Cloud Reader

The white lines flowed quickly as the distant war worsened. Cloud readers were an important part of the war machine. Keeping tally of the spirits riven from bodies and sent back to their Gods. White lines crossed the firmament creating an invisible net, so many deaths for so little reason.

Elida lay on the ground looking up at the clouds, counting the fine white lines only she, as a cloud reader could see. Watching the angle they flowed to return to their god’s quadrant. “She was”, she mused, “just a glorified accountant”, no matter the deference shown by non readers.

This war that played on the fears of the distant leaders was really just a competition for the Gods to see who could collect the most followers in the shortest time. Elida and the other Cloud Readers tallied their counts at the end of the day and inscribe the numbers in the temples of the Gods.

For ninety days the war would wrack ruin on lives. Then the god bloated with the greatest number of returns would reign supreme for four years. Making the followers of the other Gods cleave to their rites and rituals, thereby weakening the other Gods by wounding their follower’s spirits.

Elida feared the change that was coming, but she was powerless to make anything different. As she lay there counting she reached up with her mind and gently pushed against the fine white lines and felt them respond, with her mind she pulled gently and the lines spiralled down.

Faster and faster the lines curled around each other creating a vortex that plunged down. Pinning Elida to the ground the white lines flowed through her into the earth cradle. Elida was splayed against the earth a conduit for all the souls taken back from the Gods to the womb from which they had emerged.

#FlashFiction #Shortstory