Spiraliite
Member
The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.
-Max Demian
Abraxas slumped into his chair before his desk for only a moment, and then straightened. June, his assistant, raised an eyebrow.
“Tired, my lord?” he asked, incredulity coloring his voice. Only June would speak to him this way, other than Chen.
“Only a memory of weakness,” Abraxas replied curtly. “Soon I will lose such memories and be better for it. I have more pressing matters to occupy my time,” he finished. With a gesture of one hand, the reports he had been reviewing shifted off to one side, sorting themselves into piles at his thought. He writhed his hands together before standing up to look out the window over his domain. The citadel was still under construction, the human workers toiling in the sweltering heat of the setting sun. He permitted himself the slightest of smiles before dismissing the indulgence.
“Your mind wanders because you’re thinking of…him,” June said with a sagacious aire. Abraxas acted as though he had not heard.
“The preparations go smoothly,” he said to June. “Contact the other nations tomorrow with final terms before dawn’s light. I intend no further parlay with them. I will move east to take Europe first. They will yield unconditionally or I will obliterate them, starting with London.”
“Chen Ling Hei’an will not agree to that,” June reminded him, gathering the papers together with practiced grace and tucked them into color coded envelopes. Abraxas snarled softly but relented. “Yes, Ling” Abraxas said gently, disgusted at the awe he could hear in his own voice. “Can I trust her, despite all her loyalty?” His pale milky iris’ shifted to one side, considering as he tented his fingers together, like he used to do in the days of plotting, before the days of conquest. “Ling has been a valuable ally, I’ve already offered her a kingdom of her own to rule in my empire to be, but she still refuses. I owe her a great debt, but how long until she collects her due? This worries me.”
"I don't think a kingdom is something that Chen desires," June commented. Abraxas opened his eye to the future, searching the possible timelines of himself searching for her until he would have discovered her location in the great citadel. She appeared in one of those timelines, and mentally he focused on this future, lifting it as one would lift a single strand of weft from the frame of a loom. She stood in the cell of the failed hero, the one who almost stopped his ascent to power. She was…with the hero? A troubling prospect….but why should he be worried? Nothing could stop him now, not even a failed hero…and his unexpected ally. June interrupted his musing, breaking his reverie.
“Is Europe really the first stop in your global conquest? Your generals discussed previously that taking South America would be better, to consolidate your hold on the Americas.” June was tapping notes into a tablet.
“They will yield unconditionally.” Abraxas repeated, stretching one hand out before him in a clutching gesture. “Or I will break their weapons and dash their pitiful hopes first! That is precisely why Europe is perfect. It doesn’t make any sense, I have to travel across the entire Atlantic just to get there. Why did Hannibal travel over the mountains? Because it made strategic sense? Or because he knew it would terrify his enemies into weeping submission with it’s audacity? What is strategy in the face of overwhelming power such as I now possess?” Abraxas’ lower lip trembled in unexpressed emotions. He whirled away from the window and stormed out of the room. Unbidden, June followed him, still tapping away on the tablet.
“You remember, many of Hannibal’s soldiers and elephants died for his audacity,” June commented, nonplussed. “That was a rather cruel thing to do to some perfectly fine elephants.”
“
There is nothing more I need from you today, June,” Abraxas said without preamble but June bowed silently regardless and retreated down a corridor toward his personal suite adjacent to Abraxas’ own quarters. Abraxas swept down the corridors towards the lifts, toward the bowels of the citadel. It would be several hours until he would begin his attack on the European front, undoubtedly June had already sent messages informing his legions. They would spend the night hours mobilizing for the attack, a pointless show of force. He alone now would suffice. He should not visit the hero in his current emotional state, too much of his detested humanity remained within him. He could not guarantee himself that he would not lose control, no, it would be better to be cold, emotionless, inhuman. This was the safer path, yet his traitor feet carried him to the one place he should stay away from. The room of his vanquished rival, his opposite, the one he had battled time and again, wrecking city and forest alike in their clashes until the night of the eclipse, and the celestial alignment which granted him hegemonic power. Or rather, he corrected himself, until Chen Ling Hei’an.
The woman herself emerged before him, interposed between himself and the door that would take him to see the erstwhile hero. He licked his lips, an oddly serpentine gesture, and spread his hands apart in greeting. Her face betrayed not what she was thinking, and he had the odd sensation that somehow he knew her even less well now than he knew her when she was the hero’s ally, their swords crossing on the battlefield; her fires burned his hair and scorched his skin. Those exciting days of combat were over now, only the sullen march of his inexorable victory over the free peoples of Earth were his reality now.
“My dear Ling,” he said, forcing calm he did not feel into his voice. “Have I not provided you with more entertaining ways to pass your time? What a surprise to find you here, amongst the relics of the old world.”
-Max Demian
Abraxas slumped into his chair before his desk for only a moment, and then straightened. June, his assistant, raised an eyebrow.
“Tired, my lord?” he asked, incredulity coloring his voice. Only June would speak to him this way, other than Chen.
“Only a memory of weakness,” Abraxas replied curtly. “Soon I will lose such memories and be better for it. I have more pressing matters to occupy my time,” he finished. With a gesture of one hand, the reports he had been reviewing shifted off to one side, sorting themselves into piles at his thought. He writhed his hands together before standing up to look out the window over his domain. The citadel was still under construction, the human workers toiling in the sweltering heat of the setting sun. He permitted himself the slightest of smiles before dismissing the indulgence.
“Your mind wanders because you’re thinking of…him,” June said with a sagacious aire. Abraxas acted as though he had not heard.
“The preparations go smoothly,” he said to June. “Contact the other nations tomorrow with final terms before dawn’s light. I intend no further parlay with them. I will move east to take Europe first. They will yield unconditionally or I will obliterate them, starting with London.”
“Chen Ling Hei’an will not agree to that,” June reminded him, gathering the papers together with practiced grace and tucked them into color coded envelopes. Abraxas snarled softly but relented. “Yes, Ling” Abraxas said gently, disgusted at the awe he could hear in his own voice. “Can I trust her, despite all her loyalty?” His pale milky iris’ shifted to one side, considering as he tented his fingers together, like he used to do in the days of plotting, before the days of conquest. “Ling has been a valuable ally, I’ve already offered her a kingdom of her own to rule in my empire to be, but she still refuses. I owe her a great debt, but how long until she collects her due? This worries me.”
"I don't think a kingdom is something that Chen desires," June commented. Abraxas opened his eye to the future, searching the possible timelines of himself searching for her until he would have discovered her location in the great citadel. She appeared in one of those timelines, and mentally he focused on this future, lifting it as one would lift a single strand of weft from the frame of a loom. She stood in the cell of the failed hero, the one who almost stopped his ascent to power. She was…with the hero? A troubling prospect….but why should he be worried? Nothing could stop him now, not even a failed hero…and his unexpected ally. June interrupted his musing, breaking his reverie.
“Is Europe really the first stop in your global conquest? Your generals discussed previously that taking South America would be better, to consolidate your hold on the Americas.” June was tapping notes into a tablet.
“They will yield unconditionally.” Abraxas repeated, stretching one hand out before him in a clutching gesture. “Or I will break their weapons and dash their pitiful hopes first! That is precisely why Europe is perfect. It doesn’t make any sense, I have to travel across the entire Atlantic just to get there. Why did Hannibal travel over the mountains? Because it made strategic sense? Or because he knew it would terrify his enemies into weeping submission with it’s audacity? What is strategy in the face of overwhelming power such as I now possess?” Abraxas’ lower lip trembled in unexpressed emotions. He whirled away from the window and stormed out of the room. Unbidden, June followed him, still tapping away on the tablet.
“You remember, many of Hannibal’s soldiers and elephants died for his audacity,” June commented, nonplussed. “That was a rather cruel thing to do to some perfectly fine elephants.”
“
There is nothing more I need from you today, June,” Abraxas said without preamble but June bowed silently regardless and retreated down a corridor toward his personal suite adjacent to Abraxas’ own quarters. Abraxas swept down the corridors towards the lifts, toward the bowels of the citadel. It would be several hours until he would begin his attack on the European front, undoubtedly June had already sent messages informing his legions. They would spend the night hours mobilizing for the attack, a pointless show of force. He alone now would suffice. He should not visit the hero in his current emotional state, too much of his detested humanity remained within him. He could not guarantee himself that he would not lose control, no, it would be better to be cold, emotionless, inhuman. This was the safer path, yet his traitor feet carried him to the one place he should stay away from. The room of his vanquished rival, his opposite, the one he had battled time and again, wrecking city and forest alike in their clashes until the night of the eclipse, and the celestial alignment which granted him hegemonic power. Or rather, he corrected himself, until Chen Ling Hei’an.
The woman herself emerged before him, interposed between himself and the door that would take him to see the erstwhile hero. He licked his lips, an oddly serpentine gesture, and spread his hands apart in greeting. Her face betrayed not what she was thinking, and he had the odd sensation that somehow he knew her even less well now than he knew her when she was the hero’s ally, their swords crossing on the battlefield; her fires burned his hair and scorched his skin. Those exciting days of combat were over now, only the sullen march of his inexorable victory over the free peoples of Earth were his reality now.
“My dear Ling,” he said, forcing calm he did not feel into his voice. “Have I not provided you with more entertaining ways to pass your time? What a surprise to find you here, amongst the relics of the old world.”