Stone Rose 17 & Epilogue
Feb. 26th, 2007 06:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maderrThree down, two to go ^__^
Chapter Seventeen
Culebra moved toward Cortez and reached out, hand landing on her shoulder, and he trailed down her arm until his fingers landed upon the rose in her hand. Taking it, he immediately retreated.
Fresh blood poured from new wounds as he held the stone rose tight, dripping onto the floor, leaving lurid red marks on the white tiles.
“Do you know why I, of all my brothers, was chosen to reign over death?” Culebra asked, continuing before anyone could try to formulate an answer. “The Storm Dragons, closest to chaos and greatest in power, are too playful. To them, life is the grandest and greatest of games. They will never be capable of ending that game.”
“The Firebird is too kind, too forgiving. He sees the lives that came before, the possibilities of the future, and so his perspective is quite different. Never could he take a life, unless there was absolutely no other recourse.”
“The Faerie Queen, by contrast, is too vindictive. She is loving, kind, but also too harsh at times, as protective parents can often be. The responsibility of death and destruction would fare poorly in her hands.”
“Licht…Licht felt too deeply, cared too much. Never should Licht be made to endure the powers that have fallen into my care. He never should have…” Culebra shook his head and let out a long, slow sigh. “I…was always the calmest of my brothers. Emotion tempered by control. I can bear the burden of controlling such a demanding element of the world we created.”
“I say all this only so that you might better understand what comes next.” Culebra tilted his head up, as if seeing something that no one else could. “I say I was the most suited of my brothers to take over the responsibilities of death and destruction…but doing so isolated me. My children loved me, and worshipped me, but there was always fear coloring their respect no matter what I did. How can you love death, after all? Even my brothers, love me as they did, seldom came to visit. Though of course none of us likes to leave our lands for long, still…I grew lonely. The Storms had each other, so too the Queen and Guardians. Licht had Teufel, and Zhar Ptitka was always so close to his children.”
Culebra lifted the stone rose to his face, ducking his head as if to smell the petals, touching the flower gently to his lips. “Every time I thought I’d found someone amongst the mortals who might stay and drive out the loneliness…they crumbled and left. No one can take being so close to someone as grim as I…”
He shook his head to clear it, and tried to more clearly focus his thoughts. “One night, when I was particularly despondent, hiding away in the Temple of Oblivar, Licht came to see me. He seemed as troubled as I, though for different reasons, and in each other we found solace and companionship.”
“That one night led to several others, Licht always seeking me out as he pleased, I more than content to stay secluded in my land and wait for him. We were brothers, and for those few months lovers – though his heart was always with Teufel and Schatten, and mine was always with Piedre.”
“Whatever was bothering him, it only got worse as the months passed. Eventually he broke down and told me he regretted the choice we made so long ago. That letting chaos dominate, rather than order, was a mistake. I disagreed. We argued. Eventually, frustrated, Licht left.”
“He came back several days later, and was more agitated than ever. Nearly wild in his anger, pain. I could not get him to explain what had upset him to the point of madness. Instead, he only demanded I use my powers to fix everything, to set all to rights…to let everything start over, and be the way it should have been all along. I told him no, and it escalated into an argument…which eventually devolved into violence. When it was clear he was losing, Licht vanished.”
Culebra lowered the rose, curling his arms around himself – but backing away when Corinos tried to draw close and offer him comfort. “Let me be. I must finish. I did not see Licht for days, after our fight. Nor did I tell any of my brothers, as I should have…they were already aware, of course, that Licht was acting strangely. He had sealed himself off, put up wards to keep everyone out of Schatten. All nine of us had promised, long ago, never to interfere in one another’s countries…though always we were willing to help. That Licht had sealed off Schatten entirely was strange, but Licht was always mercurial at best. He felt too deeply, always, and that led often to his acting strangely. So I took all that had passed between us as part of one of his strange moods, and kept my silence.”
“When I finally saw Licht again, he was contrite. He asked my forgiveness for his earlier behavior.” Culebra shook his head slowly back and forth again. “He’d even brought a favorite wine of mine – one created in Verde but made with Piedren spices – by way of apology. We drank.”
He fell silent, and stayed that way so long it almost seemed as though he had no intention of continuing his story. When he finally resumed speaking, his voice was faint, pained. “The wine was poisoned. So subtly, so skillfully, that I did not realize until too late that there was something wrong with it. The poison slowly spread through my system, and then struck hard and fast. It…completely ruined me…I could barely control my powers, barely reign them in. Never mind use them properly. It terrified me. There is very little which can frighten a god, even less that can terrify…” Culebra bit his lip, weighing his next words. “The poison ruined my ability to control my own powers, to even keep them. Such a poison…” He shook his head. “It left me prey to outside manipulation. Licht poisoned me to obtain my powers.”
“Barely was I able to prevent such a thing happening. It took me far too long even to realize what was happening. When I did…” Culebra hugged himself tighter, voice choking briefly before he regained control of it. “I could not allow him to get away with it. I could not let it happen.”
His mouth twisted with bitter sadness. “Don’t you see? Always I stand alone.” He ignored the rumblings of confusion as he abruptly shifted subjects, not yet willing to complete the story. “No one who stands with me does it for very long. Even if they want to, at first, and try to keep wanting.” He nearly gave in to the offer of comfort as he heard Corinos move toward him again. Vehemently he shook his head, stepping away. “It was because of my loneliness that Licht first sought me out. He knew it wore on me, knew I detested being alone though I tried not to burden my brothers and children with it. He used it against me, tried to coax me into his plan – and when that did not work, he found a way to poison me and nearly take them.”
“I was weak. Foolish. I will never allow it to happen again. My powers are best left as they have been for these past thousand years – sealed away in a lost temple and forgotten. Even I, who was most suited in all of creation, was not strong enough.”
Cortez snorted. “That’s stupid. Most importantly, you’re hurting Corinos’s feelings. He’d stay with you. Didn’t he come all this way for you? I doubt he’s ever minded your familiarity with death.”
Culebra wasn’t too certain – they had yet to completely discuss his revealing to his bodyguard that he could sense when someone was going to shortly die. How would Corinos, so dedicated to protecting, keeping alive, endure a lover who could sense the deaths of a person the very moment they were conceived? That he could, when necessary, see how and when every living thing would die? His realm was death. After so many years, it was always more than mortals could take. “Corinos loves me. He is my heart and soul. However no power in existence guarantees his feelings will not change after a few hundred years of being chained to a god of death. I have learned the hard way how painfully true that is.”
For reply, hands fell heavily on his shoulders, dragged him forward, then the arms slid to tighten around him as a mouth crashed down upon his. Corinos kissed him hard, brutally, with so much force Culebra felt his lip split, the taste of copper mingling with the lingering taste of coffee and sweet smoke in Corinos’s mouth.
“How many times, Culebra?” Corinos tore his mouth away and began to shake him hard. “How many times will you doubt me? Hurt me? How much longer must I wait until you finally believe me? I will never stop loving you. I came this far for you. I once beat up my own brother to stake my claim on you. I defied your brother to come here, even knowing that for doing so I will face far worse than a beheading.”
Culebra frowned. “I’ve said goodbye to too many lovers in the past. I do not want to see you fall into misery the way they did.”
“Being your lover is not the same as being in love with you, Culebra.” Rough fingers tenderly stroked his cheek.
“You don’t understand,” Culebra said, clutching tightly to the rose as he shoved Corinos back. “It’s not—it’s me—I—”
“Oh, shut up,” Cortez cut in. “Really. Be a good little brother and do as I tell you.”
Culebra whipped his head around toward her voice, frowning in confusion. “What? Little brother?”
Cortez stepped closer as she spoke, voice firm despite the light, teasing tone. “Exactly. I mean, I guess you’re really the older one. Right now, though, I’m older. Plus I look older – I mean I have twenty years or so on you, right? So I get to be the big sister.”
Culebra’s frown deepened. “What in the world are you talking about?”
Laughing, Cortez drew close enough he could smell the smoke that clung to her, sweat and grass. “I know what your problem is, and it’s not that you don’t believe Corinos loves you. That is perfectly obvious. Your problem, Culebra, was my mother’s problem. You do not share your burdens with anyone. You do not let anyone else bear them for a while, or help you carry them. I couldn’t help her, though I wanted to. Though I tried.”
“Cortez…” Culebra backed away nervously, not liking the tone of her voice – it was the sort of tone that drove someone to think that the best way to kidnap a prince was to sit around waiting in a room full of deadly snakes. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you,” Cortez said, then suddenly she was there, right in front of him, and grabbed the hand that held the rose, tangling their fingers together – and crushing the rose between their palms.
The power washed over him, a dead silence followed by a rushing of noise, drowning out everything, making the darkness blindingly white before it went black again. Over the din, he just barely heard Cortez laugh ruefully and say, “Assuming this works the way I thought it would.”
“Cortez!” Culebra shouted in outrage, right before he blacked out.
When he woke, Culebra felt different.
Everything was different. Changed.
“I’m going to kill you Cortez,” he said, not bothering to stir from where he lay – against Corinos, he realized.
A voice laughed, and Culebra froze at the way he sensed it as much as felt it. He could feel Cortez’s amusement. As though it were his own. “What have you done, you reckless fool?”
“Take a look and see,” Cortez said.
“Not funny,” Culebra snapped.
He could sense, almost see, the way she rolled her eye.
Eye. Singular. How…there was no way….
Slowly, doubting it could be true but knowing it was, Culebra opened his left eye. He drew a sharp breath.
In front of him was the…most interesting looking individual he’d ever seen. She had scars all across her face, her throat, and somehow he knew exactly where on her body the dozens of others were.
Not that he wanted that sort of knowledge. Culebra could feel his cheeks heat and shook his head furiously back and forth. “You—you—you—”
“Have done what you always wanted, little brother,” Cortez said with a taunting grin. Her right eye was covered by some of his bandages. Her left was a dark, smoke gray. “Two, rather than one. Now that the burden is shared, it will not be so great.”
“Scales and teeth!” Culebra howled, and tried to lunge at her, furious when strong arms held him back. “I did not want this! We could have—”
“Left our country incomplete? Without its god? You know we could never have done such a thing. This world will die without its creators. We never could have left this temple and continued as mortals.”
We. She kept saying we. Culebra curled back up into the arms that would not release their hold. It was true; every fiber of him knew it. He was no longer just Culebra, though he would always keep that name. He would always, to some degree, be Culebra. Except now he was not the Basilisk. He was a Basilisk. “Cortez…”
“Say ‘thank you, big sister.’ Though, this is going to take some getting used to, that’s for certain.”
A voice snorted, and Culebra looked up to see a man sitting nearby, taking long pulls on a cigarette. He was handsome, sort of…book-ish looking except for the sword and leather he wore so casually. “That is Cortez,” Fidel said dryly. “If you come to a cliff and your options are climb down, find another way, or jump – she does not stop to consider the options like a normal person, no. She comes to the cliff and says ‘let’s jump.’” He glared at her, but the fondness in his eyes was impossible to miss. “I’m not so certain you’re dignified enough to be a god of death.”
Cortez smiled at him, all teeth. “Keep it up, Fidel, and you will be punished. Seeing as I’m a god now, I can administer divine punishment.”
“What, precisely, does that mean?”
“It means I can say things like ‘no sex for a thousand years’ and mean it.”
Fidel dropped his cigarette, then glared at her and retrieved it. “You are not funny.”
Cortez laughed. “I am very funny.”
Culebra smiled briefly, unable to look away. He could see. See. After so many years…even as the Basilisk, he had never had sight. His ability to see at all had been lost to accommodate the terrible power to destroy.
The arms wrapped so firmly around him tightened, and Culebra drew a sharp breath, unable to believe how fast his heart suddenly started to beat. He stared at his own hands, as they came up to touch the dark skin of Corinos’s arms. So stark a difference against his own skin, still so bone white.
He frowned at Cortez. “Why don’t you look like a ghost?”
“Because, little brother,” Cortez turned from her continuing banter with Fidel, “I would look atrocious with your pale skin. You look quite pretty.” She smirked. “I’m sure your lover agrees.”
Bracing himself, more nervous than he thought a newly restored god should be, Culebra finally turned and looked up.
“Corinos…” His bodyguard was the worse for wear – days of growth on his face, scratches from traveling through the forest, eyes lined with exhaustion, hair very nearly a lost cause…but his eyes blazed with warmth, affection, and Corinos thought he could endure the most terrible agonies for this chance to finally put a face to the man he loved. As handsome and enthralling as the dark sugar voice that had immediately captured him so many years ago. Culebra twisted so he could slide free and face him properly, letting his fingers explore as they wished, gaze following the lines he knew so well by touch.
Finally he looked up again, hands sliding up Corinos’s arms. Those eyes, so dark, still burned with every emotion Culebra felt. “I do love you, Corinos.”
Corinos dragged him close and kissed him hard, possessively, arms wrapping around him like bands. Culebra opened to it, sinking his hands into the messy but still so soft hair, pressing as close as their clothing would allow, wanting never to stop kissing this man he had forced himself to stay away from for too long. “Corinos.”
“So should we leave?” Fidel asked. “Cause I’m not sure I actually want to watch them, if they’re going to get any more intense.”
Cortez snickered, and Culebra distantly head Fidel yelp as Cortez yanked him close. “We could always have a contest,” Cortez said. “See which couple can kiss better.”
“I don’t think I like you as a god,” Fidel complained. “You were already too cocky for your health and mine.”
Still snickering, Cortez leaned in and kissed him, almost immediately putting to rest any of Fidel’s lingering protests.
Corinos chuckled softly and renewed the fervor of his own kisses. Culebra didn’t even consider protesting.
All around them, through the Azul and beyond, the ground began to tremble ever so faintly, spreading a message to the world that the Basilisk was no longer lost.
“So finish your story,” Fidel said when Cortez and Corinos finally relented.
Culebra frowned, his hand unconsciously reaching out – and meeting Cortez’s, their fingers tangling, bringing their thoughts and feelings together, making them as one. “I did not finish it…because there are others who have to know. They died before the truth could be conveyed to them, for after the events of that night, the downfall happened very quickly.”
“Others?” Fidel asked.
“Yes,” Cortez said with a smile. “I do believe I have brothers to meet.”
Culebra heaved a sigh and reluctantly stood up, the others following suit. His hand was still clasped with Cortez’s, so rough where his own was smooth.
All around the chamber a great quantity of snakes had gathered, and Culebra was amazed at how many of them had come from the sanctuary he had not seen in what seemed ages now. Off in a shadowy corner was Ruisenor, coiled up and fast asleep.
Jorge’s body was gone. He had seen to that. He hoped, in his next life, the former child of Schatten was happy.
“Do you want to do the honors?” Culebra asked.
Cortez rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t think we need to extend a formal invitation.”
All around them everything seemed to rumble and shake – but not from the ground. It seemed as though the shaking came from the sky.
“Still showing off, I see…” Culebra said
As the ground-shaking thunder reached a crescendo and abruptly died, three men appeared suddenly in the room.
One looked like a sailor taken suddenly from his ship, except for the whiteness of his skin – nearly a match for Culebra’s. The clothes were dark, but the sash that cinched his tunic shut was a brilliant blue cut with diagonal bands of white. Beside him was a tall man who looked as though he were snatched straight from a tale about exotic pirates.
Culebra drew a sharp breath as his eye landed on the last man – slighter, shorter than the other two, and utterly breathtaking. He’d never seen him before, but something in him knew. “Y-you’re Nankyokukai. Nankyo. They said you were dead.”
“Culebra,” Nankyo said, real pleasure in his voice as he crossed the room to embrace his old friend. “I have missed you.”
Behind them, the pale-skinned Storm Dragon glowered.
The third one chuckled. “Now, Kin, do not be jealous.”
“I am not jealous,” Kin hissed.
Nankyo laughed and let go of Culebra, going back to stand with his brothers. “Basilisk…” his mischievous look shifted to Cortez. “Or should I say, Basilisks. We are happy to have you back. We feared…”
“That we would not be coming back?” Cortez asked, but got no further as the fire pit in the center of the room suddenly flared to life, the flames flicking high – then dying abruptly down, leaving only a short, slender man to step calmly out of the flames.
He was young-looking, but the depth to eyes that shifted like flickering flames spoke of his true age. He smiled around the room. “Did I arrive suitably?” He jerked his head toward the dragons. “How badly did they show off? Have I missed the fun? Basilisk.” He paused. “Oh. It’s plural now. I rather like it.” He strode straight to Cortez and bowed low. “Sister. A pleasure to meet you.”
“Brother Firebird. The pleasure is mine.”
“He’s awfully cheerful,” Raiden said with a snort of laughter. “Did you just finish hearing the Priest of Ashes’…prayers? Hmm, Raz?”
Raz threw his head back and laughed. “At least I hear prayers and not curses, Raiden.”
Culebra sighed and leaned back against Corinos, content to wait until his brothers had finished their bantering.
They all turned as he sighed, however, the levity falling off. “So what happened?” Raz asked. “We have waited, worrying that you…”
“We did not,” Cortez said. “At least, we did not want to come back as one. But as to why…” She fell silent, and Culebra could see that it was all still a bit overwhelming for her.
He stepped forward and picked up the story, explaining everything that he had already said to Corinos and the others. “I could not let Licht do it…” he closed his eye, feeling the power that throbbed in his right eye. “When he poisoned me, and I realized what he intended, I killed him. I stopped just short of destroying him, though I know not where the remaining piece is…but by then it was too late. I could feel the world shaking apart all around me, but so saturated with the poison, there was only one way to stop it.”
“So you killed yourself, and sealed the power away…I can understand….” Raiden said softly. “Arashi and Typhoon destroyed themselves completely to break me free of the Seal. We all have been forced to do terrible things, Basilisk. Culebra. If you fear that we would have hated you…it is painfully obvious we all hold part of the blame.”
“Yes,” Nankyo said, frowning deeply in thought. “However, at present I am more concerned about a poison that could so powerfully affect a god. Such a thing…”
“Could only be created by another god,” Raz finished grimly.
Kin’s expression was black as he spoke. “None of us did it. We know nothing of such things. It is not our realm, not our style. In all of the world, I can think of only one person who understands such things enough to create such a poison.”
“Yes,” Culebra said grimly. “I realized the same before I died. It would not be the Unicorn, for poison is anathema to the purity he represents.”
“Nor the Pegasus,” Cortez said. “She is too direct.”
Raiden finished, the devastation and anger in his voice perfectly expressing how all of them felt. “The Faerie Queen. Why would the Faerie Queen help Licht poison the Basilisk?”
“Perhaps, when – if – Verde manages to break free of its tragic cycle, we will know,” Culebra said. “That tragedy and its unknown reasons will explain a great deal, I sense. We will simply have to wait and see…” For Verde had to save itself. The gods had made a pact never to interfere without explicit invitation…and if the gods were not there, they could not ask for help.
“We are glad to have you back,” Raz said again. “Both of you. Come visit, sometime. I will introduce you to my priest.”
“His adoring pet,” Raiden said, and laughed as Raz glared at him. “Enough. I return to my own treasure.” The dragons vanished as one, thunder rumbling loudly and gradually fading into the distance.
“Come visit,” Raz repeated, embracing Culebra and Cortez in turn. “I will come visit you, as well. Dym would like your temple.” He winked, then with nothing more than a wave, vanished.
“So…what happens now?” Cortez asked.
Culebra shrugged. “We wait.”
“Then, dear little brother, I think I shall take my Fidel and show him the Temple of Oblivar. I am still quite fond of it…”
“Take it,” Culebra said with a laugh. “This one was always my favorite.” He crossed the room and hugged Cortez tight. “Thank you…big sister.”
“You are welcome.” Cortez kissed his cheek, then let him go and latched onto Fidel. They vanished.
Corinos’s arms wrapped around him from behind. “So we wait?” He said in Culebra’s ear. “What do we do while we wait?”
“I’ll show you.”
Epilogue
Culebra turned as he heard movement in the snow, smiling faintly as Ruisenor came slithering over it towards him – the cold seemed not to bother her, and Culebra wondered if Sentinels felt such things.
He had not known Teufel had created such monsters. Jorge’s stark fear, after all that the man had done…
Culebra reached out to stroke glistening black scales as Ruisenor wrapped her thick, heavy body around him. The weight of her should have been too much to bear, but even as a mortal he had never been troubled by it. “Ah, my beauty…how did you escape when even Jorge could not, in the end, let go of the threads of Order Teufel tied to him?”
Ruisenor wrapped loosely around his throat, brushing his face with her own before settling her head on his shoulders. In the cold sunlight and glittering snow, against the whiteness of the Basilisk, she was a livid black mark.
Images flickered through his head, of the way she had fled, only a few weeks after being born, traveling and traveling, high into the mountains, deep underground, until she came to a land of heat.
Pozhar, of course.
From there, he sensed, she had somehow found her way onto a ship.
It wasn’t until she reached Piedre, he sensed, that she had begun to grow to her massive proportions. She was growing still – nearly eighteen feet long now.
A mere baby…
Culebra stroked her scales, let her absorb his warmth.
Ruisenor did not communicate much, she never had, but when she did her thoughts carried weight. She adored him. She cared for Corinos. She had not wanted to be as her others were – hunting things that should not be hunted, killing what did not need to die.
Under the cover of the Shadow of the Lost Licht.
Culebra sighed softly, not liking the grim turn of his thoughts when the snow was still freshly fallen, the sun making it almost painfully bright.
In the back of his mind he could sense Cortez rolling her eye, giving a sigh of her own, and telling him to knock it off. Culebra could not help a faint smile, and obediently tried to let his thoughts go.
Certainly he had better things to think about.
Problems might still abound in Schatten and Verde, but three of the five countries were on their way to healing. Even now he could feel the world slowly settling back into its proper rhythms, falling out of the danger that would have begun to wither it had it gone much longer without the gods that created and kept it.
He was no longer alone, and his children would be safer and happier for his presence, even if they did not entirely realize it. He wondered how Pruebas faired…someday he would have to see his brother…but not right now.
Right now he wanted to enjoy himself. Surely he had earned that much.
The steady, ever-amused presence of his sister chuckled in the back of his mind. Of course you have, little brother.
“Go play with Fidel,” Culebra muttered. He turned away from the edge of the cliff, fingers trailing along Ruisenor’s scales as the snake slithered from him and back down the cliff. Culebra followed her a ways, but when the great snake continued on into the forest, he turned toward the small, hidden entrance that led from the top of the waterfall down into his temple.
Myriad entrances to it were scattered across the central part of the Azul. When he had determined to make the temple his tomb, he had sealed off all but the one behind the waterfall.
Bit by bit he was unsealing the others, opening his temple up. Eventually, someday, people would come.
For now, it was just him and Corinos, and occasionally his sister and Fidel – though they preferred the smaller, simpler Temple Oblivar.
The cold vanished as he entered the tunnels of his caves, constantly warmed by Zhar Ptitka’s fires. He weaved his way through the tunnels, at last coming to the one he sought, wondering how long it would take Corinos to find him.
Not long. Corinos always somehow knew where to find him, even when Culebra made his way to chambers Corinos had not yet seen.
This chamber…this chamber Corinos would like. Culebra smiled and began to strip, leaving his clothes folded neatly by the door. He shivered slightly, the air a bit cool on his skin, and padded across the bare stone floor and slipped into the steaming water of the hot spring.
There were several pools, from these in the very back to a few more that actually were outside, which would be tempting, but more pleasant when the stars were out. Sighing softly, Culebra sank down until the water came up to his neck, leaning back against warm stone, just turned away from the entrance. Sighing again, loving the feel of the hot water, the contrast of it with the cooler air, Culebra closed his eye and waited.
Several minutes later he heard the familiar tread of his lover – his lover, the thought was still dizzying. So many years, so many tries, his memories said, and no one had ever been like Corinos.
The boots stopped, and he heard the rough, choking sound that said he taken Corinos quite neatly by surprise. So calm and collected, his bodyguard, most of the time. So very easy for Culebra to make him anything but.
“I did not know these were here,” Corinos said.
Culebra laughed and finally opened his eye. The dark patch around his other was damp from the steam, clinging to his pale skin. “I have been waiting to surprise you with them,” he replied, then lost any interest in talking, more than happy to watch as Corinos stripped, baring a well-formed body, skin like dark caramel, as fine to his eye as it had always been to his fingers.
Humming his pleasure, Culebra splashed across the pool and wrapped himself around Corinos as he slid into the water, mouth opening for the deep kiss Corinos immediately gave, loving the way that as hot as the water was – Corinos was hotter. He held tight as Corinos dragged him to where they could sit, loving the feel of skin and skin, the contrast between them. He sank his hands into the too-soft hair he loved, silently demanding more kisses that Corinos eagerly gave. He moaned and tilted his head back as knowing teeth began to nip and scrape, clever fingers began to search and play. “How did I keep away from you for so long, Corinos?”
“You were very blind,” Corinos said, amusement tingeing his voice as he paused in explorations to brush a tender kiss across Culebra’s mouth. “In more ways than one.”
Culebra smiled and cupped his face, dragging him back in for a proper kiss. “Not anymore.”
Chapter Seventeen
Culebra moved toward Cortez and reached out, hand landing on her shoulder, and he trailed down her arm until his fingers landed upon the rose in her hand. Taking it, he immediately retreated.
Fresh blood poured from new wounds as he held the stone rose tight, dripping onto the floor, leaving lurid red marks on the white tiles.
“Do you know why I, of all my brothers, was chosen to reign over death?” Culebra asked, continuing before anyone could try to formulate an answer. “The Storm Dragons, closest to chaos and greatest in power, are too playful. To them, life is the grandest and greatest of games. They will never be capable of ending that game.”
“The Firebird is too kind, too forgiving. He sees the lives that came before, the possibilities of the future, and so his perspective is quite different. Never could he take a life, unless there was absolutely no other recourse.”
“The Faerie Queen, by contrast, is too vindictive. She is loving, kind, but also too harsh at times, as protective parents can often be. The responsibility of death and destruction would fare poorly in her hands.”
“Licht…Licht felt too deeply, cared too much. Never should Licht be made to endure the powers that have fallen into my care. He never should have…” Culebra shook his head and let out a long, slow sigh. “I…was always the calmest of my brothers. Emotion tempered by control. I can bear the burden of controlling such a demanding element of the world we created.”
“I say all this only so that you might better understand what comes next.” Culebra tilted his head up, as if seeing something that no one else could. “I say I was the most suited of my brothers to take over the responsibilities of death and destruction…but doing so isolated me. My children loved me, and worshipped me, but there was always fear coloring their respect no matter what I did. How can you love death, after all? Even my brothers, love me as they did, seldom came to visit. Though of course none of us likes to leave our lands for long, still…I grew lonely. The Storms had each other, so too the Queen and Guardians. Licht had Teufel, and Zhar Ptitka was always so close to his children.”
Culebra lifted the stone rose to his face, ducking his head as if to smell the petals, touching the flower gently to his lips. “Every time I thought I’d found someone amongst the mortals who might stay and drive out the loneliness…they crumbled and left. No one can take being so close to someone as grim as I…”
He shook his head to clear it, and tried to more clearly focus his thoughts. “One night, when I was particularly despondent, hiding away in the Temple of Oblivar, Licht came to see me. He seemed as troubled as I, though for different reasons, and in each other we found solace and companionship.”
“That one night led to several others, Licht always seeking me out as he pleased, I more than content to stay secluded in my land and wait for him. We were brothers, and for those few months lovers – though his heart was always with Teufel and Schatten, and mine was always with Piedre.”
“Whatever was bothering him, it only got worse as the months passed. Eventually he broke down and told me he regretted the choice we made so long ago. That letting chaos dominate, rather than order, was a mistake. I disagreed. We argued. Eventually, frustrated, Licht left.”
“He came back several days later, and was more agitated than ever. Nearly wild in his anger, pain. I could not get him to explain what had upset him to the point of madness. Instead, he only demanded I use my powers to fix everything, to set all to rights…to let everything start over, and be the way it should have been all along. I told him no, and it escalated into an argument…which eventually devolved into violence. When it was clear he was losing, Licht vanished.”
Culebra lowered the rose, curling his arms around himself – but backing away when Corinos tried to draw close and offer him comfort. “Let me be. I must finish. I did not see Licht for days, after our fight. Nor did I tell any of my brothers, as I should have…they were already aware, of course, that Licht was acting strangely. He had sealed himself off, put up wards to keep everyone out of Schatten. All nine of us had promised, long ago, never to interfere in one another’s countries…though always we were willing to help. That Licht had sealed off Schatten entirely was strange, but Licht was always mercurial at best. He felt too deeply, always, and that led often to his acting strangely. So I took all that had passed between us as part of one of his strange moods, and kept my silence.”
“When I finally saw Licht again, he was contrite. He asked my forgiveness for his earlier behavior.” Culebra shook his head slowly back and forth again. “He’d even brought a favorite wine of mine – one created in Verde but made with Piedren spices – by way of apology. We drank.”
He fell silent, and stayed that way so long it almost seemed as though he had no intention of continuing his story. When he finally resumed speaking, his voice was faint, pained. “The wine was poisoned. So subtly, so skillfully, that I did not realize until too late that there was something wrong with it. The poison slowly spread through my system, and then struck hard and fast. It…completely ruined me…I could barely control my powers, barely reign them in. Never mind use them properly. It terrified me. There is very little which can frighten a god, even less that can terrify…” Culebra bit his lip, weighing his next words. “The poison ruined my ability to control my own powers, to even keep them. Such a poison…” He shook his head. “It left me prey to outside manipulation. Licht poisoned me to obtain my powers.”
“Barely was I able to prevent such a thing happening. It took me far too long even to realize what was happening. When I did…” Culebra hugged himself tighter, voice choking briefly before he regained control of it. “I could not allow him to get away with it. I could not let it happen.”
His mouth twisted with bitter sadness. “Don’t you see? Always I stand alone.” He ignored the rumblings of confusion as he abruptly shifted subjects, not yet willing to complete the story. “No one who stands with me does it for very long. Even if they want to, at first, and try to keep wanting.” He nearly gave in to the offer of comfort as he heard Corinos move toward him again. Vehemently he shook his head, stepping away. “It was because of my loneliness that Licht first sought me out. He knew it wore on me, knew I detested being alone though I tried not to burden my brothers and children with it. He used it against me, tried to coax me into his plan – and when that did not work, he found a way to poison me and nearly take them.”
“I was weak. Foolish. I will never allow it to happen again. My powers are best left as they have been for these past thousand years – sealed away in a lost temple and forgotten. Even I, who was most suited in all of creation, was not strong enough.”
Cortez snorted. “That’s stupid. Most importantly, you’re hurting Corinos’s feelings. He’d stay with you. Didn’t he come all this way for you? I doubt he’s ever minded your familiarity with death.”
Culebra wasn’t too certain – they had yet to completely discuss his revealing to his bodyguard that he could sense when someone was going to shortly die. How would Corinos, so dedicated to protecting, keeping alive, endure a lover who could sense the deaths of a person the very moment they were conceived? That he could, when necessary, see how and when every living thing would die? His realm was death. After so many years, it was always more than mortals could take. “Corinos loves me. He is my heart and soul. However no power in existence guarantees his feelings will not change after a few hundred years of being chained to a god of death. I have learned the hard way how painfully true that is.”
For reply, hands fell heavily on his shoulders, dragged him forward, then the arms slid to tighten around him as a mouth crashed down upon his. Corinos kissed him hard, brutally, with so much force Culebra felt his lip split, the taste of copper mingling with the lingering taste of coffee and sweet smoke in Corinos’s mouth.
“How many times, Culebra?” Corinos tore his mouth away and began to shake him hard. “How many times will you doubt me? Hurt me? How much longer must I wait until you finally believe me? I will never stop loving you. I came this far for you. I once beat up my own brother to stake my claim on you. I defied your brother to come here, even knowing that for doing so I will face far worse than a beheading.”
Culebra frowned. “I’ve said goodbye to too many lovers in the past. I do not want to see you fall into misery the way they did.”
“Being your lover is not the same as being in love with you, Culebra.” Rough fingers tenderly stroked his cheek.
“You don’t understand,” Culebra said, clutching tightly to the rose as he shoved Corinos back. “It’s not—it’s me—I—”
“Oh, shut up,” Cortez cut in. “Really. Be a good little brother and do as I tell you.”
Culebra whipped his head around toward her voice, frowning in confusion. “What? Little brother?”
Cortez stepped closer as she spoke, voice firm despite the light, teasing tone. “Exactly. I mean, I guess you’re really the older one. Right now, though, I’m older. Plus I look older – I mean I have twenty years or so on you, right? So I get to be the big sister.”
Culebra’s frown deepened. “What in the world are you talking about?”
Laughing, Cortez drew close enough he could smell the smoke that clung to her, sweat and grass. “I know what your problem is, and it’s not that you don’t believe Corinos loves you. That is perfectly obvious. Your problem, Culebra, was my mother’s problem. You do not share your burdens with anyone. You do not let anyone else bear them for a while, or help you carry them. I couldn’t help her, though I wanted to. Though I tried.”
“Cortez…” Culebra backed away nervously, not liking the tone of her voice – it was the sort of tone that drove someone to think that the best way to kidnap a prince was to sit around waiting in a room full of deadly snakes. “What are you doing?”
“Helping you,” Cortez said, then suddenly she was there, right in front of him, and grabbed the hand that held the rose, tangling their fingers together – and crushing the rose between their palms.
The power washed over him, a dead silence followed by a rushing of noise, drowning out everything, making the darkness blindingly white before it went black again. Over the din, he just barely heard Cortez laugh ruefully and say, “Assuming this works the way I thought it would.”
“Cortez!” Culebra shouted in outrage, right before he blacked out.
When he woke, Culebra felt different.
Everything was different. Changed.
“I’m going to kill you Cortez,” he said, not bothering to stir from where he lay – against Corinos, he realized.
A voice laughed, and Culebra froze at the way he sensed it as much as felt it. He could feel Cortez’s amusement. As though it were his own. “What have you done, you reckless fool?”
“Take a look and see,” Cortez said.
“Not funny,” Culebra snapped.
He could sense, almost see, the way she rolled her eye.
Eye. Singular. How…there was no way….
Slowly, doubting it could be true but knowing it was, Culebra opened his left eye. He drew a sharp breath.
In front of him was the…most interesting looking individual he’d ever seen. She had scars all across her face, her throat, and somehow he knew exactly where on her body the dozens of others were.
Not that he wanted that sort of knowledge. Culebra could feel his cheeks heat and shook his head furiously back and forth. “You—you—you—”
“Have done what you always wanted, little brother,” Cortez said with a taunting grin. Her right eye was covered by some of his bandages. Her left was a dark, smoke gray. “Two, rather than one. Now that the burden is shared, it will not be so great.”
“Scales and teeth!” Culebra howled, and tried to lunge at her, furious when strong arms held him back. “I did not want this! We could have—”
“Left our country incomplete? Without its god? You know we could never have done such a thing. This world will die without its creators. We never could have left this temple and continued as mortals.”
We. She kept saying we. Culebra curled back up into the arms that would not release their hold. It was true; every fiber of him knew it. He was no longer just Culebra, though he would always keep that name. He would always, to some degree, be Culebra. Except now he was not the Basilisk. He was a Basilisk. “Cortez…”
“Say ‘thank you, big sister.’ Though, this is going to take some getting used to, that’s for certain.”
A voice snorted, and Culebra looked up to see a man sitting nearby, taking long pulls on a cigarette. He was handsome, sort of…book-ish looking except for the sword and leather he wore so casually. “That is Cortez,” Fidel said dryly. “If you come to a cliff and your options are climb down, find another way, or jump – she does not stop to consider the options like a normal person, no. She comes to the cliff and says ‘let’s jump.’” He glared at her, but the fondness in his eyes was impossible to miss. “I’m not so certain you’re dignified enough to be a god of death.”
Cortez smiled at him, all teeth. “Keep it up, Fidel, and you will be punished. Seeing as I’m a god now, I can administer divine punishment.”
“What, precisely, does that mean?”
“It means I can say things like ‘no sex for a thousand years’ and mean it.”
Fidel dropped his cigarette, then glared at her and retrieved it. “You are not funny.”
Cortez laughed. “I am very funny.”
Culebra smiled briefly, unable to look away. He could see. See. After so many years…even as the Basilisk, he had never had sight. His ability to see at all had been lost to accommodate the terrible power to destroy.
The arms wrapped so firmly around him tightened, and Culebra drew a sharp breath, unable to believe how fast his heart suddenly started to beat. He stared at his own hands, as they came up to touch the dark skin of Corinos’s arms. So stark a difference against his own skin, still so bone white.
He frowned at Cortez. “Why don’t you look like a ghost?”
“Because, little brother,” Cortez turned from her continuing banter with Fidel, “I would look atrocious with your pale skin. You look quite pretty.” She smirked. “I’m sure your lover agrees.”
Bracing himself, more nervous than he thought a newly restored god should be, Culebra finally turned and looked up.
“Corinos…” His bodyguard was the worse for wear – days of growth on his face, scratches from traveling through the forest, eyes lined with exhaustion, hair very nearly a lost cause…but his eyes blazed with warmth, affection, and Corinos thought he could endure the most terrible agonies for this chance to finally put a face to the man he loved. As handsome and enthralling as the dark sugar voice that had immediately captured him so many years ago. Culebra twisted so he could slide free and face him properly, letting his fingers explore as they wished, gaze following the lines he knew so well by touch.
Finally he looked up again, hands sliding up Corinos’s arms. Those eyes, so dark, still burned with every emotion Culebra felt. “I do love you, Corinos.”
Corinos dragged him close and kissed him hard, possessively, arms wrapping around him like bands. Culebra opened to it, sinking his hands into the messy but still so soft hair, pressing as close as their clothing would allow, wanting never to stop kissing this man he had forced himself to stay away from for too long. “Corinos.”
“So should we leave?” Fidel asked. “Cause I’m not sure I actually want to watch them, if they’re going to get any more intense.”
Cortez snickered, and Culebra distantly head Fidel yelp as Cortez yanked him close. “We could always have a contest,” Cortez said. “See which couple can kiss better.”
“I don’t think I like you as a god,” Fidel complained. “You were already too cocky for your health and mine.”
Still snickering, Cortez leaned in and kissed him, almost immediately putting to rest any of Fidel’s lingering protests.
Corinos chuckled softly and renewed the fervor of his own kisses. Culebra didn’t even consider protesting.
All around them, through the Azul and beyond, the ground began to tremble ever so faintly, spreading a message to the world that the Basilisk was no longer lost.
“So finish your story,” Fidel said when Cortez and Corinos finally relented.
Culebra frowned, his hand unconsciously reaching out – and meeting Cortez’s, their fingers tangling, bringing their thoughts and feelings together, making them as one. “I did not finish it…because there are others who have to know. They died before the truth could be conveyed to them, for after the events of that night, the downfall happened very quickly.”
“Others?” Fidel asked.
“Yes,” Cortez said with a smile. “I do believe I have brothers to meet.”
Culebra heaved a sigh and reluctantly stood up, the others following suit. His hand was still clasped with Cortez’s, so rough where his own was smooth.
All around the chamber a great quantity of snakes had gathered, and Culebra was amazed at how many of them had come from the sanctuary he had not seen in what seemed ages now. Off in a shadowy corner was Ruisenor, coiled up and fast asleep.
Jorge’s body was gone. He had seen to that. He hoped, in his next life, the former child of Schatten was happy.
“Do you want to do the honors?” Culebra asked.
Cortez rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t think we need to extend a formal invitation.”
All around them everything seemed to rumble and shake – but not from the ground. It seemed as though the shaking came from the sky.
“Still showing off, I see…” Culebra said
As the ground-shaking thunder reached a crescendo and abruptly died, three men appeared suddenly in the room.
One looked like a sailor taken suddenly from his ship, except for the whiteness of his skin – nearly a match for Culebra’s. The clothes were dark, but the sash that cinched his tunic shut was a brilliant blue cut with diagonal bands of white. Beside him was a tall man who looked as though he were snatched straight from a tale about exotic pirates.
Culebra drew a sharp breath as his eye landed on the last man – slighter, shorter than the other two, and utterly breathtaking. He’d never seen him before, but something in him knew. “Y-you’re Nankyokukai. Nankyo. They said you were dead.”
“Culebra,” Nankyo said, real pleasure in his voice as he crossed the room to embrace his old friend. “I have missed you.”
Behind them, the pale-skinned Storm Dragon glowered.
The third one chuckled. “Now, Kin, do not be jealous.”
“I am not jealous,” Kin hissed.
Nankyo laughed and let go of Culebra, going back to stand with his brothers. “Basilisk…” his mischievous look shifted to Cortez. “Or should I say, Basilisks. We are happy to have you back. We feared…”
“That we would not be coming back?” Cortez asked, but got no further as the fire pit in the center of the room suddenly flared to life, the flames flicking high – then dying abruptly down, leaving only a short, slender man to step calmly out of the flames.
He was young-looking, but the depth to eyes that shifted like flickering flames spoke of his true age. He smiled around the room. “Did I arrive suitably?” He jerked his head toward the dragons. “How badly did they show off? Have I missed the fun? Basilisk.” He paused. “Oh. It’s plural now. I rather like it.” He strode straight to Cortez and bowed low. “Sister. A pleasure to meet you.”
“Brother Firebird. The pleasure is mine.”
“He’s awfully cheerful,” Raiden said with a snort of laughter. “Did you just finish hearing the Priest of Ashes’…prayers? Hmm, Raz?”
Raz threw his head back and laughed. “At least I hear prayers and not curses, Raiden.”
Culebra sighed and leaned back against Corinos, content to wait until his brothers had finished their bantering.
They all turned as he sighed, however, the levity falling off. “So what happened?” Raz asked. “We have waited, worrying that you…”
“We did not,” Cortez said. “At least, we did not want to come back as one. But as to why…” She fell silent, and Culebra could see that it was all still a bit overwhelming for her.
He stepped forward and picked up the story, explaining everything that he had already said to Corinos and the others. “I could not let Licht do it…” he closed his eye, feeling the power that throbbed in his right eye. “When he poisoned me, and I realized what he intended, I killed him. I stopped just short of destroying him, though I know not where the remaining piece is…but by then it was too late. I could feel the world shaking apart all around me, but so saturated with the poison, there was only one way to stop it.”
“So you killed yourself, and sealed the power away…I can understand….” Raiden said softly. “Arashi and Typhoon destroyed themselves completely to break me free of the Seal. We all have been forced to do terrible things, Basilisk. Culebra. If you fear that we would have hated you…it is painfully obvious we all hold part of the blame.”
“Yes,” Nankyo said, frowning deeply in thought. “However, at present I am more concerned about a poison that could so powerfully affect a god. Such a thing…”
“Could only be created by another god,” Raz finished grimly.
Kin’s expression was black as he spoke. “None of us did it. We know nothing of such things. It is not our realm, not our style. In all of the world, I can think of only one person who understands such things enough to create such a poison.”
“Yes,” Culebra said grimly. “I realized the same before I died. It would not be the Unicorn, for poison is anathema to the purity he represents.”
“Nor the Pegasus,” Cortez said. “She is too direct.”
Raiden finished, the devastation and anger in his voice perfectly expressing how all of them felt. “The Faerie Queen. Why would the Faerie Queen help Licht poison the Basilisk?”
“Perhaps, when – if – Verde manages to break free of its tragic cycle, we will know,” Culebra said. “That tragedy and its unknown reasons will explain a great deal, I sense. We will simply have to wait and see…” For Verde had to save itself. The gods had made a pact never to interfere without explicit invitation…and if the gods were not there, they could not ask for help.
“We are glad to have you back,” Raz said again. “Both of you. Come visit, sometime. I will introduce you to my priest.”
“His adoring pet,” Raiden said, and laughed as Raz glared at him. “Enough. I return to my own treasure.” The dragons vanished as one, thunder rumbling loudly and gradually fading into the distance.
“Come visit,” Raz repeated, embracing Culebra and Cortez in turn. “I will come visit you, as well. Dym would like your temple.” He winked, then with nothing more than a wave, vanished.
“So…what happens now?” Cortez asked.
Culebra shrugged. “We wait.”
“Then, dear little brother, I think I shall take my Fidel and show him the Temple of Oblivar. I am still quite fond of it…”
“Take it,” Culebra said with a laugh. “This one was always my favorite.” He crossed the room and hugged Cortez tight. “Thank you…big sister.”
“You are welcome.” Cortez kissed his cheek, then let him go and latched onto Fidel. They vanished.
Corinos’s arms wrapped around him from behind. “So we wait?” He said in Culebra’s ear. “What do we do while we wait?”
“I’ll show you.”
Epilogue
Culebra turned as he heard movement in the snow, smiling faintly as Ruisenor came slithering over it towards him – the cold seemed not to bother her, and Culebra wondered if Sentinels felt such things.
He had not known Teufel had created such monsters. Jorge’s stark fear, after all that the man had done…
Culebra reached out to stroke glistening black scales as Ruisenor wrapped her thick, heavy body around him. The weight of her should have been too much to bear, but even as a mortal he had never been troubled by it. “Ah, my beauty…how did you escape when even Jorge could not, in the end, let go of the threads of Order Teufel tied to him?”
Ruisenor wrapped loosely around his throat, brushing his face with her own before settling her head on his shoulders. In the cold sunlight and glittering snow, against the whiteness of the Basilisk, she was a livid black mark.
Images flickered through his head, of the way she had fled, only a few weeks after being born, traveling and traveling, high into the mountains, deep underground, until she came to a land of heat.
Pozhar, of course.
From there, he sensed, she had somehow found her way onto a ship.
It wasn’t until she reached Piedre, he sensed, that she had begun to grow to her massive proportions. She was growing still – nearly eighteen feet long now.
A mere baby…
Culebra stroked her scales, let her absorb his warmth.
Ruisenor did not communicate much, she never had, but when she did her thoughts carried weight. She adored him. She cared for Corinos. She had not wanted to be as her others were – hunting things that should not be hunted, killing what did not need to die.
Under the cover of the Shadow of the Lost Licht.
Culebra sighed softly, not liking the grim turn of his thoughts when the snow was still freshly fallen, the sun making it almost painfully bright.
In the back of his mind he could sense Cortez rolling her eye, giving a sigh of her own, and telling him to knock it off. Culebra could not help a faint smile, and obediently tried to let his thoughts go.
Certainly he had better things to think about.
Problems might still abound in Schatten and Verde, but three of the five countries were on their way to healing. Even now he could feel the world slowly settling back into its proper rhythms, falling out of the danger that would have begun to wither it had it gone much longer without the gods that created and kept it.
He was no longer alone, and his children would be safer and happier for his presence, even if they did not entirely realize it. He wondered how Pruebas faired…someday he would have to see his brother…but not right now.
Right now he wanted to enjoy himself. Surely he had earned that much.
The steady, ever-amused presence of his sister chuckled in the back of his mind. Of course you have, little brother.
“Go play with Fidel,” Culebra muttered. He turned away from the edge of the cliff, fingers trailing along Ruisenor’s scales as the snake slithered from him and back down the cliff. Culebra followed her a ways, but when the great snake continued on into the forest, he turned toward the small, hidden entrance that led from the top of the waterfall down into his temple.
Myriad entrances to it were scattered across the central part of the Azul. When he had determined to make the temple his tomb, he had sealed off all but the one behind the waterfall.
Bit by bit he was unsealing the others, opening his temple up. Eventually, someday, people would come.
For now, it was just him and Corinos, and occasionally his sister and Fidel – though they preferred the smaller, simpler Temple Oblivar.
The cold vanished as he entered the tunnels of his caves, constantly warmed by Zhar Ptitka’s fires. He weaved his way through the tunnels, at last coming to the one he sought, wondering how long it would take Corinos to find him.
Not long. Corinos always somehow knew where to find him, even when Culebra made his way to chambers Corinos had not yet seen.
This chamber…this chamber Corinos would like. Culebra smiled and began to strip, leaving his clothes folded neatly by the door. He shivered slightly, the air a bit cool on his skin, and padded across the bare stone floor and slipped into the steaming water of the hot spring.
There were several pools, from these in the very back to a few more that actually were outside, which would be tempting, but more pleasant when the stars were out. Sighing softly, Culebra sank down until the water came up to his neck, leaning back against warm stone, just turned away from the entrance. Sighing again, loving the feel of the hot water, the contrast of it with the cooler air, Culebra closed his eye and waited.
Several minutes later he heard the familiar tread of his lover – his lover, the thought was still dizzying. So many years, so many tries, his memories said, and no one had ever been like Corinos.
The boots stopped, and he heard the rough, choking sound that said he taken Corinos quite neatly by surprise. So calm and collected, his bodyguard, most of the time. So very easy for Culebra to make him anything but.
“I did not know these were here,” Corinos said.
Culebra laughed and finally opened his eye. The dark patch around his other was damp from the steam, clinging to his pale skin. “I have been waiting to surprise you with them,” he replied, then lost any interest in talking, more than happy to watch as Corinos stripped, baring a well-formed body, skin like dark caramel, as fine to his eye as it had always been to his fingers.
Humming his pleasure, Culebra splashed across the pool and wrapped himself around Corinos as he slid into the water, mouth opening for the deep kiss Corinos immediately gave, loving the way that as hot as the water was – Corinos was hotter. He held tight as Corinos dragged him to where they could sit, loving the feel of skin and skin, the contrast between them. He sank his hands into the too-soft hair he loved, silently demanding more kisses that Corinos eagerly gave. He moaned and tilted his head back as knowing teeth began to nip and scrape, clever fingers began to search and play. “How did I keep away from you for so long, Corinos?”
“You were very blind,” Corinos said, amusement tingeing his voice as he paused in explorations to brush a tender kiss across Culebra’s mouth. “In more ways than one.”
Culebra smiled and cupped his face, dragging him back in for a proper kiss. “Not anymore.”
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Date: 2007-02-26 11:55 am (UTC)Hurrah for Cortez and her stubborness. If anyone deserves to be a goddessl, she does.
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Date: 2007-02-26 12:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 12:33 pm (UTC)I like the twist of Cortez sharing the power, that was unexpected. Poor Fidel. He has to get used not just to having Cortez as a former enemy, but a lover and a goddess as well. *giggles*
Thank you so much for starting my week off so well!
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Date: 2007-02-26 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 12:58 pm (UTC)But wait, there are two more stories in the series. That's good. Very good. So Verde's next? Dare I hope Ivan and Ailill will make an appearance?
Cortez as a Basilisk? Didn't see that coming, but so like her! Dym, Corinos and Fidel should get together and discuss the proper ways to worship one's deity.
I'd love to read about Culebra's meeting with his brother. That would be interesting in so many ways... *chibi!dragon eyes*
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Date: 2007-02-26 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 03:25 pm (UTC)I love getting to see the stories of the gods, and how they were lost. Licht's story sounds very sad. I'm dying to know more about Teufal and what is going on with him now. Grief? He is Licht's shadow, I think... which, very cool. So losing Licht is losing his lover, but also his other half of his self, his balance. How many of us have created 'sentinals' to keep others away in our grief? Poor Teufal.
On to Verde!! Yes? *puppy eyes*
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Date: 2007-02-26 03:32 pm (UTC)Also, I totally second the wanted to see Culebra meet with his brother. Grr, I want so badly to see him ...something. Bow, grovel, tremble, repent. Some reaction. Or maybe he would be as dismissive and oblivious as ever. Eh, human lives are short. The next generation will be more humble and reverant.
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Date: 2007-02-26 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 06:49 pm (UTC)And now of course, the deathly curiosity has shifted from that to the Fairy Queen and more of the circumstances around Licht wanting to revert back to order, and Tuefal, who I'm very confused on (is he one of the nine gods? Because I thought it was Raiden, Kin, Nankyo (and yay for that reunion ^___^) as the dragons, Culebra as the basilisk, Raz as the firebird, and then Licht, who was nearly completely destroyed, and then the Fairy Queen, the Pegasus and the Unicorn, and I may be missing something obvious here. ^___^;;).
*____* And I'm a definite melty goo pile over Corinos and Culebra. The ending, those lines, just perfect. ^_________^
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Date: 2007-02-26 07:10 pm (UTC)Oh Licht, I sense a really wonderful story out of that one.
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Date: 2007-02-26 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 08:31 pm (UTC)This was an absolutely fantastic ending to a story that I loved all the way through. And I love how each story has a self contained plot, but the whole saga has a much bigger plot running through that just got very interesting and very intriguing. Why did they do it? I am agog to know, and I hope the next story will be arriving soon!
Much, much love.
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Date: 2007-02-26 08:38 pm (UTC)things that made me really really happy:
1. CULEBRA CAN SEE!! Yay!! (I actually quite literally squealed when I got to that part. I thik I'm just really bouncy today, but that was SO exciting!
2. The big meeting of all the currently reawakened gods! That may be my favorite part of the story, at the end where the god(s) of the story is finally restored and all the gods who've returned thus far meet up. Most exciting in this story, because we're starting to gather a nice collection. ^___^ And it's so great that Culebra and Nankyo are both gods where they were old friends already.
3. Cortez. Brilliant (perhaps a bit hasty) but so, so awesome of her to have done that. It would take a special kind of person to be willing to share a burden like that; lucky for Culebra, Cortez is quite a special person. Now Culebra/Basilisk won't be so lonely ^___^
Thus, a tragedy of the likes of the one that caused the whole mess this story is spawned from is unlikely to happen again, because it seems the gods are coming back in better positions than they were previously. Sometimes only really slightly, but for example, the Basilisk obviously has a major alteration - the very fact that the Basilisk was so alone was a major cause of the tragedy, and that is finally not an issue - his retinue somehow expanded from one to four. Yay. Culebra deserves happiness.
Anyway. I'm rambling. Wow, I'm bouncy. Sorrry this is going to end up being so long.
It's really exciting, though, we're finally seeing some of the pieces of the mystery come together. It will be interesting to hear the Faerie Queen's explanantion... Another great thing that this story did was introducing Schatten. We've only been getting vague hints of it, here and there - we're finally starting to se a bit more, now.
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Date: 2007-02-26 09:08 pm (UTC)And term queen in the Faerie Queen is used differently than I think it is, she is presumably straight. (Is now having flashbacks of the Drag Queen of Elfland)
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Date: 2007-02-26 09:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 09:36 pm (UTC)Perhaps even better is the role of Licht, which you started revealing a few chapters ago, and the relationship between Licht and Teufel. This revelation is especially powerful, because the other gods believed Teufel to hae been responsible for Licht's downfall. My one question is why the gods, especially Raiden and Raz, didn't react more to this news. Raiden's explanation shows that he believed things had happened very differently, so shouldn't he be more surprised by the truth?
Now the combination of Licht's motivations and Culebra's reference to Teufel's Order makes me wonder if Teufel is still loyally devoted to Licht. I like this twist much better than evil shadow overthrew good light, because I don't agree with the fantasy convention that light is automatically good and dark is always evil. Anything that defies that stereotype is good in my book.
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Date: 2007-02-26 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 09:52 pm (UTC)*glomps you* Hope any of that made sense :D:D
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Date: 2007-02-26 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 11:03 pm (UTC)Never underestimate a crazy woman ^___^ I am glad you approve, Tygs will tell you I fretted to death wondering if that worked outside my head.
You're not missing anything. Teufel is exactly what they always says: The Shadow of Licht. He's not a god, just...the next closest thing. More of him won't be learned, unfortunately, until book five.
<<<333 Thank you, my dearest. Your approval means a lot.
And I have not forgotten the promised drabble. Will get to shortly ^___^
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Date: 2007-02-26 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 03:17 am (UTC)*twirls you about* You are truly amazing, you know that right? Gyah!
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Date: 2007-02-27 04:13 am (UTC)Oooh, okay. ^__^;; I thought I read too fast or something, but I'll hold onto my questions about him until the fifth.
::grin:: As tygs'll tell you, I give my approval freely and easily for good fic (or at least hers, which is good, like yours, which is good ^___^)
Drabble! Request one back, too, please!
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Date: 2007-02-27 10:15 am (UTC)-->insert incoherent fangirling here<--
That's just yummy. I think we all fell a little in love with Cortez. *grin* You always have such wonderfully sensible and deliciously pragmatic female characters.
Damn, you're good.
*grin*
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Date: 2007-02-27 08:52 pm (UTC)As a small question, did you intend to have the name of one of the Storm Gods, Typhoon, to be the English word rather than romaji of the original Japanese, Taifuu? I only inqire about it for the sake of consistancy, but it's nothing major.
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Date: 2007-03-10 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 11:05 pm (UTC)You fail. :/ Next time, log in.
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Date: 2007-03-26 04:13 pm (UTC)I love the mystery and how everything tied together in the end. I think the idea of the power being split between Cortez and Culebra is brillant. And I'm so glad he can see now and is much happier.
Ruisenor is a fantastic character, even if she's a snake that doesn't say much. Her protectiveness is... awe inspiring.
Funny, when I was reading a few chapters back I thought that Cortez and Culebra had either a sibling relationship, or she was like an aunt to him. I'm glad she kind of 'adopted' him. It adds that last little kick in the face to his loneliness.
Eeeee, I loved it. ^.^ Muchly. You rock.