forever doomed to walk upon its surface as a mortal girl through countless lives, forever prey to folly, hardship, mischance, even to the cruel machinations of the very souls she had saved, for none remembered the boon they owed, the endless suffering at last abated, when opening their eyes, reborn, children once more upon the face of Dawn. And always, she found the strength to accept the bitter along with the sweet, to revel in the adventure that was to be human, her dark divinity sacrificed for the land she loved, every time she fell prey to death's embrace once more.

  And with her terrible choice was the knowledge that she could have locked her realm from the forces of the Abyss below, sealing the fate of her shieldbrother to die the final death, lost to those nightmare realms. He who had always been by her side, at various times her truest friend, her lover, her husband, the father of her children, all through the countless lifetimes they had tended their garden together. Her loyal, eternal Hound.

  She chose instead to save him, no matter the cost, no matter the burden of terrible knowledge she must bear. To save him and those loyal companions who had the courage to take arms even against the very forces of Hell.

  She who had once been known as Jessica de Calenbry would raise her sword to their banner, even if it would mean her own death in doing so, her last act being to close the metaphysical gate between her realm and all others as she made the choice to jump, to plunge into the very pit of darkness waiting for her below. For only in the heart of her sacred garden, her world secured by the linchpin anchoring Dawn and Faerie both, could she dare to leave her realm without putting all she loved in peril.

  And she cried out with fierce delight as she saw the glorious blaze of virtue shining so brightly from her loved ones below. "Prepare thyself, Midnight! For we go to battle, against the very legions of Hell who would dare to take arms against those we love!"

  The terrible feline of darkest shadow only relieved by the brilliant blue orbs that blazed like twin dying suns in the depths of his darkness gave a rumble that shook the very heavens. She smiled at her familiar’s purr.

  "We do indeed, my Jezabelle," affirmed the great being of shadow whose true terrible form covered half the sky, crimson billowing clouds choked by fiercest midnight. "Come. Let us show these scurrying rats what it means to challenge the Risen Queen."

  57

  Malek, who’s burning gaze blazed like twin flickering stars gave a fierce cry equal parts regret and delight, even as his terrible blade tore into yet another abomination that had roared challenge, only to be quickly hamstrung, disemboweled, and decapitated with three terrible blows, Malek needing only time for the monstrous giant to collapse.

  Whether his foes were the size of men or mighty beasts, it made no difference to that crimson eyed berserker, no difference at all.

  Contemptuously, Malek hurled a bloodcurse that sent his fallen opponent crashing into the ravening hordes before them, smashing into their ranks like a mountain of broken flesh and bone, sending their foes scattering even as they approached once more.

  A moment's respite. Morlekai and Alacabar guarding Malek’s flanks as they stood over a mortally wounded Lucienda, hissing in agony even as her entrails bubbled forth.

  For such was the cost of the terrible power they had consumed so willingly, cast off to die within these realms, yet having seized the initiative so fiercely that their earlier kills had vitalized them as never before, each successful melee heightening their ever growing power, till they strode the craggy hills
as titans, swept by the endless waves of frothy battle ever trying to drown them, only fueling their madness on. Yet so terrible was their power, so utterly infused was every fiber of their souls that sealing fresh mortal wounds became ever more difficult.

  All knew it was only a matter of time before they fell to the endless sea of demonic nightmares they had faced and fought for what could have been moments or hours or days, even as the poor angel caught within Lilith's terrible embrace screamed and screamed, his tormentor savoring every moment as she slowly worked to tear free his own beating heart.

  "It was a glorious battle, Morlekai!" Alacabar wheezed softly, pink froth flecking his lips as well, even as his dread axe effortlessly chopped through the massive shield wall of howling demons charging for them, adroitly twisting and dodging aside their vicious counterthrusts in the instant before he spun his axe back around to cleave shrieking insectoid heads from thoraxes, the vile abominations hissing and melting to bile even as a fresh wave of roaring hellions rushed them, only to stumble back broken and bleeding from Morlekai's vicious counter. Ever guarding his friend's flanks, his falchion lashing out with inhuman speed, ancient weapon and dueling gauntlet working together in perfect synchronicity. Every foe's blow was caught or parried, even as his exotic blade cleaved limbs and heads free with hideous precision.

  "It's not over yet, Alacabar!" Morlekai's eyes lit with a hot inner fire even as Alacabar grimaced, the two falling to flank Malek once more, all three protectively circling a gasping Lucienda even as the infernal army closed ranks again. And in that instant, a brilliant light flashed so brightly above them they had to fight not to squint in pain, even as the legions they faced shrieked in sudden agony, before a roaring crash reverberated through the ranks of hellish legions before them, and all was a chaotic cacophony of curses and screams.