Fallen Faith - part 6 (end of 3rd story arc) (625 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Kaote
Rating: 1.77 on 20 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by kaos-king (antius777) (View user info) at 2005-09-27 13:46:26 EDT
Last Chapter - http://www.ubersite.com/m/75903
Vasquez had said nothing for hours. He and Wendollyn had traveled another few miles in silence, and that had been fine with him. He could tell that she was brimming over with questions, but was currently respecting his decision not to share anything. What was there to share? He wanted answers more desperately than she did.
The Par-Uhmbra. The alternate plane to the Umbra, the Realm of the Mythic, home to fables and monsters. The so-called Astral Plane that existed off to the side of the Archguard Trinity. Heaven, Earth, and Hell. He had been an angel in the Heavenly Host for eons before he fell, refusing to accept the return of an exiled fellow angel. Mammon had friends in high places, and Vasquez was convinced that he was no better than those who had rebelled so long ago. For his transgression, he was "asked" to leave. He had walked the Earth as a mortal for a short time, and even made friends with a strange group of mystics and meta-humans. He had found short term comfort in the arms of the Princess of Hell. It had not been enough. The waking world was too harsh, his form too fragile. He had placed the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth and...
And he had ended up here. Instead of Hell as any suicide should, he had been transported to this secret world. A place where the sky was a pale pink, the sun a deep purple and the clouds sped past so fast they left ripples in their wake. A place where the bodies of dead men became reanimated and spoke of prophecies and monstrous children flew on the wings of bats. This was a place where it seemed he was neither mortal nor angelic, but a combination of both.
Questions danced around his head frantically as he walked beside Wendollyn. In his time as a mortal, he had known Lucinda, the Majestrix of the Uhmbra. But according to his new friend, that name was not known here. Someone named Lacuna ruled, and it would seem she was not anywhere as nice as his old drinking partner. The Voice, as he had come to call it, the thing that had spoken through the corpse hanging from the gallows had said he had brought Vasquez here. Had said he was here for a purpose. How this creature had achieved such a feat or for what reason, he could not fathom. And yet, here he was, a hybrid of Divinity and man. He felt no hunger or weakness from walking, but he had felt fear when fighting the creatures Wendollyn had called the Bitter Born. He felt the pleasure in smoking a cigarette. And yet he understood the language of his guide, this unknown girl. And the sword. He had called down a flaming sword of righteousness.
Vasquez had much to think about. So much so, he did not notice that Wendollyn had slowed her pace until he had run into her.
"What? Is something..."
"Shhh!"
Standing in the road, Vasquez looked around for the first time. He had been so caught up in his own thoughts he had completely missed the giant structure ahead of him. They were at a crossroads, the path branching off in multiple directions. In the center of the path sat a tower. Flames spit out from the top of it.
"What is that thing up..."
He jumped when he realized the tower was moving. Ignoring her protest, he moved closer towards it. An iron grid work cylinder spiraled up at least thirty feet into the air. He could not have wrapped his arms even half way around it. Placed at the four side of the cylinder were large boxes with tubes leading up into the grid work. Small vines had grown up on to the iron and into the cylinder itself and on to... on to the creature inside. Vasquez realized what it was. It was one of those worms that Wendollyn had used to light his cigarettes, but this one, this one was gigantic! The vines were wrapped around the worm and slowly squeezing onto it, causing it to cough up fire into the night sky. This was some kind of living lighthouse.
"Come away from there!" Wendollyn said, catching him by the arm. "The flames illuminate you too much, and I think we are not alone out here!"
"What gives you that idea?"
"The quietness."
"Wendollyn, what are those boxes for?"
"Shhh! They're feeding cubes with running wires to the larrodes. Haven't you ever seen... Oh, stupid question, right?"
"But how does..."
Before he could finish his question, a mound of dirt exploded at his feet almost knocking him over. Vasquez stumbled to keep his footing and Wendollyn spun into a fighting stance, her arm poised and ready.
"What the hell was that?"
"You could have had your head taken off Wendollyn Saclair," came a voice from out of the darkness.
Men and women began to materialize out from behind bushes and trees, rocks and small ditches. There were ten, no twelve in all, all of them dressed similar to his young companion. They were dressed in mismatched clothing, with trails of cloth ribbon here and there. Most had mohawks and all of them showed brandings on their bodies. The woman, as well as the men had dark kohl painted across their eyes. Vasquez looked closer and realized not all of them appeared entirely human. One girl had cat ears upon the top of her head, another had the arched legs of a deer or an antelope. Two of them had small horns across their foreheads and most of the men had gemstones embedded in their flesh.
"What have I woke up in?" mumbled Vasquez.
"Who is the outsider that speaks!" said one of the men, training his weapon on Vasquez. It looked much like the one Wendollyn wore on her own arm.
"No, Gareth! He's a friend, he helped me fight off a squadron of the Bitter Born."
"A warrior then," came another voice from the darkness.
When this figure walked into the light, Vasquez could not help but step back. He was an older man, in his fifties perhaps. Bald with a thick beard and heavily cloaked. But where his left shoulder should have been was a large mechanical device. Reaching out from that device were two long tentacles. Green and squid-like, they moved as if in water, flowing around his body.
"A warrior disgusted by the sight of something the likes of you, Ephram!" laughed one of the women.
"Forgive me," said Vasquez. "That was rude. I am... I am not from around here. I was already fascinated by this creature in the iron tube when Wendollyn came to fetch me. Your people are new to me. I find myself constantly surprised."
"You did not know of the Dox?" Ephram said with a frown.
"I had never met one until just the other day," said Vasquez, not entirely lying.
"You have fought beside one of our own. Would you find yourself comfortable eating beside a few more?"
Eating? Vasquez wasn't sure if he did eat any more. But he did not want to appear any more rude than he already had. Plus, how would he explain that he didn't eat? He would have to worry about that when the time came. Besides, what else did he have to do?
"I would be honored to be a guest at your table, or any other table of the Dox."
"Excellent. We've been waiting for hours for Wendollyn to return, and I've grown quite hungry myself. Come stranger, introductions can wait until we break bread."
The Dox fell in behind Ephram, most ignoring him, some giving him suspicious glances. All gave him a wide breath of space to walk beside Wendollyn.
She caught up beside him and whispered out of the corner of her mouth, "I thought you didn't need to eat."
Vasquez shrugged. "I guess we'll find out," he whispered back.
Vasquez kept in step with Wendollyn along the path, thinking to himself. So much had happened it such a short time. His Fall, his death, finding himself in this strange world. Yet, he felt all right about these things at the moment. What if The Voice had been right? What if this was all part of His Most Holy's plan?
"I guess we'll find out," he mumbled to himself again as the crested the hill to the Dox villiage...
User Reviews
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-10-26 13:52:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
We have a lot of similar ideas for stories...I mean like heaven and hell, things like that. Exodus Chronicles and As I Lay Dying come to mind for me, as well as a bunch of your short stories.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2006-04-07 23:36:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
No Comment
Submitted by Ditka (user info) at 2006-01-07 22:54:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2ing end of each arc
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-09-29 18:47:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I like the format of these inter-linked series.
One gripe: "Mammon had friends in high places, and Vasquez was convinced that he was no better than those who had rebelled so long ago. For his transgression, he was "asked" to leave."
When you said 'his transgression he was asked to leave' I thought you were still talking about Mammon until I read the next couple of lines.
Good work.
Submitted by parzival (user info) at 2005-09-28 18:10:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-09-28 16:25:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by moopadoopdoop (user info) at 2005-09-28 15:10:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
oh shut up
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-09-28 14:59:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by RyuFu (user info) at 2005-09-28 13:34:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Wow, this sucks. Not the story, but the fact that I read through all your stories...now I have to actually go do work. Dammit.
Keep posting, please!
Submitted by iradney (user info) at 2005-09-28 12:44:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ajanssen (user info) at 2005-09-28 09:03:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I think I like this series the best. Way to fucking go.
Submitted by Magic_Monkey (user info) at 2005-09-28 04:27:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh man , if this ever comes out as a book,im buyin it and forcing my students to read it.
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2005-09-27 23:00:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very Cool. I'm really digging this whole series.
Submitted by fallenangel (user info) at 2005-09-27 16:08:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very nice.
I like the way you tie everything together ... please continue.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-09-27 15:56:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Average_Dan (user info) at 2005-09-27 14:26:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Damn you Kaos!!
I don't want to wait until tomorrow!
What occours to me, being a very visually stimulated person, is the huge differences in colors
you could use in the cinematography if this were made into a movie. That is why I appreciated
so much 2 chapters ago where you took great care in describing the landscape and whatnot.
For Vasquez's time in heaven, I see a bright mixture, maybe white and blue, which are just colors
that I would associate with a heanenly setting. The Blue and Green on his time on earth, and now
the pink sky with purple sun of Par-Uhmbra. I'm digging it a lot!
The Jet Li movie "Hero" is brought to mind in where each change in scenery, the colors of everything
in the scene changed with the environment, and I think that would work nicely here as well.
Submitted by ahumblefool (user info) at 2005-09-27 14:14:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have been going back and reading your earlier works. It appears that they are all circling around each other. You know, Stephen King did this with much success in his Dark Tower works. His tower was not confined to only the Gunslinger series but infiltrated much of his writing career. 75% of his books refer in some way to the Dark Tower. I sense this is what you are doing. I am not saying that you are copying King, I like the path you are taking. I hope to continue this journey with you, thank you sai.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2005-09-27 14:10:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
GAH!
Great job, and you have me anxiously awaiting more. The abrupt end of this story arch is only excusable if I view each arch as a chapter, and expect the characters to return and fold into the greater storyline..
You know.. as I pause to reflect on these sets of series, I realize that you're writing a book with these, and each story arch is a perfect chapter. I'm not sure if you've realized that or not.
In terms of how the "episodes" fit into a chapter, for the last two story archs at least, they work perfectly. The first one, about Ed being a Kaos Mage may need a little massageing, but it's certainly workable.
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2005-09-27 13:53:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-09-27 13:52:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Some of you may not like the fact that this ended so abruptly. There's a reason for that.
As Vasquez has been having his adventures in the Par-Uhmbra, things back on Earth still continue. What of Edward Sands and Grace Morningstar? They may have found love together, but they were friends of Vasquez, drinking buddies of his along with The Majestrix of the Uhmbra, Lucinda. What is to happen, say, when they realize that Vasquez isn't back in Heaven? Or even Hell, for that matter?
Part one of the Ten part series, "The Search" starts tomorrow...