Callisto

Dreams of the Changeling (pt. 2)

Father-Mother sat on a carpet at the summit of the hill, clothed in their ancient robe and scarves, which made their face more akin to a blackened void than the familiar wrinkled sight Rain-Born knew. Though she studied their face, Rain-Born could not quite make out any features that could have belonged to her Elder. She sat cross-kneed before Father-Mother, and from the faceless shadow that looked into her, Rain-Born heard their voice:

"Rain-Born," Father-Mother said, and their voice shook the hill and the battered corpses beneath. "Look upon our victory."

Rain-Born still quivered at the thought of what she had been forced to see and would not turn to look upon her fallen family again.

"No, Father-Mother," she said. "I cannot."

"Have you grown soft as a kitten?" Father-Mother asked, their voice becoming the swirling rage of an impending storm that boomed in the sky above. "Have the Deadlands made a coward of you?"

Rain-Born could not look at the Elder. She felt her knuckles clench but refused to show weakness before the Great One.

Father-Mother's voice boomed again. "You wrought this thing that you have seen. This place is the fruit of your quest, Rain-Born."

At this, her eyes flew to the dark within the hooded figure of the Elder. "No," she said again, and her entire being shook with fright.

"Do you defy your eyes, child?" Father-Mother laughed. "Does the chick defy the warmth of its Mother? You brought us Callisto; with it, we brought deliverance upon the unclean."

From around her, cloaked in shadow, Rain-Born heard other voices scream in a cacophonous echo of Father-Mother's words: "Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!"

"Father-Mother," Rain-Born said, fighting to suppress the evil voices that assailed her senses. "You would not do this. You told Rain-Born that Callisto would save us –"

"You dare accuse us of deceit?" The voice of the Elder screamed with lungs greater than any human. "We are not as you: a mere mewling chick burning in the sun of the Deadlands. We are above lies. We are above the Guthra. Many fell in the war that had to be fought. But we remain. When the evil of the Deadlands is cleansed, we shall remain."

Rain-Born prostrated herself before Father-Mother, and she felt her cheeks burn with the strength of their rebuke. "Father-Mother," she cried. "Rain-Born is only your servant. Rain-Born does not doubt your wisdom. Rain-Born wishes only to serve you."

And through the swirling vortex of red death surrounding them on all sides, Rain-Born felt Father-Mother's smile grace her and fill her with some semblance of peace.

"We would have you serve us again, Rain-Born," the aged Elder said. "You will vanquish the final foe of the Hanakh, and we shall unleash Callisto's cleansing fire upon the rest of the Deadlands. The spirits will bow before us. And our names shall be etched in the skies above."

Rain-Born looked up and saw something else lay before her, tied to the ground between herself and Father-Mother.

Mere inches from her quivering face, Jespar's tiny eyes looked into her own.

...

Jespar's mind navigated the darkness of his memory, wreathed in a shadow darker than his eyes could comprehend. He felt pulled by force more potent than his own will, but admittedly he realized he was barely offering any resistance to the power. Perhaps, he realized, he just had to see her again.

He was back in the lab, running on his treadmill under the harsh strobe lights while the lab coats watched him behind opaque glass. He imagined their bulbous eyes and sweat-encrusted bald skulls knocking together as they tried vainly to understand him.