by SC Huggins
“It changes nothing,” Yas ignored her and continued, “We know the creator cannot be destroyed, it is illogical. We should focus on the sovereignty instead.”
He retreated.
The Matriarch could do just enough to hold herself still, this was not how it had been in the beginning. Yas and the blasted prophecy would ruin everything. As much as she hated to, she did agree with Yas on this. Why was she even bothered? Mother could control her creations. It was the blatant disregard for her creator some of the Dejis showed that angered her like nothing else could.
“You have no right to put in a word.” Divina snarled. “When you collected that key, you ceded the right to appear before The Ancestral Mother with—”
“When did you become Mother’s speaker? You are only an Utay, do not beg for more responsibility than you have been given,” Yas fired back.
“I do not consider serving my creator with loyalty demeaning servitude.” Divina’s lips twisted. “I am not the Deji fighting to be her equal; you are.”
Yas growled low but when he replied there was no sign of his rising ire. “If I recall, we were all selected in the same manner, Divina. But no, you have forgotten. Let me remind you of another evening meal story. There was no way to measure the ability of a mortal predestined to become a witch to control and compartmentalize their powers.” Yas began with a twisted smile as a white eyebrow rose pointedly. “The Ancestral Mother blessed the individual with it, but it was up to the individual to develop the ability of control; to use their conscience and their powers in the right way, which gave birth to more power. Continued ability to control and compartmentalize made the power grow even larger, until it was impossible for most predestined witches to control. Those who proved their ability to control their powers would be rewarded by resurrection to become khorn creatures; Dejis. And yet, not all who exhibit control are selected as Mother determines the final selection.”
By the time he concluded, Divina’s shoulders and wings were tense, resentment and anger burned in her glittering eyes.
“I have as much right to be here as you do. It is no fault of mine that you are content with your position as an Utay.”
The Matriarch had to admire the way the story was told; Even as a mortal, he had great oratory skills.
“We are here to discuss the vision. Regardless of our problems, I have never kept anything from you,” Mother said.
“We know, Mother, and we are grateful for it,” Yas returned courteously.
Divina and the Matriarch scoffed.
Yas glared at them.
The Ancestral Mother directed her attention on the Matriarch.
Involuntarily, the Matriarch grimaced when her wings twitched in reaction behind her. Without taking her gaze off her, Mother raised her hand in a languid imperious move, and her Utay, Divina, ushered the Dejis out of the ancestral holies.
As Divina walked out, she stopped beside the Matriarch and spoke out the side of her mouth, without turning to face her. “How is it,” she began in a casual tone, “that not long after I asked you about the black stone, here you are shocking us all with a prophecy you alone just happened to see.”
The Matriarch bristled, her wings rising slowly with her agitation, “I...”
Divina turned then to meet her gaze. The depths of her white eyes held so much skepticism it staggered the Matriarch, who could only stare back, speechless. Divina turned away without waiting for a reply.
“The first time I saw the vision, I told no one,” the Matriarch began even before Divina had stepped out with the others.
“You were not crazy then,” Divina snapped as she disappeared into the outer realm.
“Perhaps I am going crazy, I thought,” said the Matriarch as she stared at The Ancestral Mother. “But you never intended Dejis to be crazy, did you? We are perfect.”
She threw her head back in defiance. “This is the third time, so I reported it. If I am crazy, it is your flaw, not mine,” she snapped.
The Ancestral Mother rose from her throne and floated towards the Matriarch, who bowed at once in contrition.
“Forgive me, Mother.”
The back of her neck prickled under Mother’s stare. What was she thinking?
“All right, you saw it.”
The Matriarch rose to meet her creator’s gaze.
“Yes, Mother, I did.”
“You will search for the black st—”
“So, you believe me now?”
“Not because I believe in the vision, but because I gave you the power to see glimpses of the future,” she concluded as she turned towards her throne.
“I have already spotted it,” the Matriarch said.
The Ancestral Mother turned around to stare at her first Deji.
“Again,” she commanded softly.
“I already know where it is,” she admitted in a low voice.
“What else do you already know?” The Ancestral Mother returned quietly.
“That is all I know. Mother, forgive me, but I couldn’t help myself,” she said in a rush. “Especially not when you empowered Yas by handing him the key,” she added.
The Matriarch’s shoulders tingled with tension, waiting for her Mother’s mercy. Recent events had driven her to at least search for the great black stone. She knew the powers of dead witches made the stone more powerful each time their powers were shed into it.
She knew mother locked and cloaked the black stone somewhere on Uwan.
“You are forgiven,” she said and floated backwards to her throne. The Ancestral Mother kept her eyes on the Matriarch and didn’t speak again until she sat on the throne. “You will help me destroy it,” she said softly and inclined her head in a gesture of dismissal.
“The black stone?”
“Yes.”
“But why destroy it now? What about Yas?”
“If I destroy Yas and his followers and let the stone be,” The Ancestral Mother’s eyes narrowed, “might someone rise up to use it as a weapon someday?”
Shaken, the Matriarch withdrew from her Creator’s presence. Why had it taken her so long to admit the black stone exists? And was it necessary for her to go through that inquisition for something she was right about?
DIVINA RAISED HER HEAD and watched with faint interest as the over-dramatic Matriarch floated past her so fast her wings swiped the clouds with a whoosh.
So absorbed was the Matriarch in her thoughts that she took the next flight too quickly and nearly collided with the approaching Yas.
He had been waiting for her, the Matriarch realized and her white eyes blazed in anger.
“I wait in peace,” Yas spread his wings back in a non-threatening stance to further prove his point.
“You wait,” the Matriarch repeated with a snarl, and made to float around Yas.
“You are not the only one who has noticed our Mother’s strange behavior and indecisiveness.”
The Matriarch stopped to stare at Yas in shock. She couldn’t believe his gall, to approach her, the Deji closest to the creator?
“How dare you,” the Matriarch returned in a low voice shaky with her anger.
“I will not tell you I did it for you, we both know I am far too selfish for that,” Yas explained with a smile. “A change is coming and you do not want to be on the wrong side when the new order takes its stand.” His smile disappeared as quickly as the warning left his lips.
“You also would not want to be on the losing side when the battle dust settles,” she returned. The Matriarch’s wings lifted in a slow arch until it hovered in the clouds above the two Dejis. “Our creator is merciful; you can still seek her forgiveness.”
The Matriarch smirked in satisfaction as she floated upwards, ready to take flight. Only she forgot how impossible it was to get the better of Yas in a verbal spat.
“Are you for us or the creator?” The question stopped the Matriarch mid-flight.
“When you can confidently answer that question,” he smirked, “I will welcome yo
u to the new order.”
With that last word, Yas smiled and with a languid flap of his wings, flew away, leaving behind a flummoxed Matriarch.
THE ANCESTRAL MOTHER awaited the arrival of the Matriarch. She had no doubt the Matriarch had seen the vision of her possible destruction by the black stone. Yes, perhaps she could have dismissed the vision and believed Yas’ reason for challenging her sovereignty was noble - selecting the most fitting ruler for Uwan - but for two things.
One, she knew the exact extent of the Matriarch powers. She was perhaps the most powerful of all the Dejis. And two, Sylla. After these visions, the Matriarch reported she went into extended rest, Sylla, almost like a mortal who labored all day on the farm and needed extended rest. It was illogical and not a characteristic of a Deji, a most powerful one at that. Dejis were khorn and not flesh. The restraints placed on mortals by a body that would fail did not affect them. They were powerful.
Fleetingly, an image of her first Deji came to mind, and The Ancestral Mother sighed. The good part of the rebellion was the increased activity in the ancestral realm. No one, not even Yas would complain of boredom.
The Ancestral Mother sensed the Matriarch’s presence just beyond the boundary limiting the innermost ancestral holies from the ancestral realm. She broke the seal, and her Utay stepped in.
Divina floated forward, head tilted down respectfully until she stopped before her Mother.
The Ancestral Mother frowned, puzzled at her odd behavior. She leaned forward. “Divina.”
Her Utay bent until she knelt in the air before her Mother with her head still bowed.
“Divina.”
She finally looked up. And smiled.
The Ancestral Mother’s curiosity raised a notch.
“I have never asked anything of you because,” Divina’s smile disappeared, “frankly, you have done so much it is unfair to ask for more.” She took a deep breath.
“But you want something now,” Mother said softly. As she stared down at the white bent head, warmth for the frank Utay unfurled in her heart.
“Yes,” she began quietly. “I do not have the gift of prophecy, but I do have the instincts you blessed me with,” she paused, “nothing good will come out of this and...”
“What do you want?”
“I came to beg for mercy,” she said in a rush, “both for the Dejis involved and the mortals who will be—”
The Ancestral Mother burst into laughter, loud peals- with a mocking tinge that caused Divina to flinch.
“Mothe—”
“There will be a rising,” she whispered.
“A rising?” Divina whispered.
“Yes,” she smiled, “a rising.” Mother inclined her head and ran a warm eye over the Utay. “Trust me and watch.”
Divina met her eyes. After a moment, she nodded jerkily. “Mercy, Mother,” she whispered and floated away.
Mother shook her head and smiled faintly. She still had good Dejis and—
The Matriarch. She broke the seal, the boundary pushed inward and the Deji closest to her stepped forward. The Ancestral Mother beckoned her closer.
She took another look at the golden seal, and stopped.
“What is it?”
The Matriarch burst into laughter. The seal separating the ancestral realm from Uwan glowed a silvery white more shiny than their white khorn form. Since her ascension, it had been broken just once- during her ascension by Mother.
“How does Yas think to break the seal?” she asked softly, eyes still riveted on the golden seal bordering the innermost holies.
The Ancestral Mother laughed, jerking her eyes from the seal. “That’s not your problem.”
“Yes.” she floated forward, and froze in the air. “Can the key break the seal?”
“No, the key hasn’t been fed in so long, it needs—”
“Your power or mortal blood,” The Matriarch finished.
She moved towards The Ancestral Mother wearing an unusually wary look. When she stopped before her creator’s throne, she tipped her head back and stared into the creator’s eyes. A puzzling light filtered into her white orbs.
“I am still shocked and worried at your decision to accommodate Yas’ demands,” the Matriarch admitted.
“You were worried about the rebellion,” she replied in a lightly exasperated tone, “next you were worried about my decision, next was Yas’ inactivity twenty years since he’s had the key.” she paused. “And now the prophecy.”
The Ancestral Mother leaned forward. “Calm down.”
The Matriarch took a deep breath. “I am trying Mother.”
“I understand your shock at my decision, but trust me, this is the best way to deal with it.”
The Matriarch nodded. “How do we destroy the black stone?”
The Ancestral Mother stared at her Deji. “I thought you would ask about the key to the black stone.”
“I didn’t want to seem too forward.”
The Ancestral Mother nodded. “Don’t worry about the future of Uwan; I created it. Nothing but I have the power to destroy it.”
“The key?”
“It will give him and his cohorts enough power to rule and answer their pointless question, that is all. They won’t need the stone.”
“But I saw it.”
“I know. We will destroy it.”
“Just like that?” The Matriarch looked puzzled.
“I created it,” The Ancestral Mother reminded her softly.
The Matriarch studied the great Mother carefully. “So how do we destroy it?"
"We will need to create a new form of life," The Ancestral Mother admitted.
The Matriarch's gaze narrowed. "What do you mean by creating a new life form?"
"The black stone cannot be destroyed by anything in existence—"
"Which is why it has existed for so long,” the Matriarch breathed in dawning realization. “But,” she continued slowly, “why can’t you destroy it? You created it.”
“I don’t want to,” she replied quickly, “that would pit me against Yas. I will use a life form lower than a Deji to destroy him and the stone," The Ancestral Mother announced fiercely.
"A lower life form than a Deji to destroy the black stone?" The bite of disbelief in the Matriarch's voice was unmistakable.
“Yes, I have been thinking of destroying it for some years now, but had always pushed it back.” The Ancestral Mother gave what would have passed for a shrug on a mortal. “Since you have located it, and with all the interest it is suddenly drawing, I believe it is time.”
“So after all the years of speculation, the black stone exists.”
“This is one reason I never responded to the questions surrounding the stone; you Dejis were speculating on something you should not.”
“Not just Dejis, even mortals.”
“Does it matter whether the stone exists or not?”
The Matriarch looked thoughtful. “Mother,” she started slowly, “why would you build something so powerful and place it on Uwan?”
“It wasn’t always so powerful,” she said softly, “I thought to reside on Uwan—”
“Uwan?” The Matriarch’s words rang with shock.
“Yes, Uwan as I needed to be close to my creation in the physical and in the ancestral realm but I needed more.” The Ancestral Mother remembered with anguish her actions to banish her creations. She met the Matriarch’s eyes. “It was just me, the ewr, the wepias and some ancestral creations on Uwan —”
“And the black stone.”
“Yes,” she smiled faintly, “The flaw was mine, they were unstable, disgusting to look upon and—”
“Why did you create them so if you were going to find them disgusting?”
She shrugged. “I decided to do something about it—”
“You destroyed them,” the Matriarch said harshly.
“I thought of your transition to immortality, to the ancestral realm as Dejis.”
The Matriarch grew more puzzled th
an angry. “Two sets of creation destroyed. Why destroy the creation and start over?”
“They were too imperfect, unfeeling and vacant of love—”
“So, you punished them for what you did?” She was repeating herself but she couldn’t help it. Their exchange was unusual and she wondered how long Mother would allow it.
The air suddenly pulsed with the unknown. The Ancestral Mother felt the foreign burn of uncertainty, and the guilt and shame she felt the day of the last banishment pulsed within her. She had known pain in banishing them, but she wasn’t one to rehash past actions.
The Matriarch was right.
“Yes,” she admitted in a raw voice. “I couldn’t destroy them, so I banished them into the stone instead—”
“To live in the agony of the stone’s power where the powers of dead witches are shed?”
“No,” The creator’s eyes burned in warning. The Matriarch was going entirely too far. “ I couldn’t go through with outright destruction, they were ancestral so they can withstand the power of the great stone.”
The Matriarch opened her mouth, hesitated and closed it again. The Ancestral Mother smiled. “Speak.” A permission and a command.
“Could,” the Matriarch hesitated. Mother waited patiently, they had an eternity anyway. “Could you make such a decision again?”
The creator didn’t need further clarity. She understood the Matriarch’s question. She burned with it, the pain of her doubt. And yet she understood her wariness.
“No.”
The Matriarch bowed. “I’m sorry,” she breathed.
The Ancestral Mother responded with a steady look.
“But I still don’t understand. Which did you create first, the black stone or Uwan?”
The Ancestral Mother hesitated and the Matriarch cocked her head to the side. Why the hesitation?
“The black stone.”
The Matriarch breathed in sharply, shock freezing her thoughts and the air around her. She stopped floating and sank a foot downward. She blinked at her Mother.
“That would make the stone greater than Uwan.” It was more a statement than a question.
Mother shrugged.
“And if the stone is in any way unstable,” she thought aloud, “which might be possible with the power shed into it these past years,” her head came up sharply to meet her Mother’s eyes, “it could destroy Uwan.”