Darksiders: Light In Darkness (Fourth Book)

Chapter 5: The Creator's Realm

Damiana sighed and looked up at the darkening sky, wondering why there weren't any stars up in the sky that night.

"We are above time and space, my daughter, even the stars cannot reach us." Muriel smiled, looking over at Damiana.

Damiana nodded and continued looking up at the empty sky, frowning faintly despite it's beauty.
"What is troubling you?" Muriel's smile grew even wider as her blue eyes twinkled in merriment.
"Everything..." Damiana breathed.
     When Muriel tilted her head in confusion, Damiana stood up shakily, trying to gain her balance.
"These wings," Damiana started, bringing a long feathered wing before her.
"This hair," she pulled at the log beautiful locks of brown hair.
"My eyes...What has happened to me?" Damiana muttered, sitting back down.
     Muriel looked away from Damiana and nodded slowly, gently picking the red petals from the rose she held. Watching as each petal slowly made its slow yet peaceful descent into the calm nothingness beneath them, Muriel took a small sigh in.
"I can feel his distress growing everyday...."she said, more to herself than anything.
"My daughter," Muriel looked over at Damiana with bright oceanic eyes.
"I am sorry if this is what you do not want...but this is you without the darkness..."
      Damiana nodded once and hung her head, hugging her shoulders as she did so. Muriel watched her daughter carefully and made a quick decision.
"Follow me, my child." Muriel stood up and grabbed Damiana's hand.
     Damiana sighed and allowed her mother to gently pull her through their new realm; The Creator's Realm.
      A mixture of Heaven and the forest that reminded Damiana of the woods she used to play in whilst she was younger, this place was paradise. All of creation's Greatest heroes, greatest champions with pure hearts, and the Archangels that feel all resided here. A few humans were scattered here and there,
'Most likely devout followers....' Damiana thought bitterly, wondering how a creator could only allow some people of a long tortured race to reside here.
    Soon, the mother and daughter duo came up on a large staircase, much to Damiana's disappointment.
"Jeez, more stairs?"
"You can always fly up, Damiana." Muriel stated, stretching her 2 pairs of  wings to their full extent.
"Uh..." Damiana looked up and shivered.
"Mhm," Muriel shook her head and folded her wings neatly against her back.
"I'll walk with you." Muriel smiled, draping a loving arm around Damiana's shoulders.
             ******************
"Here we are...Our Lord's Domain." Muriel giggled, skipping from the top step into the Parthenon- like area.
     The place was...massive, awe inspiring almost. Carved wth such care was each of the Archangels in a stone liking. The pillars looked to be of ivory and the floor was a smooth granite.
"This is where he lives?" Damiana said, twirling around in interest as Muriel strode forward.
"Yes yes, of course, come on," Muriel said, sounding much like an excited child.
    Muriel came up to a surface pool like portion of the floor and knelt beside it, gazing into it's dark depths.
"What is that?"
"It's a reflecting pool, it shows what's happening, what's to happen, and what happened before...That's how our lord knows of everything."
     Damiana raised an eyebrow and walked up to Muriel, kneeling on the cold floor beside her. She too, looked into the dark depths, wondering why the surface was so murky and...unholy, if you can even say that.
"Can...I see the horsemen?"
    Muriel's smile died and she shook her head slowly.
"Dami...I don't think you should see-"
"Mother please."
   Muriel frowned and waved her hand above the black water surface. Like the sun to darkness, the movement of Muriel's hand pushed the dark surface away and revealed the mirror like surface beneath.
"Ostendite mihi equitatum Dare quaero indica mihi quo personam equites" Muriel muttered, blue eyes glowing.
     The water shifted and slowly came up with an image of the mourning Death and Damiana's corpse. With the flick of her wrist, Muriel swapped images. In the library part of the horsemen household, Strife sat with Fury, who laid sprawled out on the couch in a passed out state.
    Muriel blinked and gently reached out and touched the reflection of Strife's helmet, thinking deeply. Before Damiana could ask, Muriel swapped the pictures again, showing War and Misery walking towards Damiana's bedroom door.
    Slowly, the picture went out as soon as War twisted the doorknob, making Damiana sigh in anguish.
"I'm sorry..."
"It's not your fault, mom...show me....shadow..." Damiana muttered, wondering where her four legged friend was up to.
"indica mihi qui incredulus est infideliter fac Hell scriptor Maximo Proditor" Muriel said again, voice full of forlorn...
That worried Damiana....
    The picture switched again, showing a familia hellhound sinking it's teeth into what it seemed like a maker's neck, tearing the entire esophagus from his throat.
     Damiana made a squealing noise and jumped back, landing on her backside as she did so. She covered her mouth and shook her head slowly.
"Are you okay??" Muriel disbanded the image and jumped over to Damiana, who had a few tears in her eyes.
"That pis why you were not to show her the images yet, my dearest star." A booming yet friendly voice sounded from across the room.
    Muriel smiled widely and apologetically, nodding as she helped Damiana to her feet.
"This is Damiana, m'lord-"
"I am aware of this." The man said, bright sphere slowly disappearing.
He was tall, taller than Strife, the tallest of the horsemen. His hair was cropped short with long bangs in the front. It's color was the brightest of platinum, as was his stubble like beard and thick eyebrows. His eyes was a lax, but sharp white, alert and cold.
"Hello Damiana." He said, smiling faintly as Damiana looked up at him in awe.
"Dami, this is...our creator." Muriel breathed, gently pushing Damiana a few steps towards him.
"Um..."
"Damiana, you are confused. What is that you would like to ask?" The creator said, walking past Damiana to sit on his white marble stone.
"Um...WHERE IS BETRAYAL??" Damiana screeched, remembering her loyal mount's fall.
"Betrayal? The Mad Horse?" The creator mumbled, checking under his pristine fingernails.
"Yes, where is she?" Damiana felt a panic feeling rise into her chest.
Sure Betrayal rarely listened to her, but the two bonded greatly over the past century they were together. They were never apart....
"Betrayal...The mare wasn't a Phantom Horse..." The Creator said quietly, looking down at Damiana.
"Okay....but where is she?"
"The horse you had was not Betrayal...the lesser mortals called the Horse that..."
Damiana stopped and tilted her heard, what in the hell was this old man babbling about?
"What do you mean?"
"It's name was Glory...and she is right there." The creator jutted his chin over behind Damiana.
Damiana heard the familiar clopping of hooves and turned her head. Behind her was...what betrayal looked like except....
   It's coat was a dull blond and it's mane was platinum in color with bright blue flames at the tips.
"Betrayal?" Damiana asked in a shaky voice, looking over at the familiar harness on its back.
The creator sighed and shook his head, obviously bored.
"If you are the creator...THEN YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT LUCIFER-"
"And his plan to overthrow heaven and try to come up here and challenge me for my throne, yes."
Damiana blinked once and tilted her head.
"And you aren't going to do anything about it?"
"No, he can't come up here anyway."
"People are dying; Heaven is dying, all of your creations will die!" Damiana shouted up to the Creator, ignoring her mother's silent pleas.
"Death is a necessity to life, I thought you would know that, Horseman."
"But innocent people dying over something you can easily stop? Is that what you call a ne-"
"Enough!" The creator slammed his fist against the stone armrest.
"I will not stop! My family is going to die because you can't get off your lazy-"
Muriel sucked in her breath and put both hands on her daughter's cheeks, temporarily silencing her.
"Damiana, please, please-"
"Are you afraid of him, mother? The city you swore to protect is down there burning to the ground because this-" Damiana flared over at the steaming Creator.
"This bastard won't do a thing to stop Lucifer. You told me to stop him-"
"Damiana some things just can't be helped." Muriel said quietly, steady gaze slowly wavering from Damiana's.
"So, you, this guy's favorite angel, being handed over to Lucifer couldn't be helped? You being imprisoned in Hell couldn't be helped?-"
"Damiana, Enough." Muriel warned.
"You dying couldn't be helped? Me dying couldn't be helped??" Damiana continued, shaking her mother off of her.
Glory shuddered and took a step back, knowing full well what was to happen next.
The creator sat up stiffly and glared down at the two spirits.
"Go. Now." He hissed through his teeth, waving Damiana and Muriel away
************
"That isn't fair!"
Muriel walked beside Damiana in silence, looking as if she were thinking deeply upon something.
"Mother-"
The archangel nodded once to herself and grabbed Damiana's hand, dragging her from the paved road and into the forest. Easily traversing the dense environment, Muriel and Damiana came up to a wide grassy clearing.
"Mom, what're we doing here?" Damiana tilted her head.
"I...agree with you, the creator needs to do something about this...but...he won't...only you can-"
"But I'm dead."
"A small amount of your soul is still active in your body in the mortal realm." Muriel explained, jogging over to the rock pool near the end of the clearing.
Damiana shrugged and followed her mother, looking up at the roaring waterfall above the rock pool, feeding water into the small yet tranquil rock pool.
"And so...I'm going to need you to be the hero and find all the pieces to Genesis."
"I've tried that."
Muriel stopped and sighed to herself.
"That you did...you only need two more pieces."
"No, three."
Muriel sighed again and brought up another large piece of metal from the folds of her dress. Handing it to Damiana, Muriel quickly said,
"Now, the other locations are in the blue stone I have you,"
"I don't...know where it is."
"It's on your person, please Damiana, there's not much time to argue and be pessimistic." Muriel mumbled.
Damiana blinked and crossed her arms.
"Why, in such a hurry to see me go?"
"Why-"
"Nevermind."
Muriel looked up at Damiana and shook her head.
"I don't want to see you go but it's for the good cause....to be honest, I never want you to leave here...I want you to stay here and be my little girl." Muriel smiled sweetly, caressing Damiana's long hair.
"But your family is down there...and you need to protect your family; the horsemen...and the rest of the mortals who need you." Muriel justified.
Stopping short, Muriel took a deep breath in and leaned to Damiana's ear.
"I can see your future, my dear...but there's two sides..."
Muriel leaned up to Damiana's forehead and kissed it gently.
*************
Glory strode up to the clearing, wondering where her rider was. It seemed like a century since it last saw Damiana, and it missed her terribly, which was of for the cold mare. Looking up, it saw Damiana crying into Muriel's chest. Jumping up, Glory cantered over to the crying antichrist and nudged her shoulder in worry.
"Okay...I'm okay...."
"Which path will you chose?" Muriel titled her head.
"Whatever path that will do right." Damiana said through the tears.
Muriel nodded and waved her hand above the water, making the mirror surface glow a brilliant blue.
"Remember...only what is right..." Muriel said quietly, embracing Damiana tightly.
"And you can stop and do...what you must whilst on your journey back to life, my darling star." Muriel said quietly, insinuating about Damiana's future.
"Don't worry...I will." Damiana pulled away and patted Glory's neck.
The mare followed her rider and store beside Damiana as the two stood in the glowing water.
"Time to go back girl..." Damiana whispered to Glory as the light intensified.