Demi-Sin of Deceit: Part Two

Nihila

“Nihila! Stop! It’s useless!”

Marili’s pleads fell on deaf ears as I sprinted out of the small cave we had chosen to be our new home, the payment from Zeella Maladur lost to the storm of a war that Satalari had created. My bare feet slammed into the harsh, icy ground, my feet leaving bloody footprints in their wake, but I kept going, hearing the devilish wail of the ice beneath me as it cracked over and over, the layers beneath me growing dangerously thin.

I wasn’t running from my siblings, but rather, to the one I had lost- Satalari. I could hear her screams on the other side of the lake, in the thick forest that separated us from our old village; the houses destroyed by the nuclear war that had torn through our world.

“SATALARI!” I wailed, still screaming as I stumbled onto the snowy banks on the other side of the lake, “DON’T LEAVE ME!”

Don’t leave me- like how Kodake and Magrach and Irrali had. Don’t be killed by a bear like Hengacha, or drown like Triona. Just come back. There was only three of us fifteen kids left- Marili, Matami and I.

Starvation had taken Paswaral, Jaras and Denvasta.

Illness had taken Castraw and Zariatra.

The war had taken Satalari.

Animals had taken Hengacha, devouring his body in the wintery forest that surrounded us. I’d heard his screams as he’d died.

Triona had drowned when trying to fish on the coast, a wave carrying her out to sea.

How would I die? Would I be alone?

Don’t leave me… Like how I was leaving Marili.

Falling to my knees, my sister quickly catching up now that I had stopped, I sobbed through my hands. Satalari wasn’t in the forest. Those screams weren’t from humans. I had known that, had seen the Mocker Demons before. Mockers, because they mocked us with our loved ones screams.

I’d wanted to run to that Demon, because I couldn’t take being one of the last three humans still alive on Earth. I wanted to die, because if I watched another sibling go, I wouldn’t be able to take it anymore.

Marili’s thin, weak arms wrapped around me, and I threw myself into her, sobbing into her chest, Matami now catching up, his breathing haggard. Marili had always been a sickly child, even before I’d been born, and now, with the starvation and nuclear radiation, she was sicker than ever. All of us were.

That white powder that Marili and Matami insisted was snow wasn’t, it was- I was young, but I’d heard them discussing it before- fallout, from radiation. It poisoned and burnt everything it touched; plants, water, people… It was the same stuff that had left burns down one side of my body, the skin still bandaged tightly, and it was the stuff that was making Marili and Matami and I ill.

Really ill. I had begun to cough up blood, just like the other two, and Marili could barely walk, now. I’d been selfish, making her run out after me.

“We have to go back, Nihila,” Marili whispered in my ear, “We can’t stay out here. A Demon will find us.”

“I don’t want to go back,” I choked out, “I want to die. I can’t do this! I CAN’T DO THIS!”

Matami pressed his hand over my mouth, weakly pulling his spear from his back, grimacing as the forest went deathly silent, the animals hiding. Realising my mistake, I huddled, trembling, against Marili. The bushes, nearly devoid of their leaves now that winter was settling in, began to rustle, the low growl of a Demon making their way toward us. Following the noise with the tip of his spear, Matami stepped in front of us, shielding us.

“Don’t run unless I go down,” he urged quietly, and Marili nodded, pulling me into her arms. Marili was the tenth child, Matami the fourth.

Without a warning beyond a deafening snarl, the Mocker Demon leapt from the bushes, aiming straight for Marili and I. Matami neatly brushed it aside, his spear piercing its throat, the Demon dying almost instantly. My brother grinned, turning to look at us triumphantly, announcing, “Let’s go back!”

Marili stood, still holding tightly onto me, clearly worried that I might melt away like the snow around us.

Just as we made it halfway across, the wind beginning to howl loudly, a storm settling in, Matami, who had been several feet behind us, let out a bloodcurdling scream. Another Demon, using the storm to hide its growling, had crept out. I could see it, lying on top of Matami, its teeth buried deep in his gut, blood spilling out onto the snow.

Without so much as a glance back, Marili began to run, stumbling with my weight in her arms. Matami was gone. You didn’t have to be intelligent to figure that out.

Behind us, Matami’s screams became a gurgle, then a death rattle, and then… His voice, mesmerising as ever, floated to our ears, the Mocker Demon using him, even in death. Marili pressed my face into her chest, screaming, “Don’t listen! It’s not him! It’s not him!”

I nodded, perfectly content to listen instead to Marili’s heartbeat, thundering in her chest, but a moment later, she went down- but not before she threw me. It was more of a shove; a push away from her, away from the Demon who had caught up to her. I skidded across the ice, bouncing on my ass, before rising to my feet, staring at the Mocker Demon atop my sister. My final sibling still a part of this world. She met my eyes, and screamed a single word at me. Run.

I didn’t have to listen to her screams to run for long- I ran.

I… ran…

And behind me, her screams faded away, before a gentle, alluring voice took over…

*

Something was wrong. I could tell even without opening my eyes. Something wrong was in the Tarvenia Sun Palace; its blood was black, its soul blacker, and I had a feeling that it wasn’t the usual array of Demons or Flakars that Zeella threw at us. These things were new, deadlier.

And it didn’t matter that I could hear shouting, or the tortured screams of soldiers far below, because I couldn’t move. I wasn’t tied down, I was laid out on a bed, that much I could tell, and I knew I was in Tarvenia- I recognised the scent. But beyond that? I had no idea, because I couldn’t open my eyes, either.

It was like somebody had taken my brain, and forced it to shut down everything- movement, senses, everything. The only thing left was my powers, or… a trickle of them. A stifled, muffled whisper compared to the roaring scream I usually felt within me.

Down the hallway, I could hear soldiers opening doors, all of them moving too smoothly to be any of our allies. Demonic-beings. One by one, they cleared the rooms, moving onto the next, coming closer with every passing second.

I could sense hatred, too. Hatred, and a deep sense of unending wrath. Agron, the Sin of Wrath, was here, then.

I needed to wake up, but I couldn’t. I was frozen, unable to lift so much as a finger, and while my powers were picking up on Agron and his Demonic-being forces, I couldn’t do anything to stop them.

My powers were buried, out of my control. Was this how Destiny had-

Destiny. What had become of her?! I was in Tarvenia, unable to fully wake, when I could clearly remember the last battlefield being outside of Ordeallan.

What had happened? What was the last thing I could remember?

The Ordeallan Palace, and Destiny, still human- still recovering from when I’d skinned her, although her skin had returned, lacing up her boots.

She’d been asleep when I’d entered her room, her head resting on top of her folded arms on her desk, and I’d heard her heart racing when she’d finally heard me entering her room.

I could remember the way she’d looked at me when I’d suggested she run before the battle.

“I think you should run. Before the battle.”

“I can’t run,” she breathed, sheathing her sword back into its place on her back, “What kind of ruler would I be, then?”

What kind of ruler?! She’d been more concerned about what kind of Queen she’d be over her life!

Destiny hadn’t run- I remembered that, now. Instead, she had given me one final task to do, and, like the fool I was, I’d listened to her.

“How much power do you have left?” she’d questioned.

I reeled my shadows back in, conserving as much as I could as I warily said, “Enough for one big attack, or several small ones. Not much.” What was she planning? I needed to protect her. She’d brought me out of the Void, given me a purpose for the first time in a LONG time. I owed her protection, at the very least.

“I want you to do something for me. One final show,” She’d grinned nervously, then, just as concerned for her life as I was, and I gave in with a sigh. What kind of servant would I be if I didn’t humour her?

“What do you want me to do?”

Destiny’s eyes had flickered with light, and she had watched me for a moment, gauging my willingness to help as she suggested, “Build a moat around Ordeallan. Open Hell if you have too, but keep Agron and his forces out.”

And then, there were blank spaces in my memory, my mind purposefully blocking them out.

Destiny was walking out to Agron, alone, without weapons, to surrender to him. It was a ploy, but just seeing her make that decision, seeing the first few steps she made, tugged at my soul as I circled overhead, keeping the beats of my wings in time with her footsteps.

My orders were simple. I was to wait until Destiny distracted Agron, before using the final few wisps of my power to open a huge chasm, keeping Agron out of Ordeallan. He could build a bridge over it, but that would take time. Certainly more time than he had.

After that chasm was built, I was to fly down, and carry Destiny back across.

Simple. Easy.

So where had it gone wrong? Why was I lying in bed, in what felt like a coma, with some of my memories missing?

Leviathan had raced across the field so quickly, too quickly for my shout of warning to do anything, and he’d tackled Destiny…

I could still reach her before he hurt her, still save her- A spear of Leviathan’s power struck me, knocking the air from my lungs, and I plummeted down, my wings locked together just as he snarled, “I won’t have you meddling with my plans again, ANCIENT! You’re too weak for this battle!”

I hit the ground, choking down a breath as quickly as I could, digging my fingernails in to stop myself from rolling into the chasm I had just opened, my eyes locking on with Destiny’s.

“Run.”

Had she gotten away? That had been my last word to her- Run. Just like it had been Marili’s last word to me. Except my sister was dead, having given herself to save me. I had planned to do the same for Destiny… Because it had been at that moment that I’d understood Marili’s reasoning. She’d done everything to save me, had known Matami and her would die, and had run anyway.

I’d wanted to pass on her gift to the world, her gift to me, ever since then, but my sisters weren’t as kind as they used to be, so I’d found a new one in Destiny.

The door opened to my room, a gasp filling the silence beyond my own mind, and I heard a Demonic-being hiss, “It’s Nihila! The bitch of an Ancient who beat the shit out of Leviathan at Lamia!”

“Is she dead?”

I heard the two Demonic-being’s approaching, their footsteps slow, wary, and I wished I could lash out at them. I couldn’t even heed my own advice to Destiny, and run!

Why was Agron in Tarvenia? Had the city fallen?

What had happened to Tatiana? They wouldn’t have left me here unless something went terribly wrong, so either they’d been forced to leave quickly, or they were… I couldn’t consider that they were dead!

One of the Demonic-beings wrapped their hand around my wrist, feeling for a pulse, and they excitedly said, “Alive! She’s alive!”

“I’ll fetch Agron!”

They raced out of the room together, and I tried to reel in my powers, only to have it whip back and slap me. I felt my body flinch at the inner pain, the first movement I’d made since I’d woken.

I had to get out of here.

I had to run.