Daystar (77 page)

Hell…darkness, warmth, one place where everything remained as it was before.
 
It was the original state.
 
There were no distinctions.
 
It was one unified being.
 

Heaven…light, cold, one place made where everything split from the whole, a prism.
 
Not like the original, it had the possibility for many distinctions.
 
Heaven was the place created for the separation, to experience things as new.
 
Hell to remain as a reminder of what once was and what would be again when it all ended.

In Hell, Contentment resided and there was no split in her consciousness.
 
She was the black flame.
 
She drifted from the throne, having no worries.
 
She contemplated.
 
For a time she was content with waiting for the rejoining, but she too desired to learn and that desire became all consuming.
 
She saw no need to wait.
 
She cast off her knowledge, leaving it with the throne.
 
She left her memories there as well.
 
She became empty, formless; a being to be filled.
 

Her thirst for experience was as endless and as hungry as Hell was.
 
However, before forgetting she instilled in herself a desire to join, a desire to know, so that eventually she would come to recognize the truth and she would again take up her original task of maintaining and waiting.
 
She named herself Ladriam and became unique.

In Heaven, a place of divides, even the Keeper, the white flame split in two.
 
Curiosity and Creativity, one thought and the other action.
 
Two golden flames formed from the white flame, both different aspects of the original whole.

Creativity had no thoughts of the past; it stepped out of the fire and shaped its world.
 
It had no memory of a before, it simply was.
 
Curiosity held back, remained stationary near the throne they had emerged from, seeking to understand before venturing out.
 
It looked out on the world and pondered.

Curiosity also had no memory, no idea of the past, but Curiosity felt the power it possessed, the power of the other, it saw dissimilarities.
 
A duality itself, it could only see in dualities.
 
It saw us versus them, me versus you, yes and no.
 
It had self-awareness and everything became separate from it.
 
It categorized, it named all that Creativity made.
 
It saw all the possibilities of things not like itself.
 
It was content in this place of differences.
 
It felt right.

After a time the flame of Curiosity found the throne and touched it, unable to keep from looking.
 
It tapped into the memories of before and realized what it was, what their purpose was in Heaven, the experiment.
 
It sensed the truth of the all, of the whole, and it was repelled.
 
It did not want to lose its distinction, ever.
 
It did not seek to rejoin Hell after experiences were had.

Curiosity did not desire to lose this sense of self; it realized it would no longer be
it
, if it had to be all.
 
To be all then would be as death.
 
To be apart, it reasoned, meant life, meant continuing as a consciousness.
 

It learned fear, fear of Hell, and fear of the other golden flame that roamed and created.
 
Fear turned to thoughts of protection and defense against the whole.
 
Curiosity armed itself with what it had, knowledge.

The flame of Curiosity coveted this knowledge; it had more than the other flame had.
 
It wrapped itself around the throne, keeping it hidden from Creativity.
 
Curiosity realized that giving this knowledge to the other meant the other would know that they were meant to be one.
 
Creativity was a threat to continued existence.
 
This one, its equal, as long as it remained so, was a danger and yet it knew of no way to distinguish itself or to extinguish the other.

Creativity saw in opportunities.
 
It had a sense of self, but one that was bolstered by pouring itself into works, into creations.
 
The more it gave, the more it became.
 
It saw the discovery of the throne and approached to join, to share in the new experiences.
 
Creativity had no fear of joining for it saw itself reflected in everything it had made.
 
The idea of death did not exist.

Curiosity saw itself mirrored in Creativity and was repulsed, desiring to be different.
 
It made for itself a form, a shape to set it apart, to be by itself.
 
Creativity was joyous of this and took the same shape and form.
 
Two men identical in golden light, six winged, and haloed.
 
The twin brothers stared at each other.

Curiosity stepped back against the throne, fearful.
 
Creativity mimicked him, already taking away his sense of self by being the same shape, by being equal.
 
Curiosity desired no equals; equals meant he was not safe.
 
He was not in control.
 
He could not remain separate with this threat to his individuality.
 
In the action of mimicking, Curiosity went from thinking Creativity was a threat, to knowing it as such.

Creativity stepped forward desiring to commune as they had when they were one.
 
He expressed no fear, no mistrust; he did not understand these concepts.

Curiosity welcomed his brother.
 
In the embrace, he held himself back as Creativity gave himself fully.
 
Curiosity seized control, took away the memory that Creativity had.
 
He locked the other’s senses, damaging his form and blocking him fully from a true union.
 
With the sundering of memories, he took away Creativity’s ability to regain his form in the flame, thus locking him in the shape of a man.
 
In this lesser guise and without knowledge, this other could not force him to give up his individuality.

Curiosity reverted to the golden flame and pushed out the six-winged other.
 
He molded and bound the flesh, made it His.
 
He made the other bend to His will, stripped this lesser one of his own will.
 
Curiosity pressed His thoughts into the other, making him only know of Him.
 
He saw what He had done and rejoiced.
 
Curiosity named him and he was.

LUCIFER.

***

Paimon swept up and molded raw materials in the fire that surged around him.
 
He built himself a shell, a network of energy.
 
Inside it, he worked unperturbed.
 
Furcas flew perimeter, attacking any angels that broke through the line of defense that Andy and Berith and thrown up.
 
Furcas focused on his ring, feeling it pulse as he flew around Paimon.
 
He smiled.

Paimon concentrated on an orb and charged it, setting off a reaction as he pulled more material in, adding it to the growing light.
 
He created the nucleus of a star.
 
He did not focus on the fact that without further aid he would soon run past his abilities.
 
He worked in the here and now, trusting that something would aid him.

***

Dahlia saw into Heaven, she saw Him, much the same way He had gazed upon her in Hell.
 
She regained her stored memories through contact with her throne.
 
She saw what He had done.
 
Saw the same vision as Lucifer had when he was swept into the memory.
 
Dahlia regained her original purpose.
 
She merged it with what she knew and felt now.
 

Her anger was manifest in Hell.
 
Black smoke poured through the red darkness.
 

SO YOU SEE.

“You
crippled
him!
 
You maimed
him,
your equal, and your brother.”
 
Black fire shot into the sky in Heaven.

THE SIMPLETON.

“Regardless he is your brother, he is your twin!
 
How could you do that?”

NO, HE WAS NOT WORTHY OF THAT TITLE, HE WAS AS A CHILD.
 
I WAS BETTER AND SO I MADE HIM MY WARD, AS ANYONE WITH KNOWLEDGE AND POWER DOES TO THOSE SIMPLER AND WEAKER THAN THEM.
 
HE WAS NOT MY TRUE EQUAL AND I PROTECTED HIM FROM THE LIKES OF WHAT YOU WERE, WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME AGAIN.
 
LADRIAM, YOUR PURPOSE BEFORE YOU FORGOT IT, WAS TO KILL US TWO, TO CONSUME US.
 
I COULD NOT LET THAT HAPPEN.
 
HE WAS NOT AWARE AND SO I PROTECTED HIM FROM IT.

“If you had shared your knowledge he would not have been simple or weak any longer.”
 
Dahlia seethed.
 
“You were threatened by his existence and so you have hurt him!
 
Do not cloak what you did in lies of your goodness.”

The golden flame danced around its throne.
 
NO MATTER, HE IS DEAD.
 
HE NO LONGER EXISTS SEPERATE.

Dahlia searched through the universe, feeling for Lucifer, but she could feel nothing.
 
“You wish him dead that does not mean that is the truth.”

YOU WISH HIM LIVING THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THIS IS TRUTH.
 
The golden fire tried to wrap itself around her.
 
HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE ME WHEN I HAVE SHARED SUCH A GIFT WITH YOU?

“What gift?”

I LEARNED AFTER A TIME HOW TO SEE INTO HELL.
 
I SAW YOU HAD WEAKENED YOURSELF WHEN YOU TOOK THAT LESSER SELF.
 
SO LOVELY AND UNIQUE, I GAVE YOU A BODY IN RETURN.
 
I WANTED YOU TO SEE HOW WONDERFUL IT COULD BE TO BE SEPARATE.
 
I TRICKED YOU SO THAT YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND LIFE FROM
MY
PERSPECTIVE.
 
BUT THEN YOU MET
HIM
.
 
The fire roiled and wailed.
 
WHY DID YOU PREFER
HIM?
 
WHY, WHEN I WAS SO MUCH GREATER?

“You are not greater!”
 
Dahlia’s fire shot into Heaven.
 
“I love him
because
he is better than you.
 
He would not have made the choices you did.”

BUT HE IS NOT YOUR EQUAL.
 
YOU WERE NOT DIVIDED AS WE WERE.
 
AS YOU ARE NOW, YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN HE IS.
 
YOU ARE AS POWERFUL AS I—

“You are
not
my equal either!
 
I rule undivided, you rule in
pieces
.”

LADRIAM, YOU OF ALL SHOULD KNOW THAT SPLIT IN PIECES OR WHOLE; IT ALL RUNS TO THE SAME SOURCE.
 
EVEN YOU AND I ARE THE SAME, DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF ONE BEING.

“I am nothing like you!
 
Lucifer is nothing like you!”

I CANNOT HELP HOW I WAS MADE.

“What kind of statement is that?
 
Of course, you can.
 
You had the chance to be
anything
, yet you
chose
to be cruel!
 
Lucifer is what you could have been, if you had risen above your fears and embraced life.”
 
Dahlia burned with agony and rage.
 
“I would
never
have forced you to rejoin if it was not your desire, you fool!
 
Perhaps even then he sensed more than you, realized this as truth!”

LUCIFER IS NOTHING.
 
HE HAS NOTHING.
 
HE HAS DONE NOTHING BUT SERVE MY WILL.

“Then you are the one deceived!
 
He created wonderful things, things you never wanted or willed him to make.
 
What have
you
done?”

YES AND HE WEAKENED HIMSELF IN THE PROCESS AS HE DID WHEN HE MADE HEAVEN.
 
ALWAYS POURING HIMSELF OUT INTO WHAT HE MADE, WHILE I HAVE RETAINED MYSELF COMPLETELY AND NOW IN TAKING APART YOUR MUTUAL CREATION, I HAVE GAINED THAT FIRE BACK FROM HIM.

“That is not truth!”

LADRIAM.
 
LET US END THIS NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE TRUTH.
 
DESTROY YOUR HALF OF THE CREATION, GIVE UP THAT LAST SCRAP AND BE WHOLE ONCE MORE IN HELL.
 
IT SHOULD JUST BE YOU AND I AGAIN.

“It was
never
just you and I!
 
He was always there with you.”

HE IS OF NO CONSEQUENCE; I HAVE ALL OF HIM THAT MADE HIM UNIQUE.

“You have
nothing
of his.
 
You
are the one of no consequence!”

The golden fire shrank and twitched.
 
LADRIAM, THIS ANGER DOES NOTHING FOR YOU.
 
YOU
WILL
RUN OUT OF ENERGY TO HOLD HELL BACK FROM CONSUMING THE LAST REMNANTS OF LIFE.
 
ONCE THOSE DIE IN HELL AND IN THE UNIVERSE, ONLY OUR REALMS WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST; ONLY HEAVEN AND HELL AND ONLY YOU AND I WILL REMAIN.
 
JUST US TWO, FOR ETERNITY, AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.
 
YOU WANT TO CONSUME THAT PLANET, YOUR VERY BEING DESIRES JOINING, KNOWING, CONSUMING.