The God Files: Orroz's Story

Emphysprites and Madness

Not a lot of people know about emphysprites. They are incredibly rare, only seen a few times in centuries. Because emphysprites are the spirits of gods. Or, at least, godlike beings. Power of that magnitude doesn't just go away, you see. When I reappeared in my spirit form (which is more ore less my original shape), Death gaped at me, stunned. I didn't stick around to answer questions. I immediately fled from the place, zooming through the walls of the castle and off into the night.

Death and I did not speak after that for the longest time. I was furious with him. He killed me! After nearly ten thousand years, I died because of him, when I had avoided him time and time again! And for what? To try and cure his wife. It was those moments that made me waver from my devotion to the light, made me ask if any of this was worth it. But, thankfully, there was always something that pulled me back.

One thing was how useful being a ghost really was. I had access to abilities that previously evaded me. Such as walking through walls, and even possessing people (which I only did a few times). In all honesty, some of my most amazing adventures happened whilst I was an emphysprite. And I always shared them with my friends.

One of them was a goddess, Gamitara, or Gammie, as she's known to her friends. It's strange, now that I think about it. We had been friends for so long now that I can't exactly remember how we first met. But I do still remember some of our escapades. One of the most memorable was me curing her madness.

You see, Gammie was the goddess of darkness, blood, and insanity. She has quite the morbid and dark sense of humor, which, despite my fellowship to the light, I couldn't help but enjoy. But it was approaching All Hallow's Eve, and I could tell something was wrong. After much coaxing, I convinced her to tell me what exactly happened on that night.

             "Halloween is the anniversary of when my powers first developed," Gammie told me one night as we were walking through the forest. "Every year my 'fits' get worse and worse until Halloween. Then, well, all hell breaks loose." I looked at her with deep concern and caring in my eyes. Gammie had blood red hair and very pale skin, and her violet eyes starred back at into mine.

             "I thought you enjoyed your powers, the madness that you can invoke within others and yourself," I said. Gammie, naturally, was also a devious trickster. But she just shook her head.

             "Not if it hurts the people I care about," she said, her voice cracking somewhat. A single tear escaped from her left eye and travelled down her cheek. "Halloween was when I also killed my parents."

             "Can you tell me about it? Maybe I can help," I said. All Gammie could do was let out a shaky sigh. Then, slowly, she nodded.

             "My family...wasn't like other families in many ways. We didn't celebrate Halloween like everyone else did. While kids and their parents go off trick-or-treating, my family practiced arcane rituals of black magic." I only nodded at this, urging her to continue. I had dabbled in black magic before, but only to balance out my expertise in light magic, as my mentor and friend Semalia would have wanted. Despite being an angel, he valued balance for all things. Which meant, as well as learning light magic, I had to learn dark magic.

             "On the stroke of midnight, something...overpowered me. I couldn't control my own limbs, my own actions. I felt as though I was outside my body, watching everything unfold. My body unleashed a cackling, sick laughter that wasn't my own. My parents, for the first time in my life had fear in their eyes. They only dabbled in black magic, they didn't know how to handle something like this. And then...then I attacked them. Their dying screams still echo in my head, and my finger still twitch, feeling their flesh being rendered into tiny bloody pieces. By the time I gained control over myself, it was too late. They-they were dead. And I killed them." I put a comforting hand on her bare shoulder, trying to ease her woes. Already a plan was forming in my mind; it was crazy. It was dangerous. But if I could pull it off...

             "Gammie, I think I can help," I said.

             "How can you possibly help me?" Gammie asked in doubt.

             "While it's true that emphysprites, in raw power, cannot ever match a god, they do have powers gods and goddesses do not. Like being able to enter inside another deity's mind." 

              "Orroz, no! It's too dangerous. You might not come back alive," Gammie protested. But it was too late. I had already said the incantation mentally and I lunged into Gammie. My surroundings became pitch black. And then I found myself inside Gammie's mind.

Everyone's mind is unique, just like every person, and a person's view of their mind is unique as well. I found myself in a dark room surrounded by large pieces of glass. It looked like an explosion, frozen half way through. I quickly deduced that the epicenter, the cause of her madness, was where I needed to go. But I could feel Gammie trying to force me out. Shrieking winds of thought pushed me back, back to the empty void where I would return to reality. I grabbed on to a fragment of glass, which turned out to be a recent memory, and yelled, trying to overpower the wind's screams.

              "GAMMIE!" I yelled, trying to get her attention. "Let me help you!"

              GET OUT OF MY HEAD! I heard Gammie's voice thunder in her mind. The storm in the frozen explosion of her madness raged more at her words. My hand shakily reached over for the next piece of glass, memory, whatever it was. My eye glanced over on it and saw what would could be compared to a movie. It was her memory of about five minutes ago. At my touch her surprise and building fury passed from the glass into me. The storm raged on further as I slowly made my way to the epicenter of the frozen explosion. More and more it became harder to resist. I knew, and she knew, that I was no match for her. But I had to hold on for as long as I could. I needed to get at least a glimpse at the epicenter, the source of the madness. After several long, agonizing minutes, I caught a glimpse of...of...something. It was blood red and pitch black, and had horns and claws and...