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This is my attempt to create an entire original world, in all shapes and forms. Go easy, and review!
Oh, and you'll find more of this in profile, review there too!
The sullen eves of the supports fell into the marble surrounding the base, giving a dark touch to an already gloomy atmosphere and illuminating a huge set of double-doors by the contrast in lighting alone.
The doors sweep open to the outside, a figure walked slowly through with her head held high, oblivious to the chill as she strutted past the portal. Her eyes were the strangest of hues, a great plethora of reds and radiant oranges to throw her ebony skin into sharp relief. Her back sprouted great wings, the span of each was greater than she was and touched the floor with the tips, bouncing in time with the click click of her slim shoes on the ground.
She continued down the main corridor as the doors closed behind her, not sparing a glance to the many small statues on the sides, spaced between the shoring pillars and inscribed in the strange language of her race.
Finally, the corridor ended in yet another doorway. She opened it, and gazed upon the familiar sight, the pillar of life. A monstrosity of silicon and machinery that had sustained her goddess for more than ten millennia, branching out into twelve separate limbs, forming a tree. Twelve roots snaked into a dodecagon pattern as she took her place directly in front of the great tree, folding onto her knees and waiting in the circle created by one of the roots.
Around her, evenly spread in a circular manner around the tree were perhaps half a dozen other figures, folded over on their knees in much the same fashion, their faces unrecognizable in the gloom. But she did not care, she knew their positions, she knew their names, their weaknesses.
“So, D’java, our glorious ‘leader’ arrives at last. Early, of course, to set a fine example to us all.” A male voice sneered from her front-left, rich and colourful, with an undercurrent of malice..
D’java did not answer, keeping her eyes directly focused on the idol in front of her. The character who addressed her waited, then snorted. “Me’thinks she is praying to great E’eon? Pah, but for a louder voice, she might yet answer!”
“Be silent, Se’the.” Another voice called through the murky room, originating directly from D’java’s right. “Know your place, lest you perish with neither pride nor power.”
“You’re one to talk, Phoen!” Se’the cried, “Not once have you entered the ranking battles! I say, you are feeble, despite the strength of your sex!”
“Continue in this way, and you may be rendered sexless by our leader.” Phoen spoke calmly, before turning to D’java, who had not yet moved. “My apologies, Hamo’diven, I did not mean to speak your words through my tongue.”
“Then be glad that those are not my words you speak.” D’java whispered to herself, before speaking more loudly. “Enough, I sense the final two, be ready.”
A small shuffling was heard as those around the tree shifted back into the subversive positions. No sooner had it stopped then a door almost directly opposite to D’java opened, producing a lithe form from its great maw, which lightly stepped into her circle and kneeled.
“Kaed’jii, how fares you?” A new male voice queried from its left with an audible clack of the tongue.
“By her benevolent will, I am chilled to the bone. Let us be about quickly, that I may return to a bond-man who will warm my heart and my bed…” The woman sounded weary, but young. The flaps of her wings could be heard as she tried to improve her circulation. “Are all here?” she shivered.
“We await the madman.” Se’the drawled, earning a glance from the as-yet unnamed figure who had addressed Kaed’jii.
“Ah, the blood-letter, our leader’s right hand.” Kaed’jii remarked.
On cue, the door behind D’java opened and shut in quick succession, another figure kneeled directly next to her as he sighed in the dark, his wings sheathed in metal, they rivered as he shook himself.
“We are all here, my brethren, let us perform the rite, that our goddess may know of us.” D’java intoned, all the figures arising to stand tall as small lines of power began to glow under their feet. Phoen and Kaed’jii began singing in a flighty soprano, filling the air with a pure sound that rung like a bell-pipe. D’java was the next to partake, her alto tune dancing with her kins voices as the lines glowed brighter, beginning to form eldritch patterns that curved around the circles, declaiming the titles of those who stood within the spheres. The unnamed man who had addressed Kaed’jii began lilting in a strong tenor, to which the man next to D’java’ inputted a soothing baritone. Finally, Se’the’s bass voice rumbled into the air, the sum creating a strange, alien tune that flowed through the air and pulsed with an unknown energy.
The lines flowed up the tree, highlighting ancient life-support circuits and the base relief of a woman slaying great daemons that towered above her. The lines on the ground highlighted new circles, to which the figures, seemingly at random and without breaking in song, strode to their places. The three rings of four circles each spread away from the tree. D’java and her right hand man stood opposite each other, the tree baring them from the sight of the other as they took their places in the ring closest to the tree.
The man who has yet to be named and Kaed’jii walked to the second ring, before holding their arms out in supplication as the song began to reach its climax. Se’the and Phoen took theirs, eyes shut and contentions forgotten as the song finished.
The chamber burst into light, and the tree was gone, the surroundings gone. All those within could only see the great expanse of space, and the shining woman who had no features that had taken the place of the tree.
“Oh E’eon, eternal one, timeless one, you who bound the Avatar spirits and to whom we are ever enslaved, praise be. I, D’java Sousdawei, Avatar of the Solar Clan, pledge a loyalty greater than any star, or galaxy, or celestial being. To you, oh E’eon.” Djava intoned, bowing low as the figure smiled and turned to the others.
“Great Mother of us all, benevolent one, she who brings us greatness and worth, praise be. I, Haer’Nabaios, Avatar of the satellite clan, pledge to forever orbit thee in my devotion, akin to moon and meteor. To you, oh E’eon.” The man opposite D’java mimicked her actions.
She smiled, turned.
“We, oh Mighty E’eon, cannot speak as we are, but entreat you as one to grant us our lives through your love. Praise be, great E’eon” The others spoke, bowing as D’java.
The room glowed, then vanished, leaving only the soft glows of the circles, and the fading image of the figures mouth in their eyes. The tree stood, as cold and unmoving as when it had faded to reveal the goddess. The tensions in the room faded away with much slacking of shoulders and small exhalations.
“Another summer, another prayer.” The man next to D’java muttered, before giving her a quick smile. “Are we dismissed, m’lady?”
“Yes, Naba. All of us must return. Kaed’jii, Se’the, there is a briefing at the quarter-morning turn upon the morrow in the U’yth-tomadge. Mek’ta, please, get some sleep, you cannot continue your duties as you are. Phoen, are we still going shopping come after-rise?” Djava rushed out orders, but the question to her associate was sincerely friendly.
“If your daughter does not mind coming. There is a new ice cream pedlar who is most delectable, if you wish…” The reply came with the slightest hint of a giggle, and a slight shift in stance from Naba.
“Must we talk of this in the dark?” D’java asked as the others began to leave, soon only she, Phoen and Naba stood in the temple.
“No, I entreaty you to hail me in the morn, I will be readying myself.” Phoen gave what looked like a wave in the shadow, and then her door closed.
“Since when has my little Hive been your daughter?” Naba laughed as he held open the door for her, smiling as D’java patted his shoulder in thanks.
D’java walked on in silence, her soft shoes counterpointing against Naba’s heavy soles on the marble. “I would think that because we are so close as friends, and as I am your superior, the rite of guardianship falls to me.”
“And yet, I am stuck with the cleaning, the cooking and the organizing of her schooling? Most vexing, is this…” Naba sighed again, earning a chuckle from his companion. “I should never have adopted her.” He joked.
“You jest, you love our child as if she were our own.”
“And the chances of us having our own?” Naba asked with the faintest hint of hope in his voice.
“I doubt that we will ever be in a position to find out, unless we are the last remaining Sylvaen alive.” Djava continued, “Naba, our friendship is enough for me. I fear men, you know this.” She looked at him sternly, “And you know better than to joke about our being more, enough people guess at this wrongly, for I want you not.”
“Ah, t’was a harsh blow you slung at me, m’lady.” Naba mocked a wound to the chest, face creased in mostly pretend-pain.
“Then learn to better dodge.” D’java replied as the door to the outside opened.
Naba stepped out first, his face refined in the glowlight above. His eyes a jagged kiwifruit and silver, his copper hair wrapped in a hip-length ponytail that clashed with his black and white shirt and trousers, melting into his pale skin that contrasted with D’java’s ebony hue.
“Home, then?” He gestured to the walkways that connected the ancient temple to the portal-station, ready to fling them to their home-dimension.
“Aye, my feet tire.” D’java mumbled, wrapping her arm around his in fatigue.
“Then let us go. To our daughter who must surely be making use of our absence and staying up late, the little rogue….”
“Perhaps this is why we cannot remember our war, it is her.”
“Indeed…” Naba nodded as the dimensional co-ordinates began to revolve around him and D’java, “… In fact…”
“…It’s hard to believe we are at war.”