Sophie was gone and I needed to find her. I made my way downstairs- still no sign of our hosts so I left out the front door. It was pitch black and I could barely see my hands in front of my face.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck” I rasped in frustration through tears of fear. “How the hell am I supposed to find anything out here- where the hell did she go!” I almost lost myself to panic until I saw a flicker in my left periphery. A ghostly blue firefly, like the ones we had seen in the tree line. One after another they began to rise out of the grass and danced in the air toward the town center.
“What the fu-” but I didn’t have time to question. I followed the trail of light I got closer to town where the ghostly hue emanated from the church. It felt like an invitation as I crept between two of the shops but stopped at the sound of footsteps. I moved further back into the shadows of the buildings and pressed myself against the wall, praying I was out of sight.
A handful of townspeople herded by the tall, cloaked priests passed a few feet away. They mumbled and chuckled to one another as one of the priests pulled the heavy doors open and they all went inside. I waited until their footsteps were a distant patter and moved toward the entrance. I just knew Sophie was wherever these people were going. My heart was beating out of my chest; my jaw clenched as I crept inside.
A stunted gnarled tree twisted upward through a broken floor, its branches were jagged and twisted back into themselves, and the roots arched over stairs carved from earth and stone that lead downward. There was a colorful sheen to the tree that grew vibrant in the moonlight. I was enraptured as I moved slowly toward the staircase. I could hear the distant footsteps of the villagers further underground. I descended the abyss until the light behind me was a distant memory. I grasped at the walls as the stairs began to curve further downward, I had no idea how far down I had gone.
Time was lost to me in the dark, my legs began to tire, and I was terrified I would arrive to find the worst. As my hands trailed against the wall of cool earth it transitioned into a warm slick surface. A gradient of luminescent colors traveled along the walls revealing warped obsidian that sank and rose like waves in the sea, frozen in time. Rivers of light spilled down the wall illuminating my surroundings. I was mesmerized as my fingers traced the routes and patterns that formed, each different than the last as the light pulsed. I felt a warm calm before images of Sophie invaded my mind.
I snapped from the vision and continued downward until I reached a looming archway that opened into what resembled a grand Germanic mead hall. Obsidian structures twisted from the earth and melted into the ceiling. The townsfolk had gathered in a large group in the center of the hall with the priests on either side of them. I ducked behind a stack of palettes and bags marked “seed” and “fertilizer”.
I had avoided detection and took a breath to calm myself, but a weary cry cut it short. I peeked between two palette stacks to get a better look and saw Sophie; I bit down hard, and blood trickled from my tongue down my lips. Roots had impaled her sides, and smaller branches invaded her skin, throbbing within her veins. Her head weakly surveyed the room before her. She was still alive, but just barely. The two priests that stood over her unfolded their arms and let their dark visage fall to the floor.
The hushed whispers and chatter of the townspeople were silenced immediately. Two terrible creatures of flesh, earth, and wood stood over the crowd. They had many faces that protruded from all over their body. Some were on torsos and others under their thick branched arms, removing the symmetry they once had. The faces were in various stages of pain and pleasure. A sap of sickening beauty seeped from the eyes of the anguished and the mouths of those in rapture. Their hands were large claws, others a stake that could impale three men. The priests that stood around the crowd followed suit, this caused cries of jubilation and prayer from the townspeople. The loudest among them were our hosts, Susan and Frank. Susan embraced the abomination nearest her affectionately, its blue tears falling upon her.
A heavy creak at the end of the hall called for silence. I had failed to notice it, blocked by the mountains of books that tumbled before its yawn. Heavy wet thumps announced the arrival of a mottled grey man who towered over the others, resting on his wooden cane. His head hung low, and his face wilted even lower. He had no visible mouth to speak of, only a wrinkled and upturned U where mossy tendrils writhed. Sunken black pits with marbles of milky white surveyed the room before resting on Sophie. The people and priests fell to their knees and raised their arms in praise:
“Mayor! O’ Mayor! He whose life is longer than Red Oak! Whose wisdom is deeper than the roots of the Shepherd Tree! Blessed be your harvest! Blessed be your work!”
The Mayor stood straight, a bulbous gut now preceding him, and raised his arms to accept their praise. The earth shook, but with a thrust of his cane into the ground, it quieted. Susan and Frank stepped forth.
“Mayor O’ Mayor we have brought this woman to you to do with as you wish. She has consumed our sacred harvest so that she may be consumed or conscripted as you desire. May this seedling be another vessel with which to spread your will.”
The Mayor rested on his cane, reached out his free hand, and moved an invisible marionette. My sister cried out in pain, the roots dug deeper, and the altar grew and shifted until she was raised into the air. I had no idea what to do. How to help. I looked desperately around me. Maybe if I was fast enough, I could find something sharp to lodge into his belly.
There was a whisper in my ear, I froze, and my heart began to palpitate. I turned my head slowly but saw neither person nor priest. The ghostly fireflies began to rise beside me, they filled the edges of the room and the people turned in awe and again rose in jubilation. The Mayor looked at the spectacle and for a brief moment, I saw fear in his eyes. This wasn’t his doing.
The flies began to flash brightly and swarm around the edges of the room. I could no longer see anyone past the shifting wall of blue flame. Then I realized, maybe they couldn’t see me either. A voice all too familiar was in my mind again, a cacophony, a command. I grabbed the side of my head in pain and moved to the wall behind me to make my way toward the yawning door from which The Mayor had entered.
The room was dark except for a few dim lights, tables strewn with books, and the walls were made more of obsidian than earth, but they were dulled. The awe-inspiring colors I became enthralled with had long left this place.
“What the hell am I supposed to be looking for!” I cried. “You’ve guided me this far, please, show me the way.” Heavy but measured thuds grew closer then stopped; too measured to be the clumsy mottled thing I had seen but the alternative was no better. I eyed a dagger with a star-shaped hilt under a mess of paper and swung around to meet my assailant. One of the twisted priests stood before me, the same that Susan had embraced so dearly. Their head was forcibly turned so that they had to look down at me from the corner of their eye. An eye that I recognized from the market after the sound of church bells, The eye that found us from the forest, an eye blue as azurite. Their face, though twisted and deformed, was almost the spitting image of Susan.
“Twins run in the family indeed” I muttered to myself, raising the blade. Susan’s twin turned and slowly walked to the other side of the room, ducking down under another doorway and returning with a book. She knelt, now eye level with me, and presented the book on a twisted limb. The voice returned with excitement. It was pleased. I touched the book and visions flooded my mind.
Visions of ancient rights and practices, of early earth, and the seed within that bid its time. It sprouted and grew into a twisted and obsidian tree from which the delicious fruit grew. My senses shifted and I now looked down at a man of ambition and a brilliant soul kneeling before me. I lowered my branches to him, he partook of my gift, and a pact was made. Color flooded this place, and I was its source, its master. The people came to me and formed a covenant through my disciple. I blessed him with my dark gifts, formed him this great hall, and made him beautiful, yet he was not appreciative.
He saw his form, saw the people, and tried to wrestle the power from me. The fool. My senses shifted again, I’m in a space of brilliant colors- no, I am this space, this world. I thrash and angrily rip a tear in space before me. The mottled prophet stood in the new doorway smug as he always was with three people knelt before him. I no longer recognized the hue of their souls. He recites the words I taught him and stabs each one in the heart with the twisted dagger.
I tried to force my way through, my many hands grasped at his neck as bloody runes form in the air from their lifeless bodies. In a blink, the door is shut, but a fraction of me is still on the other side. I shake the very fabric of my reality in anger, stars in our universe go out, and planets fade and crumble. An image forms in my mind. Hazy as it is I recognize it as Sophie and me, the hue of our souls is agreeable. So, I seethe and bide my time.
The vision leaves me. “I understand. I feel that either one of us will do, but I doubt he would do anything for my sister’s injuries should I take up the mantle alone?”
Susan’s twin nodded awkwardly in affirmation. “And leaving her here to take this role alone is simply not an option”. I licked my lips and gripped the dagger harder then walked past the azurite priest who remained knelt. Through the door from which they had brought the book, a wall was invaginated, old blood was strewn across it.
“A pact then. My sister and I will serve you, be your new prophets, and usher in this new world.” I paused, giddy with anticipation.
“A colorful world, a connected world, a world ready to travel the stars and bring your good word.” A familiar presence made itself known in my mind but remained silent.
“I see you are unconvinced. I can’t blame you.” I looked behind me into the room from which I had entered and the doors that led into the hall.
“So, take of us our heart. Keep them with you. Should we falter remind us of your grace. Should we stray from the path compel us to obey. And should we abandon your word, then end us so that we may repent and fertilize this ground with our very souls.”
The melodic song from my dreams filled my mind and the azurite priest was behind me, fruit in hand. I consumed it and gave her the dagger. I thought to prepare myself but in an instant, she had plunged it deep inside me and tore my heart from my chest. I heard Sophie’s cries in unison and the blood from my heart formed runes in the air. The wall began to move and what started as a small opening grew wider. A brilliant and colorful light shot through the room; rivers once again flowed across the walls. Tendrils shot out and took me. My insides burned, my bones broke and grew, and my mind was forcefully filled with forbidden knowledge.
I looked down. I now stood a head above the azurite priest. My hands were gnarled and long, a mix of brown earth and obsidian that pulsed a ghostly blue.
“Beautiful” I croaked in a gravel voice I barely recognized. Thick tendrils snaked from my chest where my heart had been and unlike the previous prophet, I stood on my own. I raised an upturned hand and recalled the fireflies back to me as I made my grand entrance, the azurite priest beside me.
My teeth clacked as I spoke the tongue of the master. The townspeople froze, the priests kneeled, and The Mayor began to cower behind his cane. Sophie was still in the air, dead, but that was a mere inconvenience now. I spoke once more and the roots that served as her prison and executioner flowed with glorious color. It shone through her body and her eyes shot open as she was lowered back to the ground.
A priest brought her before me. I cradled her head in my hand “It’ll be alright now Sophie. I’ll be quick, I promise.” I raised the dagger above me and plunged it into her chest. She looked at me with fear and confusion as I pulled out her heart. Blood runes formed in the air, and I handed the heart to the priest who brought her. “Bring it to him. Unharmed.” Sophie screamed, her torso twisted, a sickening snap of her spine as her skin hardened and her limbs grew. Her head shot up then slowly turned until it lay on its side. Her look of anguish dissipated, replaced by awe and joy as her eyes flicked around an invisible screen. He was showing her his gift as well.
In one swift motion, she turned and plunged her arm into The Mayor’s gut and dug until he was hollow. There was a visceral cry as the azurite priest tore Susan in half, her foot already impaled through Frank. The townspeople dared not move as the priests had fully enclosed them. Sophie and I stood side by side at the altar.
“Will you obey?” She spoke with two voices, one that lagged the other. The townspeople knelt. “Leave this place as is,” I said and with a motion of my wrist The Mayor, Susan, and Frank were grasped by obsidian vines from above and became grim ornaments of the hall. “And let it serve as a reminder”.
It’s been weeks and the town is more prosperous, our grim mission still hidden underfoot. In that time, we blessed two other towns nearby and brought more into our fold. The others who resisted fulfilled a new role as fertilizer for our growth. Sophie roams the woods with the other priests acting as both protectors and harvesters of those who try to escape after refusing his gift.
I have held myself up in my new quarters, under the soft glow of our lord, consumed in the books and journals of my predecessor. Though knowledge was given to me it was history I craved so that I may till our future. It seems Susan and her sister were chosen to be in the priesthood, to serve The Mayor. However, in a deal to bring more visitors, she weaseled her way out, leaving her sister to answer the call alone. My disgust was palpable.
I have instructed my followers to spread the word of his gift. To allow those that will come willingly to hasten our planet’s ascension. I wrote the history of my beginning so that you may be inspired and know his love. However, you found this know that we welcome you, and those who resist, know that you cannot prevent this. I have taken steps to make it so and will bid as my lord has.
For I am the avatar of M’heurr and I will see us connected to our brethren in the stars.