Difference between revisions of "Mockery/Story"

Latest revision as of 03:49, 6 August 2011

We do not know when it was first noticed. It was the second day of Calibration when the Maidens came into ascendance in the Games, and we were all so enraptured in play and sight that we did not notice that four moved on the board, and not five.

Records show that Liduro, Third Guard of the Omphalos, saw but Red and Green and Yellow and Blue in the stars. He did not think so greatly of this: he was but a soldier, and during his brief break outside of creation he had more to do than consider the intricacies of the Maiden's games.

The sun flooded the sky immediately afterward, and we did not wonder. We did not question. Perhaps it was already too late.

It was noon of the third day when Jupiter left. She simply set one piece down, and then stepped away, without a word. It was her way, of course, and we do not know why she left, even today. Perhaps she simply knew. We did not care, of course, and the game continued.

Then on the fourth day, at dawn, the Maiden of Battles left. She sharpened her sword, and wandered into the city. History shows that she was there, and she fell in the end.

"Love has failed us. Peace is gone. Sadness is what is mine now, and it shall be yours soon enough. I declare this game to be completed." Three hours before the tolling of the jade bell that signals the new year, Venus stood, and walked away from the board. Her smile was bittersweet, the smile of an unpleasant future welcomed.

The Games continued to work, but even in the throes of ecstasy, the gods looked at Mercury closely. Her moves were calm and premeditated, and the Sun and Moon and Gaia were careful in their movements, and this caution cost them. The sky shone with golden stars.

Finally, the Sun looked at Mercury, her eyes glimmering yellow. "Why are you still here? Why have your sisters left?"

Mercury glanced at the board, and her pieces moved of their own accord. "Serenity has given you her reasons already. There are battles to be fought, and so Mars has gone. Jupiter knows all this, and left before us."

"And what of Saturn?" Asked Luna, and he seemed to push into Gaia, seeming more her child than her consort.

And Mercury told them.

The bell rang, and the Unconquered Sun hurled himself out of the games. He streaked like the yellow flame he was across the sky, bleaching the heavens light, and for once the sun in all his glory shone over the city of Yu-shan.

But at this stroke of midnight, he stopped. He stood in midair, over the Bureau of Destiny, and before him were two figures. One was the Maiden of Endings herself, shining lavender, her essence coruscating around her as though she were a mere Exalt. The other was a man not seen in Yu-shan for thousands of years. He was so old that none dared speak his name in this place, and even the Unconquered Sun hesitated.

He did not look old that old. He seemed middle-aged, his hair the shining yellow of brass, and his eyes and mouth trailing viridian fire. His skin was dark like Iron, the lines in his face perhaps fissures between pieces of metal, and he seemed full of hate for both his summoner and the one before him. Armor of brass and flesh wrapped around him, shifting of its own accord.

Saturn looked across the whole of the city, the thousands of miles it spanned, and turned to her companion. There was no hate in her voice, even as she spoke words as deadly as the Silent Wind, and nearly as quiet.

"End it." She said.

There was no moment in between. For a moment he was a man. And then he was a cascade of brass and meat, streaking down pieces of himself upon the city. Fire lanced from a gaping pit where his face had been, and gods who had lived shorter lifespans than a mortal fell like game.

One of these consumed the Maiden Saturn, the first victim of the ending she had wrought.

Mars was at the ready, and her forces charged against the invader summoned by her sister. She had to have known what would happen, but she did. Nothing had changed in so many thousand years. Oaths were still binding, still a part of her and the Gods. She forsook that oath, and struck with her sword, cleaving deeply, only to cease to exist in the same instant.

Did Jupiter do anything? Was she IN Yu-shan? I do not know. She may yet live.

Venus stood atop the tallest tower of Heaven, and it is said she wept a tear of glittering starmetal as she fell, and that it seared our attacker when it fell. Perhaps it did, but it saved none.

The Unconqered Sun is as great a mystery as the maiden of Secrets. Some say he broke his oath as Mars did, only to cease to be. Some say he fled, or was captured. Perhaps he is dead.

In the end, there were a handful of gods in the Dome of the Games. Mercury was still there, having thoroughly monopolized the board. Gaia and Luna were there. One of them asked Mercury again, why was she still here? Did the future say that this place would be untouched? Would the demon city outside leave this place unscathed?

Mercury looked up, and the pieces whirled in the air like the stars. "He is outside of Fate." She said. "I cannot know what he shall do. Still, I can suppose." She smiled, and the sound of screams echoed from outside. "He will ruin the streets, and the rivers shall run with vitriol. But this place shall stand. He will look at this place, and want to play. But he will know us, inside, and the Games were what drove our lord to revolt in the first place. Whatever the monster he is, he is a stronger thing than us, for being broken. He will destroy this dome, and us with it."

There was utter silence. None dared argue with her, and none dared move, as though by holding still, they might bind time itself and not let it move forward.

"But I could be wrong." She said, and those words shattered the silence and the stillness.

I do not know if there was relief. There was a din, though, moments later. The monstrosity outside had turned his attention to the dome of the Games, and the ceiling cracked. The lesser gods still there scattered; bits of stone fell, and chunks of jade older than all of us there save one ground against each other above us, showering us in enough dust to make any mortal rich beyond words.

But why are you still here? She was asked again.

And the Maiden answered. "Why should I run, when I may wait here for the destination to come to me? There is nowhere to run, now. I have nowhere to go."

And there was a rumble, and a piece of the ceiling, engraved with paeans to the old masters of this place, and untouched for fear that it would disrupt the essence flows to the Games, crashed to the ground, and the Maiden of Journeys was no more.