Giving Up Forever
Erim lowered to one knee, a sign of respect to her throned commander,
Arek. The other three Sinstrals, conspicuously behind her, bowed to Arek
and stood up. "My Master," she whispered, afraid of the consequences of
her actions. She ran a hand through her blue hair, trying to calm her
nerves. " Master," she said again, confidently, "I, I can't do this any
more."
Arek grinned. "Kneel? Then stand up with your brothers!" Erim winced at
his teasing torture. He knew what she was there for. He knew everything.
"I can't be the Mistress anymore, Sire." She stood up, warily glancing
back at horrific face of Daos, the god of Terror. She may be a
Sinistral, too, but he still scared her. All of her brothers did,
really, but Daos scared her the most. She couldn't help but notice the
wide scar that wormed down his jawbone, that seemed to move with a life
of its own when he spoke.
"You've been the Mistress of Death for eight thousand years, Erim. You
have a duty to your brothers, and to all Sinistrals. You can't just
leave. It's unacceptable."
"I have to go." Erim repeated. "I can't do this anymore, Sire. I have to
be with--"
Arek stood up from his ornate throne, towering over the Sinistrals. His
voice boomed as he yelled, casting an echo over the entire island. "You.
Will. Not. Go," he shouted, causing even Daos to cower. "You have a
responsibility that cannot be ignored. And all this
for...some...mortal?" Arek reached down and grabbed Erim by the throat,
lifted her up to eye level. "You will follow my commands!"
Quietly, but but not meagerly, Erim rebuked. "Why?" she asked, a fire of
defiance in her eyes. Her master tightened his grip, and then threw her.
Two hundred yards across the throne room in an instant, before her
instincts took hold and she stopped herself, letting her body float down
to the floor.
Gades sauntered over to Erim, his long stride quickly closing the
distance. The Sinistral of Destruction would likely be more frightening
to a human, she guessed. It was probably the source of headstrong
attitude. Erim stared into the black oceans of his eyes.
She would not give up. Focusing her energy, into her hand, it started to
glow a red that rivaled Gades' crimson hair. He either didn't notice her
preparation, or didn't care--he still lumbered toward her, a cocksure
grin spreading across his face. He reached a hand up to grab her arm,
but he was too slow, and didn't know his own lack of strength. She
punched Gades in the abdomen, folding him in half before he fell over,
comatose.
It was her duty to revive her brothers when they fell, but that power
also gave her the power to take their life back. She moved back toward
Arek, walking with the grace of a swan in water. Compared to her
brothers, she was physically weak. But she made up for it with Amon's
cunning, Gades' wit, Daos' knowledge, and the power over all of their
lives.
Arek walked out to meet her, a legged tower of steel, adamant will. If
he was surprised when she didn't waver, he didn't show it. "You'll
really give up your life--your power--just to be with this mortal?" Erim
nodded, hiding her pleasure. He seemed to be giving in. "If I kill it,
what will happen?"
"I will rally the forces of all the Sinistrals against you," she said
calmly, matter-of-factly. She stared into Arek's eyes, letting him know
she meant it. He knew she could.
"I cannot willingly let you go," Arek said. He turned around, walked to
his throne, and stopped. "My back is to the room. Whatever happens, my
daughter, happens. I can find another Mistress."
Erim sighed with pleasure. She got what she wanted. Waving a hand in the
air, she morphed into her other form, the form that she would take
outside the island. Her lover would never know her as Erim, Mistress of
Death. She would be Iris until the day she died, and that fact pleased
her to no end. She turned to the door of the throne room, and started to
walk. With each step, her distance tripled, and she slowly forsook the
Sinistrals.
But as she neared the door, it started to waver. Her vision went blurry,
then crisp. She saw a rainbow, and then everything turned to shades of
gray. "You're giving up all eternity," Amon, the Sinistral of Chaos,
spat, "just to be with some mortal? You can't think this can happen."
Iris knew Amon was just toying with her. He didn't have the power to
kill her, and he wouldn't try. He knew that she'd bring him down with
her. She'd teach him, even after losing half of her Sinistral-energy. A
century-long coma would smarten him up.
Iris stopped mid-step, steeled herself. It would take everything she had
to pull this off, in her weakened state. She mustered the energy, and
started to turn, when she felt a smooth calm rush over her. She looked
down to see Gades' fist protruding from her abdomen, covered in blood
that oozed to the floor.
The wound was too big, Iris realized, and she had to get out of there
soon. " Teleport!" she shouted, and disappeared from Arek's throne room.
She had meant to make it to Parcelyte, where her mortal lover was
waiting for her. But it seemed as though she didn't have enough energy,
after that attack. She looked around her, and recognized her
surroundings as the ether, the realm between realms. She had navigated
the ether countless times before, but she had never gotten stuck.
A sharp terror swept over her as she realized she was going to die in
the ether. She would never again see the face she loved, never be able
to kiss those lips. Tears streamed from her eyes, swallowed up by the
swirling pools of magic around her. Things in the ether dissolved when
they lost the energy required to sustain themselves. There wouldn't even
be a body to bury.
The amount of magic around her caused her head to throb. She had to do
something, but there wasn't anything she could do. She needed to at
least hear her lover's name before she died. She screamed the word as
loud as she could, as she slowly faded into nothingness.
Tia.
~Owari~
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