It hurt more than she thought.
“They do.”
Hurt turned to confusion the moment he spoke.
“Where else could all this have come from?” he asked, shaking his head. “We have no trees in the Nether, no sand, no oceans.” He sighed. “No gods. But here? You have everything. And for what? What does it do for you? What is its purpose?”
“Not everything has to have a purpose,” she said. “Some things are there not to kill or be killed, but simply to be. . right? They are there to be protected, cherished.” Her gaze drifted to Nai. “The Gods can’t possibly watch over everything.”
“But that doesn’t make sense,” Sheraptus snapped. “If trees are not created to be made into boats, then why are they here? What is metal if not to be made into swords? If something is meant to be, why is it so fragile?” He resumed his pacing, rubbing his crown. “All things must be created for a reason. Everything must have a purpose. What is theirs?”
He whirled about. The fires in his eyes were stoked with desperation, leaping with such intensity that they seemed to engulf his face, leaving nothing but jagged teeth twisted in a grimace. He thrust a finger at her.
“What is yours?”
She wanted to look away, away from those eyes that had stared at her, away from those teeth that had grinned at her, away from that finger that had-
Look at him, the thought leapt to her mind unbidden. It resounded with conviction from a place she did not know. Look at him and know that he’s not what they think he is. It held her head high, even as it wanted to bow. Look at him and know that he’s not what he thinks he is. It made her draw in a long, clean breath. Look at him. And he won’t look at her.
“Perhaps,” she whispered, “it’s to tell you all this.”
The fires in his eyes waned. Between shudders of crimson, flashes of white broke through. And in them, she could see something that had been stained by flame for a long, long time.
Desperation.
Fear.
A hope that somehow, some way, everything that he was thinking was utterly and terribly wrong.
“How do you know?” he asked.
She shook her head, her chains rattling softly. “It’s never clear. Not without suffering.”
“Suffering?”
“Only with suffering comes understanding.” She closed her eyes, letting the truth of that settle upon her, atop the fear and the anger. “Great suffering.”
He nodded solemnly. That which she felt within her she saw within him as his eyes smoldered, sputtered into empty whites.
“They come to you with suffering,” he said, “when they are needed. That is why you called to them,” he hesitated before continuing, “that night.”
To stare into the white eyes of this man, as she had stared into the red eyes of the man who had violated her, should have been enough to destroy her. She should have collapsed, slumped in her chains, lost all will to raise her head again. But there was something in these eyes, something bright and vivid, that burned even more brightly than fire.
This man was no god. This man could be made to see what he had done.
She looked past him. Nai hung limply in her manacles, drawing in sharp, short breaths.
For her sake, Asper had to believe that.
“How much?” It was the edge in his voice that seized her attention, the glimmer in his eye that held it. “How much suffering before they appear?”
“I don’t-” She paused, reconsidered. “Much,” she replied softly. “There is much suffering, much regret, much penance.”
“And one cannot begin. . without the other.”
In the instant he turned away from her, she saw it. In the corner of his eye, as though it had been hiding from her the whole time, there was a little too much of something. Perhaps it was too much of an eager glimmer in his eye, too easy a smile that came with too much knowing.
She saw it.
And in that instant, she knew that whatever had left him, it wasn’t cruelty.
“No,” she whispered.
Whether she had heard Asper or the sound of Sheraptus approaching, Nai looked up. What it took Asper until now to see, she found in an instant. Her face twisted up into a grimace, her hands clenched, she bit her lower lip so hard that blood gushed readily.
“No. No.” Nai shook her head, fervor increasing with each word. “No, no, no, no, no.” She was all but flailing as he approached her, her chains rattling wildly, her heels scraping furiously against the floor as she tried to back away. “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”
“Wait! WAIT!” Asper called after him. “This isn’t what I meant! This isn’t what you-”
“It is,” Sheraptus said softly. “It makes perfect sense. Why would gods come unless called? Unless the need was great?”
“I didn’t do anything!” Nai wailed. The cloth of her slippers wore through in a moment and soon, she was painting the floor with her blood as her feet desperately scrabbled. “I didn’t. I DIDN’T! I’ve been good! I. . I screamed! Please, no. Please, please, please, please-”
“Stop!” Asper cried out, hurling herself at him. The chains caught her, chuckled in the rattle of links as they pulled her back to the wall. “This isn’t what I meant! Stop! Stop!”
The metal of her manacles groaned, growing weary of her futile attempts. They tugged her back to the wall, pleading in creaking metal to spare herself the torment. She spoke louder to be heard over him, screaming wildly at him with all manner of pleas, all manner of curses.
Between the chains and herself, she couldn’t hear the sound of metal sizzling, of stone cracking.
Nai’s wailing ceased as he came upon her, looking her over with wide, glimmering eyes. She fell still in her chains, as though if she held just still enough, stayed just silent enough, he might move on. Even then, though, she drew in wheezing breaths, sniffling tears through her nostrils with each gasp.
Sheraptus stood there, hands folded behind his back, calmly studying her. Asper held her breath, watching, waiting, praying.
Humble do I pray and humble do I ask-
Slowly, he unfolded his hands, raised them up to frame Nai’s face delicately as she winced.
You who gave up Your body so that we might know-
His fingers splayed out slowly, each joint creaking as they did, like the long legs of great purple spiders, the tips gently settling upon her temples and cheeks.
I know I don’t deserve it, I know I doubted You but-
“Please,” Nai whispered.
Please-
Sheraptus smiled gently.
Please-
The glimmer in his eyes became a spark.
PLEASE.
And he spoke a word.
Nai’s scream was lost in the violent, laughing crackle of electricity. Asper watched, eyes wide, yearning to be blinded by the flashes of electricity that leapt from his fingertips in laughing lashes, sharing some sick joke with Nai’s flesh that only it found funny.
“STOP!” Nai screamed, struggling to hold onto language. “STOP! PLEASE!”
“Don’t beg me,” Sheraptus said gently. “Them. You have to ask them to come.”
Smoke came in gray plumes, mercilessly refusing to hide the grimace of her face painted by flashes of blue, the shedding of her cloth as electric spears rent her garments. Asper could look away, to pray, to do anything.
And without thought, without prayer, without blinking, she began to walk forward.
“HELP! PLEASE!” Nai wailed. “TALANAS! DAEON! GALATAUR!”
“There we are,” Sheraptus cooed encouragingly. “Just a little more now.”