Inescapable 04

As a Death Goddess, desire and it’s many forms were something not familiar to me. What use would I have for passion? After all, love and lust were not something that should be taken onto the battlefield. The thought of yearning for another being had been a foreign concept to me. I had spent a great deal of eternity with my heart frozen, my soul’s experiences inside my human hosts nothing more than mere dreams. And dreams were something I found were easily dismissed.

At least, until my path crossed paths with Lucian. I would not realize it at first, but that man awoke something inside me. Something that was stronger than the seal Lord Odin has placed on my memories and emotions. It would began to fragment, my attraction to my einherjar Lucian growing. I would have never acted on such emotions, but Lucian persisted in his pursuit of me. A pursuit that started merely because I resembled a girl from his past.

Of course at the time neither of us knew that the girl he remembered, had been the latest in a long line of my human hosts. Lucian would learn of this past life, and the knowledge would make him relentless. The man was determined to awake in me the girl from his past, a bold maneuver to think to supplant a goddess with the persona of some human girl.

A great many things would happen, the least of which being the near destruction of everything and everyone. But eventually the realms would be saved, and Lucian would be returned to me. I was Death Goddess no more, and ready to explore with him the emotions that Odin had denied me.

My point in telling you this, is that I knew of love. A love so sweet and kind that once I would have smiled to remember it. It wasn’t like the love Lezard claims to feel for me. It wasn’t all consuming. Nor were Lucian and I slave to our passions. Ours had been a give and take relationship, neither one trying to overtake the other. This experience with Lezard was more primal, raw and honest in the depths of the desire he felt for me. I dare say if I hadn’t had the experience of Lucian, I would have been completely overwhelmed by Lezard in the moments that followed my defeat.

A body can be a traitorous thing, even that of a Goddess. It can be made to feel so many different things, pain and satisfaction just a small example of the range it is capable of. Most betraying is that of desire, a body yearning for something the mind and heart do not want, nor are they willing to accept. Even as I hated Lezard, my body was fighting me, dampening in arousal.

It wasn’t an easy won victory for Lezard. He had to earn every drop, his fingers being called into play for all their expertise. But his patience did not fray, the madman persisting in forcing an acceptance through my body. I fought him every step of the way, but I only delayed the inevitable. For all my fight, for all my flailing, he would find himself seated inside me.

I think I screamed them, railing in horror to be violated in so thorough a manner. His smile never wavered. I can’t begin to imagine what he thought of my panic, of the revulsion that shook it’s way through me. But he wouldn’t stop, not until he ingrained himself so thoroughly on every nerve of my body. It was a possession so thorough I would never forget, never escape the memory of it.

And when he was through, I was left shaken, barely able to catch my breath as Lezard hovered over me. Those oddly colored eyes of his were concerned, as if his worry could somehow make up for the wrong he had committed against me. When he went to raise a hand to my cheek, I turned from him. I didn’t want his concern, his attempts at feigned tenderness.

Wordlessly he would withdraw. I cared not that I left myself open to further attacks, my back to him as I crouched on the floor. But my senses were full of him, my ears listening to the sounds of his clothing rustling. My nose caught the scent of us both, mixed together in the way that only sex can provide. And my belly was full of the proof of his satisfaction.

I’d shiver anew, in the moment ready to welcome death. What more was left to me? The world I had loved and strove so hard to protect was gone, my einherjar dead, my sisters wiped out. I’d have been glad if he had struck me from behind, would have reveled in Gungnir’s tip thrusting through my heart. But no such attack came from him. Instead something heavy and warm settled over my shoulders. I barely reacted at first, not caring for the mockery he made of a gentleman’s act.

“Lenneth…” At some point he had stopped using my full name. As though he had earned the right to be so familiar with me. As weak as I was from all that had happened, anger still flared in me.

“Don’t!” I lurched to my feet, his cloak sliding off me. I made no move to catch it, not caring that I was naked without it. Somehow, Lezard managed to keep his concerned look, his gaze not straying from my face. But then, he had already seen all I had to offer just moments ago.

“Don’t?” He echoed, his voice confused. “What is it you don’t want me to do?”

There was a million things I could name, the most offensive already having been done to me. I was shaking before him, hands clenching into fists as I narrowed my eyes into a glare. “Don’t speak my name in that familiar manner…..” More wanted to come out, my mind crying for him to not look at me, to not touch me. But it was too late for all of that.

Lezard didn’t look like he understood why something as simple as saying my name could upset me so. “Lenneth….” At a protest from me, he tried again. “Lenneth….this is foolishness. Why shouldn’t I be familiar with you after what we shared?”

“Sharing would imply what happened was mutually wanted!” I snapped. Lezard had no quick retort for me, the man merely shrugging his shoulders. I seethed in response, watching as he stepped towards me. I couldn’t control my response, my instinct to flee causing me to back up. I’d nearly trip over the cloak bunched up at my feet, Lezard’s hands moving to catch and steady me.

I was torn between screaming and slapping him. I refused to give voice to such a weak response, so my hand moved instead. The slap turned his face to the side, Lezard’s glasses askew. And still his temper did not flare, the man merely setting his glasses back to their proper place.

“I understand you’re upset.” He began. Lezard would let go of me long enough to gather his cloak, and then I would find myself wrapped inside it. I didn’t want anything from him, and so I struggled to throw it off. His arms locked around me, keeping me trapped as he held me.

“Upset?” I asked when I was able to think past my rage. “Upset doesn’t begin to describe how I feel!”

“It’s been a busy day….with a lot to take in.” He was all too calm in response to my anger. “I know it will take some getting used to, but in time you will see….This new reality is for the better.”

“Better for who?” I demanded. “You?”

“Us.” He corrected. Lezard would ignore the scoffing sounds I made, my voice nearly breaking on the bitter laugh that wanted to come out.

“I want no part of your world….or of you!”

“It’s a pity….for everything I’ve done, everything I’ve become has been all because of you.” How well I understood that! This mad man had run wild over time, killing indiscriminately, and doing what the heavens only knew, to become a divine being. He had destroyed my reality, all in order to be with me. And he seemed not to care one iota that it was a desire I did not share with him.

“Lenneth….” Again that familiarity, which earned a scream from me. I became like a wild cat, struggling in his arms. He struggled with me, actually lifting me up off the ground so that my feet dangled by several inches. It didn’t calm me, I was infuriated, trying to get my arms free so I could scratch my nails down his face. As angry as I was, I understood a kind of hysteria was upon me. One that made me as irrational as I was violent.

His ether swirled around us, the gold sparkles caught in an endless wind. He’d take me from Dipan, the teleportation depositing us into a meadow. The emerald green of the grass spread all around us, only broken up by the pale colors of the wild flowers that grew here. I was too distraught to even try to guess where we were, nor could I appreciate the beauty that surrounded us.

I was set down on the ground so that my bare feet sank into the wet grass. Lezard would keep me pressed against him, though his attention was divided. The ground began to rumble beneath us, the land starting to split apart mere inches from us. And as it split, whole trees were uprooted, the mighty oaks falling into the ever widening hole. I’d hear the panicked screech of animals, and birds would take to the skies in mass retreat, The ground would continue to open up, and then something would start to raise up through the hole.

It started with spires, golden tip points that slowly revealed how long they truly were. And then would come the marble towers, and white washed stone walls as a building rose up out of the ground. Colored glass made up the windows, the colors gleaming wherever the sunlight struck them.

The building finished it’s ascent, the hole neatly sealing closed after it. I knew what I was looking at, the building resembling closely the kinds one would have found once in Asgard. But that was before this new reality had ravished the shining realm, the Gods and Goddess winking out of existence. I didn’t have to wonder what had been their fate, I was sure Lezard had killed them all.

“Look, Lenneth!” A grand gesture from him, Lezard beaming with pride over the building he had constructed. I wasn’t impressed, what was one building compared to the grand halls and magnificent temples that had once existed in Asgard?

“This will be the first.” Lezard continued. I arched an eyebrow, not sure I understood him. “The first of many temples where the mortals will come to worship in our names.”

I thought it an absurd idea, my head shaking as I sneered. “No one in their right mind would ever worship you!”

I would be right too. The people of this world weren’t quick to lay down their allegiance to Lezard. There was of course reasons behind their reluctance, chief among them Lezard’s selfishness. He didn’t care about the people. He didn’t care about their needs, their prayers, the wars that ravaged the land. The only thing he really cared about was himself, and his obsession with me.

It was an obsession that led him to neglect what few worshippers he had. There were no miracles, no blessings. The only time he ever really acknowledged the humans was to smite them, and he let the undead and the monsters of Niflehiem have free reign to run wild on the mortals. Was it any surprise when rebellions would begin to arise? The humans may not have had any real dealings with the old Gods, but the stories remained. Passed down from generation to generation, the only records that of the humans’ memories.

They longed for a change. For the world as it had been under Odin’s rule. Of course with time’s passage, the stories got distorted, things got embellished. People no longer remembered how tough it had been even under Odin’s rule. Of course as rough as it had been for the mortals when Odin reigned, it could not compare to Lezard’s neglect. Under his rule, Midgard began a steady decline. Wars were constant, and sinners abound. There was no paradise waiting those who were virtuous, no afterlife to look forward too. The future was as bleak as their present.

My situation seemed no better than theirs. I was prisoner inside one of Lezard’s temples, one he jealousy guarded from all others. I was kept hidden, contact with any other beings strictly forbidden. I had no way of knowing what was occurring outside my prison’s walls. Lezard wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information, the man unconcerned with any threats the mortals tried to launch against him. It made sense, he was power personified, the supreme ruler of the realms. The humans must have seemed nothing more than mere insects to Lezard. As easy to crush as it was to ignore them.

The only thing that could get through his indifference was me. Or more precise, the threat of my escaping him. There wasn’t much that could arouse fear in a God, especially one as insane as Lezard proved to be. But the thought of spending eternity without me truly left him shaken. To the point his dreams were disturbed, Lezard often waking up besides me with a scream.

I suppose I didn’t help matters. Those first months with him, I was determined to escape. Even before the quests to free me began, I was working on plans of my own. If he didn’t watch me constantly, I was finding ways out of the room. Some tries I even made it as far as the temple’s main doors before a backlash of power sent me flying back. He didn’t mean to hurt me, instead just discourage me from making any further attempts.

And yet I persisted, testing his patience which seemed infinite where I was concerned. I’ll never know for sure what finally made him snap. Maybe Lezard was just tired of the struggle. Or maybe I just came too close to escaping for him to tolerate any further attempts. Whatever the case, I found myself back in the bedroom, his ether swirling all around me.

Lezard would appear just second later, a long length of chain trailing from his hands. I was instantly alert, wary as I eyed his approach. His tone would be one of regret, his eyes hinting at his disappointment. I can remember the words he spoke to me then.

“I didn’t want to resort to this.” The chain was dropped to lay half on, half off the bed. I didn’t take my eyes off of Lezard, shivering though his ether was warm. “But Lenneth, you’ve left me no choice.” He almost sounded anguished then, his words coming out a shout that seemed to echo in the room.

I was haughty, my gaze narrowed into a glare. “Choices? You speak to me on choices?! When you have taken them all from me?!” He didn’t try to deny it. How could he, when nearly everything I did, everything I wore, everything I took into my body was on his design. Only my thoughts were my own, Lezard unable to control the words that came out of my mouth.

I think I would have screamed if he tried to justify what he was about to do to me. It wasn’t love that moved him to push me down to the bed. It was sheer desperation. That same desperation would have his ether holding me down, leaving me to feel as though all the air was being sucked out of me as I struggled against it’s oppressing feel. Yet for all my struggles, I didn’t miss the cold feel of metal clicking around my ankle. Lezard had had no hesitation in forcing the chain on me, it’s metal enchanted to subdue my powers.

The ether slowly began to lift up off me. My breath returned as I lurched upright. My leg lifted, I was scrabbling my fingers over the manacle, searching for the catch to release it. There was none, the metal smooth and seamless. Lezard stayed on his knees before me, watching me with the most forlorn of looks. I might almost believe he really didn’t want to go this far, if not for the fact I remembered each and everything he had done in order to destroy my world and replace it with the one he preferred.

“Lenneth….” I was ignoring him, trying to shove my fingers beneath the metal. This chain was worse than being locked in this room, for now the last of my freedoms had been taken from me. “Lenneth my love…” I managed a scoffing sound, breaking a nail on the manacle. He tsked, and touched my hands, guiding them away from the metal.

“My love….it won’t be so bad…” He whispered into my hands, pressing kisses on their backs. He wasn’t looking at me when he said that, even Lezard did not truly believe it.

“Let me go.” My voice was terse, I would not beg.

“Never.” His answer made me sag in place, defeat flooding through me. Never is a long time when one has all of eternity to spend. What is worse? To spend an eternity alone, or to suffer forced companionship for all of time? I did not know, but I had no doubt I would one day get the answer to the question I posed.