The weakest of smiles appeared upon her lips but it did nothing to comfort the man dressed in black. Gokkus stared into her eyes, unable to accept the reality of what was happening. “Please….” Zova forced out in a whisper. Gokkus slowly moved his hand, that was now involuntarily trembling, towards his face. Not even the gods could make him look away from Zova as he removed his helmet and the black around it with one quick violent jerk before tossing it aside. For the first time Cada Varl could see his face completely, he was younger than first thought and had short black hair as dark as the clothing he wore. Zova tried to raise her hand to his face but such a movement was now impossible for her to accomplish alone. Slowly Gokkus guided her hand embracing it upon his cheek. With the weakest of smiles upon her lips she whispered, “There is the face of the man I fell in love with.” Gokkus could not bring himself to talk, as much as he wanted to, he remained silent.
Tears now fell freely from his eyes, like the raindrops of the world’s saddest storm. Husband and wife now just stared into each other’s eyes, there was a very rare peace to the silence that now fell, and in their minds the world around them vanished. All that mattered now was the moment, the last moment they would have together in this world. As the tears of Gokkus dropped onto her cheek Zova gently stroked her finger upon his hand. Each second that went by took more and more warmth from her touch, warmth that couldn’t be reclaimed. Imbaka and Cada Varl watched on in a terrible silence as eventually the warmth of Zova’s touch disappeared entirely. There was no final breath, no violent jerking of limbs, even death would not break the peace the two of them had in that moment. Zova’s eyes closed over like she was entering some beautiful and endless dream.
“Zova,” Gokkus finally said when he realized that the moment was at its end. “Zova,” he said again knowing that she could no longer hear him. His voice broke like fragile glass as he whispered, “Please do not leave me,” his breathing became erratic and involuntary as he looked up to the heavens and said, “Do not take her from me.” A sound then came from the sky; the roar of thunder yet there was not a single thundercloud to be seen within the blue. It was like the heavens felt his pain and made such a sound as if to say they were sorry, that there was nothing they could do to bring her back. Gently he brought his lips to hers and kissed her cold lips caring not for the blood that now covered his chest. He sat back up and simply looked upon her beautiful face one more time. Gently he placed her hands at her sides before he rested his head in his own.
The moment would not last for his hands moved to the top of his head, grabbing tight fistfuls of hair like he wanted to rip them out of his scalp. His head fell forward resting on his elbows as he closed his eyes and the tears continued to fall. After the longest moment ever taken upon the earth Gokkus opened his mouth and the sounds that came from him were inhuman. They were sounds of anger and fury, the kind that made the whole wide world tremble in fear. He sat up rocking back and forth as if he was trying to stop the anger from possessing him like a demon.
While still making these inhuman sounds he looked over to the body of Zova and towards the corpse of the closest werewolf. He could see that on its left hand one of its Gortanik blades had snapped off, he looked into its dead eyes, knowing it had been responsible for Zova’s death.
His hands slowly released his hair as his chest moved so quickly it looked like he was convulsing. Upon the werewolf’s armor he saw a blood filled hole, Zova had already avenged her own death. The fact her killer was dead was not enough for Gokkus as he leant over the body of his wife and began pounding his fists upon the hole. His actions were violent and hindered by rage as flesh smashed into steel. The pain of such actions must have been agonizing but Gokkus showed nothing but rage. Cada Varl wanted to walk over and help the man in black, believing the only thing he was going to achieve was broken hands. Incredibly the armor did bend after being repeatedly struck upon, but remained strong. Gokkus was then able to gain enough sense to quickly remove a long bladed knife from his boot and began using it to cut through the armor and flesh of the werewolf corpse. Dead purple blood splattered all across his face yet Gokkus focused only on this grizzly act. Sickening wet sounds came from the corpse as Gokkus violently jerked the thing’s heart into his blood soaked hand.
Cada Varl gasped upon seeing this; unsure of what his companion was planning to do with such a thing. Gokkus forced the large cursed heart into the pack on his back before he gently got his arms underneath the body of Zova. Revealing his great strength he lifted her off the ground and stood up at the same time. Her right arm and head hung lifelessly as Gokkus turned around. At first the man in black appeared to be staring directly into the eyes of Cada Varl, the Immortal would be lying if he said he was not afraid of what he saw in the eyes of Gokkus. The man dressed in black walked forward and the Immortal soon realized he was not looking at him, or Imbaka or anything else. Gokkus was simply moving away from this dreadful place where his wife had died.
As Gokkus passed her Imbaka said nothing but kept her head lowered in a sign of respect. When Gokkus was no longer in her line of vision Imbaka walked over to where Zova once lay, taking in hand her sword, her pack and Gokkus’ black helmet that had been left on the ground. Cada Varl without command walked over to where Gokkus had dropped his weapon and picked it up. The Immortal looked to Imbaka who said nothing before she followed Gokkus out of the clearing with Cada Varl behind her.
The Immortal and Imbaka kept their distance from the man dressed in black as he walked seemingly aimlessly through the wilderness. Cada Varl wanted to speak just so he could get rid of the silence in the air, but he remained wordless. The fact that traps could easily still be in the air seemed irrelevant to Gokkus as he moved through the terrain.
Just under an hour later the man dressed in black came to a stop in another clearing, which was not only smaller than the first but was not covered in grass. It was like the wilderness had heard his sounds and was afraid of what would happen if he did not find such a place. Now he stopped, gently placing the body of his wife onto the ground. While he still crouched over her Imbaka approached him carefully placing her pack down and her sword by her side. Imbaka placed her hand on the shoulder of Gokkus who slowly placed his hand over it. A moment later Imbaka stepped away placing his helmet onto the ground and gesturing for Cada Varl to follow her. The Immortal looked back at Gokkus who remained still looking upon the body of Zova. While ensuring he stayed in sight Cada Varl and Imbaka moved as far away as they could from the man dressed in black, which was upon the other side of the clearing.
Imbaka began stripping away bark and sticks from surrounding trees and Cada Varl watched on. As Imbaka began placing these twigs and bark in a specific pattern Cada Varl realized she was preparing some kind of funeral ritual. Most of it was the same as the ritual that was performed when Tanagy was killed, using certain potions and powders from jars to fill the unlit fireplace. But instead of burning a Vorig Imbaka took out two finely decorated clay jars with lids. Quietly she informed Cada Varl to silently whisper the last words he wanted to say to Zova into the jar and quickly close it to ensure the words did not escape. He was also told not to speak if the wind picked up for that would carry the words away from the jar. With great sadness in his mind Cada Varl did what he was told, mouthing everything he wanted to say before quickly placing the lid over the jar. From there both jars were placed into the unlit fire and a strange rock shaped golden item was cut over it, causing flames of purple to suddenly rise up. As they had done with the ritual for Tanagy, Cada Varl and Imbaka had to wait in silence until the fire had burnt away.
Gokkus was performing a ritual all of his own, one unique to a man or woman who had to bury their partner. All alone he had to dig her a grave and say certain words in the correct sequence. The words he had to say were the same words Zova had told him on his wedding night called ‘Teuawok’ or the oath of love. Gokkus had to keep the words perfect in his memory, if he said so much as a single word wrong or out of place he would nev
er see Zova in the afterlife. In her life Zova would have memorized specific words Gokkus had said to her as well, words that she never would have forgotten. Each Teuawok was different and unique, it was meant to represent the true words of a person’s heart, their love for their significant other. He also had to perfume her body with a perfume that he and Zova had mixed on their wedding night. This was to ensure that in the afterlife their souls could recognize each other by all senses, including smell. The final piece of the ritual was the devouring of the enemy’s heart. It was a way to ensure that he had gotten revenge for his fallen beloved. If he did not devour the heart then the ancestral spirits had the power to stop him from ever seeing Zova again in the world beyond the living.
This is what made Helluv different from the warrior societies of legend. Marriage was not simply a way to ensure the bearing of strong children by strong parents, marriage was what it should have been, the ultimate declaration of love between two people. Cada Varl admired this greatly for all the things the tiny kingdom of Helluv had to do to survive not once did Granzool or his people lose sight of their humanity.
Night was almost upon them by the time the purple fire had burnt itself out, Imbaka checked and saw that there was no trace of the clay jars meaning their words had reached Zova. Cada Varl helped Imbaka forge a normal fire several feet away from where their ritual had been performed. Gokkus had completed his ritual an hour or so after they had, Zova had been buried with both her sword and a Vorig. Gokkus had cooked and devoured the heart of the werewolf leaving him now staring into a fire of his own. Even from where Cada Varl was sitting he could see the heavy sadness in the eyes of the man dressed in black. There was a big part of the Immortal that wanted to go sit with him, just so he wasn’t alone. But he knew that wouldn’t be proper and so sat staring into the flames of the fire. Imbaka seemed more shocked than sad as if Zova’s death was simply too much too take and her mind had shut down just to cope with it.
For hours they sat staring into the flames of their fires, without so much as a loud breath taken. For a reason that only she knew Imbaka slowly looked away from the flames and towards the Immortal that sat staring into the fire. In the light of the flames her eyes were drawn to the back of his hand where she could see a sore redness. It looked almost like some insect had bitten him but there was something just not right about its colour, like a bug that existed in the next world and not this one had bitten him.
“Your hand Cada Varl?” Imbaka said with a tone still clearly in mourning.
Cada Varl looked down to his hand moving it slightly in the light of the fire, he looked back to the flames as he said, “ It has been that way since my battle with Nara.”
Imbaka now looked concerned and the Immortal could feel her eyes upon him.
He looked to her as he said, “I believe it was caused by that primal power I summoned to defeat her.” He looked to the fire and immediately Imbaka could sense he was troubled by his own thoughts. “I remember thinking that I had to hold onto the power, that I couldn’t win the fight without it and then….” Cada Varl fell silent but Imbaka could not let it rest
“But then what?” she said leaning forward to ensure she heard his answer.
Cada Varl dragged his vision away from the fire and into her eyes as he said, “The next thing I remember is you and the others approaching me, carrying the body of Hazum Ka-te.”
Imbaka leaned back clearly uncomforted by what the Immortal was telling her. “This power that I call upon, is born from something that humans once possessed but has now long since been forgotten. I think because I held onto the power for so long that I forgot even the memory of being human, it was your voice that brought me back, that reminded me of who I was….”
Imbaka searched his eyes and could see nothing but truth within them, she looked back to the red upon his hand and asked, “Do you have any idea what the red marks are?”
Cada Varl sat staring into her eyes, seemingly afraid of what he said next, “I honestly do not know.”