Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

claiming her, eating into her flesh so that it turned translucent. Pelarak waved a hand through her, scattering her image like smoke.
    “You went to her,” the priest said. “I spoke with your father. I know what you have done. Do you not see how foolish you are? A girl. A young, stupid girl, and yet you thought she had wisdom?”
    Aaron slumped, and his eyes stared at a floor with no texture or shape.
    “Her prayers were so real,” he said. “She meant them. She felt them. That is what I wanted.”
    Pelarak grabbed Aaron’s hair and jerked upward so they could stare eye to eye.
    “Madmen gibber that demons live within them, and that their voices torment them daily. Do they not believe as deeply as that little girl did? Why not go to them for guidance?”
    To this Aaron had no answer, but Pelarak did.
    “Because she had a dream that you desired,” the priest said, letting go of Aaron’s hair. “You liked what she believed. It sounded sweet. But the only thing that matters is the truth. Would you willfully live a lie just because you like it? Should I tell you that your girl is fine, and that the world is a beautiful place, and that no one will ever hurt you? I’d love to live in that world, but that doesn’t make it real. What is real, Aaron? What do you
know
is real?”
    He thought of Robert Haern dead, killed by his student’s hands. His hands.
    “I know I’ve killed those I love,” he said.
    “Ah yes, and why?” Pelarak asked. “What is it that brought about their murders?”
    A light flashed in Aaron’s eyes. He knew. He saw his love and devotion, saw to whom he had given them. His guilt and shame coalesced into a hardened arrow, no longer aimed at himself. There was one person who deserved it all. The one who had strangled his soul and perverted his desires. The one who had used his love to inspire murder and destruction. His own father.
    “I prayed to Ashhur,” Aaron said. It was no lie. “Because of that, people died.”
    “Precisely,” Pelarak said. “Is that Ashhur’s power? Devotion leading to death? Karak is power, boy. He is the Lion. He is king of all, and all will tremble before his roar and bow to kiss his claws.”
    Suddenly Pelarak was gone. The chains cracked and broke. Aaron crumpled to the ground, shivering in the darkness. He felt cold. His teeth chattered.
    And then the Lion approached. It walked from afar, too far to be inside the small room. Its fur was fire, burning atop skin made of molten rock. Eyes swirling with smoke fixed upon his trembling form. When it opened its mouth, teeth the size of daggers glistened with fresh blood.
    Behold the Lion
, shouted a voice, impossibly deep and booming from every corner of the room.
Behold the power of his majesty.
    The Lion roared. Deep within its gullet Aaron saw a thousand weeping lives. They reached upward and wailed, their cries mixing with the mighty roar of a god. Aaron felt his soul quiver. He mashed his face to the cold dark stone. Tears flowed from his eyes. He couldn’t think. He could only tremble in wonder.
    Do you doubt my authority?
the Lion asked.
Who are you to me, mortal? When your life ends, I am the Truth that awaits you. Where shall you stand in my eternity? Will you worship beside me, or will I consume you in fire and grind your bones in my teeth?
    Aaron sobbed shamelessly. He’d never felt such terror. He was naked before a god, pathetic and helpless. He pounded his fists against the floor. Sweat covered him like a cold sheet. The Lion roared again, and its breath was fire and steel. His clothes ripped and his flesh tore. Blood spilled outward in bizarre directions, as if the laws of the world had no bearing within Karak’s sacred room.
    Will you swear your life to me?
the Lion asked.
    A deep part of Aaron wanted to submit. He wanted the terror to end. The darkness would consume him, and it seemed wisest to surrender. Standing beside the Lion was better than the wailing he heard within. Infinitely better.
    Aaron thought of what Robert had said. Ashhur was everything good in mankind. With tears in his eyes he looked up to the Lion, searching for that same goodness. He saw none of it within the fire. Death, consumption, anger, and condemnation looked upon him, smoldering in physical form. None of the love that had filled Delysia’s prayers could live within that horrific creature. He felt his mind splitting, as if two paths were before him and half wanted to go down one and half the other.
    Swear