Grateful Fear

  Warning: Minor details of the story may change.

  The dragon was being torn apart. Kai was lucky enough to be in the front row, where he could feel the heat of the beast's breath and could clearly see the giant spiked chains of Architect of Happiness. Even through the dragon's roar, their low humming could be heard. The chains were digging into the flesh of the huge parasite, staining its silver scales pink and peeling open wound after wound, gaping with a pleasing scarlet hue. The air reeked of dampness and iron.

  "Life! Life! Life!" Kai shouted, throwing his hands in the air along with the rest of the crowd. Hundreds of voices echoed his words. The bald, tattooed humans in black robes were all reaching for the sky with him. This powerful choral rhythm drove Kai to ecstatic trance.

  The weather was terrible: in a cloudless blue sky, the blazing sun rained down on the city like a golden hammer, casting long, distorted shadows of the spires of the citadel. The figures of the Glorious Lords on the platform were bathed in blinding light, making it difficult to fully revel in their appearance. But his memory drew images of Them, burned into his mind since childhood.

  Architect of Happiness, Lord of Labour and Entertainment - a cute child covering His eyes with a metal strip. Merciful Mother, Lordess of Family and Love - a tall and thin woman in a black and white robe with a veil over Her eyes - towered above them all. Voice of The Truth, the Lord of Faith - a grey-haired old man with an affectionate voice and ever-closed eyes. Great Mentor, the Lord of Knowledge - a human-sized black upright cat, the only one of the Lords not afraid to embarrass people with His amber eyes. Absent was the ever-busy Guardian of Darkness, the Lord of Power, a taciturn giant clad in magnificent black armour with spikes, second in height only to Merciful Mother.

  Another chain ran along the parasite's body, leaving deep furrows. It tensed its muscles, but the spikes dug deeper into the scales, tearing them apart. Finally, with a wet crunch, its last wing torn off. The beast convulsed, thrashing its head above the crowd.

  A human standing nearby was startled and fell to his knees, whispering the Litany of Grateful Fear:

  ?I am small and You are great,

  I am weak, yet You are strong.

  Let my fear become the gate

  To Your love so deep and long.?

  Kai only smirked. It was foolish to be afraid now. After all, there were so many Lords here, which meant he and the others were perfectly safe. The beast roared, and its mouth seemed to move as if it were saying something meaningful, but it was impossible. The creature was a parasite of the world that must be destroyed for the sake of nature. They were the reason for the sulphur wastelands, the cursed canyons, the fiery hills, and the poisonous rifts of doom.

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  Kai could no longer stand the vile sun and to give his eyes a rest, he looked back. The crowd was roaring no weaker than the beast. In the front rows, of course, were people with children, and at the back stood childless couples with angels of pleasure. Their black horns and eyes pleased Kai's light-weary gaze. In addition to the humans and angels, vermidons with worms quivering with excitement beneath their skin, basalt krumbirs (one was quite young, without a lava beard) and, of course, one etherite could be seen in the crowd.

  The streets, paved with black stone, were swept by the Depersonalised so that riders on nullcorns could ride on clean roads. The guards of harmony, in their dark armour with cloaks and vertical slitted visors transitioning into crown-shaped spikes, ensured the safety of the celebrating crowd. Crystals pulsed like hearts ripped from the bodies of defeated gods, talking walls soothingly whispered Litanies and Mantras, messengers spread news in the heavens, and the statues of horror instilled a blessed humility in Kai's heart.

  "Fate..." the dragon's last breath was like that word. How ridiculous...

  Kai was so focused on his favourite City that he almost missed the finale. The chains tore the dragon in half, its blood gushing in fountains, and a rainbow appeared in a red haze. Kai had time to see the beast's head fall and the life drained from its huge golden eye.

  The crowd rushed forward, putting hands, mouths, and children under the hot streams of blood. It flowed down the children's shaven faces, turning their tattoos into red-black crosses. The children laughed, licking their fingers. Dragon's blood is known to increase lifespan, and it was a generous gift from the Lords for the beginning of the Feast of Renunciation.

  But not everyone welcomed such a gift. Kai noticed a child with weeping eyes who was in no hurry to catch the warm streams of life. Their parent clenched the child's jaw, demanding, 'Drink, it's a gift! Or you'll be depersonalised.'

  Some people had already begun to climb onto the execution platform to savour the dragon meat. Kai opened his mouth, determined to catch a stream before they all ran out, but then a guard of harmony approached him with a magnificent goblet full of blood.

  "Servant Kai, reader of dreams, sigil of impeccability," rumbled a low, distant voice from beneath the closed visor. "Drink."

  Kai grabbed the goblet and pressed his lips to it greedily. Blood ran down his chin, staining his robe. It was thick and salty.

  The world shuddered. Black clouds covered the sky. His City was burning and crumbling. The towers of the Citadel fell one by one, the citizens fought each other, and the guards of harmony thrust their red-hot blades into their visors. Where are the Lords? Why didn't they stop this?

  Kai was back in the square in front of the dead dragon. This was a bad dream. Kai quickly found the etherite in the crowd, standing calmly as before. If he saw Kai's thoughts, he didn't give any sign. His conjoined long ears covered his eyes, and it was impossible to tell where he was looking.

  The goblet fell from his hands, clinking against the stone. Kai began to make his way through the crowd. He turned around only once. His gaze fell on the dragon's dead eye - it was still open and shaking from the body's remaining convulsions, but already covered with a dead veil reflecting the sun. Kai continued his escape. It seemed to him that the burning eyes of the Lord of Knowledge were imprinted on his back, but that was clearly just his imagination. Kai clutched his amulet of loyalty and hastily muttered a Litany of Grateful Fear. The shard of dream pricked his spine.