Chapter Text
He did not remember what came before. There was nothing there but him. He knew he still had his senses but there was nothing to meet them. No sound, no sight, not even the caress of the wind upon his skin.
Wind.
He frowned. He remembered wind. He remembered...
Fire. Pain.
Betrayal!
Suddenly rage sprung up in his heart as he remembered bits and pieces of what came before. His mind reached for the rest and he felt a crack in the darkness around him.
Beyond, he could hear the whisperings. Little things of little lives. They were nothing to him but yet.
Yes!
He could feel them. He understood what they were seeking. It was not him but they would need not search any longer. They had found him and he was all they would need.
He answered the whispers, calling to them to come to him. And they came. Things that lurked in the dark, creatures far removed from the light of the world, they began to work.
Time marched on. Slowly.
He did not know how long he remained there but finally. They found that crack. They widened it. Deepened it. It became first a window and he could see the world beyond. Through their eyes he saw the world. It was not as he remembered but it was living, it was light. He wanted that light. To wrap himself up in it, to consume it, until there was nothing left of it but what it was for him.
He raged when some of them fled from him. They obeyed the call of another. He listened. He heard it all the way to his soul. It had no power over him but he knew that voice, that whisper.
Dumat!
He knew it. It was not his but he knew that voice. The way it banished all else but what it said. He could feel it in his mind and in his bones. Dumat became distant but it was always there, a presence in his mind. It took the little things but some remained, loyal and digging. Time went on and then finally, he heard nothing.
He mused something must have happened to Dumat for the god was a powerful thing. Time once more marched on as he called more things to him. More of them came to dig to make that window larger. To let him see and touch the world through more of them.
Then came another call. It was like the first, summoning away those who were not the most loyal to him. They fled to that call even as he found a name for the call.
Zazikel!
He knew it. It was not the one he followed but he knew it. It pulled those from him and he raged in the dark. Still, his new servants worked but yet they were not enough. He needed more.
And then that call ended as well.
He began to call them to himself once more but it was slow going. He was patient, he could wait. He had waited this long, had he not?
Then came yet another call. He sneered in the dark as he heard this one and understood it. It was full of passion and fire. It pulled at every little thing and all of them fled his side. His rage came against his prison but there was no freedom to be found.
Toth!
He tried to call out to it but it did not listen. They all abandoned him within the dark. And then, that too, became silent. He was alone then. With nothing but his thoughts and broken memories.
Finally, he heard them again. The whispers of the little things. He called to them once more, summoning them to his side. And once more, they began to do as needed. Chipping away at his prison.
They laboured and he knew that the window was growing large enough for him to reach out. He stretched out, letting his mind envelop that of one of the little things. He walked into the sun, feeling it on the flesh of the thing he took. It was warm. He wandered for days without end, enjoying the ability to feel something after having been locked away for so long.
Another call broke his connection to the little thing but this call was different. It was familiar. It was what he had heard so long ago. The whispers that came into his mind, perfect and beautiful. Within his prison, he wept at the joy of hearing.
Andoral!
This time, there was an answer. He felt it in his mind. That promise made was unspoken but he knew it. He had been promised something by Andoral.
He realized that the promise had been made but never fulfilled. They had gone... gone somewhere but they never received what was promised. He raged, his voice spitting venom back at the call. And then, just like that, the little things around him fled. The voice that called did not call to him any longer and he wept in his loneliness, bitter as even his loyal little things left him.
They followed that call but that too came to an end, just like all the others. He laughed maniacally in the darkness even as time began to march on.
He called to more little things, slowly guiding them to him. They all came. They all did what he needed them to. They threw themselves at that prison. The window was almost large enough. He would almost be free.
That window widened and he could feel more. There were the whispers of others. Dreams that he reached out to touch. Caress and mould as he saw fit. He revelled in it as these other little things became his as well.
Then came another call. He raged, wondering how many there would be. They all interrupted the pulse of his little things or eliminated them completely. They stole them from him! Him! He who had once been the Appraiser! The Lord of Chains! How dare these things take from him.
He listened to the call, seeking to know who had stolen from him.
Urthemiel.
He did not care that it was the god of beauty, it was an annoyance. The call from Urthemiel was peculiar, in that it was not quite right. There was something of about the call but he could not place it.
And then, just as quickly as Urthemiel's call came, it was gone.
He was startled by the sudden loss of that call. Compared to the others, it had been as if it was mere seconds.
Once more he called to his little things, willing them to return to him. To find him. They came as they always did. Obeying him as if he was right there with leash and whip. He revelled in it. Knowing that they were his but it was not enough.
The window needed to be bigger. He needed to walk out there among them. To feel the world beneath him and to know it bowed to him.
Then came the wrongness. He used one of his little things to see. They showed him the green hole in the sky. The demons that wandered, taking both the untouched and his little things. Once more he raged and began to call to them anew.
Pulling at them.
Bringing them to him.
They would make his window a door.
And he would be free.