If I had ever been to the place I arrived once I crossed through the black gate, I did not remember it.

The first thing I noticed was the cool sensation of my bare feet stepping onto water.

I looked down and saw my reflection, wavering with the gentle ripples in the water I had stepped into, looking back up at me.

I didn’t look nearly as worn out as I thought I did. There were no bags under my eyes and my hair was smoothed and clean. The places on my lip that had been busted by the hand of the sorcerer Eames had closed. Somehow, It seemed like I had just woken from a very long and restful slumber.

The clothes that Anna had given me, the ones that had become filthy and torn and ruined by my struggles the night before, were gone.

In the nonexistent space between the two sides of the black gate, I had somehow been healed, cleaned, and adorned in a simple white dress.

Running my hand through my hair and over the dress, trying to understand how what had happened could have happened, I noticed it was not just my appearance that had been renewed.

I no longer felt the ground down feeling that I had just moments before. The feeling of rawness that had come with being exhausted physically, mentally, and. . .I couldn’t think of a word to describe the exhaustion of my soul so magically would have to do, was gone. I reached for my aura and to my surprise, found it full and replenished within me.

I looked around and found myself standing atop the surface of dark water that stretched farther than my eyes could see. The light that seemingly had no source was dim but not dark, and gave the space a sleepy feeling.

The black gate was nowhere to be seen and I felt a growing sense of unease at the difference between what I had expected and what I had been met with.

Where were the scowling faces of the Mothers? Why had I not been thrown into chains and had my mind torn apart by their collected wills?

After all, I had added several crimes to my already severely criminal history. A bath and clean clothes was absolutely not what I had imagined.

I felt the water ripple against my feet and knew I was not alone.

I turned and met a pair of deep blue eyes.

I recognized them. I couldn't remember how or when I had seen the woman before, but I knew that I had.

A woman wearing a dress not dissimilar to mine had seemingly appeared out of thin air no more than a step behind me. Her hair, midnight blue at its roots but near white at its end and her icy eyes stood in stark contrast to her dusky skin. She was lean like a runner and radiated an aura of calm and stillness.

I could see it in her eyes however that underneath that calm, was a roaring strength that could drown me in less than a moment if she so desired.

I slowly lowered to my knees, her eyes following me fluidly as I went. Hoping I did not offend her, because no one had ever taught me the proper way to address a Mother, I spoke and bowed my head. “It is an honor, Mother. I submit myself to my punishment.”

I was scared, but it was a fear without the instincts that normally came alongside it. I felt no need to run because I knew the futility of it. I had no thoughts of fighting because I knew better than to try and fight what equated to a force of nature.

“Close enough,” The Mother spoke in a clear voice while stepping towards me. I could only see her feet, They were clean which further proved my theory, and moved with a lightness that almost made it seem like she was floating. She placed a single finger under my chin and raised my head to look up at her. “Do not cloud your mind with fear of punishment. We have not arrived at that instance as of yet.”

Her finger was cool to the touch, and I yet again found myself confused with the lack of anger and fury in her eyes.

“I know you.” I whispered without realizing the words had left my mouth.

I could have imagined it, the light was very low after all, but I thought I noticed a momentary shift in her expression.

Then, I could see nothing as she wrapped some manner of cloth over my eyes and tied it around the back of my head. Letting her cool hands guide me onto my back, I felt myself being raised from the surface of the water.

“She said she recognized me.” The Mother spoke in her calm tone.

A new voice answered. “You should not have spoken to the girl, I would not have given her the chance to see me.”

"I felt bad for her." The Mother I had recognized said.

The new voice spoke with an exotic accent that rolled and dipped in pitch as it went.

Another Mother. . . Were they all there?

Another new voice, low and punctuated followed. “This is precisely why we should remove The Well and be done with this. It is too much trouble.”

Three, I had counted three different voices and all of them had varied widely in attitude.

A fourth voice, high and feminine and friendly just by the sound, came next. “You weren’t here the first time, Nami, but she’s grown up to be so pretty.”

One of them gasped and a tense silence filled the air.

“Leave it to you to make such a reckless mistake.” A fifth added.

Light, from somewhere above me, shone through the cloth over my eyes and the fibrous silhouettes of the nine Mothers leaning over me appeared.

The cloth did what it was intended to do however, I could not make out any specific details or features to differentiate any of them from one another.

The sixth voice, measured and monotone, began. “All of you would do well to remember that while she cannot see us, she can hear us. Which is why we all agreed to remain silent before she arrived,” I did not recognize the voice, but It did remind me of the way Eames had spoken when he had been nearly crushed by the creatures sent by the lich. “Maiden Aubrey,” She addressed me, bringing my fear from where it had settled back to the front of my mind. “Because of your actions, we must ensure the stability of The Well. Do you understand?"

I didn't. "I do."

The hands of the nine Mothers were laid on my body. Two cradled my head, but beyond those the sensations were too close together for me to separate them.

Laying there, in the moment following the Mother's touch, a terrifying thought entered my mind. The place in my memory that held the days after I had stolen The Well was still a faded blur over eight years after they had occurred. Only after weeks and weeks of my mother holding my broken mind in her caring hands had I found myself again. If they were going into The Well through me, would I lose it all again? Was I going to forget it all? Sam, Arthur and the spirit, Ms. Lao, and everything else that had happened, would they be washed from my mind? Would I come out of the strange endless place after my trial by the Mothers and not be able to remember Anna?

Would I even come out of the trial at all?

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The only answer I received was a metallic sound thundering in my mind.

Thunk.

The Mothers using me as a conduit was surely the cause, I couldn't have been slipping into a memory, not then.

Thunk.

Absolutely not, I refused. I would open my eyes and be standing within The Well with the Mothers. Well, no, I would open my eyes and see the darkness caused by the cloth blind within The Well with the Mothers. Would I though? I had never paid any attention to if what I was wearing in reality determined what I was wearing in the ethereal structure that was housed within my mind.

Thunk.

The fibrous silhouettes and that light from above that allowed me to see them faded and I fell straight down into the void.

I opened my eyes and found myself at the bottom of The Well.

The blindfold had not followed me into my mind, but I was still wearing the simple white dress. An seemingly endless amount of the trimetal walkways, hallways, and platforms were suspended above me but unlike every other time I had been in the structure, the only thing that was under my feet was the strange black material that seemed to hold the place together. As soon as I gathered my bearings and took a breath, an uncomfortable but familiar feeling settled over me.

I was being watched.

The bottom of The Well was a large semicircle made entirely of the black material. There was no sign of the Mothers. Only me, and after looking around for a second I realized, the faint outline of a door. Made of the same material as the rest of the space, if it had not been for the slight break that disrupted the otherwise seamless surface of the wall, I wouldn't have seen it.

The feeling, that unsettling vulnerability that only occurred when I was being seen by the unseen, was coming from behind the door.

"Hello?" I asked aloud. An image flashed in my mind. A memory that I had lived through the eyes of the sorceress Reyna. Her companion, head held in the palm of the lich, screaming as the last of her life vanished.

The lich was in The Well. That's why I was able to hear it. That's why it had known where to find me and where to send its creatures. It had been in my mind the whole time.

I reached for my aura. If the Mothers were somewhere in The Well, I had to warn them.

"There is no Lich in this place." A voice that sounded like nothing I had ever heard spoke from beyond the door.

"Then what the fuck are you?" I asked, not convinced.

The voice ignored my question.

"The young ones have entered this place through you," There was something metallic about the way it sounded, a sharpness and uniformity that was utterly unhuman. "They will be displeased if they learn that I have undone the barriers."

Young ones? I thought. "The Mothers?"

Its voice ended at the precise volume it began in and did not waver throughout. There were no pauses or breaths, only a metallic stream of words. "I shall inform them of this if you wish."

"Who are you?" I asked, walking slowly towards the door.

"A question that you do not have the time for me to answer. Do you wish for me to show the young ones that you have been beyond the barriers?"

Did I? Would they find that evidence enough that The Well was unstable and if they did, what would that mean for me?

"I will show them." The metallic voice said.

"Wait, No," I said, waving my hands in the general direction of the door. "Don't do that."

"As you wish." It spoke, followed by an all too familiar Thunk.

Is this what's been dragging me into memories? I thought, still trying to make sense of what was happening.

"Yes. I sense that you are displeased with that." The metallic voice answered my thought.

It answered my thought. . .

"How did you do that?" I asked, reaching the door and running my hand over the faint outline of it.

"I am within your mind," It answered in its strange scraping voice. "You are displeased with what I have shown you. Yet, you have benefited from my interruptions."

"It's just, that it hasn't always been at the best time," I could find no hold or gap that I could push one of my fingers into to open the door. The notion that I not only held an ethereal structure within my mind but that there was something living in that structure had piqued my curiosity to a dangerous extent. "How long have you been here?"

"The question is how long has here been around me." The grinding voice spoke again in its rising and fading way.

Thunk

"Wait, why are you doing that?" I asked, banging on the door.

"It is time for you to leave, the young ones will be suspicious if you do not return from here when they do."

Thunk

"Why are you doing any of this?" I asked, not just wanting to know why it had brought me to the bottom of The Well. Why had it lowered the barriers and given me free roam? How fucking old did something have to be to call the Mothers "young ones"? I couldn't understand any of it.

""I do it," The metallic voice said. Sounded like the clinking of chain armor or the crossing of swords, I heard whatever had been speaking press itself against the otherside of the door. "Because you remind me of Him."

Thunk.

Without another instance passing, I felt myself being pulled straight backwards and my consciousness crashed back into my body.

The hands of the Mother's left me and I opened my eyes against the cloth that covered them. Still silhouetted by the light from above, I focused my mind to try and prevent myself from making some movement or shift that would allow them to know that I had not just been laying there. I didn't know why, but I knew somewhere deep inside of me that I should not inform the Mothers of my encounter with the thing at the bottom of The Well.

The sixth voice that had spoken after the Mothers had arrived, spoke again. "Maiden Aubrey. How did you charm the guard outside of Idensyn Aubrey's quarters?"

There were things that I was going to choose to willfully withhold from the Mothers, but I did not wish to lie to them. Fortunately, I could answer their question honestly. "I do not know. When he caught me, it just. . .happened."

The third voice, the low one that reminded me of someone knocking on a door, followed on the heels of my answer. "Liar!"

"Silence," The sixth voice returned. "Maiden Aubrey, we will now inspect our seal."

There was no question from the Mothers on if I understood, only a pressure over my stomach from all nine pairs of their hands pushing against the seal.

"Already? It makes no sense," The second voice I had heard when the Mothers had arrived spoke, her voice sounding moody and dark. "I laid it without flaw."

A twinge of pain jabbed through my navel and I arched my back in reaction. As quick as it had come, the pain vanished and I relaxed with a heavy sigh.

"Maiden Aubrey," The fifth voice addressed me. The sound of it bore a quality that demanded it be listened to and respected. "Do you understand the weight of the decisions you have made?"

Here it comes. I thought, knowing that though I didn’t understand the lack of anger I had experienced, retribution was coming. "Yes, Mother."

The first Mother, the one I had recognized, asked the next question. "Do you regret the decisions you have made?"

The answer came to me before she ever finished speaking. Everything that had happened since I had escaped to the mortal realm ran through my mind, the good and the bad, the parts the Mothers knew and all of the things they didn't, what I had lost and what I had gained. My answer came instantly. If I should speak honestly took me more time, but after it all, I couldn't lie to the Mothers. Even if it meant I made things much, much, worse for myself.

"No, Mother." I said, feeling all the heat leave my body in anticipation of what would come next.

All that followed was silence.

The light from above winked out and returned me to the unknown of full darkness.

I did not move. I did not know how long I had laid there but I tried, I really fucking tried, to not speak. I tried to let whatever was coming to me, come to me, but I could only be kept in the dark for so long.

"Hello?" I said aloud, wondering if being left in the dark, unable to move and unable to see, was the price I would pay for what I had done.

A hand, cool to the touch, grasped my right hand. "You will keep your blind until you leave this place."

She wasn't asking or advising. It was a command backed by that terrifying strength I had felt when I looked in her eyes.

"Yes, Mother." I agreed.

A small exhalation came from her and I felt myself be lifted and placed onto my feet atop the water that filled the space.

"I am leading you to a gate. Once you cross it, you may remove your blind." The Mother instructed.

I did not allow her to lead me into a step. "Wait," I said, turning my head to look around the darkness. "Why aren't I in chains or having The Well ripped out of me? Is that it?"

"That is it," The Mother said in her calm voice, but when she finished her sentence, that strength she held within herself had come roaring to the surface. "For Now."

I didn't like that. I did not like that one little bit.

"The gate is before you Maiden Aubrey. Step forward please." The Mother said.

I hadn't moved. Had she moved me or the gate? Does it matter? I thought, decided that it didn't, and asked the much more important question aloud.

"Are you Nami?" I asked.

The Mother sighed. She placed her hand in the middle of my back, right between my shoulder blades. "Yes."

Then, she pushed me.