150

The Toltec soldiers marched silently through the streets as they had done many times before. This was a march of victory, and silence, they had been trained, was the best way to parade in front of the conquered. Any laughter or rowdiness would spark anger in those with a backbone. The silence stunned most people after being conquered, as none expect it. It keeps them waiting, they watch the precision, the control of the march, and it worries them.

Most of the fire had been extinguished, but the scent of burnt wood and flesh still hung in the air. Malina found herself unwilling to look into the eyes of the conquered, if she had a mirror she was worried that she would see the same look in her eyes. Instead she watched the four generals ride in front of her. This was the first time she had seen the replacement Jaguar and Eagle generals that she had slain. Nochtli and Xipil were both loyal to Teiuc, and there was nothing of surprise in their selection, save their previous rank. Both men had been Castellans of their order, a rank not usually selected from when appointing generals.

149

The next day Malina found herself paraded through the defeated city. She rode near the head of the procession two levels back from the generals. She rode a white mare with grey spots running from the horses neck and down one side. The sound of the horses hooves echoed off of the stones that made up the road. The people of the city stood nervously at the edge of the road or peered through closed shudders as they passed by.

148

"A complete victory." Teuic walked closed to stand beside Malina. He pointed at the city with his right hand. "The city government surrendered unconditionally. As with any conquest the high ranking officials in the city government and guard were executed. The executions were carried out in front of those that we left alive."|

"Then can the traitorous and corrupt. Pledging allegiance to you, and swearing to serve." Malina added under her breath, remembering the scenes of victories past.

"Yes. More then I would have guessed."

"Then you executed those traitors."

"Of course. Those that remained could not believe the amount of blood."

"They are not conquerors. I doubt very much they war at all."

"Astute. There was a level of skill and control in the local regiment, but most had never seen a battle front before. There was skill, but an arm cannot stand on so many weak knees."

"Why do you tell me this?" Malina asked. Here eyes darted back and forth along the ground, but her nervousness was hidden from Teuic as he was standing slightly behind her.

"I could see the admiration in your eyes. This is a day of victory and even in your situation the ease of the battle brought forth pride. This war will be over quickly and we will see the prophecies fulfilled."

With that Teuic walked past Malina towards the city. His boots echoed on the wooded dock and left black footprints in the ash that continued to fall. Malina watched his as he departed. She saw the salutes he received from his soldiers that were busy at work. Do they not see me? I am hear! Your Empress. Does none of that matter? Could they truly be right? Have I been that much of a fool to believe in my position? Was I the only one who thought of me as Empress?

The questions continued to swirl in Malina's head, like the flakes of ash slowly falling from the sky.

147

Malina turned to look at Teuic awkwardly given the ropes that bound her. The man stood smiling on the docks, his footprints trailing behind him in the ash back up the gangplank and onto the ship. The man smiled at Malina with his hands in the air gesturing at the scene around them.

The man looks as though he just bedded Xochiquetzal herself. Beware sisters, that is the smile that spread a thousand legs in Tollan.

146

The next day Malina stood on the dock as the soldiers unloaded the supplies from the ship. The scale of project was monumental and causes a glimmer of pride to form in Malina. Regardless of what had happened, she had been a part of this return. An entire army had sailed half-way around the world, and now the main force was disembarking after a clear victory.

Ash still slowly fell from the sky as fires burned unchecked in certain areas of the town. When the sight of soldiers bored her, Malina would turn and look at the strange city her people had defeated. Buildings in grey stone as opposed to the smooth white limestone she was used to. Angular instead of smooth, red roofs made out of a curved stone shingle instead of Wood.

Watching the smoke rise to the sky Malina felt that same feeling of pride. This is the destruction that had been wrought by her people. A prophecy was being fulfilled, an ancient wrong was being righted. Those that would die and those that would suffer were not innocent. The land of her pre-ancestors was the land of her people by rights. These people had been caretakers, put in place to maintain the land and their faith in the Gods. In this they had faltered. Their memories had faded and the old faiths had been lost. Arrogance grew in it's absence and they had forgotten their positions. The sons who continues his father's crime remains guilty. A guilt spread across an entire continent and people. Weak in absence, the Toltec would ravage the land as the fires had ravaged the city.

"Admiring our work?"

Teuic's voice pulled Malina from her thoughts and brought her back to reality. The once empress chained to the docks, watching an army that was no longer hers begin the conquest of a people.

145

Chantico sat back down in Malina's old chair and watched her lying on the floor. She looked up at him but was unable to meet his eyes for longer than a moment. Malina steadied herself on her hands for a moment and then pushed herself to her feet. The tears were not in her eyes they but she could feel them in her chest. Struggling she straightened her shoulders and her neck and looked at Chantico, but the steel in her had been weakened. She could feel the side of her face thicken from the slap, but it was her inability to deal with Chantico that hurt her most of all.

Malina had always thought of Chantico as a weak toady. A man that held the position he did because the way he knelt and scraped before Teiuc. A man not worth thinking about, hardly worth a mention. A man whom she had believed she would have to crush at some point when he got full of himself. And here he was shaming her and feeling pity for her as she huddled on the floor.

I am Empress no longer.

144

"We need your heart beating, but we don't need much else." Chantico crouched down so that he was closer to Malina. "Don't think that your beating heart gives you any power. We don't needs your eyes, or your tongue. We don't even need your nose, or your pretty arms. None of that matters. If you press me I will take this and much more from you." Chantico stood up and walked away. "You sat their in your tower in Tollan eagerly lapping up the shit that we fed you every day. How do you still stand after that." Chantico was now pacing around the room and wasn't looking at Malina any longer.

I do not warrant attention.

"You didn't give a damn what was happening so long as you remained at the head. Empress to an empire that hated you. You think we respected you? All this time?" He turned to face her, the question in his eyes almost looked real. "No. We despised you. We held you in contempt, but we knew that we needed you. We needed to keep you fat. So we built an empire for you. This of that. We built an empire to keep you in the dark. Think of the scale. The art that went into something like that. And you think showing a little fucking backbone will humble me? If that's the case," he turned from Malina again, "you've swallowed more shit then I even thought possible..."

Rage was growing in Malina. The humiliation this man tossed at her feet with such ease and lightness was staggering. He could beat and rape her and it didn't matter. She was a tool to be used and nothing more. The need to keep her in her place was no longer there so they simply removed her.

"...and you can't even comprehend your actual situation. I almost feel sorry for you."

143

Malina stood staring at Chantico as his easy smile spread back across his face. He raised his eyebrows at her exposing the white's of his eyes. Then he pursed his lips together and nodded his head towards Malina.

"I see. From what you're not saying, I'm assuming that the ancestors have not been saying anything as of late. And if you're not following, I'm saying that you haven't been able to hear much of anything for the last few weeks." The boat rocked back and forth under the power of a large swell. Some of the stacks of papers on Malina's old desk swayed under the motion causing a single piece of paper to fall to the floor. Malina's eyes were pulled from Chantico and followed the paper to the ground.

After the paper had stilled on the deck Malina raised her eyes to look at Chantico again. Something had hardened in his face. The muscles in his jaws clenched and then loosened again. Now it was time for Malina to bring a smile to her face. Malina coulse see Chantico's face darken as the smile spread from her mouth to her eyes. She held her smile as she watched him rise from his desk and walk towards her.

"You have no power you know."

"You need me alive. You need to still my beating heart on the Altar of the Ancients."

The speed and violence open handed slap took Malina by surprise and knocked her to the ground. She could feel her heart racing in her chest even as she struggled to come to her knees. A boot pressed into her back and then flung her to the ground again. She turned and looked up at Chantico curling herself into a ball. She steadied her hands in between her knees keeping them from reaching up to her face. Chantico stood above her blocking out the light from the lanterns as they swung with the roll of the ship.

142

"To speak with such knowledge of the gods is a dangerous thing." Malina said.

"To speak to me like that,"

That smile, by Quetzal it crawls beneath my skin.

", is a dangerous thing." Chantico continued.

"Anything you can do pales in comparison to that of the Gods. You forget the possibility of eternity that awaits you upon death. Questzal could hold you in his talons until time itself ceases, or snuff you existence out with a thought." Malina's voice sounded good to her ears.

The smile on Chantico's face darkened slightly as he listened to Malina's words. He looked at the closed door to the room and tightened his lips.

"I had not thought that you would possess such a backbone, given your current condition."

"My backbone comes from the Gods and the knowledge I have received directly from our ancestors. The veil is not as dark for me as it is for you." Malina could feel the strength of her words in her body. It was like standing after being bent over for a long period of time: relief and a little bit of pain.

"Oh yes, our ancestors." Chantico bunched up his lips in mock sadness. "How are they these days. "They must be quite happy given our return to their ancestors homeland. The victory's that have been won must have pleased them. I must know what they have said on the manner." Chantico leaned forward in his chair. He was exaggerating his movements in concert with his sarcastic words. "So tell me, Malina, what have they said to you. You, a conduit to our past, to our ancestors, what are they telling you?" CHantico's voice was rising, the anger in his words now real. "You are so special to the people you must know something! You touch our past, please what are our ancestors saying? What words are dribbling from their feeble decayed mouths? Have they expressed happiness? Shock? Wonder?" Chantico sat back in his chair and tried to compose himself. "Or have they grown quiet?"

141

Hi Face wore a crooked smile that tried to appear mysterious and confident instead Chantico looked like a house cat gloated over it's prize. Chantico's black hair was tied back in a top-knot showing a lined forehead and a hair line that was slowly retreating. Malina could see no grey in his hair or eyebrows, but his face bore the lines of one accustomed to worry. He wore jade earrings in both of his ears and was wearing a red plug in his lower lip. The earrings were a familiar trapping of his rank, but the red plug was new.

"Ahh I see you've noticed." CHantico said with a lazy smile. "It's important to me that you understand that you are not as subtle as you think. I can read you. This," he said tapping the red plug in his lower lip, "this is a new designation. It marks me as one of the returned. A member of the first wave, and one whose name is now written in Xolotl's book."

The gall shocked Malina and she met Chantico's eyes with a start.

140

"Greetings Malina." Chantico said as he walked by Malina. Malina listened to the other voices as they faded away from the room. When she heard the door close she lifted her eyes to meet Chantico.

No mention of honourifics of course. I no longer warrant such considerations.

139

All of this still ignored the most puzzling development: where had the power of her ancestors gone? What had Teiuc used? The smoke was still there, always there, pressing down upon her, blocking her from her ancestors and her gods. She could still see them, almost reach out to them and take the power that they offered, but the pressure was too great. She had told herself again and again that she would not try while the smoke remained, but in the darkest depths of the night she often found herself probing against the smoke looking for any weakness. The tests often left her exhausted and unable to rise when her food was delivered the next morning. Still, when her despair was at its height, she would try again.

Too many questions with no answers and no one to ask them of. Malina's world was tightly controlled and she was inching towards her death.

Malina was surprised when the soldier did not lead her down another level to where her cell was located. Instead the pressure on her shoulders directed her past the stairs and towards her old quarters. The room was well lit and had seen few changes since she had been deposed. The Solder kept her to the back of the room and away from the pile of papers on her old desk.

That was different. That's no way to remain in control. Serenity and order should always be the impression given to those you have power over. A messy desk implied disorganization and a lack of attention to detail. Malina knew that people noticed these things unconscious or not.

The sounds of speech and boots behind her. People, men, making their way towards her. Malina could make out the bravado of Chantico's voice. Chantico general of the Vultures, a disagreeable man whose status had risen with that of Teiuc's. A capable and cruel man who led his men through the power of fear.

138

Soon she found herself below deck waiting for her eyes to adjust to the lantern light. Since she was guided she continued to walked not needed to see exactly where she was going. Malina breather deeply through her nose and inhaled the sent of the ship that she had lived on for the last six moons. The scent of the wood, sea, men, lanterns was as familiar as the scent of the eldwine blossoms just after the melt.

"This way Empress." The nameless soldier said guiding her on. The generals took great care in ensuring that Malina had no contact with any person that she might know. Nameless soldier after nameless soldier had guided her in and out of her cell or fed her her meals. Most she didn't see longer then a day or two, a fast rotation. Or they want me on display. Knock me down to the level of a common soldier so that none are impressed by me.

Most of the soldiers only grunted in response to Malina's questions or when they brought her food. She suspected that this was also part of their instructions. They knew that Malina had training in the courtly arts and didn't trust the soldiers. What the generals didn't know, she thought, was how deep of a blow her imprisonment was to that training. What appeared to her to be a complete reversal of her fortunes, and the disloyalty of her entire army questioned everything that she had ever thought and everything that she had ever been taught. Her education on the courtly arts hadn't provided her with the ability to see through the faces of those that she trusted to see the deceit beneath.

137

How long? How deep? Malina thought to herself, not for the first time. How long had the support for her throne been chipped away at? How many people's loyalty was simply a well concealed act? Her network of spies had said nothing of this, not even the slightest hint. Gotochol? Perhaps as deep as the head of that network, It has to be.

Not everyone had been privy to this interpretation of the prophecies, this conspiracy. She had noted the absence of the captain of her ship when she was hauled onto the deck in the fading light of the early evening. It gave her comfort that not all loyalties had been false. Too many were though, too many by far.

Hands on her shoulders, not those of Teiuc for they lacked his roughness, spun her around and began leading her from the upper deck. She could hear Teiuc's voice and that of the other generals as they spoke amongst themselves. Malina watched her feet as they stepped on the rough wood of the ship. A light grey wood, weathered by the salt of the sea and finally grained stood out in contrast with the dirt of her feet. Even at this, her lowest point the dirt on her body still fascinated her, it created a mental dissonance with her past that she had yet to deal with. The incarceration was different, usurpation was always a possibility that was planned and watched for. Something she had never truly taken seriously, yet the importance of being prepared for it had been force on Malina from an early age. But dirt? Finger nails and feet in such a state? Nothing her prepared her for that. Focusing on the dirt helped, it gave her mind something else to consider, and a place to focus her attention. Hardening herself and her outward appearance was made easier when she was able to focus on something other then misery.

136

Malina pulled on her royal training, despite the weeks in the ships holds, the years of previous training were enough. She steadied the trembling in her hands and slowly brought them to her sides. As an almost after thought she straightened her stained red gown. Her face she kept looking at the deck of the ship, not out of deference but out of a desire to not give witness to what Teiuc had wrought.

"Look on your Empress! She represents our past!" Teiuc had let go of Malina's shoulder and was now addressing the soldiers once again. "She is with us, the load stone of our ancestors, the fulfillment of our prophecies. No longer does she rule us, now she serves us. She is our history, through generations of Toltecs, we are bound to our ancient homeland that we have left, and through her blood we will be bound to our new home land, ancient and new the circle will be complete!"

A roar erupted from the soldiers and sailors as Teiuc ended his speech with a scream. Malina felt the waves of excitement emanating from the soldiers as Teiuc had spoken. She could feel it in her own body as well. The prophecies of her people twisted and and wrapped in lies and interpretation. When she had first heard the explanations through dribbles of conversations she was shocked, and then it began to make sense. Teiuc did not seek to block the prophecy, he rose to ensure it's completion. A twisted interpretation serving his ends, and also answering the soldiers wish for glory. She could not argue with the interpretation it balanced itself on a few key points that had bothered historians and priests for generations. And with those few changes Malina was no longer the one to guide the Toltec to victory she was the agents of their destruction. A powerful force that could not be allowed to destroy the Toltecs, but one that was needed to ensure their success. No longer the blood to lead the Toltecs to the alter of the ancients, now her's was the blood to be spilled on the alter of the ancients, the seat of the gods.

135

*9*

Malina looked at the dirt etched into her cuticles. She refused to look up from her hands even as she heard the soldiers cheer. The wind whipped her black hair obscuring her view of her hands for a moment. After the wind died down she was able to see the muddy U's for a moment before a rough hand pulled for forward.

The pull on her shoulder had taken her by surprise and she stumbled forward in the direction she had been pulled.

"Look at your men Empress," Teiuc's voice whispered in her ear. His breath was hot and carried the sharp burn of hard alcohol. "they are proud on this day. We have arrived on the shores of our pre-ancestral home and our victory on this day is complete. The Toltecs are home Empress," The word 'Empress' hissed off of his tongue dripping with derision, "we are home."

134

"I know."

"Will he?"

"I don't know. We have to move though. Your torch won't last forever and we need to find our way out."

"We follow the water." Hallie began walking. "He's heavy in your arms?"

"Yes."

"You leg, is there still pain?"

"Some. Less then before but still pain. Tomorrow is when I'll feel it. And a headache I'd wager. Something close to the morning after the most you've ever drunk. I'll be nothing pretty but I'll survive."

"What do you think tomorrow will be like?" Hallie asked softly.

"I don't know. I think once we get to the end of the this sewer we'll have a pretty good idea. But right now, where I was when all of this happened. I couldn't even guess."

Hallie was silent.

"Hopefully I'll have some boots at least."

133

Orphic said nothing, but the thoughts in his head paused as he thought about her words.

“I think that would help.” Hallie said, “Boots would help you walk.”

“Why are we so calm? I woke up this morning on a beach, and now I’m running through the sewers fleeing the fire that is burning down the only stable home I’ve ever known.” Orphic stopped.

“You mention glory in every minute, but at the same time there is banality. What do you think warriors talk about on the eve of a siege or on the march to war? I don’t doubt what you say of glory, but look at what you say and think of banality.” Hallie deftly shifted the baby and torch between her arms. “We exist in banality, especially in times of stress because there is only one other option. But we use banality to cope.”

“Glory and Banality.”

“Maybe. I’m not sure, in some way my speaking is just banality filling the space because I don’t know what else should be there.”

Orphic looked at Hallie who had stopped walking. She stood straight with the torch pointing towards smooth ceiling of the sewer. A strange blue light reflected off of the water that tricked through the sewer and faintly danced across the ceiling. In the orange glow of the torch Orphic could see the green of Hallie’s eyes. He full red lips that bunched rhythmically, revealing he inner stress. Her face was wet with sweat that had attracted portions of her dark brown hair that had escaped her Skapation coif.

“He’s not waking up.” She said, her eyes staring straight at Orphic as her lips moved.

132

(Note: Published a day late due to some blogger downtime)

The steps down into the sewers were slippery underneath Orphic’s bare
feet. He could feel the moisture squeezing out between his toes as his
weight compressed the moss. The passage way down to the sewers was
narrow so he carried the boy sideways. Hallie held the torch up
towards Orphic giving him enough light.

“Your feet.” The torch made a wooshing sound as she swung it towards
Orphic and pointed it at his feet. “You have no boots. It will be hard
on your feet down here. There are many sharp rocks.” Orphic could hear
her scraping rocks underneath her boots for effect.

“If we live I will gladly pay the price of sore feet.” Orphic was
almost at the bottom of the stairs and could now see the glowing
reflection of the torch in Hallie’s eyes. “Don’t act surprised. You, a
teacher in the temple know a furoo on sight. “Orphic stepped onto the
rocky floor of the sewer and faced Hallie, who had taken a step back
to make room. “It’s all right you know. I was in the temple and I
left. It was a long time ago. The way I live now doesn’t make me
happy, but shame…no. Where I live you can’t feel shame. Too much of
that, shame self-pity, and you’ll be eaten alive. People prey on that.
The evil ones will sense that and eat you alive. So we furoo, we leave
that behind.”

“But the old ones,” Hallie began to walk, “that is where they end up is it not.”

“Where? Shame?”

“Yes, isn’t that where the crumple men live? Ragged, blind drunk,
their eyes seemingly always on the very or tears or rage. Is shame not
their home?”

“It is. But they don’t last long there. They end up there when they
see that it’s ending. Too old for the old games, too old for any of
it. Then they make the mistake of surveying their lives. Of looking
back and trying to figure out what it was all worth, why they existed
in the first place. Then, then they feel shame. But it’s a mistake.”

“I agree, there is no shame in…”

“Not the shame,” Orphic said cutting Hallie off. “looking back on
their lives and expecting meaning. Hoping that old age would take
their life and turn it into some sort of story. A beginning, a middle,
and an end that would somehow lift them above. That is a mistake. If
there is any glory…” Orphic winced as a sharp rock dug into his right
foot. Hallie said nothing and let him continue. “…it’s in surviving.
Surviving when there is none to witness, there is glory in that. You
don’t need a story, life isn’t a story, glory passes by every minute.”

“I still think you need boots.”

131

Orphic tugged on the door ring and the door lifted from the floor with the creaking sound of old wood. The smells of stale air and must wafted up from the dark steps below. He could hear running water as it traveled over stones.

"You'll have to carry the torch Hallie. I won't be much use with the boy in my arms." Without a word Hallie began to make her way out of the room they were in and into the classroom. "Will we be safe down there?" Orphic asked. "If the temple collapses will the sewers hold?"

"The sewers are older than the city." Hallie said, her voice echoing to Orphic from the classroom. "They were originally carved from natural underwater river formations by an ancient culture long before the Tyrants or the Electorate or Cap-Sebastian. It's fascinating really. When the Tyrants were extending the city they discovered the sewers and expanded them to suit their needs. No records or tools remain of the original creators, but the lead engineer for the Tyrants kept a detail log book the still remains in the Library. He believed that the tunnels were expanded by hand over generations." Hallie re-entered the room with a lit torch in her left hand. She walked carefully holding the flame in the air and well away from the infant squirming in her arms. "To think that the construction of something like this would spend generations if amazing to me. I share the late Engineers belief that there must have been some religious need for the tunnels, else why how could the people be convinced to dig them?"

"Maybe their was wealth in the rock?"

"Maybe," Hallie stepped down the stairs and into the sewers. "But such and intricate system for water removal and delivery? Wouldn't they just mine everything if that was the case..."

Hallie's voice was lost to Orphic as it dropped into the tunnels. She's forgotten where she is. She talks for herself now wrapping herself in the trappings of the past. Comfort then can be found.

130

"If none mourn," Orphic said quietly, "perhaps the destruction should not be met with sadness. I won't be sad to see it gone."

"No. More lost knowledge staying lost."

"Hallie, we have to get out of here." The baby started to cry, her screams echoing in the ancient classroom. Hallie stoked the babies head and tried to shush her. "She has good timing that one."

Hallie nodded and continued to shush the baby, and obvious sadness in her sounds. Hallie turned and began to walk towards a small doorway in the back corner of the classroom. She spared a single look for the classroom and then opened the door and stepped through. Orphic followed behind her, the boys weight growing heavier on his arms.

The room that they entered appeared to be a storage closest. Empty glass jars, some broken, seemed to have been placed randomly around the room. Piles of them were in one corner covered in a thick layer of dust and spider webs. In the middle of the floor was a wooden door with a large brass door ring.

"Please, I can't lift it with the baby in my hands. You'll have to put Cyril down. Why hasn't he woken?" Hallie asked almost as though she had spoken her inner thoughts aloud. "It's heavy, but it should open."

"This leads to the sewers?" Orphic asked as he gently placed Cyril down onto an empty area of the floor.

"Yes, waste from the class room, experiments gone wrong, were taken below to be dumped. It makes disposing of dangerous liquid much easier, and safer since one would't have to wander throughout the temple."

129

Braziers of all different shapes and sized filled a shelf that was perpendicular to the table of glass jars. A small table on wheels stood between the braziers and the jars. A glass jar full of a deep purple liquid rested on a wide brazier there. Orphic noted an open book on the table as they passed. The yellowed pages and illuminated image of a massive horse with a skull for a head showed the age of the books. The words were in a language that was unfamiliar to Orphic. There was a diagram on page opposite the hose illustration showed a glass vessel on a brazier that was of a similar shape to the one on the table. Whomever was following the recipe had been careless and had let some of the purple liquid splash onto the books ancient pages.

"The books.."

"Will be destroyed." Hallie finished. "Thousands of years of history will be lost on this night. Knowledge that that Skapatian's kept in the face of the Tyrants and the Electorate but will now lose in the face of the fire. There is nothing to do." Her voice was wistful. "The world turned it's back on this knowledge. Time has passed the order until we were nothing more then a storage facility for the vanity of the rich. Most of the order care nothing for what knowledge is stored within these walls. I was wrong Orphic."

"Wrong?"

"When I said that the knowledge will be lost on this night. The knowledge was already lost. Knowledge must live. Stored knowledge is dead knowledge. What good does it do for an answer to be written in a book when no one knows where they book is. That is this place, an answer to a question that is no longer being asked. Few will the loss of this temple on this day."

128

"My name's Orphic." He said shaking his head remembering social graces.

"Hallie" The woman said softly without turning around.

There was another shudder beneath their feet.

"This way please, we must hurry. I know he is heavy but please." Hallie had stopped with her back facing Orphic. Orphic watched her shoulders sag as she asked him to hurry.

She does not want me here. I intrude on her sleeping mother and she does not like it. I do not like it either sister, the home I leave behind is being destroyed. It doesn't matter what happened, I wouldn't have wished that.

They walked on for a while in silence, the smoke getting thicker and thicker as they went. Finally they came to a door that was covered in rose engravings. Hallie went to the door and opened it. She walked through and held the door open so that Orphic could pass through. Orphic was surprised by what he saw inside, some sort of classroom. The room obviously had not been used to it's full potential in a while but lack of dust in certain areas made it clear that at least a portion of it was actively used. Books lined the walls in bookshelves that stretched from the floors to the ceilings. In addition to those on the shelves books littered the desks, sometimes stacked in piles and sometimes on their own.

One end of the room which obviously had been designed for the teacher had a large desk covered in glass jars. This was the area of the room that was still in use. The glass jars, though seemingly placed in a random sprawl, were meticulously clean. There wore no fingerprints nor any specks of dust to bar the gaze from viewing the multicoloured liquids they held.

127

With that the woman turned and began to walk down the hallway. Orphic followed limping and sweating as he went. The rest was not long enough for him, but given the situation he knew it was all that he would get. Besides the occasional moan the boy in his arms had not moved, and that worried Orphic. He had seen the results of blows to the head before, and generally they were awake after only a few moments. This length of unconsciousness sometimes meant that the person would never wake up.

126

Orphic nodded at the woman and stepped forward slighty, a signal to her that he was ready to carry on.

"Mother doesn't mind me being here?"

"Her slumber is deep. Were she awake you would no longer be breathing."

125

"Sewers?"

"It's the only way out I know. There is an access shaft a little ways from here. If we can get to it we should be able to make our way to the ocean."

"Where is everyone?" Orphic bent down and picked up the unconscious boy. He moaned slightly as Orphic shifted his weight in his arms.

The woman looked at him for a moment, as if realizing for the first time where they were. "These halls remain closed to most. Few feet walk these paths anymore, mother lies sleeping for the time being."

124

"We're under attack." The woman was breathing hard. The baby in her arms had fallen asleep and stirred when she spoke. After turning for a moment the infant's face found the woman's robes and he began nuzzling them before falling asleep.

"Attack? Who's attacking us?"

"I don't know. Ships in the harbour is the rumour. We saw fireballs in the sky before coming in from the terrace."

She sits the orphans. Orphic remembered living with Abelia under Phaidra. The days he spent on the terrace enjoying the summer air before returning to the open air classroom for the days lessons.The terrace was on the roof of one of the temples buildings. It was a beautiful space with a garden full of mature trees. In the centre a repaired female statue threw water into a large pond full of fish and lily pads.

"Where are the rest of the children?" Oprhic asked barely above a whisper.

"Scattered," Pained emotion hung on the woman’s words. "When the bells started to ring we gathered at the railing to see what was happening. Then we saw the fireballs." The woman paused, he eyes far away as she remembered the scene. "The children were scared and they ran. There were only a few sitters teaching that day and we did the best we could. Dividing up into groups of children and tried to herd them as best we could back into the temple. Then the temple was hit and it was as though the spirits from the underworld had been unleashed. Bodies were everywhere, torn apart." The woman paused again and looked at Orphic. Seeing his eyes on her she composed herself and continued. "We got out, Cyril, Eli and I. We were leaving when the way out was blocked before us, that's when we found you."

"Where are we going?"

"To the sewers."

123

"Quickly!" The woman shouted.

"It's my leg." Orphic said with a grunt. "And the furoo he's heavy." Orphic assumed he was shouting, the ringing in his ear was still there but he felt as though his head was starting to clear.

The whit hallway began to curve to the right slightly, and then after a few paces it began to curve to the left in a wide arc. Red doorways began to appear in the white walls as soon as they passed the ninety degree mark of the curve. The doors were pained in the same deep red colour as the ceiling. Their surfaces were carved with intricate depictions of different flowers, each door being devoted to a different variety. The door knobs on each door were made of polished silver, with the face of that doors flower etching into the knob's face.

"I have to stop." Orphic stopped and began to place the boy on the floor. His arm muscles were so fatigued that he almost dropped the boy. Instead he awkwardly dropped the boy's legs to the floor before falling back against the white wall.

"We can't stop. Look at the smoke!" The woman had walked back to where Orphic and the boy were.

Orphic looked into the air and he could see the black smoke filling the air. It's colour a sharp contrast to the white of the walls and floor.

"It's not much further please. Please get up. I know a way out." There was another loud explosion and the temple rocked for a third time. "Please, we can't stay here."

Orphic came to his knees and used the walls to steady himself as he pushed his way to his feet. "What's happening?" Oprhic asked. "I don't have a clue what the fuck is going on anymore."

122

The woman turned the corner and ran halfway down a new hallway pausing at a door halfway to the end. Orphic could tell from her body language that she wanted him to move faster, but he knew it was either the speed he was traveling at or drop the boy. As it was the pain in his right leg was increasing and he knew that he would have to stop soon.

He caught up with the woman and recognized the door that she opened and rushed through, it was the door to the temple of the Mother. An area of the temple sacred to female members of the Skapatian order and forbidden to all males. Though it had been years since Orphic had resided in the temple this level of Skapatian sacrilege surprised him. He could remember staring at the nondescript wooden door as a child. The black velvet curtains behind the door helping to block all but the most slight glimpses within the temple of the Mother.

Orphic shifted the weight of the boy in his arms and began to make his way through the open doorway. He turned his back to the doorway and pushed his way through he velvet curtains in an attempt to avoid getting caught. He emerged from the curtains and turned to find a hallway with a white marble floor and white marble walls. The white was made all the more staggering by the blood red ceiling. A colour so deep and oppressive that with every step Orphic took down the hallway it felt as though the ceiling was coming down upon his head. He began to duck unconsciously hoping to avoid brushing against the paint that reminded him so much of blood.

121

Another explosion rocked the temple sending a spray of grape sized pebbles against Orphic's back. The hallways flooded with grey dust that seemed to block both the eyes and the ears. Suddenly there was a a hand on Orphic's shoulder. He turned to see a woman dressed in red and black robes shouting at him. Orphic couldn't hear her over the ringing in his ears and the sound of the temple being torn apart. He motioned to his ears and shook his head.

"I can't hear you."

The woman shook him and pointed to the ground where a young boy lay unconscious. A young temple orphan, Orphic recognized the look immediately. The woman touched he leg and then tapped Orphic's.

"His leg I understand." Orphic nodded. The woman grabbed the uncontentious boy's armed and struggled to lift him. With a nod Orphic bent to help pick the child up. Orphic lifted the child to his chest, hooking his arms underneath the boy's arms and the crook of the boys knees. He looked at the woman who had let go of the boy and noticed that she carried an infant in her arms. To Orphic's ears the infant was crying silent screams of terror.

"RUN!"

The woman's scream pieced through the layer of wool in Orphic's ears as he watched the woman step over some debris and run down the hallways. With a grunt Orphic began to follow her forwards. His right leg sent waves of pain with every staggering step but he managed to keep the woman in sight.