Blessed by Night

Chapter 201: Going Home

What do you think of when you hear the term 'perfect being' ?

Do you think of someone gorgeous beyond compare?

Or perhaps someone with no fear, insecurity, or self doubt.

An immovable force.

No matter what you think of, you probably imagine something desireable and thus dream to possess it for yourself.

For beings who are truly perfect and deserving of the title 'god' the truth is that they are anything but.

Their perfection means they are complete.

But complete in a sense that is not all benevolent and grand like the followers of the Christian god believe.

If any of them ever really understood what a truly perfect being is they would crucify it, and proclaim it to be an unholy and evil abomination.

A true perfect being means that it is complete as in it contains everything within itself and does not lack anything else, therefore it cannot acquire anything.

To be a perfect being means that it must be it's own cause.

Though they cannot acquire anything, they sometimes interfere with casuality liesurely without understanding why.

As long as it interests them at least.

For even though they are the pinnacle of a being who transcends through every layer of reality, sometimes even they do not know everything, and they interfere with the lives of those lesser because… why not?

Who is there to chastise them for doing so?

How else are they to alleviate the boredom that comes from living in every layer of reality, every corner of fantasy and imagination, and every narrative all at once?

And yet, the goddess Nyx was about to do so.

She had traveled all of the way from earth through space and time to a place referred to only as the edge.

Even if I were to try to describe it to you, I would not be able.

It is a place that defies mortal comprehension and knowledge, as it is a place we are never even meant to dream of, let alone imagine.

The closest I could come to painting a picture is to say that the goddess is staring at you, right now through whatever device you may be viewing this on.

But she is not staring at you in particular.

She is looking through you, to the being behind you.

The one behind us all.

"Why… did you take him from me..?"

"…"

"Answer me, Calligo! You stole my precious son away from me for an entire year, no I'm sure it was even longer for you! Tell me why, NOW!"

Nyx received no answer, it did not matter how much she yelled.

Instead, something entirely different happened.

It all happened so fast.

At a fraction of even the speed of light, it was almost as if nothing had happened at all.

But Nyx knew the truth of the matter.

For just one infinitesimally small moment, she had ceased to exist.

Burned away from existence, every existence, just to be put right back again.

It was a warning and a very solemn one at that.

Gritting her teeth, Nyx flew away knowing that she would receive no verbal answer.

But then again, she already knew it before she even came, she just wanted to be angry at someone for all of the precious time that had been stolen from her with her son.

The being had done it because it could, and there was no other explanation required.

It wasn't fair at all, but then again what else could she have expected from her own mother?

-

Already, Mal was realizing just how much he hated having a heartbeat.

As his mother's avatar, he didn't have to worry about it.

He'd forgotten just how loud his own heart could beat whenever he was nervous, and it was showing itself now that he was standing firmly in the familiar elevator of his home base.

Evidently, Anna could hear it as well because she snickered a bit as she took his hand in hers.

"I don't think I've ever seen you like this before. You weren't even this nervous when you asked me to marry you."

"Yea, well… I was nervous back then too, you just couldn't hear it."

"Well back then or now, there's no reason to be nervous." Anna planted a quick peck on Malachi's cheek, and he felt his unease being siphoned away.

Out of the corner of his eye, he found Joanne leaning against the wall farthest from him, as if she were trying to avoid him for the time being.

When things finally settled down, he wanted to find a moment to talk to her… and let her know that he would never allow her to fall into harm's way ever again.

Ding!

The elevator finally came to a screeching halt, and Malachi realized that he could feel multiple recognizable prescences just on the other side the doors.

The door seemed to open in slow motion, and as soon as the other side was visible Malachi was quickly barreled into and knocked onto the ground.

Nadine was just as beautiful as he remembered, and evidently just as strong too.

Crying, she filled his ears with the sound of her sobs as she muttered disbelieving words of thanks and heartache.

Suddenly Malachi felt more weight on his chest, and two more bodies piled on top of his own- those of Sei and Bianca.

A few times, he tried to tell the girls that he was glad to see them too and he was sorry to be gone for so long, but he was unsure if any of his words got through due to their chorus of wails.

Nevertheless, he said them anyway in the hopes that they would somehow reach their collective subconscious.

"Ada!"

An unfamiliar noise prompted Malachi to sit up, even with the weight of three grown women on his chest.

Looking past Sei's dark brown hair, he found Luna standing in the corridor with all of his friends from Immortal Moon behind her.

She looked just as radiant as ever, but her tears seemed to be a reflection of all of the weight that was dropped on top of her shoulders when Mal disappeared.

In her arms, she held a very small baby that was no older than a couple of months.

She was precious beyond measure, with dark grey hair and purple-pink eyes.

Her skin was caramel colored and soft looking, and she held a beauty inherited from both of her parents.

She held out one of her small and pudgy hands and pointed at the man lying in the elevator.

Luna smiled and grabbed her daughter by her baby hand and first pointed at Anna.

"Cami, that's your other mother Annalise… She was gone for a long time but I hope you'll learn to love her just like the rest of us."

Anna covered her mouth as tears started to fall from her own eyes and she sank to the ground.

Finally, Luna pointed back to the man lying on the floor, one who seemed to be on the verge of falling to pieces himself.

"And that is…"

In a flash of light, the young girl teleported from her place in Luna's arms and reappeared on the floor in front of Malachi, and she immediately placed her hand on his thigh.

Immediately, brief flashes of memories were imprinted into his mind that seemed to be from an entirely different lifetime.

'Shear..?'

"Ada!"