Epilogue

Epilogue 2.18

---Jewel---

     I emerge from the lava pit, shaken but unscathed. Not even my clothing has been singed by the all-consuming pool of volcanic bile. With some effort, I manage to climb up out of the crevice. I squeeze my cross, tears streaming down my cheeks. The Master of Light has delivered me. My faith, at long last, has been rewarded.

     Kitara licks her lips. "The Light prevails," she utters, her lips twisting into a demented smirk. "Is that what you think?" She strokes the underside of my chin. I am paralyzed in the presence of her malevolence; I want to shy away from her touch, but my limbs won't budge. "You are mistaken, Child of Light. It is She of the Many Shadows who has preserved you."

     "No..." I hold up my cross in front of my face. Kitara recoils with a hiss. The monstrosities stand perfectly still, all of their eyes on me. I feel a fluctuation in my chest, a numbness in my arms. And then I topple over, and the world switches off.

     When I come to my senses, the green sun hangs low like a rotten lime above the canopy, its light only barely penetrating the thick foliage. I lie on a bed of leaves, stuck in some sort of delirium. The minutes tick by, and the sky grows darker. Another sunset—then I've been out all day.

     After the sun has finally set, the cool wind rejuvenates me. I wipe my feverish forehead and force myself to sit up. The monstrosities are once again engaged in their vulgar revelry, though the camp seems even livelier tonight. The vivisected beasts chant and dance and beat tribal drums, all by the fiery crevice that I was so sure was actually a mouth into the pits of hell.

     Kitara comes and helps me to my feet, her angel wings folded behind her back. She carries in her left hand a rusted goblet, filled to the brim with an equally rusty fluid. "You are parched," says the demon. "Drink."

     I shudder. How could I possibly accept a drink from this... this abomination? I turn my face away, grimacing in disgust.

     "You are changing," says Kitara.

     This interests me. "What do you mean?"

     "The way you carry yourself," she replies. "Your thoughts—they possess a certain elegance that you lacked yesterday."

     "You can read my thoughts?" She's right, though I hate to admit it. I feel... altered. My thoughts and perceptions all intertwine into a cosmic web of profundity, and I can begin to glimpse the beauty in all that is and all that is meant to be. Gone is the pathetic little girl who trembled while her friends were put to the slaughter before her very eyes. But what has taken her place? I shudder to think.

     "Not exactly," the demon admits, taking a sip from the goblet. "But I can read auras. And yours grows murkier by the minute."

     "You're wrong," I say, defiantly. "The Master of Light—"

     "Has no place here." Kitara beckons me. "Come. Tonight, our matron shall awaken from her slumber and grace us with her presence."

     I tremble, but Kitara links her arm through mine and walks me across the camp, urging me to observe the festivities. When we pass by a trio of her monsters chewing the skin off of a live doe, I've had just about enough.

     It occurs to me then that I've not merely been tasked with punishing Kitara for her act of angelicide. I am to thwart the awakening of She of the Many Shadows—one of the oldest and most powerful Enemies of Light. But why me? How am I to battle against evil incarnate? With what weapons shall I carry out His divine will?