Cloak of Fire, Eyes of Life
Sunday, January 31st, 2016 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanadin posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
mindcracklove
She walked, footsteps falling and echoing through the falls with a sense of defeated finality. Her eyes, once bright and full of joy, were dull and sorrowful. Her cloak hung around her closely, even its energy drained to almost nothing.
She pretended to ignore the cracks in the walls, the cobwebs in the corners, and, most of all, the blood splatters on the floor as she climbed up the ruined steps.
So this is how it ends.
She had never thought the gods could cease existing, but she had been proven wrong, time and time again, as her friends had slowly fallen around her. First he of dragon blood and cheaty ways, then he of wandering and stars. One by one, they had fallen, rotted away from lack of belief and from their own insanity, as well as the blows of their allies, driven to desperation by their slow decay.
She sighed as she passed another blood splatter on the crumbling wall. When he of flames and darkest night had come after them, driven mad by his destruction and the loss of so many…
That day had been one of the darkest, and the world they had built together felt it.
She could still feel his blood on her hands, she could still hear the sound of her sword sliding through his flesh. She could see his surprised expression and her reflection gazing back at her from the glass of his goggles.
That was the day she realized that her eyes had lost their light.
Perhaps it had faded when the first of them had gone. Perhaps it had faded when he of rot and magma had fallen into insanity and they made the awful, haunting decision to put him out of his misery. Perhaps it had faded when she saw the first of their number fall to true, cold-blooded murder.
Or perhaps it had been fading, slowly, the entire time, only to go out as she ended her friend’s life.
It had been millennium since they had been at their full power, and as a result, their pocket of space outside of the world they had created had begun to crumble.
It had been two centuries since the first of their number had fallen.
Those on the world below had outgrown them. They no longer needed their gods, and thus, their gods had faded into the dark.
But not her.
No, never her.
She of fire and life was one of two left, after two centuries of slowly watching her friends die.
But that was because, even as the mortal’s belief in their gods faded, she was bound by the truth that there were only two ultimate powers, ones that ruled over even the gods.
For, as she paused on one side of the room, she looked into the eye sockets of the mask worn by her counterpart.
He of bone and death tilted his head slightly, but he did not speak.
He never did. He hadn’t spoken since before they had begun to die.
Perhaps he had fallen silent as he realized that it would be only life and death left. Perhaps he had fallen silent as he couldn’t take any more death, despite who he was.
Or perhaps it was because his light had been lost long, long ago, and he wished more than anything to fade into the dark after his friends.
She knew the feeling.
“Gods don’t die,” she whispered. It wasn’t technically a lie, but it wasn’t true, either. “We fade. But it’s really all the same, isn’t it?”
Her counterpart did not respond, only sighing softly and sitting down on one of the few chairs in the room that could still support his weight. She of fire and life followed his example.
“My fire is extinguished. My light is lost. What is left?”
He motioned vaguely around the crumbling, ancient room and shook his head slightly.
“You’ve won, death. Life gives up her fight. How can I hold on after this?” She paused. “I still see them, you know. Roaming the halls. Smiling and laughing. Talking about their plans, their ambitions, their dreams.”
She sighed. “I see their blood, I hear their screams, I feel…I feel him. I feel him as he felt when he died.” She slammed her hands on the table, causing the ancient word to groan. “He never leaves me! His blood stays on my hands, and with his death comes the death of my own flames. How can life and fire be so tightly tied? How can he haunt me still?”
She fell silent, awaiting a response even though she knew she wouldn’t get one.
He surprised her, however.
“I have not won. The only way I could have won is if they had lived and I alone have faded. All we can hope for is a draw.”
“A draw?”
He didn’t respond after that, but she knew.
If they followed the others into the eternal night, leaving their ruins to fall apart into dust and leaving nothing to be remembered by.
But that could never happen- not until there was no life, no death, only nothingness.
Tears welled in her eyes and she shut them, not willing to look at the sad sight around her. “I wish they were here,” she whispered. “I wish we didn’t have to be alone.”
He of bone and death sighed, the whoosh of air accompanied by a hollow rattling sound.
“We were always alone. It’s only now that we feel it.”
As her eyes re-opened and she gazed at the ceiling, one truth rang in her mind.
Gods never die.
But how I wish we did.
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Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 08:04 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 09:15 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 03:03 pm (UTC)Excellent story Tamarin even if you did kill everyone but Blame and Aurey (::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 08:12 pm (UTC)But thank you. ^^
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Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, February 1st, 2016 10:50 pm (UTC)