Record Eighteen - Elos

  The entire village had gathered in the center square.

  They were packed together like a single angry organism. Faces red, voices cracked from shouting, their hands tight around whatever they could use as weapons.

  Centuries of rigid rules. Of shame drilled into them since childhood. Of being told what to think. What to want. What to hate. Of pretending they were pure while rotting inside. Every quiet desire buried. Every curiosity punished. Every mistake branded as sin.

  At the center of the square, a woman and a man knelt on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs. Their clothes were torn and dirty from being dragged. The man kept his head down, shaking. The woman’s shoulders trembled as she tried to steady her breathing. Small cuts marked her arms and face from the stones that had already been thrown. Another rock struck her shoulder. Someone else threw a stick. Insults came from every direction.

  “Disgusting.”

  “Shameless.”

  “Filth.”

  “Sinners.”

  In front of the kneeling woman stood a large man gripping a thick wooden club with both hands. Beside him stood Priest Eldrin.

  Eldrin wore long ceremonial robes of deep red and faded gold. The fabric was heavy and layered, embroidered with religious symbols stitched in thick thread across the chest and sleeves. A wide sash wrapped around his waist and a large metal symbol of the church hung from a chain around his neck. His hair was slicked back carefully. His arms were folded tightly across his chest.

  “YOU NEED TO REPENT!” he shouted. “YOU NEED TO CLEANSE YOURSELVES!”

  The mob roared in agreement.

  The woman slowly lifted her head, licking her lips

  “Oh noo. Is the little celibacy priest gonna spank us ?”

  “YOU’LL BURN! YOU’LL BE STRIPPED, FLAYED AND …”

  The woman tilted her head slightly to one side.

  “’..weren’t you the one peeking outside our window last night?’

  The entire mob froze. The shouting stopped instantly.

  Priest Eldrin blinked rapidly.

  “W…WHAT?!?!” he stammered. “LIES!”

  “Oh, so that wasn’t you? My bad. Must’ve been some other greasy old pervert moaning about ‘sin’ while furiously fapping into his holy robes.”

  Several villagers slowly turned their heads toward Eldrin.

  “...Eldrin?” someone muttered.

  Another voice came from the back.

  “What the fuck?”

  “You were wankin’ it to them?”

  Eldrin’s face turned pale. Sweat began pouring down from his temples. His hands unfolded from his chest as he gestured wildly.

  “SHE IS LYING!” he shouted. “THEY’RE DEMONS!”

  His voice rose higher.

  “I..I..I WAS PRAYING!”

  The woman leaned slightly forward despite her tied hands.

  “Oh? Outside our bedroom window?”

  A murmur spread through the crowd.

  …

  Elos and **** had been in the mortal realm for over two mortal years now.

  In that time, they had moved across more than a hundred planets. Not just visited. Explored. Walked through cities. Crossed deserts. Watched suns rise that were green, blue even black. They had stood on planets made mostly of water, where cities floated on metal platforms. They had walked through mining colonies carved inside asteroids. They had seen a planet where gravity shifted every hour, forcing entire civilizations to build rotating homes.

  Over hundred planets.

  And Elos still acted like it was day one.

  In the empty stretch of deep space, **** lifted a hand.

  The fabric of space folded inward without resistance. A black rip opened in front. A dark oval edged with faint distortion. They stepped through the rip.

  They emerged high above the sky of a small dwarf planet.

  There was only one large landmass. It stretched wide and uneven, shaped like a broken shield. Forests covered most of it in deep green. A single river cut across it, winding in the northern mountains down to the southern coast.

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  At the center of that landmass…

  One kingdom.

  Stone walls formed a rough circle around it. From above it looked like a gray scar placed carefully in the middle of green wilderness. Outside the walls were farms in neat patches. Inside, tightly packed rooftops. At the very center stood a castle of pale stone, square and heavy, rising above everything else.

  There were no other cities. No other kingdoms. No scattered villages across distant shores. The rest of the planet was ocean.

  A deep green.

  Rich and heavy. It wrapped around the single continent completely. No visible islands broke its surface. Just one landmass surrounded by that vast green sea.

  The planet itself was small enough that the curve of it was obvious from where they floated. Clouds drifted slowly across the sky in thin silver streaks. The air looked clean. Untouched by industry. Untouched by progress.

  Above it all hovered the threads.

  Less than a million.

  Most faint and drifting calmly. Except for the cluster above a certain area of the kingdom. Those shifted fast. Colors flashing violently.

  Rage. Fear. Excitement.

  Something was happening below.

  Elos stared down. He tilted his head slightly. Then he vanished. The other presence followed instantly.

  They reappeared behind a stone wall at the edge of a town square.

  The square was wide and circular. The ground was uneven stone. At its center stood a wooden platform used for announcements and punishments. The architecture felt like old monasteries. Arched walkways. Narrow windows. Symbols carved into every visible surface. Heavy wooden doors reinforced with iron bands. Long banners hung from the poles, marked with strict religious crests.

  The air smelled like smoke and sweat.

  “PEOPLE! PEOPLE! DO NOT FALL FOR THE LIES OF THIS HARLOT.” a large man with a large wooden club shouted.

  Beside him stood a priest.

  “YES! YES! SHE LIE!”the priest added quickly.

  His voice cracked slightly.

  “YES I WAS THERE OUTSIDE THEIR WINDOW. BUUT, I WAS THERE TO PRAY FOR THEM. TO PRAY FOR THEIR SOULS AS THEY DAMNED THEMSELVES.”

  In the center of the square, a man and woman knelt on the ground. Their hands were tied.

  The priest looked at the woman.

  “I WEPT FOR THEM”

  “SEE HOW SIN MAKES THE MIND ROT. LISTEN TO HOW SHE SPEAKS. FILTH ROLLS OFF HER TOUNGUE SO EASILY.”

  A crowd roared.

  “BURN HER!”

  “BURN THEM!”

  “BLASPHEMY!”

  Stones flew first. Small ones. Then larger ones. Wooden sticks followed. Some struck the kneeling man’s back. One hit the woman’s shoulder. She flinched but did not scream.

  Above the square, the threads reacted. Each shifted color violently. Bright red flares for rage. Thick brown for disgust. Sharp flashes of white-yellow for excitement. Some pulsed dark blue beneath the red. Fear hiding under aggression. A few flickered green with envy. Others trembled thin and gray, caught in the crowd but unsure.

  The priest’s thread was unstable. It flashed red loudly when he shouted. Then it flickered fast yellow and pale blue. Panic. Guilt. Exposure.

  The large man with the tick burned almost entirely red, thick and hot.

  The kneeling woman’s thread was different. It shifted quickly. It pulsed in sharp, controlled bursts.

  Elos watched all of it quietly from behind the wall.

  He didn’t move.

  The square kept roaring.

  …

  The first stone hit her shoulder.

  The second struck her cheek.

  Blood ran down the side of her face.

  The large man in front of her raised his large club to hit her again.

  Then..

  She suddenly pushed herself upward despite the ropes cutting into her wrists.

  “FUCK YOU! She screamed.

  The square went silent

  Priest Eldrin’s mouth fell open.

  The large man froze mid-swing.

  She forced herself fully upright, even though her legs trembled.

  “Fuck you and your fake holiness!” she shouted, her voice sharp and clear.

  The whole crowd gasped in unison. Murmurs began to appear.

  The large man stepped forward and grabbed her by the hair, twisting his fist into it and yanking her head back so hard her neck strained.

  “Mind your language, whore,” he growled.

  His breath smelled like stale ale.

  From the crowd, a woman shrieked, pulling a small boy close and covering his ears.

  “There are children here! My son is here!” she shouted, glaring at her.

  Some of the people in the crowd also shrieked in unison.

  She looked straight at the large man holding her.

  She drew in a breath.

  And spat.

  Not a small spit.

  A full, thick flobber of blood and saliva straight into his face. It hit his cheek and slid down toward his mouth.

  The large man recoiled with a disgusting yell, releasing her hair instantly to wipe his face.

  She dropped forward lightly but caught herself.

  “I don’t give a diseased goat’s dripping cuntflap about your inbred little jizz-goblin.”

  Gasps spread through the crowd.

  She jerked her head toward the large man.

  “You, don’t you beat your wife when she speaks too loud? You gamble away food meant for your children. But am the sinner?”

  The kneeling man beside her looked up in shock,but she did not stop.

  Murmurs broke out.

  “Yes!” she shouted over the noise. “We fucked!”

  “And it was awesome… I mean…”

  She rolled her eyes upward for a second as if replaying it in her head.

  The kneeling man beside her gave the faintest, proudest smile. Then he blinked. The smile slowly disappeared like he had just remembered they were about to be burned alive.

  She continued anyway.

  “So fucking what?” she demanded. “ He fucked me before marriage. So what?”

  She turned her face toward Eldrin.

  “So what if you didn’t approve of him for me?” she added sharply. “You don’t get to approve who touches my body. You don’t get to approve who I love.”

  The crowd stirred again. Some faces were angry. Some where confused. A few looked uncomfortable.

  “You act like I killed a man,” she went on. “Like I poisoned the wells. All I did was choose a man who isn’t old enough to be my great grandfather.”

  A few nervous laughs slipped out before being quickly silenced.

  For a moment, it looked like doubt might spread.

  Then Eldrin stepped forward. His face had gone red.

  “UNCLEAN!..THE DEVIL CLAWS AT YOUR TONGUE.” he screamed. “FILTH! I WILL BURN THE SIN FROM YOU!”

  He pointed sharply at the guards near the edge of the square.

  “PREPARE THE STAKE!” he shouted. “LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL WHO THINK DESIRE IS GREATOR THAN LAW!”

  She blinked at him.

  “Awww, the little priest is mad cause I got dicked down. Boo-fucking-hoo. Your sweating and screaming about sin,” she continued, “but you come to my father’s house at night to drink his wine and fuck his wife.”

  The crowd shifted.

  “Father,” she continued, facing her father who was standing near the front, face pale but stubborn. He had not thrown stones. He just stood there, breathing hard, pretending this was about honor.

  “The priest is humping your wife!”

  “Ask her why she meets the priest after evening prayers! Or why the priest suddenly stopped asking for extra donations from you!”

  Silence.

  Her father did not move for a full second.

  Then two.

  His face slowly turned toward his wife.

  The woman stood a few steps behind him. Her lips parted slightly. Her hands trembled at her sides. Her eyes darted toward the priest… and that was enough.

  Guilt was written all over her.

  Her father’s breathing changed.

  Fast. Heavy.

  His nostrils flared. Spit gathered at the corners of his mouth as rage overtook him completely.

  “YOU…” he started, but the word broke into a snarl.

  He turned toward Eldrin with a roar and charged. Saliva flew from his mouth as he screamed, face twisted, eyes wide like a rabid animal.

  “YOU FILTHY BASTARD!”

  Priest Eldrin yelped and immediately stumbled backward. Directly behind the large man with the club.

  “STOP HIM! STOP HIM! Eldrin shrieked, grabbing onto the man’s shoulder like a shield.

  The large man tried to brace himself, confused and overwhelmed.

  Two guards rushed forward and caught her father before he could reach them. They grabbed his arms, holding him back as he thrashed violently, still screaming, spit flying with every word.

  The wife covered her mouth now. Not in innocence . In exposure. Her face burned red. Her eyes filled with tears. Not of betrayal, but of being caught.

  …

  Far from the square.

  Near the outer districts of the kingdom.

  There was screaming.

  Not organized shouting. Not anger. Pure panic.

  A woman ran barefoot across a dirt road, dropping a basket of vegetables that rolled into the mud. A man stumbled out of his house with a farming tool in his hand, looking around wildly. Children cried from open windows. Doors slammed. Some locked. Some were kicked open from the outside.

  Guards flooded the streets, swords drawn, shouting orders that no one listened to.

  “Get inside!”

  “Shield wall!”

  It didn’t matter.

  Because whatever was hunting them did not move like something that could be fought in ranks.

  A thing rushed along a wall faster than any horse could run. It bent unnaturally, folding around corners instead of turning them. Roof tiles shattered as something heavy landed and launched again.

  A guard raised his shield…

  It split clean in half.

  So did he.

  In a narrow alley, a woman tied to crawl away, nails scraping against brick. Something seized her ankle. She screamed once before she was dragged backward into darkness. Her body vanished around the corner. The scream cut of mid-breath.

  The streets became chaos.

  People ran in all directions. Some collided and fell. Others were trampled. Guards tried to fight, but their swords struck only air before something tore through their armor like cloth.

  The thing moved forward relentlessly. Claws sharper than atoms sliced through everything. Even space itself. Leaving scars in the air. A horse reared and was atomized in a single motion.

  Blood painted the roads. It kept moving. Toward the center. Toward the square.

  ****

  “Elos. Elos.”

  The voice cut through.

  He blinked and looked up.

  Lia was sitting across from him, leaning forward slightly. She was holding onto the sleeve of his coat and tugging it gently to get his attention.

  “Did you hear me?” she asked.

  He stared at her for a second longer.

  “You said you travelled a lot,” Lia continued. “I asked where. And the you just…drifted off.”

  The noise of the restaurant seemed louder now that he was fully present. People were talking over each other. Cutlery scraped against plates.

  “Yeah,” he said calmly. “Sorry.”