Silent Shadows: Book Two - The River of Secrets

XXV

I've given them the order to spread my request to that group keeping those two. 

Soon, I will have everything. Soon, the world will be mine.

Soon, I will feel no fear anymore.

-

Where am I?

Her mind felt battered by a myriad of screams. No, an infinity of screams. Then, how in the world had it ended?

She felt as if she was about to fall back into the ocean of death when the realization struck her, like a final strike to make her remember she'd been torn to shreds. Her thoughts felt like an incoherent sea of wails, of fear and grief. Sunpaw, Featherkit...mom. Everyone.

Shimmerspark screamed.

She screamed out into the nothingness that'd enveloped reality, wailing desperately from all the memories she was now realizing. She felt as if the last scraps of sanity she'd been holding on to had slipped between her claws, leaving her to spiral into the abyss. 

The she-cat desperately tried to pull herself back toward reality, yet there was no place to stand on, no world to ground herself in. All that laid around her was nothingness.

"I see how you feel now, young one. Your despair has created a dimension."

Making an effort to even think with the blazes burning everything in her mind, she replied. Who...who are you?

"Die Mutter der Sterne. That's what those who hold a voice in the material world call me."

With her thoughts quickly burning away, she realized she didn't wish to live on like this. 

Kill me. End this now, please.

Why did it have to be me, who suffered all this?

"You're special, your fear and agony have given you a purpose for fate. But it is preferable that it does not bring you any positive feelings."

Please.

The energy changed what it was speaking about, suddenly. "Do you recognize this living individual?" It asked.

Shimmerspark tried to pull herself together, she tried to pull the countless shattered pieces a bit closer. And yet when she perceived the "individual," the energy spoke of, a flood of rage nearly brought the pieces apart again.

A force pulled itself into the aether, a feeling that her thoughts weren't alone. She felt like Die Mutter realized what she was thinking and feeling. "Your fury and despair will bring his fate."

His fate?

"His fate to become a God."

Shimmerspark felt another burst of rage. Was everything I suffered just some useful fuel for him?

"You feel fury, this is the right thing for you to feel. A dimension was created, a plane of existence made to reflect the pain. It will be what he will rule."

But why?

"Because it is his fate."

She felt the pieces of rationality in her mind begin to fall apart again, and yet her growing desperation to keep them together only caused cracks in the shards. What is this place? Why am I here?

"You are between life and death. It was necessary for you to be in this state for the dimension to be created. However, the process is finished."

Her mind was filled by a storm of emotions, yet one stood prominent among them. Rage.

Fine, he will be a God. But I will make him a God the way I want to. 

"That is possible. However, there will be consequences for your body and soul if you do so."

And why would I care about that? I will do what I want to him, and I don't care what happens to me.

Now, bring me back to life.

-

Her mind was racing again. It felt like being trapped inside a loop. Each fear was different, yet each terror and season of despair followed the same beat. Silentdawn found herself overwhelmed by the sensation that a past agony was back to tear her apart again, like an old, vengeful enemy.

"Duilleog!" the yell of a tomcat entering the camp sent her heart racing again. "It's those outsiders. They found us again. But...but they didn't try to kill us. Instead they told us something."

"And what did they tell you?" Silentdawn felt an urge to step forward out of the cavern. Feeling as if she was a dead puppet, she found herself outside the den, watching the conversation between the two. 

The tomcat stared down at the ground for a moment, but quickly shook his head and faced the head of the Marthanoirí again. "They said they wanted to fight with us."

Silentdawn's stared into the far distance. She took a breath. Her heart was struggling to keep the rhythm. 

Duilleog stared at him for a moment, as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Who do those worthless fools think they are, thinking they're going to win in some fight with us?" she scoffed.

The tom seemed flabbergasted. "Duilleog, I've never seen you this...non-regal."

"I'm the head of this group. It's my job to act regal." She flicked her tail. "We're going to fight those cats. Maybe they'll learn a lesson not to try to wreck formal groups of fighters."

The calico stared at her blankly, her mind barely functioning in a way that could notice the implications. It soon realized another area of her thought had realized them, and was screaming with fear. However, through all of it she felt as if she was blocked off from the ability to tell them, to discourage them from breaking her world all over again.

"Have they given a time?" the leader asked.

"This evening," he replied.

She took a breath, swishing her tail in anticipation. "We'll be there."

The words drifted through her mind even after the two had parted. 

She spent the rest of the day in that spot. Watching the sun move slowly toward the horizon. Her mind went over an endless cycle of thoughts and possibilities as the cats went past, as Duilleog announced plans for the fight.

It's just like before, Stormray. It's all going to be over by the end of today.

This time, I hope we die together.

//

A/N 

We're in the endgame now.

This climax will probably be long. I bet this book's gonna end up being over 30 chapters!