The Hate of Light and The Love of Dark

“I want this more than anything. I have pledged my life to the goddess Amianya, to your service, and this is all I want for that service. I have been loyal, never betrayed you, and I never will. This is truly what I desire, he is what my soul needs and where my heart is,” Azana said as she was on her knees. She was also hands down on the floor with her face nearly touching it as she requested a most dangerous thing.

“Your service to my mother and your faith in her were never questioned. To her, you are a daughter in faith,” said a very deep voice. Azana stayed as she was. She heard a rumble above her. Behind Azana was a huge dragon that filled the massive stone hall. It was black in color with red eyes, and its head was tipped down, looking at the small form on the floor, speaking to this dragon’s master. Her master in this world, and his snout was low enough that the tip nearly touched her back. A good number of black horns and spikes pointed back off the head of this dragon.

“What you are asking Azana, would mean you forsake your humanity, your body, and would transform your soul. You will not reincarnate into other lives, you will live this one with him, tied to me for eternity. If you die before you find your Kymare your soul will be extinguished forever. Do you know what that would do to him or me? You ask a dangerous thing,” said the deep voice.

Walking toward her, down the stairs from the throne, which was up them, was a strong, powerfully built man. He had no shirt, just loose pants, and around him was this shimmer of black for a second. Like smoke or a haze. He slowly came toward Azana as she kept herself low on the floor. Her black hair was spread out a bit and covered her vision of his approach. The man came closer, watching her, a tip to his head, but he was no man.

He had two serrated horns that curved slightly off his head, pointing back for the most part. His features were very strikingly handsome, as was the perfection of his body. Currently, he had what looked like claws instead of nails on his hands, and they were black as well. His eyes were a deep blue with flecks of purple in them.

“I know what I asked dangerous. I know what I ask is something that affects you deeply, my Lord, but it is also the only way you will find your eternal match. I am his, and I am willing to risk my soul for this. If we find her, then there is no fear of our souls being extinguished,” Azana said.

“If I give you this, you will be infertile until your Kymare is found. You will be half a being Azana. I do not care about much, but I do care about you,” he said, glancing up at the large dragon that was still looking at the woman on the floor. The red gaze of the dragon seemed only to see her in that moment.

“Thank you Lord Zephyr. That means a great deal, and if I can be so bold, if you feel that way I think that is the answer for why Tavyr and I have come before you this day,” Azana said, and she was shaking a little as she saw his feet in her vision now. She was asking a very dark deity to transform her and her soul. He could be as giving as he could be cold. Zephyr was a dangerous being.

“Is this what you want Tavyr? Are you willing to risk our souls, our chance of reincarnation, should she never find her Kymare if another attempts to take her life? I am not all-knowing and all-powerful. Right now, she can die and be reincarnated for us to find again, even if it takes time. She has the gift of mortals,” Zephyr said, looking up to meet the red gaze of his Kymare. Tavyr moved and placed his massive clawed hands on either side of Azana and where she bowed.

The dragon Tavyr lowered himself down and lay. His head came over the top of Azana. She was barely visible between the dragon’s clawed hands and massive head, now protectively over her. A slow breath came out of the dragon. Tavyr could not talk, he was not a being with language, but he could communicate and was as intelligent as any species.

He mentally showed Zephyr that he wished for this and did not wish to have to find her again. They were not guaranteed to find her again if they let her live her life out. If Tavyr had to search for her again, watch her mortal body wither away and die, it would be worse than having to protect her fiercely for any that may wish to harm her.

“I see,” Zephyr said. “Then how can I deny the way of our pantheon? I would rather die of pure intent to our souls than sell it for something less.”

“As would we, my Lord,” Azana said. Zephyr made a motion with his hand, and Tavyr’s head immediately lifted up so that he could look at Azana.

“Sit up, Azana. Look me in the eyes as you choose a path that may end in tragedy for us,” Zephyr said.

“Or it could just be a beginning,” Azana said, looking at him. Her dark eyes met his unique ones. Zephyr reached and took hold of her chin and tipped her head back until she was looking up at Tavyr’s snout. It was quite close to her.

“Accept his claim, then Azana. If you want this, take his offering,” Zephyr said, and Azana felt a sharp desire hit her. Both for this and the dragon above her, who was her soul mate. She opened her mouth and relaxed, closing her eyes.

Tavyr opened his mouth, and out of it a thin glowing stream of aqua came and dropped down into Azana’s mouth and down her throat. She did not move, she accepted it eagerly, knowing this choice was irreversible. However, she did not want to change her fate nor wait to find him again. As the last bit of the aqua stream slid down into her mouth and disappeared, Azana shivered. Tavyr backed up, and so did Zephyr.

A second later, Azana lurched forward on her palms, hitting the ground. Black claws on her hands tore into the stone, and you could hear the crack of bone as her body began to change. Azana would never be human again, she would be a dragon form like her eternal mate. A cry came out of her mouth, and it started to get more animalistic as time went. Her limbs elongated and her body shifted from skin to scales.

Zephyr looked up at Tavyr, who was very tense watching Azana change. She had doubled in size, and a roar came out of her mouth as she appeared nearly completely dragon, but her transformation was not done.

“I will leave her in your care,” Zephyr said, turning and moving back up the stairs toward the throne, but he did not stop to sit in it. He heard another roar and then silver fire racing across the room. Zephyr didn’t turn back to look, leaving the one dragon to stay with his eternal mate. Azana made her choice, and as a god, Zephyr had other things to attend to. However, he clenched his jaw.

If she did not survive the transformation, he knew Tavyr would go on a rampage, and he would not stop him. If something happened to her after by another’s hand before she secured her ability to be reborn, well Zephyr would help Tavyr sacrifice this world to the darkness. What was the point if, after your eternal match was no more, to continue? He would not be a lesser god and pair with the weak. If he had to he’d leave this world to it’s own destruction and travel else where.

__Heidi__

“No, Zephyr is psycho and an insane character. He literally destroyed the entire world because the Saintess refused him and chose the god of light,” Becca said, shaking her head. Heidi was at her weekly book club meeting. They had just finished a book called The Hate of Light and the Love of Dark.

“See I don’t think that’s why he did it at all. The entire first chapter is about him gifting Azana. Making her the companion to his Kymare. He went psycho because Tavyr went psycho at her death. It was the one who caught her to sacrifice her for the Saintess’ arrival that got most of them killed and those of light gods had to flee to another realm. Zephyr asked the Saintess to refuse the sacrifice as he could not cross the divide,” Heidi said, feeling rather strongly about that.

“I kind of agree with Heidi on that one, but Zephyr was not a good character either way. He did not have to call on his Parthenon to give him the power to sacrifice the world. That was a bit much,” Mary said.

Heidi wasn’t so sure about that, she kind of got the vibe from the book it was about Azana’s destruction that mattered most. Zephyr didn’t love things much, and one of two items he did had been destroyed. As they talked Heidi felt like the others had been reading a different version than hers.

“Just saying it wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t killed Azana,” Heidi said. She felt very bad for that character. She’d change the very being she was to be with her soulmate even if he was a dragon familiar attached to a god. To her, that part was more romantic than the Saintess and the strange love triangle in the book. Of course, she ended up with the demigod guy of the light Parthenon.

“Whatever, she praised the darkness and worshiped a dark goddess. Azana got what she deserved. I want to talk about how hot the storyline was with the Saintess and the demigod. So good,” Becca said.

“Yeah, I loved the push and pull dynamic. Especially after he got rid of that awful character Hydrangea, awful. She was a bitch, and the way she treated everyone, so happy when she got hers,” Amanda said. Heidi did laugh a little at that. She agreed about that character. She had been all about dark magic and had been used a bit by the other characters. No one really had remorse for her death.

Heidi talked with the group for a bit just thinking about this story they had all read over the past week. You know, she just didn’t get the same vibe from it that everyone else seemed to get. Even when Hydrangea had gotten her just deserts by being killed off in a rather nasty way, it all just felt like chaos. One bad decision after another for the characters.

There was a happy ever after, and the story was very much one of those sweet Saintess shows up and manages to help save the most important characters. However she does not choose to listen to Zephyr demand to let Azana go. The Saintess sees the dragon as an evil creature that will kill and destroy, so she allows the sacrifice. Which that really kicks everything off to destroy their world.

Heidi just could not for the life of her get over that one choice. That one dynamic seemed like so many awful things happened because of it. After the first couple chapters they really didn’t get much explanation about the dark god side. What their beliefs were and how it effected things. Nor even what happened to Zephyr and Tavyr at the end. Seemed like they were left to rule a cold, lifeless world.

“Okay, I’ll let you guys know which one I pick next for us to read and chat about,” Becca said and they all agreed to that. Heidi grabbed her bag and, after a quick chat left to go to the bus stop.

She looked at the book in her hand and sighed putting it in her bag as she waited. Man what would it be like to live in a world where people had powers? Where gods and monsters existed? Someone could be born with such wonderful gifts like a Saintess, or was favored by beings far beyond anything she could comprehend.

Heidi got on the bus when it stopped and found a seat. She was sitting there lost in thought and pulled out the book again. She just could not stop thinking about it, thinking about the characters who got such an unfair end.

She cracked the book open to the first chapter to read that part again, finding that entire part about Azana and how she came to know Tavyr was her eternal mate came about. It just stuck with her, Azana human or dragon had been dealt a shit hand.

Heidi was halfway through the second chapter when she felt the bus lurch. She and several others looked around, and then they were struck broadside by another large vehicle going full speed.

It all happened so fast that Heidi couldn’t tell you what happened at all. For a second she felt a hard cold grip inside her chest like a fist. All she could hear was shattering glass, a scream, metal twisting, pain in her body as it was flung around, what she thought was a dark whisper in her head to wait and then silence. Pure disturbing silence that she could only associate with death.