The following two days, as you can imagine, passed in anything but boredom. In the armory, we discovered an assortment of discarded angelic weapons as diverse as demon bloodlines. They were in various states of disrepair, but usable for training. War mostly let the gauntlet lie and practiced with one hand. Even after decades of swinging Chaoseater (which weighs almost as much as me) with his right arm, his left shoulder is still larger. Not a difference one could notice under his armor, but we let that lie too.
I taught him a few of my dirty tricks, including the one I’d used to bring him down in our first match—though I never confessed that I’d used my magics against him as well, and I never intend to. He wrinkled his nose and swore he’d never sink as low as to fight that way, but we practiced it anyway, in the name of “expanding his acumen”. In return, he taught me a selection of power moves that I could adapt to short blades, and would soon find a use for in the close quarters combat of a crowded battlefield.
We’d dance till our bodies glistened with sweat and every muscle burned with exertion. Then we’d bathe in the pool. And then we’d make love.
Continue reading Duty Comes First
When I woke, I thought it was dawn, but then I remembered that the sky had already been bright by the time we were done with sparring, and judging by recovery, I must have slept for several hours at least.
The beat of artillery had stopped, and all was quiet. War lay still like the slain. I washed in the pool, put my pants on, then climbed one of the pillars to reach the gallery and the windows. It wasn’t overcast outside. The day was darkened by vapors from the nearby battlefield and foul magics of the Nephilim. I couldn’t see anything through the fog.
A loud caw startled me. One of Death’s crows sat perched in a window two dozen paces to my right. I froze. How much had it seen? At the very least, it could’ve seen us sleep piled on top of one another with no clothes on. It wasn’t Dust—Death only sent him in emergencies. As far as I knew, Death couldn’t communicate directly with ordinary birds, but I wasn’t sure, and I wasn’t about to risk it. I didn’t want him to know what had happened, least of all before I knew what had happened. Feigning my most casual walk, I got within range and flicked a void-dart at the crow. With a shriek, it disintegrated in a flurry of feathers and a puff of purple smoke.
Death wouldn’t mind. He had an unlimited supply of those.
Continue reading Morning After
I suppose it’s time to explain.
Lucent Redoubt is one of the two outlying fortifications supporting Bastion in its ill-fated vigil over Eden; the other being its sister fort, Vespertine Redoubt, which didn’t see much action during the Nephilim invasion and, as far as I know, still serves the troops of the Faneguard.
In the early days of the war, War and I were holed up in there for three days, alone, as victims of a plan gone awry. Death and Fury were supposed to taunt and harass Absalom’s main force into committing to open battle in the area between Bastion and the Redoubt, where they would become surrounded from all sides: Abbadon and the main body of the angelic army pouring out of Bastion, Barachiel leading a smaller host as bait, Death and Fury in pursuit, and War and me as the element of surprise.
Continue reading Lucent Redoubt
“If we don’t find a way forward soon,” War growls, destroying the last of the partition walls in an almost casual manner, “I’m going to—”
“Blow a gasket?”
“Bah.”
Sitting atop a pillar that has somehow survived his frustration—for now—I gaze absently at the expanse of the labyrinth around us. It’s a strange pocket in the Void, both like and unlike the sanctuary Vulgrim has carved out for himself and his guests. This one seems to stretch on forever, and it looks the same in every direction: an endless succession of floating islands, their hexagonal tiles extending vertically to form the walls and pathways of an insanely complicated and, from what we’ve seen so far, completely vacant and pointless maze.
Continue reading Labyrinth
I am here today to divulge, in gratuitous detail, my unexpected obsession with Darksiders. Although I’ve known of this franchise a long while, and even sought out soundtracks and the like in the past, it has only been now, with Darksiders Genesis, that I found myself attracted to the setting and the characters, thanks to the amazing bromance between the protagonists, War and Strife, who can be played together in coop multiplayer.
Warning: spoilers abound.
Continue reading Darksiders, my new obsession