Wreathed in Sin, Wrought by Destiny

Chapter Eight

--E--

Elizabeth absolutely hated what happened when she faced a near-death experience. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as actually dying, of course, but there was one person she despised who was always there. She crossed her arms, folded her wings, and stared down (with eyes that she knew were going to burn to black) at the woman on the golden throne, standing on the edge of a deep crater of stone with the glowing seat of power settled within its depths. The woman, her faced hidden by an ever-shifting blaze of golden light, stood and extended delicate-looking arms, arms that had torn off her wings before, forced her beloved down as his father sank his sword into his back. You're a deceiver, queen of light, she thought, watching as her eight pairs of massive white wings unfurled, and you always have been. As strong as you are in battle, you've loved honeyed thorns and the pains of words far more.

Let's dance, Deity.

"My daughter, my darling. Come to visit me at last?" Her mother's voice was as silky as she remember, like syrup pouring from a jar in golden rivulets. "Your mother's been awfully lonely, you know."

"Good, so you're starting to see how it feels." Elizabeth started walking around the edge of the crater, a wolf circling her prey, a pup challenging the alpha. The Supreme Deity tilted her head as though amused by her response, and she felt anger surge in her before squashing it. "You'll have to suffer for a while longer, Mother. By which I mean--"

"Forever," she finished, sounding more curious that angry, a realization that made Elizabeth's skin crawl. "But forever's an awfully short time for people like us, my child."

You have no idea how long "forever" can be, she wanted to snarl. You have no idea what it is to watch the one you love die, over and over and over. That is forever, Mother, and it is too long and not worth living. But she held her tongue; getting angry at the Supreme Deity of the Goddess Clan would only give her another victory. "Maybe so," she chirped. "But that means you'll have no problem staying in your seal. The world's moved on without you, Mother, and I'm sorry to say it doesn't need the Goddess Clan anymore, nor the war you'll bring." There was silence, and she grinned wolfishly at the thought of the queen of goddesses fuming. Ah, that feels good...

"And what about the war you'll bring?" The question was innocent, but with a deadly edge to it that made her grit her teeth. "There's a reason you were once feared as an angel of destruction, a goddess of death. You liked to play the virtuous goddess, rescuing a demon-" She could picture her mother's lip curling behind the light she used as a screen- "from his Clan's cruelty, but you were once just as much of a battle-hungry warrior as he was. For you were once called Morrigan by the humans, were you not?"

Morrigan. That was a name, a title from long ago, back when her wings had been white and stained red with blood, her light as cold and terrible as the dawn, when she'd been a princess of steel blades and war rather than of iron shields and healing. But Morrigan was nothing anymore; she'd died after she'd seen beyond war and the thrill of battle to what humans fought for: for peace. And she'd learned from them and grown and changed so that by the time she first met a demon with an rare, irresistible smile and death hovering around him like a black cloud, she'd fought for peace too. "Dredging up the past? Your tactics are so predictable, Mother." She spread her wings, gliding into the depths of the crater. The light that radiated from the Supreme Deity made the darkness in her blood twist, but she ignored the slight pain and lifted her chin, staring into the shining light that hid her mother's face. "This may come as a shock, but people can change. So can goddesses and demons. The Morrigan is a creature of the past. So is the goddess you raised-and so is the one that first fell in love with a demon of equal power." She spread her arms self-deprecatingly, her midnight wings reaching to their full length as well, tiny compared to her mother's white ones but no less magnificent. "After all, it's written in my title, my nature. I have sinned, and you-well, you're the one who casts us down, so none of your cruelty can be punished."