The city below was gleaming, bright, strong.
She could feel the wind blowing through her hair as she soared high above the city, her eyes narrow against the brightness of blue skies and sunny day.
Even as high as she was, she could smell the saltwater of the bay below her, a sweet smell of freshness, and age. Of both rebirth and eternity. She could see the sunlight dancing on the waves, and hear the seagulls banter with the ocean. She was home.
Far below she could see a young child turn around from his mother's hand and point excitedly at the sky. She was far too high to hear what he was saying, but she had heard it before:
"Look! It's the
Power!
She keeps us
safe!"
The Power gave a little wave down below.
She kept on her way, soaring high above the city she had made her home in, warm in the summer sun, soaring ever higher, her long blonde hair trailing behind her.
There was no evil down there today, she knew.
She was happy. She was home.
******************************
That, of course, was a dream, and in no sense reflected the situation she was currently in.
Her nose burned from the stench of the filth all around her. She blinked a few times, tears flowing unbidden, attempting to wash her eyes clear. Around her buzzed little stinging insects, dozens of them. Crawling over her, trying to work their stingers into her flesh, one after the other, over and over again.
They hadn't been able to. It wasn't easy to pierce her flesh.
But that didn't stop them from trying.
She hadn't slept very much at all.
The Fist sat up, blinking the tears away. She looked around her environment, her eyes unfocused and clouded. Her eyesight came and went these days, after she had been blinded during her battle with the spider and attempted suicide, her Master had found her, broken and floating in the river. He had "healed" her eyesight, as much as he had healed anything else about her. But her eyesight didn't work for very long without him allowing it.
He had made that very clear the first night after he brought her back from the death she prayed for and couldn't get. Her Master had allowed her to go blind again after restoring her eyesight. When she could finally see nothing, he had turned her loose out in the Black World, where she tried to hide herself against the black sands, tried to make herself as small as possible. She spent the night out there, blind, helpless, and terrified.
When he brought her back in she was ready to agree to anything he wanted. Not that she had ever had a choice.
"Hi," she heard a woman's voice say hesitantly.
"Oh," the Fist said. "Is that you? I can't see very well."
"Yeah."
"What..."
"Sorry to wake you up. I brought you some food. I thought you should eat."
"OK."
The Fist reached her hands out, searching for the offered food. Her eyes were a milky white, unfocused, unseeing. The other woman put the food in the searching hands, some bread, some cheese, some kind of meet.
"I'm sorry you had to sleep out here in this... place."
The other woman waved her hand around what they called the stable. But it didn't have any horses. No horse could live long on Black World.
All this stable had was death, and filth. Behind the Fist, she could hear the maggot Red Eyes ripping, and gnawing, and chewing at the carcass she had dragged here to feed them.
"That's OK," the Fist said, tearing into a dry bagel. "It wasn't your fault."
"He
made
me do it... made me do that to him."
"That's what he does."
"I didn't have any choice."
"I know. Nothing you could have done."
The other woman put her hand on the Fist's hand gently.
"What?" asked the Fist.
"I don't want to fight you. We can both serve him together. I want to be a part of this, also."
"You're just saying that because he warped your mind while he made you suck his dick, princess. He took control of you just like he did to me. I don't know if you are completely his slave yet, I don't give a fuck. But I know that whatever words are coming out of your mouth are words that he put in your head."
"I
believe
in him. I believe in what he's doing. I think he can do it."
"Whatever," the Fist said, ripping off another hunk of bagel. Her mouth was dry from the heat. Hard to chew.