“Koriath!” Hokulani rushes in.
Gold and silver glitter forms around them as she catches his unconscious body in her arms. His talon finally drops the mallet as she holds him. Her eyes follow the tool’s fall into a pool of Demi-Corvapian blood, she steps back with the sight of the violence bordering the offerings on the ground. Hokulani’s golden eyes are on the verge of tears as she sees his shirt on the ground beside them. Kori- why? What did you do to yourself?
One paw trembles as it hovers over the stake, her other on his back, holding him with one arm. “Koriath, wake up.”
This cannot be Darkness, this has to be Madness. The tip of her paw grazes the head of the stake. Do I pull it out? What if that makes him undead? Do I leave it in? She sniffs the air. The sight alone was enough to believe this was ritual, the smell confirms it. Ritual for what? She retracts her paw from his impaled heart and lifts his legs from under his knees in her other arm.
“Koriath please, heal yourself.” Hokulani growls softly as she lowers herself to a kneel. She gently props him to sit up against the trunk of the tree. Once his body is settled she sits beside him, with both of her own paws folded in her lap.
After watching him for a few moments, she lifts her paw and nudges his right shoulder. “Hey Ori-asu, wake up already….”
He does not stir.
She shakes him harder. “Aren’t your daughters on this planet? Wake up!”
Hokulani holds her heart-space with one paw, as her other reaches out to his face, softly closing his eyes. The same smile he fell with, still on his face.
He seems to be in another plane- that’s it!
Hokulani sits back to herself, folds her legs, and begins to meditate. She grounds and protects her body from within with radiance, before letting her spirit travel. She awakens in her mind’s eye to a field of golden meadows, a mountain range on the horizon supporting a sky neither dusk nor dawn, but both. Hokulani orientates herself in the plane. This place is like Elysian, but it isn’t.
Purple and blue clouds lined in silver loom over his black mass laying still in the golden green. Koriath’s body at the tree remains laying beside hers, however the view from his mind’s eye shifts to the spirit space, his talon grips tight to gilded grass. Vertigo takes to his senses like a boat caught in a stormy sea.
Crimson lightning strikes from a cosmic void storming in from above, a passionately obsessive abyss below anchors him down.
Koriath tries to rise, I am being crushed for my rebellion, even here. The fight for freedom has only begun.
Amongst the starless space that bleeds crackling magic, a giggle like spider’s silk trickles into his ears, and down his nerves, spinning and weaving in his mind and heart.
He forces himself onto his toelans and breaks into combative dance, empathizing with the manipulated space. The darkness begins to gravitate away from the unnatural void and flows toward him as he reaches out a talon to the space.
A malevolent bolt strikes between him and the darkness, he leaps in front of the element, while deep healing magic flows from his feathers. The darkness chooses to keep to the tempo of his heart. Combative forces beyond nature storm down upon him from her energy. The loving sorrow and malevolent longing battle relentlessly through the gravities of each other, until a spinel bolt shoots toward his heart.
With a dancing wave of his talon, he tries to weave the sigil of the six elements, two triangles interlocked in each other. He writes in the air only the first line of the first triangle. Her bolt blasts through and vaporizes it. In a last line of defense, he closes his eyes, opens his heart space and takes the strike.
Under the shadow of the tree where his body lays, his talon lifts to cover the wound and the stake protruding from him. In the same instance within his mind’s eye, his ether flows out to every place and heart that is voluntarily open to perceive true darkness. With this, begins the births and deaths of multiple universes.
What I broke when fighting her and the demon has been mended, natural darkness is in balance again. His sight peacefully returns to the heavenly field.
Amidst the gilded and verdant fields, Hokulani’s and Koriath’s spirit run to each other. Iridescent silver, and lavender howls in the soft light is her form. On a black feathery mist, he is deep garnet petals and carnelian caws. The closer she draws to him, the more they each take to their typical physical forms.
Hokulani brushes a human-like deeply tan skinned hand upon his life blue shoulder, a crimson bolt, which thunders with malevolent laughter, strikes Hokulani. The explosive force pushes Hokulani away from Koriath, he sees the color of malicious lust suddenly cage him as he reaches for his Wylfen friend.
Hokulani looks up from tumbling hard, her war dress is smeared with gold grass stains and copper soil. She rises and charges to try and stop his ensnarement with a fist full of light.
Koriath pushes himself up to his talons and knees with ferocity. “I said I am free of you!” He tries to fully unfurl his wings with the strength of his sorrow, visualizing himself bursting out of the cell of his soul. In waking, his corpse-like talon back at the base of the tree searches around for the mallet.
Hokulani leaps into the air then dives her illuminated punch. Her fists at first seem to break the cage, then it all begins to morph. The field becomes fluid, they flow into another plane where all color becomes every color, as well as no color at all.
Koriath grabs Hokulani’s wrist, keeping her from fading along with the space.
“You’re free!” Her tail wags.
Koriath tries to respond yet his voice is silent, nor can he emit any sounds. His spirit body begins to tremble, his grip on Hokulani waxes and wanes.
“What is wrong?” Hokulani holds his arm, her strength and balance regains. She tries to lift his arm over her, as if helping to walk or keep him from drowning, but it does not lift.
Something is happening. Oh Gods- The sclera of his eyes grows red with tears.
Koriath’s body waxes into a new form. His eggshell blue skin turns into porcelain the same hue, with white moonflowers painted on down his arms, chest, sides, and legs like tattoos. The natural joints of his body become ball jointed doll parts. Corvapian talons and toelans are replaced by delicate fairy hands and feet. Wings once mighty and wild are now made miniature in frame. His flesh resurges in for a moment as his will combats to remain in his form and to keep the ends of his wings from being clipped.
Red spinel strings attach to his joints, an abrasive dust of the same red spinel exfoliates his skin away with cruelty. In her grasp his body becomes her puppet. A massive bone-white corvapian talon descends from the darkness above them, all of the strings tied to him are linked to a chain glove made of abyssal violet rings.
Hokulani with his forearm still in paw, holds tight to him, readies her jaws and moves his arm behind her in one motion. She bites one of his arm strings, it pops in half within her teeth. She breaks the rest of his arm free with her dewclaws.
Koriath regains his talon and draws it out of Hokulani’s hold to cut his other arm free. He slashes the other string and frees his other talon.
However the form of a porcelain marionette engulfs both of his arms while her snicker haunts the air. “You can run, hide, or resist all you want, but you are mine.”
“I was yours. You not only ruined all that we built, it was built on deception. I will not only resist you, I will rescue myself from you.” Koriath glares as he regains his voice.
“And he is not alone.” Hokulani growls as she cuts the strings on Koriath again.
Yet for every string cut, a new one blooms with more shine and strength than the last.
Koriath looks upwards with ferocity, despite losing the battle for his flesh. “Malencia, I am not your puppet nor plaything!”
“Your soul is mine to do with as I wish, Koriath. I own you as long as our byproducts live.” Malencia’s voice echoes all around them.
“I told you to stop calling them that.” Koriath shuts his eyes and grits his teeth.
Hokulani transforms into her guardian armor, stellar metal plates over a white wardress, she leaps up toward the giant talon while summoning up her shield.
Malencia’s other gigantic talon appears out of the darkness, her talon flicks Hokulani downward before the light guardian can fully summon her shield. The force of a shooting star falls as if a small wad of paper in this corruption of ever shifting space.
“Lani!” Koriath spreads his wings, he tries to force his body to jump and fly toward Hokulani, but the porcelain form is not his to move.
“I don’t want anyone interrupting our talking, I missed you too much.” Malencia chortles.
“I did not miss you.” His eyes scowl at her.
“Liar.” She forces him to kneel on both knees and raise his arms toward her.
He shifts his focus to Hokulani. “Lord Amorani, if this prayer is worthy for you to hear, let not the Wylfen fall to this vile demon-”
Malencia cracks his left talon with a violent jerk of the strings so that it crashes against the ground. Her voice thunders over his scream. “You pray to me or not at all.”
“This Emperor of Darkness is a priest-king, He will pray to whomever He needs.”
She giggles as her fingers slowly guide Koriath to rise. “And your most powerful prayer is in dance, I believe you still owe me one.” She forces him into position. “Dance for me.”
“Please, even if I be cursed at love, Lady Jawahir, please goddess of beauty, intercede this prayer to your brother. Lord Amorani, you are Hokulani’s patron god, please keep her angelic heart beating-” He continues praying as Malencia tugs him into starting stance.
She has him fold his hands over the center of his chest, then moves his left in a forward step. Slowly she gently tugs the strings to create a gentle bobbing motion through him.
He continues to ignore Malencia. “Please keep Hokulani alive. Not just because the multiverses need her love and light-”
Malencia continues to have him gently bounce like a small flame as she navigates his next steps. His arms in rhythm cast rotating crescent moons.
“Lord Amorani, this is a selfish prayer. I cannot watch the person who I thought was my soul’s mate, destroy my best friend.”
“Mates are equals, I am glad you recognise that I am your soul’s master.” She guides him to leap and spin for her. “You sure are a selfish little thing. It's cute hearing you admit it instead of being so self righteous all the time.”
Koriath channels the guilt stored in his heart to his feet to keep himself from taking another step as she has him land mechanically. “Lord Amorani, I will take whatever punishment I deserve for failing my brotherly friend Custodio, my people, for not only failing to stop a war rooted in hate- but allowing her to lead the front.”
The more he resists, the faster the doll form takes him. Malencia thickens the strings into chains.
His tears break from him with every step, every movement she forces. His voice trembles as he cries out. “I will not argue my fate for failing Korimizyo, Nephti, and Desiderius. Lord Amorani I am grateful that my twins live, but- Lani. Please save your disciple. Raise Hokulani!”
“That is enough out of you.” Malencia sends out her crimson voltage through the chains.
Koriath’s jaw becomes a mouthpiece that parts between the lips. His body renders into an uncannily lifeless pawn, save for his soul screaming within his garnet eyes.
Malencia’s giggle descends into chuckling as she continues making Koriath dance without the sanctity of his own heart-lead step. “Last time we danced, I asked you a question. I want you to answer me again, Moonflower. Do you love me?”
Koriath looks to Hokulani with tears of sorrow and warmth, as his eyes roll upward, the tears shift to those of rage. Lord Amorani, Lord Rajnish, and all gods known by my heart, I believe the kind of love that blooms in the darkest night is superior to the chains of manipulation and suffering. I believe in the light, the forces of nature, and the cycles of life and death…
“Oooh what do those scary eyes mean?” Malencia leers back into his garnet eyes, her talons descend his dance from formal to exotic. Her energy manipulates his voice, his mouth moves like a ventriloquism dummy. “It means you have to make me fall in love again.”
I believe that Evil forces like Malencia are incapable of Love, and Love knows that those who maliciously delight in the suffering of others cannot be redeemed or forgiven. He stares her down defiantly.
“And how do you want me to do that?” Her cheeks blush, her lips curl into a smirk as she continues manipulating him. “You have to break me harder than last time. Hunt for my love like you mean it Mali, then cage me so I never fly from you again.”
Koriath’s body in waking holds the mallet in talon, his head lifts in regality. “I believe in my own darkness.” With this umbrally divine living dead croak, he drives the rest of the stake through his chest.
In the other world, he screams with his own power and will. The porcelain cracks and falls from him as he transforms into his guardian garb. Unarmored semi sheer cosmic fabric, for dazzling, dancing, and dueling. The Black Lotus blooms as a battle circlet from his pineal gland. His toelans and talons restore, his wings burst from his back with unbridled divine darkness. The chains soften to strings, then clouds of smoke the color of night snap the strings.
Hokulani’s light glows from each strand of hair as her fur stands up. Her tail and ears twitch as her paws fiercely push her body up from the void space.
Koriath runs to help her up, he extends his talon out, she grips his wrist, as he grips hers and pulls her up. They nod to each other, then let each other go and turn in unison to a now approaching sound of slow clapping.
Malencia waltzes in from the abyss with her normal height, her talons slowly clap as she giggles. “My my, what a beautiful little play that was, too bad though, I would have liked to have a different ending.”
Koriath and Hokulani both silently take their individual stances side by side.
“Oh don’t look at me like that, you two, I am not here to dance or battle with the illusions of duality.” She continues strutting forward.
“Then why are you here, Malencia?” Koriath starts channeling dark energy to his talons and toelans.
“Moonflower-” She smirks. “You practically begged me to come get you just a few moments ago.”
“I have not begged for you in ages. My love for you is forever revoked. You used my heart, mind, my body and soul as your plaything. I am taking myself back.”
“An age ago you said you would kill me on sight, and here you are, still trying for a martyr’s magnanimous escape with your spell work. I suppose you have proven your point, you are no object. If you were a good little doll we would not be here.”
Hokulani almost sighs with relief but Koriath’s focus reminds her to keep her own, she starts to summon her shield.
“Ah, that fight is the fun of it.” Malencia leers down at them, though they are both taller than her. She snaps her talon fingers and the chains on Koriath’s soul appear on him. “You are a living creature, my prize little rooster.”
“Malencia, give me my soul back and move on.” Koriath stands firmly.
“An elemental guardian is no one’s pet.” Hokulani speaks with her fangs bore.
Malencia outright ignores Hokulani as she tightens the soul chains on Koriath with an encircling snicker. “You want your freedom my little moonweed? Kill the ones you sold your soul for and you will be released.”
“I will never lay a talon on my childlings. I am not you.”
“You don’t even know what I am. You don’t know what monstrosities your so-called childlings are. A good guardian of Darkness would have put them down for the safety of Chaos, but you, you selfish little Corvapian; you sold your soul for them.”
“That is enough Malencia. You do not understand unconditional love, there is no use arguing such concepts with you.” He speaks softly as he tries to break free again.
Hokulani steps in front of Koriath with her shield raised. “Malencia, release him.”
“Silly doggy, I took him as we bathed in his blood ether instead of making a blood bath of the r-”
Koriath’s body at the tree, now drops the mallet in a prayerful trance, with his own talon he pushes the stake completely through his body. The stake falls to the root of the tree as his body falls to his knees, then slumps over himself.
In the spirit space, Hokulani snarls and pounces Malencia. The Wylfen falls through a black cloud of sulfuric smog and opiate smoke.
“You may have flown the coop for now, Koriath, but one night or day, I will catch my runaway pet.” Malencia’s chuckle haunts the space as her malefic plume caresses his cheek before her energy and her field disperse.
Hokulani and Koriath are back in the golden green, clouds only the color of sunset and sunrise in the sky, in the forms of canis and corvus. Laying beside each other only for a moment. Koriath disappears on an earthly-sweet smelling feathery smoke. Hokulani is brought to reality hearing the stake ding, falling on the roots and rolling to the forest floor.
She shuts off her light as she leaps over to him. Hokulani takes his body into her arms trying to shadow over him and stop the bleeding as she cries. “Koriath!”
Koriath’s eyes see only nothingness, though his mind hears Hokulani’s cries, along with a caw from Adumbra and Phantisma.
Aw’ddy!
My Shepherd, whatever you have done, Phantisma can sense it. She keeps escaping and running to you in the shadows.
“Kori please, heal yourself.” Hokulani lays her forehead on his.“Kor- Get up.”
The lively blue hues on his skin start to fade to alabaster and ice as the flow of ether blood stops.
“Amorani, my God, please help me save him!” Her tears cascade with her solemn howl. “He is the one who showed me what life and nature was when I was a girl. Koriath is more than just my best friend, I can’t explain it but - I feel we have been friends or family for multiple lifetimes. Lord Amorani, I refuse to fight at his side, as an avatar of light if he is dead!”
The Darkness of Life… is dead… He will be a corpse on duty until one of his daughters is old enough to become the next guardian of darkness. If not for Koriath, I would know nothing beyond fighting demons that prey on the dead. Knowing his darkness brings illumination.
“Before Malencia, he was always there for me. He always listened when I would run away from my sisters… The love and friendship he gives… it has to be you. His hatch night is during his culture’s festival of love, which you are the personification of. I know Lord Rajnish is his patron, but if you really know Koriath, you know that love is the core of all his beliefs!”
Hokulani starts to cry uncontrollably, and screams unintelligibly. The fierce scent of lament guides Phantisma, who is being chased by Adumbra.