Never in my short life had I ever felt so torn.

The no longer little blue demon that was bound to my will did not make false threats. His electric arrival and thundering words had been directed at The Mother in Brown.

Half of me felt some strange sense of pride that no matter the strength and power of who he faced, Sam would come to my defense. The other half of me was terrified at the notion that one of the only things in my life that was truly mine would be destroyed or taken.

Sam would fight her, I knew him well enough to know that. What happened next depended on which Azza was standing defensively before me.

“Maiden Aubrey, why does this creature refer to you as its Lady?” Azza asked, the sienna glow of her aura washing out the blue light coming from the small arcs of lightning that circled Sam’s body.

“He is my familiar,” I answered meekly. “She is not holding me against my will, Sam. She is just bringing me home.”

Azza looked back over her shoulder at me, anger in her golden eyes. “When did you receive a familiar?”

If I had received him, did that not mean that someone had given him to me? The best thing I could do was answer her honestly, despite the fear that I would say something wrong and find myself in more trouble. “Shortly after I fled to the mortal plane, Mother Azza.”

“Hmph,” Azza huffed. “Why was I not told of this?”

“When should I have told you? Before or after you buried me alive?” The words left my mouth faster than I could realize what I was saying.

Azza’s eyes narrowed and the elegant line of her jaw clenched. “Fair. What is its name?”

My jaw dropped. I was powerless to stop it. Azza had just agreed with me after I had said something sarcastic to her.

“I am Samsara.” Sam answered for himself. The arcs of lightning were no longer circling his body, but his stance remained tense and ready.

“Well, Samsara, it is fortunate for you that I am tired. If I was not, I would remind you that while she wove power into you, you are still just a cat.” Azza said, offering me a hand up.

“And you are just a sorceress, Mother.” Sam responded, turning his back to The Mother in Brown and beginning to groom his paw.

“Sam!” I whispered harshly. The last thing I needed was my stupid cat to give Azza a reason to be the version of herself that wanted me dead. I was almost home. I was almost back to Anna. The mass of blue fur coming to my rescue was evidence of that. I held my breath in the round room of doorways, unsure if I should attempt to apologize or try to flee.

Azza laughed. “Is it always this contemptuous?”

“Yes?” I answered, her laugh making me feel more uneasy than I had before.

“How cute,” Azza sighed, moving toward a set of stairs that served as the room's exit. “I always wished for a familiar of my own. Come, I will see you to your door.”

I did as I was told, making sure that my familiar followed me out of the strange room. We walked behind Azza, her long legs carrying her up two steps at a time, and met a man that was waiting for us at the top of the stairs.

“Damn, Azza. You look terrible.” The man laughed, slapping his massive hand against his chiseled stomach. Hair that was nearly the same shade of red as my own billowed down from his head and blended with his big bushy beard. He wore pants that ended just above his ankles and seemed like they would split over his massive thighs if he were to squat. Azza was taller than him, but he was nearly three times her width.

“I am not in the mood, Go. Go find a tree to uproot or whatever it is you do with your time.” Azza sighed.

Go. . . As in Go’s night? I thought, knowing the barrel of a man standing before me must be one of The Mother in Red’s lovers.

“Who have you brought into my home? The kitten I have met, the girl I have not.” Go asked, leaning to one side and peering at me past Azza.

Despite his beard and ridiculously large muscles, there was a childish gleam in his eyes. He looked like he was doing everything in his power to stop himself from asking to play with the kitten standing guard at my feet.

“It is a matter of The Mother’s. Is she here?” Azza answered and asked, regaining Go’s attention by thumping him on the tip of his nose.

For just a moment, the way he glared at the tall woman, it reminded me of Anna and Arthur. I looked around the room that the stairs had led me to. The ceiling was high and held up at each corner by pink marble pillars that were flecked with gold. My feet stood atop a floor of gray stones that carried the same pleasant heat that those of the manor did. Every doorway and window was hung with rose colored fabric that draped to the floor in red pools. From tall pots on either side of the doorways to the planters that hung off the walls, wilted roses let their dying petals drift down to the floor like a slow rain.

Where am I? I wondered, knowing that it had to be somewhere in Erosette. Had The black gate led me to The Mother in Red’s home?

“Yes. She’s with Adrian.” Go grunted, rubbing his nose with the heel of his hand.

“Tell her that I have arrived and that I will come speak to her shortly.” Azza commanded, motioning for me to follow her out of the opulent room

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Wait. You can’t go out like that. Embpyre is tonight. Both of you will need robes.” Go said, halting us as he ran out of the room.

I could hear every thudding step the big man took through wherever I was growing quieter and then louder as he returned. Without so much as glancing in my direction, he handed Azza two hooded robes that were the same gray the ash around Vowkeeper’s Anguish had been.

“Another one of her ridiculous holidays,” Azza sighed as she pulled the robe over her head and shook her arms to settle the fabric. Tossing the second to me, she raised the hood over her sleek black hair and smoothed the wrinkles. It barely reached her ankles once she had it settled on her lean frame. “She does realize that if there is some silly festival or party every night that they will begin to lose their meaning?”

I pulled the robe over my head, just as she had and it swallowed me whole. The sleeves hung far past the tips of my fingers and the he of it bunched at my feet like the red fabric that draped the doorways.

“That one was meant for you.” Go chuckled, pointing at the ocean of gray cloth that I was drowning in.

“It is irrelevant. I will not be wearing it for long,” Azza said to me as she turned to leave again. “Come.”

Go followed us through the doors and out into a verdant garden that looked like a larger version of the one behind the manor. The sky over Erosette was dimming and I found a sense of relief in the familiar dusk. “You won’t stay?”

“No.” Azza answered without slowing or looking back at the man.

Go called after her as we reached the mouth of the garden. “I’ll have Morrow get that spirit you like, the one with the gold flakes in it?”

“Have him fetch it and we will see.” Azza half shouted and half sighed.

I heard Go let out a triumphant laugh and smack his hand against his stomach once again.

Following her through the mouth of the garden, Seven marble archways stood over the stone path under my feet. Beyond them lay a side of Erosette that I had never seen before. We reached the bridge that lay over the top of the river that seemed to circle the city and Azza stopped me.

“Hold still. I am still quite weak and cannot afford to do this twice,” Azza said, raising her hand to my face. She placed the tip of her forefinger in the center of my forehead and I closed my eyes against the sudden flicker of her aura. “This will fade shortly, so we must make haste.”

“Is it glamor?” I asked, Azza’s scent filling my nose and her power tingling on my face.

“She has made you look like a boy,” Sam answered my question, standing so close to my feet that It was fortunate I had not tripped over him. “It is an improvement.”

“I will not risk you being seen by someone in the city. It is a simple but effective illusion.” Azza shrugged. She offered me her arm like she had when I had been blindfolded.

I took it and let her lead me over the bridge and around the right side of the city. The streets were filled with people dressed in the same robes that Azza and I wore. Every one of them wore their hoods raised and they all spoke in hushed whispers.

“Do you know what all this is for?” I asked Azza sometime after the archways we had crossed through had been concealed by the city. A group of three robed people appeared out of an alleyway on our right carrying some kind of long chair.

“No and I do not wish to.” Azza answered simply.

I do. I thought, noticing in the last few minutes of sunlight that everyone wearing the robes were all moving towards the heart of Erosette.

The rest of the journey was made in silence. Azza’s pace slowed the longer we walked and by the time the light of the manor became clear in the distance, she was barely managing to walk without dragging her feet.

My legs and feet were sore. I was beyond tired, but I had not been the one to weave reality back together to save it from splitting.

Part of me felt bad for her.

The other part remembered that part of her wanted to kill me.

Having grown close enough that I could see the shape of the guards standing on the other side of the river, Sam sprinted out in front of us and turned onto the bridge. I lost track of him as he disappeared into the darkness at the edge of the city.

One of the guards began to move towards us as we reached the edge of the bridge.

Woolie.

Azza held a hand up in his direction and he stopped in his tracks. Looking down at me, she reached into my hood and tapped the golden choker around my neck. “I will make arrangements when I am prepared to remove this.”

“Thank you Mo-”

“Who is that?” Azza asked suddenly, her eyes turning back towards the manor.

The shape of a person ran down the hill from the manor, little more than a silhouette. It turned onto the bridge and entered the dim glow of the city lights.

Anna. . .

Without slowing, she ran straight into me and threw her arms around me. “Are you okay? Where are you hurt?”

Before I could answer, she had thrown herself into a complete inspection of me. Pushing the sleeves up over my arms, running her hands down my sides, and pulling the pool of robe up from the ground and gingerly touching all the places my feet and ankles had been cut up.

“I’m going to glue your boots to your damn feet,” Anna sighed before popping back up and throwing my hood back off my face. “Oh fuck! What did they do to your face?”

I had no clue what I looked like, but the relief and joy I felt in my heart at the sight of her shocked face sent me into true laughter.

“It’s glamor.” I laughed, pulling her into me and getting lost in the feeling of her embrace.

I got so lost in it that I almost forgot Azza was standing there.

“So this is one of the mortals that we allowed you to keep,” Azza interrupted, pulling the too small robe off over her head. “The two of you seem like a wonderful pair.”

Anna did not speak, she separated from me just enough to glare up at The Mother in Brown.

Allowed me to keep?

“Maiden Aubrey, dispose of this for me.” Azza commanded, stepping back from us as the lines on her bronze skin began to glow. She threw the robe towards me and I caught it, but I could not let her leave without knowing what she had meant.

“What did you mean that you allowed me to keep the mortals?” I asked, clinging to Anna like my life depended on it.

“There was the purpose in allowing them to stay near you,” Azza sighed, the tips of her hair beginning to fall away into golden dust. “You love her, that is plain to see. Behave and we will have no reason to take her away from you.”

Without another word, The Mother in Brown swirled into a cloud of dust and vanished from my sight.

Anna was staring at me, I could feel her dark eyes boring into my face.

I looked at her, red anger lashing to life in my stomach.

Her eyes went to my lips and then back up again. “When are you going to be a girl again? I don’t think I can wait much longer.”