The Paradise Gate

Ch. 2 The Only Way to Get Rid of Temptation

Nota Bene: Just a reminder for returning readers: this was split into two parts shortly after publication. I apologize for any confusion if you were kind and commented on the first chapter before I split it, only to find that the part you referenced has now been moved; it's still here, I promise! Welcome to new readers, as well :)

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"You rang?"

The young woman went still. That voice was dark, sibilant, rich, and smug, and it had come from everywhere at once.

She couldn't say exactly what she'd expected of her summoning attempt, but this was not it. For a moment, she had the sickening, bowel loosening sensation that she might have bitten off a bit more than she could chew.

Just as quickly as it had come upon her, though, it dissipated. She knew what evil was; the marks on her flesh and those staining her soul said that it was already here on this earth yesterday, and every day before, just as surely as it might be in this room now.

She squared her shoulders and found her voice.

"What are you?" she said.

"Well, that's quite rude. Don't you humans usually start with 'Good afternoon?'"

The girl scowled, trying to fight the urge to turn this way and that as the voice seemed to move around the room too quickly to track. What magic was this? Had some foreign sorcerer or shaman of the northern tribes followed her here to spy? Had they taken advantage of her distraction to sneak in behind her? But the voice had said "you humans," so, did that mean...?

"What's rude is refusing to show your face," the girl retorted, finding some spine in flippancy.

Dark laughter suffused the air. "I suppose you're right. Hmm...what face would you like me to show?"

"I'm sorry?" said the girl, confused.

"Don't be sorry, just tell me how it is you'd like me to appear so that I might properly make your acquaintance, Little Mistress."

The girl didn't like the way the voice caressed those last two words, or the way they dripped from that piceous maw like honey. They'd come out sounding not just mocking, but proprietary.

Slightly ruffled and out of sorts, she tried to gather her focus; something told her a conversational misstep could be costly, and she didn't yet know the steps of this dance or with whom she was partnered.

"I'd like you to appear as yourself. Do you not have form in the Aethral Realms?" she responded, taking a chance.

"Hmm...so many assumptions. Humans are so deliciously arrogant," the voice rumbled in that same smirking tone. "I do have form. Many forms, in fact, but some are...hmm...truer than others." The rhythm of the entity's speech sounded like someone speaking in language not their mother-tongue that they haven't attempted to use in a long time.

"Well, then show me the 'truest' one," the girl huffed in an exasperation that was just a veneer for her discomfiture. Mostly.

"That might not be...prudent, little daughter of man," came the reply. "However..."

The girl had the sudden sensation of being closely observed, as though someone—or something— were examining her back teeth and peeking under her skirts, but all from the inside. It did not help her uneasiness in the slightest, and she was just about to protest when the flowing cloak of shadows abruptly disappeared, leaving her stunned, yet again.

"...a reasonable facsimile will do." This in that same perpetually amused tone, but from a motionless, richer, and less sibilant voice that came only from behind her. Its register was also more firmly male.