L.
The Eastern Wastes
On wheels of rusty plates their mottled caravan inched their way down the desert road. Vagari found it funny that the near end of their journey felt like the beginning. He sat at the tailgate of one of the transports, his chitinous legs dangling off as he watched the Megacity fade into the distance. He turned to the empty spot beside him and imagined the three-eyed girl, Trois, sitting next to him, taking a drag off a cigarette. “With the way the sun sets down behind its head,” she had told him, “it kinda looks like an angel.” Now he knew better, that in a way, they really were angels: of destruction, of rebirth, sent down upon them by the GOD of Gods to scour the world in flame and reseed it with their blood. It was weird to think the mad preacher had been right that day, that GOD had sent his angels to punish them for their sins – just not the ones he had in mind.
All the horrors of humanity probably meant nothing to The First. All their mistakes, all their wonders, in the end were null and void when came the time to weigh their hearts against the feather. No, their sin wasn’t anything so biblical. Their sin was simply being unpalatable. Something had corrupted them that fateful day two hundred some years ago and broke the cycle. They were no longer pure – no longer ‘human’ in the eyes of the First, no longer part of the chain that fed into the oneness that was the Godhead. And for that, the world was to burn.
Vagari remembered the words, the feeling, the tale he had experienced in the Abzu: as worlds burned; as stars collapsed; as galaxies sunk back into the boundless black depths of the cosmic river, forever darkening the sky, the First fed. But that glimpse into Nintu’s unfathomably long history wasn’t all he had seen in the space between spaces. No, he saw something else, something just as voracious as the GOD of Gods. Ummu-Hubur Ti’amat… The words themselves, in a sort of strange turn of events, hadn’t been Adamic, but Sumerian. It meant something along the lines of ‘Mother of the River’, with the river in question a reference to their own version of the river Styx. Ti’amat was the mother of monsters in the old myth, and spouse to the Abzu. Tehom seemed to understand more about the words than she let on, but ultimately admitted to not knowing as much as she’d like. She seemed to think it was in reference to their last incarnation on Earth during the dawn of human civilization, before what she called ‘the Cataclysm’.
Vagari didn’t find it comforting that she knew about as much about their previous incarnations’ downfall as he or Nintu had – which was next to nothing. Vagari couldn’t help but openly wonder if this entity had a hand in their demise as she seemingly had the GOD of Man. Tehom’s reply pretty much confirmed as much. All of the Weħǵhekw, Nintu’s Qliphoth, were recalled from their corners of the world back to her seat of power on Peter the 1st Island. There were a lot more of them than Vagari had envisioned – thirteen in total: six greater, and six lesser, with the mysterious Tzalmavet, some place in between. Tehom put an emphasis on that fact, with a hiss as she spat out ‘bhaskwrengh’ – bastard or misborn. Vagari surmised she meant it as both in this case.
Blinding light was the last thing they had seen before the world caved in around them – all thirteen killed in one blow. Initially Tehom had thought it was some kind of grand attack from orbit, that their mortal enemy Enki had found them at last, but Vagari’s retelling of his time on that dreadful island had quashed that idea. Now she was sure it was the same harrowing attack that felled the Mother Goddess Nintu. Whether it was the same creature either times, this Ti’amat, or not, she couldn’t rightly say.
The Abzu was seldomly direct with its answers, and having led him right to its feet, Tehom cautioned taking it at all at face value. She too seemed to agree that the creature had taken a special interest in him – something that did nothing to comfort him. It was following, and it was watching, and there wasn’t anything either of them could do about it. So, with that being said, Tehom had labeled his dive into the Abzu a failed one. He had the face of their enemy – possibly – and a name, but nothing on how to break its influence over the Godhead. Three months trapped in that place for just about nothing.
That led them to where they were now, rolling across the Eastern Wastes to a place he’d rather avoid – the ruins of New Houston – to face her and her legion of angels in battle. Some foolish part of Vagari thought that maybe he could still reach her somehow, Elizabeth. Maybe she would hear him out? Another part of him doubted that was possible, doubted that she even existed. Chances were, she was just a fabrication, a relatable character to get him where she needed him to be. That’s all it had ever been, bate for a foolish but capable creature.
Vagari stared down at that empty spot beside him and attempted to steel himself for what lied ahead. He reminded himself with that empty spot that he couldn’t save everyone, not even the ones he desperately wanted to. He didn’t know rightly why the thought had even crossed his mind, of saving her, Elizabeth, but he did his best to banish it. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. No matter what face she took, this time he would strike her dead, if that were at all possible. Tehom had had her held prisoner for years on the back of that biomechanical demon, but in all that time, time enough that memory of the Tevat had been passed down the generations, she hadn’t managed to kill her. Or maybe killing the Godhead was never the idea at all?
BP broke his train of thought as she scrambled back besides him from the front compartment. “We’re still a ways off,” she announced with a mixture of excitement and fear in her voice. “I’m not sure how I should really feel about it…”
“You and me both, BP,” he replied with a huff. Vagari looked over his shoulder, past the flapping canvas canopy BP had slipped out of. There were at least four more caravans ahead of them, each filled with workmen and equipment. “I’m not sure if I should feel comfortable heading back with so many people, or terrified. I can only imagine what Tehom said to them to get them to join, or, rather, how much she’s paying them. Has to be a whole helluva lot though, on the money side of things.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Has to be a whole lot of money,” BP said with a click of her tongue. For a moment they sat in silence, but she would look up to him and break it. “How are you feeling?” she’d ask suddenly. “Are you still having the… visions?”
“Dreams we’ll say,” Vagari suggested sternly before saying with a smile, “Visions makes it sound prophetic. They’re just echoes, like Tehom said. Glimpses into other wheres and whens. But I am feeling much better, all the same. Anxious though, and eager to see all this end.”
“Glad to hear, but you didn’t answer my question,” BP prodded, both figurative and literally, jabbing him with a stubby finger. “Are you still experiencing them?”
“Nothing gets passed you, does it?” Vagari answered dryly before sliding a hand down his alabaster visage. “Yes, but they’re further away now than earlier. Jeez things are moving fast now…. Uh – but it’s… It’s mostly just sounds now,” Vagari stammered out with a smile. “Voices. Sometimes something just out of the corner of my eye. They’re fading.”
BP looked at him sidelong as if she were trying to find some crack in his offered truth. “Alright…” she said with a warry shrug. “But don’t overexert yourself!”
“Me?” laughed Vagari. “What about you? Your job is much… much bigger than mine. How about you don’t overexert yourself?” Vagari paused and let his shoulders drop with a sigh. “We’re not ready… This was supposed to be in a year, not three months – three months I had no part of.”
“Well, it’s here whether we like it or not,” BP offered shortly before adding, “So the estimate of repair time was off – just means she’s as less prepared as we are, right? Maybe this is a good thing?”
“Maybe… But still,” Vagari replied denyingly, “this is happening all too soon.”
“It’s happening,” BP exclaimed, throwing her stubby arms up. “All we can do is do our parts and hope for the best! I’m ready. For the first time in my life, I feel prepared – able. I’m ready to do my part. We’re going to win this, Vagari, I know it!”
Vagari eyed her sidelong. She had changed in those three months. He believed her. Vagari nodded surely and then said, “Right – okay… I’ll follow your lead.” BP sighed and put a gnarled hand on his knee. “I know you’re not feeling ready,” she said softly. “How could you be? You were lost for three months in the void. That’s three months more training I got. But don’t doubt yourself, okay? You’ve always done your best when you’re put up against a wall. You’ll do fine, better than fine. You just need to dive deep and release the power within. The rest will come naturally.”
Vagari stared in silence for a bit. “You’re more mature than you were before,” he’d say, breaking the silence. “You’ve grown so much. I’m sorry I left you alone with her for so long.” BP smiled with her eyes, saying, “I’m not. Tehom may be an irredeemable villain, but she’s a very good teacher. I’ve learned to accept myself, my abilities, and who I am thanks to her. That’s why I’m not afraid. She was right, it’s like fate – this was what I was meant to do, Vagari.”
“What you were meant to do huh?” Vagari echoed. “I don’t know if I believe in fate.”
“Then believe in me,” BP stated, tightening her grip. “Believe in me.”
“Always,” Vagari admitted with a worried smile. “It’s my part I’m worried about.”
The Angels, the Godhead’s holy legion; Vagari didn’t know how, but it was up to him to keep them off BP as she completed the monumental task set before her: asserting control over the equally colossal being that roamed the ruined city. Tehom had offered some insight on the matter, but nothing she had told him could dismantle the fear built up from experience. He had watched their slow march across the Earth, watched in horror as the world was burned step by step, the angels scanning all there was with their torching gaze. Those had been Archangels – Dyew-ħrerseħwr Tehom called them – colossi sent to dismantle governments and countries, to scatter the worlds populations to the wind. But those were only the first wave of the GOD of Gods’ conquest. Secondly came the ħrerseħwr – the average foot soldier, hunter-killers made to purge the world of what was left. They weren’t nearly as domineering as their larger kin, being only twenty to fifty feet instead of a hundred or two. They were no less dangerous, however. Afterall, they were the ones Xu had reverse engineered his soldiers light-rifles from. That had been one of his main tasks apparently, to engineer weapons that could damage them. Vagari felt the scar at his side – Xu’s mission accomplished.
“It’s going to be okay,” BP said, calling his attention back to the present again. “We’ll overcome this just like everything before! We just got to follow the plan. Once I take control of the Leviathan, we can call in the Synbio soldiers and the battle is won!”
“Your confidence is inspiring,” Vagari said half in jest. “But what about after? The world will still be a terrible place with Tehom and Xu calling the shots, just a terrible place for a little longer. The lesser of two evils…”
“And your optimism is encouraging,” BP replied with a forced laugh. “Afterwards… We rebuild! We build a new world – one like in our dream. Maybe it won’t be perfect, but nothing really is. Look at me, I’m not perfect, and I’m as close as it gets!” Vagari laughed and shook his head, saying, “No – no, you’re definitely perfect, just the way you are.” He clicked his tongue and whistled sharply. “Our dream huh? Definitely needs some work. I don’t know if I believe in that dream anymore. No matter what I do, I seem to only make things worse instead of better. After the book, after finding it at last… I just don’t know if it’s possible anymore – going back, I mean. Clean air, blue skies, a song on the breeze… My dream was just that, a dream. If the Abzu has taught me anything, it’s I need to wake up. Things aren’t going to be as they were, or… rather, they never were. The world was never like that, peaceful, harmonious.”
“That’s why we need to build a better one!” BP exclaimed, tossing her hands up in the air. “Dreams seldom make much sense when we wake up anyways. I once dreamed I was a frog but also a bus – but not a frog bus. It was two distinct states of being. Stupid, I know, but it made sense when I had it! I think dreams are meant to inspire, rather than being blueprints. And that blueprint? It evolves over time, to the point it may not even look the same as we envisioned it! But, in the end it’ll be what we need.”
“That’s a wise way of saying just go with the flow,” Vagari stated with an acknowledging huff. “Really think it’s as simple as that?”
“Absolutely,” BP confirmed, giving him a quick elbow. “It’s as simple as that. You taught me that what really matters is that you never stop trying to do the right thing, trying to make things right. You have to be the good in the world! And every bit of good you put out there is like a brick, you know? It’s just like the mind structures. You build that better future not all at once, but brick by brick.” Vagari wrapped an arm around her and tugged BP closer to his side. The sun was setting now, falling fast towards the horizon. “Be the good in the world, huh?” he echoed with a smile, not taking his eyes off the rainbow hues of the dusking world. “When did you become so wise?”