Sibling Gods

Chapter 1

Moryn sat with his back against a cliff, eyes closed, listening to the cacophony coming from the valley below. Except for a small entrance carved through the black rocks, the valley was surrounded by the tall, inhospitable mountains. That, coupled with the fact that the entrance to the valley was protected by a garrison from the small, isolated village, made it rather easy. With such a well-protected location, it was simple to convince them that he arrived through supernatural means when he showed up in the middle of the village without having gone through the gate. No one had ever been able to climb up the sheer cliffs, let alone get back down alive. And yet, there he was, clear as day, in their town square. They had believed his story immediately.

He chuckled to himself as he heard the sound of a raging fire. Once they believed he was a messenger from their god, it was child’s play to convince them that their own priests were wrong and were leading them astray. After all, he had the proof of his entrance. A few devout believers challenged him, saying that the priests had been handed the doctrine by the god himself. One or two beginner’s magic tricks were all it took to convince them beyond a doubt. Once he was sure they believed, he vanished into thin air. Well, he really simply went invisible, but it was enough to convince them. The village people, on the order of their leader, went to the church and seized the priests. They tied them to stakes and burned them in fires fueled by the scriptures they had preached. Now, he knew, they had set the church on fire. The backwoods peoples always wanted to show their dedication to their gods in the most extreme ways; they could come up with punishments and chaos just as fast as Moryn’s servants. That’s why they were so much fun to play with.

As a mischievous wind rustled his feathers, he sat up to watch the next part. It was always his favorite part when they realized they had done something idiotic and futilely fought against total ruin. The wind picked up as it came down from the mountains and picked up embers from the burning church, alighting on the roofs of the village houses. It hadn’t rained in weeks, and the dry buildings burst into an uncontrollable flame in mere moments. The wind continued to to carry the fire through the little town, devouring buildings and the people caught inside, sparing not even the crops or animals. The town had doomed itself the moment they listened to Moryn’s words. True as it might be that his entrance was supernatural, he was not a messenger of their god. He had many names given to him by the human race: Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, Angel of Darkness, Azazel, Beelzebub, Iblis, Mephistopholes, Voland. None of them were exactly accurate to what he really was, but he enjoyed them all. Especially as he heard them curse his name now, realizing what had really happened. He wondered how many of them would land themselves in his domain, and how many would go to his sister.

As if the thought were a summons, Liara appeared next to him; she seemed rather upset.  He supposed it made sense, seeing as the village was one of her favorites, all pious and righteous. Those were always his favorite targets.

“Moryn!” To say she was angry was an understatement, perhaps of this iteration of the universe. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides as she stalked up to her brother, her whole body tense. And she was supposed to be the calm and forgiving one. “What did you just do?!”

“I only talked to them for a while. Am I not allowed to talk to the creations anymore? I thought that was part of my purpose.” Moryn loved making his sister angry; he always wondered how much it would take to get her to lose control. He continued watching as the valley burned, enjoying the tortured screams of the pitifully malleable creatures inside. It probably didn’t help that he had had his second-in-command seal the entrance with a cave-in and even those that escaped from the houses had nowhere to go now. Of course, Liara knew that too, and that wouldn’t make her mood any better.

“You know exactly what you did! You slaughtered an entire village of innocent people!” Liara paused, distracted by the screaming. Even though she could put out the fire or unseal the front entrance, at this point, it wouldn’t help anything. Only death would help those people, and her brother wasn’t likely to mercy-kill any of them; he enjoyed death and pain. Life was her domain, death was his. She wasn’t going to break any of the rules, even though she wished she could save those people. She merely silently wished them all a quick entrance into her Afterlife. Thinking of his sadistic tendencies only made Liara angrier; this wasn’t the first village he had murdered, and she knew it would not be the last. As the guardian of creation, the ruler of all that was good, bastion of mercy and compassion, she could not stand Moryn’s cavalier way with life. “Look at me when I’m talking to you!” She hadn’t quite meant to scream, but she wasn’t about to take it back.

Moryn stood, lazily bringing himself up off the ground, dusting off his loose black clothing. It wasn’t required that he wear black and Liara wore white, but they tended to anyway. Moryn was never quite in the mood for bright colors, and black seemed to suit him best. It made it simple enough to blend in without having to use any power, especially when it made his wings simply look like a black cloak. He turned and looked at Liara, bunched up like a cat ready to spring, and stretched, yawning. Although neither he nor Liara had a strictly “natural” form, they picked a shape they liked and wore it most of the time, mainly a humanoid form. Moryn liked to be a little taller than the average human could get, somewhere over 6 feet, he never paid any close attention to the inches. Too small of a detail to dedicate any attention to it. Slightly muscular, though not bulky, slender, but not skinny, shaggy black hair that hung over into his black eyes, and the wings that made humans assume he was a former angel. He finished his stretch, amused at Liara’s composure that kept her from launching herself at him, and simply looked at her with a questioning glance. When she still didn’t speak, he asked, unable to keep the enjoyment out of his voice, “Yes?”

Liara simply turned and walked away, her white dress billowing out behind her. Although she was closer to what the humans assumed an angel looked like, Moryn thought she looked a bit more like a ghost with her white wings and flowy dresses that lingered for a moment before following after. He had apparently hit all the buttons he meant to, as she wouldn’t walk away from him unless she was trying to keep herself under control. It was always fun, provoking Liara. When she was angry, her long, dark hair had a tendency to blow around her in a nonexistent wind, and she never seemed to notice. He always wanted to get her annoyed in a forest to see if he could get her caught in a tree. He laughed aloud at the picture in his mind.

With that, Liara spun around again and started yelling at him. Of course, that just made him laugh harder. She was shouting things about damnation and what is life worth to you, anyway and how could you ever find suffering entertaining and why would you do this to me, blah blah blah. It was the same stuff she said every time. He could probably recite her speech back to her. In fact, he had done so before, which led to her getting even more up in a huff. “What the point of having you, anyway?! Everything would be so much better off if you just didn’t exist!” Well, that one was new.

Moryn stopped laughing, and leveled his gaze at Liara. “What was that?”

It always unnerved Liara when Moryn got quiet and serious, but she was so angry right now that she did stop. “You heard what I said! All you are is pain and suffering and everything would be so much happier and better without you here!” Her light blue eyes looked everywhere but at Moryn’s black glare. Which is why she was taken by surprise when cupped under her chin and tilted her head towards his, forcefully. Although they were equal in power, there were certain things that they were both predisposed for, and none of what Liara was good at would help her in this situation.

“I’m the worthless one?” Moryn’s voice was quiet and level, but Liara could hear the contempt underneath, his face only inches away from hers. He had to bend down to put their faces so close, and it made Liara feel so small. “You’re the one who continually creates these disgusting and pathetic things with such short lifespans. You give them the choice to decide to be good or bad, to be powerful or meek, to kill or enhance.” He leaned forward again, at last moving his gaze from her eyes, and whispered into her ear now, “If you didn’t want them to die, you shouldn’t have given them life in the first place.”

“How about a bet, then?” Liara didn’t know where the words had come from, but she was glad she had found them. Bets weren’t a new thing between the two of them; when you live through eternities, things can get boring. Moryn backed away slightly, glaring directly at her again, eyes flashing dangerously.

“What do you propose?” His voice was cold and grating. How dare she insinuate that he was worthless! He was still enraged, though he kept his outward appearance calm.

Liara shuddered inwardly; his cold anger had always been one of the most terrifying things about her brother. She kept her voice strong, however, and said, “We’ll see who’s more powerful, or at least more effective in using their skills, to determine which of us is the more important of the two. Adlai will judge and keep the competition fair.”

Moryn stepped back, dropping his hand from his sister’s face. He watched her visibly relax, and smiled darkly. “What are your stakes, or do you wish to keep those to yourself until we reach Adlai’s presence?”

Now that Moryn had moved away, Liara’s confidence was coming back in droves, spurned by her ire at what he had done to the still-burning village below. “There’s no need to repeat myself. We’ll go to Adlai now and there you’ll hear the stakes.”

“As you wish.” With that, Moryn took off into the sky, flapping his wings. Liara looked down that the ruins of the town and assured herself that she was doing the right thing, her outrage rising again. Someone who butchered hundreds of people at once didn’t deserve her compassion and mercy, especially when he was her eternal partner. She didn’t care if it did happen to be for what he was created. She was going to have to show him that she wouldn’t back down and that she, the vitality and good portion of the pair was the more important. Instead of flying after him, Liara simply went straight to Adlai’s room at the top of the staircase between worlds. Moryn would be there shortly, undoubtedly flying because he couldn’t stand her presence at the moment.

Reviews

[Jonathan J Sharp]

Epic writing! I love the depth of characterization and the motivations behind each are clear.
And the play between the brother/ sister dynamic is lively here. An inspiring imagination~

[seanhoag]

i noticed a few spelling/grammar mistakes, but that's normal in writing, especially in rough drafts. I liked the chapter, though. It kept my attention and I liked the kind of brother/sister fighting portion. It's very relatable in that way. I also really liked that you left the chapter hanging, letting the readers make guesses as to what's going to come next. "What's the wager going to be?" "What are the stakes?" What sinister things is Moryn going to do to win?" and "How on earth will Liara prove her worth?"

All-in-all very interesting and I look forward to reading more.

[Annabelle]

Great writing! I'm intrigued with the story line and the characters. Seems like this could be a great adventure!