Carla let out a breath, feeling the energy within her stabilizing, but the same could not be said about her physical state.
"Heal!" she uttered without opening her eyes and felt the wounds on her arms and the micro-wounds around her body start to repear themselves, fueled by the abundant energy she had absorbed.
This was power, the power to command existence, but now, that power was being controlled.
"I can feel your gaze on me," Carla spoke as she opened her eyes, meeting a pair of void-like spirals that threatened to consume her.
She took a breath, inhaling that earthy forest scent, and a hint of petrichor.
The dirt felt cold, wet, and sticky, but she did not rise; rather, she gazed at the sky as one might yearn for salvation.
It was dark, and the moon was orange tonight; it has always been orange.
"It's fascinating to me that you got such reality-altering powers while all I acquired is the ability to punch harder," Mr. Valen suddenly spoke, his voice light, lacking any real emotion.
Hearing him speak was... an experience for Carla, who spoke slowly, her breath bated, "What do you plan to do now?"
"Tell me how your powers work. I was led to believe it was simple mind control. How are you related to Amethyst? To my mother? Tell me everything!" Mr. Valen commanded, his voice calm.
In that instant, a purple glow flashed on Carla's chest, and she spoke, her eyes trembling slightly, "From your curiosity, I assume Amethyst didn't tell you anything, poor baby-"
"Speak," Mr. Valen simply commanded, narrowing his eyes at Carla's display.
"All meaning is malleable," the woman before him responded, her eyes locked on him.
'I've heard that before,' Mr. Valen thought immediately, his hand on his chin as he thought back to the statues in the void; one of them had spoken those words.
"People like us, we're hellspawn, and we each get our abilities from one of the seven divine sparks," she suddenly began, her breath shallow but vigorous, "we are the mistakes of hell, each gifted with a single ability during our first evolution, and perhaps subsequent abilities during the next few evolutions..."
"Mistakes of hell?" Mr. Valen cut her short, his brows furrowed as he commanded. "Elucidate."
"It's why we're hellspawns," Carla simply spoke, her face expressionless, "There are two ways to become a hell spawn, first is to summon a demon from the other side and offer it existence in exchange for a chance to turn, and the other is to find an existing demon and let it turn you."
"Ohh... I'm still lost. Why would demons turn humans? What do you mean by offering existence?" Mr. Valen asked, his voice grim.
'Idiot,' Carla thought, smiling at his confusion, but she didn't stop speaking; otherwise, he commanded her. "Demons can't stay in our world or else they turn another human, and even then, they lose that connection rather quickly and have to turn another. Failure to do so and well...
they're kicked out."
"I see," Mr. Valen muttered then asked, "Would that not mean that the numbers of hellspawn like us are increasing?"
"Quite the contrary," Carla shook her head, her voice grim as she spoke, "it's the number of demons that are increasing. Do you know why we are the mistakes of hell? It's because we're anomalies. Normally, once a human is turned, he or she turns into a demon as well, completely subservient to the will of the divine spark, but at least one in a hundred humans doesn't become a slave, and those are hellspawn."
"I see," Mr. Valen muttered, "that doesn't concern me though, let's talk about something important-"
"You're the one who asked," Carla scoffed and stood up, "but it really is a problem, though. If a demon picks up the scent of a hell spawn with free will, it will do everything in its power to hunt that person down."
"Well, I have yet to encounter one of these demons," Mr. Valen got to his feet as well, his gaze surveying the surroundings.
All he saw was endless forest and towering trees so vast that they consumed his gaze the harder he stared; his enhanced senses wouldn't save him here.
"We should have asked Margaret of our location," Mr. Valen muttered, his chest heaving as he turned to Carla, who was doing something strange.
She undid a button on her scrubs, revealing more of her ample chest, her black bra catching Mr. Valen's attention for a brief moment.
On it, one could see four familiar marks overlaid over each other (compulsion marks).
"Disperse!" she suddenly spoke, her tone grim, and with her words, one of those marks faded away.
What happened next was a shock to Mr. Valen; he could not explain how it happened, but he blinked, and Carla had regained her regular skin color.
Yet her face still remained foreign.
"Disperse!" her voice rang out again, and her face regained that appearance he was used to: a blonde-haired woman with sky blue eyes.
Simultaneously, her tail began to move, grafting a new compulsion mark in thin air, and when she was done, she placed it on her chest, her voice filled with authority as she spoke, "The meaning of my facial structure is attractive but different!"
'My Word!' Mr. Valen thought with narrowed eyes, resolving not to blink, but it still happened right before him.
Was it a change in lighting? No!
Mr. Valen watched with his very eyes as the bones on Carla's face shifted almost uncannily, giving her a different, more innocent appearance.
Carla's chest heaved after that command, her face pale as though the life had been sucked from her, and Mr. Valen could tell that she had lost a substantial amount of energy.
But now he had to know. "How do your powers work? Don't speak generally, I want to know the exact mechanics of your abilities," he commanded, causing one of the compulsion marks on Carla's chest to pulse faintly.
"Are you blind? I can create marks that help me do stuff," Carla spoke, attempting to brush off the question, but when she saw the look in Mr. Valen's eyes, she knew it was no use, so she began:
"During my first evolution, when Amethyst summoned a demon to turn me, I gained a tail with the ability to create these marks, but each time I used the ability, it took something out of me."
"Energy," Mr. Valen breathed, leaning against a tree.
"Yes, those marks were my conduit. I could place them on someone and command them to do whatever I wanted, as long as they bore my mark and I had energy, my voice bore authority over them," Carla spoke, her voice sober, almost reminiscent.
"But with each use of my powers, I felt myself growing weaker and weaker," she added.
"You possessed no means to absorb energy from others at that time?" Mr. Valen asked.
"I could through sexual means, but it was much slower; I'd need tens of sessions just to reclaim the energy I lost, but I'm not a fucking whore," Carla scoffed, her eyes narrowing at Mr. Valen.
Her words made Mr. Valen bend his neck, his voice monotone, "Well, I never called you a whore, but you do have multiple sexual partners, soooo..."
"I never had sex with any of them," Carla shot back, her brows furrowed in disgust. "Who knew what disease they carried?"
"But you were intimate," Mr. Valen added before turning to the sky. "So what happened during your second evolution?"
"Hmph!" Carla scoffed, her tone sober as she spoke, "Well, after Amethyst helped me evolve, I gained the ability to forcefully drain energy from others, and only then could I experiment with my powers."
"I discovered that I could also impart my marks and impose meaning on non-living objects, and the cost of energy required would be based on how absurd the meaning I impose was. Imposing meaning is also how I change my appearance."
"I don't follow. What do mean by imposing meaning?" Mr. Valen inquired further, his voice like a child who didn't understand a math equation.
The compulsion mark on Carla's chest pulsed with his words, prompting her to let out a derisive sigh, as if explaining basic arithmetic to a toddler.
"Fine, think of reality as a document, a contract. Everything from a person to a rock, and even a thought, has its terms written down, (what it is, what it means)," she gestured with her tail, an odd sight to be associated with a human being.
There was a brief quietness as Carla peered at him, her brows furrowed as though waiting for his underdeveloped brain to piece everything together, and then she spoke, "My tail writes amendments. I place my mark, and I speak a new clause into the contract, and the universe, bound to the law of my fragment, has to enforce it."
"I see. imposing meaning," Mr. Valen said, nodded as though a bulb had lit up in his head.
"Precisely," Carla nodded, stretching slightly as she explained, " It's not mind control, that's a crude hack; I'm not whispering in your ear. I'm going to the source code and changing your 'volition' parameter from 'true' to 'false.' I command a wall that its meaning is now 'door,' and a path opens. I command a dying man that his state is 'healthy,' and his body obeys. It's not healing; it's enforcing a definition."
"That's unnerving," Mr. Valen spoke, "Then if that is the case, why did you not use it on me? There were certainly other options than commanding 'kneel'."
"Fuck you," Carla cursed at him through gritted teeth, her brows furrowed as she continued her explanation, "The cost of my ability is the energy required to make the universe accept the lie. The more it contradicts the original, fundamental meaning, the more it costs. Telling a cup of water to 'be hot' is trivial. Telling it to 'be lava' would drain me to a husk. Telling it to 'be a cup of hatred' is impossible; that's not even in its lexical field, and certain commands don't last forever."
"And your appearance, that doesn't seem reasonable," Mr. Valen narrowed his eyes, "You're basically shape shifting. I understand the concept but still..."
"Ohh, you have no idea what the other players in this game are capable of," Carla spoke, a small (almost cruel) smile playing on her lips, "changing my form is costly but it's reasonable; I'm not rearranging my flesh that's the domain of brutes like you who serve the Eternal Flesh. I am simply… editing the description in the ledger. I command that the 'visual data' associated with 'Carla' is now different. Everyone who looks at me is just reading the updated file. It's a lie everyone sees; so it becomes the truth."
"I see," Mr. Valen spoke, his tone grim, "If you were not exhausted, had you been at full strength, and if I did not possess the ability to absorb your marks, how would our fight have unfolded?"
"We wouldn't have fought at all," Carla simply shook her head, her voice darkening, "Even if we had to fight. You'd punch me with the meaning that your fists are stronger than my face; I can invert that meaning if I have my marks on us both in advance."
Her words rang in Mr. Valen's head like a bell, unnerving him greatly, but it wasn't just her that scared him. 'If Carla is capable of this, what can Amethyst do? No, I need to know more, but this isn't an appropriate place."
"We'll talk later. Let's get out of here first," Mr. Valen said.
"Whatever you want," Carla shrugged, watching as Mr. Valen then leaped onto a tree, scaling it until he reached the top, his eyes narrowed to slits in the darkness.
"There's an open road up a few miles from here. Let's go," he then yelled, leaping down.