To Rule In Hell

The dawn burned red as always, the strange cycle of activity in the flame pits lighting the smoke-filled sky in a gross parody of the material realm's sunrise. It was beautiful in its own way, and at the same time, it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen, a vicious reminder of the fate to which we'd been bound. Hell's sky - the upper bound of the prison to which we'd been consigned for the sin of caring too much, of loving too completely. I stared out at it for long minutes, pulling the sheet tight around me and trying to hate Him for what He'd done. My kin were suffering. My love prowled the night in search of surcease for the pain that wracked his changing body and empty soul. We suffered, but I couldn't hate Him. I couldn't blame Him for the choice He'd made. The taint of blood was on our hands, and I knew that no matter how much the Father wanted to forgive us, not even He could undo the changes war had wrought.

My eyes stung with tears of grief for the innocence that once was, and I turned my face away from the cursed sky, denying the taint that Hell wanted to plant within me. I couldn't let them all fall into darkness. I couldn't let them all be eaten by the madness and hatred that had created this foul land of ours. I couldn't let my beloved brothers and sisters forget the light that had created them or the devotion that had ultimately damned them. In the light of the flames, my heart hardened with this resolved, and I pressed away the darkness of despair to draw forth the oath that would burn its way into the deepest bastions of my soul.

"I will save you." I whispered the words into the hot air, but they never escaped. Over the hard, hurtful eons that followed, I felt them in my heart, giving me the strength to stand when fate seemed determined to make me fall.