Part 2
Pending rewrite
Vordea appearedarrived on the desolate surface of the moon and looked around. She hadn't been here before, and it appeared just how it looked in the night sky, a flashbarren rocky wasteland. What was Shadry even doing up here? No matter, this was a place with no flimsy mortals to be driven mad by the mere presence of energy.the Shelast flexedcitizen herof hands.a Finally,dead so far away fromuniverse, the peskyRuler fragileof mortals,Carcosa.
Vordea's eyes glazed over as she couldfelt takeit oncoming. herThe truepsychic form and kill Shadry once and for all. There would be no worryshadow of collateral damage this time. She cackled as reality cracked and her entire selfbeing, enteredas she crossed over from Carcosa, and into the mortal plane, huge tentacles growing from her back and her body growing in size until she was nearly 4 times her original height. Her eyes, blazing orbs of fire, scanned the landscape. Frustratingly, Shadry didn’t seem to want to confront her.
“Shadry! Come out and play!” Vordea yelled, the ground shaking. “You won’t escape, not this time! I’m done playing around!”
A roar in the distance answered her challenge, as a blue dragon took flight and headed for her. As it landed in front of her, she could swear it was smiling.
“So, you’ve come at last, Vordea the Kin-slayer.” Shadry stated.
“Oath-breaker Shadry, it’s time for you to pay the price for your crimes.” Vordea replied, taking on a fighting stance. “I should have never let you live.”
“Yet you did. I know why you did, though.” Shadry said, changing to his humanoid form, a dwarf in a toga holding a spear. He deftly dodged a tentacle lashing out from the enraged Goddess. “I thought we were still at the talking stage?”
Vordea snorted in response. “Words won’t save you this time, deceiver. We have all passed judgment on you.” Vordea smashed the ground and Shadry barely dodged in time.
“I suppose you’re right. They actually unshackled you, which means my time in this clockwork universe is over.” Shadry said with a sigh. “Is it too late to apologize, though? I am sorry, you know.”
Vordea stopped and slowly blinked her eyes. “You foolish, foolish boy. I know you’re sorry, Shadry. I know you never intended for it to come to this. I forgave you thousands of years ago. But rules are rules, and what is a society that does not uphold its own rules?”
“Then, let’s end this as it began?” Shadry suggested. Vordea nodded, and returned to her normal human form. She slowly approached him, and he knelt down in supplication.
“I won’t refuse the last request of a condemned man. Let your soul find redemption in death, Shadry, Lord of the Lost.” Vordea said sadly, using his true titlerealm for the first time in manyover millennia.25,000 Weepingyears. bitterly,Normally, she grabbedonly hisstayed headon this plane during the dawn period as she undertook the sacred work of creating the universe from the raw creatia of the previous kalpa.
"I am... whole." Vordea breathlessly whispered, as the humanoid avatar she used when conversing with the other Gods melted, and pulledthe itPrimordial clearGoddess of hisChange body,took takingon hisher spinetrue withform. it."Shadry, Shecome tossedplay."
On the surface of Luna, an oppressive black shadow wholly indescribable by any mortal eyes spread across the landscape, searching for Shadry. To any mortal looking up in the air,night sky, Luna appeared to be getting progressively darker, and herthere tentacleswas eruptedan from her back and tore it apart, as blood poured from where his head usedurge to be.look Sheaway, watchedbut asotherwise hisno soulill beganeffects towere depart his body, and grabbed it. felt.
"Shadry, “Icome." lied,Vordea's Shadry.”voice she said with a sad smile. She grabbed hold of his soul and tore it asunder, her tentacles greedily grabbing at pieces of it as his screams echoedboomed across the desolate landscape. “There"Come isand play."
On the far side of Luna, Shadry panicked as he hid in a crater. What was this monstrous being that had come here? The psychic pressure despite being as far away as he possibly could was unbearable. He had told Agbus he was ready, but who had they sent? As he thought of which God it could be, he realized he was trapped. The black unholy mass had surrounded the crater, and a cacophony of voices came from it.
"Oath-breaker."
"Play with me."
"Lord of the Lost no redemptionlonger."
"Carcosa calls for you. I’m sorry, old friend.”"
Even more were in languages he had no knowledge of, which was frightening in its own aspect. Then, he saw a small child approaching, a young human looking girl clad in nothing but void.
"Shadry." She said, approaching him. "Play with me. Play with me forever."
"Who are you?" Shadry asked, as he could feel the madness slipping into his mind. "Is all of this you?"
"Oh no, that's Vordea. She's not happy with you. My name is Eva." The young child answered, smiling.
"T-that's not Vordea." Shadry stammered, as he felt his sanity cracking. "Vordea is a God, not... that."
"Of course it's her! What did you think she looked like? Like this?" Eva asked, as she grew until she matched the height of Vordea's avatar, and the void changed into armour. "That's just me, after all. No, Vordea is something far worse."
"So who are you? Really?" Shadry asked, his mind straining against the overbearing pressure around him.
"I'm Eva, the last Ruler of Carcosa, and it's time for you to come home." Eva said, extending a hand. "Become a building block for the universe, like you were always meant to be."
Shadry's mind snapped as he reached out to touch Eva's outstretched hand, and his physical body melted as she embraced him.
"Welcome home, Shadry Oath-Breaker." Eva said, as she turned around and walked back to the formless black void. Shadry was part of her now, he was now just another piece of creatia to be used in the next kalpa.
Vordea sat byon Shadry’sthe coolingsurface corpseof Luna for quitedays, somewondering time. She knew it was going to end like this, but she didn’t thinkwhy the foolish boy wasspent goingso long in hiding. Even dragons are afraid of their own mortality, she supposed. Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar presence, one she hadn't felt in thousands of years. Contracting her body, she tracked it to gothe crater Shadry had been hiding in, and sent Eva back out liketo this.look for it.
"Well, is this where you've been hiding?" She had come for a fight, not an execution. Shadry deserved better than this, despite all that he did.asked.
“Room for a second?” A voice asked her. She looked up, and saw a man inwith a glittering white robe.robe, Hisand shimmering white hair shimmeredsmiled. as he smiled at her.
“Is this there where you’ve been hiding, Agbus?” Vordea asked.
“"Is it really hiding,hiding?"
"It is when I go to the Crystal Halls and even your angels are in an uproar trying to find you." Eva sighed. "What have you been plotting?"
"The Ruler of Carcosa. Haven't seen that in a long time." Agbus responded,replied, takingignoring aher seatquestion. "Evangeline Frost?"
"A close enough approximation of my name, I suppose." Eva smiled. "But yes, the last Ruler of Carcosa. It felt fitting to welcome Shadry home like this."
"Well, care to join me?" Agbus asked, motioning for Eva to sit next to her.him. “So"Sometimes he’swatching finallylife gone?”go by from up here can be peaceful."
“Yes.” Vordea said after a period of silence.
“You don’t seem very thrilled about it. I remember you raged over how much you hated him.”
“I came for a fight, Agbus. He gave me an execution.” Vordea replied, shaking her head. “He didn’t even try to fight back.”
“So, unshackled and fully on the mortal plane.” Agbus said, noting Vordea’"It's sour mood and changing the subject. “You look dashing, by the way.”
“Sometimes I wonder, Agbus, was this all worth it?”
“Was what?”
“Mortals. We could have done something other than this.” Vordea said, gesturing at the planet taking up most of the sky in front of them.
“Is that the tang of regret I hear?”
Vordea sighed in response. She looked into Agbus’s milky white eyes. “I’m just saying, I miss you.”
“Shocked you at the Inn, didn’t I?” Agbus asked with a chuckle, putting an arm around Vordea’s shoulder. “Couldn’t even speak. So much for the ‘Lord of Chaos’.”
Vordea punched him in the shoulder with enough force to have killed anyone else. “You jerk!”
“Beenbeen a long time since we got to just sit and talk,chat, though.”I Agbussuppose." saidEva withanswered, ajoining smile.him on the ground, and placing an arm around him.
"I suppose you're right."
“"You think Eigen-” VordeaEva began, but then stopped. “No, she definitely knew. She always does. That’s why she lied at the meeting.”"
“You can’"Can't fool the God of Time!”Time." Agbus saidchuckled. with a hearty laugh. “"She gave you a little vacation.”"
"Perhaps." “Perhaps.” VordeaEva said quietly.
VordeaEva and Agbus sat in silence,silence Vordea’swith tentaclesarms wrapped around them,each other for several days. They watched the clouds slowly drift across the planet below, as life went uneventfully on in their absence. Eventually, VordeaEva was the one to break the silence.
“"So why did you tell us?”" sheShe asked quietly. “"You alone knew he was here.”"
“I’"I've had many years to talk with Shadry, you know.”" Agbus said in response, his voice barely above a whisper. “"We talked at length for years on how it came to this, him in hiding up here. He decided it was time, nothing more. But he knew he couldn’t get the death he wanted if he went down below, Eigen would have merely ended his time in an instant.”"
"I “don't think he was expecting to have his mind being shattered by my psychic shadow, either." Eva whispered. "Was it fair for him to force you to sign his death warrant?” Vordea whispered, one of her tentacles caressing Agbus’s cheek. "
“"Of course it wasn’t.”wasn't" Agbus said, ruffling Vordea’Eva's hair. “"Order is not justice, something my followersfan club must learn.”"
“"The Church of the Dead God.”"
“"Indeed. HamlinRimsin, wait sorry, Hamlin, has done well though.”"
“"Why did you get Eigengrau to give him immortality, though? I never did figure that out.”" VordeaEva asked, pulling Agbus closer.
“"I handpicked him from all history with Eigen’Eigen's help. He was the only one who understood order on an instinctual level. He is perhaps the only one who ever will. That’s why he is the first and last High Priest of Order.”" Agbus answered. “"And what of your High Priestess Neptis?”"
Eva “I should apologize to her.” Vordea said,had a sad look on her face.face “upon the mention of Neptis's name. Neptis had no way of knowing she had even broken those rules. "I wentshould tooapologize hard onto her.”"
“So I’ve heard. "You shattered her mind.”mind, from what I've heard."
VordeaEva suddenly withdrewstood her tentaclesup, and stoodthe up.formless “I’void around them began to shimmer and glow. "I'm going to make it right, Agbus.right. Come with me to Dragonpost.”"
“On one condition.” Agbus replied as he stood up."Oh?"
"Yes. “Oh?”Hand in hand, Lady Chaos and Lord Order will go there." Eva said, as a crack in reality opened, and Vordea's body began to return to Carcosa.
"Well “Comewhen visityou meput moreit often.”like Agbusthat, saidhow withcould aI smile and raised eyebrows. Vordea blushed and smiled back in response.refuse?"
Eva “Alright,just comewinked onin then,response, let’sbefore getmelting going.”away. Out of the black void around Agbus, Vordea said.walked out, clad again in her signature black armour.
"Are Ayou crackready into thego, skyAgbus? openedThe asdoor to Carcosa is closed." Vordea sent away most of herself back to multidimensional space, leaving behind only the black armoured woman.asked. She offered her arm to Agbus, and arm in arm, they launched off the moon, heading back to the planet below.