Eternity Alone

Rose Thorn floated happily in the Void. Her astral form, a sliver of light in the silent, chilly darkness. It was pure bliss to her. The Gods had intended for it to be her prison, her punishment for her crimes against humanity, the beloved pets of the Gods. They had taken offense to her disposing of almost half of the entire population of those parasites. They should be eliminated in their entirety. Her thought echoed through the emptiness of the Void. A smug smile pulled across her face. Yes, there was no empathy for those terrible creatures within her. The Gods thought to punish her with this excommunication, however she found only solace here. Her fingers danced through the air in excitement as she recalled the day she had begun their extermination. A joyful giggle escaped her lips. She twisted around and spun through the air, happiness coursing through her as her mind traveled back to that day. Oh, that wonderful day! ... She was levitating high above one of the biggest human settlements. The sky had been darkened by the storm that she had brewed. Giant dark wall clouds filled the sky as far as could be seen from where she floated. Lightning was striking the Earth for thousands of miles around her, thunder booming through the air. Her eyes were shining with contemplation of how she was going to exterminate them all. The Gods were unaware of her intentions, she had made sure of that. Unimpeded by the blasphemous Gods, Rose began to whip up tornados and set them loose upon the unsuspecting varmint. The screams began as houses and skyscrapers were ripped from the ground. Earthquakes began to rumble and the ground started to make waves. Cars were being tossed like toys across the landscape. Windows shattering and glass being blown into crowds of the pests. Giddiness filled Rose. She could feel each of the lives being eliminated. They deserve this. They are a cancer upon this beautiful planet. Destruction is all that they bring. Rose had already sent all of the animals away, shielding the ones left, from her wrath. She would heal the earth when she was finished. Fires began to tear across the land and the screams intensified. It only brought her more joy. I will never understand why the Gods favor these disgusting things. So pitiful and weak. Greedy and nasty and horrendous. She intertwined the flames and the tornadoes and blasted them harder, laying waste to everything in their paths. Nothing but ash would be left of them when she was finished. ... Abruptly, her thoughts were dragged back to her present condition in the Void. Alert now, she felt a tug upon her being, as if someone was trying to summon her. No, leave me be! Her thought resonated forcefully throughout her prison. The tug stopped. Her body began to relax again and she dreamily returned to her blissful memories of that day. ... It had only taken her 30 minutes to burn, blow and shake those parasites to bits. The screams had finally stopped and the earth settled to silence. I will finish this, once I am done healing that which belongs here. Rose set to work on healing the Earth and releasing the critters from the safety of her protective magic. Life began to filter back out. The earth began to blossom beneath her tender touch. All the love that she had for this floating rock filtered into the new growth that was sprouting. Sounds of life floated through the air and peace filled Rose. Yes, this is what it should be. Her form floated down to the ground and she was greeted by the wildlife. ... Her thoughts were ripped, once again, away from the bliss of that moment and into Void. The feeling was no longer a tug, it had become a yank. Her astral form started to quiver as the strength of the yank grew. Crack! Suddenly, everything around her changed and the weight of her physical body pulled her to the ground. Pain filled her every pore and she found herself chained on her knees in front of the Gods. Her body was covered scantily by the clothes that she had been imprisoned in. A quick look around proved to her that she had been summoned to their throne room. The room appeared as a colosseum of white marble and light that emitted from seemingly nowhere. She was at the center of it all surrounded by masses of the Gods, all dressed in robes of varying colors. In front of her, sitting on a massive throne, was a very large man with piercing purple eyes. Beside him sat a woman, on a matching throne, her hair black and flowing down her shoulders to her waist. Her blue eyes looking intently at Rose. Rose sneered and focused her attention on the man in front of her. "I should have known it would be you summoning me." The words dripped with venom as she laid eyes upon her father and his congregation of other Gods. "Put me back, I have yet to learn my lesson, Father." ... Harmón looked upon his daughter with sadness. What had she become? Why did she feel such hatred and anger towards the Humans? He shook the thought from his mind. There was work to be done. He would bring his sweet beautiful daughter back. "No," his voice boomed through the room. "it has been decided that your punishment has had quite the opposite effect we intended." All eyes were on her. "We have a much more appropriate punishment in mind for you. You have enjoyed your time in the Void more than we ever could have imagined." Rose could feel the anticipation building between the Gods. What are they planning? The tension in the air was palpable. What could they possibly think would be a better punishment for her? The room was silent and all eyes were on her and her father. "I enjoyed my exile too much, have I?" Rose spoke, her volume barely above a whisper. "Perhaps your pride has been hurt by my lack of begging and pleading to be among you, so now you think to punish me by bringing me back amongst you?" Sarcasm filled her words. An ironic laugh escaped her. "You would be right, of course. I cannot think of a more terrible way to spend my time." A look of guilt and hurt passed quickly across Harmón's face. Though, as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared. "No, my daughter." he spoke with hesitation. He hoped he was making the right choice, in regards to Rose. Truly, it could go either way and it was a potentially dangerous decision. "The council has decided on a much different course of action, for you my dear." Harmón stood and turned to his fellow Gods and spoke with authority, "As determined, by the council, Rose shall be removed from the void." whispers spread around the room. "Do you think they will torture her?" "Is that a good idea? What if she attempts to finish what she started?" A smirk split Roses face. They will regret this. Her mind began to race thinking of all of the ways she could finish the job. Harmón continued, "She will then be placed in the custody of Bron, and stripped of all of her Godly powers." The crowd gasped and more mumbles erupted. "Stripped of her powers?" "It's unheard of, among Gods!" "A fate worse than death!" Rose's thoughts halted. She was stunned, for a moment, by the words that had just spread from her father's mouth. No God had ever been stripped of their powers. It was unheard of and thought to be impossible. Though it had never been attempted before in the history of existence. "You can't be serious, Father!" A cry of outrage slipped from her lips. "That is impossible! It has never even been tried! Do you think to experiment upon me?" Her face contorted with rage. The audacity of the council! " How dare you..." Harmón interrupted her, raising his hand for silence. The room fell still in anticipation of what was to come next. "Until the ceremony to strip her powers can be performed, the council has agreed to keep holding Rose in the Void." He turned back to his daughter and his face was filled with sympathy. "So it has been decreed by the council of the Gods." ... Rose was burning with animosity as her physical form vaporized and her astral form was sucked back into the Void. He hadn't even given her a moment to speak before her sudden ejection from the throne room. How dare that man! How dare those incompetent fools! Even with my powers stripped, I will find a way to finish my extermination. Her furious thought echoed loudly through the abyss. ... Harmón stood staring where his daughter had been standing only moments before. He was torn by the council's decision to remove her powers. It was truly dangerous, the outcome of such a ceremony was unknown to all of the Gods. Everything was possible, but it had been determined to be a reasonable risk. Harmón could not abandon his only child to the Void for the rest of eternity, regardless of how much she seemed to be enjoying it. Certainly it was not possible that she would want to spend eternity alone. How could any God wish to exist like that? Harmón returned his attention back to the gathering of Gods. "My brother, Jargon, will take over from here and explain the details." Harmón put his hand out towards a large man clothed in a deep blue robe. Jargon, located only meters away from Harmón, bowed slightly and approached the throne. "Good evening Gods, and Goddesses," Jargon began with his speech, His deep voice easily filling the room. He looked at the surrounding Gods intently with his fiery golden eyes. "It is enormously important that no one," He paused and glanced at Harmón and the woman beside him "interact with the prisoner." Jargon continued his speech but his voice had turned to static in Harmón's ears. His mind was drifting back to the day that he had sent his daughter into the Void. He had been certain that she would learn her lesson quickly and emerge with a new found love for the Humans. It had pained his heart to call forth the Void to engulf her on that day. That terrible day. He had been attending one of the many parties that the Gods would hold regularly, in the throne room, when he began to feel millions of Human lives ending on Earth. ... Harmón was chatting with Jargon when the painful feeling hit. He grabbed his chest and pitched forward. Every God in attendance was similarly physically affected at the same time. Gasps chorused around the room. All the Gods began to frantically look around. "What is the meaning of this?" A God in a turquoise robe choked out through the sudden paralyzing feeling. "Harmón, what is h-happening?" Another of the attendees stuttered out. Harmón looked around in bewilderment. Last he had heard, all of the Humans were being peaceful towards each other. What group could possibly be responsible for this sudden increase in Human deaths? "I don't know, but I will find out! Jargon, call the warriors to the Looking room, I will meet you there!" Harmón ordered his brother and then proceeded to rush out of the throne room. He exited into the great hall, which was beautifully decorated with black Granite floors and soft grey stone walls. Many portraits of the Gods were thoughtfully placed on the walls, in honor of the ones that fought great battles. Harmón did not have time to admire his wife's superior ability to make anything look wonderful. He strode swiftly through the hall and to the door of the Looking room. It was a very ethereal door that appeared to be a shimmery mist on the wall. Raising his arm into the air and cutting down with his hand, the mist evaporated and exposed a large round empty stone room. The ceiling reached up into what looked to be a stormy sky. Lightning flashed across the ceiling and thunder rumbled. Never had Harmón ever seen the Looking Room as dark and ominous as he was experiencing it now. This does not bode well. His thoughts filled with anxiety. What could be happening? He strode swiftly to the center of the room. The door disappeared and the walls shifted to a grey mist, that appeared to go on forever. Harmón focused his thoughts onto the Human world and summoned forth an image unto the mist. It was as if he had been transported, now hovering over what had once been a great city. Smoke billowed into the air as fires tore across the landscape, appearing as burning clones reaching down from a dark, stormy sky. Screams and cries were echoing through the air, reaching Harmón from miles away. Everything had a bloody red tint to it. He grasped his chest as the pain tore through him. Hundreds of thousands of Human lives were being extinguished at that very moment. He quickly shifted to the next place, this time appearing to hover over what had once been a popular seaside tourist attraction. Now, all there was to be seen, was ocean and floating debris. The massive storm was here too, cyclones and monstrous waves ripped across the surface. There was no life to be seen anywhere, just remnants of what used to be, only minutes before. Once again, the image changed. Lava was everywhere, a volcano shooting it high into the sky. It gushed out of every crevass in the land reaching out for miles. Heat radiated from all around. Nothing was left here either. He flipped through the images quickly, each more horrifying than the last. What is happening? Suddenly, the room reappeared around him and the images were gone. Jargon and his warriors filed into the room. They all looked very perplexed at the state of the Looking Room. "What is going on?!" Jargon demanded from his brother. His fiery golden eyes settled on Harmón, after taking in the stormy ceiling. "Have the Humans started battle?" "No. It is much worse." A sense of forboding filled the room as Harmón's voice was backed by the thunder rumbling in the ceiling. "It is as if the Earth itself, has turned against them." The door to the room disappeared again the mist surrounded them all. Harmón called forth an image of destruction and each of the Gods looked horrified at what they saw. Cutting the image off, Harmón didn't know what to do. He began to pace back and forth, his chin in his hand. "Enough of this," Jargon stepped into his brothers path. Harmón, jerked from his thoughts, stopped and met his brothers piercing gaze. A sudden burst of pain hit all of the Gods at once. More human lives were ending. "What do we do!?" He growled. Harmón looked perplexed for a moment. He wasn't sure. It couldn't be possible that the Earth would turn against the Humans. His eyes lit with a thought. "Something, or someone has to be behind this." He stepped quickly back to the center of the room, his thoughts now racing. Who could be capable of this? He began to search for any magical anomaly's in the Human world but after a few minutes of nothing, he determined that it was not a thing. Instead, it must be a who. "We must find out who is doing this." He said, determined to find the culprit. Jargon spoke up, "They would have to be close enough to the Human world to affect it in such a way. I would say to look for the center of the destruction and search out from there." ... "Are we all clear on the ceremony and sentencing of the Goddess, Rose Thorn?" Jargon's voice interrupted Harmón's thoughts of that terrible day and brought him back into the present. His eyes darted around the throne room to see if anyone had noticed his absent mindedness. The gathering of Gods were all very intent on Jargon's speech and it appeared that no one had noticed. the crowd acknowledged that they understood what was to happen at the ceremony and the sentencing thereafter. "Very good." Jargon looked around the room meeting the eyes of the other Gods. "I am calling this meeting to an end. We will gather again on the day of the ceremony." He said with finality. The Gods each began to disappear from the room, evaporating into thin air. Harmón was certain that this was the right call. He desperately needed to save his daughter and could see no other way to change her. He sighed, his heart heavy knowing that his daughter might very well end up suffering instead of being saved. ... Rose was no longer floating happily in the Void. Instead, she was filled with agitation. He already interrupted my sanitation of the Earth, now he intends to strip me of my power?