Ynnead drew an invisible rattling breath and the planet started to die. From the lowliest bacteria to the refugees huddled together in tunnels deep beneath the ground, nothing could escape the pull of the death goddess as she gorged herself. Children stopped crying in their mother's arms, trees withered and died, birds fell from the sky. Soon all that would be left of the once verdant world would be ice-cold shadow and smoke.
A single cultist was all it took. One worshipper of the great enemy. One slip up, one game that went too far, one thought to lead you astray and she would come. Human, Ork or Eldar. Man, woman or child. it didn't matter. Life was cheap, vulgar and, ultimately, worthless. Only death mattered. Death and vengeance, vengeance for mummy. Ynnead would murder and murder and murder until the great enemy would finally show herself and then, finally, it would all end. She had hunted her sister closer and closer to the eye of terror, carving a smoky wound of death across the galaxy. Part of Ynnead knew she was walking into a trap, knew she was being drawn into a confrontation she could never hope to win. It didn't matter. She didn't want to win. She just wanted to die. An end to it all. An end to all things.
Behind her, on a leash of smoke and shadow, skulking like a beaten dog, came the Laughing God. He was no longer laughing. All too late did he realize what he had unleashed. Countless were the times he had tried to escape from her and countless were the times Ynnead had hurt him in return, each time worse than the previous one. After the last time, she doubted he would try again. Soon it wouldn't' matter anyway. She only needed her bloodhound to lead her through the webway for a little while longer. Then he too would become fuel for the galaxy's funeral pyre.
The death goddess drew another breath and more sparks of life flickered and died. Tiny sparks in the minds of the beings all around her went dark.
Ynnead killed and killed and fed upon the hopes and dreams of those she killed, trading their futures, all they were and would ever be for even more power. Power to kill even more things. But power is a fragile and fleeting thing, an unfaithful mistress at best. The goddess once knew this. But like many things she had forgotten it. Now she was to be reminded.
With her next breath, no more life died. Not so much as a mouse fell. Instead, the remaining sparks burned brighter than ever, fiercely resisting her pull. Above her, the clouds parted and the sun peeked through. On wings of light, an angel descended from the heavens. Ynnead glared upwards with cold, uncaring eyes and the angel slowly landed opposite her. Without even thinking, the death goddess attacked. The urge to kill was all she had left. Smoky funnels of hate rushed forward, ready to rip the wings of the angel and suck her dry.
Isha calmly caught the tentacles of smoke in her hand and held them fast. Her grip wasn't really that hard but the tendrils seemed stuck in her hand like it was a vice. They writhed and twisted but could not get loose. Isha beat her starlit wings and the smoke evaporated, blown away by a warm spring breeze from nowhere.
The shadowy leash the Laughing god had been chained by dissolved. He stared at Ynnead, his mask a face of sheer panic, fearing retribution for a crime he hadn't committed.
"Leave us, brother, I think you have done enough damage. We'll speak of this later. At length."
The eyes on the laughing god's mask flickered nervously between his two sisters. His body was taut, like a drawn bowstring.
"Go on. Don't worry, she can't hurt you anymore. But don't stay and peak like you always do. This is only between us girls."
There was a split second of silence, then a brilliant explosion of light like a mirror shattering and the two sisters were alone. The wind howled as light and shadow stared at each other.
Why are you here?
"You broke your promise to me, my queen. You promised you would come for me."
I will come for you. I will come for all living things.
"You are no longer you. Thus your promise is broken."
The wind hissed and the sky started to boil with dark angry clouds.
What do you want?
"I want you to uphold your promise to me. And I have come to make sure you do."
You sad pathetic dried up old has been. I don't know how you escaped from that filthy hole but I suggest you crawl back from whence you came and cower there behind your jailor until I'll come for the both of you. You really think you're a match for me?
Ynnead rose off the ground, her oily wings racing up into the heavens like hungry snakes. Her dark eyes glinted with dark hunger. The clouds themselves cried oily black tears as Ynnead pulled down the sky on her sister. She held nothing back, unleashing a hurricane of smoke and fury to bombard the ground where Isha stood. Clawing and scratching, ripping and tearing, the death goddess hurt her sister in every way she could think of.
Isha took every blow, accepted every hurt. She didn't so much as flinch under her sister's onslaught. She let the smoke dig into her body and soul, without a raising a finger in her own defence.
"You forget that there is a piece of me inside you. A piece you are pushing down, trying to act like it doesn't exist. But that part is still there, and as long as it is, your tantrum will be for nought. For it is that part that allowed you to love your mother as you did. The best part of you, if I may say so."
DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK OF HER. YOU LEFT ME ALL ALONE. ABANDONED US. ABANDONED US ALL!
The sky boiled with rage as Ynnead renewed her attacks. Isha slowly strode forward through the torment. Just as corruption has to give way to death, death must yield to life.
"I don't deny my guilt. What about you, sister? Now that you have tasted sin can you accept the wrongs you have committed? What do you think your mother would say if she saw you now? You think she would be proud?"
SHUT UP! SHUT UP! DIE! DIE, YOU WHORE! DIE! DIE! DIE! WHY WON'T YOU DIE?
A storm so furious it engulfed the entire planet struck at Isha. She kept striding forwards.
"You can't continue like this. I can't let you continue like this."
Wading through her sister's attacks Isha tenderly placed her hand on Ynnead's cheek. Ynnead's cold lifeless eyes flickered at the touch.
"Come, come all of you that we have wronged. I release you from your prison. Take my blessing on your journey onward. I pray that your destination will be one of light and harmony."
Ynnead's gigantic oily wings collapsed like a house of cards and she fell to the ground. All that which she had stolen, the souls of countless lives that were not of her kin, were in an instant gone.
"And to all of you that remain, to you my children that passed before your time. I beg of you to forgive us. Know that your sacrifice will have saved us all."
Two black eyes full of hatred stared up at Isha from the ground.
Just like the rest of them. Do it then. End it. Come, sister, take a bite of me, see if you can stomach the taste of death.
"You used to be so clever. Your grief and hate have blinded you, my queen. Do you really think I came here to try to fight you? To prey on your beautiful soul and drain you dry, as she would? You think that was my brilliant plan?" Isha smiled, bent down to kiss her sister goodbye and then straightened herself, raising her hands towards the sky.
"No. I am Isha. I am life incarnate. I don't hurt, I love. I don't take."
The life goddess smiled, for she knew she had won. Tenderly she gripped one of Ynnead's smoky tentacles in the palm of her hand.
"I give."
And with those words, she stabbed herself in the chest with the smoky tendril and exploded into a light so brilliant that it could be seen across the galaxy. Like a star she shone. But this time, her light was only for her younger sister.
"I failed you once long ago when I didn't give enough. I left you incomplete. Back then, I was arrogant. Weak and afraid. I'm so sorry for all you have suffered because of my cowardice. But time has humbled me. Strengthened my resolve. I'm no longer afraid."
Initially, Ynnead tried to fend off the light streaming at her from all directions. She tried to pull back her deadly weapon but Isha held on, pressing the smoke into her heart. The death goddess lashed out with shadow and smoke against the onslaught of life but as more and more light rushed past her defences her will to fight seemed to waver. Her movements became slow and dull, her stale and dead limbs started to tremble. For the first time in a long time, the face behind the horror slipped a little, showing the scared and hurt little girl under the surface. The mask she had been hiding behind slowly started to crack. Blood and excrement were tenderly wiped away from her face. And at long last, with the mask broken, the bottled up tears over her mother's death were allowed to flow freely.
"It's a wonder you have been able to keep the shadow down with so little light for so long. There must always be a balance. Like all things, you were meant to be in balance. Yes, a balance in all things. Life and death. Light and shadow."
Ynnead's little body started to shake. The darkness in her eyes faded as she closed her eyes and crawled up, hugging her knees. She rose off the ground, held up by a swirling dance of shadow and light all around her. And slowly it started to happen. The little goddesses' body, long dormant, started to stir. Her limbs lengthened, her childlike plumpness melted away, her wild and bushy hair straightened out just a little. The features in her face sharpened, her ears elongated. At her hips and her chest, a hint of curves that had never been there before. That which was once clumsy and awkward became elegant and graceful. That which had been cold and dead now flooded with hot red blood. Life quickened throughout her body as barren flesh became fertile. She was an incomplete puzzle of a blooming flower, and now pieces of light rushed in to fill the gaps where shadow alone had not been enough.
"Yes! Take it! Take all of it! Take it and become whole! Take it and become who you were always meant to be!"
Isha gasped for breath. Her visage seemed to flicker and dim like she was fading from this world.
"Remember, my queen, that all life is sacred! But sooner or later, when the time comes, it is the nature of life to...to...to end!"
Like a supernova, light exploded from Isha in one last outpour. Above her, the dance of light and shadow swirled faster and faster until it reached a climax and rushed into her little sister. The sky cleared. For a split second, everything stood still in complete silence as Ynnead hung in the air.
Then, with a gasp, colour rushed onto Ynnead's pale cheeks as the last queen of the Eldar opened her eyes wide. One was cloudy and jet black as the night. The other was blazing like the sun in the summer sky.