How Gods Bleed by Shane Porteous

  Slowly he reached his hand out with great reluctance as if his vision and sense of smell had suffered enough to know Imbaka was dead without this third sense knowing such knowledge. He was reaching for the organs that had been spilled out, even though there was nothing he could to fix them. Seemingly he realized this and gently raised his hand to close her eyes. She looked far from peaceful with so much blood around her but Cada Varl did his best to simply focus on her face. He realized just how beautiful she was and just how much she had meant to him. He looked away from her but not towards the opened chamber, his eyes were drawn to the pack she had carried throughout the journey. It was upon the ground perhaps 6 or so feet away from him and slowly he stood up and went over to it. Without care of delicacy he ripped the bag opened with one hand, showing just how physically strong he was.

  With the effects of the bag now scattered across the ground he took in hand, her Vorig. He admired it for a moment, not knowing completely why, before he went back and knelt by her side. Placing his own weapon within the snow he carefully placed her hands upon the handle of the Vorig. As best as he could he reenacted the funeral ritual he had seen now far too many times. With silent words he thanked Imbaka for showing him why in all his thousands and thousands of years he had never once stopped desiring to be human once again. Gently he placed his hand on her forehead; already she had grown rather quite cold. He didn’t want to leave her side, he wanted to stay, to somehow ensure that she would reach paradise successfully. But he knew that she of all people didn’t need the help of anyone to conquer the Black Wandering. With one last look at her now pale face Cada Varl stood up and turned towards the chamber.

  The masked figure must have opened the chamber, but the better question was how did he know what word to speak? Imbaka wouldn’t have told him, Cada Varl knew Helluvans could not be persuaded by something as trivial as torture. Even if she had wanted to tell him, human lungs were simply not powerful enough to say such a word properly. There could be only one reason why the masked figure had entered the chamber, to become god-like and that was something that Cada Varl could never allow to happen.

  Without hesitation he jumped down into the chamber and immediately he had entered what seemed an entirely new world. When he landed on his feet he could no longer see the light of the outside world as the fall itself felt like it had taken an eternity and yet was over in a single moment. Before him laid a passageway that appeared natural for its walls were jagged and random. The walls were made from Hegadakore and shone from a light source that could not be seen.

  With shadows dancing across his frame Cada Varl entered the passageway. There was only just enough room for Cada Varl to move through the passage as long as he went with his shoulders turned. He could hear in the distance within the chamber a booming sound like something was repeatedly smashing upon something else. By the sheer intensity of the sound it made who or whatever was making the noise possessed unbelievably strength as even the passage walls trembled upon each and every impact. With his sword lowered but at the ready Cada Varl moved through the jagged and twisted turns the passageway had to offer until he came to its end.