Fading Echo

Reckoning

She managed to slow her descent by digging her heels into the newly loosened soil, but she broke her nails scratching at the dirt. The drop wasn't sheer, and the sides actually sloped into something of an angle. She could make make out some ledges, and hit them with her feet. Though they were too narrow to stop her fall at the speed she was going, they slowed it down.

As she twisted and clawed through the peril, she began to figure out what she needed to do to survive this.

I loved Narcissus, not knowing he'd been spelled to love no other but himself.

I love Time; he loved me too, and sacrificed himself for me.

I ran from Juno, then Abiteth. This is my doing, and whatever price I must pay, I will.

If I must return to the mountainside back into the stone, I will.

I'm not running anymore.

The dirt scraped her skin as she navigated through the drop, and the white diaphanous dress was torn to tatters, all hope of modesty gone. The plan began to form with a question: what could she do to persuade Abiteth to save Time, and let her go with him?

Echo's gifts had been the gift of conversation and the power of persuasion sometimes. Some called it arrogance; she'd always had the last word.

Juno took that from her, not undeservedly, but Time had restored it. She decided that before she relinquished the only power she had, she would use it to save the one who'd found her worthy of kindness, of love.

There was a wide ledge below her, just before the last drop. She breathed a sigh of relief, such as she could, as her fingers clutched and bent dangerously into the slippery surface even as gravity dragged her down.  The path of her scoring fingers was visible.

Much like her sisters, Echo excelled in the games, and especially in the chase;  nymphs had to run from satyrs, gods, and all manner of creatures. Some wanted their bodies, others wanted their hearts, and still others wanted to harvest both as trophies, killing them in the process. Seeing another ledge wide enough to stand, she aimed for it and made it, finally stopping her fall. She used that time to catch her breath and get her bearings.

The ledge was firm, and wide enough with room to spare for her feet, but it was also gravelly, and the small stones dug into her soft soles. Closing her eyes, she leaned back against the rock face and gave herself time to think.

Taking assessment of her bumps and bruises, there was nothing broken, fractured, or dislocated.  From the ledge she stood on now she looked down into the crevice that formed from the second blast. Getting her breathing under control and smearing the dirt from her face with her already dirty hands, she waited.

There'd been silence for some time.

Death couldn't die, but she didn't know if the same was true of Abiteth. He'd gone to fight her, but perhaps he could only stop her.

That wasn't true of Aeron, and for that she was grateful. Evil visibly shimmered behind those mummified eyes. He was truly a demon child; the thought of what he might consider 'play' gave her shudders, but she'd defeated him and that was something.

She was not helpless.

The crevice below was long, but not wide. She would have to descend  blind, for no light reached it either. She would not drop down as she had when the sinkhole first opened. That had been foolhardy, but her body had regained its strength in the days she'd returned so she survived the ordeal, and managed to set the issue with Time aside.

She would not tempt fate with a second chance.

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

The darkness seemed to press her much as Jupiter had when he backed her into a tree.

He'd almost leeched her of her strength to resist him, and his virility was undeniable; it was not without cause he'd become the king of gods. But this darkness was not king, and she would give it no authority.

All concept of day or night, of time itself, was lost to her as she felt for handholds and footholds, almost slipping when the dirt proved too soft.

The roots of ancient trees deeply planted saved her more than once, and aided her to hasten her descent.

Vermin buried as long as the tree roots came to sniff and nip at the strange scent in their midst.

When she was finally beginning to fatigue, she chanced a look down to see how much further she had to go, and saw the light of a torch.

She almost sobbed with relief until she saw the torch-bearer was  Abiteth .

Echo could almost feel the pricking of those amber eyes, and a vortex seemed to swirl in her peripheral vision, slowly gaining ground. In order not to get dizzy she didn't look down again, for Abiteth had sent a strong sense of vertigo, and whispered in her mind that she should jump.

"I will not!" She said it, and it reverberated down to where Abiteth could hear it.

Echo almost laughed with the irony.

Abiteth extinguished the torch.

Just before she did, Echo saw some vines and grabbed them.

Hoping they were deeply rooted so she wouldn't fall and break her back, she rappelled off the side, and slid down.

They held.

Her feet hit the ground and she crouched to absorb the impact on her knees.

Abiteth was speeding toward her, amber eyes ablaze, and Echo knew she would swing the torch branch to knock her unconscious.

In desperation, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"NO!"

The sound, sudden, loud, and sharp, stopped Abiteth in her tracks, and Echo heard the torch drop from her hand. The amber eyes widened, and dropped slowly to half Echo's height.

That hurt her.

She'd made Abiteth fall to her knees and cover her ears.

This would be her one chance, so before Abiteth recovered, Echo began to speak.