Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

12 Respect

2651 B.C.E., City of Tmari-on-the-Euphrates

Spring, Month of Nissanu, One Year and One Month after Mara's Rebirth

Mara

I pace back and forth in front of the bed that holds Tafia... or, what remains of Tafia.

I don't hear her beast's voice anymore. The cloud of grief surrounding Tafia is gone. She is still as death, even as her chest rises and falls and her heart beats. There is nothing else. No life, no movement beyond the very basic necessity.

I have made a terrible mistake. A week after I sliced apart her mate bond Tafia fell asleep and now, two weeks later, she still hasn't woken. Her cat is missing. She's left her vigil at the wall and disappeared.

While I was in the desert a female from the Fourth House, one of the higher-rank Tasuri, was attacked. The Recondites investigating the slaying are looking for a shifter. Her face... the rumors say it was shredded apart, as if by tooth and claw. A cat, to be more specific. She may still die of her horrific injuries.

I wept when I heard. Yes, maybe she deserved a punishment, but this is my fault. I set the cat free from Tafia. I hurt that female as if with my own hands. I have no idea what happened between Tafia and her Fated and that female, but it's not my place to judge them, to disfigure someone.

"Lady Mara? The Recondites are here to escort you home," the quiet preistess of the mother gives me a wan smile. I don't reply. I can see the hint of fear in her eyes. No one understands what demon I fought three weeks ago, but they know that I was there, that something happened between Tafia and I. I am becoming more and more of a freak everyday.

I don't look the Recondites in the eyes. For once I am grateful for the viel that hides my face and eyes. The two males are unrecognizable to me. I haven't seen any of the familiar faces of the Shadow Warriors since our return from the desert... since their Captain, Lier, died.

My viel is gone by the time I get back to the temple. It looks like mice have eaten through it. Filled with holes.

I race into the temple, tearing at my ruined viel. It snags on my hair and I scream a little as I yank it off. How could my father do this to me? What did he think this would accomplish? A maimed female, Tafia is unconscious, her cat missing, a dead Recondite in the desert. Why?

"Why?" I scream it out as soon as I enter the temple. My anguished question hovers in the air. "Why do this? I'm a murderess! You... I did this! And... and... the male, the Captain of the Recondites, Lier, why did you- I don't understand! I am supposed to... supposed to help shifters!" Ugly sobs are ripped from my throat, the crying overtaking my ability to speak.

"Why?" I whisper.

Daughter... My daughter

I lie down next to the pool, my body heaving with the force of my own misery. "It's not fair... what did I do? What did they do to deserve this?"

They are part of the Sacrifice

"What kind of sacrifice? Who is a sacrifice?" I'm completely bewildered by my father's simple answer that carries so much wieght.

War

"So it's true? What Priestess Deanna said? Are you in a war? Why?" I ask through numb lips. I stroke the stone slab I am lying on. My tears are pink, glistening in the light. My hands are stained pink from the copious amount of velvety tears I keep wiping away. 

For your Fate

I sit up. The elderly nomad in the desert... her story. A lesson, she said, from the Mother goddess. Fate... I will choose my Fate... my strands... it's my choice, not my father's. I won't have a war fought over my fate!