Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

59 Lost Souls

Time Immortal, The Eastern Gate, Field of Lost Souls, The Underworld

Mara

We land with a thump just before the Eastern Gate. I rush to the doors as if I can easily push it open.

It's thrice my height. I thought, from far away, that it was made of some sort of black metal, but up close I can see that it's twisted bone, blackened from fire and grey with age. At eye height there are skulls embedded as bricks, their eyeless sockets and grinning teeth a macabre statement.

"The gates at the true directions are like this. The River Crone comes from the South and then flows out under the Palace. The Northern Gate is somewhere in the palace. The Western gate is where we entered the city," Ililie tells me as he looks at the gate with a look of faint dread.

"How does it open?" I ask him.

He smiles weakly as Nasir lands next to us. "You're the goddess, excuse me for saying, My Lady."

I look at the Gate again. "Can you fly me over?" I ask both of them.

This time it's Nasir who picks me up and flies to the top of the Gate. He reaches the very top and moves just the tiniest bit over, before he and I are blown backwards.

He lands shakily. "No, Princess, I can't."

I bite my lip and look at the Gate again. In the center of the mass of skeletal construction are long bones crisscrossing over each other.

Grimacing, I reach out gingerly with one hand and see if they are loose. I twist and it moves, fractionally. A roar of rage is bellowed down the streets behind me. I scream in turn, startled.

Oh, it's Urto. Apparently the War god isn't blessed with wings.

Swallowing down my distaste I grab the bones with both hands and yank. This time it moves, nearly into a straight vertical position. The gate groans. At the bottom it creeps open just slightly.

I step back and look at the crack. Fingers of souls are creeping under, seeking the city through just the smallest fraction of space.

"You open it, I'll rush under. My Lady, follow me underneath close as can be, understand?" Ililie says.

"I am the better fighter, Ililie," Nasir says calmly. Ililie looks at him, but nods shortly.

Nasir lays down on his stomach, ready to move. With his claws and blade he slices at the greedy fingers, driving them back from the crack under the Gate.

Ililie works fast, turning the crossbones with ease.

Just as Nasir can almost fit through, a black shape, screeching in anger, rushes through the opening from the city into the Field of Lost Souls.

"Belen-cat!" I cry out. Ililie opens the gate a little more and Nasir is through. I hear him issue a battle cry on the other side of the Gate. I am about to follow him through when Ililie shouts in horror.

I turn, fearing Urto, but all I see is Taffy-kitty, attacking Nasir. The Basru backs off, worried about harming my pet. Rasted and Gired slide under the wall, then Belen-cat.

I meet Ililie's shocked eyes just a moment before I dive through the opening.

I have not felt grief here in my father's realm. It accompanied me everywhere and all of the time in the above. But in the Underworld, I was free from it's grip. Because of that, I was able to ignore my purpose in assuaging grief, in order to focus on bonds.

In the Field of Lost Souls, I feel grief. It is not the burgeoning storm of grief I felt in Tmari as the city fell. Nor is it the sharp taste of shocked grief of a loved one or the soul-deep grief of a rejected Fated bond. This is grief that winds its way through the air like arrow-points or a rope...