quick, and as it died, a young girl stood before him, her fiery red hair tangled and unkempt.
“Aaron?” Delysia asked. Aaron felt his body tremble at the sound of her voice.
Just a lie, he thought. Just another lie.
But it was hard to believe that as she touched the side of his face. Her hand felt cold, but her touch was real. Tears ran down his cheeks. Her dress was charred as if by fire.
“They do lie,” the girl said. “The abyss is cold. The fires give no heat. Ashhur didn’t want me, so now I’m here. I gave no love to Karak, so he gives no love to me.”
“You’re not real,” he said. It sounded like a plea. “You’re with Ashhur. You went to a better place. You were good. You were innocent.”
Pelarak laughed. Delysia cried. Her body faded upon an unfelt wind.
“No one’s innocent,” Delysia said through her sniffles. “But I worshipped something false. It didn’t matter how I prayed. I prayed to deaf ears.”
Aaron flung himself against his chains, desperate to touch her. She was fading away like a ghost. The darkness was claiming her, eating into her flesh so that it turned translucent. Pelarak waved a hand through her, scattering her image like smoke.
“You went to her,” the priest said. “I spoke with your father. I know what you have done. Do you not see how foolish you are? A girl. A young, stupid girl, and yet you thought she had wisdom?”
Aaron slumped, and his eyes stared at a floor with no texture or depth.
“Her prayers were so real,” he said. “She meant them. She felt them. That is what I wanted.”
Pelarak grabbed Aaron’s hair and jerked upward so they could stare eye to eye.
“Madmen gibber that demons live within them, and that their voices torment them daily. Do they not believe as deeply as that little girl did? Why not go to them for guidance?”
To this Aaron had no answer, but Pelarak did.
“Because she had a dream that you desired,” the priest said, letting go of Aaron’s hair. “You liked what she believed. It sounded sweet. But the only thing that matters is the truth. Would you willfully live a lie just because you like it? Should I tell you that your girl is fine, and that the world is a beautiful place, and that no one will ever hurt you? I’d love to live in that world, but that doesn’t make it real. What is real, Aaron? What do you know is real?”
He thought of Robert Haern dead, killed by his student’s hands. His hands.
“I know I’ve killed those I love,” he said.
“Ah yes, and why?” Pelarak asked. “What is it that brought about their murders?”
A light flashed in Aaron’s eyes. He knew. He saw his love and devotion, saw to whom he had devoted it. His guilt and shame coalesced into a hardened arrow, no longer aimed at himself. There was one person that deserved it all. The one who had strangled his soul and perverted his desires. The one who had used his love to inspire murder and destruction. His own father.
“I prayed to Ashhur,” Aaron said. It was no lie. “Because of that, people died.”
“Precisely,” Pelarak said. “Is that Ashhur’s power? Devotion leads to death? Karak is power, boy. He is the Lion. He is King of all, and all will tremble before his roar and bow to kiss his claws.”
Suddenly Pelarak was gone. The chains cracked and broke. Aaron crumpled to the ground, shivering in the darkness. He felt cold. His teeth chattered.
And then the Lion approached. It walked from afar, too far to be inside the small room. Its fur was fire, burning atop skin made of molten rock. Eyes swirling with hatred and smoke fixated upon his trembling form. When it opened its mouth, teeth the size of daggers glistened with fresh blood.
Behold the Lion, shouted a voice, impossibly deep and booming from every corner of the room. Behold the power of his majesty.
The Lion roared. Deep within its gullet, Aaron saw a thousand weeping lives. They reached upward and wailed, their cries mixing with the mighty roar of a god. Aaron felt his soul quiver. He mashed his face to the cold dark stone. Tears flowed from his eyes. He couldn’t think. He could only tremble in wonder.
Do you doubt my authority? the Lion asked. Who are you to me, mortal? When your life ends, I am the Truth that awaits you. Where shall you stand in my