Kadian

The Great Creation

"Shetani!" Alaba sang. "Come quick!"

She called for him often. After her first few days in Hell, he tended to leave her alone for extended periods of time. Once, Shetani went a full week without speaking to her. Hell was a busy place, after all. But he was available that day, and was standing before his wife within five minutes.

"Whaddya want this time? It's not that hard." Shetani sounded exasperated, but was not truly annoyed with Alaba. If anything, he admired the woman's determination.

Ever since the day she watched Mohassen and Kadian through the rock, Alaba knew she needed to do something. Had she still been in Azuraya, she would've taken care of Kadian herself (technically, she had already tried, but it backfired.) However, she wasn't in Azuraya, and would have to get creative.

If Alaba could not be in Azuraya herself, she needed someone, or something else to do her dirty work.

"I can send something down there, can I not?" She had asked Shetani the day after her first night in her room.

"You can, sure. But are you able to? Doubt it."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I've got all of the supplies necessary to do what you just asked- and I don't have a problem loaning them to you. I can show you the basics, but after that it's all on you. And frankly I just don't know how you'd fare with that. That's all I'm saying."

"Why do you say that?" Alaba asked in the calmest manner she could muster.

"You see sweetheart, it's all a matter of your mind," Shetain explained.

"My mind?"

"You heard it right the first time. There's really only a few tangible components needed to make someone- or something. The rest of it comes from your mind. You have to think of this object's features, its traits. The way it acts, the things that trigger it. Essentially, we're playing Onile, only we're much better."

Alaba's eyes glowed.

"Essentially, I just need to use my imagination? Is that what you're saying?"

Shetani sighed. "If you want to look at it that way, then yes Alaba- use your damn imagination."

Alaba smiled and clapped her hands. "Great! Demonstrate if you will, love."

What Shetani had told her was fairly accurate. Alaba had only needed a few tiny sacks of powder to get started. Shetani showed her how to sprinkle each powder on the floor, and told her what words were needed to activate them. Afterwards, the creation process was left entirely up to her.

If done correctly, the powders would assemble to assume the physical form of whatever Alaba was imagining. At first, Alaba assumed it would be simple.

For practice, she tried to imagine a flower. After a moment, the powders came together to form an orchid. She laughed gleefully when she saw it. But that was short lived when Alaba realized that her orchid didn't look like an orchid for long. It took the form of a lumpy, distorted, clay like mess that slightly resembled a flower. It started to tremor violently before vanishing. The powders scattered back to their original places in the room.

"What the hell?!" Alaba snapped. She could've swore she heard Shetani laughing.

Alaba had several more failed attempts with the powders. She would often close her eyes and see everything that she wanted to see, but the powders only formed a fraction of what she pictured.

For instance, she tried to create an assassin for several days. The orange clad woman would've been a tall, swift, and deadly threat to Kadian. She would've slit the child's throat at night without leaving the slightest trace behind come morning. Alaba could see the woman quite vividly in her mind.

But instead of opening her eyes to her sultry murderer, she would open her eyes to an arm. Or a leg. Or a piece of tattered orange cloth. Alaba was constantly creating odd fragments of what she wanted, but could never piece them together- she had already tried.

"Look, making people isn't easy, Alaba. I'm the best at it, and even I take a while," Shetani told her empathetically when he found her curled up in a ball after two weeks of trying. "Just start small."

"You don't understand!" she wailed. "I need someone powerful, someone intimidating, someone deadly. I can't just 'start small.' "

"You honestly believe that people are the only ones capable of being any of those things?"

"Well...are they?"

"You hate nature. Start there." He left.

Only two minutes had passed before a handful of ideas raced into her head. She settled on one that night, and could hardly wait to try it out the next morning.

Alaba got better with time. She still only conjured fragments, but they no longer looked lumpy and distorted. If she winded up with an arm, it looked like an arm. But that wasn't enough.

She worked feverishly for close to another week before she was able to get the powders to form the full version of what she had been envisioning. The first time it happened, she didn't care that it only lasted for a second before disintegrating.

"Oh finally!!!" She squealed as she leapt up and clapped her hands before calling Shetani.

"Cool, you'll get there soon sweetie," he told her rather dully when she insisted that she almost had it. By this point, he had tired of hearing about Alaba's daily mistakes.

Alaba's excitement grew when she got her image to stay put, only to fade when she didn't like what she saw. It wasn't that her creation didn't look right- it looked magnificent. But something about it was off. Something about it didn't look as if it could handle the village, could handle her problem. It looked almost...weak.

Alaba refused to accept it until she could get it to look the way she wanted, but it never did.

"UGH!" She had screamed after days of looking into it's blank, almost friendly expression. "I hate that bitch! I hate her!"

Alaba hopped out of her chair and began to pace around the room, cursing and kicking at things. When she turned back to her creation, a cry escaped her throat.

That was how it was supposed to look. That was the kind of fear it was supposed to invoke in one's heart. It gave her a terrifying glare before disintegrating. Alaba slowly sat down, and took several deep breaths. She knew what she needed to do, and did so even though it pained her greatly.

The more she thought about the two of them together, the more it hurt. But her pain was quickly replaced by anger. She watched them often, but she couldn't watch them all day. Every disgusting laugh and smile they must've shared during those times. Kisses that were meant for Alaba, even if he didn't realize it. Every moment, any moment that he was with her instead of her. Alaba screamed when she heard them declare the dreaded "I love you," and as she did a deafening roar shook the room.

Shetani burst through the door to find Alaba face to face with one of the most grotesque creatures he had ever seen. She stared at it in awe, almost lovingly. Shetani could hardly speak.

It was not the worst thing he had ever seen, nor created, but he would have never expected what stood before him to come from the likes of Alaba. She was without a doubt troubled, but never in a million years would he have guessed that something so twisted and raw would have spawned from her. Everyone had dark feelings, but to be able to take them, and successfully manifest them into the physical world took a whole different kind of extreme, passionate discipline. A discipline that he just hadn't seen in Alaba up until that point.

"Alaba," he started, mouth dry. "Don't let that thing get away. Send it out, fast."

But she continued to stare into its eyes, and reached out to stroke it. It seemed indifferent to her touch, as if it didn't matter what she did.

"Let's get it sent out, Alaba. We wouldn't want it to disintegrate."

Alaba only laughed. She knew that he knew just as well as she did that her masterpiece would not be going anywhere any time soon.