visions danced in no one’s mind. the wisp of shadows and light waited and watched the broken world crack beneath the shattered sky.
reality was tearing apart. it took all no one had to hold what little remained of the place together.
once so mighty, now… what?
who?
no one felt a need to remember, visions flashed, fragments of life. fragments of a life that was and fragments of a life that should have been. no one tried to find bearings. why was it so important to hold the dead reality together with what little remained of the great power once wielded by … by…
a god.
yes. a god had been here. a god held things together. it had to stay long enough for… for someone to come.
visions.
Memories.
This one remembered.
“Don’t do this, Zeph! I’m not worth it. Please!”
“I’m sorry it took this long for me to see, Ars, but you are worth it. You always were. You’re my brother and I love you.”
A face that matched his own looked at him through the squall as everything tore apart, and a shadowy monster laughed wickedly as it’s tendrils wrapped around his brother.
His brother. Arasiel. Ars. Someone was no one’s bother…
no one waited, extending the feeble light out to hold onto the crumbling patch of real in the nothingness. there was a field, the grass was dead. there was a tree. it was dead. there was a barn. the barn was empty, but no one held a chair together. so someone could sit down when they returned.
this one tried to remember someone. the brother.
His brother…
His brother had tears falling down both cheeks as he turned furious eyes upon the thing that held him. They blazed red in the unnatural light. His brother looked near feral at the end of all things.
There was no saving anything here, Solkhan realized sadly as he took one last look around. It was too late, but maybe Solkhan could still get his brother out of there. With his sacrifice, maybe his brother could save the rest of the multiverse from the demonic beast that destroyed everything before it could do this again.
no one flinched away from remembering and focused on holding reality together. it hurt. not just the pain of overreaching what little remained of the lost power after the light drinker had its fill. it hurt in what was once no one’s heart.
it shouldn’t have been this way.
visions. dreams clashed with nightmares. better pictures painted in no one’s mind.
the god and his brother lay in a grassy field watching the stars twinkling above them. the grass was a rich supple green, cool and damp against their backs. a meteor shower lit up the sky in bursts. dust and pebbles blazed as they burned up in the atmosphere, falling in a dance with gravity against the backdrop of the stars the brothers had made.
Zephaniel took his brother’s hand and gave him a squeeze.
“You see that?” He pointed to a star cluster. “Remember when we made those? We had no idea what we were doing, did we?”
Arasiel chuckled and shook his head. “No. But it’s a pretty mistake.” he frowned, thinking about his words. Zephaniel knew where his twin’s mind went. He hated how quickly it turned to self doubt, to feelings of inadequacy.
“Don’t let His words get into your head, Ars, He was just trying to keep you weak so He could control you. I mean, bastard even put it into your name.” Zhephaniel sat up to look at his melancholy brother. He was determined never to let anyone tear him down again. “Ever think of changing that? Your name, I mean?”
“Do you?” He raised an eyebrow.
Zephaniel laughed. He had an immediate answer “Solkhan. Sun Prince.” He stated it proudly, like it was a badge. It was, in a way. Much better than being named as the one Ba’al hides away. Arasiel snorted even as he smiled.
“Couldn’t think of anything more outrageous?”
the ground cracked and no one lost the dream. letting no one’s mind wander to happier things meant forgetting about the task. the broken reality grew dim as no one fantasized. it lurched into the edge of oblivion.
no one pulled it all back together with effort. the field, the tree, the barn, the chair, the fragments of star above.
somewhere in the back of what little remained of his consciousness, the god wanted to cry of loneliness and failure. this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. it wasn’t who they were.
how long had it been? time… if it still existed, it krept by so slowly. if only someone would come. If only Ars would come back.
the dream edged back in, pushing against the loneliness and loss.
“Ara. If you get a name like Sun Prince, I’ll take the first part of mine and toss the rest. Call me Ara.” The reply came after a short pause.
Zephaniel was proud of his brother. Toss the part about being obedient to Ba’al, and keep the grandiose bit. He smiled.
“So I’m a prince and you’re a king? Now who’s being outrageous?”
They both laughed at that, Ars didn’t deny it.
no one liked this dream. a dream of who they were supposed to be was better than being no one trying to make nowhere be somewhere so someone could find their way back. but thinking about needing someone to come meant letting the nightmare drown out the pretty dreams. no one didn’t want to think about what came next though, so the nightmare moved back in time.
to when the god first arrived in the doomed reality to find what had become of his lost brother.
He was not prepared for what he found.
Nothing lived. Even the stars were breaking and cracking apart in ways that stars were not supposed to. They didn’t die like this, they didn’t crumble apart like dried up molding clay that was hit with a mallet. But when reality itself breathed its last breath, it looked as though the rules broke down.
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This was a property of The Void, Solkhan realized with a jolt of horror. Soon, this existence would become a part of that, an endless Hellscape where nightmares came true. He had no doubt it was his twin’s presence that kept The Void from assimilating the universe. It was the only thing that made sense to explain why this dead reality was trapped in flux. Celestials with the power to bring order from chaos were like oil and The Void, a place without order, was vinegar. They just didn’t mix. But it looked like Arasiel’s presence wasn’t enough. Which meant something was wrong. Well, he could play this game, too, he decided. Solkhan pushed against the chaos, driving it back as he walked across the ruined world, lending an assist to his brother as best he could. Then squaring his shoulders. he followed the pull in his heart, which led him to his twin.
It didn’t take long. His brother stood at the edge of a sheer cliff where it looked like a piece of reality had been ripped into oblivion. Solkhan looked at the shadowy form resembling his twin. This was wrong. Everything in this reality was wrong. Arasiel turned when he heard approaching feet, and Solkhan froze in his advance as his heart stopped.
Wrong.
Two blazing red eyes met him. They were almost too hard to look at against the darkness that clung to him like a film, but he met his brother’s unnatural sinister gaze nonetheless.
“Arasiel?”
The thing that may or may not have been his brother tisked. “He goes by Will, backstabber. And no. Call me Phobos.”
Solkhan felt dread at those words. So the thing was Phobos. He’d been warned about this one. Some kind of ancient demon of The Void. Once a god, but corrupted into something new and terrible. Solkhan wondered, did the monster shift it’s appearance to look like his brother, or…
“What did you do with him? Where is he?”
“He’s here. With me, now and forever. Mine. You can’t have him. You don’t deserve him.” The monster patted his chest. He looked almost reverent one instant and crazed to madness the next.
Solkhan took a step back.
“Is there anything I can offer you for you to let him go?”
Phobos cackled, a terrible vile sound. It split reality in two. Solkhan Willed it to hold together, and the creature tilted its… his brother’s head.
no one screamed. this was a bad vision. the god needed to stop remembering.
the memory did not want to stop.
“I’ve always wanted to try Sun God. So much Light. You probably taste delicious.”
He knew what Phobos wanted. If he let the monster at him, there would be nothing left. Not even a spark.
“Let me know he’s okay, let me know he will be free, and you have a deal.”
The shadows spread out from his brother, lifting off him to form a kind of swirling cage of dark tendrils, and as the darkness lifted, his twin fell limp onto a soft bed of shadow blossoming up from the patch of rocky ground he stood on. He laid there, listless and confused.
“See? Good as new. Deal?”
no one shrank from the visions. it was too much. the wisp focused on pulling the broken pieces of reality back together. it did not want to know what came next.
better visions were sought, but as the happier dreams of what should have been edged in, they clashed with the nightmares, warring for attention. what should have been. what was.
Zephaniel met with Arasiel for the first time since Zeph had been cast out. Hidden away by Ba’al, as his name implied. Arasiel looked at him with a blank, unreadable expression, his entire body tensed, as if expecting to be attacked.
“I know what Dad has been telling you. It’s not true. I’m here now. And I’m not leaving you.” Zephaniel hugged his brother close. At first, the embrace was met with a flinch and stiffness, but then his twin relaxed into it. After a few uneven breaths, his arms reached up and held on. He cried, though they would both later deny it.
“Why didn’t you come for me? I thought you hated me. Why didn’t you come back?”
“I wanted to believe you were in a better place. Thought you were better off without me.”
The scene shifted from the open fields on Earth to the fiery depth of the underworld. The nightmare truth mocked the happier dream.
Ars was covered in the blood of countless demons and his eyes had a vacant detached disconnect to them that haunted Solkhan when he found his way there to try to stop him from making a terrible mistake. His brother sprouted enormous raven wings on his back. Those were not his. Fire swirled around him as the fabric of spacetime rippled. He was getting ready to leave their home universe and strike out into the multiverse to hunt down the ones who took his happiness from him.
“Don’t do this, Ars, it won’t help. You need to let go, move on. Let me help you. I’m here, now.”
“Too little too late, brother. Why didn’t you come for me sooner? When there was still enough left of me to save?”
“Don’t talk nonsense. You’re here, let me help.”
“Why? Why does it matter? Why does anything matter? She’s gone. She was my goodness, and she’s gone.”
the visions shifted again as they skipped forward in time, back to the crumbling reality. back to the question no one asked. back to the god’s memories that no one did not want to see, but the visions… the memories were not backing down. no one made the mistake of asking why.
why was no one fighting to hold everything together? why not let go?
“Deal.” Solkhan held out his hand and as if triggered by the word, his dazed twin came to his senses. He sat up and recoiled at being held by shadowy tendrils as he turned toward his brother.
“No,” he breathed, eyes wild and desperate as he realized what was about to happen. “Don’t do this, Zeph! I’m not worth it. Please!”
He tried to reach for Solkhan, but the shadows wrapped around him, gentle in a way, but firmly pinning him. The shadows cooed at him, shushing him in a soft voice, promising it would be alright, even as they laughed wickedly at Solkhan. Two voices from one entity, speaking at the same time. Two different messages. Solkhan disregarded it, hardening his resolve as he met his brother’s desperate eyes.
“I’m sorry it took this long for me to see, Ars, but you are worth it. You always were. You’re my brother and I love you,” he consoled.
His brother had tears falling down both cheeks as he turned furious eyes upon the thing that held him. They blazed red in the unnatural light. His brother looked near feral at the end of all things.
There was no saving anything here, Solkhan realized sadly as he took one last look around. It was too late, but maybe Solkhan could still get his brother out of there. With his sacrifice, maybe his brother could save the rest of the multiverse from the demonic beast that destroyed everything before it could do this again.
The creature took Solkhan’s hand, and the shadows withdrew from Arasiel as they shifted and encircled the Sun God. Arasiel staggered to his feet, eyes lighting up like twin flames, then everything went dark. Phobos consumed and took over. The sun god felt his soul, his very Light, were torn away in chunks to be devoured by the cold bleak dark. He felt the corruption of The Void burning into him and the taste of the madness from The Null washed over him as well. And his self disappeared under it all, but then he felt his brother’s power.
Arasiel reached out, his own shadows reaching in and pushing away the other, similar enough to worm in unnoticed until it was too late for the demon to stop him. Arasiel’s shadows were different. They were gentler, like the darkness one got when hiding under a favorite blanket. The blanket wrapped around him. ‘Don’t lose yourself, I won’t let him have you,’ it seemed to say. Solkhan felt a ripping sensation as Phobos’s grip was torn off of him. It hurt. There were no words in any language the god knew that encapsulated the feeling as part of himself was violently ripped away, like skin and hair stuck to an adhesive. But when it was done, he was free. Still living, though his Light was feeble at best.
Then the fighting started. Phobos was furious, and Ars even more so.
“Why? I do this for you! We were supposed to build an empire together, why do you keep getting in the way of our dream?” The demon roared as it flew at Arasiel.
“YOU TRIED TO EAT MY BROTHER!!!”
The force of their conflict tore the very fabric of the dying reality asunder, and the being that had once been Solkhan did all it could to hold himself together. and when Phobos began to slip away, realizing he was losing the fight, Ars perused. he glanced back before vanishing from the dead universe.
“I love you, I’m sorry, I’ve been a terrible brother, but I promise I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere.”
“no one loves you, no one will be here,” no one promised.
the only way to stay in one place was if there was a place to stay in. so no one held it together and waited. no one waited for Ars. no one would wait forever and beyond.
it was lonely near the end.
it wasn’t supposed to be this way.
this was not who they were supposed to be.
visions danced in no one’s mind. the wisp of shadows and light waited and watched the broken world crack beneath the shattered sky.