Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

30 The Shield has Broken

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

Early Winter, Month of Kissilimu, One Year and Nine Months after Mara's Rebirth

Mara

My feet scramble underneath me. I can't hear Thelios, can't see anything. I collide with something soft and warm. My arms close around Poppy instinctively. A hand slips into my own. My mother.

"Pari!" she says, panicked.

"Father, what is happening?" I whisper.

Run Mara

Run daughter

Let the spirits guide you

I listen to my father blindly, rushing along corridors as the Fourth House shadow warriors push and pull me this way and that. I can hear the screams of fear, shouts of males, the clank of iron against iron.

I run.

"Mama?" Poppy is crying, her breath short as she sobs into my neck. I clench my mother's hand in mine, hard enough to grind her bones together. But, I don't stop running.

We emerge into the sunlight. I hear shouts and cries of little children from the school as we twist along a path behind the low building. The dirt is hard-packed, uneven. Twice my mother stumbles, tripping over rocks and roots. I haul her back to her feet, moving forward. Brambles stick to our clothes, our hair. My arm holding Poppy is aching, but I just clench her tighter. Her little arms, wrapped around my neck, are choking me. My breath is ragged.

Don't panic

Find your shadow warriors

It's harder to see them in the light. I am racing down the path, not sure where I am going.

In there

We reach a dark building that I recognize. A hysterical laugh bubbles up in my throat. My shadows, and most likely my father, have led us into the mourning rooms. The rooms that the inhabitants of Love use when one of their own dies, before the body is transported to the Death temple.

I can remember sitting in here for hours, days maybe, after my father died when I was only Poppy's age. Even then, something about this place was peaceful.

We rush inside the empty space. The feeling of Love, of the goddess, is lessened in this space. Panting for breath, we stop running. My side hurts and Poppy is slippery from the sheen of sweat dotting my skin. We still need to escape, but my shadows are still, waiting in the silence.

"Why did you trust this House?" my mother's words are like a stake to the heart.

"What do you mean?" I ask her, pulling away from her, dropping her hand.

Her eyes shimmer with tears. "My sweet daughter. Love is not a benevolent goddess. She has taken so much from us. Your father..." she swallows, "you must take your baby and leave. I will get your male and he will meet you at the Wisteria tree in the south garden, near the gates, alright?"

I shudder a little. The tree where Thane and I would meet? No, I can't go there. I open my mouth to deny her, or ask her a question, or protest, something, when we are interrupted.

"You must leave at once, Lady Grief," the elder priest walks into the building on shaking legs, blood dribbling from his lips.

Treachery to her own

My father hisses.

"Egar! What is happening?" My mother cries out, kneeling next to him as he slumps to the floor. I kneel next to him on his other side, knowing that he is nearly dead, just moments in his life here left.