Sage

Sage

She was floating, drifting through a sea of cool darkness, the only passenger for miles and miles. Shadows brushed over her skin, kissing her body as they twisted and turned, dancing back into the darkness.

Am I dead? She thought.

Kade had thrown her into the portal, but this was not the journey to her world. This was something else.

She should have felt rage - Kade tossed her away, knowing there would be no way back. He knew she wouldn’t return to him or Neaviah. She should have been furious.

She should have felt heartache- Gabriela and Naru died trying to save her. Gabriela, who just started living, who was finding her place in the world -what a waste of life. She should be mourning her, and mourning Naru, one of the first people to help her in that strange world of magic.

She should be mourning the loss of their love because that’s where it was going. If they had lived, if they had been able to find a way to stop the Demon King, they could have had a life together.

She should have been in immense pain - Zaniel broke a few bones and she could taste blood on her lips still.

But she felt nothing. She was empty. A void within the void of darkness that carried her through a river of shadows and cool smoke.

A black hole. That’s what she felt like. Everything she ever felt or thought was being sucked inside her empty heart, thrust out into the galaxy and far, far away from her. But then the shadows quickened, swirling and pushing and suddenly she was falling. Her stomach hitched as gravity yanked her down, down from the darkness into a blinding light.

She crashed into something soft and puffy. She had to blink away the harshness of the light, but once she did she had to blink a few more times to make sure she wasn’t crazy.

Clouds. Hundreds of thick, soft, floating clouds surrounded her.

I am dead,she thought.

“About time you got here,” someone muttered behind her head. Sage looked up to see a woman, upside down, staring at her. “Hello, Sage.” The woman smiled. Her voice was light soft bells, the sound vibrating through her body and leaving her feeling warm and safe.

But her face - her face was ethereal. She had long, silvery hair that glowed around her soft, exposed shoulders. Her features were small and delicate, but her eyes were wide, deep pools of sapphire.

“Who are you?” Sage asked, rolling to her side to see the woman upright.

“I have no name,” she answered, still smiling. “Names mean nothing here.”

Sage glanced around at the clouds, “Am I dead?”

The woman laughed, the sound like a soft wind chime in a gentle breeze. “No. Take another guess,” she said, her smile turning mischievous.

“Lady, I’ve had a shitty day so-”

The woman’s smile faded. “I know. I cannot express how sorry I am. I’m sorry. I just never thought I’d see you.”

Sage raised a brow. “See me?”

The woman reached out, placing a small hand on her chest. Sage glanced down - if she had been capable of feeling anything she would have been mildly insulted. Beneath her delicate fingers, something began to glow.

“Hello, old friend,” the woman said softly, her wide eyes filling with tears.

Sage looked back up, her mouth popping open. “You’re a Goddess?”

The woman shook her head. “That is what you call us. But we are… just us.” She withdrew her hand, her expression wistful.

“Then you knew Nevia - our Goddess?”

“Oh yes. She is from this plane.” Sage looked around again, frowning.

“What is this place?”

“We have no name for it. It just is. As are we.”

Sage gave her a blank look, “You’re very cryptic. Why am I here?”

The woman pointed to her hand. Sage looked down, seeing the Tear in her palm. She didn’t remember picking it up when Gabriela gave it to her.

“How-” A sound like buzzing bees rolled over them and clouds around them began to glow. The woman frowned and stood. Sage gaped at how tall she was - easily ten feet.

“Come,” the woman commanded, and began walking away.

Sage followed, stepping lightly over the plush clouds. The woman walked right into one and Sage followed, feeling the cool brush of the cloud run over her skin. They emerged into a large opening with a pool at the center. There was no sky in this place or sun - just clouds.

“We don’t have much time,” the woman said. “My sisters didn’t want to grant you passage here, but I couldn’t resist.”

“Sisters?” Sage asked, but the woman ignored her, motioning for her to come to the pool.

“I loved her - the one you call Goddess. She was our sister, but she was… different.” Sage approached the pool, gazing down into the darkness. “It irks me to see her story so twisted, but my sisters have forbidden entry into other realms ever since she met her fate.”

The woman placed a single finger on the water’s surface, breaking the serene calm. Sage watched as the pool became a mirror, reflecting the clouds. A woman approached, similar to the one by her side, but somehow different. Her eyes were smaller, brighter, and dark. She seemed paler, and her expression was sad. She peered into the pool, looking wistful.

“She would spend most of her time gazing into the pools, like we all do, watching the other planes. But unlike the rest of us, she became infatuated with one.” The pool changed and Sage nearly leapt back when she saw the dying world of Kade’s memories. Only, it wasn’t so nearly dead in the image. It was starting to fade, the magic slowly leaving the world, but it was still full of life.

Unlike the world in his memories, this one was teaming with beauty. Sage crouched closer, seeing a figure atop a hill, gazing over the land. She narrowed her eyes as she caught the glint of gold in the mass of dark hair.

But it wasn’t Dragula. This man’s face was kinder. He did not wear human skin, but his Demon skin with the burning glyphs. But he was not fearsome or loathsome - he was worried.

“Is that… the original Demon King?” She asked.

“Kade’s grandfather? Yes.” The woman answered, her smile sad. “My sister found their world dying, and could not turn away.”

Sage raised a brow. “So you guys like what? Creep on other worlds?” She didn’t mean to sound callous, but it was hard not to when she felt literally nothing.

I should be curious. I should be angry - I should be weeping, she thought. It was a strange feeling, knowing you should feel but feeling nothing.

“In a matter of saying yes. The pools allow us to see the past, present, and possible future. The future is as fluid as this water - ever-changing, ever-flowing. But the past, well, that is set in stone. Neither interests us - it’s the present that we find the most compelling. My sister found this plane, with its dying world and worried king compelling.”

The woman gazed down at the Demon King of the past and smiled. “Back then we were free to come and go, and sometimes we felt compelled to watch the present acted out in person. I myself would travel to worlds and sit among the people, watching. But only watching.” She shot Sage a hard look. “We are never, ever to interfere or reveal ourselves.”

“Why?” Sage asked.

The woman shrugged. “It is written. It must be followed.”

“Well, that’s stupid.” She said bluntly. “What’s the point of being able to see all of this, all of these worlds, and not act? You guys really are just a bunch of creepy Peeping Toms.”

The woman smirked, unfazed. “She felt the same. After what you would call centuries of watching, she couldn’t take it anymore. She went down there, at first, just to watch him, to see him in person. But then…” she glanced back at the pool and it changed to two figures - the Demon King of the past and her Goddess, locked in an embrace.

“She loved him?” Sage asked. If she had been capable of feeling shocked, she would.

“She did. And he loved her.” She frowned, then looked up at Sage. “Did you know the world you were born to have magic at one point?”

Sage shook her head.

“No one knows why, but sometimes, as a world ages, the magic dies. Like a branch from a rose bush - sometimes it just cannot sustain it, and that branch of magic dies. But every world is born with it, and with that magic the portals as well. Sometimes the portals are physical, like the ones you have seen, other times they are merely a rip in the fabric of time and space. But all portals need magic to work.

“So, my sister, blinded by her love of the Demon King and his people, showed him the portals and found him a new world. One that was just the beginning, that had potential and room for his people. And they hatched a plan to bring his people to this world, and live a peaceful life.”

Sage watched the pool change. The Goddess was roaming the old lands of Neaviah, searching for the portals the Demons could use.

“In her efforts, she was exposed to the native people and was granted the title of Goddess. Though the world was new, and just beginning, she realized it wouldn’t be the best place for the Demon horde. She needed to find a world, an empty one, and bring them there.”

The sound of buzzing bees came again. The woman glanced up, looking mildly annoyed.

“My sisters are looking for you. We are running out of time - but you deserve the truth.” She waved her hand and the pool changed once more, but this time Sage recognized the scene.

Dragula, standing over the Goddess who was mortally wounded. They were in the cave; the portal burning brightly behind them.

“Time moves differently for us. Even now, two weeks of yours have passed as you stand here with me. My sister could forget this, and in her forgetfulness the one you know as Dragula became - impatient. He thought his father a fool for waiting and listening to the Goddess and became enraged when he refused to just move his people to the new world. The old king trusted the woman he grew to love - but his son thought her a trickster.

“So he slew his father and took his crown, then began to lead his people to their promised land. My sister intervened, but you know how that ended.”

Sage watched as the Goddess used the last of her power to rip her soul into pieces and gift them to her Maidens. Her ancestor, Miaka Blackwood, threw all her power at Dragula and back through the portal.

No wonder Dragula hated her.

“Well, that sucks that she lost the man she loved and died,” Sage said, her voice empty.

“It does. What sucks even more is since then, my sisters have forbidden anyone to leave. We can only watch now.” Sage eyed her. The woman looked visibly annoyed, and Sage knew in the back of her mind that there was something wrong with that.

“You’re more upset about that than her dying,” Sage said simply.

The woman shot her a heated glare, and for the first time, Sage saw her mask of beauty fall. Then it struck her how alike she was to Vinciei.

“Have you been interfering down there?” Sage asked, and the woman stilled.

“I cannot travel down there, or anywhere. I cannot interfere.”

“Why not?” Sage asked.

“They have barred the ways.” She said.

Sage looked down at the Tear in her hand. “Then how was I able to come here?”

“The Tear. And me. My sisters would have let you float between the planes for eternity, but I invited you in.”

Sage glanced down at the pool, frowning. “You want me to break it then? That’s why you brought me here?”

The woman gave her a slow nod. “Only you can.” She held out her hand, showing a bright tattoo of light that laced around her wrist like a snake. “This stops us from breaking it ourselves.”

Sage considered it. The Goddesses here, for she had no other word for what they were, were trapped just as much as the Demons were. They could only watch from their pools as other worlds were born and died, as magic grew and faded while people lived their lives. Sage glanced around at the pool and clouds and got a sense this was it - this was their entire world.

No wonder her Goddess wanted to leave. No wonder this woman wanted to leave. It was like her entire life was sitting around watching TV without having the option of getting up and leaving. How utterly boring.

But then, why would the other’s sentence everyone here to that life?

Because they didn’t,Sage thought.

“She did this, didn’t she?” Sage asked, gazing into the pool. The woman remained silent. Something in her told her to touch the water, so she did. Sage bent down and placed a finger on its surface and the image changed.

It was the Goddess, right when she ripped her soul apart. Sage had been told she didn’t have the strength to curse the portal, to curse the Demons and the barrier beyond, and that’s why the Maidens had to do it. But that was only half true.

The image showed her why - not because she was dying. But because she could only do one or the other.

The other was the plane where her sisters lived. The image widened and showed her the woman, the one standing next to her now, standing in the same cave.

Watching as Dragula slew her sister and she did not lift a finger to help.

Smiling as he did it.

They were the worst kind of watchers - the kind that had the power to help, to make a difference, but wouldn’t. And knowing that, knowing that if they acted, it would change the course of time and history but choosing not to gave them immense pleasure. That was why she wanted to go back down there - to watch, in person, terrible, awful things happen and know she could stop it.

They were living through the pain and suffering of others, knowing they never had to.

The Goddess used her power to curse her plane, to close it off by cursing her sisters. Sage watched as the woman screamed in the cave while the magic was burned into her wrist, and she was forced back to her home. Forever to watch, but never to leave.

Then it struck her how strange it was not to feel any of this.

Because she is stopping you, someone said in her mind.

She blinked, seeing the image in the pool fade and show her pale, empty face reflected back to her. Her wounds were gone, healed somehow on this Goddess plane. She blinked again and saw Kami by her side, her dark hair covering half her face like a curtain.

Kami smiled at her through the pool, then placed a hand over her heart.

She’s trying to fool you. Gabriela appeared on her other side. Do not let her.

It was their souls, the ones she harbored inside her reflecting back to her.

Vinciei appeared behind her, frowning. Don’t tell me this was all it took to fool you, Blackwood.

The Kami in the pool reached out to her reflection, and Sage swore she could feel her hand on her shoulder. The moment she felt her hand the emotions flooded back into her.

The woman next to her gasped, bending over as Sage took back her feelings.

“You’re like vampires.” She growled, “Only you don’t feed on blood - you feed on people’s emotions.” She stood, feeling her power crackling beneath her skin as she was flooded with feeling again.

She turned to the woman; her face pale and eyes wide with fear.

“You only brought me here to fool me into breaking the curse. But my Goddess placed it on you, knowing what you were capable of. You and her sisters.” As she spoke, she felt the gift inside her boiling, rolling through her veins. She held four pieces of the Goddess’s soul inside her - and they were mad.

“A part of her still lives in us,” Sage said, pressing her palm to her chest. “I can see it now. The parts she gave us. Kami is her darkness, the pieces of herself she hid away from her sisters, knowing you would only revel in her pain. Vinciei is her ego - she thought she could save a world and people without consequence. She thought she could be their Goddess. Minx is her maternal nature - she only wants to see the world and people grow and thrive. Gabriela is her sensibility - her reasoning and her morals. Rhea is her kindness, ever steady, ever flowing. And Wraza, Wraza is the burning passion she feels. But I -” Sage flexed her hand, feeling the full force of her gift coursing through her body. She flicked her eyes to the woman who shrank from the power.

“I am her rage.” Sage let it go, the building power, the building anger. Hers, Kami’s, and Gabriela’s - even Vinciei’s. But mostly, the part of the Goddess that still lived inside her. She let it go and let it burn the pool into nothing. She let it roll over the world, burning every single pool it touched until there were none left. And with it, the magic this world held.

The woman in front of her collapsed, screaming as the magic left her. Without it her beautiful face melted away, revealing the old, ugly hag she was beneath. She heard the chorus of similar screams erupt throughout the world as every being met the same fate.

“You should have listened to your sisters and left me floating out there,” Sage said, then held out the Tear.

“Kill me!” The woman cried, “Don’t leave me like this! Kill me!”

Sage raised a brow. “No. That would be mercy, and I have none for you.”

She gripped the Tear and thought of home.