There came a time when Sheng pressed Moonson
unmercifully and appeared to be winning in his war to destroy the Empire. Moonson
had escaped Sheng by being killed by the Mad Sultanate in 4/40. He hid as a mortal
man in Doblian married to a weaving woman. Many of the immortal parts of His Soul He
hid out of Sheng's sight. One part He hid in Sheng's plain view. As part of
the spoils he had taken from Moonson Sheng had captured Cora of the Two Mouths, one of
Moonson's courtesans. Before they had parted Moonson had secreted part of His
divinity in Cora deep within her. He did this with the full knowledge and agreement
of Cora. Cora then wandered alone until she fell prey to some of Sheng's troops.
They realized what they had and turned her over to Sheng who richly rewarded them.
During the eleven years that Moonson hid from Sheng while His plans neared fruition
Cora stayed with Sheng and was his tool to do with as he wished. She suffered in
silence never speaking through the long years and was subjected to many indignities and
brutalities. When the time came for Moonson to reclaim His divinity Cora knew that
it was time because of the piece of Moonson within her. After keeping her silence
for eleven years she spoke, at first rustily and then with increasing clarity and taunted
Sheng before his generals. She challenged his manhood and his divinity, she compared
him unfavourably to both Moonson and to domestic animals. At first Sheng stared at
her with incredulity and then growing anger. Not stopping to question her actions he
ordered his torturers to punish Cora both before and after death. They stretched her
out on a rack and tore from her what beauty remained to her. They took her fingers
and her toes. They cut her ears and eyelids off. Much more did they do before they
were ready to kill her. Through all this Sheng sat and watched. They took her eyes
and then were going to take her tongue. She had remained quiet as long as she could
but had been screaming for quite a while by this point. As the guards reached for
her tongue with their hot pinchers she started laughing and Sheng gestured for his
torturers to stop. "Why do you laugh?" he asked. "Have I not
taken everything you have from you?" The torturers told Sheng that she could no
longer hear him so he asked again using magic. Inside her head she was laughing as
well, not a hysterical laugh but one of joy. Sheng asked her what she was laughing
at and she answered, "At your blindness, o Master of Mine. You have been
searching for something for eleven years that I have carried safely with in me!"
And then Cora spit out the piece of Moonson's Divinity she had been carrrying and
the bright thing soared up past Sheng's head and out of his grasp. And behind it in
Its claws it carried what was left of Cora of the Two Mouths. It flew to where
Moonson hid and Moonson spared a moment to weep once more at what had befallen Cora.
As He had wept all along at what had befallen the Empire. He tucked what was
left of Cora safely away and vowed that she would received divinity and worship for her
actions and so she did.
This page last modified May 03, 2000
|
Table of Contents
