----- Michigan, Spring 3 years later -----

“Virtual yoga? What’s the point of that?” Chloe expressed skepticism at her wife, who stood before her in black yoga pants and a tight white tank top. Gabbi smirked, her snark spewing forth against her will, “To exercise, Chloe. It’s like the same class we’ve been doing for the last year, but without all the sweaty, talky people.”

“Yeah, exactly! The best part of group exercise is the mindless small talk before and after the class!”

“Well, it’s still a live class, not recorded! You can just… make small talk in the chat, I guess,” Gabbi somewhat expected this from Chloe, the more social one of the couple. She also knew exactly what would get Chloe to at least try a virtual class, “not to mention, you don’t have to drive. In fact, we don’t even have anything to leave the house for today!”

This was a revelation to Chloe, who deeply resented driving and being in cars in all forms. Her frown faded from her face, and she nodded slowly, “Okay, okay. Let’s try it. Just one time. But you better not be lying about that chat! And don’t forget, we still have a ton of work to do on the house!”

Gabbi nodded, acknowledging the fact that their new (or rather, new to them) house needed some love and care. It was their first house, and for their generation getting even a dilapidated house was an accomplishment. A prize won through sacrifice, grit, luck, and me being stingy as shit, Gabbi regretted some of the things she and Chloe put off getting or doing. No vacations after their honeymoon, no new cars, she even put off grad school so she could pay her way through once they weren’t contributing every extra dollar they had to making a down payment. And the mortgage insurance, and the lender’s fee, and the sales tax… God, being a responsible adult sucks. All the fiscal strain necessitated frequent (cheap) destressing to avoid crumpling into a formless blob of worry, and yoga with Chloe certainly helped. Gabbi was glad her wife was willing to exercise with her, despite it being from home.

The women cleared out the front room to make space for their movements. Chloe rolled out their mats while Gabbi joined the video call for the class. “Here, I’ll get the camera on so everyone can see us. See, basically like an in-person class!” Gabbi waved at the instructor on the screen to make sure she could see them. The instructor responded to Gabbi’s greeting, “Hey gals! Welcome, glad you could join. Hi Chloe! I love your leggings!” This instructor was so positive it sometimes stung. But Chloe seemed to respond well, clearly happy her purple camo leggings got someone’s attention. The instructor and Chloe made small talk while the rest of the class joined, and soon enough they were off on a one-hour yoga session.

----- Fenrir’s Leap, in the Women’s Great Hall, 16 hours ago -----

The still, cold air permeated the cavern where the women stored and made their food. Darvin coughed, finding the air increasingly intolerable. How the hells do they live like this? My nose has bled every night, it’s so dry! He thought, as he tied up his leaf pack. Darvin was on a platform very high up off the ground, where the women place their massive utensils and actually prepare their food. He had gotten up here for one purpose: scavenging. Most males content themselves with the crumbs and discarded food on the floor, but the real valuable stuff is up here. Fenrir’s Leap is a common landing point for climbers, a little jut where the surface seemed to have been broken. Climbing it was the safest way up, since the surface was the shortest cantilever distance from the wall below supporting it. Darvin was an experienced climber, but even he wasn’t doing this totally alone. Nor would I do this for food. I’m fine with food from outside. But men pay extra for women’s food. Darvin was contracted with a scavenger’s caravan, the bulk of which was currently camped at the base of the large structure. He, along with three others, climb the structures their caravan master says to climb, then they loot the place for all they can find. Today was a good day: packs full of sugar, bits of fruit and grain, even some meat! To top things off, no captive males complicating their scavenging. Sometimes the women leave out on the counter boxes full of men they intend to cook and eat. The mere sight of a food male, who tend to be much bigger than the typical wild male, made Darvin uneasy. They cry for help and struggle to escape, but always in vain. The prisons they find themselves in are often unbreakable. We never can help them, much as we may want to. A pile of bundled leaves containing the day’s loot sat just before the edge, as Tam, another climber, affixed the leaves to a strand of rope. This was an ingenious innovation of the caravanners. One man climbs up with a pulley on a stick attached to his back. The pulley has on it a long rope joined at the ends. Once the man is on top, he affixes the stick to the surface and another man at the bottom pulls the rope so he can move the bundles, hooked to the rope at the surface, down to their waiting pack insects. Climbing with that thing on your back is awful. So heavy. And too easy to get tangled. The skill needed to not only climb up, but scavenge and package efficiently, meant Darvin and his comrades were very well paid.

Darvin finished the last pack of goods and sent it down the pulley, cutting a small rune in the side of it to signal that the men were done and were coming back. He and his climbers huddled together. “Okay, time to pick the carrier” Darvin said to the men. Getting the contraption up was hard, but back down? Even harder. The thing was expensive, so they couldn’t just let it fall. One man had to do it, the rest could just rappel down the rope beforehand. Darvin pulled out a pair of dice carved from pebbles. As usual, they go in pairs, “Tyr, you and me first. Evens or odds?”

Tyr looked solemnly at Darvin, “Odds,” he said quietly. Darvin shook the dice and threw it on the ground, the men crouching to see where they landed. One die at 2, one die at 3. “Okay, you’re good. Get going, we’ve been up here too long.” While no one was really in charge, Darvin was their de facto leader, even though all the men but Tam were older than him. Darvin turned to the fourth man at the surface, Hyun, and motioned for him to choose. “Evens,” came the reply, more confident than Tyr’s. Darvin shook and threw the dice again. One die at 1. One die at 5. Darvin nodded, “Lucky. Get out of here. We’ll see you at the bottom.” Hyun grunted as he stood back up and attached a hook to the rope, disappearing over the edge. Darvin turned for the last time to Tam, “Alright, evens or odds?”

Tam stared back at Darvin, silent. That’s bad. Usually, he can’t shut up. Darvin tired to get something out of him, “Hey, what’s up? You’ve been distant this whole climb. You not feeling up to it?”

Tam responded, “No, boss. I can do it. It’s just… should we really be doing this? Stealing from women, I mean. It feels wrong.” Darvin was taken aback a little. Not only had they stolen from these women before, Tam was rambunctious, willing to do whatever was necessary to get the job done, and typically he did so with a wide, somewhat psychotic grin. Darvin did not expect regret from him.

“Well, the women won’t notice this stuff being gone. Besides, life doesn’t seem all that hard for them. I’m sure they can manage to lose a few crumbs.”

Tam pondered this a bit, then his face dropped a little, “I mean, I’m not worried about that. It’s just they’re so much… more than us. More powerful, more complex, more important. The world needs them so much more than it needs us. I feel like we’re trifling with things we don’t really understand. Y’know, it’s like that karma thing Balak is always talking about.”

Darvin grimaced, not wanting to debate religion with the man in this particular place, “Well, maybe we’re insignificant compared to them. But we still have to look out for ourselves. And there are hungry men and boys who will need this food. Maybe that’s some good karma from all this?” Tam nodded, not totally satisfied but at least calmer. Darvin pressed, “So, you ready now? Evens or odds?”

“Odds.”

Darvin, for the third and last time, shook and threw the dice. The two men looked down: One die at 1. Other die at 1. Tam sighed heavy. Darvin’s sympathy welled up inside him, “You don’t have to. I’ve carried that piece of shit before, I can do it today.”

“No, no. I got it, boss. Trust me.” Tam motioned for Darvin to leave, which he did promptly. As he descended down to the floor, his mind turned back to home, Crosstree City. The city of men resided under the deck of the women’s hall and had stood there for years. The previous inhabitants of the hall were inattentive, and neglectful of their property. That was how a place the size of Crosstree City could form. But the two new women, evidently the new owners, were an unknown quantity. No known schedule, but we do know they clean more often. Bad news for me. The women were gone right now, out somewhere else after they had their evening meal, but Darvin nevertheless couldn’t wait to get away from the hall and under the deck, where it was safe, at least for the moment. His feet hit the floor, and he gave the rope three strong tugs to signal for Tam to start climbing down. He went to confer with the caravan master, a task he had been dreading the entire day. Darvin approached the short man at the center of a line of bugs used as pack carriers and gave a respectful bow, “Master Greeves. We’re bringing the line down and will be ready to move out soon.” His honorifics were given not out of genuine respect, but instead because the caravan leader was a megalomaniacal narcissist who insisted on being given the respect a noble male “deserves.”

Master Greeves responded dispassionately, “Not the best haul you’ve ever had. I may have to cut your team’s pay again if the market’s slow on our return.” Darvin resisted the urge to stab the arrogant bastard, and instead tried to argue his case, “Master, with all due respect, we cannot control what the women leave out. In fact, we got most everything from the top of the wall. Our speed and efficiency is top notch, master.” Darvin wasn’t lying, his crew were the best climbers anyone could ask for. The man just chuckled, “Top notch, maybe. Most expensive? Definitely.” As he spoke, Darvin heard a commotion behind him. Turning, he saw men all staring at the wall, and what they were looking at caused Darvin’s stomach to drop. Tam! He lost his balance! Tam was halfway down the wall, but the spikes he was using to climb were only loosely in the wall. One wrong movement and he falls. Unfortunately for Tam, the next move was a poor one. He leapt, trying to shove the spike in his left hand a little upward to get a leverage point, but the stick on his back swung out. The centrifugal force was too much, and Tam couldn’t get a hold on the wall. He fell, screaming as he did, and slammed right into the floor. The stick shattered, along with the pulley. Tam was buried under the debris, his body shredded and punctured with splinters.

Darvin couldn’t speak. His shock overtook him and he feel to his knees. Not him! Why him!? Tam was a true comrade of Darvin’s: loyal, smart, brave when he needed to be. To lose any man was hard, but this would hurt Darvin for years. For the Master’s part, he showed a rare look of sorrow, “Damn. That was expensive gear. Shame about your man, too.” The short man motioned to the other men, “Boys! Take the rope. Leave the rest. We’re moving out!” Tyr and Hyun came over, helping Darvin to his feet, as they began their march back to the door for the deck. Back home.

--- Some time later ---

The tiny male caravan approached the massive portal to the outside with trepidation. This corner of the women’s hall was always the most dangerous. Bugs frequently infiltrated here, and often became antagonized by the males’ presence. Worse, men lived here… dangerous men. Robbers, lunatics, even cannibals were rumored to reside in this section, hidden from the frequent steps of the women above. The guards of the caravan all drew their weapons, glancing around at their surroundings for the slightest movements –

WHACK. Darvin heard a cracking and whooshing of some object being thrown near him. He looked to his left to see the man next to him had a spear lodged in his chest. He gurgled up blood and fell forward, dead. “RAID! Defensive positions!” a guard cried out behind Darvin. Darvin was a climber, not a fighter, so he did the only sensible thing: run wildly in a random direction. His confidence was already shaken from the loss of Tam and now he could lose his life, too. Fuck this job. Fuck this job. Fuck this job. It was all Darvin could think as he spotted Tyr and Hyun running away from the main group, dodging a scrawny, deranged male holding a club. Darvin ran toward them as Tyr threw a rock in the man’s face, breaking his neck. “Wait for me!” Darvin shouted at the climbers. The men sighed a breath of relief as their leader approached, unharmed. Hyun spoke, “Boss, look. Caravan’s overrun. What do we do?” Darvin looked around at the carnage to see all the guards and caravanners being cut, dismembered, or bludgeoned to death. He even saw Master Greeves take a club straight to the crotch, followed by a male slitting his throat behind him. Serves you right, bastard. Darvin stopped himself from gloating, focusing on getting out alive. “The door to the outside is blocked. Let’s try that door,” he pointed to the brown panels to the right of the main door. He was pretty sure they didn’t lead anywhere, but at least the raiders weren’t there for now. Or maybe they live there. Or something worse does. Fuck it, risk that needs to be taken. Darvin didn’t wait for a response as he ran off in the direction of the door. Three male raiders gave chase, screaming incoherently. The climbers were faster and slid under the door. The men lay prone, waiting. The raiders for some reason stopped. Darvin could see their feet in place as they seemed to be conversing with one another. No, arguing. One of them is angry. The other two are scared. Suddenly, two pairs of feet turned and left, and the third followed suit after a slight delay. The climbers got up, content they were safe from the men, but all were suspicious of their unwillingness to pursue them behind the door. “Darvin, are we safe? Why’d they stop chasing us?” Tyr asked, his breath heavy. Darvin pondered, then suggested, “Probably because they’re scared of whatever lives in here. We should be careful. Anyone happen to take supplies when the chaos started?” The two men shook their heads. Darvin sighed, “Yeah, too much happened too quickly. Well, let’s look around. We’ll find a defensible spot, get supplies, camp out here for the night. Then back home. Sound good?” To both of the other men this did not sound good, but they had no other choice but to agree, so they pressed on into the darkness.

The land behind the door was alien to the three men. They were used to being in dark areas, as they all lived under a deck, but the darkness here was more oppressive. The only light was that which came under the door and a little through some slits running up the height of the megalith.

Hyun whistled, “Sheesh. Could ambush us anywhere in here.”

Darvin scanned the structures inside to look for good places to cower. Above them were what apparently were clothes, hung on big triangles from a pipe at the very top, miles above. Closer to the males were the caves and platforms women tended to wear on their feet.

Now Tyr spoke, “Footwear for the women. I’ve seen some rich men wear something similar. What do they call those… schuze? Something like that.”

Hyun chuckled, “Shoes. A lot of shoes. This many would cost one of us a year’s worth of wages.”

“I wouldn’t want any even if I could afford them. Need the callouses for climbin’”

“Yeah, well I don’t think women need to care about that. What’s big enough for them to climb, anyway?”

Darvin motioned for the men to be silent, then pointed at one of the pairs of footwear. He looked back at the men, and said, low, “Saw something over there. In the big blue shoe. Just inside one of the holes. Might be some loot in there.”

Tyr turned to one of the other pairs, closer to the three, “Well what about the black ones over here? I think I see a campsite!” Darvin looked to where he was referring and saw the remnants of a male campsite. He dropped his head in contemplation, “Okay. Daylight’s almost out. Let’s go up. See what’s there.”

The three men easily scaled the reasonably short platform and surveyed the abandoned campsite. A small fire pit, some broken tents, and a few bags of food were all that remained.

“Hmm, looks pretty fresh,” Hyun remarked, “you sure these campers won’t return?”

Darvin shook his head, “No, look. Blood over at the edge of the site. These men aren’t coming back.”

Tyr grimaced, “Okay, what if whoever killed them comes back for more?”

“We’ll take watch. There’s three tents. Fix up two and I’ll use the third to make a rope. We can scale off the shoe if we need to escape.”

The other two men accepted the plan, mostly out of exhaustion. They set to work, and as the daylight went out, they had a semi-functional camp established. The men took a meal, eating the leftover bits of food presumably scavenged by the previous inhabitants. As they ate, they tried to console each other, and process the day’s events.

“Tam was a good lad. Gonna miss that lunatic,” Tyr started with the memorializing. Hyun joined in, “Aye. He had that kind of spunk that comes with his age. Wasn’t a jaded asshole like any of us.”

Darvin wanted to commiserate, but his guilt began to overwhelm him, “I should have taken that pulley. It’s too heavy, too cumbersome. I should’ve just volunteered. Then he’d still be alive.” Darvin chomped hard on his ration, burning with anger at himself. Hyun tried to console his younger leader, “Darvin, you don’t know that. And he understood the risks. Climbers fall, that’s a fact of the job. He’s carried that blasted machine before, just this time it took him down.”

Tyr nodded, “Lad, this was your first death, right? At least, first man to die on your watch?”

Darvin nodded. Tyr clicked his tongue, “Yeah, that’s always hardest. This won’t make you feel better, but know that it does get easier. I couldn’t climb for weeks after my first, it was just too painful. Hyun’s right. We’re climbers. Sometimes we fall. You won’t accept this for a long time. That’s fine. Just remember the man.”

Tyr rarely talked for more than one sentence at a time, so Darvin was a bit taken aback. But the words did help him. “Alright then, let’s remember. Share a favorite memory of Tam. Hyun, you first?”

Hyun smiled, “Has to be the first job he and I went on. Climbing up the deck, to the very top. Kid had never climbed so high in his life. I went up to him just before to make sure he was ready, and he seemed terrified! Cried at me, told me he wanted to go home. I told him if he made it up, I’d get him a month’s supply of dried apple. So we climb, and it’s a hard one. Wind everywhere, flies all around us, I lost sight of the boy and just pressed on, trying my best to survive. I just barely make it to the top and what do I see? That little shit, with that sly grin of his! Told me he got there an hour ago! Kid was playing me the whole time!”

Tyr and Darvin laughed as Hyun drank from a water pouch left on the ground. Tyr put his food down and readied his story, “Do you lads remember that winter three years ago? One of the worst in living memory, famine, freezing, all that damn snow? Well, when Tam, Hyun, and I were on an extended outing past the Grey River, so many men had died from the cold that I got assigned by the caravan master to watch over some of the goods. The alcohol, specifically. You lads know me, I love some good wine, but duty is duty, and I watched over those barrels like a dragonfly. I’m on watch one night, when I hear an odd noise from one of the barrels. I head over, and see nothing. Then I hear another noise, to my left. I go over there, still nothing. I draw my club, and hear another noise, this time right behind me and I swing around and there’s Tam, holding a shiv. Now I think he’s gone mad and is gonna stab me, so I knock him on his ass. Then he squeals, shouting how I’m ruining his plans. I ask him, ‘what plans?’ then I noticed my feet were wet. There was wine leaking out half the barrels! The little man had poked holes in each to sample the wine inside, and was gonna steal the best tasting one as a ‘service fee’ for climbing!”

Darvin and Hyun fell over laughing, while Tyr looked in amusement, “It was not funny then. Nearly got skinned alive by the caravan master for that!”

Hyun sat back up, his laughing subsiding, “Alright, Darvin. What’s your story?”

Darvin went silent and lowered his head. After a moment, he began,

“We were climbing a tree. The big one in the women’s territory. Some scout had gone missing looking for sap deposits weeks prior and Tam and I were sent to find out what happened to him. The climb was awful. It rained halfway up, so we had to camp out in a little clearing overnight. It was there he told me about his childhood, all the horrible things he survived, and how his climbing abilities helped get him out of trouble. Told me how safe he felt when high above everyone, away from their bullshit and their pain and their misery. He started to cry. You knew him, he never cried. And when we got up in the morning, it was back to chipper, sarcastic Tam. Like nothing ever happened. But ever since then, he had a kind of look in his eyes whenever we talked. A look of understanding. I saw the vulnerable young boy he was trying to put to rest, and the strong, brave man he was creating in his place.”

The two men did not laugh, but instead lowered their heads in solemn remembrance. Hyun broke the silence, “Let’s drink. To Tam. To the best damn climber in the city!” He poured the water from the pouch into the cupped hands of Darvin and Tyr, then they all drank to Tam’s memory. As the water passed his lips, Darvin felt the exhaustion of the day claim him, and he quickly retired to the tent. Hyun followed suit, and Tyr ended up passing out by the campfire, as they finally rested.

The dreamless sleep Darvin was enjoying was interrupted by strong hands thrusting him up. “Wha—” SMACK. A slap across the face fully woke Darvin up, forcing him to realize he was no longer on the black shoe. Instead, he was near the blue shoe, tied up, surrounded by men. Fuck. Where’s Hyun and Tyr? Darvin looked around, but wished he hadn’t. His two comrades were there, also tied up, but they were stuck to the shoe itself, mouths gagged. The males surrounding them wore some kind of paint on their faces, covering their cheeks. Some men had little runes on their foreheads and chests, as well. There were around twenty, all armed. Darvin had no clue who these men were or why his friends were tied up there, but he did not intend to deduce that while tied up. He felt a little slack in the rope, and once the man standing watch over him got distracted, he would get out and run. Please, someone, make a scene. Luckily, Hyun seemed to meet Darvin’s request, as his gag fell out and he began shouting, “FUCKING FREAKS! Let us go!” The men moved over to Hyun to reapply the gag, giving Darvin the opportunity to pull on the slacked part of the rope. The knot holding his hands together came loose, and he slipped out. He sprinted as the male nearest him shouted. Darvin decided the best course of action was to do what he did best: climb. He scaled up the underside of the shoe and scrambled to the front. The men threw sticks and rocks at him, but he deftly dodged them as he continued his ascent. Soon, he was over on the top of the shoe and he ran into one of the holes, scaling back down along the inner walls. He stopped to catch his breath, and take in the surroundings, when suddenly he noticed there were more men in here! The men, garbed in white, all glared at him, and began to approach, when one male in the center of the shoe stood and shouted, “WAIT” The men stopped their charge, and the one who made them began to walk up to Darvin. He was old, with grey streaks in his hair and bushy beard. He had a large scar on his neck but wore none of the face paint the other males did. He got face to face with Darvin, and spoke, “Who are you, child? Why have you come all this way?”

Darvin didn’t want to respond, but knew he better cooperate or he was dead, “My friends and I were attacked outside. We’re just trying to get home. You people took us. Why are you keeping my friends?”

The old man just stared back, “But why did you go to the campsite? Was it yours?”

Darvin’s fear turned to anger, “No, but it seemed a safe place. Please, just untie them and let us leave.”

“So, you were… drawn to the campsite? You saw it and felt a pull there?”

Darvin was about ready to fight, “Please, old man. We just want to—”

“And then, when we found you and brought you to our temple, your first instinct is to climb inside? Not run away toward the light? Yes, She willed this.”

“W-what?”

“Child, you did precisely what She wanted. She wants you. That’s why you are here.”

The climber stammered in confusion, “W-who? A woman? What are you talking about?”

The old man smiled, “It’s alright. We rarely understand her presence at first. But you’ll learn. In time. Now your friends, they just followed you. They do not feel her presence. She doesn’t want them here. So they will go.”

“Wait. You’ll just allow them to leave?”

The white-cloaked man sighed, “Oh, child. What I mean is, they must go.”

Darvin swung at the old man. Despite his age, he gracefully dodged the strike and kicked back at Darvin, sweeping the ankle Darvin placed most of his weight on, knocking him to the ground. The man spoke again, “All men who are drawn here are blessed. But as men, they are sinners. We must cleanse ourselves of our sinfulness to be accepted here. Your companions will take your sin from you.” He smiled, as if he were a father consoling his sick son.

Darvin protested, “NO! They’re my friends! Please, don’t –”

THUD… THUD… THUD… THUD …

The old man looked at the others, silently commanding them. They all ran to the front of the shoe. He looked back at Darvin, “She approaches. No men are permitted to be in contact with her. Come with me. I will show you how close you may get.”

Darvin reluctantly got up and followed the old man to the front. There, he saw the others climbing up ropes to little structures attached to the holes on the top of the shoe. Observation platforms? Darvin would have been curious were his mind not occupied with saving his friends. But a woman being this close means he must hide. As the old man began a slow climb up the rope, Darvin went to another and scrambled up in mere seconds, his fury and fear combining to maximize his performance. The old man eventually got up onto the same platform, and grinned at Darvin, “She has given you a gift, stranger. Are you a professional climber?”

Darvin didn’t want to make small talk at a time like this, “Let my friends go. If she sees them, she’ll find all of us!”

The man responded with a strange cheeriness, “She won’t see them. She never saw any of the others. Do not despair, child. It is a great honor to be in their place.”

Darvin could not carry out his plan of throwing the man off the side of the platform because his fear overtook him as the door opened. The woman who opened it destroyed all confidence Darvin had left. He had seen women before, this woman in particular, but at this distance? This angle? She was so… much. The entire field of view out of the hole was filled by her, her strange purple and grey garb would have seemed comedic were it not also terrifying. Darvin’s fear increased as the brown-haired woman bent down and plucked up the shoes they were in. “Hold the rail, climber” Darvin did as the man instructed and was glad he did so as they all were swung mercilessly to the floor by her. Her massive feet gingerly slithered into the shoe, the toes wiggling in place made a searing noise as they scraped against the spongy floor. The atrocious smell hit Darvin’s nose hard. Sweat, humid and overwhelming. The others didn’t seem affected at all, some even seemed… pleased by its presence. Fucking weirdo creeps. Maniacs and perverts. Once she put on the other shoe, she began walking outdoors with the other woman. Darvin expected to be rocked back and forth but found that the platform seemed stationary. The man must have noticed his surprise, “The supports these platforms are on can compensate for her movements. It allows for better worship.”

Darvin let himself calm down, if only a little, “You tainted the water. That campsite was a trap. You lure people and get them crushed by this woman. Why? Why are you so cruel?”

The man looked hurt by the words, “Would you rather they have been chopped to bits by a crazed raider? Child, I am not cruel. She is not cruel, either. Those men, and the men before them, aren’t sacrificed for no reason. Men must absolve. That is our purpose. To be killed by her, that is a wonderous thing. At least here, their deaths have meaning.”

Darvin’s retort was prevented by a sound. Screaming. Pain. They’re being crushed. He looked panicked, “Will it be slow? Please, tell me,” his sanity was melting at the prospect of hearing his comrades suffer. The old man’s eyes dropped, “Sin is ever-present in our lives. The absolution must be slow. But their pain will turn to joy soon enough.”

Darvin stayed at the man’s side, the screaming of Tyr and Hyun breaking him down bit by bit. After nearly ten minutes, the screams intensified with a sickening crunch. The old man nodded, “It is nearly done. They will have died, in fresh air, next to a divine being, knowing they were the bargain for your salvation. It will be a good death. You’ll understand, in time.”

Darvin just hugged the rail. He couldn’t stand what was happening, he closed his eyes, praying he was dreaming, praying to anyone or anything to help his friends. Please, someone. Is there a god, or a spirit, that can take them away, end their suffering? Please! Suddenly, the shoe lifted in a different direction and the woman scraped the sole on the edge of the stone platform she and the other woman were walking on. The screams stopped with a slimy cracking sound. Tyr and Hyun were dead. W-what? Did she… hear? Did she hear my prayer?? His heart, so burdened with sorrow, clouded his judgment. He was so angry with her for having killed them, but a part of him wondered if she really could listen, and that part started to grow within. Darvin looked up at the man, “I-I… they’re dead.”

“Yes. But now you can live as you were meant to. As a servant of your protector. Your Goddess. I will show you. You may call me Azrael.”

Moments ago, the climber would have leapt from the platform to the toes of the woman to die quick and painless, but now he found himself stuck in place, the strange charm of the man taking hold of his emotions. “My name is Darvin.”