Death - Primary Crafter

“War … I did this.”
“It wasn’t you alone, Death. You told us that the Firstborn—”
“I was one of their primary crafters. We certainly could not turn to the Makers for aid with this, so all of us with any skill were involved. You already knew, did you not, that it was I who imbued the power of the Nephilim into Harvester and Affliction, as well as some of our other ancient weapons? I was the nearest thing to a crafter—a ‘Maker’—that we had. So of course I was involved in the birth of the Abominations.”
“Even so, that hardly makes it your—”
“It was my idea!”
War, who had held fast against Death’s earlier assault, fell back before the power of that declaration.
“All of it,” he continued more softly. “Using the Ravaiim themselves as a basis for the weapons; feeding not only on the magics and creations they’d achieved, but all the potential they should have achieved, had we not exterminated them … My idea. Oh, I only helped craft a few of the Abominations personally, but that they exist at all is my responsibility.
“I rarely feel guilt for any of the countless lives I’ve taken, brother. I’m not certain I’m even capable of it any longer. But for this obscenity …”
He turned, finally, away from Despair to face his younger brother. “So, yes, I take this personally, War. Because it is personal. And private. I have just trusted you, however reluctantly, with secrets that nobody else knows—not Strife, not Fury, not the Council. I don’t believe even Samael or the Crowfather can possibly have discovered this. And I am asking you, without threat or demand, to keep it that way.”

***

Chapter 19