Voidstalker

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Left it All Behind, Part 2

The woman smiled at me, but it did not reach her eyes. They were cold and black, like onyx but somehow even darker than that. She was as tenebrous as the Void, like an extension of the vast realm around us. She sauntered towards me with the same stillness as a cold-hearted huntress.

I tensed up. "What are you?"

She smiled amusedly. "Shouldn't the question be who am I?"

"You heard me."

"Perceptive," she mused. "I can't sense fear from you, either."

"I've felt enough fear before it's become familiar to me," I said grimly. "You still haven't answered my question."

"if I showed you what I am, I can't guarantee you'll be sane, or whole," she warned.

"Then tell me who you are and why I'm here," I said impatiently.

"Feisty," she smirked. "I like that."

I cocked one eyebrow, waiting for her response.

The woman sighed. "I am a Goddess, you see. You may call me Hal'vera."

"You don't seem like one," I noted.

"Some say that," she shrugged easily. "As for why you are here, well... To put it simply, you must return to the Void."

I narrowed my eyes. "And just what do you mean by that?"

Hal'vera's grin became darker at that. "Tell me, Vali, the Cursed Child, what has plagued you all your life? What is the curse you bear? The same curse that made you a pariah."

"You're talking about that thing?" I inquired, clenching my fists.

"Contrary to what you might think, it is not a curse, but a gift. Power beyond mortal comprehension."

"It's killed so many people just for being in my way," I countered.

"Why do you care about those deaths? You've said so yourself: everybody dies."

"Except you."

"Except us," she corrected.

"You're the same as it, aren't you?" I asked, eyes locked to hers.

Her smile became much ghastlier. Around her, shimmering milky white eyes opened, stretching across the Void.

"Oh yes, you'll do," she cooed softly, but her plentiful voices made it reverberate until it nearly pierced through my eardrums. "Tell me: what does it mean to be human? What makes you all so special despite how insignificant you are?"

I pondered that question for a moment, knitting my eyebrows in concentration.

What does a human have that a Void Entity doesn't? What do we have that has made us prosper—

"The question is the answer," I said after a moment of silence. "You want our creativity. Our humanity."

"It's ironic, isn't it?" Hal'vera chortled. "The source of your downfall—being human—is also your greatest gift. What we have in logic and perception, you have in cunning—in cleverness. We may be more intelligent than you ever will be, but you are more creative. That is something we want. The enigma of humanity."

"And that's where we come in," I realized.

"Yes," she said in delight. "You have one of my brethren. It has found you suitable to be its host. It means that it worked."

"What worked?"

Hal'vera ignored me. "This is perfect. This is the beginning." She giggled darkly. "Now we need you to get stronger. We need you to learn how to work with it."