Prologue - The Lost Child
The angel rose above him, looking down into his eyes. She was not Avacyn. She was not mercy, and she was not hope. The crazed look in the angel’s eyes intensified as her bloodstained blade lowered to point at Maeli’s chest.
“Avacyn is gone! She is here now, she is rising!” cried the angel. “Pray to her now! We’amrakul! I-”
The angel’s crushing words did not stop Maeli’s cries, the boy’s screams only growing louder. “Help me, Avacyn! Help me, please! PLEASE!”
(helpmehelpmeohgodhelpmeavacynidon’twanttodieidon’twanto)
(don’twanttochange)
Maeli remembered Ms. Sadie, the kindly old woman who had taken him in after he’d ran from the angel-burned village, his mother crying at him to never stop running. Her cottage had smelled sweet, and her food tasted better, but he hadn’t wanted to stay there forever.
Then Ms. Sadie changed. The tentacles burst from her chest, her arms, doubled, tripled, and she had lunged at Maeli, sickly sweet yellow pus oozing from where her eyes had once been. The cathars to either side of Maeli had arrived only a second soon enough to save the boy from the thing that had once been Ms. Sadie.
But now, the angel meant he was doomed anyway. Maeli squeezed his soft bunny-toy, hugging it to his chest, screaming all the while. The cathars would protect him. Avacyn would protect him. Someone had to protect him because there was always someone wasn’t there yes yes always someone, someone who’d always —
The angel was laughing, now.
The cathars to each of Maeli’s sides had stopped moving now, simply staring at him. It took the boy a second to understand what was about to happen, and once he realized it, the fear rooted him in place. One cathar’s mouth expanded to fill most of his face as the other’s arms elongated and began to bleed. They dropped their swords as tentacles extended from their chests, grasping on to Maeli and lifting him above the ground.
(keepprayingkeepscreamingkeepprayingkeepaskingshellsaveyou)
“I-I’mrakul!” the angel cried, diving down towards Maeli, sword extended fully to point directly at his rapidly beating heart.
Maeli screamed and closed his eyes.
He saw it all in that small moment. He saw Avacyn. He saw his mother, holding his hand and guiding him into the church doors. He saw the kind priests and the brave cathars, performing valiant deeds in Avacyn’s name. Then he saw Avacyn above him and Mommy, reuniting the two after he’d gotten lost in the forest.
Then the flash of memory darkened, and he saw Avacyn — no, no not Avacyn, couldn’t be Avacyn — and the other angels flying above his village, burning, killing, laughing. He saw his mother, screaming for him to run, pushing him from the town outskirts. He remembered looking back for a second and (nonoNO) seeing his mother fall to her knees, a holy spear through her chest. He remembered Ms. Sadie, the cathars, the now.
Maeli felt the angel’s sword reach his chest, and screamed. He was not praying this time, he was not begging this time. Now, he only screamed, in fear and grief and rage.
In that moment, all of Gavony disappeared. The cathar-things were gone, the angel was gone, the noise and gore was gone.
Innistrad was gone, and there was something else in its place.
The place he stood now was an open plain, and instantly, he knew for certain that Innistrad was a thing of the past. The sun shone here. The air was somehow lighter, and there were no things that flew through the sky but great puffy clouds. The world had peace, the world had light, the world —
The world didn’t have Mommy.
Maeli of Innistrad fell to the ground and cried for more things than he yet knew the numbers to count to, a drop of blood falling from just above his heart.
------------------
He did not know how long he had been walking through the plain now. The yellow plant that grew here was growing taller now, coming up to his neck. The images arose in his mind and refused to sink back down, breathing and becoming lives of their own. He saw Avacyn and his mother dancing together. He saw Mommy and Daddy kneeling to the sigil on their wall. He saw (nonoNO) Avacyn smiling, looking down at Mommy’s corpse.
Maeli kept walking for a very, very long time.
The plant grew up far past his head now, and the lost boy no longer knew which direction he was walking in.
(Then again, when was the last time I did?)
His stomach complained for not the first time in the last few hours, and Maeli began to crawl. He could not go much longer, no, not much longer at all. Finally, the boy fell to the ground, exhausted.
As he did, the earth fell with him, and Maeli plummeted underground.
The plains were gone now, and there was only rock around him. It was cold now, not cool, and his arms and knees were scraped and bleeding. Maeli nearly gave up, but then he saw her. It was Mommy, looking at him, opening her arms to him. The boy ran after the mother he thought was lost, but just as he reached her, she disappeared, only to see her appear again farther down to the tunnel. He kept walking towards her, closer and closer to Mommy. With every step, Maeli’s knees wobbled just a bit more.
(mommy)
Mommy was gone now, though, and so was the tunnel. Maeli looked up, and saw that he was now in a large, hollowed-out cavern. In its center, suspended by sinuous purple veins, was a massive red orb, pulsing softly.
“Mommy?” Maeli called out.
The voice that responded, however, was not the sweet, calming tone of his mother’s voice. It was instead something all-enveloping, booming yet silent all at once.
“Welcome, my child,” it cooed. “Try not to feel uncomfortable, little one. You are finally home. Yes, all of Obris is my child, you are no exception. Come, join with the rest of the beautiful children.”
At the voice’s call, rows of people dressed in red, white, and blue cloaks stepped out of the shadows, simultaneously extending their hands towards Maeli.
The boy’s head tilted to the left. “Obris? Is that a village?”
A great feeling of surprise rushed down upon him, and it took Maeli a second to realize that the surprise was not his own. It possessed the same heaviness the voice did, and passed as quickly as it had appeared.
“You are not from here, are you?” the voice inferred. “I can help you, little child. Come, place your hand upon the orb and I will help you with whatever you need.”
“Can you help me find Mommy?” Maeli’s voice quivered with a mixture of hope and fear.
“I can help you find Mommy, little boy, but we will have to work together. I need you to come here, I need you to place your hand upon my magic orb, and then we will find her together.” The voice dripped with sincerity.
Tentatively, Maeli traversed his way across the ground of crushed rocks, trying not to look at the rows and rows of cloaked people to either side of him. The boy reached out a shaking hand, and placing it upon the orb, immediately found that he could not take it away. In an instant, Maeli’s hope turned into panic, and he started shouting. Not a single person in any row seemed to notice him, their hands still extended forward. Maeli felt an energy he never realized was within him being pulled away from him now, exhausting him, being piped into the orb from his hand.
The voice spoke jeeringly now, whispering, “Do not panic, silly child. Do this for me, for the greater good.”
“What good?” screamed Maeli. “Who are you?”
“I am many things, little one. You, however, may call me a god. I am an angel of beauty and creation, and this world is my heart. I only wish to return to its surface once more, to walk among the workings of myself again.”
(ANGEL)
All the events of the past day exploded back onto the surface of Maeli’s mind, and he suddenly felt the orb’s energy flowing into him even as his own flowed into it. The boy screamed as he felt a wave of terror and confusion wash over him, not only his own, but also the voice’s.
“WHAT IS THIS?” it demanded. “HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS?”
But Maeli only screamed, and slowly, he felt his ties to this new place fading away, even as his hand failed to separate from the orb. One last scream, and Maeli’s vision exploded into blackness, this world far away from him now. He cared not what new world he found himself in, as long as it did not have that thing he hated most.
Angel. God. Call it whatever. There would be no more of those. They would leave their lives just as they had taken Mommy from his. He would make sure of this.
As the world faded from his eyes, Maeli felt a new power flow through him, perhaps that horrific orb’s power, and in that moment he knew — one day, he would come back.
It was the one thing Maeli was certain of as reality faded to black.