Whispers of a Dead Empire

'Relax, child. You are safe here." She cooed at me as I felt spectral hands run across my face.

"Please. I need to stay." My words became whispers as I tried to find the strength to resist. Her words gently prodded me, weeded their way into my soul, and drugged me further into her loving embrace.

Emerald fire regarded me with a thoughtful gaze for an eternity. But as her warm words were about to seep into my soul, she paused. A feeling of rage pulsed across the air and chased away whatever love and warmth had settled in my chest. I felt a large spectral hand grab me and drag me up and away, just as a strange violet miasma spread across the ground.

The surrounding ground twisted as I rose, yet I was panicking. I had no clue what was going on, nor did I know what the source of that rage was coming from. But the hand was like an angel and was rescuing me from the grasp of what was to come. "Do you feel that, captain?" She asked as I spun around slowly to regard the battle field below.

My troops were dying, getting cut down by the tree-like monsters. But we're still winning. Though at this moment, it felt like everyone was caught in a state of duality. Faces of flesh and blood sat on bone, decaying skin, and etheric muscle in a perverted display of life. It was horror incarnate, yet now that I was like this, I finally understood. We were dead, yet we were alive. Magic no longer bound us and enslaved us to a will. We were free. We were reborn.

However, just as the epiphany struck, I felt rage gnaw away at the corner of my mind. The thin veil of miasma that threatened to consume me earlier spread across the ground like a stream. The wounded soldiers on the ground were quickly granted mercy, and tiny sparks of gold would erupt from their chests in a muted light storm that floated softly into the sky.

Pressure built in my face, as my sinus throbbed, as the pressure moved in even faster. The rage attacked my mind, threatening to shatter it, as I could only gaze down on the battlefield, paralyzed by the emotions striking me relentlessly. Rage, anger, shame, and confusion hammered into me, one after another. But one was the most prevalent above all else. The anger of a mother.

With a clap like thunder that chased away the muted silence, a form appeared in the middle of the battle. She was encased in a brilliant golden light that spilled off her in a relentless torrent and chased away the coming darkness of the setting sun. The miasma spread across the ground, slithered its way towards her, and intermingled with the radiant light pouring off her.

Her eyes blazed like a conflagration, and small gouts of orange lightning sparked and jumped down her arms and legs. Even the mask that she wore wasn't immune to the power that was radiating off of her. The orange flickered and churned and the purple pulsed with an unnatural life. But the scariest part was how the light and miasma mixed in the air behind her. Fog and light mixed and intermingled, forming the outline of a giant scaled beast that echoed the rage that she felt.

"Empress?" I murmured as the realization struck me like a hammer as memories that had long since faded away slammed into me. Since I've known her, I've never seen her angry.

"Where is my daughter?" Ki slammed into the ground sending dirt flying high into the air, and the world seemed to pause. Her words were like a sledgehammer as they slammed into man and undead alike. Power thrashed and swam through the air, freezing everything under its sheer weight. Even the wind held its breath, afraid to insult the power that bound it. At least until the groan of wood shifting filled the air as one of the enormous beasts stood against it. Dozens of branches swayed in the still air as it clambered forth to meet this new threat.

I struggled against the incorporeal chains that had wrapped around my body. "I need to go. I have to protect the Empress."

"No. Just watch." Her words soothed the raging fire within my soul as I watched on helplessly.

The giant ent lumbered forth and swung its giant many-branched limbs, and time seemed to slow down as it raced through the air and towards my Empress. I begged and pleaded to be released so I could protect her, yet all that answered was silence. In the blink of an eye, she vanished just as the tree slammed into where she stood. Dirt and stone choked out the air as the tree swung its arm and tore through the ground.

She appeared a short distance away, with a single white light in front of her mask. Mote by mote, light swirled around and coalesced until the energy radiating from her face grew with painful intensity. Her eyes blazed in anger as more emotions assailed me. Yet I could only watch on helplessly. I needed to do more than just sit here. The giant tree reared back its arm and slowly charged toward my leader. The earth shook under its sheer weight as each foot slammed into the ground.

But the energy grew stronger. I felt something tug painfully at my soul. It was like claws digging into its etheric flesh, yanking me forward. But the hand that bound me pulled me away. The sparks, however, that had yet to rise above the battle were not so lucky. They were drug screaming through the air and into the swirling maelstrom of energy forming in front of the Empress' mask.

The ent crossed the distance quickly, ready to smash the woman to the ground. At least until a primal roar filled the air as she let the maelstrom loose. The white energy exploded outwards in a cone that extended as far as the eye could see. It cut through the top half of the monster, disintegrating it in a sea of searing white light. The roar grew in intensity as she swung her head, and the light followed like a hapless slave, cutting through ground and tree alike. A few more large tree-like creatures were cut down as the beam traveled before suddenly being cut shot.

"I won't ask again. Where the fuck is my daughter?" Her words were akin to a heavy growl as she stood in the middle of the chaos. She felt like an entirely different person at that moment. A far cry from the woman that I knew.

"Hell hath no fury like a mother's wrath." The divine being behind me spoke, tearing my gaze away from the chaos below me.

"I've never seen her so angry." My words felt so weak against the power that thrashed in the air. Making me feel as if I were the size of an ant.

"I'm angry because they threatened my daughter. That I will not stand for. An attack on her is an attack on me." The words that carried the response were still full of love and warmth, yet they still carried a sharp edge.

I floated there, trapped in the void. Reality was often cruel, yet I knew why it was so. We all had our jobs to do. Each of us was important in our own way, so I didn't fault her for acting the way she did. Her job begged it, just like mine called for my death. It was the way of things. "I need to return now. I can't stay here." My mind was made up after watching everything unfold beneath me. I had to get back to my duty, no matter how tired I may be.

"If you go back, you will not be awakened. You will be the same mindless being you once were. Nothing but a slave to the past. However, if you remain, you will stay as you are now. If you so desire, I will create a specter for you. Nothing more than a shadow of what you once were, to do the duty prescribed." Her words rolled across me like a warm tide that gently lapped at my soul.

It felt like an impossible choice. Both sounded like double-edged swords. One where I was chained to the past, whereas in the other, I could rest, yet I couldn't interact with the world. I weighed the choices carefully as I thought through everything. Yet, I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do.