Part 36 (1/2)
”Mom?”
A sweet bell-like laugh.
”That might be a little weird, don't you think?”
He opened his eyes.
They were in a room with white walls and nine doors.
”Huh,” Gwynn said. ”My own white room.”
A familiar face smiled down at him.
”h.e.l.lo, Sophia,” he said.
This Sophia fit his memory of high school. Not those final days, where madness tattered her hair and sunk her cheeks. No, her cheeks were full and filled with a healthy flush. Her hair fell around her face in perfect golden circles.
”You can change the look if you want,” she said. ”Think of it as the default desktop theme.”
”How'd I get here?”
Her smile was gentle and warm.
”You've always been here. Things just changed to match your experiences. You faced your soul and survived.”
”That was facing my soul? You mean everyone goes through that?”
She giggled and shook her head, no.
”Your experience was...unique. But it's never easy. These doors will lead you to one of the nine remaining worlds. You just need to choose where you want to go.”
”I really just want to go home...but that would be the running away choice, wouldn't it?”
”Only you can decide that,” Sophia said.
”Right.” Gwynn sighed.
He tried to let his body relax and block out even the noisy thoughts in his head.
Where are you...?
A faint melody came to his ears. He turned his head side to side, trying to sense where the melody increased in volume. Next, he let his feet move, bringing him to one of the doors.
He placed his left hand on the door. Vibrations matching the melody's rise and fall made their way through the surface.
”Sophia...” he said, ”Thank you for everything. I never would've made it without you.”
Her hand rested on his shoulder.
”Silly boy. I know. That's why I came. Say hi to everyone for me.”
”I don't know if they'll believe me. But I will.”
Gwynn turned the k.n.o.b, pulled the door open, and stepped through.
26.
Returning
Marduk sipped his tea, watching the young girl he knew was anything but young.
She'd s.h.i.+fted a number of book stacks to create a s.p.a.ce on the floor large enough where she could sit in a lotus position and meditate. He was certain she was not meditating. If anything, she'd used it as an excuse to ignore him. And moved the books? Those volumes had not been moved in near a quarter century. It didn't matter they were in a neater pile than their original placement, nor did it matter the care she'd taken in moving them. What mattered was she had come into his place after all these years and a.s.sumed there would be no affront if she just moved things at whim. Mother G.o.ddess or just spoiled girl with too much power, neither excused her actions.
”It's been nine days,” she said, her eyes still shut and her body just as erect and motionless as it had been for the past four days.
”I do not think you should be concerned. By your own account, you lived seven years within the Veil. And I see no ill effects.”
She slapped her hand on the ground, sending a small tornado of loose papers into the air. Her eyes opened and focused on him with a ferocity that made him wish they'd remained shut.
”I've also spent thousands of years practicing. You did what, spend a few hours talking then shoved him out the door?”
Marduk shrugged.
”A bird will only fly when it is shoved from the nest.”
He regretted the words as soon as they'd left his mouth. She was in no mood for poetry, true or not. He expected his shop, and perhaps his own body, to suffer her rage.
Instead, she slumped, her eyes falling from his and turning inward.
”Forgive me,” she said. ”I forced my problem on you. I do not blame you for what you've done-universe knows we did worse in training you. I seem to have a habit of making you shoulder the burdens I can't myself.”
Marduk couldn't suppress the smallest of smiles curling his lips. He gave a grandiose bow.
”And yet here I stand, alive, powerful, and near enough content.”
She nodded slightly.
”I think that says more about you than it does us. Or maybe it says something about your father. Enkil was a good man. He deserved a better life than we gave him.”
Marduk steadied his hand to keep the tea cup from dropping, managing to guide it to the desk with only a drop or two spilling. He came around the counter and slid two stacks of books so he could sit in front of her.
”Are you, the mighty Tiamat, scourge of Sumeria, consort of the demon dragon Kingu, actually apologizing?”