I wanted to go home.

By the time the sun began to rise and the red dust and ash had given way to grassy field, my legs had reached the end of their strength. The soft grass was a welcome change from the dust for my cut up feet, but every step I took came with the growing reality that they would give out on the next.

Mother Azza’s long legs carried her forward farther and faster than I could follow. If I lagged too far behind, Mother Gwyn would place her hand on my back and hurry me along.

Both Mothers had exhausted their power, but neither seemed half as worn down as I did.

Neither of The Mothers had spent most of their life locked in a small room. They walked wherever they wished whenever the desire struck them. I did not blame them, neither of them had stolen The Well or fled to the mortal plain with the ethereal structure inside them. If my circumstances were different, if I had a good weeks sleep and chose to be in the grassy field, It would have more than likely been a pleasant stroll.

The morning was beautiful and I could not help but think about all of the other beautiful places in chaos that I would like to see with my own eyes. If I ever managed to free myself from my debt, I would go find them all. No part of me would ever be held anywhere against my will again.

Mother Gwyn pressed her hand against my back and pushed me into a step. “We are almost there, girl. Keep going.”

I had not realized I had stopped.

Yes, I would travel to the ends of chaos one day, but that particular morning, all I wanted to do was go home.

I wanted to see Anna and tell her about everything that had happened before it could slip from my mind. Preferably with a mouth full of warm bread and a cup of cold milk in my hand, I would spare no detail. Then I would bathe and fall asleep with her in my arms.

Home.

“If you can’t keep up, you’re going to make me drag you by your hair.” Mother Gwyn threatened, pushing me again.

I had stopped again.

The Mother in Green would do as she said. Taking another stumbling step was the better option compared to being drug, so I forced myself a little closer to the manor.

Was that truly true? I did not know which direction we were walking. For all I knew, I could be growing the distance between where I was and where I wanted to be.

“Where are we?” I asked aloud, my voice quiet and my throat dry.

“Chaos.” Mother Gwyn answered simply.

I knew that, and I felt like she knew that I knew that. “Chaos is everywhere outside of Zenithcidel?”

“No more questions, Maiden Aubrey.” Mother Azza called back to me without turning or stopping.

Mother Gwyn gave me an answer. “No, everything outside the mortal plane is chaos. Zenithcidel is within chaos.”

“Gwyn!” Azza snapped, stomping her foot on the ground suddenly.

“You told her that she couldn’t ask any more questions. You didn’t say that I couldn’t answer the one she had already asked.” Mother Gwyn said with a wicked grin on her face.

“I will be telling The Mother in White of all the mistakes you have made during your time with Maiden Aubrey, understand this.” Azza said flatly.

“No, wait,” Mother Gwyn sputtered, running past me and grabbing Azza’s robe by its single sleeve once she reached her. “I’ll stop. I’ll be good, I promise.”

“Do not look at me like that, it makes you look like the same savage little girl you were when we found you.” Azza sighed, but a look of amusement had touched her usually fierce face.

“Maybe I still am, that was only a couple of decades ago.” Mother Gwyn shrugged her shoulders, looking up at her sister.

“Hush!” Mother Azza sighed, clamping her hand over her sister’s mouth and snapping her golden eyes to me.

A couple of decades. Mother Gwyn had been found by The Mothers in the deepwood. The Mother in White had talked with Schwarz for a long time. I thought, connecting the two revelations and repeating it silently in my mind.

“We will discuss this once Maiden Aubrey is returned to Erosette.” Azza said with a serious look at Gwyn. Then, she turned and gestured for us to continue to follow her.

Mother Gwyn waited for me to pass her before she moved again and we started down the gentle slope the grassy field had settled into.

The more time I spent in the presence of the Mothers, the more disconnected it all felt. After my punishment from Azza, I had been terrified of her to the point that seeing her had been enough to push me out of the memory I had been viewing. The scars on my arms and legs still broke into itching if I looked at her long enough, but I no longer feared her. Seeing her be a comfort to the younger Mother Gwyn, it had made me understand that she was not a painfully beautiful monster.

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She was Azza.

Azza had been exactly what she was meant to be inside the glass pyramid, my punisher.

When she had arrived at the place that reality was splitting, she had been exactly what she was meant to be, my savior.

Healing my broken hand, she has been exactly what she had meant to be, kind.

If I gave a reason to punish me again, she would. If I gave her no reason to be cruel to me, she would not.

“Mother,” Azza. I tried and failed to call her name. I sighed and tried again. “Mother in Brown?”

Azza did not answer me. She took several more long steps and then stopped at the end of the slight slope. I waited until I caught up to her to try and speak with her again.

“Mother in Brown?” The words felt strange to say. It would be so much easier if I could just call her by her name.

“Watch your step,” She warned, stopping me in my tracks by placing one of her hands on my chest. “There is nowhere for you to take it.”

Mother Azza was not lying.

The soft grass of the field ended abruptly and the ground fell away to a mist filled nothing. Without warning, everything had ended and I could see nothing in the distance beyond the edge.

Azza gently pushed me back. She brought her hand up to the single sleeve of her robe and ripped it off at her shoulder at its seams. Without hesitation, she tore it in half lengthwise and handed me one piece of the black and gold fabric.

“It will not take long for us to reach Erosette from here,” She said, her golden eyes focused and determined. “But you will wear this until we arrive.”

I sighed and slumped my shoulders, but brought the torn off scrap up to my eyes and tied it around the back of my hair. It brought her scent with it, but If I did not give her a reason to be cruel to me, she would not be.

“Now, why were you calling for me?” Azza asked, nothing more than a gold lined blur from within my blindfold.

I unwrapped the ruined bandages from my right hand and let them fall to the ground beneath me. “I wanted to thank you for healing me. I am not sure if I already did.”

Genuine relief came to me as I opened and closed my fist without any trace of pain.

I heard Azza let out a long and weary sigh.

“Hold on to me, I will prevent you from tripping,” She said, looping my arms around one of hers. She led me forward despite the lack of ground and asked me a question I could not answer. “How did you break your hand?”

I bypassed the walls that you and the other Mothers placed in The Well. There is a particular sorceress whose memories are very hard for me to come back from. One night, after I had run into someone from her memories, I woke up not knowing who I was and violently assaulted the guards that have been tasked with protecting the city from me. One of them, of course this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened, had learned from our previous encounter and had equipped himself with some kind of metal underwear. I have a tendency to go for a man’s balls when I find myself in conflict with them, so when I tried to strike them, I hit the metal and my hand cracked. Isn’t that unusual?

Despite the truth of it, there was no reality where I could tell her that.

“I fell down the stairs,” I lied, only being able to know where to walk because of Mother Azza’s guidance. “I am fairly clumsy.”

“That is true, you would not believe the amount of times he tripped and fell while I was hunting her.” Mother Gwyn said from the other side of me.

“Oh, well,” I felt Azza pat my arm with her hand. “Try to be more careful.”

The skin around the scars on my arms and legs crawled at her words. What she had said did not sound like the words of someone who hated me. If the Mother’s were as powerful as they were confusing, I did not understand how there was even a war between them and the sorcerers.

My feet touched a familiar surface and I had realized we had stepped onto some sort of stone. It was not warm the way the floors and pathways in and around the manner were. It was bitterly cold and sent the bones in my bare feet aching upon their first touch. The warmth of the morning sun vanished and a blustering wind blew straight through my thin nightclothes and sent chill bumps rippling over my skin.

“A more pleasant climate was beyond you?” Azza spoke, her long arm shivering suddenly within my grasp.

A new voice answered her. “I’m sorry, Mother. Gray is The Fair. She is the only soul I have ever met that thinks this is nice weather.”

The new voice was deep, calm, and smooth, like the surface of an undisturbed water.

Nami.

“Honestly, all of you must learn to watch your tongues.” Azza snapped.

“Is the blindfold truly necessary?” I heard Nami asked.

“Of course it is.” Azza answered.

“Is she here? I don’t think I’m up for a fight right now.” Mother Gwyn said.

“No, everyone else is out checking the gates. Both of you need to sit down and settle things though. Continuing to be at each other’s throats is good for none of us.” I heard Nami say as Azza pulled me into movement again.

“Nami. Since you cannot seem to help yourself, you are not to speak again until I have crossed through the gate, do you understand this?” Azza commanded, her voice full of power and weight.

“Yes, Mother. It is the one on the left.” Nami answered.

“Gwyn. I will send one of my girls when I am ready to return to Vowkeeper’s Anguish.” Azza said, bringing me forward.

If Mother Gwyn answered, I did not hear it. Azza pulled me into a step and the cold stone under my feet vanished.

The next moment, sudden sounds of violence started and I was thrown to the ground.

“My lady.” A low voice thundered in my ears.

Sam?

I ripped the torn sleeve of Azza’s robe down off my face and looked up to see The Mother in Brown standing in a protective stance in front of me.

Every hair on his big blue body stood on end. Thin arcs of lightning looped endlessly from the tip of his tail to the points of his ears. My familiar stared down The Mother in Brown with violence in his eyes.

“What are you?” Azza growled, the sharp black lines that ran over her body beginning to glow with her sienna aura.

“Relinquish my Lady to me and I will be nothing to you. Continue to hold her against her will, Sam growled, shaking the empty door frames that lined the circular stone room we were in. “And I will be a demon.”