Ex Nihilo - Abyssal Prophecy

Chapter 5

Still trying to regain his breath, Matthew felt the lift lurch in descent. Coughing and gagging,

Matthew struggled to regain his balance still disoriented. When the doors opened, he saw his sister Nemesis standing there. Her crimson hair and green eyes glistened in the bright lights. She held onto the diminutive Clotho. The light revealed her dull grey, braided hair, and her blind white eyes seemed to stare right at Matthew.

            “Brother, I expected to meet you at the Original Sins.” Nemesis entered the lift with her arm around Clotho. Behind them, Lord Cornelius, Epicure, and the noble Hector in his glistening armour followed.

            “What happened to you, Matthew?” Nemesis asked, inspecting his neck.

            “Quality time with Father.”

            “I will make that sadistic bastard pay for everything he’s done to us, baby brother,” Nemesis assured him.

            “This is the one you spoke of before the meeting, my dear?” Clotho asked in a raspy tone.

            “Yes, this is my baby brother, Matthew, the hero of the Lower Wards,” Nemesis replied.

            Matthew looked at his sister in surprise.

            “What do you mean, hero?”

            “You mean you don’t know?” Cornelius asked.

            Peering over the old woman’s head, Matthew saw both Lord Cornelius and Lord Hector smiling at him. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Lord Hector smile.

            “You might have just got your ass handed to you by your father, but there is no shame in that. Your father is a great warrior, and you’ve played with plants all of your life.” Hector laughed. His entire body shook, causing his long, braided blonde hair to bounce on his shoulders with each movement. “Don’t worry, boy, I see potential in you. Come see me and I’ll train you to be the best warrior you have in you to be.”

            “Ohh, young man, you have a strong energy about you. It crackles and burns with the intensity I have never felt,” Clotho admired. She moved her hand to him while staring into his eyes. Everyone turned to watch this interaction.

 “Ohh, yes. I can feel it in you. Your destiny is guiding you with each insidious step towards great and terrible things.” Clotho turned to Nemesis, her lifeless eyes glittering with wonder. “You must bring him to my daughter and granddaughter tonight, my dear. We shall weave his blood into the tapestry of life to determine what fate has in store. Tonight, we commune with the Furies.”

            Grinding to a halt, the lift doors opened, allowing the lowest ward’s ambiance to flood in. Bright lights shone from the overhead illuminants. Wafting through the air was a strange fragrance of multiple cooking foods, squalor, and smoke. It filled the air in a dim, luminescent haze. Laughter and the sounds of kids echoed in the distance. People turned to wave at the arrivals, and many bowed on seeing the lords returning.

            Invigorated, Clotho strode out of the lift, motioning for the others to follow. With deft precision, she waved and stopped to offer blessings to the people she passed. Matthew had never spent much time down in the Lower Wards due to the laws. His father had made it so that no one under the age of the majority could go to the Lower Wards. He spent a moment admiring it. Makeshift walkways spanned a maze of old cargo holds that had been stripped and repurposed. Houses were made of various metals, old cargo containers, and scraps of wood. It was hard to breathe down here and his lungs burned, yet he couldn’t contain his excitement on seeing the size his trees had grown. He hoped the oxygen they produced would soon solve some of the problems.

People whispered, pointed, and cheered.

Nemesis giggled on seeing her brother so enamoured. By her father’s laws, she had been unable to invite him down, but now Matthew was being hailed as a hero, and he didn’t even notice it. Nemesis couldn’t help but think how fitting that was for her baby brother. She smiled, remembering his dedication to his learning, plants, and his recreation of the ancients books. Picking up the pace, she walked behind him and rubbed his messy hair with one hand.

“Hey, dork, they’re cheering for you,” she informed him, pointing at the crowd.

Startled, Matthew turned to look at his sister, and the crowd’s cheers washed over him.

“They're cheering for me?”

“You did charge in there and get that hull breach sealed. They’ve all seen it played on the feed for the last hour.” Nemesis pointed up at a projected image in the sky.

 “You’re a hero because you did what so many others didn’t, and you were so courageous.” Nemesis looked at her little brother with pride. “Seeing your bravery made me forget for a moment how deeply you feel. I guess that’s what a few years of not being able to see each other will do.”

“It’s okay. I just failed her,” Matthew stated, referring to the girl. His voice trembled but refused to allow anyone to see a tear.

Clotho led the group around the corner. He saw a large opening in the group, and, in the center, the Original Sins sign flickered on the large, three-hundred-foot-tall building.

Out front, a large gathering of people filled the air with shouts, cheers, and commotion. Walking through the crowd, Matthew noticed two men fighting one another. Blood soaked the combatant’s clothes. Splattered across the deck plate were crimson drops and pools. Matthew couldn’t be sure these two people weren’t trying to kill one another.

“We don’t judge, Matthew.” Nemesis could see the violence disturbed her little brother. “Hector, stay here and make sure the laws are followed and obeyed.”

“Agreed,” Hector bellowed and broke off from the group.

Looking back, Nemesis could see Lord Cornelius pouting. With a motion of her hand, she sent him off with a smile to join his friends and Lord Hector.

“How can you tolerate this?” Matthew asked.

 “As long as the laws are obeyed, we are not to judge them. Down here, life is hard, and sometimes this is the best solution,” Clotho rasped. “Sometimes death isn’t just a mercy. Sometimes, it is a gift.”

 “Life is much more complicated than you think, baby brother,” Nemesis whispered.

Entering the Original Sins, the soft melody of instruments rushed over the group. The fragrance of alcohol, smoke, and the visceral smell of s*x assaulted their sense. The building opened into a grand balcony overlooking a central dance floor where musicians played on stage.

It enthralled Matthew, and he came to stop. Watching the crowd below, he could see a throng of people lost in the moment.

Swaying to the music, many of the people below were naked, lost in the eyes of a lover cling to them. Others were fully clothed and by themselves, dancing in the moment. People in nearby booths were in various states of inebriation and illicit entwine. Reading about ancient cultures on Earth had ensured Matthew had heard of Roman orgies, but he never expected to witness one.

“Is this a bar, a party, or an orgy?” he asked.

With a laugh, Nemesis tugged on her brother to follow Clotho. “It’s the Original Sins.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Life is short down here. Most of these people don’t expect to survive tomorrow. So they live for today,” Nemesis explained. “They drink when they want to, they smoke when they want to, and they f**k when they want to. Who am I to ask them to stop?”

“Umm, their leader?” Matthew responded. “Maybe if they weren’t drunk, high, or having s*x, they could work to make it better down here.” Matthew followed his sister towards Clotho. He could smell the drugs wafting through the Original Sins.

Three of them climbed up a long stairwell. Arriving at a door, the scanner emitted its soft blue glow over the old woman’s body, and, with a click, the door slid open.

Matthew gasped. Hanging on the walls in the circular room were tapestries. Each tapestry depicted a different picture, but each was woven with remarkable detail and in vibrant colours. Mathew knew this was the history of the ship since the end of the Great War. Everything he had read on the history of the Alcatraz from the database was now on display before his eyes. He felt the weight of history wash over him.

“I see you know the meaning of my family's work,” Clotho rasped. “Please meet my daughter, Lachesis.”

Matthew smiled at the beautiful woman who looked to be in her twenties, her long black hair glimmering from nearby candlelight. Time slowed for Matthew, and he was lost in admiration of her radiant olive skin, plump lips, and dark eyes that seemed to glisten with a swirl of colours.

 “Now, that’s my daughter, so don’t go getting any urges,” Clotho teased. “And this is my granddaughter, Atropos. She prefers Aisa. Don’t you, little one?”

Atropos grey eyes pierced. Taking a step back, Matthew couldn’t hide his fear at her blank expression. A hand grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn. Nemesis steadied him. Turning back, he saw Atropos had gone back to her weaving on a loom.

“You should feel fear, Matthew. My granddaughter is not one to upset, and perhaps even smarter than I am.” Clotho took a seat behind her loom. “We are the Moirae family, and tonight we are gathered to invoke the Furies to discern fate’s design. Tonight, we weave what fate ensures.” Clotho looked at Nemesis and motioned for her to get an ornate, black-bladed knife sitting on a nearby table.

Matthew had never seen anything quite like it, and it was clear to him it was ancient. Nemesis picked up the knife and motioned her brother to follow her. Walking to a large basket, Matthew saw it was filled with pristine alabaster linen.

“Please give me your hand, Matthew,” Nemesis insisted.

He hesitated.

“What do you want my hand for?”

“This ritual requires your blood,” Nemesis stated.

Matthew's lips curled with disgust.

“The Lord Christ abhors pagan blood rituals.”

In unison, the Moirae family burst into laughter. Turning to watch the cackling women, Matthew hesitated. Taking advantage of the moment, Nemesis grabbed her brother’s hand, forced it open, and drew the knife across the palm with force. Matthew tried to recoil from the pain but  she forced his hand shut, and, wrapping both hands around his fist, squeezed.

“Fate existed before God and will exist after God. You break no divine laws tonight, child,” Clotho announced. “Fate moves as God directs it. This is just a secret divined from the shadows that allow us mortals to better see God’s glory.”

“That’s blasphemy.” But Matthew’s meek voice revealed his doubts.

Blood poured from his wound and into the basket. When Matthew was almost at the point of fainting, the last drop fell into the basket. His sister caught him and helped him to a nearby chair. He could hear the sound of chanting from the Moirae family, and time seemed to blur. Nemesis opened his hand and bandaged it.

Vivid images flashed in his mind. Nemesis wrapped her arms around him, trying to calm him. She held him like that for hours as they watched the Moirae family weave the fabric together into a tapestry.

The daughter and granddaughter held up a two-foot-squared tapestry. Focusing, he made out a large crimson skull with red lines shooting to the edges of the cloth. Nemesis released her brother and offer him a hand to stand up. He took it; he was still was a little shaky.

“We saw what you saw, young Matthew. You are destined for great and terrible things. Know that we weep for you. You are the skull at the end of every life’s journey, but you are also the radiant light. You shall never be captain, king, or emperor, but you shall be a god amongst all who live. Already, the great shadow wraps around you, trying to smother your flame. You must resist or else blood shall flow in great rivers. You were born into darkness, but you shall be the light. Death shall follow regardless of your choices, and you will lead us to damnation or salvation,” Clotho prophesized.