Reflections Of The Sun/Part 3
His breath hissed between his teeth, yet no noise passed beyond a foot. Glory knew by now that nothing could hear the Demon Ghost who had inhabited his body if the Perfect Mirror Demon didn’t want to be heard. Power seemed to boil beneath his skin and Glory felt despair.
Here, at last, had come Concluding Emollient. The Perfect Mirror Demon had destroyed a Wyld Hunt sent to kill him. The Demon had destroyed Rapskillion, and slain the guards of Thun and Caperia. A missive left in the burning remnants of another Guild wagon spoke of halting all trade with this region if the Perfect Mirror Demon wasn’t destroyed. Everywhere the Demon went, terror followed. Until at last the Sidereal came.
The Perfect Mirror Demon had seen the old man when he entered the town of Coras. Moving by stealth, enhanced by Essence, and fueled by a seething determination that had haunted Glory for years, Concealed Heraldry scouted every town now in hopes that the Sidereal would show. And he was not disappointed in Coras. The old man stood by the town’s well, a popular meeting place for travelers and residents alike who needed water for the day’s activities. One old man among so many was hardly noticeable, but the Demon Ghost noticed.
For hours, the Perfect Mirror Demon had been gathering strength. Building anger, rage and hate into raw power for destruction. Letting the power of death flow through Glory’s living body.
Glory felt no fear. Since the Wyld Hunt had failed, had not even come close to slaying the Perfect Mirror Demon, Glory realized nothing could. Nothing could destroy this abomination. Soon, the Demon would have his vengeance. And then he would begin purging the world of the Sidereal, followed by the Abyssal, and ending with the restoration of the Old Realm.
It would never end. This life of being a ghost within a ghost would continue on unceasing until the day Glory’s body finally gave out. It could only be too soon. Perhaps the Demon Ghost using the powers of death would age his body more swiftly. Glory didn’t want to die, but only because he did not want to become what this thing was, what the Demon Ghost was.
So, Glory watched. Watched the Perfect Mirror Demon sit and watch. And finally move. Dropping from the rooftop, the Demon approached the well. Face uncovered, making no effort to hide himself, only a minute passed by before someone screamed “the Perfect Mirror Demon!” Within moments, everyone had fled. The town square and its well was left empty, desolate, overturned wagons and empty stalls marking the sign of human habitation but with no human remaining who had the courage to risk the wrath of the Perfect Mirror Demon Itself.
Except for the old man. The Sidereal leaned against the stone wall of the well. He was old, but his eyes were clear, sharp and violet. His gaze was empty of any emotion Glory knew. And he made no move to run.
“Concluding Emollient. Here at last. And not running away.” The Perfect Mirror Demon stopped some feet away. “And no armies either. No backup. I looked. No armies of Gods, no Sidereal on the wing ready to strike me down. You’ve really come here, to this town, all alone. How…surprising.” Underneath the Demon Ghost’s contempt, Glory felt the ancient ghost’s fear. Fear that this Sidereal was not acting the way he should.
“So. The Perfect Mirror Demon. Those eyes are quite remarkable, aren’t they? You did that to hide your soul from notice, didn’t you?” Concluding Emollient’s voice was deep, dry and raspy, yet authoritative and amused. “Clever. Not even most Sidereal could look at you and see past the mortal shell you hide in. Oh, they would recognize that you were hiding something. The destiny of the mortal you reside in looks grand indeed, but your destiny is hidden underneath his, hidden behind those mirrors. Clever. Most clever.”
“Thank you,” the Demon Ghost said. “Now, let me spit upon your admiration. Let me defecate upon your compliment. Let me…oooh…” Glory’s body shivered with unholy expectation. “Let me…bleed you. Let me feel all that deceitful filth that passes for your blood pass over my hands. Let me cut you open and pour the filth out. I’ll have to bathe of course. It might take the waters of the Elemental Pole of Water to clean this body. But…in that moment, the stench of your death will be sweet incense to my nose.”
The Sidereal looked at the Perfect Mirror Demon for a long moment, while Glory’s body almost twitched with eagerness. “You seem upset,” he said at last.
Shock followed by wicked anger swept through Glory’s body. “I seem upset? That might be because you killed me, you ejaculate of a Malefaen’s bastard! You destroyed my Realm and you destroyed me! I trusted you and it got me and every one of my fellow Solar killed! I could have cleaned the corruption from the world, I could have changed everything! Look at this pathetic shell of a Realm now! Look at the world around you and TELL ME that it’s BETTER! TELL ME!” The Demon’s Ghost voice was almost incoherent with grief and anguish.
“The world is what it needed to be to survive, lost soul,” the Sidereal said calmly. “All things end. The Realm needed to end and so it did. I am sorry if that meant your death and the deaths of others. Try to be comforted by knowing that it meant saving countless lives in the future.”
“Oh no, no, nononononononononono. You killed me. You set ME up. I could have kept it from happening, I came to you and you TOLD me not to, that you were already aware of it and you could handle it. You TOLD me you would handle it. YOU destroyed the Realm. Not us. You…destroyed me.”
“I handled it exactly as was necessary. I did what was necessary. I am grieved for your death, noble Solar, but it was that or destruction. And I did not kill any Solar myself.”
“You might as well have. My name is the Concealed Heraldry of Righteous Incandescence! I was the Grand Inspector of the Night Caste! I had the power to keep it from happening, power you told me not to use! And because of you, the filthy snake bloods killed me! Know now who I am, who the Perfect Mirror Demon is and fear my return! I’ve waited 1500 years to find you and pay you back for what you did to me and the world. Yes, you’re right. All things DO have an ending. Yours has arrived. Now!”
The dust of the street blew away in a circular pattern from the Perfect Mirror Demon as black power burned the air and magical Essence flowed through Glory’s body. If the Sidereal noticed the Demon’s gathering of power, he gave no sign of it.
“Concealed Heraldry. My, it has been a…very long time. I’m very sorry, my old friend. Of all the Solar of the First Age, you were one of…the very best. You were one of the ones I truly regretted. If only there had been more of you. If only the Prophecy…well, this is water so far under the bridge so as to have circled the Blessed Isle and flowed out to the West. I’m truly sorry. It had to be. Taking revenge on me won’t bring the Old Realm back. And it could very well set this Realm further back than it is already. Consider it for a moment. The Concealed Heraldry of Righteous Incandescence I knew was always a rational, if passionate man. Remember your love for the Realm. The safety of the people is what matters most. Do you serve them by this action now?”
The Ghost Demon within was so speechless with anger that he said nothing for a long moment. The Sidereal continued to speak. “You’ve been through much, my old friend. Such terrible things. Even more terrible to have spent so long clinging to rage and hate. Why not…rest? I can think of no one in Creation who has more the right to it than you. Think of the honor and glory the Sun will lay at your feet, the heights of prestige and service that will be yours in the next life. You…were…the best! He will honor that! Why not go? Go and claim your reward! He’s waiting for you. Think of how long the Sun has been waiting, watching you patiently and waiting for his…one of his favorite children to return home to him. To tell you “well done, My child. Well done.” Is anything in this life worth postponing that now?”
The Sidereal gestured. “Look around you at this world and ask yourself if this is a world you would rather remain dead to or if it is a world you could not only live in but come to rule. I’ll put in my very best word for you, not that my recommendation will stand for much compared to the strength of the Sun’s recommendation and you know how beaming it will be. You could be the Empress’ successor in your next life! You could actually pass beyond serving as the Grand Inspector of Security for the Realm to forming and leading the new Deliberative! Think of it, my old friend. All that can be yours, all of that WILL be yours. You earned it. Why not claim it now? It’s waiting for you.”
“Your words are sweet and winsome as ever, my old friend,” Concealed Heraldry answered. “And I will heed them for you’re right. I can accomplish what I wish far more effectively alive, truly alive, than I can dead. But my honor demands this one thing first. This one thing that I must settle in THIS life and not the next. Your…death.”
The finality of the statement cut the air between them and even if they had seemed a conversational distance before, now it felt like a dividing line was drawn. Two duelists waiting for the signal to begin fighting. The Sidereal sighed slowly.
“Very well. If you will not go willingly to your reward, then I must send you to it. All things have an end. It is time for you to meet this end, so you may begin again.”
The Perfect Mirror Demon struck with all his strength…but abruptly that might burned away like mist before the sun as the Sidereal’s own magic struck back. With a blazing light akin to the Sun’s own glory, Glory’s body was washed with healing heat and…freed.
Glory fell to the ground and it…hurt. It hurt. It really hurt. Close up, not far away as it had been, but his. His own pain.
Blinking, he lay on the ground, eyes open and staring. Though the Ghost should have been invisible to his eyes, Glory could see the shimmering outline of a magnificent warrior clad in gold and ebony black armor, a burning mark revealed on his own forehead. The face was not his, yet the rage Glory remembered. Oh yes, he saw the real Perfect Mirror Demon revealed.
The Ghost floundered in the air, apparently long unused to moving on its own. In that fatal moment of paralysis, the Sidereal moved at last. With a single palm thrust, the old man pushed his way into the ghost…and tore him apart like the mist he seemed to be. The face of Concealed Heraldry of Righteous Incandescence screamed in torment for a moment. Then, the only peace Glory had ever seen the fallen Solar feel passed over him a second before the mist faded into the air and was gone.
The old man sighed and leaned back against the wall, obviously tired from his efforts. He looked pale, stretched, as if he’d used a part of his own being to vanquish the ghost and in killing the ghost he had killed a part of himself. Glory did not understand the faces of people, but he recognized injury well enough and the old man looked worn even in the best of health.
At last, the Sidereal looked over him. A frown twisted the corners of his mouth, before smoothing into a smile.
“What’s your name, boy?” asked the Sidereal. Glory tried to answer, but found he could not move his own mouth. It had…been so long, he had forgotten how. He still could not believe the Demon Ghost was gone. That he had his own body back. He was still reacting to everything by observing.
“Can’t speak?” he asked and again Glory could do nothing. “How long did he have you? How…old were you when he took you?” The old man walked slowly to Glory’s side and knelt. A finger traced his cheek before the eyes of the Sidereal closed and an expression Glory didn’t know altered his face. “So much pain. So long. You were only a child, weren’t you? A very young child. It’s amazing you’re here at all. I’ve never heard of a Ghost doing that who didn’t throw away the soul of the body. You must have…an auspicious destiny indeed.”
Glory wanted to talk, but he couldn’t. He…couldn’t. And he couldn’t seem to quite gather up the feeling to be bothered by it. So he watched. The Sidereal regarded him for a long moment, and then pushed Glory’s body hard. The old man was surprisingly strong and Glory tumbled for a moment before regaining his feet, knees bent, hands at the ready. And Glory realized he was standing. He felt all the muscles doing what they had been trained to do, remembered how each felt. Slowly, as he painstakingly found and flexed each one, he straightened his knees until he was standing straight up.
“So. Not dead yet,” the Sidereal said. Glory merely watched him. “Tell me, boy. Do you have a name?” Glory thought…and thought…and he couldn’t remember anymore. It had been so long since he had heard what he had once been called, so long since he had thought of it himself, since it had meant anything, that he could not recall it now.
“I thought not,” the Sidereal said with a nod, surprising Glory. “I fear those eyes will always be with you. But the rest…yes, I think the rest can be remedied. Yes. You were the Concealed Heraldry of Righteous Incandescence for a long time, weren’t you? ‘With mirrors for eyes, a broken man stands, the righteousness within hidden until it stands revealed.’” The last almost seemed a quote. “Yes. I name you the Fractured Reflection of Concealed Righteousness. That shall be your name. Reflection for short. Now, can you remember how to walk?”
Glory merely stood there. He knew from experience that walking was actually simpler than standing, and yet he could not remember how. He couldn’t remember how to shake his head to indicate that either, nor could he remember how to move his mouth to say no.
The Sidereal seemed to understand, though. He approached Glory and produced a strange object that looked like the leather things he had seen placed in the mouths of horses, only this seemed to be made of the dust of the ground strung together with sparkles. “Hold still and think nothing of this, boy. You won’t mind this a bit and you won’t remember it for long anyway.” The old man opened his mouth and pushed the bit in, which seemed to soak in and fade. “I would do this later but I want you to remember all of this clearly, including his words and mine. I owe you that much, boy, for the lifetime of torment I inflicted upon you in the name of Prophecy.”
Shiny words of Power fell from the Sidereal’s lips then, thundering magic gathered around him, and a magnificent arch of radiance appeared before them. “Time to see your new home boy.”
