Aucra

I was going to post something yesterday for Snippet Sunday/Six Sentence Sunday, but I am perpetually time-lost and can never remember what day it is. This is a bit from my work-in-progress, Sand into Glass. Aucra is one of the central Elements, the deity Time. The narrator, Arden, is not immortal, but is from a long-lived race descended from Aulors. He is hearing-impaired (deaf on the left, and at this point in the story, only possesses partial hearing in his right). 

I wandered into the corner and out of the range of Ikuren's voice. Aucra sat on my cot. She wanted so horribly to see her prize tainted, to see his teetering foundation crumble under the tremendous weight of his own memories. I was no prize, no trophy, no champion for her. I couldn't redeem myself, but I could vex her until my end.

“You are going to lose this fight,” Aucra said. She smiled smugly and twirled a strand of hair between her fingers.

I flopped on the cot and laid my head on her lap. She stroked my hair and I smiled up at her. I whispered, “My life is a waste except for a single moment bracketed by two shimmering stars. Even if I only have one wonderful moment every four centuries, I will hold onto that and it will keep me safe. A spring rain, a desert night, a swinging pendulum, a ticklish child laughing as I try to put shoes on his feet. I focus on the light I can find, and if I can't find it, I create it. I created two tiny stars, and even the one who was short-lived burned far brighter than you ever will.”

I sat up and pressed my right ear against Aucra's sternum. Her heart was steady, unchanging. She was clockwork, but I wondered if her gears were made of glass or of metal. If she was glass, I could reshape her. I felt the buzz of her voice in her chest. I had no idea what poison she whispered to me and I didn't care.

“You present yourself young and beautiful,but you are neither," I said calmly. "You are Time, as old as the universe, and as twisted and deceitful. You are responsible for far more murders than I am. You are the worst mass-murderer in all the universe. Every single living thing falls to you eventually, and you savor it, drink up every bit of that death and then piss on the next generation while waiting for it to come of age so you can drink again. While you're waiting, you take little sips and kill off the young and the infirm to keep your appetite from fading. You are a murderous abomination, and it's no wonder you have fallen in love with someone just a fraction as loathsome as yourself. I will leave your love unrequited, because I am better than you. I do not kill for my own entertainment. No matter what, I am better than you, and I will win. Watch me win.”

Aucra continued to stroke my hair and I fell asleep in her arms. She was still there when I woke from my nap, but she refused to speak with me. I appreciated that, and daresay, celebrated it. It is not often a mortal renders Time speechless.