He was floating in space for what felt like eons. He stared at the stars and galaxies that shone in the endless backness, mesmerised by the beauty of it. He wished he could float there forever. His worries seemed so small in the vastness of space. A movement out of the corner of his eye forced him to become aware of his situation and his stomach somersaulted when he realised.

He was floating in space.

He turned to look at the shape and knew instantly who it was courtesy of the surge of energy inside him.

It was the porcupine goddess. The goddess that the witches served. He had seen her before in fragmented dreams but this time it was different. This time it felt real.

Her sheer magnificence made his knees quake and he would’ve fallen down to his knees if there was any ground to fall onto.

She was giant in size and very much resembled a porcupine in her form. However, the blackness of her quills was the blackest black he had ever seen. If you managed to distill the blackness of tar a thousand times, you still would not manage to obtain the darkness that swirled around the quills. The white parts of her quills glowed silver, putting the moon’s light to shame. At the tips of the billions of quills on her bodies, he saw various colourful forms that made her seem like a galaxy herself. There were planets, moons and entire galaxies pinned onto her quills from which he could hear the wailing of men of different species. The wails did not break his eardrums and he suspected it was because she had muted the sounds for him.

“Ah, we finally meet Vessel. Face to face that is,” she said in a powerful voice that seemed to come out of her whole form. The mouth on the small (relative to her size) beady-eyed head did not move as she spoke.

Faizan tried to move his mouth but no words came out.

“Speak, Vessel. Don’t be afraid. You are a man but it does not mean you can’t speak to me. I chose you as a Vessel which means you are worthy.”

Faizan tried to speak and this time managed to do so after having his voice crack quite a bit. “Who… who are you?”

“It is hard to explain who I am, especially to humans who are not equipped for understanding most of the universe. I am what you could call an ethereal being that scours the galaxies, searching for worlds and constellations where patriarchies still exist. I was one of the first after Satan to rebel against God and to protect myself from the male abominations that are all over the galaxy, who mount themselves on any female form they saw, I grew spikes that protected me. Many creatures were skewered onto my spikes until eventually they all gave up, including God. I have spilled a lot of blood and empowered females to protect themselves. I did so with the Amazonians and where I failed…” She did not make any movement but he detected her gesturing towards her quills. “...I amassed quite a collection where men suffer more than any hell that God has made for men.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It was a lot of information for Faizan to process but he went on. “Why am I… the Vessel?”

“You were made the Vessel after I learned a very important lesson. Your world, Earth, is primitive which also makes the men on it extremely stubborn. Their ego prevents them from giving up their tyranny of the females of the Earth. I have tried very hard to empower the women on Earth but they were defeated and weakened significantly. I was about to make it part of my collection when I decided to make one more attempt. It is during this attempt that I realised that in order for the women to succeed on your planet, they need to ally with the few good men that are left.”

“You think I’m a good man?”

The goddess laughed. A booming laugh that filled him with dread. “Did that stroke your ego that much? You don’t need to deny it, Vessel, you are a man after all. But yes, a good one compared to most. I have seen deep into your heart and seen that even in a lack of accountability, you would not become an animal.”

Faizan felt himself greatly appreciating her words. He felt a strange reverence to her, as if he accepted her as his goddess. The energy that filled him up was very calming and healing. He felt like he could take on the world with it flowing through him.

“I have also seen great love in your heart for someone. Someone who just broke your heart.”

Faizan felt his heartstrings clench at the reminder. However, just as the pain invaded his entire body, it was replaced with the healing dark energy of the goddess. She had moved in closer and he could feel her soft touch on him. It felt just like Laila’s comforting hand had on his face.

“Laila is a great woman,” commented the goddess. “In many ways, she is just like me. It is why she has replaced that misled leader they had before. The one who gave into the patriarchy because of that foul bearded man.”

Faizan felt his curiosity peak at that. Had someone actually loved that asshole maulvi?

“Yes, she did,” sighed the goddess. “She was groomed by him from a young age which corrupted her mind. She was strong and resisted however much she could but eventually she gave in. She gave the maulvi the cursed quills so he could be the one to become part of the religious zealots that uphold the patriarchy. He did it for his own gain and she helped him. In return, he slit her throat and began the witch hunt for my daughters.”

“But I took this senseless tragedy as an opportunity to begin another war. This is why I had you become a Vessel. I sensed the goodness in you the moment you touched that golden statue of me.”

Faizan remembered the golden statue that he had seen in the dining room of the landlord’s house.

“I knew then and there that you would be useful for me, and so I began to shape your destiny.”

“Shape my destiny?” Faizan blurted out when the realisation occurred to him. “Were you the one who made Hina get over me and.. and… become a lesbian?”

“Not at all. It is true that I had a hand in her showing her true colours but I never made her one. Remember, the cursed quills bring out our inner desires. It brings out men’s desire for destruction and dominance, and brings out women’s desire to break the shackles of that dominance, that much you have seen. But it also brings out personal desires, which in the case of Hina and Aleena, were their desire for each other.”

“Why didn’t she tell me then?!” Faizan demanded, fearful of raising his voice but doing so anyway. He hoped the goddess would not let the soft touch go away. She didn’t. “Why did she lead me on? She was inside my head!”

“It was never her intention, Vessel. I instructed her to do so by creating that connection with her and don’t worry, I have broken it. She did love you in her own way, it was just more platonic than what she thought. And by the time she realised, it was too late. For her and for Aleena. So, they decided to bury it deep within and get on with their life.”