‘The air… Glorious fresh air… Thank the Gods for that.’
It then finally dawned upon her where she was. Like re-living a nightmare, Agnes found herself in the place her fate had been sealed five years ago. Standing before a Goddess who knew only honesty and integrity.
Her courage failed her. Agnes fell to her knees, bowing respectfully for the mighty Goddess of Darkness as she descended the dais on a cloud of floating shadows. A thin veil of mist shrouded the slate floor and now played around the handmaiden’s legs, tickling her skin wherever it made contact.
The handmaiden schooled her features, transforming her face into the picture of humility. A reformed soul, she reminded herself, was who she was meant to be. Her entire existence relied on her performance in these next few moments. If she failed in her task, she may as well hand over the weapons of torture herself to the Goddess of Blood and Bone.
Agnes had heard the screaming in the dungeon, the countless souls begging for reprieve. Mercy that would never come. The term did not exist in The Pitts of Moor and it was certainly not a kindness that Nushka ever practiced.
Agnes recalled every slash, every whip and gush of water as her lungs had been filled by the wendigast handmaidens. How much torture would Nushka subject her to before finally abandoning her to the ether? It would be a kindness, to end her, rather than subject her to eternal damnation.
If she failed to convince the Goddess of Darkness that she had seen the error of her ways, she would forfeit her chance to see the Land of the Gods.
Shadows writhed around the Goddess of Darkness’s voluminous ball gown of darkest night, the diamonds bedecking her corset dazzling like stars. She was power personified. Her hair of darkest night swathed behind her like silk. No claws extended like her sister. Instead, Lilith masked her cunning and power behind clothes she wore like amour.
The Goddess of Darkness approached Agnes curiously, surveying her with a long sweep of her emerald gaze. Where Nushka’s emerald eyes were serpentine, Lilith’s green eyes were softer, more contemplative. The Goddess drank in the image of the soul before her and smiled.
“Welcome, Agnes,” she said with a silken tongue, drawing out each syllable of her name, savoring the moment.
Agnes’s heart raced, and she cursed herself for projecting such weakness, fully aware the Goddess could hear every thunderous betraying beat.
“Sister…” Lilith remarked, acknowledging Nushka’s existence, but barely paying her any heed.
Nushka bristled at the dismissal, but remained beside Agnes, her shadows writhing frantically. She clearly hated every moment of submission before her sister, but she held her tongue. The only time Agnes had ever seen her do so. Nushka had finally met her match.
“Greetings, sister,” Nushka responded in a patronizing tone.
‘Holy rutting Gods. How powerful Lilith must be to disrespect her sister as such and get away with it.’
Lilith chuckled wickedly as if reading every thought in her mind.
“Oh, I most certainly am,” Lilith grinned.
Agnes blanched. ‘Fuck.’ She froze, the realization of what that entailed hitting her like a tidal wave.
“Indeed…” Lilith purred. “Don’t worry, Nushka wasn’t aware until now of my range of skills either. Mind reading is simply another side effect of my discernment gifting. It has its uses, especially when vultures dare to enter my domain and attempt to deceive me.”
Beside her, Nushka’s eyes widened slightly, the only sign of surprise she would let show. After all, Agnes was merely a pawn to her, a toy to discard if she failed. In fact, Nushka would likely delight in her failure, as much as it would ruin her plans. But the chance to torture her favorite plaything, a way to work out her building frustration, was like dangling candy before the Deity.
“Oh, my dear sweet sister will not be torturing you,” Lilith interrupted her thoughts. “At least not yet…” Lilith spoke with liquid warmth, reveling in the upper-hand she had over both Nushka and the soul before her.
Nushka launched forward, grabbing her sister aggressively by the arm, forgetting herself for a moment. Claws extended, she drew blood. Ever so slowly, Lilith tilted her head towards her sister. A beast sizing up her prey. She did not spare a glance at the wounds that had already begun clotting thanks to her immortal power, her eyes penetrating into Nushka’s.
“Unhand me, before I lose my patience,” Lilith counseled with deadly calm.
Rigidly, Nushka did just that, but she did not back away.
“Do not forget, Lilith,” Nushka hissed, her top lip curling back to reveal her jagged teeth, “that you are not the only powerful Deity in this realm. Do not toy with me like one of your subjects.”
Nushka’s hair raged behind her like a wall of serpents readying to strike, her shadows gathering ominously.
“Do not threaten me in my own domain, sister,” Lilith spat before turning on her heels and stalking back up the dais.
Even seething, the Divinity seated herself with liquid grace upon the throne of bone. Near identical, Agnes realized, to those in the Goddess of Blood and Bone’s castle. Only larger, unfinished.
Nushka did not respond, though Agnes could see her quaking with rage. She backed away a step, wanting to place as much distance as she could between herself and the two immortals. Trying desperately to not draw attention to herself.
Lilith closed her eyes for a moment, drawing a deep breath to calm herself. Such a human mannerism, though Agnes realized the first humans were birthed by the Gods. It was more likely they had inherited the relaxation technique from their creators.
The Goddess of Darkness opened her eyes moments later, the ire in them banked to a faint glow. Her shadows seemed to have eased their frenzy, and her features calmed to a picture of grace and authority. The mask of the Goddess. An image she had honed, no doubt, over her eons of existence. The only sign of her lingering irritation was the way she tapped her fingers against her throne, a trait she and Nushka shared. Perhaps that too was a calculated action, a way of showing her growing impatience towards the Goddess who was blatantly wasting her time.
Even if Agnes spent a millennium living amongst the Gods, she did not feel it would be enough time to learn to play the game as well as they did. Yet the task ahead of her… Agnes could only hope that somehow, something miraculous could be achieved through this meeting. So far, she didn’t like her chances.
Lilith turned her attention to Agnes, her steely eyed gaze penetrating deep to the core of her being, appearing to evaluate her worth.
“There is no point lying to me. I am not interested in wasting my time any further. I am interested, however, in you telling me the truth of why you think you are here. I do not care what my sister has promised you. If you attempt to deceive me, I will smite you where you stand and encase you in my throne of bone.” The Goddess’s words dripped like honey as she leaned forward. “Do you understand me?”
Agnes gulped. Her hands began quivering and she hastily clasped them behind her back. Agnes dared a quick glance at Nushka, but the Goddess only speared daggers towards her. Agnes quickly refocused her attention on Lilith, the less intimidating of the two Deities. She bit her lip and barely perceptively nodded her head.
“As you wish Goddess…” the handmaiden bowed.
*
15
The Goddess of Darkness
Like mice trapped in the claws of a mountain lion, the Goddess of Darkness had Nushka and Agnes right where she wanted them. She relished the moment, savoring the opportunity to lord her authority over her wicked sister. The ire in Nushka’s gaze was truly magnificent. How she managed to contain herself… Lilith was still surprised. The scratches to her arm were nothing; the result of a child throwing a tantrum. But watching her sister finally crack and then holding power over her? That moment had been priceless.
Nushka opened her mouth to spit some spiteful retort but Lilith silenced her with a glare that had caused many souls to fall at her feet begging for forg
iveness. Brow furrowed, Agnes avoided her eye contact.
The pitiful soul’s presence intrigued the Dark Goddess. After all, anything was more interesting than the day-to-day cataloguing of souls and monitoring the realms. But what truly intrigued Lilith, was what she had seen within Agnes with her gifting. She wasn’t sure even Agnes was aware of it. Nushka certainly had no clue.
“We had hoped to deceive you to gain passage to the Land of the Gods,” Agnes confessed.
Lilith released an exasperated sigh. “Yes, that much is clear,” she groaned. “But why?”
Agnes shuffled on her feet, avoiding eye contact.
“The truth is…” Agnes stammered, then pressed her lips together. Whilst fiddling with her hands, she took a steadying breath. “I thought that if I helped Nushka, that I could escape The Pitts. It would be as if I were free or as close to free as someone like me can be.”
Agnes’s shoulders slumped and she wrapped her arms around herself. Lilith inched forward in her chair.
“I want a better life for myself. I want to be more than I am. I want to be happy,” Agnes continued. “I hate living in constant fear and in Moor, it is inescapable. Scheming and manipulating, it’s all that I am good at. I’d hoped that if I could help Nushka then she would reward me with power. I thought that if I were powerful, I would finally be happy… I don’t know if that’s the case anymore, but it certainly couldn’t make things worse,” she confided.
“Interesting…” Lilith mused, leaning her chin on her hand. “You’ve got a long way to go to redeem yourself. Your heart is still rotten. But the seeds of change and hope, have begun to stir within and that is a curious notion indeed…” Lilith trailed off.
Agnes’s eyes widened as she relaxed her arms by her side. Jaw clenched, Nushka stepped forward.
“Enough of this nonsense,” Nushka lashed out.
Lilith scoffed and leaned back in her throne.
“We both know she is not redeemed so let us stop wasting time and get down to business. For too long we have been denied our rightful places amongst the Gods,” Nushka pushed on. “We were sentenced to live lives that are befitting of slaves. We are capable of so much more,” Nushka urged, pitching the same rubbish she had time and again.
Lilith couldn’t help rolling her eyes and began cleaning her nails as Nushka droned on with the rest of her arduous speech. The aim, no doubt, to win her favor and cooperation in whatever scheme she had concocted this time.
“I have heard it all before, Nushka, and I find myself growing tired of your sacrilegious talk about revolting against our kin,” Lilith reprimanded her. “What makes this plan any different?”
Nushka straightened, dark power burning in her emerald gaze.
“This time,” the Goddess of Blood and Bone clarified, “I have an army ready to attack at a moment’s notice. This time, we have a plan to nullify the Gods’ powers. This plan will succeed,” she promised. “Together, you and I will take our rightful places as Rulers of the Gods. All I need you to do is play your part. Convince Archè and Aria that this pathetic soul is redeemed, and then join me in battle. We will be Queens, not just of the Gods but of all realms.”
“We?” Lilith narrowed her eyes.
Her shadows stilled. Lilith had heard most of it before. The offer of shared power was new, and the plan was mildly intriguing. But Lilith knew deep within there was no sincerity behind Nushka’s offer.
“Yes, sister,” the Goddess of Blood and Bone pushed on. “Together. We will be a team so formidable, no one will question us,” Nushka declared with such fierce determination. The glimmer of hope in her sister’s eyes, so strong she just might believe her.
A way out, that was what her sister offered. A way to end this pitiful existence as Guardian of the Gate to the Afterworld. Lilith did not think she would live to see the day Nushka shared anything. Perhaps that day had finally come.
‘Maybe The Pitts has frozen over,’ Lilith thought to herself.
Curiosity bloomed within Lilith as she weighed the value of her sister’s words, carefully considering if the risk was worth the reward. To risk nothing would be safe, it would be comfortable. Yet Lilith had endured too many years of being comfortable. An existence with little to amuse, without the company of others, starved of all pleasure and manner of things that made life worth living. Her existence in the Hall of Souls, was just that—an existence. It was not the eternity she wanted for herself. It was not her destiny.
Lilith peered into Agnes’s eyes, reading every thought running through her mind, weighing her value and ability to carry out the plan she saw laid out within her mind. The chance of success was slim. The Gods, especially their parents, were not stupid. They had created the mortal realms and those within them. Aria and Archè were tenacious, but they too had also grown comfortable, their rule unchallenged for far too long. They did not care about their own daughters’ fates. In all her eons of guarding the Gate, not once had the Rulers checked on her or offered respite from her role. The Rulers did not care about her welfare, so Lilith reasoned it was time she stopped worrying about theirs.
Lilith took a deep breath, her heart fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings. Anxiety pooled in her abdomen as her mind, gifting and heart all fought a fierce battle within her, until she finally came to a decision.
“Let’s make the Gods pay,” Lilith declared, allowing her shadows the freedom to roam, their eagerness for battle like an echo of her own heart. “And once we take down Aria and Archè, we can finally live. No longer will I be cast aside. No longer will I be banished to this realm, charged with judging the dead. The Gods have forgotten how incredibly powerful we can be, but we will remind them of our strength.”
Agnes smiled hopefully. Nushka’s returning grin was wild, and for a moment Lilith doubted her decision. But as quickly as the guilt surfaced, she bit down upon it and discarded it on a phantom wind. Things needed to change, and perhaps unleashing Nushka upon them was no less than what they deserved.
Guilt morphed into anger and thirst for revenge. For the first time since Lilith’s sentence to the Hall of Shadows, she saw a way out. Agnes’s words had resonated with her, and reminded her of the hopes she had once had for herself. The possibility of a better life dangled before her like a delectable wine.
Relishing the moment, Lilith gradually inhaled and exhaled, closing her eyes momentarily. When she opened them, her gaze met with her sister’s, both her heart and mind had aligned. Her life had not been right for an awfully long time. Lilith cursed herself for enduring such an existence for so long without complaint. Apparently, all it took was a pitiful soul and an egotistical, power-hungry sibling to pull her out of her stupor.
“Let’s play,” Lilith declared.
Agnes released a sigh of relief at her words, but Nushka cackled with wicked amusement, and Lilith could already see all the atrocious thoughts roiling in her mind.
“I think you and I are going to make a formidable team, sister,” Nushka grinned, her jagged teeth glinting in the candlelight of the Hall.
“I think so too, Nushka,” Lilith smirked in return.
*
Part Two
The Land
of the Gods
16
Agnes
Sunlight.
After being trapped in the darkness for so many years, Agnes had almost forgotten there were still places where the sun shone and people thrived rather than endured. The handmaiden had long given up hope of feeling the sun’s gentle rays on her face, rather than the scorching heat of the volcanic plains. Agnes had certainly never dared dream of seeing flowers bloom again, or having natural light to illuminate her path and fend off the darkness.
This place, this realm in the sky floating amongst the clouds, was the exact opposite of The Pitts. For five long years, The Pitts of Moor, where evil lurked around every corner, had been her home. A place where concepts such as safety and comfort did not exist. Here, in the Land of the Gods, anything was possible. and if their
plan went well, soon it would all be theirs.
The air was crisp and fresh despite the sunny day. It had been years since Agnes had seen clouds; light and fluffy, drifting in the pale blue sky. During her mortal life, she had taken night and day for granted. In The Pitts of Moor, the only source of light was from the lava seeping out of the plains, or the many hearths and bonfires within the bone castle. The sun and moon were never visible amongst the perpetual smog. She was not even sure if they existed there at all. Agnes had spent so many years trapped in the darkness, deprived of life and light, that sensations from her human life now felt like an affront. The feeling of warmth seeping into her skin rather than scorching it surprised her.
“Welcome to The Land of the Gods,” Lilith spoke gently.
Agnes was lost for words.
It had been years since Agnes had felt a gentle breeze caress her cheek and the sensation caused her to shudder. The smell of recent rain hung in the air and she inhaled deeply. The absence of pain, replaced with pleasant warmth and contentment felt surreal. Nushka’s gift of sensation was limited in this realm, seemingly barring her destructive tendencies. So strange, the effects this unfamiliar world had on her. Even her semi-transparent spirit form seemed to glimmer in the sunlight pouring in through the castle balconies and many open windows.
The Land of the Gods: a story of myth and legend brought to life. A place of dreams and endless possibilities. Agnes recalled reading about the mythical castle in a fairy tale. She had dismissed it at the time, like so many others, as a bedtime story and nothing more. A mortal lifetime ago, back when she had been taught by the Priestesses to believe there was only one Deity, The Goddess of Darkness, who watched over all her creations—good and evil alike. Tales of Medusa, Ilbis, and other Gods were passed down from generation to generation, believed to be nothing more than folktales by humans. Stories designed to keep children from misbehaving. How naïve she had been as a human.
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