Of Master and Servant

Of Master and Servant

            The sound of buzzing insects awoke Grimwuld. Opening her eyes she found that she was laying in mud; where exactly was beyond her. The Valkyrja tried to rise to her feet only to feel a rush of pain coursing through her body. She moved her arm to feel her back, feeling the broken shafts of spears sticking out of her back. The Valkyrja tried to raise herself on her hands and knees only to find that she couldn’t due to the pain and the feeling of something pushing her down in the opposite direction. Gritting her teeth she lifted herself off the ground enough so that she could look underneath her, seeing that the spears had completely run her through pinning her to the ground. She wailed, more from the humiliation of being injured than the pain, as she surveyed the scene around her.                   She could make out corpses littering the ground around her. As far as she could tell they all appeared to be Valkyrja. The Valkyrja had failed in whatever conflict they had been involved and had been slaughtered to the last it appeared. Hopeless despair filled her as she realized that she may be the last of the Valkyrja, failing for the first-and final-time in their history. The chirping and beating of wings grew louder as Grimwuld wailed in anger and struggled against the spears. Heavy wings flapping filled the air as the atmosphere grew heavy and the smell of rot began to pervade the air.                                                                                                                             

        Grimwuld felt thick heavy cold air blow onto her face, for the slightest instance it felt like a hand caressed her face. It was only then that she realized the sheer silence of the area she was in, the only noise being the insects chirping and the wings of unseen birds in the sky. The air reeked of roses and dirt, as oppose to the death and blood that Grimwuld would expect. Her mind began to race as she realized that something was clearly wrong here on this battlefield.                                    

   As if in response to the racing mind of Grimwuld all of the noise in the area stopped. The breeze stopped as the air was filled with the faint sound of clicking, like the legs of an insect upon stone. Grimwuld felt something wrong in the air as the clicking drew closer and closer, the air got colder and colder, heavier and heavier. It felt as if the air itself had gained weight forcing Grimwuld onto the ground once more; she felt as if hands began to touch her face only for small instances at a time.                                                                                                                                                

 “Ohhhh, you are strong,” A cold voice said from behind Grimwuld, seeming to worm itself directly into her head. “I may have use of you.”                                                           

       Grimwuld struggled to turn around to see the owner of the voice. For some reason in her mind the voice seemed ancient, yet somehow disarming at the same time. She felt her guard beginning to drop as the voice seemed to worm its way deeper into her mind and began seep all the way into her core.                                                                                                                                

   “Who’s there?” Grimwuld demanded, the pressure becoming too intense for her to even attempt rising to her feet again. Her head was swimming in a mix of comfort from the remnants of the voice playing in her head and the blood loss from her injuries.                                                         

  “Drink of my gift Valkyrja. Become mine and you shall live forever as my champion.” The voice seemed to becoming from right above Grimwuld , yet in her ear at the same time. Grimwuld couldn’t think straight, she was fully enthralled by the voice’s allure.                                            

    “I accept your offer.” No sooner had the words left Grimwuld lips than she felt something heavy and wet fall upon her back. She felt the substance move into the holes where the spears had pierced her skin and she felt something struggle and move as the substance moved down into her body.                        Grimwuld awoke from the recollection to the past only to find herself upon her cot. The Valkyrja rose to her feet and put her hand to her face, if only to see if the dream was real or just a simple night terror. She could still feel the scars that covered the right side of her face and she could feel her heart sink at the confirmation of the memory’s truth. The memory reflected events long ago, yet Grimwuld hoped everyday that she was stuck in some nightmare and that she would awake in the gilded hall surrounded by her shield-sisters. Perhaps, it was foolish to hold onto that wish but Grimwuld was not one to question the nature of the world anymore.                         

    The name of her patron was not something that was not entirely known to her, even after all these years. She unsure what exactly her patron was either or what their goals were exactly, it seemed that they had her doing random things all over the planet. Even before the day that the humans had been able to tap into any sort of magical or physic energy. Grimwuld suspected that her patron may be responsible for these two developments within humanity, whether this was the plan or not was beyond her. She was aware that her patron was capable of nearly anything and was probably far more cunning than she thought.                                                                                        

          The correspondence between Grimwuld and her patron were kept to a minimum, primarily only for her patron to request that she remove something that they found annoying. This could amount to anything from simply killing an individual or retrieving an item of interest for the patron. It was only now, by Grimwuld’s count a few centuries after their first encounter, that Grimwuld was allowed the freedom she desired. The only caveat to this being the fact that she had to wage war upon some nation to the west; her patron had even gifted an army of creatures similar to Grimwuld or at least the creature that she had become over the years. Of what she had become she was unsure if it had been from the deal she made with her patron or if it was just the nature of her patron to corrupt all that they came into contact with.                                                

     In any case she was allowed to wage war as she saw fit, something that any Valkyrja would be most happy with. The nature of the war was lift to Grimwuld and as such she would most likely raid and pillage to her heart’s content with an army of strong warriors at her back. The first target that Grimwuld chose was a seafaring town closet to the coast as the first place of attack, and as such she had ordered a fine ship be built by her army. The process lasted about a month and ended with the creation of large frigate that was named the Fenrir. As soon as the Fenrir was finished Grimwuld took her army and set sail for the land across the sea, the one that her patron had ordered she destroy. Her patron had also gifted a map of the country in question, which unsettled Grimwuld as her patron seemed to know a great deal about this land despite, to her knowledge, never leaving the land that they ruled.                                                                

    At the first ocean spray met Grimwuld’s face she found herself smiling. It was a reminder of her youth and the time that her shield-sisters had rode off into battle. As the boat sailed forward Grimwuld found herself humming and tapping the hilt of spear as they moved forward across the sea. The voyage would last about a month and across the voyage, Grimwuld noticed a large amount of strange spider-like insects that scuttled below the decks of the ship. The creatures were typically around when she heard the sexless voice of her patron, so she assumed that they may be a vessel of sorts for her patron or something in that nature.                                                 

The invasion happened quickly upon landing on the shore of the small city that she attacked. It came as a surprise to Grimwuld to see that the society in question was a matriarchy and this did cause a bit of distress in the mind of the Valkyrja to kill women who fought as oppose to men. The most interesting thing to Grimwuld was the fact that a woman with babe attacked her and tried to fit her. Grimwuld easily overpowered the woman but found her interesting, in a strange way and for that reason kept her alive. She later released the woman and allowed her to leave with the rest of the survivors of the attack, primarily to spread word of the attack itself, a strategy taken from an ancient empire to demoralize their opponents.                                                                                      

                                                                                      ------                               

Eresh found the first blow of the war that it demanded to be disappointing more than it wanted. The fact that its servant, Grimwuld, had allowed some of the people to live was disappointing, it had chosen the Valkyrja for her perceived bloodlust and cruelty. However, the deaths caused by the attack were more than enough to feed the creature. It fed off the flesh of the dead through the carrion that was a part of it, and itself ate the spirits of the dead that sought to go to an empty heaven.                             To say that Eresh was a genderless being was not entirely true, it was closer to the female gender of the humans. Although, it was the farthest thing to a human that any creature could be, being more akin to a living to a hive than any other animal. Eresh was born from the aftermath of the first celestial war between the angels The creatures that occupied the underworld before the angels were banished were not that different from the angel themselves. So much so that they could shire children together, and many children were had before the angelic newly arrivals began to refer to themselves as demons.                                                                                                                                                      These children were generally referred to as abominations as they carried both the divinity of angels and the infernal nature of the original occupants of the underworld. Eresh was one of these abominations born to an angelic father and a Svartalf mother. When the newly formed demonic legion sought to control the underworld they began to slaughter the original citizens of the underworld and the hybrids that had been born. The mother of Eresh seemed to understand this better than most and fled to the ancient prison of Tartarus an attempt to save herself and her child.                                                                                                                                               The young mother made it to the prison and was able to hide due to the aid of the nymphs that called the place home. Eresh would spend the early centuries of her life at the gate of Tartarus in the small refugee camp surrounded by the endless black stones that dotted the underworld, until she began to hear the countless whispers of the insects that lived above her on the human plane. At first the countless voices in every language almost drove her into insanity, until she realized that she could see through the voices and control the information that she gained. It was at this time that the young Eresh grew interested in the world above the underworld. Her mother told her that she would never leave the underworld for her own safety, much to the dismay of the young hybrid.                                                                                                     

        To say that the angels were unaware of the small enclave outside of the impregnable gate of Tartarus, would be a lie. During the twelfth century of Eresh’s life the Demons sought to end the genocide began so long ago and attacked the camp. The fallen angels attacked without mercy and slew all those that they came across; whether they were a Nymph, Svartalf, hybrid or any other of the original inhabitants of the underworld meant little to the demons. The most unholy had declared that they must die and to the demonic legions that was all that mattered.  Some attempted to fight the demons but were outnumbered; some attempted to flee but were cut down by the now twisted angels.             In the heart of the battle Eresh’s father found his daughter and her mother. Without hesitation or qualm he struck down his old lover before turning to his daughter to do the same. To her surprise Eresh felt nothing at the death of her mother, only a growing hunger as she the blood fall from her body, and simply met her father’s gaze with a look of apathy. Her father stepped forward and raised his blade above his head to strike her down, when he was suddenly accosted by the sensation of thousands of legs upon his person. No sooner had he noticed that the stinging began as he dropped the blade in pain, to see that from his daughter crawled thousands of spider-worm like creatures. Soon he was enveloped by them as they began to eat into him in an effort to protect their mother.                            Very soon more of the spider-worms covered the entire attacking army, joined by strange black butterflies, large colorful toads, and millions of rodent sized ants. The army was slaughtered to the last and as quickly as the animals had appeared they soon began to crawl back into their mother burrowing back into her skin and hop onto her skin settling like a film upon her. Eresh, having entered a trance-like state following the vermin leaving her, snapped back to reality as soon as the last toad settled atop her pointed ear and saw the bodies that littered the ground around her. She felt nothing besides the now all-consuming hunger as she took in the death all around her, for no one was alive in this place now but her. Eresh walked over to her mother and bit into her flesh, entering frenzy as she moved from body to body eating all of the dead until she found one survivor. Her father had survived, barely, and was now attempting to crawl away as Eresh moved toward him.                                                                                                      

     “I should’ve killed you as a child,” Her father spat as she stepped in front of him; “You are nothing but an abomination.”                                                                                                             

       With that Eresh opened her mouth revealing, row upon row of sharp teeth the two canines on the top being longer and sharper than the rest. Her father tried to stand but was met by the teeth of his daughter to his neck as she devoured him. After eating her father Eresh sat upon the ground and was suddenly overwhelmed by the memories of all those she had just eaten. She screamed as every joy, sorrow, mistake, and memory flowed into her as an endless stream. She saw her mother and father fall in love and conceive her; she felt their joy as she was born, she felt that joy turn into fear as the demons sought to purify the underworld and the disgust that her father felt towards her as she grew up. Eresh did not know how she survived the flow of all of the information or how long she stayed sitting there with her head in her hands.                                                 

      However, long she stayed there she suddenly stood up, filled with a desire to see the outside world once again. To do so she would have to move through the capital of the Demons, a prospect that had her filled with more hunger now than ever. She began to walk the path back toward the capital of the demon lands, all the while her children festered within her in excitement of their next meal. She soon came across a guard post manned by two demons that, upon seeing the dark color of her skin and pointed ears, raised their weapons. Eresh simply allowed her body to move on instinct and she raised her hand toward the two guards. The smell of rot filled the air as the area seemed to crackle with energy, suddenly one of the two guards erupted with several large spike through his skin from his veins. The other guard fell on his back in a panic and before he could react was choking on blood as his ribs pierced his lungs. Eresh continued on the path after eating one of the guards and cutting flesh from the other with a knife she took from the corpse.                                

    Arriving at the capital Eresh found that many of the demons were living the lives of those they had killed, visiting markets and walking about the city. She took in a deep breath as the vermin began to crawl from out of her and swarm the city. It is unknown as to where the animals attacked first but it is correct to say that the guards of the city were caught unaware. The butterflies swarmed upon every living thing they could find and began to drink the blood of those they found. The toads passed toxins as they hopped upon the stone of the town causing those who were too close to cough blood before they fell to the ground covered in boils and lesions. Those covered by the spider-worms went mad as the insects began to burrow into their flesh and drove them to attack everything around them. Eresh moved through the chaos toward the great palace, feeling all of the life force of the dying going into her as she moved toward the palace gate.                                                                                                             Arriving at the gate she was struck by a volley of arrows, made of silver and iron to strike down the original inhabitants of the underworld. They would kill any of the original inhabitants, but Eresh was half angel and continued toward the gate. She waved her hands to either side of her and the air was filled with the energy once more as the archers turned upon each other and began to fall from the ramparts onto the cold stone of the city below. With ease, Eresh lifted the body of the closest archer and threw him into the great gate causing it to shatter as she moved into the palace courtyard. She could now surmise that she also took the strength of those she ate as well as their memories and that anything killed by her children was also added to her strength. She easily moved into the throne room of the castle only to find the most unholy waiting for her.                                                                           “What are you?” The young man asked her pointing a flaming blade at her as guards began to surround her.                                                                                                                                       

“An abomination,” Eresh said snapping her fingers releasing the energy in the air as the guards fell to the floor, their blood boiling in their veins.                                                                 

        The most unholy seemed surprised at this and kept that surprise on his face as Eresh passed her hand through his chest killing him. Eresh picked up the blade that lay next to the fallen angel decided that it would make a nice trophy as the vermin began to swarm into the throne room and settle back into their mother. She sat upon the throne as the city grew silent with the last lingering lives coming to an end. Satisfied that everything was dead here, she made her way to the highest tower in the palace and found the gateway to the world above that she so desired.                                                           Stepping into the gateway she found herself repulsed by a great force and fell onto the floor with a thud. She tried again only to be met with the same result and so let out a cry of rage and hatred for the gateway that stood in the way of her goal. She stayed there for a while before she eventually went down the tower and began to devour the dead before sitting upon the throne with her head in her hands as she wept. All the while she listened to the insects above as they told her of the world above, suddenly a thought struck her. She reached into her own mouth and pulled out one of the spider-worms from the cavity that existed within her. She began to prepare the insect to be her champion into the world above.                                                                                      

      A year later she sent the insect through the gateway, before she went back to the throne room and sat down. If she was right she could control the insect and from there she could find another way to open the gateway. Her planned worked and closing her eyes she found herself in the world above in a cave, she had the insect crawl out until it found a sleeping child in a small village beneath the hill upon which the cave sat. The spider crawled into the child’s ear and here began to lay eggs as it burrowed into the child’s brain. Eresh found that she could now completely control the child, and she used this new information to have the child perform miracles and become a leader within the small community. Eventually, she had a temple built to cover the entrance to the underworld and she began to put in place the various sigils and rituals that would need to be done to open the gateway. However, she was dismayed to learn that humans are not immortal like the Alfar or the Demons and her host died. This was not a large problem as she quickly set up the temple to be a breeding ground for her spiders and found that she could control them all. She eventually found a new host and continued the work to open the gateway.                                                                                                                                                     She continued to do this for centuries until her host was captured by strangers and taken away from their home. She found herself in a far different place with strange people, but it mattered not as now only time was left until the gateway was gone and she could walk upon the earth in her own body. In the time that she was in the strange land she also found a way to capture the souls of the dead and feed their energy into her body in the underworld. As the host began to die she simply had the spider sink into the body of a new host and continued to do such until the humans destroyed themselves, hundreds of years later. It may have been a reflection of something that occurred in the celestial realm for she noted that several more angels fled to the underworld claiming that something had killed all the angels that remained in the celestial realm.      

             As the angels began to flood the abandoned capital of the underworld Eresh sent out her vermin to infect them so she may control them as well. It worked and she found herself in total control of all those who came to the underworld, the once empty plane now filled with beings that were unknowing servants of their hive mother. She used one of them to hunt upon the other planes and saw the final fate of the Valkyrja as the fell to Giants. Eresh picked one among them and turned her into her champion upon the world above.                                                                          

       Eventually Eresh had her champion begin the final stages of the ritual to open the gateway. The last step being the reclamation of her temple across the sea to open the gateway proper, however, mortals had settled the land and had created a new kingdom in the area. This simply meant that she would have more sacrifices to complete the ritual that she required to open the gateway, so she sent her servant to the west to finish the ritual so that she, Eresh, may walk upon the earth.