Nezzar

Part One: Rusting Gold

"Then end me now." Marduk railed. "Send me to the outer darkness."

"Your time has not yet come. Relax." Lifting a finger, Algodon summoned fire and aimed it straight at the ruby.

"What do you plan to achieve? I could not have infected Ziba if she wasn't already corrupted by covetousness. She was wavering between light and darkness. I helped her make a decision."

Sighing, Algodon pointed his blazing finger straight at Marduk and burned a hole through his chest area. "It was not your place to choose for her."

Algodon turned from Marduk's writhing form and faced the business at hand. Once the fire from his finger touched the ruby, he called Ziba's name.

***

Imprisonment.

Ziba looked down at her wrists and wiggled her fingers. No chains. But she was imprisoned. Something was eating her thoughts, changing them. A strange madness taking over.

She was seated at the end of a long deep red corridor. There were shadows, but there was gold. She squinted. Yes, lots of gold around the edges.

Who imprisoned her? Maybe Abaddon. He had been threatening to do so. No. Ziba shook her head. Abaddon could not imprison her. There were no tools in all his prisons to hold her down.

Ziba tilted her head to the right, staring as something curious happened on the walls. The red was eating the gold. Eating it like innumerable mites shredding through wood. Growing and expanding.

Clutching her head, Ziba squeezed her eyes shut. That strange madness. Surely, that was what made thinking utterly impossible. To escape should be her sole goal but her mind kept on wandering and wondering.

Again! Ziba flew to her feet. The red ate the gold again. Right before her eyes. No. She stomped her foot then frowned. Human legs. How could she forget that her entrapment forced her to be in the form of her favourite human disguise? The girl with the rag for clothes and stringy wet hair. Hair. Her real hair was blue. She raised a hand to her head, touching the tresses and examining them. They were black and stringy.

Am I imprisoned?

Something purred. Whipping about, Ziba observed her baren surrounding with wide frightened eyes. No! Suddenly collecting herself, she stood straighter, squared her shoulder. It was against her nature to panic. Just then, a creature scurried over her shoulders and fell with a plop between her feet. By the Holy One above, there was a phantom beating in her heart, like she was truly a little human girl with an alive pounding heart.

Slitting her gaze, Ziba stared down at the creature. A small serpentine dragon with shiny azure coloured skin and amber eyes stared right back at her. Ziba recognised it.

"Chaos?" Smiling and squatting, Ziba extended a hand. "What did they do to you?" A kernel of rage burst within her but it fizzled out. Chaos clawed up her arm, its small curved talons scratching her skin. She marvelled at the feeling. Normally she would feel nothing. Could she smell natural human things too? She took a long sniff then chastised herself for the foolish act. Surely her 'cage' was not a normal human one. Perhaps, if she escapes, she would be able to fully explore these new feelings.

"I wonder if I will bleed blue or red when I leave. Aren't you curious?" She asked Chaos. It lifted half its body length and tilted its head, observing her with keen eyes.

"Do you know who did this to us?"

Chaos blinked once.

"You do?" Sitting, Ziba folded her legs but kept her right arm up, watching Chaos. "Was it Abaddon?"