17 Stagnant Waters

"We enter again."

"Yes."

"How many is this now?"

"Why do you care to keep count?"

"So I know how much of myself I have lost."

Stood atop the bridge of white Lyrea looked down at her figure, her once beautiful hair now barren and left in patches as so many strands had been plucked by Koel. Her fingers lay lonely as so many had been wrenched from her palms, even a single toe had not been spared.

"Did all of those worlds need your intervention? To face the wave of disaster you have wrought, when they needed no hand to act upon their behalf."

Koel's shadowy figure was now a lingering hollow etched before Lyrea's vision as she could no longer bring herself to walk beside him, she could only watch from behind and heard for the first time a soft sigh escape Koel's bony depths.

"Judge me. Hate me. But do not assume to understand me. I may have laid waste to millions, torn their worlds in two as I pluck them apart causing them to collide and stretch. But do not mistake what you think you see for what is right. There is much more to this journey than petty vengeance."

"What else am I to believe when none survive your touch."

"Then do not believe."

"I am to be your shadow and nothing else."

"No. You are my key and nothing else. Now come, try and learn something in this next world, maybe it will appeal to your senses and soothe what you call morality."

Stepping forward once more Koel drew Lyrea in as the bridge of light faded to a point and vanished, drawing them into their next destination.

…

Cyclones of lightning and rain clashed and collided through the skies as watery depths churned and raged below, painting the drowned landscape with their madness as storms extended throughout the entire sky.

From a small dot of light Koel and Lyrea emerged as the wind and rain assailed their forms, causing Lyrea's hair to flutter and dampen as Koel stood affixed, motionless in the air.

His words echoing over that of the raging storms, Koel shouted bringing forth a small part of his rage and despair.

"Tell me what you see Lyrea, where is the perfection you seek in this world. What remains of this blasted land, guide me and show me what you seek."

With a gentle push, Lyrea was propelled forward, crashing through cyclones and storms as they swept the skies, lashing out with lightning and savage winds at the mile-high waves that crashed below.

Her eye flashing a purple glow Lyrea peered and looked below, seeing nothing but a distant past of angry swelling storms that never seemed to end.

"Close yourself from the past. Look upon the world as it is now, use your disgust of me to prove me wrong."

Gazing all around her Lyrea saw nothing, no lands to build on, no rest from the relentless storms that surged, and no life.

Not ever the smallest of animals or insects was present here.

"What do you see?"

"I see a world that mirrors your own heart. Storms that ravage and rage timeless, unceasing waters of emotion that ebb and flow, that deny all from feeling."

Grasping Lyrea by the waist Koel's empty sockets bore through Lyrea's eye as he stared down at her, "Then look deeper."

Diving down from the sky Koel let the storm control their figures as they tossed and turned, never once breaking his sight from that of Lyrea's.

"You think me a monster for what I have done, for setting the worlds on a path using demise, but you do not understand where it leads. Look below and see the consequence if I do not."

Letting go Koel let Lyrea fall as the storm hammered into her falling figure, drowning her in the angry waters as Lyrea found herself unprotected before the power of the storm, unable to find her own strength as she was battered and beaten, dragged beneath the waves.

Drowning Lyrea found herself pulled beneath the waters, unable to breathe as the air left her lungs but Koel's gift denied her death.

Through the slapping of rogue channels of water Lyrea sank further and further until even the flashes of lightning above were obscured from sight by the never ending waters.

Gloom descended as Lyrea's black hair gently twirled around her, mocking her with its freedom as she sank, down and down, never once touching ground, never once calling out to Koel. With a soft impact Lyrea touched upon soft soil, soil that was unmoved by any raging storm above only Lyrea's own figure caused it to shift and shake.

Weightless Lyrea stood, gazing around in the pitch black of deep depths, Koel's words drifting around her even now 'use your disgust to prove me wrong.'

Drifting forward Lyrea floated, a pale white figure in an expanse of cruel emptiness as barren ground after stretch of barren ground passed her, strangely peaceful in its nature as it lay undisturbed by the storms above.

Where was the break to such monotony?

Glinting in the distance a small light of blue beckoned to Lyrea, calling out to her with its idle light. Drawing closer Lyrea saw small stone domes emerging, all lined with small blue lights, tiny crystals that illuminated the dark.

These domes that lay still were covered in stagnant layers of dust that remained unmoved, for there were none to remove it.

Her figure bobbing forward Lyrea paused, shocked as she looked into the first dome within reach. Within lay six figures, webbed of feet and hands that lay gently in each others grasp, strewn across the ground they too were covered in dust that remained untouched as their figures were like stone, grey, lifeless and unmoving.

Darting from dome to dome Lyrea looked in as each held a family of its own. Tens, hundreds, thousands of these people lay like rocks, stiff as even their features were frozen in place. How long had they lain for?

Gazing around with tears gently drifting from her form Lyrea saw more and more blue dots light up in the distance, more families reduced to stagnancy as their world was still.

"Have you seen enough to understand?"

A gentle hand wrapped itself over Lyrea's shoulder as Koel's voice, almost sad in its tone spread throughout the waters.

"Follow me and learn of demise, see for yourself that though demise may visit upon these worlds It is not demise that it leaves."

Pulled upwards Lyrea let Koel guide her once more, as he had all along. Upwards the pair ascended gaining more and more speed until with a mighty wave Koel pierced through the waters revealing to Lyrea a sky of pearlescent beauty.

Where once-raging storms thrashed and lashed out against the world, it now lay calm as the waves gently lapped and swayed.

"I have brought demise to the stagnancy which afflicted this world, that mired it in stillness and sapped it of its life."

Drawing Lyrea high Koel held her at arm's length as he once more peered into her, letting her feel for a moment the weight he carried.

"Look below and see the life brought about the demise that you hate, by the actions of a monster such as I."

As far as Lyrea could see the once dark waters below were turning clear as muddied water settled, revealing hosts of animal and plant life that she had walked upon but never seen, of all that had been cast to stillness with the coming of the storms.

"I… all along… you…"

"...Shh… there is no need to voice it my dear."

Unable to grieve for her own short-sightedness Lyrea gently reached her hand up to the back of her own scalp and gently plucked a single delicate waning hair.

Holding it forward Lyrea presented the strand of hair to Koel, now starting to understand a little bit of what Koel sought to accomplish on this journey.

And how much was at risk if he failed.