She was Chalice, the God Mother, Womb of the World, Guide for Children, and Protector of Widows. She remembered who she was, at least. She told me she was one of the few who could. The others were mad or lost--or worse. I didn’t want to know what met that qualification.336Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgrgpiHlJL8
“You have no idea how wonderful it feels to finally have some purchase on this world,” I said as I sipped at my cup of rosehip tea. “I thought I was the last one…”
Chalice smiled at me mischievously as she adjusted the boy sitting in her lap. Owen seemed fixated on me, his eyes going to every one of my movements, no matter how minute. He had the biggest gray eyes I’d ever seen on a little human. They dwarfed all his other features. “We’re not so easy to kill, even mortal. We age slower, we heal faster. The ‘phage doesn’t affect us like it does everything else.”
“Why are the Mordis Eyes concerned with keeping these children healthy?” I wondered. “They’re a death cult, aren’t they? Anarchists that want to destroy the Houses of Retzu? Why are you here with them?”
Chalice laughed quietly. “Dear God, they are not a death cult, despite their service to Mordis. They are a people like any other. They believe in a future and that they have the power to shape it. They are fixated on an event prophesied by Mordis himself: The Leaving. All the souls--animal, man, god, whatever--will leave this world to go to another. He promised this before the end when he realized he could not stop Papyrus.”
I couldn’t accept half of what she said at face value. Mordis had not been in the business of prophecy in the before times. That had been my twin's domain. And ushering people into worlds apart? I knew such a thing was possible, but such sojourns had been led by Asteri, Cosmic God, in the time before.
Chalice smiled understandingly when I said nothing to this. “These children are the children of the Mordis Eyes. They are their people’s hope. And where there are children in need, I will be. ” She hugged Owen to her and he snuggled close, his thumb going into his mouth like an automatic response. “Owen is the most promising. He is the strongest among the fold.”
“It only affects children, this ‘phage?”
“No,” Chalice said quietly. “It effects everyone at some point in their life. If they aren’t exposed as children, they will be exposed as adults… But the next generations are the only ones with a chance to resist it. I suspect that each generation will produce more children that can resist its aging effects. As it stands now, anything older than adolescence succumbs to the ‘phage within a few days after exposure.”
“How does it spread?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s already in the air and the soil. It’s in the water. It’s in our sacred places… Nowhere is safe.”
“I was told the ‘phage isn’t in Silverstone,” I said.
“Silverstone? The Capital?” Chalice asked.
“Yes. I was told that the dome there protected it from the ‘phage.”
Chalice shrugged. “I don’t know… Perhaps it was protected in the beginning. But it will eventually get in. That’s why we need to count on The Leaving and prepare for it. This world is lost to us, God. The only hope we have rests in the lives of the Mordis Eyes.”
“What is this… Leaving?”
She smiled. “The true death of this world. Papyrus did not kill the world perfectly, thanks in part to Mordis’ efforts… but this had unforeseen consequences. Because this world is lingering before Death, we cannot leave it. But if we were to collect enough of my souls, we could all band together in love and make The Leaving come to pass!” She had a zealous look in her eye; a look I was certain she'd never seen herself make.
“And… how does Mordis expect his chosen to accomplish this great feat?” I asked slowly. I had a hunch. My instincts had yet to fail me.
But Chalice only shook her head, her face taking on a look of tranquility. “When Mordis has the required amount kneeling before him, he will reveal all, as he has promised. You must have faith, or have you forgotten about that as well?”
I knew she meant it all in jest, but it still irked me. “A god genuflecting before another… Huh.” I treated her to a polite smile and said, “I may not remember the end of the world, Mother, but I remember when Faith was first written upon My face, and it was not written because of Death. It was written in spite of Him.”
Chalice nodded with a polite smile of her own, but then her body went rigid. She blinked a couple times before she set Owen on his feet despite his verble protest. “R-Run along, Owen… Get to bed.”
“What is it?” I asked knowingly as she took my empty cup from me and set it back with the rest of its copies. “Chalice?”
“I was so excited,” she said, turning away from me. The seams of her oversuit were roughened with use and strain. There was a fragility to her that I hadn’t seen before--a vulnerability in the hunch of her shoulders as she held herself. “I was so excited to see another one of our pantheon… I didn’t even ask your name. But then, I know why you would be reluctant to tell me.”
I stood up slowly. “I didn’t intend to deceive you.”
“I know you didn’t. You were never like that.” Chalice turned then and there were tears in her chocolate brown eyes. “Just tell me why you did it. Why did you take so many from me? All my babies…” Her lip trembled and her chin warped as she slowly went to her knees and fell in on herself. “Why did you do this… to them?” Her voice was so small, but when she pointed out at the children in the tent I felt like she had lanced me. “My innocent creations… My sweet little things…”
I shook my head, tears welling in furious indignation. “Because I didn’t do it! Don't you see?” I hissed quietly. “I am the God Scribe, Chalice. I am not capable… Why would I even want this to happen? I, who loved the world? It was into your Cradle that I was reborn!”
“Oh yes,” Chalice said and she laughed bitterly through her tears, making some of the children stir in discomfort. “You loved the world so much that you could not watch it destroy itself any longer… You meant it as a mercy killing. You wanted to rule and remake things in your image. You wanted the story to begin again so you would never have to stop recording!” She stood then and stabbed a finger to my chest. “Get out! Take what you came for and leave me before I call out!”
“Take what I…? I only came to find--”
She pulled something from her hand and threw it at me. The flicker she’d thrown at me bounced off my jacket and hit the ground with a tiny tinkle of protest. She stared daggers into me. “Your ring. You gave it to me before the end. You told me you would come back for it… Now go, Apparition. My promise has been kept.” She swept passed me and went to tend to the children she had awakened, consoling them with soothing words and empty promises.
I slowly bent down and took the cool piece of plexi in-hand. It was clear, but when I held it up to the lantern in the tent, it shown with a rainbow of kaleidoscopic colors and shapes. The First Thought, I told myself. I called it The First Thought. I asked out loud, “But what was the first thought?”
“Hello, that’s me,” the ring whispered, and I almost dropped it!
“You can talk,” I whispered back to it, cupping it close to my face.
“With your voice,” it said and I found myself mouthing those words. At least it was honest.
“What do you do?” I asked.
“What do thoughts do?” it asked me through me.
“Think…?”
If rings could sigh in frustration, it might have then. It said to me, “Right-o. Look Lady, I remember things. Then I project them.”
“Like a hologram?”
“Right-o.”
“Handy.”
“We are what we’re worn by.”336Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡblRc8Fqpzx
“And you’ve got jokes.”
“I can go a round.”
I smiled a bit, but then I heard the twin cocking of a weapon. I looked up to see Chalice staring me down the barrel of a shotgun. “I told you I’d call out if you didn’t leave.” Her expression was resolute despite the quiver in her lip.
I pocketed the ring and put my hands up near my head. “I’m leaving now.”
She shook the gun. “Don’t come back, Papyrus.”
“I won’t.”
“Goo’bye,” Owen called after me as I ducked under the canvas and shut away the smells of flowers and tanning oil.336Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiipRUvtpIE
