I think the start of this chapter was written some 3 years ago, long before i really started " shadow diaries" one night while i was drunk, the rest came back in November when I was on a 16 hour flight back from the Falklands and I've only now typed it up! I'm so sorry ! luv Ele!
Mithras, the eternal city, center of the civilized world. From Une's window it spread out before her, from the deserts of Itak to the river Styx. A dazzling labyrinth of towers and domes, slums and palaces, where the call to prayer hung in the air with the heady beat of drums.
The place of dreams and nightmares, where fantasies were bought and sold in streets awash with reds, saffron's and gold. Gold, the true colour of Mithras, the richest city of Gaia. It shone out round the waist of the dancer on the table in taverns and from the high rich arches of the churches. Every sunrise and sunset, the streets burnt with molten fire, as the rosy glow glittered of the metallic sheen. So abundant on every roof and door, every ear and throat.
Beneath her balcony, in the palace of Tedan, the Lady Une witnessed the true trade of her city. The sale of flesh, the heavy price of a body, for its pleasure in the brothels with their painted boys and girls. Or for violence, and the sadistic delights of murder offered by the cult of Shinigami.
There was no city like it in Heaven or Hell, and there never should be again. It was a testament to all that was good and bad within the human heart. In the temples that celebrated death, rich disciples threw themselves upon daggers, gilded in jewels. While on the paved streets outside, starving children struggled to hold onto the life they so carelessly cast aside.
Husbands, who left their wives beaten upon the floor, hurried past to lavish gentle affection on their mistresses. Trained courtesans, who for an hour would make him king.
Turning away Une shut her hazel eyes, and let the smell of the last human strong hold slide round her senses, a rich seductive cocktail of lotus, spice and jasmine, tinged with the dry hot smell of the city streets and sandalwood. Further into the slums, that scent would take on the stench of dung from the sewers and the sickly, pungent aroma of rotting flesh from the dead, left in the open, unburied and un-mourned.
But it was the sound of Mithras that set it apart, a thousand tongues, mixing into an exotic babble, rising above the rooftops like a choir. Chanting their wares, be it trinkets or death, perfumes or slaves. Gongs in the temples of Yoshi and Hakani, chanting of monks from gothic cathedrals or Buddhist shrines, forming the heart beat of the golden city. Threading over was the wail of pipes, the hum of strings and singing in Arabic, Gaelic and Latin spilling away from every tavern like the very air.
Mithras lived, it breathed, and Une knew that soon Mithras would die.
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"If I did not hate the gods so much I would beg their forgiveness for what I have led us all to"
"Peace lady, you've done all you can even you can not challenge the gods"
Une turned to face the man whose arm had encircled her waist, a desolate fire burning in her eyes
"That what use am I Treize?" she whispered, she was meant to be the mother of the people yet she could do nothing but watch her children's demise from her gilded tower.
"What good do I do them stood here, watching? Waiting for the hand of angel or god to crush us all?"
The dark haired man sighed, drawing her closer his forehead resting on top her hair. He didn't have the answers she now demanded daily, nor did he have the power, much as he wished to wipe away the torment of the woman in his arms. All he could offer was comfort, an entity to scream the unfairness of the world at and when required a bed she could forget herself in.
They stood, arms locked round each other as the sun dipped beneath the edge of the desert and the blanket of night cast its diamond-studded canvas over the city.
The air turned chill, biting through the thin silks the brunette wore, causing her to huddle closer into her lover's chest. She barely saw the room was now pitch, and did not hear the whisper of feet on her baloney till a voice from the curtains startled her out of the warmth and safety she was in.
"How nice, I risk my life for the lady and here all she needed was a big strong man"
Une pulled away embarrassed, her consort retreating into the shadows, the voices owner not someone he cared to meet. As the gauze of the curtains billowed they revealed a hooded figure, slight of build, clinging to the shadows as if the light burnt.
"Catherine"
The figure bowed pulling back her hood, a mass of dark hair sweeping the floor before the assassin straightened, her piercing eyes fixed on Une as her lips twisted into a malicious smile
"I deeply apologize my lady! Did I interrupt something sordid?"
"Trieze leave us please"
The counsel obeyed bowing out and shutting the door leaving the queen and the killer alone. Une walked over to the baloney again, unable to meet the others eyes, her voice the briefest whisper on the breeze.
"You must welcome this time with open arms, you skills are in demand, your love approaches and chaos your mother reins supreme"
Catherine sat on the baloney, one knee drawn up, her hawk eyes scanning the narrow street below as the light glinted off the metal hiding half her face.
" I gave you allegiance for now my lady, the cult has grown fat and decadent, no longer fit to speak the name of Shinigami, they pass their days in debauchery, drinking, gambling, they forget it is our role to be the messengers of death, to trim the fat of the land. That does not mean I betray my god for you, just for now my blade is the queens to command"
The queen absorbed the words, there was little comfort in their content and even less humanity but she knew the scarred woman beside her was true to her word, and loyal. She would not call the cult member a friend but she was a trusted ally and as half the palace had abandoned their posts to seek salvation allies were few and far between.
She chose her words carefully before she spoke, letting her self become once more composed.
"How can you slaughter your own race for a god who wishes only death?"
Silence remained as the minutes ticked by before Catherine spoke, pulling the half mask away from her face.
"Look at me your majesty"
Against her will Une turned her eyes to Catherine's face, a face old beyond its years. Beneath the mask lay a vicious burn, the skin even still, red, puckered and bubbled, a leathery overlay on Catherine's white porcelain skin, through the flesh, deep grooves ran, knife work lacing her cheek. She looked a monster, yet the wounds were old.
"This is your precious humanity Une, your good people, those who you want to save. This is what happens to orphans on your street, children! I offer a release from that, a cold touch I learnt in the cult. Shinigami has given me a purpose, a path, a skill, a place where no matter what, I am loved. Yes I rejoice in Mithras's death all it offered me was a life enslaved in a brothel and a slow demise from disease. I'm helping you because I won't see some self righteous angels enslave us, I'd sooner look my death in the eye then live on my knees"
They sat in silence for a while neither finding the words to shatter the calm, nor did they want to. Observing the night, reluctantly break into day. The distant clouds gilding to grey, amber, orange then to crimson before with a heavenly flash, the suns raise radiated off the golden domes of city.
"Ah bed time my queen, my kind don't do to well with the suns kiss, and I'd so hate my delicate face to be marred by sun burn"
Whispered Catherine, her hair burning chestnut in the light, casting a hazy halo round her.
"You know in this light you could be an angel," murmured Une, her body protesting of its lack of sleep.
The assassin laughed a chilling sound with no humour in it.
"Hells angel perhaps, I have but one god and Shinigami be his name. Now run along to your chambers, its way past your highness's bed time"
She added with a sneer, standing.
"No doubt Trieze, has warmed it for you"
The queen watched her go as she leapt from the balconey down into the filthy streets below, her form melding with her mother dark and disappearing into the dusk.
"I hope one day you find a way to free yourself from the past Catherine, and to loose that bitter thorn in your heart."
Turning away, she pulled the drapes shut. Letting their heavy comfort submerge her in the same darkness Catherine had retreated to, before heading to her own chambers.
The palace was eerily quiet, deserted even, most of her people long since gone leaving an empty opulent shell behind. Its rich tapestries and paintings gathering dust, left to rot.
As she slipped down the corridors, a second shadow followed her own, stalking her almost. His feet left no imprint, his heart made no sound, as he reached out a long pale hand towards her back.
There was the softest creek of leather, as Une's eyes caught the faint glint of metal from the corner of her eye. Quietly, her hand grasped a heavy silver candlestick, as she turned to confront her attacker. But her weapon slipped from her grasp to thud upon the floor, a disbelieving gasp passing her lips.
"Sleep, for once untroubled" breathed the man, his slim fingers touching her cheek, as she felt something leave her body.
His caress reached deep into her heart, ripping free the pain and worry. Feeling warm and light, she fell into his arms; her body resting against his leather covered one.
" who are you?" she tried to focus on the face above her, his one visible eye reflecting some thing so piercing it broke her heart.
Tears dripped across her cheek, falling from his chin silently as soft feathers enfolded her. Wings, black, broken and battered, weighed by heavy chains and piercing.
"Know me my lady, I am pain"
The angel murmured, before laying her sleeping body down on the floor for her lover to find, her hair spilled round her in a web of mahogany silk. But her face, for once was smooth and without torment, her own private traumas now melding into the angel, another barb sinking into his blood matted wings.
"Trowa?"
The angel of pain closed his eyes at the sound of his name. Spoken by a voice who should not even know he existed.
"Yes little one?"
He didn't speak out loud, knowing Quatre was still linked into his mind.
"It's done…do…do you think I did the right thing?"
He sighed deeply, he didn't know if they were doing the right thing. He didn't know if they were helping this world, or if they were dooming it to hell eternal. All he could do was watch and take the pain of those who suffered.
Reaching out, he pulled the blonde tight against his chest, his fingers burying possessively in Quatre's shirt, feeling the warmth of the boys breath against his neck.
"We can pray cherub that is all we can do"
Pray to a god who never listens, for a world that does not matter, in a time that doesn't care. That Heero survives, and Celeste can learn mercy, that this land survives and dragons remember their fangs and fight.
Pray that sometimes, just sometimes miracles do happen.
