dellsiming

[dellsiming]

He thought he was probably about to be struck down.

Instead, She smiled, soft and serene.

[dellsiming]

The woman’s eyes lit up white.

“Clearly. Only the most disobedient of 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 would dare speak to the Mother Universe with such blatant disrespect.”

“Should’ve raised me better.”

[dellsiming]

She laughed and the ground shook beneath his feet. “𝘐 am wrong?” She demanded.

He gave a singular nod. “Even by 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 I’m still a child.”

[dellsiming]

Lysander didn’t flinch.

“You’re wrong.”

The woman paused. “What did you just say to me?”

“I said you’re wrong.”

[dellsiming]

“Thank you?!” Lysander exclaimed. “I didn’t know I was supposed to be thanking you for killing my best friend—!”

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥!” She roared and his nose began to bleed again.

[dellsiming]

She sneered and the room became frigid.

“I made you that pretty little boy to play with, made him to teach you the beauty of loss, and you thank me by learning nothing and ruining a plan that was set in motion before your 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 were born.”

[dellsiming]

“I learned plenty,” he argued on instinct, holding the furious gaze that was meant to make him buckle.

“Pray tell, my little pet… what did you learn, if not the beauty that comes with death?”

“The horror you feel before it.”

[dellsiming]

Her voice shook the entire room.

[dellsiming]

“Pulled you out, let you get yourself patched up, assumed that would be the worst of it…”

A crack of thunder, a blinding light, and then She was there.

“And yet you still learned 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.”

[dellsiming]

“I remember,” he answered. He wished he didn’t, but he remembered.

“I pulled you out,” She said, and as if a switch had been flipped, the room was different.

A plush sitting room filled with greenery.

[dellsiming]

The voice was odd.

It was that of a woman, soft and melodic, but there was a razor sharp edge to it, a cold sting that threatened as much as it comforted.

[dellsiming]

“You begged me for help here,” a voice whispered at his ear.

Lysander turned. No one there.

“Do you remember? How you begged and 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘥 for anyone out there to listen? How 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 you were?”

He swallowed.

[dellsiming]

Lysander knew the room he stood in.

It plagued his nightmares; the room itself, the things that had happened within, the creatures that inhabited its corners and crevices.

[dellsiming]

“So do we just… wait?”

“Yes. We will wait.”

[dellsiming]

“She won’t…” Ren’s words trailed to an end before he’d finished his question, but Vultus was already shaking his head.

“Kill him? No, She needs him too badly for that. He will likely be… 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥. She can draw blood with Her words alone, but She won’t kill him.”

[dellsiming]

The two men swallowed nervously at Death’s words.

“Mother Universe will not be pleased with what he’s done…” Vultus was muttering to himself, hands withdrawing from a sweat soaked forehead.

[dellsiming]

“He is speaking with Her…”

“Her?” Ren and Max said in unison.

“She has many names and many forms in many realms, but I know Her as the Universe. Mother of all mortal creatures.”