Deity Ch. 03

{sorry for the hiatus. having difficulties. thanks for reading, I hope you like it!}

(unsure of the formatting. cant get the spacing to stay the same. im sorry.)

Chapter 3

I was trying to navigate a steep slope. I don't know why I'm here, or where I'm going. What I am certain of, is that the way from whence I've come, I shall never return.

This hill was far steeper than I thought. Beads of sweat spilled down my face, my robes were crusted in blood, mud and filth. It wasn't my own, it didn't smell like me, which confused me further. The hefty book tied to my back was hard to balance and the weight made crawling that much more difficult. I glanced over my shoulder, immediately regretting it when I saw the horses and the rolling box tied to them. It was pretty and shiny, covered in different shapes that held different colors. I saw a hand wave at me, then slap the side of the box. The horses stopped on their own. I paused.

A tall and muscular woman climbed out, her locs long and pulled into a coiffed bun. She was wearing metal and leather, large pieces of both on her arms and shoulders. She started forward, smiling and raising her hand to wave. I caught myself before I raised my own. Instead I turned and began to scramble up the hill as fast as I could manage. I didn't need to look back to know how fast she was; I could feel her closing in. I was exhausted and in my frantic movement, I began to take notice of the energy flowing through me. It wasn't just a second wind. It came from deep within me, like a deep, deep breath. My limbs began to move in tandem, seamlessly pulling myself to its summit. I crested the hill and froze.

There was nothing to be seen for miles but trees. I just left The Verdant Ocean. Why is it in front of me? It only covered the southern expanse of Atmire! I couldn't go back! I moved away from the forest, only to lose my footing. I hit the ground hard, head over heels. I didn't even try to catch myself. I could see her getting closer to me, arms outstretched, her expression somewhere between sorrow and pity.

"Looks like I caught you just in time," she gasped, pulling me into a warm embrace, despite how disgusting I must look, "What's your name?"

Her gray eyes were like spotlights.

"Melissa, but I can't-" I paused, rattling around for the words, but all I could remember was-

"Well, Melissa," her smile was wide but her eyes were focused over my shoulder, " let's get back down the hill. I don't know where you came from or where you're going, but you will not be going that way."

I went limp, hoping I could find a way to slip out her grasp without hitting her, but her grip was like steel. She cuffed me further into her underarm, effectively restraining me. In this effort, I was able to see over her shoulder. A pair of eyes peered from the shadow of the canopy, piercing, and purple. I felt fear strike me deep within, pushing me deeper into her hold, if that was even possible.

You do not belong here. She has broken a rule, placed what is into what was. Returned the Un-made.

"Where are you from, Melissa?"

I suddenly expanded, feeling the depth of my power from somewhere far away but closer still. She was surprised by my sudden reaction, the ferocity of it. She didn't hear the voice the same way that I did. It was from somewhere else, different than just time and space. I struggled again, this time the edges of the world around me blurred. The sudden change of perception as I was pulled from the portal she put me in left me disoriented and babbling in confusion. Without hesitation, she slapped some sense into me.

"Something knew I wasn't supposed to be there," I relayed in fear. The emotion I felt within that... memory? It felt much stronger now. I'd been caught doing something horribly unnatural and something SAW me!

"How could something know where I was in a place like this?! What else is there besides The Deities? It wasn't even mad, just... disappointed?! It felt like I should've died telling you no, instead of joining in on your... mistake..." I paused, hard. It all made sense.

She hadn't moved, hadn't made a singular sound. She remained poised over the portal. As still as dried paint. I joined her, transfixed by her beauty. She longed for something at that moment. What that was escaped my mortality, my humanity, my ignorance, but I could feel it in her, the way I felt sometimes when S-

"We have made no error," she says, rising to her feet, "I see you as a human first, even though you don't understand how much you mean to me; your worth. You wouldn't believe me if I told you this, but there's a world where the combination of sound and words drives people to live or die. In our world, all of that is contained within a book that was then bound to the innocence of a child far wiser than her elders. She took it and turned a tiny forest village into the scene of a massacre. She made me a Deity," her voice rose, shattering the air around me, stealing my breath away. Tears fell immediately beneath the pressure of her emotion. She was the line between reality, and her approach would force me to cross it, "She took everything from me..."

The Un-Goddess had always been a symbol of neutrality in any form. She is the force that allows things to connect and react, like water, fire, and steam. Or to clash, like oil and water. For the very Deity who was portrayed as a loyal vassal to have such a visceral reaction to the idea of Her...

"I don't expect you to understand me, Melissa," she rose to her full height. Her next movements were so frightening that I couldn't begin to understand just exactly how deep her power was. She snapped her fingers, her attention focused solely on me, "but I'm going to show you what I know, what I've learned, what has been created... I don't know what any of this is. It doesn't make any sense to me," she seemed so lost, as lost as me, "but I hope that together we can use this to change the current world we are both bound to. I don't care what we lose, so long as we lose the chains that bind us."

Something soft and beautiful suddenly touched my ears. The sound of a woman singing, but not alone. There were sounds that slowly accompanied her; different sounding versions of her voice, something deep, like a drum, other sounds I couldn't name but I felt them all the same. My skin felt like it was cold but on fire. Small bumps popped up over my skin as she said, "Take my efforts high above red hills, Bones of Ribbon, don't stop me now."

I blinked. The rush of sand hitting me was enough to make me cover my eyes, but when I realized my body was not my own, I opened my own eyes to see through hers. Sehkmet was in the midst of battle, shattering chest pieces and avoiding killing as many mortals as she could muster. There were some exceptions. those whose smell she couldn't stand, but besides that, the rest were spared. How could they know this mortal woman was possessed by the gods they worshipped? To think they believed that the others were realer than the first. That they were any different.

She made her way through this "battlefield" aimed for The UnGoddess. She'd torn down so many, yet it never mattered, because in The Void, it was all the same. Her magic, the Un-Goddess, the enemies she faced... it would never end until it was meant to. Throughout all of her existence, Sehkmet has been waging war against the remains of humanity. Every fallen vassal, every slain emissary of The Void Walker. For aeons, across dimensions, more and more were convinced to serve The UnGoddess, and yet every Deity that died...

Pain tore through my form as blade and arrow struck me. I felt the sand rise, heat flashes and glass shattered. The rage I felt as my blood sprayed across the sands of my creations. I reached out to Sehkmet, cried for her hand, but she was gone. The silence was louder than the rendering of flesh and bone. One last, desperate push, and everything I had been was expelled outward. The hands around me fell, broken, my own lost somewhere beneath the mounds of bodies. With little left, I trudged onward, my remaining eye burned with hatred, with betrayal. Each step sent searing pain through every cell of my body, through every atom of my Source. Like soup, the sound of my blood being sucked into the sand surrounded me. Before me, The UnGoddess sat with unbothered pride, her long and muscular legs crossed, her head resting upon her hand, elbow on the arm of her throne. Her left hand rose, palm down, fingers splayed open. She makes a fist and extends her forefinger, deigning me as the cause of this bloodshed, the source of the death of humankind.

Again, I was torn from this form and back into my own body, beneath Sekhmet's impossible warmth. She straddled me, her hands placed on either side of my face!

"What in the actual fuck?" I asked, my face wet with tears, my heart swollen with sorrow. She pressed our hips together, then our bellies, our breasts, our mouths!?

I could feel her searching through me, beyond the weight of my corporeal form. She was within me, touching my Source with her bare hands. I folded beneath her pressure and although muffled, I cried out in bittersweet surprise. She was invoking herself across my Source, her massive hand slowly reaching out to cup me at my most vulnerable. As her fingers made contact with the pulsating and increasingly volatile power, I thrust my arms up and into her, desperate to remove her. I needed this to be mine, my Source was all I had! If she took it from me... what would I become? Her body pressed into me, stealing my breath and causing me to desperately fight back. Her hand was jolted away, My Source desperate to keep her paws off it. Her body moved, our lips parted, and for the briefest moments, I could see a small smidgeon of the face beneath the mask, and I screamed. From deep within, the scream curled and roiled and I pushed her away with all my might. What little of her power that remained coursed through me and it sickened me to know that I was no longer the same; a piece of my humanity was gone.

Her smile widened and she stood before me again, my rage flitted between fear and offense, settling for severe discomfort. A scan of the room showed me that we were in a large and otherwise empty chamber. In the middle of the chamber was a pedestal atop a pavilion. The pedestal was nondescript, just a simple gray slab of stone. Atop the stone rests an obsidian orb, held in place by an equally obsidian brace. Next to it, she stood proudly, her hand poised above it. She covered it with her hand and pulled it away, revealing the shockingly blue Source within it!

"Let me touch it," she cooed, her voice disturbingly soft and excited, "you taste like wine, like pomegranate and lavender. You feel coarse like The Sands," she ran her hands along her fur, "You're the one for me. You must be mine. We deserve each other, I deserve to feel your love and admiration, your fealty. I want to smell your sweat, your bile, your blood. I want to abscond into your depths, your warmth, your frigid discontent. I want feel the desire of your love, the dedication you feel when you're alone at night, thinking about the way their hands might feel across your-"

I was upon her in a heartbeat, faster than I'd ever moved before; as fast as she changed the world around me. The orb was in my hand, my eyes seeking for an exit. Pain and stars erupted through my spine and vision. I hit the ground hard, the sound reverberating through the cavernous chamber. I rolled over to see Sehkmet's hand still above the orb. She had yet to touch it, but somehow, there was a tiny speck of black within its depths. She truly had tainted my Source.

"It seems that you actually like this," she said warmly. Despite the sheer emptiness and cold look of the chamber, it was filled with her warmth. Her smile was wide and genuine. I was confused and on edge. What exactly was I dealing with here?

"I'll give you so much agency that you won't know what to do with it. You've already felt me, mingled with my essence," she sounded so... satisfied, "I touched you, really touched you. I want to know more of that love you harbor so deeply within. I want to taste your dedication to the orphanage, to your friends. To know that someday that love will be aimed towards me..." Her hands found her face and she wiggled like a girl in love. I took a step back, completely blank in mind and voice. The only choice I had now was to take my Source back, by force.

I made another lunge, this time making sure that I channeled everything into my speed. As I saw her move to grab at the orb, I felt an overwhelming presence behind me, as vast and wide as my ignorance of this entire situation. I felt my skin overwhelmed by a sharp and distinct tingling sensation. I was on the other side of the room now, but Sehkmet didn't move an inch. Even in this moment, fumbling with power I couldn't comprehend yet, I knew what I had to do. I lunged for the orb again, this time sending a strand of that energy into my right arm. As I felt that looming presence behind me again, I planted a foot, propelled myself into the slab, then used that momentum to launch my body into position. I dissolved around it, my free hand grabbing the orb as Sehkmet reached for it. She was on top of me, her maw spread into a smile so heavily lacquered in desire that I swung on her with everything I had in me. The sound of the air sizzling, the crack of thunder and the shattering of glass filled the room. Sand poured out from where I'd struck her, my eyes widening with her smile. She'd blocked it with a sheet of sand, and the sheer heat of my blow had flash-fried the sand into glass. I rolled and landed on my feet, orb in hand. As I held it up to show her my victory, I found myself staring at myself. Her entire countenance was too much of everything; too wide, too large, too big. She placed the stone on the pedestal. Without moving a single muscle, her laughter filled the air.

"Resolute," she said dryly, her laughter continuing to echo across the marble surface of the chamber, "Unimpeded. Reclaim your Source."

Every ounce of indignation I could muster filled me to the brim and without hesitation, I called upon the full force and understanding of my Source. Now was the time to break out every trick in my arsenal, and show her the true strength of a Hecatian. I wouldn't give up my Source without a fight and I was willing to die for my Source, the seat of my power, the center of my soul.