Allison was still shaking her head when she arrived back at the group. The priestesses were discussing next steps. Dimi was laying face down on a bench while Zebra was trying to figure out how to get the fusion reactor back into his Supremacy. Allison waved to Miles who looked shocked to see her. She didn’t stop to talk she just went to Dimi and pulled out her multitool.
“Zebra, I got this. I promised I’d give his fusion core back.”
Zebra moved away. Allison quickly unscrewed the plate and pulled the nearly depleted e-clip out and slid the fusion core in. She checked the power gauges on the sides before securing the fusion core and then replacing the cover plate. She moved out of the way and Dimi stood up and stretched.
“Oh yeah. That’s it. You’re alright kid. I’m never flying with you again though.”
Allison laughed. She noticed one of the Sauroids approaching with a plasma cutter. They were heading to the steel tube with the sleeping vampire. Allison rushed in front and blocked the would-be can opener.
“You shouldn’t do that.”
The grey-scale who seemed to be in charge of the whole escapade looked at Allison.
“Why is that chosen one?”
Allison let the chosen one thing slide for the fiftieth time that morning.
“There is a very old vampire in there. I have to think the German’s sealed her in for a reason. Also, I’m sure she’ll be very, very hungry when she wakes up. Trust me. I am a bear in the morning, and I get blood regularly. If you open that, someone will definitely get hurt, or dead. Maybe we should take it to the light sider city, open it there. At least then we’ll have a chance to calm her down, or subdue her?”
The grey-scale turned to her fellow priestesses and consulted in their native language. One of the younger priestesses ran off, her talons clicking against the stone. The grey-scale spoke.
“We shall consult the prophecy, chosen.”
Allison couldn’t take it anymore.
“I’m sorry, but why are you calling me chosen?”
The grey-scale’s tail slapped against the stone floor.
“It is who you are. It is only proper to use your title, and acknowledge your role, chosen one.”
The younger Sauroid priestess returned, she was out of breath. She consulted with the grey-scale, who nodded.
“As the chosen has spoken, it has been foreordained. We will travel to the City of Light and there we shall free the Apostle of the most holy Dark Mother.”
The human priestesses present cheered. The Sauroid priestesses all clapped, all of their tails slapping the stone happily. Allison scratched her head.
“Uh, weren’t the Apostle’s Jesus’s thing? I’m really confused.”
The grey-scale motioned down one of the massive side passages.
“All will be revealed to those who seek knowledge. Let us go, you may consult the holy prophecies. We will be your witnesses, chosen one.”
Miles spoke.
“Uh… I guess… we’ll arrange to transport the goods to the City of Light then?”
One of the human priestesses, a woman in her twenties approached the group of mercenaries and spoke with them in hushed tones.
Allison followed the group of Sauroids to a large chamber. It seemed central to the temple, and it was above the main chapel proper where worship would take place. A square pedestal on a dais dominated the chamber. Many sacrifices of grain, flowers and other things had been left on the dais.
On the center of the wall were carvings they were faded with age. The paint flaked and Allison had noticed them on other walls, but she hadn’t paid any attention to them. She was used to the churches of the Dark Mother being covered in symbology. She ignored it most of the time. These looked old. Older than the rest. This room seemed to be carved out of the mountain that backed the temple. It was rougher.
The grey-scale pointed to the center of the rear wall. The top center was dominated by the carving of a woman she had massive, feathered wings that sprung out of her back. Short lines radiated off of her head as if to denote light. She held a staff, faded paint could still be seen. It was painted gold.
Below the angel was another woman holding what appeared to be two swords. The paint was still present on this one. The woman’s hair was red, her eyes were green. One sword was painted black, the other white. Thousands of endless lines radiated out from image, the lines formed a network. Allison realized she could trace their paths out of the room and into others.
Under that image was the same woman with wings that matched the angel’s and her eyes were painted golden. She held a staff, the same staff the angel at the top was holding.
The grey-scale pressed her taloned hand against the angel.
“Seraph.”
She motioned to the woman in the center of the wall.
“Seraph in her mortal form. We know her as the Dark Mother.”
She motioned to the bottom image.
“The Dark Mother’s ascension, when she rose above her father to weave a new creation. The one we exist in.”
Her hand shifted up and she pressed it against the image of the Dark Mother. She whispered a prayer then addressed Allison.
“The grand prophecy radiates from our Dark Mother. She has chosen you for a great destiny, child. You are one of her Chosen.”
The grey-scale tapped one of the lines that radiated from the image of the Dark Mother’s mortal form.
“This is your line. Come.”
Allison was getting increasingly dubious of the sanity of the Grand Priestess, but she figured this would make a great report for her religion class. She’d probably get an A. Sister Silra would love the fact she spoke to other Sauroids and visited the central temple of the Dark Mother’s worship. Allison followed the group. The temple spanned kilometers. It took them twenty minutes to reach another chamber. This one had benches. She was expecting the same faded images and carvings. She was surprised, these ones seemed fresh. As if they were done in the last few years. The priestess pointed to a line that entered the room from the ceiling.
“Your line continued too here.”
The line went down from the ceiling, about half a foot down the line ended with a woman with black hair and magenta eyes. She was wearing what looked like a suit. Out of the woman, two lines diverged. One vanished behind a wall the other led to an image of a tall woman in white robes, a gold and blue Egyptian style necklace, long black hair and golden eyes. It was easy to figure out it was meant to represent Isis. The grey-scale’s chipped talon traced the line to a small child with red hair and golden eyes. Sitting in front of a blue and green image of the Earth that was. Behind her were a dark-skinned man and woman. The grey-scale tapped the image.
“The Earth Sphere before the coming of the endless winter prophesied by the Dark Mother.”
She pointed to the child.
“You. The prophecy states, the Chosen Daughter, She who remains, will be born of Three Mothers. She will be placed in the care of an ancient barren woman and her mate. The woman will pray for a child, and the Dark Mother will grant her prayers.”
Allison squinted and leaned into get a better look. She was extremely skeptical.
“There are lots of girls with red hair and amber eyes.”
The grey-scale chuckled. She pointed at the next image. It showed a red-haired woman with golden eyes, from her face radiated lines indicating light. Allison squinted and saw it was the nose, no a spot on the nose. She pointed at the image.
“What is that supposed to be?”
The grey-scale patted the image.
“The Chosen Daughter, She who remains, will awaken on the day of her ascension with a sign of her blossoming womanhood.”
She tapped the center of the light beams.
“You became a woman, this was your sign.”
Allison realized what it was supposed to be. She covered her nose self-consciously. She was sure she was pimple free today, but still if this was supposed to be her it was embarrassing that her acne was preserved in stone. Her voice was somewhat muffled because of her hand being in front of her nose and mouth.
“This is not me. You’re talking to the wrong girl. Lots of people get pimples, especially teenagers.”
The grey-scale didn’t seem to notice Allison’s discomfort and continued. She pointed at the next image. It was of a red-haired girl in black armor with her back to the viewer. She was reaching her hand to another girl with white hair.
“The Chosen Daughter, She who remains, will reach into the darkness and there she will find a light-bringer. She will guide the light-bringer back to the light of the Dark Mother so she may once again show her people the way.”
Stolen story; please report.
That was getting eerily familiar.
“Okay, a bit weird, but that could be the Dark Mother helping her daughter Hazel. The Dark Mother’s image after she Ascended had golden eyes end red hair.”
The grey-scale priestess moved on. Her hand touching the next image, she whispered a prayer of thanks to the Dark Mother. Allison squinted at it. It showed the red-haired girl, she had the same golden eyes. Behind her were two spheres, one black, one orange with a black outline where the spheres met a blue star had been painted with lines radiating off it through the two spheres. Beneath the spheres were thousands of black shapes that looked roughly humanoid. Above the spheres were shapes reminiscent of the Sal’nash hives.
“The Chosen daughter, she who remains, will enter into darkness and within that darkness she will find the spawn of the great devourer. The product of an ancient evil. She will reach out her hand and she will smite this evil.”
Allison kept her hand over her face. She was starting to feel creeped out. That last bit was almost right on the nose. She spoke quietly.
“Are you spying on me or something?”
The grey-scale shook her head.
“No, my child, these were completed thousands of years before I was born.”
She moved on and motioned to the next picture. It showed the same girl surrounded by stars.
“The Chosen daughter, She who remains, will roam the dark places in the Universe. There she will find herself.”
She motioned to the next image. The same red-haired girl, wearing grey. She is reaching out her hand. Facing the viewer were the five members of the League’s High Council the girls other hand was reaching out towards a Sauroid and a human. Allison was beginning to get frightened. This was too much. She couldn’t bring herself to flee. Could this tell her the future? What to expect?
“The Chosen daughter, She who remains, will bring two great civilizations together, in peace by her words and actions.”
She patted the image again.
“May we all be peace bringers.”
The priestess moved on she patted the next image. It showed the same girl, standing over a cylinder. Behind her were four silhouettes. One far larger than the others, one female. Across from them on the opposite side were Sauroids in priestesses robes. She patted the image. A red sun rising behind the whole group.
“The Chosen Daughter, She who remains, will pull her sister from darkness and bring her into the light.”
The line led into a dead end at this point. The wall it led to was just blank stone. Allison looked around. She touched the wall. Followed it around but found they were at the end of the temple. She moved back to the grey-scale.
“Where is the rest?”
The priestess motioned to the floor. There were grooves as if something massive was dragged across it.
“I am afraid, Chosen Daughter, that it has not been revealed to us yet. As is the Dark Mother’s will. Freedom of Choice is her gift. Your future is like this wall, formless and blank, until you live it.”
Allison still had her hand over her nose.
“Freedom? You knew all of this was going to happen to me! How am I free?”
The grey-scale motioned downwards with her talons.
“It is your choices that led to these outcomes, whether they were here or not. The all-seeing ones who created these, they only painted and carved what the Dark Mother showed them. She does not dictate actions; She merely sees all of time and space and knows your path before you walk it. Come, we have one last thing I must do before we waken our sister.”
Allison took one last glance at the wall that had predicted her life so far. She was feeling uncomfortable in her own skin. The pair seemed to walk forever through the dark and twisting passages of the Temple. They arrived in a small chamber. It was pitch black. Allison pulled the flashlight from her utility belt and let it hover beside her.
Only one image marked this room and unlike the others it had no lines leading too or from it. It showed the red-haired girl with golden eyes wearing what looked like desert wanderer clothes holding a cube on one side of a sphere. Inside the sphere were cylinders and an altar backed by a pool. The edge of the sphere was surrounded by turquoise lettering, runes? It was a language Allison could not decipher. On the opposite side of the sphere was a girl with long blonde hair, blue eyes holding an identical cube. Above the sphere were an image of two naked human women holding hands. One had red hair, the other black.
“I do not know what it means, but this is the only other image of you in the temple that has been revealed, Chosen daughter. There is no prophecy, just this image. This is you.”
She tapped the image of Allison in drifter clothing. She tapped the sphere.
“We believe these are the lost children of the Dark Mother.”
She tapped the image of the two naked women.
“We believe this is the Dark Mother and her chosen mate. We do not know what the cubes represent.”
She traced her chipped and worn black talon around the text.
“We have not been able to decipher this. This chamber is older than the temple by billions of years. The image and the colors were burned into the rock. They never fade. The wall is impenetrable to all damage. We have used your scanners, and we can’t even figure out what the stone is, all we can tell is, that it is as old as the universe itself. This is why the temple was founded here. The oldest writings of our people tell of this image.”
She looked up at it with her ancient eyes tracing the sphere. She patted the image and stepped back. Allison was tempted to test the theory about the indestructible wall with her Qual’sa pistol’s disintegration setting, but then decided she didn’t want to add destruction of a historic site to her already impressive list of crimes for the day. Allison reached out her hand hovering over the smooth looking stone.
“Go ahead, many of the faithful who find it feel closer to the Dark Mother after touching a direct message from her. You cannot harm it.”
Allison put her palm on the sphere in the center. The runes that seemed etched in stone started to spin and split into three concentric rings. The runes began to glow brightly. Allison tried to pull her hand away but it was fused to the stone. Allison’s back arched and her eyes began to glow. Suddenly she was elsewhere in a dark void. A pillar of light flashed into existence hovering at this center was the Dark Mother herself. Her red hair floating above her arms out to her sides. She was naked. Allison could see every scar that marked the goddess’s body. Her eyes opened. They glowed with a golden light. She looked at Allison and she spoke. The words cut through Allison to her very core and rung with the echo of the divine.
“Darkness is coming for you, daughter. They seek the key to the salvation of your brothers and sisters. They must not succeed, or all will be lost. Protect the key at all costs. Know that I love you and have always loved you, daughter.”
Allison had fallen to her knees and tears were dripping down her cheeks. She could feel such overwhelming unconditional love in her heart. It rivaled the love she felt from her mother.
“I don’t understand, Dark Mother. Help me understand.”
The Dark Mother’s form floated to the ground, and she walked to Allison at a deliberate pace. She reached down with her pale hand Allison took it and warmth spread through her entire body. The Dark Mother’s glowing eyes faded and her emerald green eyes that matched Eyre’s looked Allison over then pulled her in for a loving embrace.
“Daughter. You are not meant to understand yet.”
The Dark Mother released Allison.
“Are you, my mother?”
The Dark Mother touched Allison’s cheek. Allison leaned into it.
“I am everyone’s mother, daughter. You are a child of three mothers. Only one of which has earned the right to wear the title with her blood, sweat and tears. You know of whom I speak.”
Blood tears dripped from the Dark Mother’s eyes. The Dark Mother cupped Allison’s face in her palms.
“I wish it were me that you looked upon with unconditional love. It was not to be child. You will always be my daughter, but your real mother waits for you at home far from here. Wake your sister then go to your mother. Tell her you love her and lay your head on her lap like you did as a small child. Enjoy and cherish your time with her, it will not last forever. Keep her in your heart when she is gone. Remember her smile. Remember her laugh. I will always be here for you, but she will always be the mother of your heart.”
The Dark Mother leaned down and kissed Allison on the forehead. Her blood tears dripped onto Allison’s cheeks and rolled to her lips. She could taste the absolute and unconditional love of the Dark Mother.
Allison saw a vision of herself walking up the steps of a temple in a vast desert. She was older and she had a dull black cube in one hand, the strange sword from the crate in the other. She reached a set of blast doors that sealed the temple. She sliced through them with the sword, like one might slice through thick underbrush. She reached a carving at the center of the temple floor. She saw herself kneeling down and reaching out her hands. The cube floated between them, and concentric rings of glowing runes appeared in the air spinning around the cube. She was chanting but it was unintelligible. The older version of her started moving her hands, they were moving too fast to see so it was a blur and the pieces of the cube started to separate and form a strange knew shape a shape that could not exist in three dimensions. The vision ended.
She was still on her knees before the Dark Mother who smiled.
“Go, my daughter. Live life to the fullest, love deeply and often. Be kind, be merciful, be decisive and be you. Keep an open heart and mind. I will always love you, and I am always watching over you.”
Allison stumbled back from the wall, she felt moistness on her cheeks, she lifted her fingers to her face. She swept them across the wetness like she might wipe away her tears. When she looked her fingertips were covered in blood. She licked her fingers and closed her eyes. The blood was so potent she felt energized. She tried to get all of it off her face and into her mouth. She looked around and saw that the room and the hallway behind it were packed with Priestesses of the Dark Mother. She looked at the image and the runes had changed, there were now three rows of them around the central sphere. The Dark Mother’s image had blood tears on the face and beneath the sphere, a legion of figures seemed to be waiting menacingly in the shadows.
She looked at the SA standard time on her AR HUD. It had been almost six hours since she’d touched the wall. She stumbled when she tried to walk. She was feeling very disconnected from her body at the moment. The room started to spin, and Allison felt lightheaded. The grey-scale priestess caught Allison’s arm.
“Easy, chosen daughter, communing with the Dark Mother is often taxing.”
The grey-scale put her arm across Allison’s shoulders and helped Allison to a bench. The grey-scale’s tail swished behind her.
“Do you need anything? Water? Food? Blood?”
Allison rubbed her temples.
“No, I just need to get used to my body again? I think. I don’t know.”
The grey-scale nodded.
“Take your time. Child. Your sister has been sleeping for many cycles of the spheres, a few more cycles will do no harm.”
Allison looked up at the grey-scale.
“Sister, don’t you want to know what I saw?”
The grey-scale smiled.
“Of course I do child, but if I am meant to know it, the Dark Mother will reveal it in time.”
Allison shook her head.
“I thought she was just some old dead vampire people worshiped because she was an old vampire. I didn’t understand. She is real. I felt her hug me. I felt her lips on my forehead.”
The grey-scale sat beside Allison.
“Faith is a strange thing, child. The Dark Mother doesn’t expect us to have faith in her, she expects us to have faith in ourselves. I ask her for strength to weather storms, but I know that the strength comes from my heart. I have always had it she just helps me realize it. Some of my younger Sisters do not understand this. Some of our brethren believe that if they are true to the Dark Mother, and do not partake in cybernetics and other modifications to their body they will be reborn of her blood. It is not for me to question their belief, but I know in my heart, she is not coming down to turn them.”
Allison nodded. The grey-scale touched Allison’s chest where her heart would be.
“You know in here what you want to believe in, believe in that and you will please the Dark Mother.”
Allison realized she was still holding her water bottle. She took a drink. Her body was starting to feel like her own again. She started to stand up and looked around to make sure the world wasn’t spinning. She smiled.
“I think I’m alright Sister. I’d like to go help wake up that vampire, then I want to go home and hug my mom.”
The grey-scale smiled and led Allison through the network of hallways and chambers to the front entrance. Allison realized she could get lost for days in the massive temple.
“Sister, how do you know this place so well?”
The grey-scale motioned around herself.
“I have lived here all of my life. I was the all-seeing one before the Dark Mother healed my eyes so I could see her, in all her glory. She told me I was free of her service, but I know no other home. So here I have remained. When you are blind for centuries you learn your way around your home.”
Allison looked at the grey-scale.
“You met her in person?”
She nodded.
“Yes, I helped guide her to the truth. I should have long ago passed on to the next realm but the staff, and later her touch have kept me alive.”
The twilight rift spread out before them. Allison looked out at the massive trees, then to the crashed transport. She blushed.
“I am sorry I crashed a transport on your lawn, Sister.”
The priestess laughed.
“I am sure your people will clean it up eventually. We will make use of the wood for our settlement. Cutting those trees down is a challenge, and look you cut eight down for us. A blessing.”
Allison saw Bit shimmer into existence fifty meters from the bottom of the steps.
“Oh, that’s my ride. Thank you, for showing me… stuff I guess.”
The priestess bowed her head.
“You are welcome here any time, chosen daughter.”
Allison ran down the steps to Bit.