Sword of the Gods III: Agents of Ki

Prologue

Prologue

Time: Indeterminate

Ascended Realms

SHE-WHO-IS

Pitiless black eyes stared across the chess board from HIS sharp, obsidian features.

“It’s your move, uxor mea…”

She-who-is fiddled with her small white king, a petty lesser-god she'd assigned the tedious task of micromanaging a galaxy. At play was a fat little solar system she'd been tinkering with, one which had aroused HIS interest after the deity had abused HIS power to carry out her will. If one was a wise old god, they avoided drawing HIS attention.

Giving her most coquettish smile, She-who-is flicked her gossamer wings in a flirtatious hum, praying he'd be more interested in winning HER favor than in winning the game. He-who's-not did not buy into her stalling tactics…

"Make your move," HE repeated.

The Dark Lord had no shape, but over the millennia, he had learned to fashion a shell which, truth-be-told, was rather attractive in a tall, dark, and terrifying 'I'm about to dissipate you into primordial chaos' kind of way. Brutally handsome, with high cheekbones, six horns, leathery bat-like wings and a long, scorpion's tail which dripped destruction instead of venom, every aspect of HIS being was shaped to protect HER from her accursed father; Moloch, the Devourer of Children…

Some called the Dark Lord her husband, others the devil, but the truth was the Guardian of the Universe was little more than her babysitter. At least that's how SHE thought of him most of the time. HE was an obstacle to be charmed into giving her what she wanted. She chewed her lip as she thought of ways to salvage her solar system.

The timekeeping device HE used to keep her stalling tactics at bay ran out of sand. His ebony features were devoid of emotion as he spoke the ominous words which meant the death-knell of any creation they played opposite each other to win.

“You are out of time.”

The Infernal Palace shuddered from the power in his voice, the Song of Destruction come to devour her playthings. With a touch of HIS fingertip, the entire solar system went supernova and dissolved back into his essence, primordial darkness, the power of the void.

“Malum est!!!" She-who-is slammed down the little white king who'd just been left without a seat of power. "I wasn’t ready!" She crossed her arms and turned away.

“You were out of time, uxor mea,” He-who's-not said. Beneath his voice swirled an undertone of pleading. "Those are the rules you agreed to be bound by when we began this game."

"Then go find somebody else to play with!" She-who-is snapped. With a disgusted wave of her hand, she punished him by withdrawing her light. As she did, the walls of the palace he'd worked so hard to build for her began to buckle and lose shape, for without HER, the Dark Lord wasn't good at holding any shape … not even his own!

A chess piece from one of the adjacent galaxies fell over. It was a small, white queen, adorned with a golden crown, denoting it was one of HER favorite chess pieces.

"Hey!" She-who-is exclaimed. "That galaxy wasn't even at play! That's my Chosen One!"

"I did not move against it," the Dark Lord said. He pointed at the small, White Queen, careful not to touch it. "You must have knocked it over, uxor mea, when you arose in haste. Just put it back where it belongs and I will not penalize your error."

One of the shadows leaped out of the walls and chittered at the Dark Lord's ankles. He picked up the tiny shadow and cradled it in his lap.

"Ugh!" She-who-is recoiled in disgust. "Shadow-cats!"

How she hated the things the Dark Lord shaped with his own hand! The small, dark creature was not afraid of HIM, for it was comprised of the same primordial chaos as HE was, but it jumped up and down like a worried little dog. The shadow cat was too primitive to speak, but something had the formless shadow agitated.

"What is the matter, little one?" the Dark Lord's asked. His sharp features creased with concern.

As the shadow-cat chittered, HIS chess piece, the dark knight he had tasked with watching over her favorite white queen, fell over as well, and then her Chosen One disappeared. Their eyes met across the chess board. Neither deity had made that move.

The shadow-cat squeaked a single sound that, even with its primitive ability to vocalize, was understood by both of them.

"Moloch…"

A feeling of vertigo swirled around HER as cold, dread terror seeped into her incorporeal form. The Dark Lord reached across the chess board and carefully took her hand.

"You know what I have to do?" HE said.

"But I like that queen!" She-who-is burst into tears. "She has always been my favorite daughter!"

He-who's-not squeezed her hand. HE might be a god of primordial chaos; death, destruction, darkness and desolation, but if he had one redeeming quality, it was that he loved HER more than his own existence. HE could bear her fury. HE could withstand the full force of her light. HE could even endure her frequent temper tantrums and lengthy pouting, but when her tears were genuine, he could not bear to see HER cry. HIS obsidian eyes scanned the chess board, searching for an option.

"Perhaps Ki already has a chess piece in position to play against the Evil One?" the Dark Lord said gently. "One we cannot see because it is part of their higher game?"

She-who-is's lip trembled. Oh! How she hated it when her mother's game against her accursed father interfered with running her universe. Moloch attacked HER favorite chess pieces because he liked to remind her that someday he would devour HER the same way he had devoured her brothers and sisters. She chided herself for her earlier selfishness. Oh! How easily she had forgotten why her mother had paired her with a creature of the void; to co-rule the universe they had shaped together from HIS primordial darkness and HER primordial light. Together … they were stronger.

"Ask my mother to send in her Agent," She-who-is grasped her husband's hand. "A Watchman. An Agent of Ki. If they fail, then you will have no choice but to step in and destroy their entire galaxy to prevent Moloch's spread. But first, please give my Chosen One a chance?"

The Dark Lord kissed HER hand. With a shudder of power, he unfurled his enormous, leathery black wings and cast himself to the highest edge of the universe to plead with Ki to send in her Agents. As HE did, he inadvertently destroyed his chair, his throne, and half the wall of the Infernal Palace. There was a reason the Dark Lord was forced to work through a mortal vessel to enact HIS will … his power was too vast to touch the lives of mortals.

She-who-is glanced down at the shadow-cat which purred at her ankles seeking gratitude, no doubt, for its too-belated warning. With a disdainful flicker of her gossamer wings, she shoved the disgusting creature away with her foot.

"Shoo!"