《Danse Macabre and Unlife》Sidestory 1: “The goddess who fears the dark”
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Heimar, capital city of the eternal empire, stood encircled by mountain ranges with three paths leading out of it, in the north, the west and south. The land was called the cradle was it called, the birthplace of the empire and the god empress, now a striving metropolis of progress. And in the centre stood the eternal tower, reaching upward as if to grasp the skies. It’s glowing white tiles defying the mortal world in the luminance and beauty of craftsmanship.
It was the home of the goddess Saron. The mother goddess created by faith. The centre of her domain.¨
She lived high above the mortals on the highest floor of her tower. Surrounded by opulence and ministers who handled the everyday affairs of the empire she had built.
It was nighttime; the city slept beneath her.
She was tall, around 6 feet tall, with hair of pure white like the tower built for her that cascaded to the floor. The hair was tied up to form a long ponytail with multiple straps along the hair to keep it from flowing out.
Her features perfect with unblemished skin with a milky colour that had a hint of rosiness to it. Her features were gentle and motherly, with a charm of an adult woman. She wore no makeup, as she was the representation of human beauty and sensual charm.
Her long red dress caressed her impressively curved body that was not possible for a mortal and look as healthy as she did. Her waist was by no means thin, but because of the immense curves, it made it appear so.
The goddess’s orange eyes glowed in the dark room filled with smoke from her pipe as she lounged upon a divan. She stared at the dark purple tapestry of her abode while desperately inhaling her long pipe to calm herself.
Her arm trembled as she exhaled from her pipe.
Yet the sedatives could not rip her out of her nightmare that she re-lived upon the darkest of nights. A night such as this, where no moon over the night sky.
The pipe fell to the floor as she closed her eyes and whimpered while she crunched up in to a ball, hugging her legs desperately as she relived it once more. The nightmare of her birth.
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She found herself once more in the eternal darkness, hidden deeply within it and asleep. Yet aware, floating in her embryonic state in the dark abyss.
She felt the immense beings flow around her. The old ones. Stirred by her existence in the ether, they looked for her. Like beasts catching the scent of prey, they sought what they deemed as intruder to their realm and prison.
She hid herself deeper and deeper into the darkness of this realm in fright of beings far greater than she. Hiding what felt like eons, only surviving because of her feeble existence, too small for the great beasts to notice.
Yet it was not safety as the beasts prowled the abyss for her. Their roars causing the realm to rock.
She slept in the abyss among the beings that hunted her till one day she felt a call.
A call beyond the dark abyss, calling to her to them. She stirred, desperately reaching form within the abyss towards the light formed by the call.
The beasts sensed her as she grasped the link and rushed towards her in a maddened rush.
She desperately swam within the abyss towards the light, her salvation from this place of titans.
And she reached the opening, barely, as the jaws of a behemoth snapped closed behind her.
She landed on her chest as she plopped into the physical realm, nude.
She saw light for the first time, coming from the cave exit she was. She was no longer in her embryonic vessel in the darkness. She reached towards the light again, seeing a hand rise…
Her hand.
In wonder, she looked at her body, sliding her hand over it and felt her touch glide over herself gently whilst looking around. She was not alone as a man in leathers was before a statue.. A statue representing.. her.
She stared with wide eyes at the man who was on his knees, bowing to her. She felt a certain understanding reaching her, a connection in between her and this man.. and many more connections coming from beyond the cave.
The man did something. He.. spoke.
“My goddess..”
Entranced and overwhelmed by so many new stimuli, she felt something on her ‘face’ move.. a mouth. She formed some undefinable sounds and stuttering as she tried to answer the man. She felt and understood what the man had said. The knowledge slowly entering her from the connections.
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“I-I a-am g-god-goddess, Saron.” She squeezed out. “I know who you are and why you have called me, great chieftain.”
“I thank you oh great one for answering my call.”
Saron rose and stumbled a step at a time, her long hair trailing behind her before she fell in front of the man, the great leader of her people. She reached her hand and caressed the bearded man’s face as her vision blurred and she felt her face grow damp.
“No, thank you for calling to me! Thank you for bringing me to light and to you! My beloved creators...” She whimpered, still overwhelmed by all of this. She found her reason for existing and they had saved her from the darkness. Her beloved creators.. She embraced the man and kissed his lips as her tears fell upon him. She knew the man now, and her duties to be the wife to the greatest chieftain of man and lead them forward. To lead mankind to rise from their humble beginnings.
The man.. No Hero King Athanaric reached around her and reproached the embrace. They parted from their kiss, and Athanaric caressed her face gently before helping her up and guide her by hand towards the exit.
Saron’s face was lit up by excitement as they grew closer towards the exit, as she wished to see the world beyond the cave. The true world and all of its miracles.
Yet as they neared the mouth of the cave, the air grew thin and hot. She gasped for breath as she stubbornly made forward with her husband. Her excitement ignoring the discomfort in the air.
The air burned her and suffocated her. Step by step it grew until they reach outside. The world struck back, the mana of the world sensing her presence reacted.
She fell down and let a silent scream as she stepped mere feet’s away from her sanctuary of worship.
The world burned her, suffocated her. Her unblemished skin scabbed and her fat boiled while immense pain came in waves without respite, with thunder clouds forming in the skies above them.
She felt their presence in the air. The old ones and their origin. AND HERS! Yet the world forsake her, denied her the right to exist in this realm! Treating her like an outsider!
Athanaric had dragged her back into the cave and was trying to calm the hysterical goddess in his arms, who had almost instantly regained her beauty and unblemished skin upon entering her domain, but not her mind.
She was clawing her face with wild abandon as never ending tears fell. Her skin repaired itself instantly, and she felt no pain now beyond the pain in her heart as it began to shatter piece by piece.
She could not leave this dark cave, reminding her of the abyss. The world had forsaken her, hating her. A WORLD! HAD DEEMED HER UNWORTHY TO WALK BENEATH ITS SKIES! FOR WHAT?! For existing?! Why? All she wanted was to see the world after the darkness, to feel the sunlight upon her skin, to understand the feeling she had grasped from the connections!
IT MAKES NO SENSE. Why whywhywhywhywhywhywhy… It feels so wrong. I- .. I feel so cold.
Saron looked up in a daze at Athanaric. “Athanaric, help me. The world.. it hates me.” She stammered, barely able to say a word, as her lower jaw shook in wild abandon. She placed a shaking hand upon his face, feeling his warmth. “Do you hate me too?” She asked, grasping for a lifeline to grasp upon and not drown in the sea of despair.
Athanaric grasped the hand on his face and caressed his face with it while looking at the wide-eyed goddess in front of him.
“No, my goddess.” He said and placed a kiss upon her hand in reverence. “Your servant and husband will stand with you against the world.” He declared as he took her in to his embrace to assure her of his loyalty.
His assurances calmed her but for some reason she could not feel any warmth. She barely felt alive.
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