Chapter 5: Maidens of the Sea(10)
"Arise, servant of the Goddess."
Levi opened his eyes.
The sight that met his gaze was like something out of a fairy tale. His fairy tale. He gave an audible gasp that resounded through the shimmering halls he found himself in. Gold. Everything was gold.
"Welcome," a deeply sonorous female voice echoed, "to the endless halls of Pandemonium." The voice seemed to come from high above him, but at the same time he could feel the voice resonate inside his mind.
Endless halls...of gold? Where am I?
Levi struggled to stand, his wooden leg hampering him in his haste to get a better look at his new surroundings. The pale glow that seemed to flow from the gold itself was blinding. There were no lights, no torches, no windows - indeed, as Levi got a better look, there was no exit or entrance of any kind within sight. Levi was standing in the middle of a vast hallway that looked like an entrance hall, but with no entrance. Where a massive gate might have been, there was nothing but a solid gold wall, covered in ornate carvings of women, all beautiful beyond description. No, as he looked closer Levi could see they were in fact all the same woman. The Goddess.
The room itself was vast, easily large enough to hold his own Golden Goddess, as well as Bismark’s ship. He stood on a wide open space at the foot of a grand staircase that climbed up several flights then stopped in front of another hallway that lead off out of sight. The staircase was almost as wide as the room itself, and Levi wondered how many hundreds of men could climb these stairs at a time. Finely crafted banisters lined either side of the staircase, with small statuettes of the Goddess fixed to the ends at the top and bottom. Carvings of the Goddess adorned the high walls and ceiling, with golden statues of Her punctuating the empty space of the floor. Everywhere Levi looked he saw two things - Gold and the Goddess.
The only thing not gold in this place seemed to be the crimson red carpet that led from where he stood straight up the stairs and down the unknown hallway beyond. On the carpet was a disturbing series of images. Depictions of bloody battle between countless scores of warriors flowed from the carpet, all done with such exquisite detail that the men seemed ready to hack off Levi’s remaining leg if he tried stepping on them. The battle seemed to have a progression to it as it made its way up the stairs and down the hall, as if it were telling the story of some epic war. At the very beginning of the carpet, where Levi now stood, was an immaculate image of the Goddess. Directly in front of it, a few feet ahead of Levi, were scenes of worship, and then shortly afterwards the battle scenes began, and kept going as far as Levi could see, growing more gruesome as they went. He couldn’t help but admire his host’s taste.
Now that Levi had a bearing on where he was, a more pertinent question forced its way into his mind.
"Am I dead?" Levi spoke into the silent halls. Surely he must be after what he had just been through.
"You are here. That is all you need to know."
Not the answer Levi wanted to hear. "Well where am I, then? What is this place?"
Silence. Then, "All paths lead to the Goddess in this place. The Fall of Man shall be your guide - the answers you seek are at its end."
Levi gave a frustrated look around the room as he muddled over the words. He didn’t have time for games, and wasn’t in any mood to play them. Something about this place filled him with a deep longing, however, and he felt compelled to listen to every word his host spoke.
Glancing at the carpet again, Levi saw what he was supposed to do. The scenes on the carpet could only be the "Fall of Man" the voice spoke of. He hobbled along the carpet’s length, then climbed the staircase, his eyes glued to the increasingly violent scenes beneath him as he went.
How much time passed as Levi wandered the halls of Pandemonium was known only to the Goddess Herself. He walked as if in a trance, his eyes never leaving the chaos at his feet, even to admire the glistening gold around him. When he turned down branching hallways, he did so with the blind ease of a rat following bread crumbs in a maze. Where the other uncarpeted paths might go did not even enter his mind. The Fall of Man was his chosen path now.
The images on the carpet varied from horrific battles to scenes of intense malice and hate to scenes of the most depraved and perverse aspects of humanity. Levi was no stranger to any of these things, and had taken part in them all throughout his long and loathsome life. He reveled in the scenes of destruction and greed, and gave knowing leers at the scenes of murder and rape. He had seen all this before, and enjoyed every moment of it.
Soon a subtle change began to surface within the blood-stained carpet. The image of a lone man with a golden crown riding a huge serpent-like beast appeared suddenly, and as the graphic images wove their story, the man featured more and more in them. He was always leading the charge in the worst acts of brutality and hate, and always had a grim smile on his face as he claimed his prize. The most striking feature of the man was his left eye. Instead of a real eye, he had a large black sphere embedded in the socket. A bright yellow gleam shone from deep within the dark eye where sparks were firing like small lightning bolts. Levi swore in the back of his mind that if he bent down and touched the image he would be shocked for sure.
The air around Levi also began to change smoothly and quietly as he continued his trek. A distinct electric energy was building up in the halls, like the odd static before a great storm. Levi paid no mind to this change in the atmosphere as he dutifully followed the Fall of Man to its inevitable end.
Levi was sure the end was near now. There were no more battles, no more wars. Only the crowned man with the dark eye, subjugating all, ruling all, and possessing all from atop his great beast. A growing light was also featuring prominently behind everything. It started out as a pale glow from the man’s crown, but soon the light had a life of its own, and encompassed the majority of the carpet’s imagery. By the time Levi had gotten within sight of the carpets brilliant end, the light was visibly shining from the carpet and Levi could barely stand to look at it. When the light finally became too bright for his eyes, Levi looked up, and saw the face of the Goddess before him. His Goddess.
She was beautiful. The perfect image Levi had always had in his mind since childhood. This was the image he had tried in vain to capture on the prow of his ship. Standing now before Her, he knew all his attempts to visualize Her had been wasted effort. Her golden hair flowed in long gentle slopes down Her lithe, nude body. Only a single, long swath of blue silk covered Her, flowing from and around Her body as if it where as much a part of Her as Her hair. In Her face was a look that confused the awestruck Levi. It was a face of incomprehensible beauty and fierceness, but also whispered of pain and sorrow. He knew without knowing that whatever sorrows She had suffered were Hers alone to carry, until the end of time. She was as unknowable as She was untouchable, and the unrepentant look in Her eyes told Levi any effort he made to console the grief he saw would be met with swift rebuke. For the first time in his life, Levi believed with complete conviction that he saw something that could never be his.
The Goddess seemed to read his thoughts, sensing his total acquiescence to Her power and grace. She did not move, perhaps could not move, but Her eyes twinkled with a majestic spark that told Levi he had come to where he was destined to be. She spoke then, but Her lips never wavered from their tight, knowing smile.
"Jonah Levi. You have come far, farther than you know. In here time does not pass, and distance means nothing. The only power here is that of the Goddess. Of Me. Will you bow before My power?"
Levi bowed.
"You will serve me well, my emissary. Now look before you and see the power of the Goddess, which by your hand has been freed from its prison of mortal flesh."
Levi did as he was bade and looked down at the carpet once more, expecting to see the same blinding light as before. There was no light this time, only the lone man with the dark eye. Levi looked closer, realizing the startling truth. There was no carpet before him now. He was staring at his own reflection in the golden floor tiles!
The transformation was startling. Indeed, Levi now had both his eyes, only the left one was now a perfect sphere of the darkest black. The only light in it was a faint spark deep within its core that flashed whenever Levi concentrated. On his head he now wore the golden crown depicted on the carpet. He still wore his grey-green peacoat, and was still cursed with the wooden leg, but none of that mattered now. The Goddess had chosen him to be Her emissary, and he would fulfill Her every wish from now until the end of time. And he knew there was much for him to do in the name of his Goddess.
"My Goddess..."
Dune was shaken from his sleep by a rough hand. The Maiden of the Sea had found its way safely into harbor some days ago, and its crew now journeyed north to Narsille by land aboard a vehicle similar to the Figaro, but much smaller in scale and majesty.
"What is it?"
Indie’s voice trembled through the early morning air, his voice laced with fear...and something else.
"You have to come and see this, Dune. We’ve come within sight of Narsille."
"Really? It’s about time! I always enjoy the first glimpse of its towers at sunrise." Dune could sense the odd tone in Indie’s voice, but brushed it off as nerves. They had all been under unusual pressure on this voyage, and tension was sure to rise as they neared Narsille.
Dune and Indie climbed the ladder to the observation deck outside, Dune eager to see his home again, Indie simply following him like a lost shadow. What he saw both shocked and confused him. Narsille looked the same as it always had, impenetrable and stolid. Above it, filling the sky where the sun should have been, was something Dune had hoped he would never see again, let alone see above his very home. The Storm.
It hovered quietly above Narsille, waiting for something only it knew. Dune could see that it had indeed begun raining within the city walls, but he knew this storm well, and it was plain the brunt of its rage was still hidden. Still, Narsille had never had so much as a drizzle since Indie’s weather system had been installed, and he was sure real rain would come as more than a small shock to the citizens of this pristine city. There was sure to be chaos in the streets as people doubted and those in charge faltered. Dune couldn’t help but inwardly smile at the thought of the Committee trying to explain this recent failure of their control. But the signs here were unmistakable. Something had gone horribly wrong.
Indie looked at his ATLAS device with a growing look of dismay and sadness on his face, and a weary nod told Dune all he needed to know. That was no ordinary storm out there. Whatever was in front of them, they were powerless before it. Dune did not need a fancy machine to tell him that. He looked at Indie with his face full of worry, hoping for some explanation, however small and inconsequential it may be.
"Professor, what is it?"
Indie said nothing for a long while, breathing slowly and staring ineffectually at his ATLAS device. He finally set the device down with trembling hands and looked up at the Storm he was powerless to stop, or even to know. With tears welling in his eyes, he told Dune the harsh, unforgiving truth of the situation.
"The end, Dune. That...is the end."