Blasphemy (second edition)

Blasphemy

A short story by Cory Kutschker

            Eternal and limited strands twisted and turned, careening along unknown folds of the space unfilled. Over it all and interwoven was the cosmos, celestial bodies in their respective orbits, cyclopean boulder asteroids ploughing into dusty and grey moons, and miasmic nebulas sustained in gaseous colours. These fields of worlds and many substances lay before Sethik’s mind as he sat upon the rock underneath the white dotted sky of his planet, P't. It all shone and remained at peace. Scarcely would he lower his gaze to the silhouetted landscape, which under the rising light of Gadowl Ma'owr, became ablaze to a raw sienna.

10

            It was morning and the gathering grew near in the red valley, down where the hoodoos tower and circle, marking the zenith of the midday. Therein carved are the four chairs, smoothed by ages.  Here the watchers gathered: Bash, Nethik, Lesh, and Sethik. The words projected were few. All was thought together.

“Gadowl Ma'owr Shal’ma’at!”

"Bash, Tath ta Tu Shal'ma'at."

"Nethik, Tath ta va Shal'ma'at."

"Lesh, Tath ta vut Shal'ma'at."

"Sethik, Tath ta Sa, Shal'ma'at."

When translated means:

Great eye, Peace!

Bash, watcher of the North, Peace

Nethik, watcher of the West, Peace

Lesh, watcher of the East, Peace

Sethik, watcher of the South, Peace

In unison they thought, "Shal'ma'at ta P't ut P't." Peace, from Great Sky to Great Sky

The completion of the Sothic year marked the next meeting of the watchers.

9

Sethik had returned to the rock on the ridge. With his head upon the dirt, he dreamed.

Absurd lesions appeared in the twists of the over-lands and a sickening rot came upon orbits. A bizarre nebula visited distant worlds, contorting them to obscene graves. And from beyond his sight came a murmur. Whether they were complete words he did not know, but it took hold of his mind and squeezed.

He awoke.

Clouds obscured his vision but not his mind. Something had changed. It was not large, but it was there, disturbing him.

8

The clouds left on the morning of the first day of the first week of the sixth month under the morning light of Gadowl Ma'owr. The clouds were gone but the presence was not. He had to await the arrival of twilight.

            When night returned Sethik raised his head and looked. A yellowish miasma twisted through the fields of stars. Lower along the horizon lay a reddish haze moving serpentine through the air sometimes heaving and lurching amongst the markings of the Great Eye. Upon the air started a whispering and a murmur suggesting devouring voids. His mind moaned. His clawed feet dug into the ferrous dirt scraping along the bedrock four inches below.

7

            In the seventh month, Sethik turned his mind toward the darker realms of the cosmos: forbidden. He viewed the black expanse between the rotating arms of galaxies, worlds of voids. For weeks his mind drifted without light, encountering odd conscious substances, and thicker wretched minds. Ink-ish tendrils swam and reached for his thoughts. Under Gadowl, before the eighth month, sleep caught up and found him. Sethik dreamed.

            Gadowl Ma’owr became sick. His blazing ropes became erratic and blackish spots multiplied upon his surface. The air in P’t became like soup. Sethik travelled to the meeting place. The meeting chairs were destroyed, and the pillars brought down. He saw the watchers at a distance then each in detail. Boils rolled upon their skin. All three raised their claws pointing to him, condemning.

6

            Sethik awoke, shivered and sweated. He hungered. He travelled to the Macceth valley, the great oasis. The moss bed was a mile, and after was the Ramek Forest. He stopped at the forest and lay on his back, his skin feasting upon the moisture and nutrients. Each stem dissolved and absorbed into his body. A vibration shook the brush. Sethik stood up scanning the tree line. A kenere had broken into the clearing. It looked towards Sethik and lowered its head to chew on the moss. A rhythmic throbbing pulsed in his mind. He felt his skin writhe in desire. His eyes lingered. What if? He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He thought of a snap, a broken neck, the kenere laying in his arms, (his breath became shallow, rapid) the skin of his stomach opening, absorbing its fur and flesh. He opened his eyes and his breath stopped. He looked down. His skin was tinted red. His mind howled.

5

            At the fifth day in the forest, Sethik became aware of a familiar presence nearing his location. He stood up and scanned the woods. A projection breached his mind.

“Sethik.” Bash appeared to his left slowly walking through the brush.

“Bash” He replied.

“You are eating well” Bash raised a claw, pointing to Sethik’s luminous skin.

“Water” Sethik motioned to the Lagoon.

“Have you seen a Kenere?My pet.” Bash raised his left hand to his chest.

“I have not seen it or sensed it” Sethik thought, masking his memory of his recent days.

Bash looked to the side.

“Keep looking” Sethik thought as he walked south, back to the rock.

4

            The air was thick and smelled burnt. The murmuring continued and grew louder, unbearable, accusing, and suggesting. Sethik’s mind screamed and a fury birthed in his skin, welling to his mind. The atmosphere now had tints of yellow streaking through.

           

3

The Sothic year ended on the ninth month. Sethik travelled to the meeting place. He arrived last, fury rising. The report began.

“Gadowl Ma'owr Shal’ma’at!”

"Bash, Shal'ma'at."

"Nethik, Shal'ma'at."

"Lesh, Shal'ma'at."

Sethik did not respond for several minutes as his mind swam in the rage engulfing his skin, coursing like lit gasoline through his veins. His skin rippled across his body. From his mind, his dream from the seventh month burst and howled like wind through his brain. It coursed through the watchers as a seismic wave and left them silent.

Sethik left. A whisper started among them.

2

            He was summoned back at dusk. Looking at Sethik, Lesh pointed at him with a claw.

“Gadap Gadowl!” (Blasphemy) Lesh’s skin rippled.

Nethik followed, raising a claw towards Sethik, skin rippling.

Bash did nothing but stare. In that moment, Gadowl disappeared below the horizon. Night came, Sethik’s mind screamed and snapped Lesh’s neck.

Nethik’s mind screamed, as he looked upon the oldest watcher’s body and lunged towards Sethik. Sethik was faster, and sliced a claw along Nethik’s throat, spraying blood upon Bash’s face.

For several minutes, Bash blinked in silence looking down at the ground, at the bodies of the two watchers slain before him. He didn’t think anything but a name, “Sethik.”.

Bash fled, running west to the Macceth Valley. Sethik trailed behind, walking.

1

The great moss was quiet. Sethik walked through, looking and scanning for Bash’s presence. A projected howl burst through the air. Sethik looked North. Bash was at the treeline stroking an antlered skull. Upon arrival, Bash looked to Sethik.

“You did this.” Bash thought as his skin rippled.

“I did.” Sethik replied.

“Go ahead.” Bash thought. In a second, he dropped dead, neck broken.

0

            Sethik walked in the desert alone. It was about the eleventh hour when a roar traversed the landscape. And something questioned Sethik.

“Where are they?”

The only other sound emerged from the south as raucous laughter.