Darkness and Hellfire

Darkness and Hellfire

Volume Six: Cataclysms

'Words are like sword slashes. Why use many when only a few are needed?' At least I think that's the quote. Regardless, it's wrong. You use a lot of words to set a tone and declare that you are in control of the situation. You use a lot of sword slashes because it is flashy and fun and you are better than they are. Words can be like fog in a battle. Like right now, how much of your brain power is trying to process my present ramblings.

Lenny

Interlude 13

"Walter!" Amaranth exclaimed as she met the seasoned adventurer, artificer, tracker, hero maker, teacher, and the world's only true gunslinger.

"Ama, it's good to see you." He replied and they shared a brief almost familial hug. After they separated Walter put his hand on Amaranth's head and tussled her hair. "How's it goin' kiddo?"

Amaranth pushed his hand off of her head. "I am in my sixties, Walter, do you not think that maybe it is about time you stop treating me like I am six?" She told him with only the barest hint of annoyance as she used magic to fix her hair. Her braid was loose and comfortable but that also meant that he had murdered it when he tussled her hair.

"Nonsense." Walter told her with a chuckle. "You are never too old for your uncle to call you kiddo or tussle your hair." He countered.

Amaranth's reply as an eyeroll and a motion for him to enter her home. "Come on, old man, I will have tea brought to the garden." She told him and then led him through the manor and out into the garden.

No sooner had the pair sat down opposite each other in the Arbencroft Garden, did Walter get straight to the point. "Your dad said that I was supposed to help get you in the right head space for your ascension and what comes after." Walter sighed. "How I'm supposed to do that when I'm not a demigod is beyond me so I'm just gonna hit you with some of Uncle Walt's Undeniable Wisdom."

Amaranth smiled. It had been some time since he had showered her with stories of the past and lessons learned. "I am listening." She said with a nod so he would continue.

"First off, I know everybody is talking about how demigods are immortal and shit, well, they're lying to you. Nobody is actually immortal, not in the literal sense anyway. Even somebody like me can kill your parents under the right conditions, and they're bloody demigods. 'Immortality' is just extended mortality. Don't forget that while you are on your neverending journey through time without people like me to keep you grounded." Walter began. "Secondly, I've never experienced this personally, but Darkness, Hellfire, Reality, Ruler, Battle, and Catastrophe all told me that their mentalities, thought processes, whatever," He gestured randomly as if to express everything in that general direction. "were forcefully realigned with their domains and how people saw them. That's why your mother didn't plunge the city into the hells, everyone already knew how kind of a person she was, so her Hellfire aspect met with people's impressions of her in the middle and that is what you have now, a woman both kinder and meaner than she was before. Your father," Walter chuckled. "That one was a bit of a mess. You were too little to remember it, at least to remember it very well, but it was a bit rough for a little while."

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"So I have heard, many times over the decades since." Amaranth replied to the last part of what Walter had said.

"That's the second thing I wanted to set your mind on. When you are undergoing your ascension, cling to everything that makes you who you are and let the nature of magic and godhood redefine your powerset. You will still be powerful no matter how your power changes, it's your heart that your father is worrying about." Walter explained. "But you know how he is, he can't actually worry about you, he can just see potential negatives. That's why he called me."

Amaranth nodded in understanding. "First, always remember that demigods can die. Second, during the ascension keep my 'self' intact as much as possible and let everything else go. What is the third?" Amaranth questioned. She knew him, he had been her teacher at one point in time after all, and he always preferred things in threes.

"The third thing is the hardest for someone like your father and myself." Walter said with a far off look in his eyes. "Time goes by really slowly, but also far too fast. For humans, our perception of time is in the span of decades, but it can also easily fall into the trap of habit. All of the human demigods have their own ways of dealing with it, but the easiest way, that I've seen, is to live away from someone who you would never miss one of their birthdays."

Amaranth looked at him with some confusion. "Birthdays? Are you not notoriously bad at those?" She prodded.

"Yeah, yeah, make fun." Walter waved her off. "What I'm trying to say's that you need to keep yourself from turning into a machine that turns ideas into new spells or whatever. You can't let habit take you over for decades at a time. I've fallen victim to that more than once. Huge spans of time just seem to evaporate without a trace. Wake up, go to work, come home, eat, sleep, wake up, do it all over again, every human has succumbed to that. The famous 'where did the last decade go?' is real and when you have at least until the next dragon surge to live… don't waste a century in monotony because it is comfortable. 'Comfort is the enemy of growth'. 'Your comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there'. The quotes go on and on. That trap that catches countless talented and genius souls is a million times more dangerous to someone like you."

Amaranth nodded in understanding. "I will remember your words, Walter. And your last point as been repeated time and time again by everyone around every genius and talent ever." She added with a chuckle. "I'll make sure to write it down before moss starts to grow on me."

Walter shook his head. "Like father, like daughter." He told her. "Speaking of, he says that it is time for your next training session."

Walter and Amaranth continued to talk for the next few days between everything else that she had to do. Finally, the day came when she was deemed 'ready' and she fought her father again in the arena for all to see, but that fight, what happened immediately before, and what happened immediately after is a story for another time. What matters is that the story of the Lord of all that is Dark and his Lady who commands Hellfire was left in a drawer in Amaranth's desk for a quarter of a year before both she and her father were able to sit down and pick it back up again. Her first conversation with Walter never left her mind and that was why she had decided to immortalize it ink for any future demigods of the V'Nova Wexler line to read and hopefully take to heart.