Death wasn’t something Ambriel was new to, 21 eternities in the Infernous had made death routine. Leaping into the Hethic Engine of the Paradesium was by far the least painful death she ever had. There was nothing more than a flash and then nothing, she was hoping for something and it almost enraged her that her death hadn’t been agony like her life had been, how dare pain not chase her past nonexistance- how dare she be finally at rest… how dare she still have thought after it was all over.
Her world was entirely without form now, black and dark. Nothing existed here now and she supposed maybe that was right. Let her live in pain, alone with no one stopping by for more than a chat… she wanted to cry then, she had lived alone, suffered alone, died alone. Now she would exist alone, her own wraith company to her own cries. She felt a snarl coming on and a thought came to her, if she was doomed to nothing, then she would create something.
She screamed, letting out every single eon and eternity she had within her. Letting out her rage at the world. Her rage over her own life lit her veins on fire and she was happy, she had created her own rage and her own feelings. She felt a heart pound that she didn't even have and in that she was delighted, she wanted to burn herself in an Infernous of her own making. The Queen wanted to burn for everyone and everything- consume it all, call forth the end. The end of this darkness. She screamed and clawed at the void around her, wanting to be a feral beast to tear it apart and she felt more, she felt for once in her life she was real and whole.
The Arkn hadn’t realized she was standing until she thought about it, but there it was. Something was beneath her feet and so she ran. Her body felt like it was engulfed in flames and surging with electricity but instead of pain she only found joy in it. She felt huge and powerful as she charged through her own personal hell, she wished she could fly and she lifted from the ground- she wanted to go faster, so fast she might rip herself apart until she was nothing left but flecks of ether. She wanted to roar and it lit in her chest, it almost felt like a laugh at first. A heat climbed her body and color appeared as she raised her head, feeling a sound come from her.
The darkness broke.
She roared and screamed and damned the universe to oblivion, she let her rage carry her and the heat began to fade as light shined from the edges of nothing. Suddenly a hand was on her, two hands were on her, she turned and looked to be met with blue eyes and brown hair. A woman in robes with brown wings. Ambriel realized she actually was gigantic as the woman looked up at her and gave a simple “Shhhh…”
“Who are you?” She asked even though she wasn’t sure she had even spoken it.
“You have to stop.” The woman said. “You can’t let that power be everything you are, Ambriel.” The woman reached up and Ambriel felt something pulling at her face and suddenly a cold wind flew down her throat and into her lungs. A huge, beaked skull sat around her head, her body shrouded in a smokey darkness. “You look just like my father, I was so certain you would look exactly like Kry’atha, but you look like Raziel.”
“Wait…” Ambriel spoke with her own voice now, hoarse from her screaming. “Are you my mother? I was told you were killed.”
“I was.” She answered with a gentle smile. “But everything I had was given to you, I’ve always been with you, even when you thought you were alone.”
“If you’re here, and we actually exist then I can take you out of this! I think we can get out of the co-” Ambriel was breathing heavily and nearly felt like she might panic, every second she felt more and more real.
“Ambriel.” Josephine's word stopped her cold. “Everything happens- the way it must happen…”
“For a reason…” Ambriel finished. “Raziel always said that.”
“I’m proud of you.” She said. “You ended the war, a war that existed since Arkn and Dekn first opened eyes on this cursed universe… you took back the city that I died trying to protect. You think you didn’t do anything, but you did so much.”
Ambriel couldn’t speak. She felt like she might never speak again. This was her mother, one of two she never got to know- murdered by the same war that took everyone and everything she’d ever known. Her mother was right, she ended it. She ended the cycles of fighting and death, and took back the city for Gar’sha. She avenged the deaths of countless Arkn and Dekn and had never once thought about it.
“Don’t live in pain, Ambriel.” Her mother wrapped her arms around her and she felt like she might truly die then. “Don’t let yourself exist as a ghost of yourself. You did so much and you have an entire kingdom of Arkn and Dekn who need you to be their queen.”
“But… what if I’m not good enough to protect them?” She looked at her mother's face and suddenly there was light and stone.
“You know, you’re a fucking ton of trouble and it better be worth me getting you out of that mess.” The voice wasn’t her mothers. It was a males voice. Ambriel groaned as her body lit in actual pain again, oh… that sensation wasn’t something to be missed… She looked to the source of the speaker, finding someone in a heavy coat with the hood drawn up. A mask obscured their lower face but a pair of piercing red eyes lined in thick black shown in the shade. A Dekn.
“Ugh…” She coiled up, her body beginning to register sensation again and it all came back in discordant waves.
“Hey, don’t actually die on me, please.” The Dekn said. “If you died I would be forced to take up that entire realm and I really hate the idea of having to do all that on my own.”
“Who...are you?” Her voice croaked. Her throat was dry and burning. A bottle was held down to her and she took it, tipping it back and nearly choking as something burning hot flooded her mouth.
“My name is Clubs, I am- or was the Dekn Emperor” he said sharply. “Considering I don’t really have a place to rule or anything to do with this entire war thing done I was just going to leave, but then I saw that absolute mad shit you did.” He gestured at pieces of the Paradesium far in the distance.
“I… don’t…” She blinked and tried putting her thoughts back together.
“Look, I get that you just came back from the dead- I really do. But I’m a Dekn and this light is really fucking hurting my eyes, so we need to leave.” He unceremoniously reached down and hoisted Ambriel onto his shoulder. “Now, how do you get to this place Raziel made? I heard it’s sealed to keep people from getting in.”
“I can fly…” Ambriel said and the Dekn sighed, using his power to smash a small cave into the ground, rocks and dirt flying out around them. He carried her in and set her against the wall.
“I’m going to give you the worst of the news because maybe it’s best if you hear it now while you’re working the concept of life out. You don’t have wings anymore.” He said it flatly and without restraint. “When I found you, well… lets just say I had the choice to heal the damage while you were out, or let you wake up to your wings being ripped off.”
Ambriel let out a cry and reached to her back; nothing. She was so used to always having her wings and the idea of not having them set her already fogged mind reeling.
“Hey!” He reached in and grabbed her. “One breath at a time, I need you to put yourself together so we can get out of here, it shouldn't hurt so we can worry about it later. Now I would guess they might try and summon you, but without wings they can’t no matter how many of your feathers they have, so we need to work out where to go and how to get you back.” He sat down himself, in this darkness he would be fine until nightfall. “Let’s stop and rest for now. You should get some sleep and I’m going to try to, we’ll figure out what to do once we wake up.”
Ambriel simply nodded to him and laid down on the floor of the cave, even though she had so much to think about sleep came almost instantly as her exhausted body gave out. Clubs looked out at the light beyond the mouth of the cave and closed his eyes.