He didn't stop with the impaling. He set the image of Van aflame, his tormented screams filling her ears as fire sprouted out of his melting mouth.
"Stop!" Nu begged, "I don't want—" her sobs choked her and stopped her pleas from escaping.
She covered her ears, turned, and ran to whatever corner of hell Shadow had spawned. It's all in the mind, dearie, Shadow had informed, This is my realm …
The screams of Van eventually died, and she started to feel the mud beneath her bare feet as she ran. Sunlight glowed through her eyelids, so she opened them. There was no suffering or the wailings sired by it. All around her was tranquility, the gentle songs of birds and the wash of a small stream.
She knew this place. This is my home, thought Nu, suspicious of her surroundings. Farther ahead, she saw Mag and Ike. They faced away from here, standing completely still.
"Mag!" Nu called to them, "Ike!"
They did not turn to face her; Not a muscle moved to acknowledge her call. When she slowly walked towards them, they moved ahead. Up a hill, they went, where a little hut sat at its crown. Others came out of the woods; some of them she recognized, only by the back of their heads. The one half-way up the hill was Takk; Nu knew the color and how his hair fell.
But they all didn't deign to face her as they climbed the hill, overgrown grass and weeds brushing against their knees. Nu followed silently, wondering what was in the hut. The sounds of weeping met her. It came from the climbers and also from within the little structure. Death befouled the air, Nu could feel. She was the last to enter; the villagers before oddly moved faster, despite the hill's steepness.
A body lay shrouded in the center, lit by a single window opening above the mourner's heads. The villagers parted to let her pass, silently telling her that the shrouded one was someone she loved.
The hut, the villagers … she knew who lay beneath the death cloth. Mother …
There was no outer sense to rescue here; there was nothing to tell her this was all an illusion conjured up by Shadow. It was a dream without clarity; a nightmare in living memory.
She didn't hesitate to meet the corpse; a sense of respect for her mother spurred her on. You couldn't save her, she told herself, just like the day it happened in the past, you can't save anyone because you are useless. At least the crowd didn't echo these thoughts; they kept to their sorrow with soft sobs as the bereaved made her way through them.
Oh, mother, I'm sorry. If I wasn't so useless … you would still …
She got on her knees before the body. Her sobs added to those around her.
Why … why must this happen to me?
The corpse tutted at this thought.
"Happen to you?" The weak voice of her mother said, steeped with contempt, "what makes you so special, child?"
Nu reached out to grab hold of the cloth.
"Mother. You are alive?" Nu gently pulled the cloth away from the face.
The rotted features and cankered beauty of her mother greeted her.
"There is no shortage of agony in this cruel world," her mother criticized. Through her maw, black liquid poured out. Some of it spattered on her dress.
"Everyone gets their share, my foolish daughter," The corpse began to rise, "you are unworthy of the burden, is that the way of it? Will you run from your responsibility as the Aether Spirit bearer?" Her mother gripped her forearm with a skinless hand. "Truly, you are useless."
Nu screamed, wrenching her hand free from the undead form of her mother.
"No!" she screeched, "don't say that!"
She turned away to face the mourners. Their faces, every single one of them lacked a face; they were just hollows. Black voids gaping from the brows to the lower lip sat in place of their visages.
The one who was supposed to be her grandmother, the one she called Granma, was the first to leap out and attempt to seize her. But Nu jumped from her.
"Shadow," she cried out, her awareness creeping back in, "Stop all of this! Please stop!"
The mourners abandoned their sorrow, and the savage barking of wild dogs poured from their cavities as they pressed in around her. There were too many of them. She could hear her mother cackling through her corrupted throat.
Then, light engulfed her. All the false figures were destroyed by its brightness.
"That's enough, dark one," said the Aether Spirit, "must you inflict such pain on her?"
Shadow did not respond to this.
Nu was grateful for the Aether Spirit's intervention.
"Thank you," she said to it, "thank you so much."
"It is all illusion," it said not unkindly, "yet such torment … needs a place in our hearts, perhaps."
Though the illusion may have almost driven herself mad with grief, the slight acceptance of Shadow's play filled Nu with worry.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡREKXZVT4nm
