"We're going to Brockton Bay."
It wasn't an order. It was a declaration. More of a statement of intent, really, than anything else. Valefor - Elijah, to the small circle of people in this room - rarely felt the need to give 'orders' while he was present in the compound. Between his power and Mama, there really wasn't much point in arguing or dissenting when one of them made a decision.
There was, however, a point in providing constructive feedback. You just had to make sure it was taken as such, and not as dissent or disagreement. Trying to help your leaders produce better plans was one thing, trying to obstruct them in any capacity was another entirely. It was a fine line to walk, he knew, but it had to be done.
Mostly because he didn't want to die, even if the curious looking skeletal depiction of Mama that had appeared in the corner of his eye the second he had thought of her made him feel like he didn't have much choice in the matter.
"Sorry for asking, but what are we going to do there?" He asked. What he wanted to say was 'isn't that where that crazy powerful cape that killed God lives', followed shortly by 'are you stupid?' but if he phrased his question that way he would almost certainly find himself punished. Probably not physically - there was very little corporal punishment here - but in other worse ways.
The Fallen had given him his first wife. If Elijah wanted to make a point, they would take her away. If he really wanted to make a point, he would just take her in his home, while he watched. And all of that was getting off lightly, because he was Elijah's 'friend'.
He shivered at the thought.
Hence, how he had actually phrased his question, which should have brought to mind all of that other stuff, without sounding argumentative.
Just stupid.
"We," Elijah said, gesturing from himself to Eligos - whose real name he wasn't aware of, "are going to claim our destiny." Elijah crooned with an uncomfortably sexually charged tone of voice.
Elijah made him uncomfortable for a number of reasons. For one he was… quite effeminate. He wore a corset. His mask was of a woman. He was thin and easily mistaken for a woman, a fact that he had used on multiple occasions to lure the unsuspecting into a trap. He would never admit it aloud, but even he had occasionally entertained terrible thoughts about him. Regardless, Elijah - Valefor, really - patterned his entire outward appearance on the Simurgh.
Which made the fact that they were apparently going to be setting up in a city with the woman who killed the Simurgh seem… ill advised.
Silently, he looked around himself. There were no more than fifteen people in this room. Four capes, and eleven normal men like himself. Only those who had proven they had the skills and loyalty to work away from Mama could ever be allowed to be here. Tomorrow, they would all take their wives and children, get in their cars, and begin the long drive across the country to their destination. When they got there Mama would make sure they had identities waiting. Homes. Jobs. They would fit into the city like they had always been there - and then the work would begin.
Elijah, being the most favoured of Mama's children, was exceptionally young to be allowed to form his own splinter cell - but it was hard to argue with his results. Valefor wasn't just some no name cape, hungry for power and recognition. He had put in the work, and he made the rest of the people in the compound profoundly uncomfortable. Even his most devout followers knew there was something fundamentally wrong with Elijah.
Still, when you had no power, you did what the powerful wanted - and until recently he was pretty sure he had given himself to the most powerful of them all.
Now he wasn't so sure, and if he even contemplated the thought further than that, Mama would know.
So, he was committed, no matter what was asked of him. He had come too far, and done too much, to turn back now anyway.
"What destiny?" Someone else asked blithely. It was one of the Capes - not Eligos, because that guy almost never spoke - but one of the newer additions to the group. He was pretty sure the guy was a Stranger of some kind, and was just new and confident enough that he hadn't bothered to hide the disbelief in his voice, which earned him a pointed stare from his leader.
He was just kind of glad someone else had asked the question, so he didn't have to.
"…Do you believe she is dead?" Valefor asked in a sickeningly sweet tone of voice that made his guts tingle uncomfortably.
"No! Never!" The Stranger immediately shot back, going rigid and providing the pre approved answer to that question.
There were two schools of thought when it came to the death of the Simurgh here in the compound.
On the one hand, if god could die, then what were they all doing here? What was the point?
On the other hand… the Simurgh was the most prolific and malicious planner and master of all time. Could anything truly happen against her wishes? And if that was the case, then perhaps she wasn't dead. Perhaps, this was just the setup to the greatest Simurgh bomb ever known.
Perhaps this was a sign, that her faithful needed to move, and that the end times were nigh.
"I believe she is." Elijah stated nonchalantly, causing silence to descend on the room.
"I believe she died, in order to provide me with her last gift." Elijah declared, more loudly this time, his voice a falsetto.
"Have you not noticed? Can't you see it? The world trembles at her coming. I haven't partaken of the bounty of our family since hearing of her. Our angels last blessing, her last 'Bomb', her last gift." Elijah pontificated, gesturing and posing wildly.
"I don't-" the Stranger spoke up again, clearly confused.
He himself, wasn't sure how much of what the teen in front of him was saying he actually believed and how much was a conviction that his power would allow him to bend the situation to his tastes.
He wasn't sure if it mattered. Valefor always got what he wanted. He was scary that way.
"Your fingernails. Remove them." Valefor cut the Stranger off. The man got a horrified look on his face, but immediately started pulling at his thumbnail in an attempt to rip it out at the root.
"Do it faster. And don't make any noise." Valefor added, before turning back to the rest of the group.
"Now, as I was saying. We'll need to make a few stops along the way. I'll need gifts." Elijah spoke in the same self assured tone, showing absolutely no interest in what was going on behind him.
For his part, he couldn't look away from it. From the tear streaked face of the Stranger as - with a swift yank and a small spray of blood - he pulled his first nail free. Blood was running from his lips, where he had clearly bitten his own tongue to keep from making noise.
"For who, sir?" Someone asked.
He was so entranced that he barely realized it was he who had spoken. So when Valefor turned that feverish gaze in his direction.
"My fiance, of course." The monster in human skin answered easily.
"The Simurgh was, after all, the Hope Killer."
A/N: This is probably the last update that will fit in this thread, so feel free to post and talk until we hit the page limit. I'll edit this post to add a link to the new thread when I get around to making it, but I just wanted to say - thank you all for coming on this journey with me. It's been a bit over a year since I started this story, and its already way bigger than I ever imagined it could. You guys are the best, and I hope to see you all in the new thread.