THESE CELESTIAL BODIES (Demetre)

Chapter ten

"It is written that the Vesens held a power beyond mortal comprehension. A power that was only known amongst the High Elders and Dhara.
A power that would tamper with the very fabric of time and existence.
The Vampyrs could never know this, if they did, war would break out."

-        The Tomb of Ander Kol

Sanity's fragile. Easy to break, easy to bend. Like a baby's neck, soft and tender. A simple snap and it's dead. That was how fragile man's sanity was. The depths of the human mind is a home of terror, a nesting for dark and forgotten things that would likely kill a mind before a body. Why create mortals if they were only living to die anyway. And above all else, how terrifyingly unaware they are of their own, useless significance.
     But Rose was not human. She did not know what she was but as she walked barefoot amongst the bramble, she had the strangest realization that she had walked this path before.
     A dream that wouldn't avaunt, perhaps.
Or a memory.
     But she walked and knew the steps and knew where the land of thorns and vines and venom would take her. Allowed the soil to churn between her toes and guide her. The land regarded her in reverence, carrying her. She walked until she happened upon a clearing sitting beneath the starry sky, four massive stone pillars lay in the middle, a lit basin roaring inside.

She walked.

This strange place had called her here, whispered and sang. Rose, she had heard the call and come here from—
     From where? She couldn't remember. But this place was calling her, and she had to answer its beckon. She realised she was far down within the bleak west, towns away from where her body had found rest. The closer she got to the four stone pillars, each one scratching the night sky with their teeth, the more she felt their power. Power beyond her wildest dreams. Time-eaten towers, shines.
     It was sickening and cloying, a palpable pulse in the air that hissed through her teeth and made her eyes sting.
     She felt something slid from her eye and reached a hand to touch it, her forefinger coming away wet with blood. But fear did not lick her, hate kissed her instead.
     "Rose," the shadows laughed. Their voices rolling rancidly into the back of her head.

They trickled from the cluster of trees around, barreling into the clearing until they were upon her. They looked like shadow people, shifting and changing. Peering deep into the shadow people, Rose stood there smiling, blood falling from her eyes.
     The shadows surrounded her, and what did they do with her? They danced.
     A drum was beating somewhere, Rose didn't know where from but the song—the chant was incessant, beating into her skin as the shadow people whisked her. Her body moved in a manner not entirely human. With every movement, the shadow people took off a piece of her clothing. Their not lips kissing her neck, hands slipping up her waist, fingers roaming the soft parts of her. Her breasts had spewed out, her nipple in the mouth of one of them. She had never felt so good, had never felt so powerful.
     The bone drums hit harder, the dance becoming faster. She had lost herself in the madness and the music and the shadows that were touching her, making her feel good. Her legs wrapped around one of them, its lips on her neck as it carried her to the basin full of fire. It was still kissing the column of her throat when it set her on the slab of cool stone before the fire and spread open her legs.
     "Lover." The shadow said, it was male, beautiful. The kind of sound that felt like a blow and made her blush.