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Description
The next page is here: faile35.deviantart.com/art/Boo… . For more information on the entire series, read the "'Demon's Due' Defined" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… or the "'Demon's Due' Plus" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… .

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At last, the possessed rat-man brought Zirena before the mural, forced her over the enchanted altar, and commanded her to "Behold and tell me what you see."

The command was not necessary. The Seeress's visionary trance gripped her mind and body as if she were a rag doll twisting and flexing her beneath Jervil's control, and Zirena offered a continuous stream of descriptive imagery propelled through her by the massive painting, and by the touch of its painter. "The Touch of Many is like the Touch of One," she spoke loudly, "but He won't know it until it is Too Late. They cry who must choose between Dying and the Living End, but by the Clenched Fist the skull is shattered, and its Pieces become the Emptiness of Hell. She will bring the Light, and Dash it by Her Blade til none can see. Only the Boy has the Light, entwined in Darkness and plagued by the Grasping Hands of Those Who Die and Those whose life must end in the Chain of Events."

Jervil struggled to make sense of what he heard, bringing to bear all of his learning from the mind of Anjerome Villios, and the training of Theonius, and endless hours of contemplation and study. Yet, as Zirena continued, rehearsing and revealing the same information in multiple images and from multiple viewpoints, the rat-man could sense there was still some gap in his understanding. A small piece missing in a puzzle with no end to its size--missing perhaps because it was hidden.

"The boy," he hissed in Zirena's ear. "Tell me about the boy."

"The boy died, but lives on. He knows it not. He loves, but it is not himself that feels the embrace. He grieves, but it is not himself that feels the loss. He hopes, but it is not himself that sees the light. He holds the light. He kills the darkness. He is the final piece in the painting."

"Who is he?!" Jervil demanded. "Who is the boy? Where is he?"

Zirena's exhausted body shivered beneath the rat-man's weight on the altar as the trance left her. "Beneath the arch," she whispered, and then she uttered a name the rat-man couldn't hear.

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Madame Zirena was drawn using the reference images of perditax31 . Thanks, Adeline!

Enjoy!

Note: Bookbinding and Demon's Due are a work of fantasy and fiction. The artist/creator in no way condones real mistreatment of this kind toward any woman or man, by living person, gremlin, plant, assassin, ratman, viscous fluid, programmed device, animated home furnishings, or otherworldly spiritual beings. Furthermore, the artist opposes the marginalizing and restriction of women in general by any institution, political and/or religious, including those which have individual women amongst their membership touting/promoting their own happiness within that institution as evidence that ALL women should feel the same way. This includes the religion I was raised in and which I have utterly discarded from my life over this and other issues.

Description
The next page is here: faile35.deviantart.com/art/Boo… . For more information on the entire series, read the "'Demon's Due' Defined" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… or the "'Demon's Due' Plus" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… .

***********************************************

At last, the possessed rat-man brought Zirena before the mural, forced her over the enchanted altar, and commanded her to "Behold and tell me what you see."

The command was not necessary. The Seeress's visionary trance gripped her mind and body as if she were a rag doll twisting and flexing her beneath Jervil's control, and Zirena offered a continuous stream of descriptive imagery propelled through her by the massive painting, and by the touch of its painter. "The Touch of Many is like the Touch of One," she spoke loudly, "but He won't know it until it is Too Late. They cry who must choose between Dying and the Living End, but by the Clenched Fist the skull is shattered, and its Pieces become the Emptiness of Hell. She will bring the Light, and Dash it by Her Blade til none can see. Only the Boy has the Light, entwined in Darkness and plagued by the Grasping Hands of Those Who Die and Those whose life must end in the Chain of Events."

Jervil struggled to make sense of what he heard, bringing to bear all of his learning from the mind of Anjerome Villios, and the training of Theonius, and endless hours of contemplation and study. Yet, as Zirena continued, rehearsing and revealing the same information in multiple images and from multiple viewpoints, the rat-man could sense there was still some gap in his understanding. A small piece missing in a puzzle with no end to its size--missing perhaps because it was hidden.

"The boy," he hissed in Zirena's ear. "Tell me about the boy."

"The boy died, but lives on. He knows it not. He loves, but it is not himself that feels the embrace. He grieves, but it is not himself that feels the loss. He hopes, but it is not himself that sees the light. He holds the light. He kills the darkness. He is the final piece in the painting."

"Who is he?!" Jervil demanded. "Who is the boy? Where is he?"

Zirena's exhausted body shivered beneath the rat-man's weight on the altar as the trance left her. "Beneath the arch," she whispered, and then she uttered a name the rat-man couldn't hear.

***********************************************

Madame Zirena was drawn using the reference images of perditax31 . Thanks, Adeline!

Enjoy!

Note: Bookbinding and Demon's Due are a work of fantasy and fiction. The artist/creator in no way condones real mistreatment of this kind toward any woman or man, by living person, gremlin, plant, assassin, ratman, viscous fluid, programmed device, animated home furnishings, or otherworldly spiritual beings. Furthermore, the artist opposes the marginalizing and restriction of women in general by any institution, political and/or religious, including those which have individual women amongst their membership touting/promoting their own happiness within that institution as evidence that ALL women should feel the same way. This includes the religion I was raised in and which I have utterly discarded from my life over this and other issues.