Excerpt #2

     Later that night, Iriisii is on the top of the 'Circus of the Damned' having completed another sold out show. She just stands looking out over the city, listening to the bustle of the people walking the streets, those things they call cars running back and forth everywhere, and above in the skies, she finally hears the silence she was seeking. Only this silence is too shallow, for out there in the deep spaces she knows the Angelics, wait and watch her. She does not know why they are not down here doing something about the threat she feels looming over everything.

     Closer at hand, she feels others here all around watching as well. But they gather and pass information along, so someone is receiving it. She wonders how long before this one comes to ask her what she knows of events.

     Jean Claude: "A penny for your thoughts."

     Iriisii: "I am afraid they are too far away to be able to retrieve them now, and I wonder if they even have that much value to them."

     Jean Claude: "I think you sell them short, for they circle around you like a cloud of ravens."

     Then it seems as if serendipity strikes as a large dark raven lands on the stone close to them, pecks at the stone, seeking what she does not know, then looks to her and caws. At first she takes no notice, then she remembers where she last saw this particular raven out of all the others she has seen in her journey. She walks to him and holds out her arm, as he hops up on to it, looking for recognition in her eyes.

     Jean Claude: "Be careful, although they are very intelligent, they are still animals and so unpredictable."

     Iriisii: "It is perfectly fine, I know this one. He is a very special one. I hold a great deal of respect for his master, and always eagerly await the wisdom of his words."

     Jean Claude gets a strange look across his face as he parses her words for the meaning behind them.

     Iriisii: "'Huginn' is your name is it not? What words of wisdom does your master Wotan have for my ears?"

     Huginn walks up her arm to place his beak next to her ear and passes on the message he was given to deliver to her. Iriisii listens carefully and she becomes thoughtful before speaking to Huginn.

     Iriisii: "Tell Wotan I thank him for his message. It does indeed explain much about some things that have happened recently. I will exercise great caution in how I tread here. If it should please you, carry my blessing back to him, and my praises for your efforts to track me down and give me his words."

     Huginn raises his head and caws out loudly, almost as if he were laughing. He then leaps into the air, flies out into the darkness and vanishes within the shadows.

     Jean Claude: "A most unusual and singular raven."

     Iriisii: "He and his brother serve he who I know as Wotan, Lord of Asgard. I have worked the Forge of Stars with him at my side, even as I threw his boor of a son into a stone wall where he was stuck by his imprint. I wonder if it is still there. I also blooded the sword I forged there in a fight with him against the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. The victory was so sweet, the party lasted for days and nights as each who fought got up and regaled everyone there with their part in the battle."

     Jean Claude: "It sounds as if that battle was one worthy of a song to be written of it."

     Iriisii: "Knowing the minstrels and bards of Asgard, a great many songs were written about that battle. I and another were declared 'Daughters of Asgard' for our parts in the fighting, given permission to call and walk upon the 'Rainbow Bridge'. A great honor, not given to many to have. For the 'Rainbow Bridge' can go anywhere in all of Existence, anywhere you can imagine, it can take you."

     Jean Claude:  "Has it taken you anywhere?"

     Iriisii: "Yes, into the very heart of a most dangerous enemy, seeking the lost mind of one of my fellow Gods of Eld. I beheld the remains of their home, the home they abandoned to imprison a most deadly enemy. All that lived within it is now dead, all energy consumed, no light, no heat, no life, only entropy. Dark, stagnant, unchanging, some say that is what will become of the different universes far, far into the future, when the stars burn out and the deep cold claims all."

     Jean Claude: "What do you say will happen?"

     Iriisii: "I do not know right now. But that may be the time of my greatest doom. When I give my last gift to Existence before I pass through the Final Gate."

     Jean Claude: "And what will that gift be?"

     Iriisii whispers just loud enough for Jean Claude to hear her.

     Iriisii: "Rebirth. When I give back all that I have been given, and leave Existence for the Great Beyond, never to return."

     Jean Claude finds that he can say nothing more to what Iriisii has pronounced as what may very well be her finest hour. He then thinks, 'is it this that she was created and forged to be, to walk the path to that deep and dark future, and then become the very light of a new creation. Giving all that she is that Existence begins again, and then goes in search of her final reward in the Great Beyond'. And so he goes to wait by the door back into the 'Circus', for Iriisii to come back inside, to rejoin life and light, joy and laughter, love and serenity. After a few more minutes of looking out at the far stars of this universe, seeking for the 'Hellmouth' and of something hidden there that Wotan feels she should look for and find, she turns away and walks back to the door. As he graciously opens it, Iriisii sees a shadow as the light from inside backlights Eliza. She then comes forward to Iriisii.

     Eliza: "Iriisii sad, come Eliza hold you."

     Eliza takes Iriisii by the hand and leads her back down, all the way to the lower vaults, where the VIP's stay. They enter Iriisii's room and Eliza gently leads her to her bed, crawls into the bed with her and covers her with her wings.

     Eliza: "Sleep now, dream now, Eliza hold, Eliza protect."

     Iriisii is alone in this dream, all the people she has ever known and will know have gone on before her. She somehow knows this was at her request, that she wished to be the last. Her memories span so many lifetimes that they cannot be counted. Even Shai-Hulu'ud's 'Hall of Remembrance' stands complete, a testament to her life and times, as well as all the others who stood with her. The shell that was built to house it completely engulfs the star that is now giving its last breath of life. She knows everything else is dead and gone.

     What to do now, where to go, it seems so useless for this massive construct, the culmination of so many civilizations that worked on it, constantly adding more and more to it as her story unwound, to no longer amaze and delight the visitors that would come and bear witness to the tales it told. She looks to the almost burnt out star and asks.

     Iriisii: "Would you live again? Would you share the story told here with any who come seeking to know who came before them, what did they face, how did they live and love, what did they do to deserve a place here where they could be remembered?"

     Ta'aan-Hulu'ud: "If it be your will, so I will tell your story and the stories of all the others preserved here."

     Iriisii gathers all that she is now, reaches into all the cold dead realms and finds those last shreds of herself lying cold and forgotten. Gathering them into herself, she then reaches into that core of herself and touches the 'Soulfire' that still lives within her. She gives an infinitesimal part to Ta'aan-Hulu'ud, and the star blazes back into life once more. And then she looks outward, and thinks, yes, it is time.

     She reaches out her hands into what remains of the Streams of Time, and gathers them together once more. She spreads her hands wide and pulls inward to her all that is what is left of Existence. She then infuses it with the Soulfire she possesses, and flings it out as far as she can push it. Then she sings to it, her song causes it to resonate, to quiver in anticipation of what comes next. As her song strengthens it, empowers it, until it can no longer stay within its bounds.

     She then uses a secret she has kept hidden within herself, a secret she found in the Antithesis Realm. She speaks a Word of Enunciation that she found written for her to find and keep until this new dawning of a new Age. She speaks the 'Word' and the new germ of Existence that she brought into being, her last child is born in a blaze of glory. She watches to make certain its path is set. She then says farewell to Ta'aan-Hulu'ud as she turns and sees the current Aspect of Death waiting for her. She walks up to him and greets her old friend.

     Iriisii: "Hail and well met, Death."

     Death: "Hail and well met, Goddess of the End and the New Beginning."

     Iriisii: "For a short time, yes, but it is time for me to go, I am tired and would find some rest for a while."

     Death: "In good time, yes, there is yet one small event that requires a witness. It will be soon, so let us wait at the Final Gate."

     They make that final walk to the Final Gate. It looks just the same as it did so long ago atop the Fae Sithen, when her display of power and martial prowess brought her to the attention of the Ageless Ones, and they led her to the path she has almost finished. As she looks at the writing still adorning the Gate, she thinks back to when she spoke the words written here and the Gate responded to her desire opening for her to accept all those stranded souls. She touches the words and feels the tremble through her fingers.

     Iriisii: "How? Why?"

     Death: "The Council of the Great Beyond has deemed you worthy above all others. They give to you in return for what you have given to this new Existence. Now is the time come upon us both, open the door that we may take this last journey together."

     She commands the Gate to open, and as the doors open for these, the last two of the old guard, she stops and listens for something she feels is for her ears alone. And then she hears the cry of a newborn baby, the first to be born, then she feels the father lift his daughter, display her to the stars, and ask for her name. She looks to Death, who nods his head, and she sends a name for this child winding its way across the unfathomable expanse.

     Iriisii's Voice: "Forevermore shall this child be named Iriisii Starborn, Blessed Child of the Stars, may she one day find her history in the Hall of Remembrance, and receive her inheritance from those who came before."

     Then she and Death turn and walk through the Final Gate, its doors close and lock, until that one day in the new future when Iriisii Starborn returns and opens them again.