You Choose!

Introduction

A face looked at her. Beyond her. Through and through and yet somehow right at the deepest, most secret parts of herself. The face was not new, though she'd never be able to place it. As if somehow it was the amalgamation of every single one she'd ever seen.

"You have queries." It wasn't a question, but they both had the answer.

She couldn't speak. A twitch in a too-still finger alerted her attention to something she'd been holding. What had she been holding? She could feel it, turn it around in her hand. Something solid, cold, possibly circular. Smooth, cold--so cold. What was it?

"I'll answer them--one on condition," the familiar face spoke again to her. He spoke to her in this room. This black room. On fire. Was it fire? She's cold--too cold. It moved closer to her, enough for her to realize it was entirely disembodied. Features somehow became less focused, less familiar. It's too close.

"Question your gods, little Maleana. Question them, and get your answers. Do not stop until they have satiated your thirst for knowledge; until their tongues bleed gold and silver and they're on their knees, begging for your forgiveness for what they shall reveal."

Her breath would have hitched in her throat, had she had one. She squeezed tight onto her cold, circular thing. So tight, her knuckles threatened to burst the skin pulled taut over them.

"Make yourself known, Formidable One. For it is time the gods once again descend upon the earth."

Power sizzled and burned underneath her fingers--her entire physical being. The high was palpable. By now she could feel the icy-hot breath on her face. Was it her face? Something in her screamed wrong, wrong, wrong.

"And when they do, may their descent be swift and painful. May they weep your name as they fall from grace. May you ignore their cries."

Something about that voice, so sweet and seductive, like a whisper of a breath on her ear. The skin she didn't have but felt every inch of prickled as that voice caressed her.

"May you show no mercy."

Snap.