Into the Abyss (The Nightslayer Trilogy, Part 2) - Chapter Fifteen

The landscape Zoe looked out across was an unfamiliar one. At some time in the not too distant past, a tremendous battle had raged here, the earth looking scorched in places, while in others appearing as if it had been rent from beneath and hurled into the air. There were no bodies that Zoe could see, but there were numerous burnt out wagon hulks, and the stench of smoke hung heavily in the air. Suddenly, Zoe became aware of someone else standing next to her. She turned to see who it was.

The young woman had dark hair and tanned skin, a portion of her hair hanging down over one shoulder in a long braid. She wore a fairly plain green dress, and, draped over her shoulders, was a long, multi-colored stole. Each color of the woman’s stole had been woven into a single stripe, and Zoe saw there were seven of them – blue, green, yellow, red, white, gray, and brown. Zoe knew at once that the woman’s stole was a badge of office of some kind, and thought that, though the woman looked almost painfully young, it suited her. Whatever office this woman held, it almost seemed as if she’d been made for it, as if she’d never been destined for anything else.

“It is good to meet you, at last, Sister Zoe,” the young woman said, looking at Zoe and smiling. Despite how young the woman looked, her smile was surprisingly motherly. “I’ve been looking forward to this for some time, now.”

“Who are you?” Zoe asked. “What is this place?”

“This place is somewhere that never existed, save inside the pages of a book,” the young woman said. “As for me, the woman I’ve chosen to speak to you as also never existed. You may call me Mother.”

Mother, if Zoe had been back at the abbey, would have been her title, as well. Whoever this young woman was, though, she seemed to be deliberately refusing to acknowledge that fact. Why else would she have addressed Zoe as Sister, as if Zoe were still nothing more than just a common cleric? Zoe found herself reaching for her magic, and was startled when she touched nothing. Somehow, she’d been cut off, which only served to increase her anger. And then she paused. Why was she so angry? That wasn’t like her. Not at all.

“You have reason to be angry,” the woman called Mother said. “But not at me. Tell me, Sister, are you truly ready for the role that has been laid before you? Or do you only think that you are? You might be three hundred years old, you might be heir to the powers of a Sorceress, but, to me, you are still only a child, still unfit to be a true Mother, a true Nurturer.”

“And who are you to say these things?” Zoe asked. “One of those Aylander called the God Beyond the Gods? If that’s the case, what gives you the right to pass judgement on me? You have no say about my destiny, or about anyone else’s.”

The woman called Mother gave her a sharp look. “Oh, don’t I?”

Zoe smiled. “No. You see, I’m familiar with the Eltaran legends about you. I know how cruel your kind is, how cold and removed from everything else. Sure, you might have played some role in the creation of the universe – probably a minor one, but I could be wrong – but you haven’t done much since then, aside from treating people like me as playthings. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a pale shadow to the picture the legends paint of you, and, as such, have no room to judge.”

“And yet you do? You, a mortal woman, whom I could destroy with nothing more than a fleck of my power?”

“Threats won’t get very far with me, I’m afraid,” Zoe said. “A person has to be afraid in order for a threat to work, and you don’t frighten me, at all.”

“Not even if I threaten the life of the man you love? I can destroy him just as easily as I can destroy you.”

“That’s true, but you won’t. You need us.”

“I need nothing of the kind. No matter who lives or dies, there will be balance, and, this time, that balance will endure.”

“Is a Demon Lord victory truly what you want?”

Mother laughed and looked away. “As I said, it doesn’t matter. Regardless of who wins, nothing can harm us, here.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

Mother didn’t look back at her. “Think what you like, child. The truth is the truth.”

Zoe was quiet for a time, looking out at the battlefield that had never been. “So,” she said at last, “what’s keeping you?”

Mother looked at her, her brow creased in confusion. “What’s keeping me from what?”

“Destroying me,” Zoe said. She met Mother’s gaze. “Or, if you like, destroying Thaddeus. We obviously don’t meet up to your standards, and, on top of that, we’re insolent. So why keep us alive? There’ll be a balance, anyway, right?”

“You don’t understand.”

“I probably don’t. However, Mother, I think I do. You need Thaddeus and I – and Aylander, too – to do the things you won’t. To do the things you’re too afraid to. Because you’re not sure the Demon Lords can’t harm you, here. Well, I will tell you this much – and I think you’ve probably already heard the same from Thaddeus. No matter who the Demon Lords threaten, I swear I will do all that I can to protect them. And that includes you.”

“How very noble,” Mother said, seemingly unfazed by Zoe’s words. “Do you understand, though, what the cost of that protection will be? Are you ready to accept the deaths of those that you love?”

Zoe wasn’t, of course. How could she be ready to accept something like that? That was why she was going to do everything in her power – and, just then, she felt like that her power might be much more vast than even she had yet discovered – to keep that from happening. Protect, she thought. And then, not even knowing why, Nurture. Like any good Mother would. “They don’t have to die,” she said.

“My dear, everyone has to die, sometime,” the woman called Mother said.

Zoe smiled. “But not before they’re supposed to.”

The woman called Mother raised her eyebrows. “And you have the power to decide when that will be?”

“I don’t think anyone does,” Zoe said, still smiling. “Not even you. But I am a guardian of life, and, as such, it’s my duty to make sure it lasts as long as it can.”

“Like any good Mother would.”

“Exactly.”

“Then, perhaps, you are ready. Maybe even more ready than any other who has come before you.”

“How many have come before me?”

“Many. But, no matter what happens this time, you will be the last.”

“Send me back, then,” Zoe said. “I already know I can find my way out of the Abyss on my own.”

“Indeed.” Mother paused, a thoughtful, almost mournful expression on her face. “It wasn’t always the Abyss, you know? It was our home once. And we destroyed it.”

“I know.”

“Goodbye, Sister Zoe.” The woman smiled. “Mother Zoe.”

Zoe smiled back. “Goodbye.”