Chapter 2: Origins

Chapter 2

“Once upon a time, in a faraway, distant land…”. Jacques began his story with words that sounded quite familiar to Aeliana. Words that seemed so innocent, yet beautiful, to her.

“There lived a wild enchantress and Goddess of the Sun But this enchantress had not always been. For her origins came from a heart of both darkness and light, residing in a land known as Earth to all.”

Swallowing deeply, Aeliana knew that this story related to her. She didn’t even need to be told.

“And in this land of Earth,” Jacques continued on, “The wild Goddess of the Sun met her dear mate and counterpart, a divine werewolf from the Realm of Darkness, a world of evil to all. So because it seemed as though she needed to subject herself to ways that were far darker than her counterpart, she took it upon herself to marry herself to the one creature that prevented her from becoming one with her Lord and God.”

Aeliana was beginning to feel the sparks of something beautiful arising between them both.

“Earth is a place of origins, as you know. And so it began between them both. The story of a Sun Goddess, entwined with the soul of a darkened werewolf And, since the werewolf knew the ways of Darkness far more mightily than anything the Goddess of the Sun ever could- she turned against him, and served the wicked ways of her parents, rather than her beloved.”

This is quite a turn of events, Aeliana thought. An unexpected one.

“And so it continued. The beautiful Sun Goddess became one with the wicked werewolf. And so it began. The battle of the sexes, between the elite Sun Goddess, and the force of the Dark Masculine.”

“As soon as she adopted the werewolf’s powers, she became something supernatural. Like a poet, in need of paper, or a ghost, in need of a grave. A satanic force of influence, begotten in female form. So that women were the greater sex, and the force of magick amok in the world.

“Besmirched of evil, the supernal princess of newfound darkness at last became one with the world around her. But since she had never before been accustomed to the ways of darkened influence, she easily succumbed to the impact of her divine counterpart, her practical werewolf on earth.

“In spite of all that she endured, however, she made sweet love to her Divine Masculine, and spread her force of empowered, light magic to the fearful world around her. For there were such strong affectations of lost dreams and soulless desires, in this realm she had crafted- or at least, been made part of. It was almost like the epiphany of music that she had always wanted to write came alive before her very eyes, its songs tormenting her in a realm to which she had always desired to belong. But she had somehow never been able to do so, in the world that she had come to create- or at least, the one to which she had come to know and to truly belong.”

At that, Jacques paused dramatically.

“Would you like for me to take you on a ride?” Jacques turned toward Aeliana, a touch of faint emotion lingering in his eyes. But the specific emotion, Aeliana could not exactly tell.

“I can astral travel you there,” he interjected before Aeliana could ask.

“Astral travel?” Aeliana quipped in horror. “Isn’t astral projection infested with demons?”

Jacques glared at her in return. “Only as long as you don’t piss off your spirit guides as you are astral projecting.”

Aeliana nodded absently. She wanted to believe him, at least.

“Okay. Then I guess I’ll have a go at it.”

Outstretching his hand toward Aeliana, he held her close, and whispered, “When all else fails, just trust me.”

She was grateful that he couldn’t read her mind, especially at that moment.

And so, it began once more.

As they held tightly on to each other, Jacques clearly leading the way… Aeliana did all that she could have done to protect herself from the forces of demonic infiltration.

And yet, there was still something that nagged at her.

She immediately sensed the presence of some sort of lingering darkness. And no matter how desperately she attempted to grasp toward the light- none of it mattered, since she was inevitably bound to the infinite Realm of Darkness.

“This is your fate. Your undeniable destiny.”

The audible voices ceaselessly whispered in her ear. But she no longer knew whether she stood for light or dark, given that the voices continued to nag at her without warning.

“Please, Jacques. Explain to me what is happening here!” Aeliana cried out in quiet desperation.

Smiling mischievously, Jacques looked on past Aeliana, toward the seemingly unending skies above. “This is true beauty. You must learn to accept its definition if you would like to become one of the enlightened ones.”

Trying her best to brush off the sounds of the lingering voices that continued to nag at her, Aeliana held tightly onto the very edge of Jacques’ wings. It seemed as though he could detect the fear from deep within her, as though he preyed upon her every thought, emotion, and mood.

“Where are we going?” Aeliana asked, trying her best to sound as casual as possible.

“The Realm of Darkness,” Jacques replied, a sense of implicit foreboding in the tone of his voice, even if he didn’t wish to outright offend her.

But before she could open her mouth to add anything further, they both landed somewhere seemingly simple enough— at least, in Aeliana’s eyes.

“Have you prepared yourself well enough to face her?” Jacques cleverly questioned Aeliana.

“To face whom?”

Aeliana thought to herself, He can’t possibly mean…

My mother.

The one who had caused the beginning of it all. The Fall between them, and all of mankind.

“Can we… backtrack for just a moment?” Aeliana could feel herself trembling, shaking in her very flesh. She just wasn’t ready for this.

But before Jacques could answer her in kind, a loud, hissing sound emerged from the deepest recesses of the darkness. So Aeliana observed her surroundings with even more fear, trepidation, and uncertainty.

What she faced was unlike any other garden she had ever stumbled across. It seemed ordinary enough on the surface— decked in shrubbery, trees, and flowers of all kinds. The birds of the air chirped in seeming delight, pride, and joy, filling every inch of the space with a strong sense of sacredness and holy beauty that could not be matched.

But beneath the surface, she detected a strong touch of evil, a deviant darkness that could not be tamed. It almost screamed out at her as she attempted to focus solely on the beauty of the Garden.

Turning frantically toward Jacques, she asked, “What do I do?”

But Jacques’ attention seemed occupied, his gaze focused on her mother, quite clearly, before them.

“Please don’t tell me that this is… Mother?” Aeliana practically shouted, unable to contain the severity of her shock. She tried with all that she could to make herself feel, or be, calm again… But to no avail.

Jacques, however, seemed to be speaking in some kind of foreign tongue, motioning over toward her mother with the tip of his right paw.

And suddenly… the wings of the grandest dragon imaginable swooped down to overshadow the beauteous landscape of the Garden where her mother resided. It covered the entirety of the land, including the forebodingly evil nature of the snake.

The dragon’s scales shone brightly forth, causing her mother to diminish in comparison. Aeliana could practically feel the darkness brimming from this unholy, putrid creature, even more strongly than she could feel from the aura of Jacques.

“Begone from me, Satan!” Aeliana shouted out toward either her mother, or the dragon, or both — she wasn’t sure which, but regardless, she knew that something needed to be done about this predicament she had landed herself in. And soon.

“Justify it all you want. You’ll never be able to make him flee from you.”

But right in mid-sentence, the dragon practically threw itself at Maelyn.

This should have caused her even further distress, but it did not.

In fact, it led her to gravitate further toward both the dragon and her mother — the very faces of evil itself.

She didn’t want to, of course. But it seemed as though history was already pre-written, as though the words of Jacques were already set in stone, intended for destiny.

As though her fate were practically unavoidable.

Given that the Scriptures had already been recorded, it wouldn’t have surprised her one bit if it were meant to be like this, if she was meant to be one with the Dark Masculine.

She could feel herself caked in a fog-like shadow, prepared to defend herself from any attacks that might have come her way. Aeliana wanted, more than anything, to find the one she was truly meant to be with — to become one with him, once and for all.

But there would always be something or someone who prevented her from attaining this goal.

“Aeliana, I am deeply sorry, but I must let you go. This is the end of our journey as we know it here together.”

Taken aback, Aeliana stood her ground.

“The Ethereal Realm, as we know it, has only just begun. You could not be more wrong.”

But no sooner had Aeliana opened her mouth in opposition than she had entwined with the body of Jacques, tearing his clothes off right before her very eyes. Ripped piece by piece, and then, lustfully licking his lips.

This, Aeliana thought to herself wickedly, was more like it.