Bitter Sweet (33 page)

              “When?”

              “The day before she died… Lilith just said Aaliyah would come for him. I don’t know why she wanted him to have that sword.”

              “Well, what are you going to do now that you don’t have a weapon?”

              “I don’t need a sword to fight.”

              “But you seem better with one,” Lucifer chimed in; he held out his hand and a line of black smoke issued from his palm. It began to wrap around itself and squeezed into a sword sheath. It was nearly identical to the one she gave Alik; this one was a textured black and around it, like the blade of Alik’s, light seemed to fade, making it appear dim, blurring my vision.

              “So you can create stuff out of thin air now, too?” I asked

              “I am the Devil, remember?” He handed her the blade. “This should meet your approval.”

              “Thank you,” she said, examining the black blade. In a flourish, she drew it and sliced through a tree. However, the tree didn’t fall. “Impressive,” June whispered, looking closer at the blade, then placing it back in the sheath. “However, could you?” she asked, not finishing the question.

              “Oh right, I missed that.” He pressed his thumb to the point where the blade handle met the sheath; steam issued from beneath his finger and there a rose was embossed. It was a glossy black that shone in the light; the blade’s dimming effect had no effect on that

single spot.

              “Thank you,” said June.

              We had been walking for about an hour with Eden explaining a few of the other rules of the garden. This would have been a great place to live if Lucifer and Aaliyah hadn’t interfered. When Eden forced Aaliyah out, the stability of the garden was broken. It was no longer able to exist independently from its tether to the earth. The garden and the planet began to mix, but the garden, not being an earthly thing, would jump around from location to location. The Bermuda triangle, El Dorado, and Shangri-La were all apparently the garden spotted by humans when it would come into contact with the earth.

              Not long after Eden finished his story did the trees start to thin and the light start to increase. We slowly came out of what was a dense forest onto a circular clearing with a single tree in the center. The tree had beautiful silver and gold flowers and a deep ebony trunk that looked like it had been knocked down at some time in its past and twisted out of shape. Further off in the distance, you could see what looked like a glass city that glinted in the sun that the garden had long since reclaimed. Sitting under the tree was Ceil, who seemed to be asleep.

              “Who is the girl?” asked Eden.

              “Her name is Ceil; the last I knew, she was Aaliyah’s guard.

              “She was actually Aaliyah’s shadow. A shadow is more than a guard, but not a servant. The shadow lives in their masters shadow treating their life as second to their masters. The shadow learns and is groomed to take over if their master is ever destroyed.”

              “Alik said you were his shadow once.” I remembered.

              “That was a joke he liked. Most thought I was Araya’s shadow, but I was my mothers. I watched Araya and Ario for my mother. It was hard to have that relationship with her and spend so little time with her. I will avenge my mother today.” June declared.

              “But Aaliyah tried to get Alik to kill Ceil.”

              “Aaliyah probably wanted a new shadow, they only way to

break that bond is the destruction of one or the other. If not it can cause mental damage to bother depending on the length of the bond.”

             
“Lets go find out,” said Lucifer.

              “Isn’t it dangerous to be out in the open like this?” I asked.

              “No,” said Lucifer.

              “No?”

              “Aaliyah is not one for sneak attacks or an ambush. She wants you to know that she killed you.”

              “Why?”

              “She likes it.”

              “Do you like it?”

              “Yes, I do,” he said, looking at me. “I am still what you would call evil, Vanessa. The hood, the scythe, the skeleton with snakes in the eyes: where did you think that came from? It’s fun to scare people to death and drag their soul back to hell.”

              “The only thing keeping me from fighting Lucifer right now is Aaliyah and,” said Eden.

              “Also I’d whoop your ass,” Lucifer interrupted.

              “Also,” Eden said louder, “the fighting has gotten weary; there is no point to it after a millennia or two.”

              “Everything is in the terms of millennia with you two. Does life ever get boring?” I asked.

              “Of course. Why do you think I spent almost a hundred years as a Rastafarian?”

              “I don’t know.”

              We reached the tree and Ceil opened her eyes; she looked at us as if we were the most interesting things she had ever seen.

              “Aaliyah told me you would be here sooner or later; she and Alik are in the main temple if you are looking for them,” she said and closed her eyes back.

              “Why are you here?” asked June.

              “I’m just here cause Aaliyah is, but if any of you are looking for a fight, I could be up for that.”

              “Aaliyah tried to have you killed; why are you still loyal to her?” I questioned.

              “Aaliyah didn’t try and have me killed, that decision was Alik’s. Aaliyah just suggested a method and he didn’t do it.”

              “But…”

              “I lost the fight against Alik anyway; I don’t hold it against him or Aaliyah. Don’t bother to try and tell me otherwise.”

              “But…”

              “She has a point, Vanessa. Just leave it. We should head to the temple,” said June.

              “So no one is up for a fight? Ah well, suit yourself,” she said, closing her eyes again.

              “Come on, it’s this way,” said Eden.

              We left Ceil under the tree and headed back into the trees and by this time, we had been walking for hours and I had begun to grow tired. My feet became really sore and I tripped.

              “Are you okay?” asked June as she helped me up.

              “Yes, just a bit tired,” I said and the tiger, Nela as I had come to call her, came over and nudged me and leaned slightly, as if telling me to sit down on her back. I did and she continued on following the others with me riding on top of her. “Thank you, Nela.” I scratched her ears as we walked along.

              We came to another clearing and what I assumed was the temple. There were five massive glass domes with the center dome

rising at least a hundred feet into the air; I could see the inside all five and beneath the glass, a black mist that glimmered with clouds of red and gold, blue and yellow, and tiny dots of light that twinkled brightly slowly swirled. I was stunned at the beauty of it. Until I took a look at the pyramid behind these domes that it made feel like marbles. Its exterior rose no less than thirty stories with the cap stone of onyx casting a shadow of a deeper black that seemed to be following us as we made it to the base of the pyramid.

              “What did you expect? Ancient stone and crumbling rock?” Asked Eden when he noticed my awe.

              “What is all of this?”

              “A reflection of what you call Heaven; if you could see the bottom of the sphere, you would see a reflection of what’s considered hell. It stands for all I created; I guess you could say it’s a temple of creation. The ptramid when i was list here stood about twenty feet tall and had a single room in it, it grows with man and records their history, as the domes with the Lunarians and the Solarians in Heaven and Hell. Man seems to have been very busy.”

              We continued to walk forward up to a set of stairs that climbed halfway up the exterior of the pyramid to an opening I couldn’t see from the ground. Once inside, stars lit our path and we headed for what I guessed was the center. The hall we walked down was made of a black marble; small stars floated along, lighting our path and making pictograms on the walls twinkle. Animals that I knew and some I had only heard about in myths glowed from the starlight, but as I looked around, I couldn’t help but think that something was missing. 

              “What are looking for?” asked Eden, noticing that I was looking for something.

              “There is no central pictogram or hieroglyph; I was expecting to see you around here to be honest.”

              “You won’t find any.”

              “Why is that?”

              “Why should there be? When rulers mistake themselves for Gods and see themselves above those they rule over, that’s when

greed and corruption take over.”

              “But you are God,” I said as we began down another long hall with a low light at the far end. ”Why shouldn’t they worship you?”

              “I don’t deserve to be worshipped. When I became spiritual leader of the Solarians, that’s all I was supposed to be. To my people, God does not have the same implications as it does to humans. I wasn’t called God in a human sense until a few of my followers started to spread rumors of powers I did not have to boost morale. I did not want to be worshipped, but duty forced me to go along with it. I was the most powerful Solarian for three hundred years and endowed with near omnipotence, what else was I supposed to do? Sit by and watch my people die around me while I did nothing?”

              “Of course not, I mean I didn’t mean to imply.”

              “It’s okay. I’m probably being a little over dramatic,” he said with a weak smile. “Although, when I made you humans, it was with the intent to blend in and just fake my death so often as to not appear as anything different. It didn’t work out that way when I found it,” he said and there was something odd about his tone.

              “Found what?”

              “Her soul. I thought the gates had been destroyed and there was no way to recover or reach it. I shouldn’t have been greedy and called her back; she had left already,” Eden seemed to be whispering to himself. I wasn’t sure if he was sure of what he was saying or even knew he was saying it. “When she died, I lost it. The Lunarians were gone and the Solarians were also gone. I acted out of anger and ruined that chance. That technique I declared forbidden and yet I did it and I shouldn’t have; thousands died in my rage. Our people became prisoners of that damned dimension at the mercy of the Lunarians. I was left alone on this planet; despair reigned my soul and I tried to fill it with failed creation after creation. Falling deeper and deeper…” If I could hear Eden, June and Lucifer had to as well, but they seemed to be ignoring it as we walked down the hall, the light becoming brighter. “I don’t know how it happened; I hit a low point, called out to her, and she came in my despair. I thought I failed again, but she sat up, touched my face and it was like I was reborn. With her by my side, this was the result.” He looked around the hall. “Then he got out and turned her against me. My anger took over again and I removed her; I

couldn’t bring myself to kill the woman I loved. Everything began to fall and I acted to save my creations from the one flaw I put into their system. Still, there was death and desertion; I did no better and left them to their own devices. It created a rift and wars spread, families torn all because of me,” Eden said as we crossed the doorway into a larger chamber. I couldn’t describe the emotion in his voice