Free El and Onine by K. P. Ambroziak Page A

condensed to metal with the touch of
her flame and she excavated the soil with one stroke. Lava shot up from the
green pastures and sand soaked up the lush marshes of the forests. The living
trees froze mid-growth and grew strong with the tin covering of Venusian
element. Newly erected in granite and gold, Terra’s surface bowed before its new
goddess.
    Soon we encountered the first beings, those who survived
her immolation. With their swarthy bodies covered in hair, they were ugly
creatures. The beasts folded before my goddess, as she bathed the planet in her
warmth and stole their energy, wiping out most of the species we met. When we
finally made contact with the forms we had come to emulate, my goddess was disappointed.
At first sight, she wanted to destroy them despite our original intention to
colonize and repurpose the beings. When she found Mara, however, she decided to
uphold our plan.
    The youngling was sitting in a field of golden
stocks, twirling with her arms outspread. She was bare and free with long hair
that clung to her head and draped down around the sides of her face, covering
her in ways that indulged her purity. She was unaware of our approach and continued
to spin on the spot where she stood. She made a sound that could only be an expression
of pleasure. When she finally stopped, she faced us, showing my goddess the sapient’s
potential to reflect our beauty.
    “It is happening,” my goddess said. “Can you see it?
Can you see the pale glow of her skin?”
    The sapient looked unchanged to me but I was only
just getting used to the anatomy I had been given. Mara was smaller than us and
looked pleasant because of it.
    “We shall hide their skins until they are fully
transformed,” my goddess said. “They will wear coverings until the only
reflection they offer is that of the Venusian aspect. They will become
beautiful in time.”
    “How will you make them obey us?” I had already
witnessed resistance in some, their faces revealing wicked thoughts and passionate
emotion. It was a shame to cover up such vulnerability.
    “We will only keep the younglings,” she said. “Like
this one.”
    I was more curious about the sapient than my Kyprian
siblings and so when my goddess asked me to address Mara, I moved closer to
greet her. Frightened by my approach, she knelt to the ground and picked up a loose
rock, raising it in her hand. I attempted to communicate with her but could
only muster a Venusian shriek. I saw the mischievous expression before the rock
flew from her hand and sailed through the air toward me. The wind slowed the
rock’s flight and I caught the stone. It melted with my touch and when it seeped
to the ground, the chaff around us caught fire. I saw Mara’s urge to bolt
before she moved a limb. Her desire was written on her face and I lunged toward
her, reaching out to grab her, but the Kyprian shriek stopped me.
    “Let her go,” my goddess said. “It may be unsafe to
touch them. We cannot know the consequences of contact and risk contamination.”
    I dropped my hand and watched Mara run deeper into
the field where she disappeared in the stalks of golden wheat. My goddess approached
me and put her hand on my shoulder. Her new form felt heavy on mine but I liked
it. “We have found the one.”
    “The one, goddess?”
    She turned her attention to the retinue and
commanded they follow her to the site of our new solarium.
    “What about the sapient?” I asked.
    “She will be forced to turn back soon,” she said. “The
outer sands will stop her.”
    Terra was cold and dark for half its time cycle and
we rid ourselves of the coldness with stick and stone fires until a molten eye was
erected in our colony of greenhouses. By the third moonscape, we were ready for
the darkness and lived in the warmth of an eye at all times to keep our fires
from dampening. We enslaved the younglings to help build the Bathing
Temple—lava baths and solariums to keep our nature from being