Page 15 of Glittering Feather

I would know about its tricks; I’d spent a vast portion of my nearly eternal life lost in the void. Listening to its lies. Trying to redeem the souls that had gotten mired there. I ran a hand over my arm, feeling the nearly invisible traces of where I’d carried them for so long, the lines they had carved into my soul that I had kept, even after I’d been transformed in the Celestial Realm. I’d kept them so I’d always remember the task of saving them was incomplete.

“Something you want to talk about, Little Glitter?”

“They found it, didn’t they?” she said after a long moment. “Is Dad…” Her voice broke off as she tried to ask about Mikhail. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her on my lap while she sobbed. I was the only one of her parents who could see into her thoughts, though even for me it was like listening to whispers from miles away.

….He’ll hate me… evil… knew better… didn’t even work… I’m a devil… twisted…

“You’re not twisted,” I said gently. “You’re not evil. You’re perfect. Stop thinking of the parts of your name that you think are bad, and see the whole.”

“PerfectDevil, Baba.” She wiped her face with the back of her arm. Her eyes were bleak, the swirling galaxies in them dimmed, when she finally dragged her gaze to mine. “I’m not like any of the others here. Not like you. I’m evil. I want to do bad things.”

“We’ve talked about this. You have choices, my perfect Little Glitter. All you must do is learn everything you can, and then try to make the ones you can live with.”

Her lips quivered. “I was trying to choose. I wanted to choose a new name, one that would mean I wasn’t… like this.”

“That you weren’t you?” My own voice broke. “Oh, my sweet girl, I would never want to live in a universe that didn’t have you in it, just as you are. My perfect child, my beloved daughter.” I pressed my lips to her silky, dark purple hair.

“The others think I’m going to bring about the end of the universe, Baba. They whisper about it when they think I can’t hear.”

I sighed heavily. “I’ve tried to tell them most of those old prophecies were made up when I was drunk off my ass. Glitter will bring the end of the realm? The shadow will fall over every Celestial and silence the Eternal Hymn, blah blah blah. You know I was mostly punking them.” Or at least, I had thought I was.

She snorted a tiny laugh. “Well, I wish yourfakeprophecies didn’t line up quite so neatly with myrealexistence, Baba.”

I kissed her head again, giving her a squeeze, before moving away an inch and changing the subject. “Make me a marshmallow?” She held out a hand and focused on it, only screwing up her nose a tiny bit to make the fluffiest marshmallow I’d ever seen appear. It was perfectly golden brown, just as I preferred them. “Thank you, Little Glitter.”

A mournful howl sounded in the distance, followed by the thump of racing paws as Shadow smelled his favorite treat.Laughing, Precious created a new one and half-incinerated it before tossing it over her shoulder. Shadow gobbled it up, gave a woof of thanks, then went back to prowling the cloud edge, growling at the glittering void.

“Shadow does that a lot these days,” I said absently, observing Precious’s face as she narrowed her eyes at the same patch of darkness. “Keeping watch. Any idea what he sees?”

“What could possibly be out there?” she replied, a non-answer if I’d ever heard one. She could lie to most of the others. But not to me.

“You know what’s out there, don’t you? Precious, you have to know the void isn’t your friend.” She had insisted when she was little that the void was alive. That it talked to her and played with her. That it was lonely. I’d caught her a dozen times trying to fly off into it to meet the imaginary friend she called Void Boy.

“You’ve told me that a thousand times.” Another non-answer. She made a huffing sound, materialized another marshmallow, and stuffed it into her mouth.

Shadow and I shared a long look.I wished again that the Singer of All Songs had given the temple dogs the power to speak. They held so much of the universe’s deepest truths in their spiritual forms…

I sighed as Precious nudged me with an elbow.“Stop staring. You’ll make him self-conscious,” she teased.

“The void isn’t a person,” I reminded her again. “It has no conscience. It is a total lack of all spirit and life.”

She leaned up against me, examining my nails. They were sharper than anyone’s except her own, though hers were deep purple and glittery, while mine glowed with golden Celestial fire. “It’s not a total lack. Earth is out there. Will you tell me about it?”

“What do you want to know this time? Aren’t you tired of hearing about Earth?” I asked, closing my eyes as my daughter stared at my golden horns and tail, as she often did. She and I were the only ones with horns in the Limen, though hers were a deep charcoal. And only I had a tail, a souvenir from my eons of imprisonment in the Abyss.

“You never talk about it unless I ask.” Precious tossed bits of burned marshmallows out into the void. “And it’s not boring like Earth history class.”She hesitated a moment, and I sensed there was something in particular she wanted to ask.“How long were you alive? Did you… Did you have a family there? Kids, a daughter like me?”

I could feel her underlying fear, and though she had her mental connection shut down entirely, I heard her question:Arealdaughter?

“You are my real daughter,” I said gently. “You’ve even got my horns.”

She shot me an impatient glare. “But did you? Did you have a wife or husband, or a lover?”

“No, I didn’t,” I replied, pondering how much to share with her. “I didn’t even kiss anyone. Well, not romantically.”

“How?” she asked, dumbfounded. “How could you possibly live on Earth for all those years, and not do one thing wrong? I told four lies before breakfast this morning. I yelled at Mom and Tata Sunny and Mama Hope like twelve times this week.”

“That’s not so bad,” I drawled. “Your recent behavior could be called an improvement on last year when youburned down your school.”

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