The Age of Lost Omens
Her silver hair glistened as the rain began to fall, swept to the side as she turned to stare accusingly at the ranger. “What…” She snarled. Her voice, as harsh as the fury of nature itself, was a barely-controlled whisper. “…are you?” She finished.
Tesla turned, his already weary eyes just managing to achieve contact with her. “He’s a clone.”
“A what?”
“I made him. In my godforsaken lab, from nothing but a bloody cloth. Because I wanted to.”
The air stilled as the mixed emotions of the group, no longer united by their charge in the fledgling god, stood pregnant with the threat of violence. Lightning struck, and the rain continued to fall. Kyla narrowed her eyes at the now full-elf, her calm voice masking the fury within.
“It has to die.” She said, as Raiku and Corvin stepped out from behind her. Power and grace incarnate, the twin tigers slowly advanced on Srava. Norila took a small step to stand between him and the terrifying menaces.
“Steel!” Norila cried. “Stop this madness. Reason with her. Tell her!”
Tesla barely managed to raise his head, the weight of his entire life bearing down on his almost lifeless eyes. Norila saw it, the despair in the doctor’s eyes, and, drawing her battle-axe, turned to the elven Druid.
“He died. We brought him back to life. All we wanted was to-“
“It doesn’t matter!” Kyla roared back. “It is an affront to nature. It needs to die.”
“Please.” Norila asked. “Y-you can’t,” The dwarf turned to the doctor, tears beginning to blur her vision “Make her stop!”
“It doesn’t matter. He’s going to die. We’re… all… going to die.” Tesla looked down in shame, but what he did next made the dwarven woman’s blood run cold. With a pained look, he lifted the metal headband from the clone’s crown, and Dr. Tesla Steel turned his back, retreating to the spot where Aroden had disappeared and pulled out the godling’s last letter, staring as if it were the only anchor holding him to this reality.
It was then that something broke inside of her. An old pain, a hole formed by her love for the human Ranger, slashed open upon his death and crudely patched by the clone’s company, tore her heart apart. And with it, her mind. There was nothing left but a crimson red that filled her sight, and a black flame that erupted from her mouth with a mind-piercing scream of anguish.
Lightning struck, and with it both dwarf and tigers sprung into the attack. Norila swung her axe, and swung again. Again, and again. There was no thought, no tactics, just the sound of her axe as it swung for fur, sliced cleanly through muscle and bone. Only Kyla would measure the moments that followed as a few mere seconds. “It does matter” echoed in her mind, even as her body reeled with the pain of the tiger’s combined assaults. Srava watched on in fear, Tesla’s words echoing in his broken mind.
He has no soul. He’s not a real person.
The tigers quickly overpowered the dwarf, despite her powerful rage, and as she hit the ground, her head striking a rock with a sickening crack, Srava began to cry. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t.
He has no soul. He’s not a real person.
Tesla turned to look, his heart empty even as he watched the blood flow from his ally’s head, and the tears from the face of his would-be son. He would lose two sons today, it seemed. And a friend. And yet, as the tigers advanced, he turned to stare at Aroden’s note. The tigers roared, Srava let out his final screams, and Tesla softly spoke.
“He has no soul. He’s not a real person.”
