Masutap shivered, not just from the unknown domain where she was in but also at the disfigured sight of Leba Vigon. The Prince of Binoria whom everyone had thought dead, whom she'd dismissed as a none issue in her tunnel visioned pursuit of her goals. She remembered Meena saying something about Leba, and Dahli taking the Goddess's words as ones of utmost importance. Masutap hadn't cared and now she wished she had.

"You stink of Order." Leba said with a dry chuckle, he took a step closer to her and Masutap retreated a step back but making sure to stay within the white circle on the ground. There was something off about him, sure his movement and mannerisms were the same but there was something different, something that wasn't on the surface.

Masutap hugged her naked figure to ward off the chill. "I am Order's Champion." She answered. Wondering if she'd committed a grave mistake by admitting as much.

Leba smiled, a knowing grin she'd grown to loath and now terribly feared. "Yes, he revealed to me that you're my half sister, showed me the plans within plans dancing upon the strands of fate. I knew you'd come, I was waiting."

"Who ... who revealed that I am your half sister?" Masutap wasn't sure she wanted the answer to that question.

Leba waved a hand her way, as if waving her question aside. "What you should be asking me, Masutap, is how I may be of service to you?"

Masutap lowered her eyes at the white circled ground, "Service?" She raised her eyes and Leba was gone from before her.

"Yes." He spoke, suddenly next to her, his lips inches from her ear. Cold, terrible cold radiated from him, making her breath plume a white mist. "Service." He took a step to stand before her, turned to fully face her. "You have entered a place of bargain, a place deeper than where the frail Gods languish." He raised his head to the pitch black sky that was just as dark as the surrounding. "I see where you are now, a tavern at the Westlocal. Your body immobilized by poison, blades descending on you." He chuckled. "I can save you, save your life." He lowered his head to her, that gaping black hole where his eye had been still leaked dark fluid that dripped off his chin. "But there will be a price."

Masutap knew that the price for her life was something she would meet without a second thought. But for some reason, she felt she was better off dying than dealing with Leba and whoever the once Prince of Binoria served. "What happened to you, Leba?" She found herself asking.

Silence. He stood immobile, his eyes trained on her. There was a weakness about his shoulders, as if the past several months had taken quite a toll on him. Yet, there was something else. There, beneath the tendrils of darkness cascading about him, and the grim line his lips had pursed themselves into, there was an unspoken tale that echoed with something that stirred longing within Masutap. Power... Unfathomable power, more than Meena could offer. More than any God or Goddess could give. Yet, with that power Masutap was well aware that the price paid for it must have been just as high. There was something missing from Leba. What did he give? Or rather, what was taken?

"When you're at the brink of death," Leba said, a look of disdain marring his features. "You cling to whatever strand of life afforded to you." He waved a darkness smeared hand at his face. "I'm not as handsome as I once was, yes?" He smiled and pointed at his chest, where his heart lay. "My heart beats only once in several spans. Just once. I miss the rhythm of my beating heart, Masutap. I miss the feeling of warmth and the fragrance of women's perfumes and the desire that came with it. And most of all I miss the light, Masutap, there's layers to darkness, that which can be seen and something deeper where he resides."

"Who resides ...?" Again fear laced the question.

"My God." Leba said. "The bringer of the endless night. The purpose for Tunega. The incarcerated God. The God the other Gods fear. The whistle in the void. He who resides beyond the gates of Oblivion. His name is Locha, and he is very eager to walk the realm beneath a sky void of light." His voice morphed, developing a sharp edge with a hint of a raspy bestial growl beneath each word. A whistle sounded all around her, from the darknes around and above. The whistle was soft at first, but it became louder, sharper. Masutap took a step back, standing at the edge of the white circle. One more step and the darkness would have her. She could retreat no further. Seeing this, Leba's features eased and he smiled at her. And the whistle abruptly ceased.

"What do you ask of me, Leba?" Masutap inquired. She couldn't allow it all to end in the hands of the Royal Black Guard. She'd given too much to her cause to have it meet an abrupt end. The nights spent training so she would rise in the ranks of the Royal Black Guard. The days spent waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

"You killed my brother." Leba said. Masutap's breath caught in her throat, suddenly aware that in this domain of Leba's God, the Prince of Binoria might be able to gleam her thoughts as easily as Meena did. What more can Leba do?

"I did." There was no point in subterfuge. She was at his mercy. Masutap felt cut off of Order, no longer able to call on the power of Meena to her aid. This place, of darkness and brief light, Masutap wondered whether she'd stepped out of the cauldron and into the fire.

To her surprise Leba chuckled. "I went to the edge of Tabrimas. I took my brother's soul." Leba raised his hand and the darkness bulged, a figure tumbled free of it, a naked man bound in black tendril like ropes around his limbs and chest. Masutap gasped, he was Desan. A disfigured, tortured Desan. He was all skin and bones, skin flayed from limbs to reveal the thin flesh beneath. His eyes were dark spots in his boney face, he opened his mouth, maybe to breath or speak and Masutap saw that he had no tongue. "I lured him to the gates of Oblivion." Leba said and chuckled. "My God told me how, I ensnared him with promises of valor. The fool, he was already in the realm of the valiant yet he craved more. The ever greedy Desan, see now the price of ambition."

Masutap's eyes left Desan, resting on Leba. And she did indeed see the price of ambition. Leba flexed his fingers and Desan's body arched, twisted as he spasmed, squealing like a gutted rabbit. The dark ropes jerking his limbs about in horrific angles. Leba twisted his fingers and Desan's spine snapped in two. His body glowed a bright gold before he vanished completely. "That's the only down side to stealing him, if he dies his soul is reborn in Tabrimas without memory of his second death." Leba said with a sigh. "So I steal him again and again, torturing him, listening to him beg and plead, until I tire of his pleas and cut his tongue. Always ensuring he is at the brink of death so he may never return."

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Masutap was afraid. It took courage to admit that you're afraid, but even so she didn't feel the slightest hint of courage in her admission. The ability to steal a soul from Tabrimas. She'd imagined the horrors upon the realm, lived through some of them, taken part in inflicting some of them. But she always believed that upon death there was release and freedom from horrors. That what lay on the other side was a promise of eternal tranquility, free of pain. Free of...

"Masutap." Meena's voice sounded suddenly in her mind, a mere whisper, dulled by Leba's domain but filled with fright. A frightened Goddess. A fear Masutap mirrored, creating a strand of order that mirrored Meena's own fear, hence summoning the Goddess. "Relax your features, betray not your thoughts or that you hear me. And do not look into the darkness for he will see me and emerge."

Masutap stood silent, unsure of how to act, or what to say. "SPEAK!" Meena commanded.

"What is the price?" Masutap asked and Leba cocked the brow above his blue eye. "What must I give to ensure I do not die?"

Leba nodded then titled his head to the side, as if listening to something Masutap was oblivious of. "My God wants Alietsi's champion. The Goddess of Depth has chosen a champion, a mortal woman of Remu heritage. She must be bound, she must not touch the sea. She must not drink from the crystal cup. Otherwise things will get... difficult."

He's afraid of Alietsi! Masutap did not know of the Goddess or the fact that she had chosen a champion. And a Remu at that. The realm was changing, the centuries of Binorian domination had come to an end. The Talisi had a champion of the Gods, so too the Remu now. Not to forget the Kolotian, the very embodiment of Madness... And the former Commander, Rehny.

"I have two champions." Meena whispered and Masutap stifled the urge to scoff. She would rather suffer Desan's fate than work with Dahli. Leba smiled, as if having gleamed her thought.

"How am I to stop Alietsi's champion?" Masutap inquired.

"Alietsi has chosen the woman to be her champion but she is yet to complete the trial." Leba answered.

"Trial?" Masutap wondered.

"The Remu woman has yet to drink of Alietsi's cup. If she does she will be... A problem."Leba sighed and he didn't look his age, he appeared weary, burdened. "There are countless strands of fate, and Alietsi's champion is deep in its web."

"And you wish to unravel the web?"

"I wish to annihilate it." Leba replied casually. As one would give an observation regarding the weather.

He is afraid of Alietsi! Masutap took solace in this fact. Here was a man who could rob one of paradise. It was a relief to know there was one whom Leba feared.

"He doesn't fear her, you dolt!" Meena again, harsh whispers in Masutap's mind. "Alietsi alone couldn't stop Locha during Tunega. Yes, her punches drove him into the earth's crust but he always emerged, he always did.”

Then why is Leba wary of Aleitsi's champion?

"Because Alietsi rules the sea, the Leviathans are her creation. And she is the only one holding back the Champion of Sin, hailing from the land beyond the Rankf Sea, for the Dragons cannot cross the sea unless the Leviathans let them."

Alietsi alone couldn't hold back Locha—

"But all the Gods can, he does not want Aleitsi's champion to summon the Champion of Sin. Kaza will tilt the odds."

Kaza?

"The son of Dragons. Pray the Rad es Maalas do not return to the realm. Binoria, Talisi, Remu and Kolotia do not know of the Dragon's discern."

Masutap realized that there was much she was unaware of, she had given her quest for vengeance her full attention. Putting everything else at the back of her mind. Her motives had blinded her, the game she played had layers to it and her focus on only one segment had hidden all else from her perception.

Here, before Leba Vigon, in a place beyond the world she was born and raised in, Masutap realized the error in her ways.

Masutap realized she'd been standing silent, and Leba had been facing her the whole time. A look void of emotion blanketing his features.

"How am I to stop the Champion of Alietsi?" She paused, suddenly realizing her life was still in danger. In the domains of the Gods, time moved differently and this prolonged the descent of the Royal Black Guard's blades on her poisoned, immobile body. "How are you going to save me?" She added.

A large hand, grey - black as if riddled with decay, gripped her right shoulder from behind, four fingers digging just above her breast, the thumb pressed to her back. The hand's touch was cold but before she could react, claws dug into her flesh, tearing through skin and bone as if a blade through water. She was skewered by pain, her whole right side burning. Blood gushed out of her, staining her midriff, thighs and lips. Masutap was lifted off the ground, weighing less than a doll, the gravity's tag on her body heightened the pain from the puncture wounds caused by those clawed fingers.

"Meena, I see you." The one who'd lifted Masutap off the ground spoke, a voice that drove Maustap's mind from the pain, plunging it into a sea of despair, a terrible longing for death's cold embrace engulfed her. And she knew what the opposite of life was at that moment.

The Goddess tried to retreat from Masutap, to sever the strand of Order that linked them through their shared fear. But the Goddess Meena had stepped into a place beyond fear, a place of terror, and the bond of Order forged of terror formed between Meena and Masutap was even stronger than the one of fear.

"Masutap, eyes on me." And her eyes dropped downwards to look at Leba whom she hovered above. "You aren't going to die, we just want to know the face of the woman Alietsi has chosen as a Champion."

"I don't know the face." Masutap whispered through wheezing breaths.

"Of course you don't." Leba said. "But your Goddess does. I heard all you've talked about, and I've seen each of your thoughts. I simply cannot begin to describe how dull your mind is. Obsessed over revenge, how cliché." Masutap urged her mouth to twist into a sneer. "If I were you, upon having received the power of a Goddess, the first thing I'd do is create a paradise for myself, not chase down vengeance against a dead man."

"I don't know the face." Masutap insisted, the pain causing flashing lights upon her vision.

"Ask your Goddess." Leba commanded.

"Ask." The voice again, the horrid, bestial cold voice.

Meena. She called from within.

"I can't, if I feed you her image, all hope is lost."

Meena, please. She felt the coldness creep from her punctured flesh, spreading all over her body.

"I'm sorry." Meena whispered.

THE FUCK YOU ARE! Masutap gripped the rope of order forged of their shared terror, she forced her will upon it, pushing through what the fear of a Goddess might feel like. She felt her essence burning, as if submerged in a pool of lava. She pushed on and found a strand of order, void of fear and terror. She clung to it like a drowning man to a floating log. Then she poured herself into it and she saw Order, Chaos, Love, and Time... Deeper than that she found fire, pure and scorching... Deeper and she found weight, pressure, a lack of breath and light with the abundance of strength. The Depths.

She forced the feeling of depth to form an image, glowing green eyes peered at her from the darkness. Not menacing or violent, just curious. Masutap identified herself as Meena's Champion, feeling who she was in relation to Meena and forcing the emotion into an image that she then released through Order. The favored of a Goddess. The Green eyes gave a response, identifying itself in the same parameters as Meena, only deeper. It then identified its Champion as an emotion of brilliant potential, and the feeling formed an image and Masutap saw a face. I'm sorry. She echoed to Alietsi and retreated back into her form within the domain of Locha where she was greeted with cold pain all over her right side. She brought forth the image of Alietsi's Champion and the pain vanished, the fingers digging into her flesh retreated. She collapsed in the white circle in a pool of blood.

"How did... How did you do that?" Meena inquired. "Do you know what you've done!"

Masutap breathed with difficulty, her lung punctured in several places. I will survive. She forced the thought out of her dizzy mind.

"Edda! So Edda is Alietsi's Champion." Leba said and Masutap mastered all her strength to raise her head and peer at the once Prince of Binoria. "This is quite a small realm, I know of Edda, I have even had the pleasure of speaking to the woman. But back then I thought she'd die so I didn't put much thought to what she had to say." He chuckled, a raspy cackle that lacked humor. "What value is a dead person's opinion? But now I learn she's alive. And not just that, but she has also captured the eye of a Goddess." Leba took three steps and lowered himself on one knee to peer closer at Masutap. "Now," She couldn't take her eyes off the dark fluid trickling down the hole where his eye had been. "It's time to keep my end of the bargain." And the white circle where they were vanished, the darkness swept in and Masutap was lost to the void.

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