Fire Play |
Dany Sirene
2
Prologue
T
HE
chains burned into Lau’s flesh. Agony pierced his entire
body like fine needles whenever he tried to move. Even
through the pain, he bared his teeth in a vicious grin so that
she, his torturer, would not think that such feeble attempts
could actually hurt him.
“Last chance, Lau.” When Anlai spoke, not a muscle
moved in her face. “Make it easier on yourself. Admit to your
wrongs and ask for forgiveness.”
His lungs felt like they were filled with molten metal, but
he laughed. It was just too much fun to laugh in her face,
her perfect face with its self-righteous scowl, knowing
everyone was watching. He would never cower before these
fools. Never let them see him grovel at her feet, begging her
to rescind the punishment. He hadn’t screamed when they’d
whipped him, even when his skin had split and blood had
run down his back and legs in one thick stream. Blue blood.
Blood of a demiurge, pooling at his feet. He was not about to
start now.
“So you refuse. You throw my mercy back in my face?”
Her voice did not betray any feeling. The words were just
protocol, her entire demeanor seemed to say. But he knew
he was hurting her. And deep down it made him feel better.
In guise of answer, he spat at her, mostly blood.
Fire Play |
Dany Sirene
3
She didn’t flinch, looking him straight in the eye. The
mother goddess’s eyes were blue and bottomless, and within
each, four pupils, black as the eternal chaos, rotated slowly.
In them, he read sadness, and pain, and disappointment
that she was not showing outwardly, not showing to anyone
but him, her wayward child.
“Is there anyone here who would like to speak on his
behalf?”
Her voice rang out powerfully over the rows of observing
demiurges. He did not need to look up to see that not one of
them moved. He chuckled to himself.
Anlai took three slow steps toward him, until she was so
close he could have touched her if he wasn’t restrained.
“My verdict, Lau. On behalf of Eris and every living
being within it. I declare you guilty”
The roar of approval drowned out her words. He winced.
The idiots. He was one of the most powerful demiurges of
Eris. Naturally, they were thrilled to convict him on the first
charge they could think of.
Anlai waited for the crowd to go quiet. “Of the violation
of the Elder Laws,” she continued. “Of callous disregard for
another world and another race….”
“They are nothing,” he snarled. His throat felt dry and
raw, but he couldn’t allow his voice to falter. “They are a
weak, ephemeral mockery of sentient beings. And their
world….”
Anlai raised her hand. Her luminous eyes narrowed,
grew darker, now closer to a sea in storm rather than the
cloudless blue skies.
Fire Play |
Dany Sirene
4
“There is nothing I can say to make you understand,”
she said quietlythis was, he realized, for his ears only. The
other demiurges looked on. He could feel their hungry,
curious stares on him, feel their energy, their hatred, their
eagerness to see him fall. He could feel them straining to
hear what Anlai would say. But she was too powerful. If she
wanted no one but him to hear what she had to say, then no
one would. “I have tried. I’ve really tried. If only you knew
how much I wish this wasn’t necessary….”
He scowled. “You’re still hoping I’m going to beg, aren’t
you?”
She sighed. Once again only he heard it, only he saw
the sharp vertical line between her perfect eyebrows appear
and vanish. “No, Lau. I’m not.”
“Good. Now go on, tell the idiots your verdict. I don’t
have all day.”
She pressed her lips together into a thin line.
Then she took a deep breath and spoke loudly again.
“You are condemned to expiate your faults in the
human world, as a human.”
The assembly grew so quiet he thought he’d gone deaf.
The air rang with tension. He could hear them all hold their
breath.
“You will live the life of a human, and suffer like a
human, die like a human, and be reborn as one. You will not
be redeemed until you earn the love of another….”
“Anlai!” cried out a voice. He shuddered. He recognized
him instantly. Rui. The bastard who turned him in to her in
the first place. It was because of Rui that he was in chains
now.
Fire Play |
Dany Sirene
5
He flexed his jaw, fighting for self-control.
Slowly, gracefully, she turned her head in the direction
of Rui’s voice.
“Mother,” he said. Lau could not see him from where he
was, but he could picture him perfectlythe smug look on
his face, the cold gleam of his eyes. The ice god, the one who
made those chains that were inflicting such agony upon him.
“Mother. I believe….” His voice momentarily failed him,
but he regained control. “I believe the punishment is
insufficient.”
She didn’t blink. “Why do you think that?”
“One such as him is a trickster. A deceiver and liar. He
could easily gain the love of a hapless human by his deceitful
means and his false charms.”
Anlai folded her hands in front of her. “Rui, I know the
minds and hearts of men as well as gods. Do you think I
would not have thought of that?”
At least that shut the bastard up. Lau waited. She
turned back to him and continued.
“You must earn the love of another, and learn pain, and
loss. Do you understand, Lau, Demiurge of Fire?”
Only then the panic started to set in. The ice-cold hand
of fear gripped his insides. It took all of the willpower he had
left to keep his face impassive, to keep his body from
shivering. Him? In the human world? As a….
He wouldn’t show his fear, he decided. He would not
give her or that bastard Rui or any of them the satisfaction.
He tried to clear his parched throat.
“Burn in Chaos, Anlai.”
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