Until This World Ends

Ch7: Onwards

The top of the cliffs had nothing but a wall of ambered grains that reached his chest. There was no discernible path, as these things could grow over cobbled stones. Valentine was forced to follow behind Vesper, as he had no instincts for the path in front of him.

It was near sunset, that night, when they broke free of the tall grass to settle into this season's burn. Perhaps a lightning strike had ignited the plains, but it's path wasn't sweeping and wide. It wound across a clear path leading off into the sunset.

Convenient that it burned that way, but it made Valentine suspect that it was one of the more subtle works of the Goddess. "What do you think of this?"

"I think the rain stopped this before the whole land was cleared." she muttered. "How much longer do you want to go?"

Valentine looked at the set of the sun, holding up a few fingers to gague when sunset would occur. "We've got less than an hour before it's going to be too dark to be walking out here, so maybe half an hour more?"

"Come on then." The woman shifted and took off at a trot, finally free to roam on all 4s with the grass burned down.

The fresh greens crunched under Valentine's feet, leaving an onion smell behind his wake. He was grateful that the plain's predators should be dead, as he was announcing his presence on the back of a massive stench. Not wholly unpleasant, just paranoia left him unsettled. Who knew what was really up here, in the quiet of the wind whipping through grass heads like near-silent rattles?

Vesper rounded a bend in the grass, and barked, which caused Valentine to trot forward, alarmed, wondering if he should pull his sword. As there was no other sounds, he waited on pulling it out.

Rounding the corner himself, he came across Vesper standing above the grasses. A little further in, and he could make out the table rock she stood on. It had a soft slope to scrabble up, on one side, so he slowly made his way to stand beside her. Above the grass, both high and burned low, he could see for miles in every direction. Dozens of high rock croppings stretched out until the grasses blurred into a singular block.

Valentine laughed, as there really was no end to the view, no destination to see. But it was an elevated spot, which he felt more secure in, save for the last fight. There was no place safe from that thing, so he shrugged and settled down for the night. A dry meal and a bedroll left him drowsy and warm as the sun set.

That's when the magic of the plains displayed itself. Each star no longer felt distant and cold. He could almost reach them, tease open their secrets. They looked like Whisper and Vesper, in his mind, dancing through the wreckage of a long-lost battlefield.

That was almost comforting to fall asleep to.

~~~

The next 3 days ambled on the same way: sun, bright as sin, a meal, his feet, and his absolutions. The walk was quiet any time Vesper remained a dog, and when she was a woman, she asked him questions about his life, teasing apart a memory that had long forgotten it's youth. She stayed away from the final years, before he was alone, which Valentine was more than fine with. That was when hardship set in, when he knew they weren't going to make it, but still struggled on in the lie.

That, and the shock of the Goddess withdrawing their might after so much loss. It still humbled him.

But her questions gnawed at him. Why did she care? She didn't the first day that she could speak to him, but it was as if she was trying very hard to acclimate to him and his morose behavior.

At the dawn of the 4th day, he had enough. He slammed his tin plate down on the rock they had slept on. It had been a really heat-absorbing stone, leaving him toasty all through the night, which meant far less aches than he was used to, even back home, and that left him with the energy to confront his partner. "Why are you trying to get to know me?"

"Do you know what lies at the end of this journey?"

Valentine picked up his plate and checked it for dents, cursing his temper. "No, I've never been certain."

"Yet you still go."

Valentine didn't bother to answer it. He was tired. He ached. He was the loneliest he'd ever been, even with company. He missed his morning prayers. Why did it have to be this woman and not Gareth, at the end of all things. He'd have enjoyed the journey more with the one person he cared about. "You're certain what's at the end, and you don't say a thing to me but question a life long buried. Why do you care?"

"I was your wife, in some past lives. So was Whisper."

It was a devastating thought. This woman who stirred up things he didn't want to examine would have every right to do so, as his wife. He knew himself, too. If he had given that part of himself to her, he would have been all-in. Either woman. He wouldn't have had room for Gareth, not with a wife.

Yet here he was, clinging to something long gone, and he couldn't see the hope of a future with her. "Does it matter?"

"It has. It will again, one day."

So it was days of wandering, stars too close, wife too close, both out of reach.

~~~

The scenery changed, subtly, late in the 6th day on the plateau. What Valentine thought had been a tree was a massive stone pole carved full of faces. They looked nothing like modern men, but they had the caricature of humanity. As they drew closer, the world descended into a bowl. It was a good mile wide, and perhaps a third of the cliffside he'd climbed back down. The pole seemed to stretch to the heavens, the closer he drew to it. Each face was as tall as the old man, if the base was anything to judge by. "What is this?"

Vesper stood up beside him. "It's where we can go no further, not without the Goddess."

Out from behind the totem crawled a creature. It was a she, carrying a far furrier baby that somewhat looked like her. One hand crossed her chest, crushing the little one to her, while the other braced against the ground.

Valentine took in her appearance. The faces in stone weren't caricatures—it's what this woman looked like. There was something rough-hewn about her features, half-formed, inhuman. If the pole hadn't warned him, he'd have likely killed her. The preorbital glands below her eyes kept flaring, reminding him of deer. The sight was very revolting. "What is this?"

Off to their right an answer came, striding through the grasses of the bowl. "That is as far as I can bring the rebirth of man without a soul."

Valentine Auger turned and faced his Goddess for the first time in his life. She looked so...young. And fertile.

That part was disorienting, as anyone would assume that this thought came from good childbearing hips. She did have those, making Vesper look spartan. No, each step she took with her bare, dainty feet was strewn with new plants growing up around them. Clover seemed to be the most common plant growing in the wake of her sinuous walk.

She smirked, knowing how childish the old man's mind was. That look forced him to lower his eyes, where he noticed Vesper had knelt.

Valentine grimaced, but went to his knees and bowed to the ground like he once did for morning prayers. His spine crackled in rebellion at the abasement, but perhaps this would be the last time he had a chance to show his unworthiness before his resentment of all things wore his reverence to a nub. Gareth had almost been his age, when last he'd done this. Gareth wouldn't do this, not then, not now. But the old man did, and had to wonder why.

"Rise up, mortals. The time has come." The Goddess tapped him on the shoulder, and tendrils of memories flooded his. Dozens of lives lived with Valeria, a woman he initially bonded over for their similarity in name. Eventually, it would mean more to him than his very life. He could see every sacrifice he made for that woman, and how little of himself he had given her at the end of the world.

Valentine wept. It was a rusted sound, at first, while he sat up on his knees, but the grief of how indifferent he had treated a woman who had meant everything across vast lifetimes broke his heart.

Both Goddess and wife let him cry it out for quite some time before an awkward, cold hand fell on his shoulder. He looked up at Vesper...Valeria and the pain mirrored in her own sight caused him to pull her into his arms and cry all the harder. How different life could have been these past 2 decades. How less empty, perhaps for both of them.

But tears aren't made for an eternity. Eventually, he let loose the dead woman and stood to face his Mistress, and gave her a less formal bow. "How may we be of help, M'Lady?"

"I am so close to pulling humanity through that trial you faced. So close."

Valentine nodded. He knew how close she cut it, to pull all life, when she did. They weren't winning, not with any hope for the next battle after it. "You intend to try again?"

"I had hoped to keep you with me, young Valentine, let you watch the rise of man, and combine all the knowledge we've gained in the 496 trials we've crossed, so far."

The old man's mind reeled. That many lives. That many years of loneliness. All to fail, and rise up from the same damn ashes, again and again. This was countless lifetimes of futility. He nodded. "I would like to, one day."

"One day..." The Goddess sighed, and stretched out her hand to Vesper. His once-wife had the scepter in hand, another formal bow in place as she offered it back to the Goddess. "But for this, the 497th life, I need your souls to kindle life in these primitive creatures. And it always takes two."

She tapped Valentine first, as he shed his body. He looked down at the collapsed mortal coil and felt...nothing. No regret for the dead body, even a lightness that came from a lack of pain. Sorrow and Suffering couldn't be his companions in this freedom.

He reached over and took Valeria's hand as she was tapped. Youth, too, entered her death, and they found themselves grinning in giddiness. They took off through the sky, full of boundless energy and burned themselves out in a blaze of the Goddess' glory, showering the whole bowl with the fragments of their souls. Where it touched these primitives, hair would turn white, and eyes would sparkle with a newfound intelligence.

And a newfound violence. The spark of life is a heavy burden which doesn't leave animals simply existing. It made them think about us vs. them, and worthiness.

The Goddess didn't do anything in the early throes of violence, letting man nearly kill itself on the cusp of ascendancy. Instead, she spent their primitive life rebuilding the animals that she had called home, making the world a sustainable ecosystem with a violent monster at it's apex. Hopefully, this time, her demons would win.