One, two, six, twelve eyes opened a small distance in front of me. “You’re not making any sense.” I snarled. “What are you and what do you want?”
Three eyes squinted, as if the creature was grinning. “You.”
“What?” Alarm pricked underneath my skin. If it took notice of my distress at its words, the creature gave no indication.
It drifted closer. If I’d eaten earlier that day, there was no doubt in my mind that I would have shat myself. The creature’s body somewhat resembled a jellyfish. Its translucent dome-like top ended in a reddish lace. Long white tendrils extended from the top, drifting through the water as if tasting me in the drift. Cloud-like arms as long as an oak tree drifted down past my vision. They folded on top of each other, resembling the frills on a ballroom gown. Each ruffle ended in an eye. Their irises darted back and forth, looking everywhere at once.
The creature had no mouth from what I could tell, yet it laughed. “Didn’t I tell you? You shouldn’t have looked.”
Too stunned to move, I couldn’t answer.
“Answer me, child. The men who hurt you, do you want to get even? I can give you the power to do it. Together, we’ll have the power to do anything. Now, doesn’t that sound nice?”
I am power without a body.That’s what it said. “So you can’t survive on your own, is what you’re saying? Why didn’t you just take over one of the cultists? Also, why a lobster?”
“So many questions.” the creature chuckled. “Unfortunately for me, most humans can’t sustain my gifts. Even a small glimpse at this form could drive your kind into unspeakable madness. For the past year, I’ve been stuck in that lesser form, puppeting those idiotic humans into feeding me enough magic just to stay in this realm. Each time I tried to join with one, the fool either disintegrated or fell mad.” Long, impossibly soft tendrils drifted along my face. “But you,” it rasped. “You can see me just fine, can’t you?”
I batted the tendrils away from me. “Why the hell would I want to do that?” I snapped. “Don’t tell me you’re just another one of those opportunistic ass-hats that thinks they can take over just because Myva was killed?”
Delighted laughter met my ears. “Child, I was Myva.”
The white tendrils sifting through the water shot forward and grabbed me. In a flash, I was in a new place. A lush green forest with trees so big around they rivaled the size of my barn. Soft ferns tickled at my waist while moss fought its way across the forest floor. A twig snapped. I whipped around to see a woman walking past me. Her clothes hung off her bony frame like rags and it looked like her long locks hadn’t been maintained in a long time. The woman’s breath was so labored I thought she might keel over on the spot. Ragged coughs made her stumble, and I reached out a hand to steady her, but it went right through her body.
I followed as she continued on her path until she stopped at the edge of a lake. The woman fell to her knees at the edge of the water and put her forehead to the sand. “Great gods of the deep, if anyone can hear this poor woman’s plea, have mercy.” Tears spilled down her cheeks and the rest of her prayer was cut off by broken sobs.
“Poor thing.” A voice came from the water. “You’ve been sick for a long time, haven’t you?”
“Months.” The woman sobbed harder. “Plague has ravaged my village. Everyone is sick or dead and I can’t take the pain any longer. I’ll give anything if you just give me relief from this sickness.”
White tendrils rose from the water, twisting in the glimmers of harsh sunlight. “I can give you the power to become well again. Agree to host me, child. I’ll give you the power to become anything.”
Another harsh cough wracked the woman’s body until she spat blood. She raised her head and reached out to the offered tendrils. “I accept.” She said, before grabbing hold.
A rush of power hit me so strongly, I choked. In an instance, the woman’s mind and mine were one and the same. There was a pulse below the skin of our throat where we felt the creature settle into place. Its essence spread down our body like an all-consuming wildfire. We felt better. Our body was no longer ravaged by whatever illness had been plaguing her. As a matter of fact, we felt better than we ever had before.
Memories flitted across my vision. Images of kingdoms falling at my feet, statues sculpted in my likeness. We weren’t just better; we were a goddess. The heady feeling of power felt like fine wine against my lips. If we wanted it, we simply took it. Territories, gold, spells, anything.
The memories turned to a demon uprising. Titan creatures, from dragons to giants, launched an all out assault on one of our castles. It didn’t matter what they tried. Anyone would fall at our feet so long as we could perform the right spell.
I knew this story. Everyone did. This was how the goddess Myva saved humanity by sealing all demons behind Volsog gate. But as the memories flitted past, there were inconsistencies. This Myva…wasn’t saving anyone. There was only rage at our city being attacked. It wasn’t just demons attacking us, either. Anyone who stood against us was crushed without remorse. It didn’t matter how powerful we became; it was never enough. The thrill of gaining even more power was so intoxicating I felt it singing through my blood.
My stomach churned at the sight of our actions. I saw first-hand the lengths Myva went to in order to maintain her control. The children of powerful demons were sacrificed to create a toxin that she could spill from the air, causing all of them to go mad. How blood magic had bound her soul into four chalices so she could fight without being destroyed. How she rewrote the history books to paint herself in a better light, established a religion in her image. Complete with magic absorbing temples, so her power would only grow.
I pictured Felix and the nightmare of endless darkness he told me about. How he cried out in his sleep. “Stop!” I screamed. All at once, the array of images ceased, and I was back in the water. My breath came out in ragged pants. Body shaking with rage, I glared at the god, parasite, or whatever the hell it was. “You stay the fuck away from me. I will never host you.”
The hundreds of eyes adorning the lower part of its body all turned toward me. “Don’t be foolish, child. Together, we can be anything. I know you felt how good my power can be.”
I looked around the water, checking to see if anyone else has appeared in the water. “Psycho, who is WE? I just told you to stay the fuck away from me.”
“So gallant.” it mocked. “Don’t play coy with me, human. I’ve lived long enough to watch your species crawl its way out of the sea and take its first pathetic steps onto land. No matter how many centuries go by, one thing remains the same.” Its white tendrils shot forward and wrapped me up in a tight squeeze. I struggled and tried to fight them away, to no avail. A limb crept up my neck to press against my temple. “Everyone has a price.”
A hellish popping noise set off from the tendril wrapped around my head, followed by pain so severe I thought I’d break my own teeth from clenching so hard. More flashes took over my vision. This time, they were my own memories. Tiny bits of my life flitted through the surrounding water. That time I broke my leg falling off a fence, a sleepover at Cinnamon’s house, bacon, eggs and toast from last week’s breakfast.
Through the agony, I could feel that…Thing, shift through my mind searching for anything of note. “Come now, Brie,” it purred. “Just tell me what it is you want most.” Thing paused on a memory of a fight I’d gotten into at a bookstore. I had a blond woman in a headlock while Cherry darted to the counter with the limited edition books we’d snatched away from the raging crowd. We had traveled all the way to Goldcrest City for a massive book fair. “Knowledge is it?” Thing asked. “Now, this is something we can work with. Tell me, little human, what tomes drove a docile thing like you to violence?”
The memory became clearer in my mind and I let out a laugh. “Now it’s your turn not to look.”
As expected, the creature shifted closer, forcing deeper into my mind until time skipped to where I was alone with my new purchase. I ran my hands over the discrete cover, admiring the craftsmanship of the filigree carved into the leather binder. Thing’s emotions bled into my own. Unabashed, curiously burned through every fine hair on its tendrils.
