He crooked a finger at me, calling me closer, and I almost lost control and went to him.
Memories flashed at me, faded broken memories.
Swimming, family dinners, movie nights.
This man, he’d been part of my life … before. He’d been important and special.
You’re no longer that being.
The spirits had been quiet, but they started to stir now.
Any that distract should be eliminated.
It caught my attention, because they had been without much opinion until now. No real direction from them, just their powers guiding my vision. But maybe I’d been relying too heavily on their guidance, not realizing that was the same thing as an opinion.
Did they show me truth, or just their warped version of it?
Always truth. Truth is truth. No matter what.
Right. That was right. But … if black was black and white was white … what was gray?
Because there were shades of all three in truth. I’d learned that through so many of my life’s battles and journeys.
Moments I was just starting to remember.
Removing the cloak from around me, I appeared in the air, visible.
The male had never taken his eyes from me, and wasn’t remotely surprised. But the others, they jumped swinging in my direction, their various powers ready and waiting should I attack.
They didn’t strike first though, and I found that … interesting.
“You all know who I am?” I said, my voice thundering because that’s what it did now. Too much power to be quiet.
The man … the man I could not tear my eyes from … stepped forward, almost protectively standing before the mass. “You’re Maddison James. You’re my mate.”
“Our family,” another, dark-skinned man said. He had green eyes, piercing in their intensity, and he carried a cloak of shifter energy around him. Another of my newly reformed gods.
“My friend,” a third man said, with arresting violet eyes and an ancient, restless energy. He was unique, and … kind. He had helped me. I remembered him. I remembered them all.
“Hey, girl!” A fourth. This time a woman with jet black hair, stunning, aristocratic features, and sky-blue eyes. “You wouldn’t kill your girl gang, right?”
Girl-gang.Again. That was why it had crossed my mind, because these people were my friends.
The spirits stirred again.Not your friends. Maddison’s friends. You are no longer her. You are the Mother of All.
Energy swirled and crashed around me, my own turning the seas that surrounded this land into a mass of tropical storms. “The world is corrupt,” I told them. Why I was explaining myself, I would never know, but I … I wanted them to understand. “I’ve tried to remake small parts of it, but … it never ends. I can’t find a reason to save it.”
They pushed closer to me, none of them concerned by the force of the power surrounding me. They were brave. Or stupid.
Or both.
“There is so much good here,” someone said, and I didn’t know this person, but they faced me with kindness in their eyes. “Your vision is shrouded … maybe you need to step into the light.”
The spirits stirred harder, fighting to cloud my judgement again, but here, surrounded by all of this power, they couldn’t quite achieve what they wanted.
“Show me,” I said suddenly, deciding this was it. The last chance.
The final song.
