Bracket

by James W

My name is Ian Bracket, and I have lost my god.

They say the Lord of the Gardens was slain by Selena Curiana, may her name be cursed forever. They say it was her sword, her magic – some say even her blood – which tainted him into the horror that he is now.

They're wrong.

The Lord of the Gardens can't be dead. Not while those who follow him have faith. I have faith. I have faith, and I have a purpose.

My purpose is to destroy Selena Curiana. Avenge the god I love, the god I gave my life to. Destroy the necromancer, something that our Temple should have done over twenty years ago.

And my purpose is to recover what I have lost.

They say I'm mad. They try to bring me under the wing of the Lord of the Faithful, like buying a child a new pet to replace the one that died. But I'm not letting go. My god is dead, but I'm not letting go. The voice of the Broken Gardener sings and laughs in my head, and the words become a map, a prelude of what is to come.

Everybody knows that a god can't be brought back from the dead. But everybody knew that a god couldn't be killed.

I know that the Broken Gardener is guiding my steps, from his tower of madness and fracture. I know that my path is being drawn by a Vitriarch, and I will continue. I know that the Burned Lords will cast me out for this blasphemy, turn their backs on my mortality, condemn me to grow old but never die, and I continue. I know that I am being turned into everything which I despise, everything which I have been taught to hate, and I continue.

Because I will not be deterred. I will tear the Burned Realm to pieces if I have to. I will sacrifice everything for my Lord – my life, my soul, my future, even His love for me. Because it is worth it. Because the Lord of the Gardens must return to the world.

I will not be thanked. I will not be praised. I will be shunned, outcast, and cursed. And it will be worth it.