Archbishop Patar oversaw today’s sacrifice of the Blind in satisfaction, smiling as the ignorant heretics who denied the consuming Truth burned in sacred fire. Their wails of pain and pleas of mercy fell on deaf ears, and his congregation watched on in stony silence. He still had a rare moment of respite before his scheduled meeting with the Prophet David, and he took this time to reflect on all that had changed since the day that God had arrived.
Looking back, Patar marveled at his own ignorance, and he lamented his past naivety. But his God has shown him the truth, and soon, all of existence will know of it as well.
It all started that fateful day, although day and night mattered little in those times. It was always dark, and the only constant was the gnawing hunger and the ever-present gloom. It had been his turn to be offered as the week’s sustenance. He had already said goodbye to his wife and their only surviving daughter. He was thankful that she had been too young to understand what was about to happen.
He went to the House of Sacrifice head held high. If his death could sustain the lives of his village for even a few more days, then he was willing to leave without regret. The village chief was just about to give him his allotted dose of Dream Wine when He came. Everything had changed after that.
Patar had been one of the last people who left their dwellings to gaze upon the intruder, but it was a sight that he would never forget nor remember for the rest of his life, for that is the eternal paradox of the God, of the Devourer of Truth. To gaze directly into the God today would be a sin most unforgivable, and although His features were ever cloudy and illusive in his memories, His actions were not.
He had been riding on the venerated Beast of Wisdom’s Bane, known as Vadoom, when He first graced us with his presence. Patar had never seen such a ferocious monster in all his life, even when he had gone hunting deep into the Neverglow woods in the earliest days of the End. The beast had glowing red eyes and a maw the size of a small dwelling. It moved the ground as it approached, its massive form dwarfing even the tallest trees in its surroundings, and its growls of inhuman anger caused the very foundation of his village to shake.
Yet it was not the mighty Vadoom that captivated the attention of the entire village, but the Being that stood atop its massive spiked shoulder. Patar knew not the figure’s looks, but he knew that it was glorious, for to look Truth in its eyes is to understand that nothing else can ever compare.
And the being spoke, and He told us the Truth. Yet Patar was one of the few who Listened. The rest of his village would only learn of the folly of disrespecting their one true Saviour much later down the line. He had personally seen to it.
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The villagers, the ones who didn’t understand or were too ignorant to understand the God’s descent had foolishly tried to attack the visitors. The able-bodied fools had brandished their pitiful weapons and launched an assault on the God and his beast, and with a sweep of His majestic limb, He caused the very Earth to erupt. With another sweep of His hand, a torrent of Godly lights shot out of His person, the blinding multicolored explosions leaving a lasting afterimage.
Yet in His infinite grace he did not exterminate the village and its sinners. No, He saw the potential in the few of us who Understood, and allowed those who were Chosen to redeem themselves. Oh how Patar had lamented that his wife was not one of the Chosen. It had been hard to raise his daughter alone, but now she also knew the Truth.
“People of Earth!” the God had said, His voice resonating with the power of the heavens, “Despair not, for I bring you Truth!”
The ignorant masses did not believe His sacred message at first, and it was only through proof that the false believers accepted the God into the village. But Patar knew that the Truth need not proof, for all that was required was the guidance of the God.
The low rumbling growl of the beast managed to silence the blasphemous who dared to speak over His wisdom, and He was allowed to continue.
“I have seen your world, and I lament its destruction! Fear not, for I bring prosperity! I bring peace! I bring light! I bring Truth!”
And the God did as he said. He controlled the beast to bring firewood and stacked it into a pile at the centre of the village, where the old meeting square used to be, and in an act now immortalized forever, He brought light into the eternal darkness. And the light was beautiful.
It was unlike the pitiful wisps of the dying embers on their torches, nor the dim orange of the hearth. This fire, lit by the God’s own holy lantern, seemed to dispel the darkness and heal the wounded. Even the people who were most affected by the Shadow Blight were quickly recovering, for that is the grace given to us from the God.
He provided the village with more miracles next, in the form of water as fresh as the streams that once flowed through the woods, so many, many years ago. He poured this life giving liquid from a small container that never ran out, and the villagers were able to drink to their hearts' content. Next was the food. Real food. Not the leftovers from the House of Sacrifice, or the poisonous roots that many desperate fools ate to stave off starvation. It was food that they had never seen before.
And Patar ate, and for the first time since he could remember, he was content. He had worried then what the God would want in recompense. Oh how naive was he, to think that the God would demean Himself to ask for such petty things from His subjects.
Instead, the only thing that the God wanted was to spread His truth to the others in this realm blighted by darkness, to spread his light to all corners of the world, and to bring Devouring Truth to all. For in his light will one’s suffering be consumed, where one’s pain will be taken, and where the soul will be Devoured so that all will join in the God’s eternal glory.
And so, on that day, the Patar had devoted himself to the God, and worked to spread the glory of the Devouring Truth to all those who were Blind.