Arkus stood before Bel and Fahren in a circle of light, while the rest of the world faded around them. The Sun God had come to claim the weaver Iassia, but also to deliver a message to Bel.
‘If Bel and Losara return through the gateway of the Stone, to emerge as the individual soul they once were, we will have won.’
‘How?’ asked Bel.
‘Because you are stronger than Losara,’ said Arkus.
You accept his words so easily , observed Losara. You want to believe them, so you do. Vanity prevents otherwise, but I suppose you can be excused when your god presents his fervent hopes as truth – perhaps he is as vain as you?
While the Dark Gods are faultless?
I would not say that.
Even Battu, supposed to be their most loyal servant, hated them so much he turned against them. And now he has returned to them, to be punished for all time.
While Arkus is so merciful? He would rather torment Iassia, his own creation, than simply deconstruct him. And he punished Battu as well, even though the man risked everything to help him – shall we see if the same is true of the Dark Gods?
Battu’s soul drifted from his body, even as Tyrellan noticed his new butterfly. The goblin’s rage was too great for a simple scowl or growl; instead he fell still, watching the creature that was Battu’s legacy. Meanwhile Battu journeyed on through the veil of the world and out across an endless sea, dark beneath stormy clouds.
I don’t think I should be here , said Bel.
Do not fear , said Losara. We are but observers.
I am not afraid , bristled Bel, wondering if either one of them believed him.
Battu struggled as he raced over the waves, but there was nothing he could do to halt his passage. From out of the sea a great cauldron rose, water frothing against its sides. Barnacles grew richly along the lower half, and strange sucking things, and all manner of stationary sea creatures. Shapes loomed out of the depths – the twins Mokan and Mer, and Elsara the lionfish, Chirruk the watcher, and finally the serpent Lampet and the great Assedrynn, his wide mouth brimming with whiskers. Before them, Battu came to a floating stop.
‘Battu,’ rumbled Assedrynn, ‘you have defied us. Attacked the light when we said to rest, failed to deliver the suspended dead, sought to kill who you were charged to protect, sought indeed to end us .’
Lampet coiled forward, his luminescent eyes flashing from green to red. ‘You were not a good choice,’ he hissed.
‘We had no other!’ wailed Mokan.
‘He killed Raker!’ shrilled Mer.
‘None to replace him!’
‘No more offerings across the sea!’
‘Caretaker, we named you,’ said Assedrynn. ‘Yet no care was taken.’
‘Am I to be punished?’ said Battu, his voice rising as he tried to contain his fear. ‘I should not be blamed – it was you who chose me!’
Assedrynn gurgled, the twins gave a long, low moan, and Battu quailed.
‘What good in punishment?’ said Assedrynn. ‘You think we wish to concern ourselves with you any longer, little soul?’
‘Destroy you,’ said Lampet, and Chirruk clicked his immense lobster claws. Battu glanced between them, terror writ plain on his ghostly face.
‘You can destroy souls?’ he whispered.
‘We are the gods,’ said Assedrynn. ‘We can do what we please.’
Elsara, whose glassy eyes had remained half submerged in the waves until now, rose with her spines standing up strong. ‘Enough of this,’ she said in a voice like metal grinding.
Assedrynn’s eyes rolled to her slowly …then back to Battu.
‘You,’ he said, ‘will enter the Well.’
Battu looked up. ‘What?’ and then, ‘my lord,’ he added.
‘All experiences enter the collective,’ said Assedrynn. ‘Nothing is wasted, whether they be lives well lived, or lessons in the perils of avarice.’
‘But …but …it is said that those who betray the Dark Gods will be punished for all time!’
‘Of course it is said,’ hissed Lampet. ‘You think we want you running about doing whatever you wish, with no thought for those who govern your souls? We put that about. But now you are here.’
‘Now you are here,’ echoed Assedrynn. ‘And perhaps you will make a good shark, next time.’
Battu gave a cry of surprise as he was suddenly sped towards the Well. He passed through the side, and was gone.
Assedrynn’s gaze came to rest on Bel and Losara.
You said they couldn’t see us!
I merely said we are observers.
In a panic Bel took over, forcing their retreat, returning them to the first memory he could seize on as a means of escape …and shouts rang out over the fading sea, the waves replaced by warring soldiers.
I don’t understand.
It’s called mercy, Bel. Ah, here I am.
Losara of the recent past appeared out of the shadows, too late to save Roma from a violet vortex.
Let us both be me in this memory.
It was time.
Time to try the idea that scared his Lalenda so, the idea he had journeyed in disguise with Bel to explore. During that period he had come to know his other as best he could, to try to predict what might really happen if they joined each other through the Stone.
He took a deep breath, and was more afraid than he had ever been.
Along the row of lightfists he faced, many pairs of hands sprang forth emanating light. Waves of it cascaded towards him, meshing together into a sphere. He went on to play a little game with them, letting them think that they had encased him, when really he stood apart from an illusion of himself. As the sphere formed, it broke his connection to his doppelganger, which faded. Fahren and Battu started casting shockwaves of Old Magic at him, and he ducked and wove, falling to shadow and re-forming in new places. Finally they hit him, and he did not have to pretend that the blow stunned him. Foreign magic shook him to the core, and he fell. The light grew around him again, and soon the sphere was complete. He pushed against it so Fahren would know he did, but not hard enough to escape, even though he could have done so if he’d wished.
He was exactly where he wanted to be.
Why? thundered Bel. Why did you allow yourself to be caught?
You say I think too much? Well, I have thought long and hard about this , Bel – about what would happen if we entered the Stone.
Bel felt parts of him swirling away, into the single soul that spun between what remained of their individual selves.
What did you decide?
That you’re a simple creature, Bel …a collection of surface and base motivations, whom I find lacking. You have never worked things out for yourself, driven instead by unquestioning focus and sharp aggression. Nevertheless I desire these qualities, for no longer can I shrink from the necessary bloodshed, no longer can I meander when I need to take action. These qualities you will provide me with, to ensure I meet my true potential.
But …but …
Even here you fight me, even though you have tasted what is meant to be. You have revelled in my power, lusted for my woman, seen that my gods are just, and yet you fight on because that’s what you do. You are too full of pride to give up, even though you are beginning to understand that I speak the truth, and that it is really yourself you fight.