Deathstalker 05 - Deathstalker Destiny

wildest of emotions are commonplace here, and passions rise and fall as regularly as the tides. A perfect place to hide, for such as you and I. For the things we've become. Even the Mater Mundi can't pierce the maelstrom of real and faked emotions that fuel the everyday business of a House of Joy. And down here, where the darkest aspects of the human heart are released and savored, a careful and cautious mind can stay hidden forever.
    I've lived here a long time, maybe decades, maybe centuries, it's hard to tell.
    Hidden in the eye of the hurricane, forgotten by the world.
    "So why make contact with me?" said Diana. "Why bring me here?"
    Because I'm frightened, said the soft, awful voice. You've been stirring up things better left alone, awakening things that have been sleeping in the dark forgotten cellars of human history. I know the truth of the Mater Mundi, a secret that frightens me so much I've chosen to live here like a rat in its hole rather than risk the wrath of Our Mother of All Souls. You have no idea of what you're challenging.
    "Then tell me. And show yourself. I didn't come all this way just to listen to a voice in my head. You don't have to be afraid of me."
    Oh, but I do, I do. You don't know what I've become, what I had to become, to survive. I was human once, like you. A manifest of the Mater Mundi. I thought I was the chosen one, the holy one, the savior of the espers. And just like you, I was crazy enough to avoid being driven insane, and destroyed by the process. I survived, when so many others died. And also like you, I went looking for answers, for the truth behind what had touched me and changed me forever. I found my answer, but it didn't make my happy or wise. I faked my own death, and came here, long, long ago. And now I can never leave.
    The swirling emotions and raging passions were enough to hide me, but after a while… that wasn't enough. I was tempted, bit into the sweet apple, and fell from what little grace I had left. I don't just hide here, these days. I feed.
    My mind draws on the energies around me, draining sustenance from my sweet victims. Never enough to be noticed, but enough to keep me alive long after I should have died. I told myself I had to stay alive, it was my duty, to wait for someone like you, who might prove strong and brave enough to confront the Mater Mundi where I could not. But really, I was just afraid to die… and the feeding was so sweet, so very sweet. My name is Varnay, and there is a very old name for
    what I am.
    He finally let his shields drop, and appeared before her. Diana's stomach turned, and she grimaced despite herself, fighting to keep from looking away.
    Varnay was inhumanly large, fat and bloated, pallid as a corpse, with a huge wet red mouth. Dressed in black rags and tatters, he looked like nothing so much as a giant, distended leech. His dark eyes were huge, dominating his face, staring unblinkingly. There were patches of rot visible on his face and hands, and his nose had been eaten away long ago, leaving a discolored gap in the middle of his swollen face. A body that should have been dead long ago, sustained by unnatural energies and an inhuman hunger.
    Diana wondered if he slept in a coffin.
    "Don't condemn me," said Varnay, and his voice was just as awful in his mouth as it had been in her mind. "You don't have the right to condemn me. Only the smallest of chances separate your Jenny Psycho from what I have made of myself.
    I've followed your progress, from a distance. We've both done questionable things. We're both monsters."
    "No," said Diana. "The Mater Mundi's the real monster. She made us what we are.
    She bears the responsibility, and she must be brought to justice."
    "Oh; if you only knew," said Varnay, his distended red lips moving in something that might have been meant as a smile. "Even after all you've learned, you're still so far from the truth."
    "Then tell me!"
    "What use is wisdom if it brings no profit to the wise? The truth won't make you happy, Diana. It won't set you free."
    "Tell me anyway. You know you're going to. Otherwise all the years you've spent hiding here, becoming… what you are, will all have been for nothing."
    "Sweet Diana. Dear Jenny. Looking so hard in all the wrong places for what was always right under your nose. Don't look outward for the Mater Mundi; look inward. All the way in. The Mater Mundi, Our Mother Of All Souls, is nothing more than the collective unconsciousness of all espers. A