An Offering For A Dark Host

Enter in, Unholiest of Holies

The last chapter had us following the unholy procession into the dark temple of Erets to the altar of Apkallu. You can tap here to go back to the last chapter if you need a refresher, or tap here to visit the Marsh Boy chapter list.

An Offering For A Dark Host

Cole Marsh crossed his arms and rubbed at his shoulders as he was carried behind his mother into the cavernous opening. She didn’t make sense to him. None of this made sense to him. Where was the tenderness he had grown up with? More than just his dad and Jeddy had changed down here. Jeremiah, now a Tannite, set his boy down and prodded him forward with a webbed claw.

Dust and rubble continued to fall from where the cavern wall had crumbled away. The gaping hole surrounded by pillars of stone made him feel like a worm on a hook as they walked into the mouth of the temple.

The inside of the entrance was dark. A low glow from the torches along the wall lit the passage as the entourage continued forward. The floating pink and yellow orbs that had hovered in the cavern had dimmed more faintly than Cole’s spirit. Flashes of deep reds and violets would streak from one end of the room to the other, reflecting off puddles on the ground to provide shadowy illumination to the way.

The blonde woman in front came to a rectangle of stone and turned back to the group.

“Heather. Amber. Bring the bride-to-be forward.”

As the two women came forward, one reached out and ran her hand across Cole’s back and shoulder and she walked past. The hungry eyed brunette. The remaining three were all brunettes but only one of them looked at Cole the way she did. Something inside of him was drawn to those eyes in a way he’d never known before. “I wonder which one she is,” thought Cole to himself.

The two who responded to Heather and Amber gracefully took each of Lily’s arms and lead her forward into the room. Water drops from the ceiling echoed as they found the cavern floor. The soft crackle of torchlight eased his spirit and he could feel some of his rigid timidity melt away. He started forward to follow the women.

Another hand touched Cole on the shoulder. “You must stay here, boy.” The third brunette. The gold braided into her hair glimmered against the torchlight and red bows of light. A long curl had come loose and hung over her face. Maybe she meant that on purpose. Cole wasn’t sure. “What’s your name?” he asked. With her attention more on the women walking towards the alter, she flatly said, “Emily.” He felt no connection with her when she looked at him, touched him, or spoke to him. He did obey her.

He hated to talk with this woman but he couldn’t hold his question “Emily, what is this place?”

“You are in Erets, boy. The deep temple of Apkallu.”

“What is Apkallu?” asked Cole as he turned to look up at her face. Her expression was blank.

“Apkallu is the lord, lover and creator. Taker of wives and maker of men.”

She sounded mechanical and distant, Cole thought. “I don’t understand that. What’s happening here?”

“Shhhhhh. They approach the altar. We must be quiet.”

Heather and Amber led Lily to the rectangular stone altar at the front of the temple. Behind it, steps led up to a platform with a single empty throne. The two women released Lily and stepped to either side of the altar. Lily knelt and bowed her head.

“I’m here, lord.” She whispered but her small voice was heard throughout Erets.

The room shook and dark shadows descended onto the throne. Rainbows the color of blood pulsed as if being pumped through an unseen heart.

From within the fallen shadow and sinister lights, a voice spoke to Lily. “Daughter, dost thou wish to live in love and compassion?”

“I do, lord,” she replied.

“I will make thee glorious!” The room shook again as the voice said the words. “But first, I require a pledge.”

“Which is why I humbly approach your altar, this day, lord.” She looked to Heather and Amber at either side of her, and they nodded in return. The women began to hum melodically.

Emily also began to hum with the other women. As their tune filled the temple of Erets, another sound emerged.

The Tannites had followed Cole, Lily, and the women into the temple. Cole had only been aware of the one that had been his father, but the others now slinked forward from the shadows. One by one, they rose their wicked voices to the single solitary note Cole had first heard them sing on the surface of Tannigath.

A shimmer of green light spread across the room as the song continued.

Emily pressed her hand against Cole’s back to pushed him forward. The rigid timidity he had felt the relief from only moments ago returned br she prodded him on. Cole walked at his father’s right hand. On Cole’s right, another bright green Tannite closed in beside him. A smaller Tannite pulled from the group and joined next to the one on Cole’s right. All four were brought up behind Lily at the altar.

“What is this unformed blasphemy you bring before me?!” thundered the shadow. The Tannites spread apart and only Cole stood behind Lily. Emily held her hand behind him.

Lily laid her face on the altar. Tears ran down her cheeks and wet the stone table. “Lord, I bring thee four offerings, three have been created in your image. This fourth is my son. There is also a prisoner, if it pleases you.”

From the shadow of the throne, a hand emerged and opened in welcome acceptance.

Lily nodded and the Tannites began to sing their note louder. The puddles on the floor of the cavern began to bubble and boil. The surface of the water rose in tension. Instead of overflowing, the water stood upright. It grew like a cube out of the puddle and shimmered in bright green as it emerged. Zeke appeared within the watery cell and pressed his hands against the surface.

The shadow swirled. Orbs spat from the dark into the temple walls and shattered in an array of crystalline light to the floor. The blood red and purple rainbows darkened and flowed into and out of one another like writing serpents. The ceiling and walls of Erets shook and then it all ceased as soon as it had begun.

“Ahhh. Ezekiel Marsh. You’ve returned home, my boy.”

A Chamber of Blasphemies

We’re a long way from the surface and the Green Glass. What a web the Marsh’s have been snared in!

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Talk to y’all in two weeks.

~ J.P. Simons