Chapter One

Witness the World, That I Create Thee Here

"I am so tired of my troops losing because they're idiots!" Chaos shrieked, hurling a fireball across the room.

"It's your own fault, you know," Death said, quite calmly, watching as the tapestry in the corner burst into flames.  She waved her hand, and instantly the fire smoldered to ash.  The two Goddesses were sitting in Chaos's throne room, which for the time being was draped in crimson and gold tapestries, with a large fountain in the middle of the room, spewing flames and magma.  It had been a different room the last time Death had visited, and she knew it would be different the next time she came.  "You never pay enough attention when you're creating them.  You spend all your time on claws and fangs and fiery tails and venomous fur – "

"That was a rather good idea, I thought."

"Quite.  But my point is that you focus far too much on outward scariness, rather than making them terrifying and intimidating in a more psychological and intellectual manner."

Chaos pouted, even though she knew Death was right.  Bugbears and fire drakes and gargoyles and hellhounds were plenty scary, but not very bright"I need to make something intelligent and useful…" she moaned, falling down by the side of her fountain and dipping her hand in the lava.

"I suggest a human."

Chaos gave Death a very pointed look.  "Excuse me?  A human?  They're completely worthless!  No fangs, no scales, no tails, no claws…"

"Precisely.  It'll force you to make it lethal from the inside out."

"You want her to have fatal intestines?"

"Chaos, you know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it…"

"Focus on her mind.  Give her extra-sharp senses.  Make her cunning and vicious.  I'm sure you've the imagination for it.  Just concentrate."

Chaos wrinkled her nose.  "That doesn't sound easy."

"Consider it a challenge."

Her eyes instantly lit up.  "A challenge!  Why, of course I'm up to it!"

Death smirked.  She knew that would do the trick.  Chaos never could turn down a challenge.

"Right, then… I'd better get to work…"

Death went back to Tyrzenor, and Chaos set to work on her newest creation.  Although she had invented many beasts and fantastical creatures in her time (as well as fancying herself responsible for the creation of Life herself), she had never tried to make a human before.  She twirled the end of one of her fire-locks around her finger, thinking as deeply as she ever did.  "Right, then…"

She dashed off to her workroom, leaving a bewildered company of demons knocked over in her wake.  Chaos's workroom was the original lab of a mad scientist, with bits of unidentified creatures littering the tables, beakers of poisonous and smoking liquids scattered on the shelves, and candles burning dimly from half a dozen twisted bronze candelabras.  But her favorite feature was the enormous cauldron in the center of the room, large enough to stew a person if she ever got the desire.  At present, though, she was not interested in torturing a sentient, but in creating one.

Chaos had perhaps never been quite so dedicated to single pursuit in her existence.  She hovered over her cauldron for a moment, drumming her claw-like fingernails against the metallic rim.  Concentrate, concentrate… She wrinkled her brow, unused to the task of considering something so deeply.  Usually she based her creations purely on whimsy, but now she had to be cautious, deliberate, cunning.  It took a few moments to get into the right mindset, but once she was there, no one could be more determined.

"Fire for spirit, obviously."  Chaos had long ago taken to talking to herself when she worked, as she deemed none of her grotesque companions worthy conversationalists.  "Substance, substance… quicksilver! But that's too light, too airy… meld it with bronze, that'll do the trick… that'll make for a fine constitution… She must be a mighty warrior… undefeatable…"  Chaos thumbed through her spellbook, looking for the appropriate combination of strength, speed, and agility.  "Damn, this page is scorched… ahh… here we go…"  She whirled around and grabbed a vial containing a liquid that was faintly tinted yellow.  "Cobra venom… perfect!  Agility and speed… and that lovely first strike thing all of Life's bloody creatures seem to have.  Well, little Sister, who's got the jump this time?"  Chaos cackled, a malicious laugh that echoed throughout her palace, terrifying even the monstrous beings who guarded her.

"Now, what else… red dragon's blood for strength."  Chaos grasped a beaker of a thick bronze liquid, which shimmered red in the light.  She poured about a quarter of the container's contents into the cauldron, then shrugged and poured another half in.  "Ehh, what the hell… dammit.  Think, Chaos, think.  You're obviously great enough to train your mind, so do it.  Lightening, for speed… and precog!  Ohh, what a kickass side effect."  Chaos raised her hands and muttered an incantation, calling a single bolt of lightening from the dark clouds just outside the window, directing it into the cauldron.

"Now, then…"  She started looking at her shelves, stocked with various bottles and jars of intangible items.  "I've got to make sure she's smart… that was the idea in the first place, after all… so… ah!"  She grabbed a bottle, labeled chege ni'letho – kir zinda, and threw it into the cauldron, thus mixing the last light of a Raeglythan sunset into the brew.  "And with that…"  Chaos took a few twigs of a stinging nettle plant.  "… to give her wit.  Take that, Death!  What else, what else, what else…"  She scanned her shelves and flipped through her books, searching for inspiration.  "Oooh… what a great idea… blood on the moon.  She'll be the essence of a bad omen, stalking and striking and terrifying all who come near her.  She'll have a magnificent aura!  Let's see Life's wimpy angels stand up to this!  Oh, that reminds me…"  Another jar was tossed into the mix.  "A hellhound's howl, to intimidate her foes.  Hey, that was neat…"  She took a short break to juggle her collection of jars until she just barely saved one from crashing onto the redstone floor.  "Damn!  Focus, Chaos, focus…"

She rummaged through a box of random items until she found a small brown package with short golden hairs in it.  "Clippings from a lion's mane, to give her charisma.  Charisma!  If she's going to be perfect, she needs to control the males of her species.  What can I put in her to give her supreme control over the powers of seduction?  Hmm… tiger heart?  No, that could have, er, ill effects."  She gave up on her collection of body parts and moved back to the ethereal shelves.  "No… no… no… no… yes!  Perfect!  So suggestive, so deceptive, so wonderful, so… so… oh, it's just right."  And into the cauldron went a maiden's first blush, sign of the loss of innocence.  "And… oh, what the hell, oleander juice.  Just a little extra lethal quality…"

Chaos leaned against the edge of the cauldron, careful not to let her red sash fall into the cauldron. "Still… needs… something… this is all very good, but… she still needs… essence.  Vitality.  How can I give her that special something…something to tie it all together… Ah!"  She whirled around, rounding on one of the hapless demons guarding the door"You!  Run to the kitchens and find me a bottle of bloodwine.  Make it a big one!"

He dashed out, and she paced the room, detesting having to wait for anything.  When the demon returned, she yanked the wine bottle form him, nearly taking his hand off in the process.  "Idiot!"

Chaos emptied the entire bottle of bloodwine into the cauldron.  Bloodwine was like no other wine, certainly beyond the abilities of most mortals to tolerate.  Chaos brewed it herself, and no one was quite sure how she made it.  No one had ever dared to ask.

"Well, that should do it… yeah, that'll do…"  She set the cauldron to stirring itself and left for the night.  By morning, she was certain, the brew would be well steeped and the right consistency to mold into the perfect woman.

Chaos stalked down the halls to her boudoir, lavishly decorated with red and purple silks dripping from golden fixtures.  "Out, out, out!" she screeched at the attendants who followed her.  "Aesta!  Never, ever again am I making creatures with three times the normal dosage of loyalty!  You're all driving me crazy!"  Chaos was Machiavellian before she had invented Machiavelli – her attendants both loved and feared her, devoted to a fault, but driven by the terror she inspired.

Chaos flopped down into a plum-colored chaise, draping her limbs over the luxurious fabric.  "Damn, that took a lot out of me…  I need a drink…"  She snapped her fingers, summoning a bottle of bloodwine into her presence, then wondered why she hadn't just done that earlier instead of sending her incompetent underling.  "Kaza kres, I've been working too hard."  She ripped the cork out of the glass neck and tossed back a swig of the bloodwine, both sweet and bitter, and utterly intoxicating.   "Ahhh… no better way to exist…"

~~*~~

On the list of little known facts about Chaos, right along with a love of twine and a weakness for beignets, is her skill as an artist, particularly when sculpting a new creation.  This time she worked in silence, preferring that morning not to interrupt her own concentration.  First, the basic structure, lithe and strong, five feet, ten and three quarter inches tall.  Her "hair," which would be bolts of flame as soon as she came into existence, nearly reached her knees.  The fingernails curving off of her hands were long and perfectly manicured.  Her heart-shaped face was deceptively sweet, the inner sharpness reflected only in the angles of her jawline and cheekbones, which lent her a rather superior air.  Chaos had crafted her to be not so much beautiful in a traditional sense, but exceptionally striking, the sort of woman that could not help but attract attention.  On this frame, Chaos draped a length of crimson satin fabric, little more than a glorified loincloth, belted with a golden chain at the waist and sewn together at a very few strategic locations.

Then Chaos got out her paint set.  She could create any color she wished, but usually her palate consisted of the blues of hot flames, the reds and golds of autumn leaves, and various shades of metal.  The creation's skin became a fine, healthy bronze tan; her eyes, the golden reflection of the sun on a lake.  Her nails were painted the crimson of freshly spilt blood, while her lips' color resembled dried red roses.  So Chaos continued, working in intense silence until at last she was satisfied.  At last she found her thinnest brush and dipped it in a ruby paint, then etched on her creation's skin her emblem.  Just below the right collarbone, she drew the spiral, five circles deep, pierced by an arrow, a tattoo that would forever mark the girl as Chaos's.  One last thing… she thought, reaching into the satchel tied around her waist.  She pulled out a smooth red gem on a gilded leather cord, and clasped it about her creation's neck.

Chaos leaned out the window, checking the angle of the sun.  Just as it was reaching its pinnacle, Chaos stepped in front of her painted statue and cast her arms upward, summoning the strength of all the storm and fire of Raeglyth into her.  As the aureate rays marked high noon, Chaos threw back her head and cried in a voice that rumbled into the souls of all listening, "My creation, I command thee: awaken!"

~~*~~

Chaos paced around her latest creation, who was standing on a pedestal. "Nice… very nice… as well you ought to be, for all the work I put into you."  Her creation just smirked, crimson lips twisting upwards at one corner.  "Wonderful… wonderful…"

Death appeared, looking rather disturbed for being dragged from her home again.  "What's this about?  What did you want me to – oh!"

"Magnificent, isn't she?"

Death was considerably impressed, which Chaos proudly noted.  Impressing Death herself was not an easy task.  "She's certainly… something… but what can she do?"

Chaos grinned.  "Oh, what can't she do?  Creation – "  She waved a semi-clawed hand and beckoned her design forward"Show my dear Sister Death what you can do."

"As you wish it, My Lady Goddess."  Her voice rang out in a strong alto, clear as a bell with the underlying promise of danger.

Chaos smirked.  "Sister, we may want to get out of the way." Chaos and Death stepped to the side of the room.  With another snap of her fingers, Chaos called a dozen gargoyles into existence.  In the blink of an eye, Chaos's creation drew a long blade from where it was strapped to her lower leg, another from its position on her upper left arm.  When she grasped them, the blades glowed red, as her eyes seemed to.  She tensed slightly, flexing all of her honed muscles, and then the gargoyles attacked.

Chaos's creation lashed out in every direction, moving nearly too fast to see.  She leapt into the air, kicking her legs in a wide arc as she did so.  She would kick one gargoyle out of her way while slicing the limbs off of another – Death deduced that those were no normal blades, and must have some sort of enchantment on them.

She was beautiful to watch in action.  Violent and deadly as her motions were, she was swift and precise, every action as though it were part of a well-choreographed dance.  Death was astonished.  Chaos's creations were predominantly crude and ill-formed, even more ill-moving.  Effective nonetheless, but for brute force, not any sense of meticulous action.  This one, though, was different.  It took her a very short time to dispatch all of the gargoyles, leaving bits of wing and claw littered about the chamber.  When she finished, she resumed her place atop the pedestal, looking as though, had she possessed hair, not a strand would be out of place.

"In case you're wondering, she has other talents, too."

"Like what?"

"A touch of precog, which I was especially proud of."

"You stole that bit of the recipe."

"So?  Anyway, there's some telepathy and telekinesis in there, too.  And the skills of seduction."

Death raised an eyebrow.  "Oh?"

Chaos grinned.  "She's perfect.  I think her sheer energy could kill a man in bed."

"That is rather impressive."

"There's a bit of shape-shifting, too.  Only to other human forms, mind you, but I think that'll work well enough… maybe I'll add animal forms later…"

"She's a shapeshifter?"

Chaos gestured.  By the time Death had turned to look, the creation had morphed into a human replica of herself – tall, pale, and imposing, with long jet-black hair.

"Whoa…"

"She's also mind-linked to me.  She knows what I want at all times.  She does my bidding without my having to ask.  Only I keep forgetting that and telling her what to do anyway.  Habit, I guess."

"I must admit, she is magnificent… Fascinating.  What is she made of?"

"Well, fire to start with, of course.  Quicksilver and bronze, melded.  The essence of blood on the moon.  Stinging nettle.  Cobra venom.  Some other things, too, but I don't remember…"

"How very like you."

Chaos shrugged.  "It doesn't matter.  She's perfect, and if I wanted to make more like her, I'm sure I could."  She paused"Well, maybe not.  That took a lot of concentration, and I'm not sure I have much more to spare.  Hey, do you want some chocolate?"

Death smirked, realizing that Chaos probably wasn't aware she'd just proved her own point. "Well, sister, I'm proud of you.  I'll admit I didn't think you had it in you to create something with half a brain, much less a full one."

"Oh, she's got a full brain.  Languages, math…" Chaos ran a hand through her flame-tresses.  "Come to think of it, I'm really not sure where she got all that.  But it's there!"

"Hmm, well… what are you going to do with her?"

"I haven't decided yet.  I'm sure sooner or later someone will start a war and she'll be useful… until then… I dunno…"

"So what're you calling it?"

"Hmm… good question… something appropriate… something that won't give her away, though…"  Chaos's scattered mind performed a generic search on names, and eventually came up with one that she decided suited her latest creation to perfection.  "I have it!  I will call her Cassandra."

(A/N: "Witness the world, that I create thee here," King Lear, V.iii, spoken by Regan)