Introduction
Future I
Courtnie
stared intently at the blade forced into her face. It’d been countless
millennia since she was this fearful. Everything that was happening was wrong. How
could her plans go awry so fast? She was so careful and meticulous about it
all. Not a single detail was out of place, except for maybe this one thing now
jutting out in front of her.
Her body was withering, as was her will to endure
the torture. None of this should have been possible. She was everlasting,
forever connected to the feminine quality of all things. Courtnie’s breathing
became shaky and low in depth.
She knew what was to come next. Her torturer made
sure of that. For the first time she let the thoughts of death embrace her
mind. More fear manifested through every pore of her skin. There would be no
great “hereafter” when she was
gone. Only the void. The abyss of non-existence.
Before her fears
overwhelmed her completely, a new light of strength parted the darkness of her
own mind. The life inside her would not let her submit. The blade lifted to the
air above her. She closed her eyes and braced for the coming mutilation. This
would not be the end.
Just before the heavy sword fell to her lower
extremity, Courtnie could feel the extreme heat radiating off the celestial
edge. The irony of such a holy relic performing such an unholy deed was tragic.
It allowed a small portion of her heart to laugh before the sudden thud of
blade and wood.
The deed was now over. At first it was a strange
thing to feel nothing. A part of her was missing, literally, yet there was no
feeling. Only loss. Then the steep incline of pain washed over Courtnie in one
large tidal wave of anguish. She never screamed so loudly in her immortal life.
Her lungs felt as though they would never stop. Her throat vibrated with a fury
that had never left the confines of her body before. It was endless. Tears
flooded her face to match the pain crashing against her will. Her cries came
out with such force that it made her deaf. Blood and heat swelled her face.
Again her will began to fall to darkness. She
wanted to die. This was too much for any living thing to endure. To let herself
finally fall into the endless abyss would be a peaceful thing in comparison. Something
slowed her descent. That simple spark of life touched her again, giving her
strength.
Courtnie blinked her eyes through the clouds of
suffering that blinded her. She would look into the face of her torturer. Defiance
grew within her like a raging storm. Vengeance carried along its winds as bolts
of lightning.
She ignored the burning, melted flesh that
cauterized the wound. The smell threatened to throw her focus, but she endured
it. Courtnie gripped the sides of her chair and wrenched her head up to face
her torturer.
The torment struggled to articulate the emotions
swirling wildly within her. “Why?”
“Why what?” the mysterious woman replied. Courtnie
heard offense in her voice.
“Why would you do this to me? I’ve done nothing to
you,” asked Courtnie.
“It has hardly been nothing. And I think you know
that,” calmly and resentfully said the mysterious woman. Her feathers ruffled
behind her as she swung the blade in front of Courtnie’s face.
Courtnie would not flinch at such a display of
intimidation. The cuts and bruises swelled uncontrollably around her face. Blood
trickled down the corner of her mouth. It stung a cut that resided there. She
licked away the blood and then shock suddenly gripped her tightly. It was as
mortal as any human being would be. Courtnie wanted to attack her with
everything she had, but she was weak, withering, and most importantly, bound to
her chair by celestial chains—the Unbreakable Chains. Her divinity was truly
gone.
She looked up to her torturer. “Why and how have
you done this to me?”
“Why, why, why…is that all you’re going to say? Like
I said, you already know why. The fact that you keep on denying it makes you
more pathetic with every word. Don’t think me a fool. You are the infant here,
not I. Infinitely more so now that you’re mortal. Not so everlasting now, are
you, you stupid bitch!” said the mysterious woman as she tapped Courtnie on the
head with the tip of her sword.
It was cooling, but still hot. Blood sizzled, and
the flesh it touched bubbled.
Courtnie seethed between her teeth at the woman. She
knew her torturer was correct. They had all run out of time. Keeping up these
pretenses solved nothing at this point. Might as well reason something out.
“Fine. I suppose the better question is, how or why
would you do this to him? He was your best friend, your protector, and
your coveted husband. How could you do the things you have done to him?” asked
Courtnie.
“Finally, the veil drops between us. Perhaps a
truth between ancient enemies I think would be appropriate. Don’t you?”
“Truth? The truth is that he is a better entity
than he ever was before. I haven’t done a thing to him. It was you who did this
to him. You abandoned him. What he is now is what this world needs him to be. Why
can’t you see that?” said Courtnie.
Her white wings unfurled behind her, casting a
massive shadow over the room. “I abandoned him?! You have no idea what I have
been through to return to my beloved. You have no idea of the deep history we
share. You know nothing, Goddess. You call what he is now, truth!? How dare
you! You stole him from me. You manipulated him into becoming something he was
never meant to be. A lie! I know it, and you certainly know it. He is not
Guardian. I knew Guardian, and that thing out there is not him. I have had
enough of the two of you interfering with my grand design. I have worked too
hard to undo the damage you have done. Even if you aren’t aware, your
ridiculous ignorance has caused far more damage than you could possibly
realize. Did you ever stop to think why mortals are the way they are? Hmm? They
fester because it festers within him. Without the free will to struggle
and adapt, he will corrode from the inside out.”
A tremendous crash from
behind her forced the mysterious woman to tuck her wings behind and call on the
guard from outside the pearl office.
A large creature with wings and heavy armor entered
the luminescent office. The majority of its head was covered in an obsidian
glass, masking its face. He had two oversized swords sheathed at both of his
hips and one large projectile weapon strapped to his back. She didn’t recognize
the design. It was something new, and nothing like anything her husband had
ever designed. Courtnie couldn’t quite make out what it was saying to her
torturer. Her hearing still rang inside of her head from all the trauma she had
sustained thus far. What she could make out was that it had something to do
with the Great Pearl Gates.
As she issued her orders, strange, boisterous laughter
came from behind the mysterious woman. She stared in the direction of
Courtnie’s mangled body, completely perplexed by the genuine humor emanating
from her. In an instant the perplexity turned into fury and the mysterious
woman charged Courtnie with her fist tightly clenched and back-fisted her
across the room. Courtnie and her chair crashed against a pearl column. Her
body fell to the floor.
With a single flap of her massive wings, the
mysterious woman glided to Courtnie, already screaming, “I sever your divinity,
torture you, and brutally remove a piece of you, yet you laugh!? I fail to see
the humor in any of it. Does your irresponsibility know no bounds? You may be
singlehandedly responsible for the end of existence, and you laugh?”
Courtnie’s sight was fading from black to foggy
with every blink of her eyes. She was so tired. Her eyes had never felt so
heavy.
The winged woman grabbed her by the face, squeezing
her cheeks with anger. “I sense the light of life sustaining you. Your sin is
greater than any that have come before you. I will never let you die. You shall
suffer for all of eternity for your crimes. Even that spark of life will not be
enough. Speak, for it may be the last opportunity I afford you.” She released
Courtnie enough to hear what her last words were going to be.
“That sound you heard was your end. The apocalypse
of heaven, all because of your own ‘grand
design.’ You called me the stupid bitch? You may have made me
mortal, but you said you sensed a spark of life in me. I am the original goddess.
You have made me nothing more than a shell.”
Courtnie’s logic was undeniable. No matter what she
had done to her, Courtnie was a goddess and that meant her body was never
capable of sustaining a mortal life force. Vexed, she couldn’t fathom what the
light within her was.
Unless… the winged woman thought to herself. She retracted
in shock and fear. Feathers detached and fell to the floor. She looked to
Courtnie’s abdomen, then back to her. “Impossible! It can’t be true.”
With confidence Courtnie shouted, “See for yourself
and bear witness to a true miracle!”
A moment of inner struggle took place before she
finally sheathed her sword. The winged woman approached Courtnie softly,
careful not to cause any stress on the very truth that she herself wanted to
deny. Slowly she knelt and reached out with her divine senses. At first she
sensed the life inside her, but the second she tried to reach further in, her
senses were closed off, like by an impenetrable guard. She summoned an enormous
amount of power and attempted to reach further in. There was only a glimpse
before her power was thwarted yet again, but it was enough. Even the act of
self-preservation was enough proof. It was just as she remembered.
She retracted in shock. “No…impossible. You have
betrayed your beloved! There is no other explanation for this.”
“I have done no such thing!” screamed Courtnie. “Did
you think you would be the only one forever?”
Again she managed to shock her torturer. “How…How
could you know that?”
“He told me a great many things from before. The
miracle inside me grows stronger with every passing day and fast, too. It won’t
be long now,” said Courtnie.
The winged woman turned her back on her. Courtnie
couldn’t see anything but her wings.
“You have no idea what you have done. You are, in
greater portion, a magical thing. You know what that means. There will be
consequences. I’m sure your previous husband must have told you many other
things about him. Did he not? You may have destroyed us all,” the mysterious
winged woman quietly spoke.
Courtnie laughed at the overbearing feigned emotion.
“Really? Don’t be so dramatic. You’re no longer the only one now and yet you
still feign such apocalyptic theatrics? Please…stop pretending that what you
have done was for the greater good. What you let happen and what you commanded
to happen can never be forgiven. He will never forgive you! What’s that old
mortal adage? A father would move Heaven and Earth for his child. What do you
think is happening to your precious kingdom now?”
“He knows, then?” asked the winged woman. She did
not waver. “I am not such a fool that I do not realize the things I have done
are unforgivable, especially the way he is now. Perhaps even after I have
undone whatever it is you have done to him, maybe then there would hope for me,
but not beyond this moment, I fear. I have witnesses what he is capable of...”
She looked to Courtnie and then back to her own
hands. “Especially when a monster such as I have wounded him so.”
Something was wrong, so very wrong. Her torturer
was weeping. She wasn’t even aware that she was capable of it. Courtnie
couldn’t tell what was happening beyond the wings, but her torturer’s tone was
becoming darker and darker. Feathers dropped from her wings. Something was very
wrong.
“You are an infant, Goddess, and you are yet again
so very wrong. You know nothing. I have spent countless millennia manipulating
you through your ignorance. You are precisely where I positioned you and yet
here I stand, drowning in my own ignorance. I should have known. My own anger
and fury have blinded me to the only relevant truth. He always said that the
true nature of existence flowed in one direction and all directions. It used
me. He used me. I was a fool to think I had any control. Omnipotence is an illusion.”
Her torturer’s sadness
turned to happiness. It was scarier than the blade she’d mutilated her with.
“All this time we have done this together. I have
succeeded in my grand design—and with
your help, no less. With all our help. All of it was for this…there is no
stopping it now. My beloved returns. It’s only a matter of time now. No,
Goddess, I was wrong. We both know nothing and everything.”
Courtnie became enraged. The pain in her severed
leg wasn’t helping matters, either. “What the fuck is with the cryptic
bullshit? What are you even babbling about?”
Shock came over Courtnie as her torturer looked at
her with the truest sympathy. This winged woman was the purest power she had
ever known. She stood above her brimming with it.
In that moment she appeared as every mortal had
imagined her to be. Pure, good, and truly omnipotent; beautiful beyond her own
measure.
Even as she spoke, serene divinity spilled from her
lips. “No, Courtnie, there was never only one…there were two, just as there are
miracles inside of you.”
Courtnie’s eyes grew wide. “Twins!” An overwhelming
sense of love flooded all of her senses.
“Aye…and may the Maker forgive me enough for a
quick end, for what I must do truly is for the greater good. Have faith, for I
now spare you the pain I have felt for countless millennia.”
“Wait…what did you mean there were two of you?” Courtnie
asked in terror.
Without a split-second warning, the winged woman
whirled around so fast Courtnie could barely see her spin. In a glance she saw,
with horror, the tip of her sword thrust directly at her abdomen.
She closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer, Please…no!
…Eyes Open…