Later, within the Sepulchre of God…

It was a luxurious penthouse, lavishly furnished and brightly lit to serve as the private chamber of the living god Elicia herself, who lived alone within the luxury of its four walls. There were bookcases, sofas, wall fountains decorated with green plants and golden lights, cushions laid generously upon the carpeted floor, and even a lavishly decorated dining area that looked woefully pristine and unused.

And amidst it all, as Anna walked in, it was silent like death. She could hear her footsteps thundering upon the marble floor, and the raking of her eldritch chains that slithered in her wake. And in the distance, facing a window that gazed out into the world beyond, she could see her – Elicia, the living god of humanity, the divine overlord of the Empire of Arcadia, and the golden lady of her drug-induced dreams.

“Centuries past, there once lived an elven sorceress. She made a pact with the Hellbourne, as her lover lay dying by her side.”

Stopping dead in her tracks, Anna remained expressionless before Elicia, who had turned around and deigned to notice her. Whose voice, much like the graceful Ecclesiarch who was her idol in both beauty and poise, was musical and graceful like a winter’s sonata. And yet, unlike her idol, the living god’s words were warm and lilting – full of life like Claire’s, even if albeit marred by a lethargy and tiredness that even she could not put into words.

“She shed her mortality and became one of the Hellbourne, to save him. She failed, and she was claimed by the realm of Chaos.”

And to Anna, one half of Elicia was as beautiful and tall as she had envisioned her to be, being touted as the absolute pinnacle of perfection of the human form. She had golden hair that flowed lusciously down to her waist, and much like the Ecclesiarch who dressed sparingly in white undergarments, one half of her body was adorned lavishly in gold and diamond jewellery. And half of her face was indeed very beautiful, with skin both smooth and light like that of freshly fallen snow, beautiful despite the presence of a scar that ran down her cheek like a bloody tear. The other half of Elicia, on the other hand, much to Anna’s rising horror as she realised its presence, had flesh black as death that had been kept veiled behind richly woven folds of purple cloth. And unlike the divine elegance of her left hand and the diamond jewellery upon it, her right hand was like that of a fiend’s claw, with eldritch runes etched upon her black skin like bloody wounds. Runes, that Anna found strangely comforting.

“You embody her essence now, Anna de la Lune. At long last, you have returned to me.”

Elicia then smiled at Anna. Half a smile, for the right side of her face was enshrouded by a silver mask like that of a half-moon. Where upon its gleaming surface of crystallised moonlight, a mockery of a lady’s features could be seen, bearing another half of a smile left frozen forever in both time and space.

“Welcome home, my faithful servant.”

“I dreamt of you, Elicia…” Anna said, speaking softly as she placed a hand upon her black heart. “I wanted to see you so badly back then, I…”

Her other hand balled up into a fist, and her breaths grew loud as tears formed in her green eyes. She thought of her dream at the playground, and even now, it was still the sweetest of dreams, a dream that felt like the last in a long time.

“I ruined everything, because I wanted…”

It was then, that Elicia did something that caught Anna completely off-guard. She took off the silver mask covering the right half of her face, and she knelt.

“What are you doing?” Anna demanded. “You’re not supposed to…”

“What am I supposed and not supposed to do as a god?” Elicia asked in reply, as she smiled warmly at Anna. “I have failed you in your hour of need. This, I know.”

“I want to hate you, I…”

“I would prefer that you do not, even if I am unworthy of your love.”

“Unworthy…?”

Breathlessly, Anna’s words trailed off into silence as she looked upon the exposed malignity of the right side of Elicia’s face. It had an ugliness and unfathomable evil that she could not put into words, and an aura of dread that was strangely enough, inexplicably mesmerising. She could not bear to look, and yet, could not look away.

“I’m the one… who hurt all those people. I hurt sis, I…”

“I believe you that are a good person, Anna,” Elicia said in reply, as she arose from her knees. “I can sense it – you have a gentle soul, despite everything.”

“No, I…”

“Call it an instinct, if you will. Deep down, people never truly change.”

“What are you saying?” Anna exclaimed lividly. “Don’t be ridiculous, I…”

Taking a step forward, she raised her arms towards Elicia. Bladed chains could be seen upon each of them, their harrowing links coiled around her skin like vicious serpents.

“Take a good look at me, damn you! You can’t seriously say that!”

“You misunderstand me,” Elicia stated, her words solemn and her gaze unwavering as she looked at Anna’s black chains. “Like me, you are Hellbourne. A part of us, at least. That much has changed.”

She placed her left hand upon her chest, and she closed her silver eyes. The gleaming diamonds and lustrous gold chains adorning it, shimmered and gleamed in the light of the chandelier above.

“I meant deep down, in here.”

“In… here…”

Mimicking Elicia, Anna placed a hand of her own upon her black heart.

“I…”

“Yes, indeed. Do you feel it?”

“It’s cold, I…”

“It is. And yet, you care about Claire de la Lune.”

“I still… love her,” Anna said, her words a hoarse whisper. “Whatever I am, whoever I become… I’ll do it, just for her, and her alone…”

“Then, despite your inhumanity, you are still Anna de la Lune.”

Between them both, after what felt like an eternity of silence, Anna nodded solemnly.

“I’m sorry, Elicia.”

“I forgive you,” Elicia stated with a smile, as her silver eyes stole a glance at her silver half-mask and its frozen smile that had been left despondent upon the floor. “And I am sorry as well, that you had to see… this.”

“Your… face?”

“Yes. It is why I stay in this room, away from the people who worship me. You know, I used to work at a children’s hospital before all of this… Empire. Centuries ago, they used to call me… ‘Mother Althea’. But they are all afraid of me now, the children and everyone else.”

In silence, Anna watched as Elicia walked up to her with a smile upon both halves of her face. There was a sadness, a sorrow within it all, that she only could wish that she could understand. That if only, she could hold the living god close in the same way Claire would for herself, in all those times in the past when tears were in her eyes.

“Alas, that is in the past,” Elicia said, taking Anna’s hands into hers. “But enough about me, or anyone else. Tell me your story, would you not?”

For the longest of moments, with her hands held in the grasp of hands both eldritch and divine, Anna stood in silence before Elicia. The living god’s touch was warm, yet cold, upon her skin. And eventually, she knelt, closing her eyes just as Elicia too, knelt in turn, her silver eyes shut as they held each other close.

“There are tears in your eyes,” Elicia remarked quietly. “I can feel it upon my skin, your sorrow…”

“It’s… it’s not that I’m sad,” Anna answered, her voice a hoarse and tearful whisper. “It’s not that I want to cry…”

As Anna spoke of her past, Elicia remained silent. The Hellbourne’s words made her think back to the children’s hospital of centuries past, from a life lost to divinity. Where she, as the human princess Althea de Escaflora, had volunteered as a priestess and healer despite her father’s wishes. Now, even though her memories of the past were blurry and broken like a puzzle of glass and shadows, she could still recall so lucidly, the smiles and laughter of the children under her care. And perhaps, most lucidly of all, the flames and the screams, the amputations, the mercy killings, and the burials made in shallows graves dug into the frozen earth.

“It’s just that I… don’t want to remember.”

It was the elves of the Alyssian Empire of old who had done it, led by the will of their Emperor who sought to drive into extinction, the humans of Melodia. And in the ensuing war between men and elves that followed, the coming of the Hellbourne and the Corruption of the world, and her subsequent Conquest of it all, she had expected to fight monsters every step of the way. Only to end up fighting people just like herself, who had amputations, burials, and mercy killings of their own, done for the fallen that they loved with all their heart and soul.

“Of that time… I wish… I wish I could just go to sleep.”

Now, ever since those dark days and her ascension to godhood as Elicia, bathed in the blood of the gods of old, she had learned one truth – that everyone, even her enemies, had people they loved. That everyone was good to the ones they loved, and that the only thing that truly mattered above all else, was the strength to fight.

“Forget it all, somehow.”

Indeed, how could she, a god, fault anyone? It was clear, what had to be done, and she had done it. That there would be peace upon the world, by submission and subjugation. And sanctuary for all, by means of absolute power and domination. With the Hellbourne, with her Archons, and with the many and near-endless armies that marched ever onward in her name, this had been made reality upon the world of Melodia.

“Or that maybe, I… I’ll wake up someday…”

And yet, despite it all, there remained an emptiness in her heart. It lingered within her divine consciousness, even after the scars and ugliness left upon her when she claimed her place as a Daemonlord of the Hellbourne. And this emptiness remained, long after the Veil wrought by her own hand that kept the predations of most of the Hellbourne in check, and under the command of her Black Legion and its Lord General that served as her Archon.

“That it was all, just a dream…”

For that, and so much more, she could only wonder. And as she gazed deeply into the sorrow held within Anna’s green eyes when silence eclipsed the room once more, Elicia wondered if they were but kindred spirits. That for the sake of their loved ones, no evil was ever beneath them. She wondered, truly, if Anna felt the same way.

“I am aware that it is not my place to ask this of you, Anna de la Lune,” Elicia said after a while, breaking the silence between them. “But I… would like you to join me, to serve as a Vizier in service to one of my Archons.”

“I…”

Pulling herself away from Elicia’s embrace, Anna stepped back from the living god. Her body and her chains began to quake erratically, as she stared silently into what felt like sorrow and desire combined, within the silver eyes of the living god that returned her gaze.

“Make my enemies yours, Anna de la Lune, for they are,” Elicia added, as she extended to Anna, the diamond-adorned beauty of her left hand. “They hurt others, like yourself and your elder sister, and they have no place in this world that is mine.”

“Serve… you?” Anna asked in reply, her voice shaking as her gaze wavered before the shimmering beauty of the hand that had been extended to her. “I… don’t want to hurt anyone else. And yet, I’m aware of what has been done for my sister. I… I want to protect her. No matter what it takes. She’s all that I have left in this world. Even if it means…”

“That no evil, is beneath you.”

“Yes…”

“Sin to beget sin, and the shadows will stain what remains of your mortal soul.”

“What else can I say, Elicia?” Anna answered, grimacing as a single, watery tear trickled down her eye. “I wish for her, even if I no longer deserve to see her, to be happy.”

“Agree to serve me, and for Claire de la Lune, I will see to it that it shall be so,” Elicia stated, her words grim and stoic. “Serve me, and everything you have done, will not have been for nothing. This, I promise to you as master of the Hellbourne, and god of this Empire.”

In silence, Anna took a step forward. Eyeing the gilded beauty of Elicia’s left hand, she extended hers towards it in turn, only to suddenly pause at the last second.

“But first, tell me…”

“Yes?”

“How… how will you do that?” Anna asked, as tears formed in her green eyes. “How will you make it all mean something in the end?”

“If I am being honest, I do not know,” Elicia answered grimly. “But I am a god, and I have given you my word. The only way I will not honour it, is when I am dead. And even then, I will see what I can do for you.”

In silence, with Elicia’s words upon her mind, Anna tearfully eyed the hand of Elicia that remained extended to her. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the servants of the god that had abandoned her in her time of need had still come for her elder sister in hers. Saved and sheltered her, loved her when she, the little sister, could not. They had preserved her in her time of need, when everything else lay upon the precipice of despair and oblivion.

And that alone, was good enough. Good enough, for her.

“I… I am yours, mistress,” Anna said, smiling despite her tears, as she knelt before the golden lady of her dreams, and accepted her hand. “Forever, as long it’s all for helping her.”

Looking upon Anna’s smile, Elicia smiled as well. She felt a great sense of relief within both the eldritch and divine halves of her body, replacing the constriction within her chest. For indeed, it was true that as a god, she would honour her words. And just as she had given it to Anna, she had promised her people, as per the tenets of her Codex Elicia and her Law, that she could protect them. And in light of that, if Anna refused her offer, Elena and Iris were a just a room away. It had to be so, for what she could not have, she had to destroy. It was the only way she knew to protect those that she loved. If only, that those she cherished, would never want for bliss.

And now, at least for now, this was no longer a consideration. On the other hand, she could feel within herself, a great agitation as she thought of her Archon, the Sorcerer King Terask Dagon. Of his treachery against her and her subjects, that would have to be dealt with.

“It pleases me, that the both of you have come to an accord.”

Anna turned around, and she covered her mouth in surprise. Her idol, Iris de Escaflora, had entered the room. Her graceful footsteps had been most silent upon the marble floor, and amidst her conversation with Elicia, she had not noticed it at all.

“Mistress.”

“Handmaiden,” Elicia said warmly, putting away her anger so as to address Iris with a smile. “Have you brought what I have asked of you?”

“Of course, mistress,” Iris answered, the silver jewellery adorning her nearly-naked body jingling softly as she prostrated herself before Elicia. “I sensed a great burden off your chest, and I presumed it to be an appropriate time to enter.”

Elicia nodded. Alongside Anna, who watched on with bated breath, she watched approvingly as the silver masked servant who had followed in Iris’s wake, set a platter bearing a massive ice-cream sundae upon the previously unused dining area.

“Your intuition is indeed correct, my dearest Handmaiden. And now that you are here, listen carefully.”

In quiet awe, Anna continued watching as Elicia moved towards Iris. And she felt, within her black heart, a yearnful stirring as she watched them speak softly with their eyes shut, holding each other close like sisters. Like lovers, of two halves forming a complete whole. They spoke with such passionate yet quiet grace, that she found herself thinking of her elder sister, and the nights they had spent talking heart-to-heart in a home that was once theirs.

Truly, was there no way to go back to what once was? This, she could only wonder as she watched her idol leave the chamber. Leaving her, and Elicia, without her divine grace.

“She is my other half,” Elicia stated, as she looked at Anna. “Another incarnation, of half of the light that was once mine.”

Looking towards the silver mask cast aside upon the floor, she raised the talons of her right hand towards the right side of her face. Her scythed fingers, scratched bloodlessly and idly upon the grotesque horror of her black flesh.

“Cast aside for this… salvation. The Hellbourne craved a god, and I needed their heretical strength to serve the people who pray to me.”

Wordlessly, Anna moved towards Elicia. She embraced the living god, who simply smiled.

“I’ll be lying if I said that I understand any of this…” Anna said with a smile, her chains quivering slightly as she looked up towards Elicia’s duality. “All I know… is that you need this.”

“I appreciate it,” Elicia said in reply. “And yet, with you… I would not dwell in the past. Come.”

Following in Elicia’s wake, Anna made her way over to the dining area. It had been set up nicely for two, and now that her full attention was upon it, she could do naught but cover her mouth in sheer amazement at the number of flavours and toppings that had been most meticulously prepared upon the ice-cream sundae. It was enough, as a feast for her eyes, for her tummy to growl both loudly and yearnfully.

“I understand, that you have met me immediately upon awakening,” Elicia stated, as Anna rushed to sit down. “I had this prepared for you from the kitchens. The children, they used to like such things, as did I…”

With a silver spoon in hand, Anna slid it excitedly into a scoop of strawberry ice-cream. Tears glistened in her eyes, when its cold and creamy sweetness melted upon her tongue. Never in her life could she recall such flavour, or such sweetness! At least, not for the longest of times.

“Thank you… mistress.”

And as she savoured the taste of vanilla and strawberry, she helped herself to another spoonful of ice-cream. With Elicia looking on in silence, her smile grew wider as her chains began to shiver and rattle with mirth. This, she felt, despite of all that had been done and had to be done.

“I’m glad…”

Indeed, this road of damnation had yet to be travelled in full. And perhaps, someday down this road, she could finally look her elder sister in the eye and embrace her once more as her sweetest little sister. That somehow and someday, there would be a way to return to what once was, from a lifetime long past would one day be within reach, once more. And for that, for whatever was to happen next, it was all in the hands of fate.

In the hands of Elicia, forevermore.