Over a hundred lifetimes she learned to become cruel in those lives where the good killed for her. Often after all was done there would be one final victim. In these multitude of Verses Catalina would kill herself. This too became an exciting part of her games. She had to be careful with this because if she was not she would be lost in the lives she was ending.
She would set her deaths up in different ways. Perhaps she was in a house that would burn down after she trapped herself inside. Sometimes she would tie herself to stones and throw herself into a river. It was interesting to follow the life that was about to end until the very last moment. It was a special thrill to be close to deaths door till the last second. It teased her and tantalized her. However, there was also the additional cruelty of ending an innocent’s life. There was the innocence of the alternate her who was lost as she took over their reality just to play her devious games.
Dark Catalina knew that somewhere in the mind she had invaded they could see her actions. She shoved their souls to some part of their brain where they became helpless witnesses. They were lost in their minds watching as their life went in a strange direction that they didn't quite understand. They felt as if they were out of control with their actions.
Catalina knew the moment she stepped out of their Verse and left them to their circumstances as they died in those last moments they would be fighting helplessly for their life. This understanding pleased Catalina greatly.
Vanity was not Catalina’s obsession. Vanity did not driver her. Blood drover her. Blood lust was more apt the term for it. She pushed herself to see the redness flow. All Catalina craved was death. All she longed for was the chance to kill. She was a hunter.
There were only few Prekoraciti in Null Verse. They were the ones who could move into other Verses physically or as energy. They were always rare. None were as gifted as Catalina but others like her were sent into the Multiverse to be trained in different universes. They went there not to try to capture but simply to conquer and kill. In some of these places they sought out those who could not help their cause but of who might be able to help the ones who lived on the Island on the Sea of Glass. They had learned of the awful city of goodness centuries ago and had been slowly working to undermine its quest.
They wanted to eliminate as many of the prodigies as they could who might be used by that terrible city. They may not be able to hasten the death of all there was immediately but if they acted wisely they could leave a scorched universe where all beacons of hope had been completely eliminated.
Catalina was now 26-years-old. She had begun her ritual scarification when she was twelve. Only the greatest in society were granted this privilege. She had scars on her cheeks. She had tattoos of rank all over her body. She was a living breathing testament to the death that she caused. In her society only the greatest murders lived beyond the age of twenty-five. It was a sacred honor. It was almost as sacred as those who in their society became the sustenance to the murderers.
Catalina had gone into many worlds and killed multiple geniuses. She could locate all the would be saviors in a world and when she did she eliminated them with passion.
Early in her life she had been assigned a special mentor. His name was Mikolaj. He was a large man who was charged with training her in the ways of murder and in their blessed religion of death.
She started training with him when she was young. As time passed they became lovers. She would carry him into worlds and they would slaughter families and then make love in their homes before leaping off to the next Verse.
When the time had come Catalina killed Mikolaj as was the custom of her religion. The time of the sacred harvesting had begun. At this time Catalina was seventeen years old. She was old enough to become a lead assassin. For an apprentice to advance they must kill their master.
Catalina went into the city to hunt Mikolaj. He knew she was on her way. He was waiting for her in his chamber. When he saw Catalina enter he smiled. As he looked at her a single tear streaked down his face. The tear was not from the sadness of knowing his life was about to end. It was a tear of joy from seeing Catalina in her beauty. She had become who destiny molded her to be. She was a perfect bringer of death.
As she approached him Mikolaj knelt before her. He bared his neck to her. Catalina raised her sword. For the first and only time in her existence Catalina hesitated. It was hard to say why. It was as if something held her hand. It was as if some force prevented her from bringing the sword down. Perhaps some would call that force love. In that instant a million thoughts flew through Catalina’s mind. One was the shame that would befall Mikolaj if she did not do this. To raise an assassin who could not kill would make him a failure. His whole life would be one of shame. He would have trained a weak killer who could no kill.
As she realized the shame that would follow him if she did not act Catalina brought the sword down swiftly and cleanly. She knew it was a kindness. She tried to make the cut as clean as possible. She was an artist and the cut was so clean that it took a few moments before Mikolaj’s head realized it was no longer attached to its body. Slowly Mikolaj’s head slid from its neck and fell to the floor. Moments later his body slumped over.
Catalina stared down at the head of the one who had once been her teacher and then her lover. She looked at the lips she had once loved to kiss. The head lay on the floor with the eyes wide. Catalina knew…the man she had shared so much of her life with was still not dead. His mind still worked. His brain still functioned. She thought of staying with him till the last of his life passed. But she could not.
At that moment it was Catalina who felt a tear falling down her cheek. She turned and walked out of the room. It was only later that it occurred to Catalina that the last thing Mikolaj would have seen before he died was Catalina walking away. This thought would have tormented Catalina if she did not always fight to push the memory from her mind. For one such as Catalina words like love and loss could not be something that defined her.
Even know the memory angered her and she pushed it away. She looked to the tower where the great one resided. She thought of the day that she and Mikolaj had been dispatched to get him. The people of Null Verse had located the Verse in which their messiah resided.
So much can hinge on a moment. If they had reached the prodigy a moment sooner they would have been able to claim him wholly. Then their victory would have been instantly fulfilled. However, they had reached him moments too late.
Catalina stepped into that one Verse where the perfect mind of Patrick Resnick existed. Mikolaj was with her. Catalina was still very young at this time. She was still learning about her abilities. They stepped into a Verse in a place called Louisiana. She saw a house with a porch.
Suddenly Catalina saw movement. She did not realize who it was at the time. She would learn later that it was the feeble one from that terrible city of glass. He was running. In his hands he had a child. In his hands he had their prize. An old man was chasing after them. The old man carried a gun with them. He was shouting at the feeble one as he ran.
Beside her Catalina saw Mikolaj make a decision and move swiftly into action. He had his gun with him also. The feeble one was already disappearing into a tunnel. Even a bullet would not stop him at this point. However, Mikolaj would not let the ones from the Sea of Glass have their all-important prize. Mikolaj’s pinpoint accuracy was able to hit his desired target from one hundred yards away. When he fired his gun the child’s head exploded.
Catalina was in awe at how beautiful a site it was. It was beautiful watching this genius child die. Even as a child, Catalina could not deny the aesthetics of the moment as the brilliant mind was torn in half.
The feeble one disappeared through the tunnel and back to his wretched island. The servants of death were left with nothing other than the knowledge that they had robbed the ones of the Sea of Glass their prize.
At least they thought they were left with nothing.
Mikolaj was thorough. He dispatched the old man an
d then went to the house to kill the woman who lived there.
Catalina remained outside as he did so and it was she who discovered it. Catalina was always keen.
She found it near the tree line where the feeble one had disappeared. In the grass Catalina discovered a piece of skull. It had flown from the boy’s head. It had been part of the child’s skull. Catalina called Mikolaj to where she was. When he arrived to the spot that she was pointing to he picked up the piece of skull that lay there. As he did so he saw something that sparked his interest greatly. There was something cradled in that piece of skull. A large chunk of brain remained in side what had once been a part of the child’s head.
Roughly eight minutes had passed since the brain had exploded. After six minutes the brain was dead. However, in their city under a frozen ocean the people who dwelt in that dark place had found ways to use science to survive the un-survivable. In the quest of their faith they learnt to break the rules of the natural order so they could become perfect weapons of God. They needed to do this so they could thrive with the barest resources. They needed to prolong things. In some cases they needed to reanimate them.
Mikolaj immediately covered the brain in Glacies. This was a paste which could freeze pieces of brain tissue. This suspended the fragment of brain from decaying any further.
Together they took their discovery back to their city. There the fragment of brain was studied in the cold. The brain was thawed slowly and electrical pulses were fired into the brain fragment to allow neurons to begin sparking. When their scientists were sure the brain was able to function again they began to repair it. Parts of it were regrown. They had learned this from the careful study of lizards who regrew parts of their body. Other parts of the brain were reconstructed using the brain tissue of others. It was dark science at its highest level. Slowly they added layers of mind from people who were willing to sacrifice themselves. Slowly they repaired the brain one piece at a time.
Beneath it all...beneath the layers of malice and death was the genius mind the people of Null Verse had sought for generations. That mind regrew and this patchwork brain became whole.
All that was needed afterwards was a vessel for this brilliant mind.
Luther Francis was the vessel that was selected. He was old but he was still strong. He was one of the Dukes in the city. He petitioned the Governor to allow him to be the one who became the great vessel of the living weapon of God. He willfully sacrificed his entire family as sustenance to the city in order to receive this great honor.
Luther’s body was kept alive while his skull was excavated. Once his skull was empty they filled it with a new mind. They filled Luther’s body with a new soul.
Catalina reflected on her existence. When she was first brought to this place she was locked in a room and she was given scraps to eat. The Order of the Dao did this to see how she survived. She was often hungry in those early years. One day Belili took her from her cage and told her she had survived the trials. She was told that she was special. She was promised that she could achieve true greatness.
She remembered those early years often. She remembered the hunger. However, now she liked the feel of hunger. It made her feel alive. It made her want. It made her crave. It also made her delight to remember how far she had come.
Catalina closed her eyes. She began searching. She was searching for the next land of beauty. She was searching so she could reach out and extinguish the life and hope that resided there. She was a goddess in her own way. A goddess of slaughter.
What was greater than lethal beauty?
***
The Philosophical Principles of Death. The Scripture of Farinata Uaegli Abertio.
Gospel 000005
My society which slept and dreamt that they lived in sunlight believed much of the negative aspects of the human condition were extinct.
They believed racism, hatred, jealousy, and lust were no more.
We were asleep.
We were awoken to the truth.
Humans are not mechanical creations meticulously crafted. Humans are shaped by biology, evolution, and the environment. Our flaws cannot be separated from the animal organisms that we are derived from. Our desires and predispositions cannot be removed.
These things have been labeled as anti-virtues. They have been called sins and vices.
Lust.
Jealousy.
Greed.
However, they are so aligned to the creatures that we are that we cannot erase them. We can only try to suppress these tendencies.
A man sees a woman. He cannot help but lust after her. He cannot help but desire her. He may suppress this desire. However, to say that a man can truly eliminate this desire is a fallacy.
The Lord chose to show us the truth of rage. The old Society of the Sun was filled with false truths. The Society of the Sun learned to quiet its rage.
The rage always remained. It was merely buried.
Our sin was that we tried to tame the human beast. We tried to calm it. But the beast is still a beast. The heart must pump. The blood must flow. The adrenaline will rush.
To suppress our urges and desires was against the will of God. We were never created to be perfect. We were never created to be machines.
If the Lord wanted us to be perfect we would never die.
But our lives are to flare up before we pass into the more perfect realm that God has created for his imperfect children.
Verse Eighteen: Aria
In the city in the dark a Monster sat upon a throne. He had been the one to slay the hero of the Island on the Sea of Glass. It was he who struck down Patrick of Verse Zero. The Monster felt some joy as he slid the blade into his other self’s skull. He had felt joy at seeing the pain in the eyes of who he could have been.
The Monster was flesh and blood with the form of a man. But he was so much more. The Monster’s mind was perfect and brilliant. He could already see the path to the Threshold of Degradative Concurrence. The Monster understood that there was only one thing that could possibly interfere with his journey to that place. There was only one variable the could impede his progress forward. That variable was himself. The other version of himself that lived in the glass city could have interfered and become a variable that even the Monster could not fully account for. A variable could not exist in this equation. Things needed to unfold perfectly for the Monster to reach the Threshold.
The Monster and Patrick were the same mind split. They were two halves of the same soul. One piece of that soul was raised in a city to save all creation. One piece of that soul was nurtured to kill all existence. So, before his great work began the part of the Monster raised on a Sea of Glass needed to die.
However, Patrick was such an elusive variable in the equations of time and space that even one as brilliant as the Monster had difficulty locating where he was at any given moment. So, the Monster sought out the one known as Catalina of the Sea of Glass to help him pinpoint his other self. Her mind which recorded everything in such beautiful detail helped the people of Null Verse establish and understand the movements made by those who lived in Verse Zero. With this information the Monster was able to find the exact moment and time where he could eliminate the variable of himself that might interfere with all he sought to achieve.
Now Patrick of the Sea of Glass was no more. Now there were no impediments to the Monster’s ultimate goal.
When the Monster drove his knife into Patrick’s mind and extinguished his life all future patterns locked into place. Nothing could change the events that were going to unfold. It was laid out now perfectly in a pattern of cause and effect. Only the Monster with his great mind could see the pattern. There was now nothing that was to occur that was outside of his awareness.
When he killed Patrick, the Monster knew every event that would transpire going forward. Events were locked into being. The Monster knew the feeble one Joshua would step into the Verse where Patrick had died and save the one known as Sarah.
The Monster
knew that the people of Verse Zero were currently in a state of panic. He knew the one known as Sarah was in mourning. He knew one named Rahim had died. The Monster did not have to witness these events with his eyes. He could see them in his mind. He knew without doubt that it was all occurring as his mind saw.
Almost a month had passed since the Monster struck down the other version of himself. A city of glass was reeling. The Monster was cold but he took some delight in the panic he knew they felt. He delighted in the hope of the good being extinguished.
In this dark city under a frozen ocean the Monster was a king. He was a king created. In the end that is how it is with all kings. A king is created by his subjects. With no subjects there is no king. With no one following there is no leader. This great Monster King sat upon a throne that had been made specially for him. It was carved of bone from children. A hundred families had sacrificed their children in homage to the King. The King often sat in silence upon his throne of the dead. He sat in silence and he thought. In his mind he traced patterns. The patterns were already there. He simply admired their elegance.
The mind of the Monster King was unlike anything in the Multiverse. The mind of the Monster could take into account all things. It could trace things that were to come. The mind of the Monster was so great that it saw things to come as if they had already occurred. The future was not predetermined but it could be determined by every action taken. The Monster understood all the actions that needed to be taken for him to reach his goal.
His goal was the Threshold. The Monster was cold and analytical. However, even the Monster could not help but be excited by the prospect of reaching the Threshold. The Threshold defined the Monster. Countless geniuses over time had sought to reach it. Only a select few had glimpsed it. Only one mind could see the path to take them to that place which existed beyond time and space.
Prisons of Stolen Dreams Page 26