Zaeal watched as the soldiers of the king marched southward. The incident at the temple had only escalated aggression between the civil groups. Many had taken the side of the king with the recent omen of the ‘Red Sun’. He proposed a spiritual cleansing. One in which renegade priests and heretics brought under intense inquisition. Her dogs, three in number, crowded around her feet. The air froze around her, and the dogs stood at attention.

“Ava,” Zaeal said, not looking away from the marching troops. The deity came to Zaeal’s side, looking over the vast horizon. The deity’s natural form always disgusted Zaeal. At best, Ava was just a humanoid darkness with a myriad of eyes. At worst, Zaeal shivered at the memory.

It was during a plague a few centuries prior that Ava had to aid the Kings of the Lower Earths in migrating the souls. They took the form of some gigantic blob of shadow, a thousand mouths, and even more eyes than they had now. They rolled over the landscape like thick smoke, taking up the souls of the departed. It had only made sense then why the deity, Ava, had no main gender. They were nothing, the embodiment of Nothing. Nothing made into Something. They were a philosophical paradox. Quite honestly, it struck fear into Zaeal, who could only imagine the extent of Ava’s ability.

“Fools, all of them,” Ava said knowingly, their face hidden as a set of eyes settled.

“It is war,” Zaeal said quietly, looking down at the floor with her hands folded behind her back. One of her hounds sniffed the air around Ava but whimpered away.

“War against who?” Ava said. “Who do they have left to war against if not themselves?”

“You would’ve figured that maybe Nox’s presence in heaven would’ve slowed this entire thing,” Zaeal grunted, scratching the ears of one of the dogs.

“No, Putrefactio can’t be stopped. Noctifer’s absence set it into motion, and now we can only wait for the New Dawn.”

“You sound like one of those sects, the cults.”

“One of the few that got it right, that listened.”

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Caeli was somewhere. She didn’t quite know where, but it was somewhere she had been before. When she looked around, she saw a sanctum with a great fountain in the center. Beautiful lotus flowers were holding golden light in them, which danced off the water that bubbled from the fountain. What made it all so uncanny was the lack of sound. It was like she was present in every sense, except sound. She stumbled forward, reaching the edge of the fountain.

When she looked in, she fell back and crawled away from the feature. The reflection was not hers. When she looked against the surface, her body was like a shadow, except for her eyes, which glowed with a white light. She was like walking smoke—a blink of an eye. When she reached up to touch her face, the skin gave way underneath the press of her fingers. It went through her cheek and was touching the hard part of her palate, and she could only just scream frantically as more skin fell under the stress.

That’s when she heard it. A sound broke through the uncanny silence. It came from the fountain, and the water began to spill over onto the floor. When it reached her, it felt hot to the touch, and she jumped to her feet. Looking up, a pair of eyes looked over the fountain’s edge at her. It was that same figure, her reflection, crawling out of the water. It slipped over the edge and coiled into a fetal position. The skin contracted and relaxed as though it were just one giant lung. Caeli cringed at the sound, like a horrible, metallic groan.

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“What the fuck are you?” She whimpered, pressing herself against the wall. It reached up with its knotted, growing fingers and pointed at Caeli. A small line of light appeared on its face, stretching until the shadow broke open. It unhinged its ‘jaw’ and Caeli only saw light as the top part of its head fell back, and a high-pitched scream echoed through the sanctum.

Caeli woke up to the frantic tapping of Dhena. Mere was holding down her arms, Dhena was sitting over her, and the two were sweaty with strain. Dhena sighed when she saw that Caeli was awake, falling forward and burying her face in the side of Caeli’s neck. Mere fell back against the floor, looking at the goddess, who was in a daze.

“You’re finally,” Dhena panted, “awake.”

“What…” Caeli grunted, trailing off when her words caught in her throat. Dhena nodded, slipping off of Caeli and onto the nightstand. She picked up a shard of broken glass from the floor, frowning for a moment.

“Please get us a new glass, Mere, and maybe new robes and bedding.”

The god didn’t respond. He only stood up, stared at Caeli for a moment, and left. Dhena muttered to herself as she shuffled tiredly to the door.

“Get a maid here, please, and also some pillows from the next room,” she called out to what Caeli assumed was a servant. Her voice rang like church bells, bursting through her bubble. Caeli reached up awkwardly, hissing when her wrist and elbow locked. Dhena heard this and immediately rushed from the door to Caeli’s side. The goddess pressed her wrist down against the bed.

“Don’t move; the restraints broke, and I don’t know if anything’s broken.”

“Restraints?”

“You were delirious, laughing and screaming. Then came the coma,” Dhena explained, tentatively moving the sheets. Caeli squirmed uncomfortably, feeling a wet warmth on the blankets.

“You had nightmares,” Dhena said. Caeli whimpered ashamedly, but Dhena only smiled.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of." We could only really feed you liquids, but your nightmares must’ve been horrible.”

“Ava.”

“Mere told me, and Nox was found.

Caeli was about to jump at the declaration, but Dhena pushed her back down to the bed.

“Don’t move; you’ll hurt yourself.”

“Safe?”

“Yes, he’s safe, but you need to worry about yourself right now.”

Mere interrupted them when he came in with a maid and an armful of pillows. The apprehension was evident and belied his otherwise stoic nature. The maid rushed in, swept up the glass shards, and left, but Mere remained against the walls. Dhena sighed and held out her hands, to which the god obliged.

“He’s just never seen Ava’s work upfront.”

“Ava?”

“Yes,” Dhena confirmed, putting aside the glass and lifting Caeli slowly. She propped the goddess up against the wall, wiping away some unseen, dried substance on Caeli’s lip.

“Do you remember anything before falling asleep?”

“No,” Caeli sighed gruffly. Dhena nodded, filling the glass with water from a pitcher. She muttered to herself, finally turning to Caeli.

“Drink slowly,” she said, holding the cup to Caeli’s lips. The goddess opened her mouth, taking in the water. Some of it dripped down her chin, and Dhena pulled it away all too soon. The goddess let out a needy grunt but stopped when she saw Dhena’s glare.

“You’ll get sick,” Dhena warned, putting the glass down on the nightstand. She wiped away the dripping water from Caeli’s lips. Mere kept a comfortable distance, appalled and fascinated by something.

Caeli’s eyes widened when she remembered the rotting skin. She quickly reached up to touch her face, finding that one part of it was the soft skin from before. The other part was leathery and scarred. Dhena reached out and wrapped her fingers in Caeli’s, pulling the goddess’s hands away from her face.

“Deep breaths,” she said, reminding Caeli of a breath that she didn’t know she was holding. She exhaled, her body slumping as Dhena pulled a strand of hair from her face. Looking down, she saw her other hands. Her wrist was bruised and scarred, but her fingers had the same leathery texture. The skin had turned a dark blue, and there was a ring of scaly skin around the bottom of each point. Her thumb had survived, but the realization struck her like a hammer.

“I died…”