{"sf1_id":721832,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Deliverence. 5","author":"MagnumGit","words":2490,"posted_at":"2014-06-24T06:41:00.000Z","tags":["Fantasy","Sci-Fi","Supernatural"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/721832-deliverence-5","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/721832","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=721832\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":" \"Was this really what\nyou wanted?\" were her thoughts in those final years. As neglect and misuse\nbegan to erode her otherwise immortal body. She moved little because she saw no\nneed to, she grew disdainful of her bastard children and disgusted at the acts\nof their subjects. She refused to hear them or her worshippers; she went so far\nas to refuse their offerings of souls.  She had ruled this plane for countless centuries now, her\nmind growing bored as her body grew idle. She ignored the urges of bloodshed\nand carnage now, instead focusing her Labyrinthine mind on more subtle tasks,\nsuch as thinking, dreams, and memories. She thought back to the days when the Pantheon knew nothing\nof such things like The Lamented, or thoughts of war. Yes, they had such petty\nsquabbles now it seemed, but back then they seemed to be crisis's. Who was\nworshipping whom, or which Goddess was having an affair with a mortal or which\nGod was pursing what Angel or Champion of who and whom. She remembered When\nMi'E swooned over the saintly man of one of the Sea-Kings communes, It was much\nto the Old Serpents chagrin when Mi'E gave birth to a beautiful Arch-Angel that\nnow resided over the city to this day, the palace flourishing under the\nprotection of dual gods. Yet she could still recall the many spats Mi'E had\nwith the Sea God over the heritage of the Angel, it had gone so far as to have\nD'ruin intervene and name the Angels soul, much to the Soul-Carriers annoyance.\nThe reapers job was an endless one.  It made her smile, that pleasant memory.  She hadn't smiled for over a century.  The thought scared her.  So she retreated back into the memories of the past. She\nremembered the day of her and her sibling's ascension by the Dying God Ordose,\nthe Great God of the Macrocosm. She remembered his decree, and how he split\napart his infinite soul and gifted them each with one fragment, that they\njourneyed to make whole. She remembered how he told them that it was a seed\nthat would not grow until they nurtured it, and only then when it bloomed would\nthey be reborn.  She remembered the journey to awaken her God Seed. How she\ntraveled with her elder brother Ki'e whom she was madly in love with, and\nyounger sister Mi'e to far off and distant lands. How each of them encountered\ndifferent people, and gained a different perspective on life. She saw the beauty\nin what could be made, and how short life could be, how it needed to be lived\nto the fullest extent, like a candle burning its wick.  She knew how her sister learned of unquestionable mercy and unending\ncompassion. How she would help everyone who needed healing or care, regardless\nof what they were, what they stood for, or what they believed in. She would\nhelp them, she would be ill and sickly, and she would refuse aid until she had finished\ngiving aid, she could be wounded and she would still press on to deliver\nhealing herbs to those in need.  And then her brother... Oh how she loved him. The pranks he\nwould play, the games he created. He cared little for material things, although\nhe never seemed to be short of them. She once asked him how he could remain so\nfree of grief when it was all around him, and he simply shrugged, and said that\nit was fun to be happy, and he was happy to have fun. He was simple, but wise\nin that regard. And for that she loved him far\nmore then any sister should love a sibling.  The more she remembered, the clearer the voice became. That\nnagging, urging voice that was always at the back of her mind, but whenever she\ntried to locate it, it would skitter away like an insect in the night. She let her thoughts drift away from the untraceable noise,\nthe further she fled from memories the less she heard it, which was nice.  She hated the noise.  Her hands move of their own accord. She let them craft\ntrinkets out of nothing, for what more could she do? She let her hands and mind\ncraft impossible objects, liquid crystal balls, stairs that went on forever\nwith silver men climbing them, living glowing stones that coiled like snakes\nand twisted around each other. She found joy in this simple exercise, but then the voices\nand sound came to her forefront, angry at her, shouting, demanding that she\nstopped, that she be still, careless. She recoiled at it first, but she pressed\non, how dare it make demands of a\nGod. She grew constructs of light, mechanical beings that danced\non the palm of her hand, birds made of water and animals made of metal, the\nvoice grew louder still, but she pressed on.  Until she came to a certain thing, an impossible sculpture\nbending in onto itself, shimmering in the light like Crystal dew on the petals\nof a flower early in the morning after rain.  She remembered everything at once now, no more could she shy\naway from the past for the past now came at her. Now she ignored the voice\nentirely, it's screams and screeches, she reached out within her mind and\ncrushed the insect thing with but a casual thought, it had came to0 far from\nthe depths, it could not retreat as it once had.  She remembered Ki'e, after the ascension, how he refused to\nconquer through force, how he despised the Lord of Murder and the Lady of Chaos\nfor their cruel tricks that were no fun, how they warped their patrons and\nslaughtered their followers, and how those same followers adored them all the\nsame.  She remembered how she stole the knowledge from the Lady, and\ntook up the mantel of the Lord she slew.  She had become everything He hated, and She did it in His\nname.  She cast the stairs with the silver men down, the liquid\ncrystal bounced along the ground, it's impossible shape coming to a stop at the\nbase of the window, she looked out at the city, she stood on weak legs now, and\nshe cried tears of anguish at what she saw. Murder and rape, debauchery and carnage, monuments raised in\nher name, a cruel grin on the stone mirrors. She fell back into the throne, her\nweak heart felt as if it would break. Oh, how she loathed herself. She looked upon the sculpture\nshe still clutched in her hand. She remembered it. It was a gift she made for a young boy who loved to play\ntricks. For her brother, Ki'e, after he had ascended.She made it for him the night after He made love to her, that\nsecret night that was secret to them, and them alone.  She let it fall from limp fingers, it rolled along the ground\nstopping beside the silver men and the watery birds who took perch upon a tree\nof sand with leaves of copper and gold. She clawed at her head; she screamed horridly with a cracked\nand dry throat, her eyes bled tears as much as blood, and she as a whole was a\npathetic sight to behold.  She fell back into the throne she had built upon the\nsuffering of many, and she wanted nothing more then to rid this hideous skin of\nhers, this smelly carcass of a murderous god, that's what she wanted, that's\nwhat she needed. No.  It wasn't that. Run. She wanted to run.  She wanted to escape; she wanted to flee until her feet bled\nblack and the taint drained from her body.  But where could she run? She felt the muster of the Pantheon;\nshe knew the spear had been taken by one of her bastard children, Belrakier was\nhis name, she recalled. Her children... She had wronged all of them, and now they were\nmonsters. Or were they always monsters? Damned from the moment of conception?\nOr damned by a mother who knew no better. No, she was lying to herself. She knew she knew better, she just didn't\ncare. She did now though. But pity and remorse could do nothing,\nand even with her powers she couldn't reverse such damage, it was far beyond\nher power. Unless she were to invoke the power of the void once more... NO! Never again, forever shall she distance herself from the\nwretched void! Never to be it's slave again! Only one child of hers could be- and had been- saved,\nBelrakier. The Angel of Repentance. One of her most sadistic children, taught\naway from his nature, and risen again as a warrior of light against her.\nDestined to destroy the evil God Queen with a Spear of light born from shadows. She wondered briefly. Only for a fleeting moment, she\nwondered. She wondered if she could be forgiven? Even by the most slight of\nchances if it were at all possible, if it were, she would take it, she would\nthrow away everything, even her god-hood if it could be done, she would die if\nit meant she could be redeemed. No, she couldn't. Her sins were so many, and\nthe deaths so great and all of them tragic, each one a chance quashed from\nexistence, all possibilities stolen away from them. . She would have to suffer and die over a thousands deaths just\nto make up for but a handful.She had not a hundred lives to give she had only one immortal\none. But whoever said they would be merely content with her death?\nPerhaps they had 'other' plans in mind, other 'methods' at their disposal to\nenact retribution on her body. They would cut her, flay her, burn her, she knew\nthis to be true, and she had once witnessed their wrath before. She would be\nill fated to suffer it herself.  She shuddered, a chill ran through her, grief and guilt were\nset aside, in favor of fear and self-preservation. She would survive; she\nwouldn't let it end like this, not before she sought a chance at redemption.  Exile. To run, self-imposed ostracism, she doubted that any\nbeing on this place would raise their voice against her immolation or being\ncast into the depths as she had to so many others.  So she would run, she would flee and cower in the shadows,\nwaiting until the time for the song of return to be sung once more. She doubted\nthat it would be short, perhaps eons upon millennia before one would speak her\nname in casualty. If there ever were a chance for that to happen, for a chance\nfor her to return home again, then she would gladly take it, and if it meant\nexile, then so be it.  She could not run in this realm, they would sense her\npresence if she were to ever leave this castle of cursed wards. There were very\nfew options of escape left to her, destroying herself and denying them there\nchance at seeing her suffer was one, discarding her Godhood was another, but\nshe suspected they could still find her regardless, and she would be powerless\nto stop them. Then there was the last option. The forbidden Arts. The dark secrets she swindled from the\nmind of the Mad Lady of Chaos. The secrets of The Depths, the Damned knowledge. Hypocrisy... But she refused to let her soul be flayed alive by\nthe Pantheon. She let it's knowledge embrace her One. Last. Time. Ci'e knew much of the hidden knowledge, but she had forgotten\nmuch as well, when she purged the denizen of The Depths from her mind, it took\nwith it all its secrets and misbegotten arts. She held onto what little she could, and the precious gems\nthat she snatched away from the creature were fascinating to behold, she felt\nthe long lost thrill of discovery fill her once more.  She had to act fast. She could feel the Pantheon muster its\nforces, it would storm her wretched empire soon, and as she wouldn't mind\nseeing it fall, she would rather live to see what came after.  She chanted the damned litanies, steeling her mind against\nwhat she was about to summon. She reached out into the ethereal realm\nsurrounding her, she required more strength then she had at the moment to do\nthis. \nHer cursed followers would suffice... She plucked many wicked souls that day, and she felt no\nremorse as she cast them into oblivion, a mercy in comparison to what Belrakier\nwould sentence them to. She used their dying screams to fuel the gate she had\ncreated, it's black luster doors imprinted themselves upon the wall before her,\ncorporeal energies sucked at the air, and light seemed to bend and distort\nbefore it.  She let fall her hand, a quick breath was all she needed as\nshe then let her spirit float free of her mortal form, the shell let light fade\nfrom it's eyes as her godly essence seeped from its being. Taking her true form\nshe grasped the handle to the cursed door with a shining golden hand, and\npulled it open.  She was flung into the swirling mass of black and impossible\ncolors, creatures swarmed around her, hungering for her soul as they had not\nfeasted in never and at the same time always, they had no reason or meaning,\nnor any physical being to speak of, so that was why they sought hers in the\nbeginning, now, they sought it only out of malice.   There was no real way to comprehend them; even the Mind of a\nGoddess such as Ci'e couldn't understand their nonsensical existence, or\nnon-existence, or something in-between.  So she shielded herself from them, her powerful radiance\ncasting them aside as she fell through the place between realms.  And then it was over. She broke through a hole in the\nnon-reality. An invisible scar that allowed madness to pass through, without\nthinking she sealed the rift, disallowing the 'things' passage into this new\nand innocent dimension, she would not let this corruption of the void fall onto\nher temporary sanctuary, she was only a guest, after all.  And so she drifted, through the endless void of space. She\nwas glowing, too resplendent to look at, floating through the path between\nworlds. Stars glittered all around her, diamonds in the eternal night-sky. She\nlet her true form recede back into her, taking on a more mundane yet just as\nimmortal body, she did not wish to leave a trail of breadcrumbs leading her kin\nto her. It was not yet time for a reunion.  She relaxed at last, the song of planets played over and over\ncaressed her ears, the night-sky of infinite potential filled her eyes, and the\ncaress of nothingness on her shoulders. Her hair fanned out all around her,\nfloating as if in water, she closed her eyes, and fell back into\nunconsciousness, letting the void carry her. "}