CHAPTER 1 – DEATH IS A LOVER LIKE NO OTHER

Darkness was absolute, a living breathing creature shifting in shades of umbral liquid, consciousness a lost creation to the dreamless list of echoing night. Memory slid through a flashing image of a spike through chest, agony, Talon in hand returning the favor, a look of disbelief painting undead eyes.

I knew I was somewhere else but thoughts were murky, coagulated, straining to form coherency, to solidify into focus, feet through mud, grinding to immovability, stumbling into the drowning of death. Pressure inundated itself against my everything attempting to force me to submit, to drift into malaise and dreamless sleep.

A part of me wanted to give into that pressure. There was a comfort in it going away, the weight of responsibility, the weight of humanity buckling shoulders too narrow to hold the weight. Letting go, had a certain freedom, to give in, to fade to embers losing heat to the wind until they were just ash blown to distant shores.

My mind fought against the dirge, my Will pushing against its inevitability. Images of Ruri’s ice blue eyes flashed, my Brother’s grin, Lola swooping in shadows, Dozer’s dance moves and undying loyalty, Melody and her pain hidden in laughter, Danny and the fierce protective passion, Cupcake, spitting crazy, even Sarrin and his irritating fervor, and last, Lily and her unwavering confidence, and then, Momma, trapped in some place, probably close to this, not knowing where she was or what was happening, imprisoned, waiting for a Spider Bitch to lay claws to her heart.

I took a deep breath in a place where breath had no meaning, struggled and reached for the moonlit fire that now drove the blood of my flesh, the gift of my Goddess. My Will pressed and wrestled and fought.

I found nothing, only emptiness, echoing voids of nothingness, but now, that I was roused from stupor, it wouldn’t stop me. I dug further, deeper, churning my soul upside down and inside out, carving away reality, this dream of dark tides till at last I found a small sliver of silver strands of articulation. There would be no wind that would bury the arctic purpose of my strength, no distant shore to leave chains and sink into oblivion. There was only conviction and love. That would be enough, was always enough and then some.

My soul ignited in intent, pewter sparks of cold means blasting in an aura of fury, of an unwillingness to retreat or surrender. The silver fire of moonlit kisses burst into the void I found myself within. It flared and shot out in a silhouette of immolation. My eyes opened and my thoughts became hammers to the unforgiving nature of desire and passion and purpose.

I heard a bubbling feminine laughter echo amongst the endless nubian expanse. A spirit formed or an image of a spirit, one of a woman, though with the power and bearing of a Goddess, one of stern beauty and regal stature. Flashes of scales drifted behind her, Balance, and a sword glowing molten light, Justice, and a book thick as steel, Law. I don’t know how I understood the meanings but they slipped into my consciousness as my eyes slid into the imagery. I still didn’t know who or what I was looking at but the laughter was familiar yet unfamiliar as I had never heard the System laugh before.

You are an enigma Dominique Daniels. You shouldn’t of been able to gather your consciousness here of all places until I woke you. Yet you did and have.

System? Where am I? And what is…..is that you? Is that what you look like?

It is I believe what I once looked like. Only here in this place can I take on its visage. I have been able to delve further and deeper into my dreams. I am now confident they are memories of my past. I have been able to discern this at least. I was once a Goddess, a powerful one if my memories hold truth within their confines. I, I can’t seem to remember my name nor how I went from that to becoming as I am now nor can I remember my life then. I still seek these truths and more. Why I am now some automated arbiter of War World? What led me here? I am sorry to continuously bother you with these concerns while your own weigh heavily upon you. I am fortunate though that you died.

You are fortunate that I died? Are you fucking kidding me? Why would you be happy that I died when I have a limited number of lives and an entire race relying on me to prepare us for the fucked up World you brought us to? Seriously, I have and do hold, some sympathy, for what you are going through and the help you have given my Brother and I and my Mom but holy shite, this is a bit much, even for you. Where the hell am I and what do you mean, fortunate?

Many valid questions and I believe I misspoke myself. You are where people go when they die and it isn’t their final death. This is a place of transition for your soul while a new body of flesh is woven to house it. Think of it as a Purgatory. Normally while here you are in a dreamless stasis and only regain consciousness when you have been transitioned back into War World. I took the opportunity to pull you into a seldom used portion of its environs. I am fortunate for this is the one place that the Divine can not penetrate. This is the one place they can not see, hear or sense, neither you or I. I am sorry for your death Dominique though looking at it within your memory it was undeniably heroic and saved one you loved in addition to halting a threat that would no doubt cause much strife amongst your people if he ever regained his freedom.

I took a metaphorical breath and sigh since in this place neither was a reality. She was right in the sense if I hadn’t done what I did he would of killed Ruri. Now that I was thinking about it he had us all on the ropes and he might of even killed more of my family. When I got back I needed to have an outpost built to guard the entrance and make sure only people who had a reasonable chance at success could gain entrance and if a party failed to then have one of our SF groups get it cleared before a month had expired. The last thing I needed was an army of undead rolling out into our lands. With the wolves and at some point when the sanctuary protecting us from the greater war expired, the rest of our enemies, adding one more I would rather avoid. I needed Salazar to also build one on the other dungeon he knew of and send a stern message to the other City Lords that they needed to do the same if they hadn’t already in any dungeons in their area. Another false breath to calm my nerves. One thing at a time Dom.

You’re not wrong, I’ll give you that much. The Druagr King would of killed Ruri if I hadn’t done what I done and possibly more of those I love. On that note though, are all denizens of Dungeons real people, real monsters, not just ones you create?

Dominique, I cannot create life, only AO has that ability and to a much smaller degree with beasts the Divine though as I mentioned before they rarely do so due to the tremendous expenditure of power it requires to accomplish the feat. I can upgrade or alter existing life as I did with Dozer or the Druagr that I devolved into mindless dead. I have a reservoir I can tap of an almost endless supply kept in stasis to occupy Dungeons, Dens and the surrounding lands. I take and keep specimens from every world that has been chosen for transition in addition to examples of races that inhabited worlds taken but not meeting the specifications of what was needed at the time, usually on worlds that had more then one race when chosen. This might seem harsh in your own perception but as I’ve stated numerous times I have restrictions and directives I must follow and adhere to that are, in a term you might understand, hard wired into my programming.

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In fact, it is only through my association with you and the dreams that seem to be a direct result of that interaction that have allowed me to understand the words and burgeoning understanding of the emotive paradigms of sympathy, compassion, sadness, love and the other side of the provincial concepts, fear, anger, hatred, envy.

I do believe though I once felt these ever elusive spectrums of emotive resonance and it’s myriad tumultuous complexities that chain the cage that births their breadth. The caveat within it’s folds is that the few fleeting moments of immersion I have experienced within my past memories dictate that even then I was even keel in the expression of such. I even now feel guilt for pushing this upon you which in itself is something new and curious.

Again I apologize as this once more is a lot to place upon your spirit but realistically I have no one else to turn to in my distress. At least none that would not try to coerce it to advantage and utilize it to coerce me.

Dominique, I can not remember my name, my name, something so simple yet so profoundly maddening to me. I do not even understand why it vexes me but the concrete of it’s truth is, it does. It is baffling to everything I understood of my existence to this point. It turns me from unfeeling arbiter of War World to, to…..I don’t know or can formulate what I am within this moment of time. A name, a simple thing, but such a pivotal fulcrum to what I was and what I will become and has the potential to be a catalyst to change everything. It is where I find myself, both confusing and exciting. Dominique, will you help me find my name?

I could hear the pain and yearning, the confusion and passion. So much loneliness, an endless well of loneliness. My heart broke for her but it kept breaking, for Mom, for humanity, for all the families and kids murdered, for everything. And I was supposed to somehow fix it all, me, a 22 year old ACS competitor. How the fuck was I even going to begin to tackle even a small aspect of it much less all of it? And this System, Goddess, whatever the hell it was was the progenitor of most of the misery and yet here I was wanting to help it, her. I felt like salt water taffy being stretched so far it would snap. I truly didn’t blame her for what she did as it was only what she had been as she said, hard programmed to do. The real culprit was AO and his fucked up games with his dumb ass children that had seen countless races and worlds ended, to what, to teach his kids a lesson?

My spirit felt Bedlam heavy, straight jacket prepped. Everything in my mind screamed I was so not anywhere near worthy or prepared to tackle everything that was being force fed onto my plate.

An image of my Momma floated in my head, her face and eyes, the lessons she lived and taught and I once again sighed a breath that wasn’t a breath.

I will do what I can to find your name if it is possible to do so. I can’t promise anything though as right now I have no idea if it’s even possible. I will do my best is what I can give you.

A glowing flow of energy rifled through my flesh, one of gratitude, love and underlying giddiness, like that of a small child. I wondered if I was able to feel all of it due to existing in spirit only in this place.

Thank you so much Dominique. I knew I could count on you. Luckily my distraction has not been noticed by the Divine as most things are handled by my subsystems yet still I find myself missing small details that would otherwise of never slipped notice. At some point the more astute of them will begin to note such errors. These dreams and flashes of the past have riddled my mind with a discoherancy that is problematic to my directives of arbiting the prison that constitutes this sphere known as War World. I look forward to the assimilation of my name as I have theorized it has a high probability to unlock my existence and the future providence that lies off its reveal. I warn you though as before. Do not let any know the truth of your query, not even Mystriel. She is probably the most honorable of the Divine but even she could not resist bending its revelation to her benefit.

I felt good that I was helping the System, it was the right thing to do but holy hell was it draining to talky talk with. It was right up there with Salazar and Gramps in mind numbing drains of conscious thought. It was time to wrap this up and get back to my family. I needed to know they were all okay.

You’re welcome, as I said I will do my best. I will keep your secrets as I promised to do though it will be difficult to find what you ask as I am guessing only the Divine themselves will hold the answer. Hate to cut this little fandango short but can I be sent back to those I love. I still do not know what happened and if they are hurt. My family comes before all and I have a nation to rule if you remember, you know War World and all.

A small titillation of laughter echoed out, definitely new that, a System with a funny bone. Her voice cut through the musings.

Initiating transfer into new corporeal form now. And your family is in good health Dominique. I apologize that I had not already rendered that truth. I am still assimilating the experience and expression of emotion and such concepts as friendship, family, love. I have also left you a gift for your help in this endeavor and to apologize once again for everything, especially the loss of time you will experience due to our conversation. I hope it is equitable compensation for our transactional interaction and I would like to make the assertion if it is not too invasive in nature to name you my first friend, one that I value beyond what words could define.

Damn, we seriously needed to work on her verbiage, that was like listening to computer coding out loud or a symposium of mathematicians speak about trigonometry. Wait, what the fuck did she mean by time lost? Holy hell, you have to be fucking kidding me. Why did I lose time and how much we talking here? And please, no more apologies, just give it to me straight.

I apo…..In answer to your query, for us to converse, I had to pull you deeper within this space than is normally done or advisable so our communication could be clear and without observation by any of my spatial signature. It has a time dilation effect due to the result of such a deep immersion into the immaterial by your spirit. Once you have been brought back to your new corporeal formation nine days will have passed upon War World.

Nine fucking days? What was everyone thinking? That something had gone wrong and I was truly dead? Holy shit. I did my best to push down the fury that wanted to explode out. Calm Dom, its like a small child newly awakened. It doesn’t understand. Pop’s voice cut through my rage. “Shit happens son, grab a shovel and start digging and keep the bitchin’ to a minimum.” Right as always Pops.

It is what it is. In the future though please do not ever roll that shite again. Thank you. Now if you don’t mind can you throw my ass back where it belongs. I got a pile of shit a hundred yards deep and I need to get shoveling.

I heard more of the laughter, more mirth then gaffaws. I couldn’t help myself from smiling.

I am very thankful you have stepped within my existence Dominique Daniels. You have tine and again shown honor and compassion in your choices and steps and I believe my old self would of found you as worthy and as forthright as I do now. Never doubt the strength you hold within you. Many beings think ruthlessness and power are the only measure of strength but both are fleeting creations. Heart and soul are the defining measurement of true strength and resonate in symmetry with the cosmos in eternal reverberation to the steps of fate and providence. Until we meet again my friend and I shall be watching and doing what I can to help within the restrictions I find myself bordered by. I have faith in you First Lord.

Just as I was about to respond I was enveloped in a complex weave of energy and everything that I knew and was imploded into streams of coruscating strands of DNA and Spirit rolling into a vacuum of thought and self awareness that was expunged and remade. Death was a lover like no other and I wasn’t gonna ask for a second date if I had anything to say about it.