The Lightmaker's betrayal

Rain tore down from a steel-grey sky writhing in madness, hammering down on the desolate ruins that Eternity had left in its unforgiving wake.

Bound in chains of jagged memories, I labored in the lost quarry of Yesterday’s Dreams, hacking away relentlessly at the Marble of Wishes. Time, the Silent Spectator, was bored with my futile efforts; it had bled off my tired resolve and long since abandoned me to the bitter hands of Fate.

Even the greedy earth sought to slow my efforts but oblivious to it all, I carried on stubbornly. Warmth deserted me, then Voice, and finally Thought too decided to take flight and was lost to me, but my grim task still beckoned.

Day and Night continued their sickening dance in their tyrannical sky above; only the cruel rain stayed to keep watch over me.

How long I labored in that forsaken quarry, I do not know or care.

It was only when the Betrayed Siren’s morbid song wove its foreboding shadow into the tattered remnants of a once-beautiful Flower of Light, did the Marble succumb to my blunt insistence.

Far beyond the horizon, deep in the shade of the Forest of Forgetfulness, a half-muted prayer escaped the lips of a faithless man and the Forest’s delicate shimmering violet blossoms drifted to the ground, fading to a lifeless grey as the vampiric Earth basked in the carpet of songless petals.

The once-white flawless marble crumbled to jagged pieces of the blackest hate as I laboriously cleared the rubble to clear a passage into the depths of the hulking mountain that stood in my way.

I was close. So very close.

It wasn’t until the Night had fallen asleep and had lost itself in its own whimsical dreams that I found the Lightmaker’s ethereal temple nestled deep in the mountain’s oppressive embrace.

A vast crystal hall flushed with the gentlest light stretched out before me; through a maze of serene glass walls etched in intricate desire, unerringly I made my way to the cell in which salvation hid.

And there, in the very pit of this vast cathedral I found Despair intoxicated in its own sweet nightmares, bound by the flimsy Ropes of Reason.

Its distant eyes glinted with recognition at the sight of my desperation.

With all my might, I drove my axe deep into its icy chest.

A deafening scream of white agony ripped out of Despair’s yawning mouth as it writhed in its bonds.

The coldest quicksilver of Indifference gushed forth from its black heart; greedily I cupped my trembling hands and drank deep.

Liquid metal tore through my veins while crystal walls twisted and shrieked in an unearthly cacophony, rebelling against my act of mutiny.

Raw emotion impaled Reason upon its ephemeral spear as it found swift, savage release leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Insanity had at last found its precious moment as the shimmering pool of liquid metal dragged me down and claimed my last tortured breath for its prize.

I awoke under judgmental starlight and a moon wallowing in a sorrow it was never meant to carry.

Before me the last Flower of Light concluded its deep black song and crumbled into glittering dust, entrusting its remains to the fickle night-breeze.

The Temple of the Lightmaker mourned loss of its soul, the very soul I had so selfishly stolen, and in its luminescent sadness returned once more to its celestial kingdom far beyond the reach of mortal eyes.

And far above in the glittering heavens it wrote its tragic poetry in magical starlight, its crystal tears staining the nightsky in beautiful violet sorrow.

A tinge of regret pierced my heart, but only for a moment.

It was a heavy price to pay, but at long last I could hold some small measure of Solace in my hand, if only for a little while.

And maybe for just a little while, I could be free.