Blood Moon

As the thump of staffs rises to fever pitch around me, as the chanting weaves its way through the air in a beautiful crescendo, the blood moon rises.

It is full, as waxed as it can be, and after this, it will never cast the same light on Earth again. The rite is done.

Almost.

"Mages! Listen to me!" Sorcerer Deus faces us, a silhouette against the scarlet moon as he faces us mages. "There is but one simple component until we - not the Dark Ones of Stars- we shall become GODS!"

We cheer, howling to the sky, stamping our feet on the dew-spattered grass until the sorcerer raises his staff.

"I am sure you all know what that component is?" We nod in assent, eager.

He throws his face to the stars, a lonely figure on the altar standing in the empty plain. "THE NAMING!"

"THE NAMING!"

"Glosbe! Come up here!"

My jaw drops like a felled tree, for surely i, of all people, should not be the first. "I, I, O Sorcerer, I am the one least in power, why should it me me?"

Deus chortles in his deep tones. "Why, Glosbe, you are the most loyal among us, for otherwise you would have seized the opportunity instead of saying you should be last! Come forwards.

Marching forwards to the altar, I gaze at it. It is laced with many colours, gold and scarlet and silver and green and blue and bronze, but it isn't bright. Indeed, it seems faint, as if it almost isn't there, trying to hide. Nevertheless, I walk up the stairs and onto the surface, going round the white fire to join Deus as the other mages whisper with envy. But I feel no prise, only like I have usurped them.

"Now, Glosbe, I sense that you long to fly with the birds, to be with nature. Glosbe, you shall be the god of the wind and the natural. You shall be..."

Strange thumps come from behind me, and Deus spins me round to see all the mages dead on the ground.

"Glosbe, you shall be dead."

I see the crow overhead, predicting my doom. i hear the Sorcerer's murmur in my ear, I feel the diamond blade of his knife piercing my back and coming out the other side, I smell the death on the air, I taste the blood in my mouth.