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 |  Grieving 11-year-old Sigrun must find someone to answer the needs of the innocent. |
| "No, Vivianca." I glared at her. "Why are you doing this?" "Duty." What do devils know of "duty" or "honor?" Vivianca's duty put a trap around me, one that slithered around me even as I rolled my eyes and shook my head at Vivianca's words. I curled my lips and stared, waiting for the fiery woman to recant. Stalwart, even statuesque, Vivianca held her gaze. By putting the apple in my hands, Vivianca exposed herself, heart and soul, to my mercy. I breathed a surrender. "Very well. Call it duty if that suits your story." Vivianca showed her palms and shrugged. My eyes burned and watered as I beheld this fruit. It would would blind me to everything that makes life worthwhile. Let this menace poison me, if that allowed her to fight for a poor, helpless little girl. I bit into the apple. As my teeth cut into the bitter black skin, the apple popped, leaving only a dusty violet smoke that caked my nose in darkness and flowed into my belly and lungs, drowning me for a second. As the blackening dust rolled over my eyes for a moment, a river of burning smoke within buoyed me, burned away the dark spots and made me feel unnaturally clean and light. Then, my stomach lurched and I stumbled. From a thousand feet away, the cobblestones rushed toward my hands and face, though my feet never left the earth as she fell to her knees. The sun reflected off the pretentious trees that ached to batter the ears of passersby and sour, envious grass blades that longed to cut the feet who dared to walk on them. This burned behind my eyes. I had been cast into a festering pit worse than I had ever imagined, one deserving of destruction and` punishment. "No! That was not the deal. I can't be damned yet. The girl still needs me." Vivianca did not answer. The devil girl had not made the trip. In horror, I surveyed the scene. The soft, supple skin of my hands served only to hide twisted and evil bones. Everything about her had this simmering hatred I had never noticed, except in the tower before me. It remained as it had been, only now it offered me the solace of honesty. I had fallen, not to hell but to earth, the earth that Vivianca saw. My lips curled in contempt. "I do not like this." I sneered at the place Vivianca had hovered. In fact, I had swallowed the entire devil-spirit with the apple. "Too much like Korog's demon. Even as a newly-made orphan, I refused this." I waited for Vivianca to taunt me again, remind me that I had not refused this time. Only the creepy creak of corrupted wood against rusting steel in the dread windmill answered. Vivianca would say vengeance belonged in the life of a mud-spark, and for me, that lie straight ahead. I strode into the dungeon tower and smiled down with affection at Oliver and Perrin. My friends had been subdued, not really injured, by the slug-demon's magic. Despite bruises and minor bleeding, the boy and the pig would be safe enough until after she achieved her mission, no matter how betrayed they would feel. As I continued up the tower, I squelched the urge to slap them for failing me; there would be time to take them to task later. Each unnecessary, steep stair reminded her that I could not take wing, as an angel should. With grudging grace she climbed until at last she shoved aside the door. "Took you long enough." Lorelei lay manacled to a table, with a dagger sitting behind her, and a star drawn in the floor. The seven-pointed star, appropriate for calling but useless for trapping, drew a smug sneer. She did not consider how she knew such a thing. "Idiots." The little girl stuck her tongue. I looked at the little witch, wondering if the girl's father had sold her to the slug-demon, or if she herself had dabbled in things best left to other people. All I knew for sure, the spirit before her had cast many spells in her life, despite her apparent young age. "I have half a mind to leave you there." "Wait, what? After selling your soul to save me, you're not going to just leave me here." The little girl's cocky glare defied me to abandon the mission. I even urged herself to do just that, turn around and get herself out without touching the demon-infested ingrate. Sigrun would not punish a child for petulance, I reminded myself. Unable to smell the stench of evil, I had the stomach of a sewer rat when it came to this. Deprived of my sensibilities, I had to rely on the commitments for guidance. "Lucky for you, I'm a disciplined person." I fumbled in the drawer, found a rusty iron key that left red dust all over my otherwise clean hands. "No! Don't take her!" The gigantic slug-bottomed demon crawled up the stairs. "Don't take my body!" "This body doesn't belong to you," I said. "Back to your prison, rampant!" "Don't understand! My father is looking for me," the demon roared. "I need that body or he won't recognize me." "That's your problem." I pulled my sword. I stuck the sword deep into the heart of the demon, but neither the blade nor its holiness made any dent in the slug-flesh. "You can't hurt me, but please don't take my body! I nee--eed it." "You'll have to suffer." I stepped past the monster. "I want my mommy. I want my daddy. Please, Sigrun, help me!" Sigrun grabbed the little girl by the collar, who made a point of sticking her tongue out at the slug-demon as Sigrun dragged her out of the room. "Is this how you usually treat people you rescue? Good thing you don't care for rewards." We ran down the flight of stairs. "No. Is this how you usually treat people who help you?" The girl looked down and shrugged. "Stupid people deserve what they get." "So I am stupid, eh?" She had listened to Vivianca. "I guess so. Never take care of myself." "I don't even know why I am taking it so easy on you." "Next time," Sigrun jerked the collar forward, "have the sharpness to shut up 'til after they're done helping you." A ghostly voice called from behind me. "Sigrun, this is your last chance!" I looked back to see the image of Uncle Mack, shaking his head at her. He called to her from behind a cloud of purple-black smoke. "Don't go out of this place with that girl's body. If you cross the threshold, she never will return." A tear came in my eye, but I let it fall unremarked. Mack might say such things,and so might a devil. My stomach twisted neither more or less at the words. "Don't think I don't know how you can switch masks at will." I ran faster. The little girl made a rude gesture at Uncle Mack as they ran further down. "Aren't you afraid he's telling the truth, Sigrun? You don't look so good." The little girl could not stop baiting, for what reason I could not guess. I dropped my jaw a bit as we reached the doorway, and shook my head. "No, just out of sorts. The sooner I get this devil out of my lungs the faster I will feel like a normal soul again." "Yes, that's right. Tell yourself that, young one," the little girl cooed. I shot the girl a questioning look. Perhaps the vision really was my Uncle, and I should collect her friends and leave the girl. "What? That's what my mommy always tells me. Will you take me to my Daddy?" It wasn't a perfect cover, but good enough. I nodded, and continued onward, running from the ignoring the sound of the demon's screams for "Mommy! Daddy!" "That's one petulant demon." I plopped the girl onto the wagon. I looked back at her friends, trying to feel out what a normal Sigrun would do. My friends, even the bookish boy Oliver, had courage. They wouldn't want their leader to forsake their mission. Besides, I could not shake the sense that they should be put in their place. Mud sparks always deserved punishment. "Let's see your father about that reward." None of the things that had mattered to Sigrun got past the wall of logic in my head. The slug demon had no reason to attack her friends, and they would heal just as well in an hour as this moment. To soothe her friends' wounded egos and make everything better, she knew a thousand things she could say to each of them. "How did I survive in that state?" I drove the few minutes to Lorelei's home, a busted down cottage that had been uninhabited for some time. "Ellie? Is that you? Were we successful?" Erick smiled at the sight of the little girl. He had forgotten her name. Sigrun pulled to a stop. The girl jumped from the wagon, ran to the man Erick, and kissed him like a woman. Then she grabbed the dagger from his belt, and they turned on Sigrun as a team. "Drop your sword, little girlie. You might win a few moments to live." "What is the meaning of this?" Sigrun pulled her sword. "You've been snookered, imbecile," the little girl said. "That demon was MY body. I took this one for the fun of it. My lover T!Quara planned this whole thing. Although without Vivianca's help, it would have failed terribly. Isn't that right, 'Daddy?'" She looked at T!Quara. T!Quara nodded and swung his mace. "Everybody always got knocked out when they came to rescue her. We figured eventually there would come a bleeding-heart of your caliber, but we figured this body would be old and gray before that happened. Lucky we were wrong." Sigrun frowned in disgust. "I am going to destroy you. Send you back. Whatever." "Oh, you're going to try." Lorelei danced, clapped, and licked her lips. "I wouldn't worry for us. You haven't got your nasty paladin power." My chin fell as I considered. "You're right, I have cut myself off from the power of Those who Watch Over." I raised my holy sword. "Without Them, this sword is mere steel. Worthless against you." I tossed it aside and walked up to the little girl, caressing her cheek. "Guess I have to throw myself on your tender mercies." The little girl grinned and giggled. "We have none." "That's okay." Vivianca stepped out of me, and gripped them about the throats. "We weren't talking to you." The two souls fit nicely into Vivianca's hands once she ripped them from their hiding spot. "You know, the victims won't live. This is death, ripping the spirits from their bodies." Sigrun nodded. "They are undead. These two desecrated these bodies. Now, at least, they have peace." I shed a tear, and looked about, as if for a place to bury them. "I could help you cope with the grief, as well, my friend." My hands shook as I retrieved the cold, lifeless sword, and realized how my mistakes had changed me. "We are never that." Sigrun wiped the tear away. From behind, Vivianca tapped me on the shoulder. "We have more pressing issues, my friend." "I have ended two lives, and I no longer know right from wrong. How could anything be more press--" "Assuming your friends still live," Vivianca waved toward the tower, "if you say the word, we will destroy all who threaten them. Just designate an innocent. Not you; you must be culpable." "So that's how it works, eh?" I ran to Coltrivar and jumped on, with the wagon dragging behind. "I'll take my chances." "There would be a mitigating option," Vivianca said, floating beside the horse as if it were not moving. "Designate one of the people you wish to protect." I glared. "It would be a great option. We would only act in the event that one of them were going to die, take the life of your intended victim and deliver the other to safety." "I think I'll take the high road, and decline all your, ah, 'help.'" "Naturally. Pride is the sin closest to who you truly are--for indeed, why would any person work so hard to do good if she did not feel the shame of the mudspark?" "I don't feel anything, just numb." Sigrun urged her horse onward. "Is that what you've done to me?" "Your mind cannot deal yet with the glaring light of truth. In time, you will..." I cut her off with a look. Vivianca smirked at that. "We could--if you would designate a name, someone worthy yet undeserving of destruction--make it seem as if you knew our help would arrive. For you, I will even send your emissaries in robes of white." I glared at Vivianca, and urged the horse faster. "Do you ever fall silent?" "There is a time when you need me to speak. At that moment, I will hold the peace." A wave of disgust drowned the sun and soaked the earth. Vivianca floated ahead of her. "Don't be like that. My presence honors you." I grimaced. "Rare are the heroes chosen to hear my voice." I topped the hill to see Perrin hobble out of the windmill, supporting Oliver who could barely hold himself up with both hands. I jumped off the horse. "I'm so sorry." I ran to them, and looked over their wounds. I let each one bite into me, as though I had been there to shield them. Oliver rushed to me, and threw his arms around me. "I'm so glad you're okay." Perrin oinked, as always unreadable. "Yes, you are mysteriously not bleeding in the depths of our enemy's home." Oliver pushed her away. "That's right. You advanced upon..." His lips wiggled, as he struggled not to cry. "Must have been some battle, to draw her off." "I did not know what I was doing." I clapped my hand over my mouth at the cowardly excuse. "Forget I said that. I chose to go after the rescue. I don't know why I did it and I am..." I forced myself to look in Oliver's eyes. "...sorry, that I didn't help you right away." "Look like the wrong end of axe catching contest." Perrin slapped his hands together. "I'm sure Ziggy feel almost so bad as Ziggy deserve." Oliver sat shivering on the gnarled edge of a stump. "She left me, abandoned me in the palace of devils. How could she do that? I mean how could Sigrun do a thing like that. If anybody could. It's not her, they took her away." I whispered to Perrin, "I had to have help, if it's any interest, in order to walk into that place." I sniffed, and surveyed the place. A sharp wind rushed past. "The place stank in a way that I'm sure you can't understand, a way that all three of us surely stink right now." He showed his teeth and nodded. "If stink so much, glass-helmet girl, why not Ziggy cover mouth?" I wiped at my nose, but all the plum soul-soot had gone. "I sold my senses to a devil to save that demon girl." "Demon girl?" "Lorelei was a rampant, fugitive soul." I nodded. "All this, just so I would betray everything." Perrin slapped my back. "Stand too long by urga, talk like Perrin. Be huma today. Work tho. Spin words of glass." "You want me to lie? I ask people to take responsibility." I looked at his chest, then down at his feet. "How can I stop this?" "This?" Perrin reached behind my head and grabbed it with both hands, then pointed my gaze at Oliver. The fat little man shook like a leaf in the wind. "Look like responsible?" "I deserve this." "But he no deserve. Ziggy, he no deserve." Perrin's hot breath burned my cheeks. "Simple. 'Devil made me.'" The pig man pushed me toward the boy. "That's right." I took one step toward Oliver. Was it right to lie, if it would bandage Oliver's broken heart? Was it even untrue? I hoped one day to know. For now, I had more to do. The taste of plum on my tongue, I whispered, "Vivianca. It was, um..." The tears in Oliver's blue eyes fell as he met my gaze. |
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