Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Apollyon

"Renegade."

Her mind was filled with light and color, or less her mind was filled, and more than her mind expanded to fill, drawing out and away from her body as all her earthly ties were cut. For a moment, she thought she could see a distant light beckoning hr onward, glowing golden with the warmth of Revelation, which she could now see over an impossible distance.

But the light did not last, snuffed like a struggling candle.

Where once, light had been, darkness pooled up around her, drawing upwards with the slow advance of shadow at sunset.

"Renegade."

She recognized her own name, the name of the makers, and she knew the voice that spoke, spilling from the consciousness of the thing that haunted her own body. But now, the voice seemed even more familiar than it had been before, a voice connected to her own timeless eons.

A voice she was more familiar with than that of all her friends.

She watched the pooling shadow, felt the things presence as it began to gather itself, drawing up the pooling shadow like a lady draws up the voluminous skirts of a gown,and as it did, a shape began to form, a black silhouette that resembled a simple shadow.

Her own shadow.

It stood across from her, or it seemed to. She knew she wasn't in a physical place, but a sort of realm beyond that, layered on top of the one before. She was dimly aware of her surroundings, a small room that was no more than a shadow on this plane of existence, intangible and untouchable.

In that moments she knew she did not have eyes to see or ears to hear, but her consciousness required some way of understanding the world around it, and had so constructed this world from her own thoughts: an endless realm of whirling black shadow, and a dim grey sky, brightened only by a distant speck of light, now blocked from her vision by the shadow's head.

The shadow, her shadow, cocked its head thoughtfully.

"Rebel." It said again.

"What do you want?" She said, sneering at it with all the malice and hatred she could muster. This thing had made her life hell for nearly thirty years, and her wells of empathy ran dry as desert sand. Sure, they had come to an uneasy agreement over the last few months or so, but that was only out of necessity for both of them. Had the opportunity arisen, to cast off the shadow like a cloak, she would have done so with a flourish, and left the thing to perish without the aid of a host.

"Put away your anger. I am here to bring you the truth." The shadow said.

Maverick laughed.

"No you don't, the void is nothing but lies."

The shadow shook its head in disappointment, "Now that is where you are wrong. I have never brought you lies, Renegade, I have only brought you truth. It is simply this mortal coil that has clouded your memory. Could you but remember you would know the truth of my words, the things that came before, the truth that your own eyes have seen" It paused and tilted its head the other way, "The friendship that we have shared."

If she had possessed the faculties to do so, Maverick would have spit at the creature, but she didn't cross her arms over her chest.

The shadow went on, "WIth your mind clouded, you have lost all of the knowledge of your soul, been corrupted by the words of those Makers who shunned you, ignored you, and pushed you away. Now they tempt you with sweet words, and lies because they do not remember, but I promise you, the moment mortality fades from their eyes, they will remember who you are and they will reject you for it." She tried not to listen to its words, recognizing the manipulation as a poorly concealed tactic to make her doubt and lose trust in her friends.