The last time there had been sand moving under its own power underneath me had not ended well.

The last time I had seen the sorceress standing before me, it had been one of the worst times of my life.

The last time The Mother in Brown had come for me, it had been to punish me.

I knew in my soul that it was her, that it was Azza, to the same extent that I knew the choker she had fit around my throat was still there. She was not wearing the black robe she had been during my punishment. The golden glove that had broken her arm in the memory of hers I had been shown was not alone.

Her short black hair had been laced with golden wore that had been shaped into intricate patterns. A lustrous gown hung from her and down her thin frame. Each of her arms were gilded, from the tip of her long fingers to just below her shoulder, with the same shining gloves from the memory. The sharp black lines that started just below her ear was no longer black. They had grown over every place her tan skin was exposed and the sienna color of her aura shone from it.

She who has no master! She with the golden soul! She who will not perish this day! The words I had once said when I was Azza rang in my mind like a struck bell.

Goldluster. I did not know how I knew it, but that was who she was. Azza, The Mother in Brown, both of them paled in comparison to the shining golden form before me.

“Why is it you,” Mother Gwyn cried from her place behind me. “Why couldn’t it be Glim or Grey? You’re gonna be so mean.”

“It could only be me. Harden your heart, little sister. I am here to save you,” Goldluster said, her words ringing with her gilded power. Without turning away from the molten destruction, she turned her words to me. “Child, are you well?”

I could barely hear them over the ringing in my ears and the roar of the split that Schwarz’s death had evidently caused.

Before I could decide if I wanted to answer her or not, the tip of the volcano fell away. Every pale blue fissure that had cracked down from it splintered out in every direction and Vowkeeper’s Anguish began to collapse in on itself. One by one, all of the rocky ledges and loose stones that I had run over in pursuit of the sorceress that cowered behind me, were ripped from the ground. Unseen force drew them up the mountain side and pulled them down into the expanding split.

“I’m too young to die!” Gwyn wailed, clutching my back like I had held on to her when she had thrown us down into the tunnel before the split.

“I agree,” Goldluster spoke. “It is fortunate for all of us that I am here.”

The golden dust that had formed her saving hand spun up from the ground and streamed back into her outstretched palms. Just like when she had made the choker, she brought her hands together and condensed it between her hands. The sienna light of her power shone out from the patterns on her skin so intensely that I had to shield my eyes.

With one final push, her hands met.

“Fortune Favors.” She said under her breath, lowering her long arms to her sides

Eight golden needles, each as long as her hand and clutched in between her closed fingers, gleamed in the smoke filled darkness.

In one graceful step, she swept over to the pale blue fissure closest to us and snapped her wrist towards it. One of the needles shot from her hand like an arrow from a bow and disappeared into the fissure. With no hesitation, she glided on a sweeping wave of golden sand to the next and sunk another of her needles into it. Liquid gold rose from the first fissure in a metallic flood and ran back up the mountain towards its crumbling peak. The same incomprehensible working happened wherever she cast her needles, painting and melding the broken stone with golden streams.

All I could do was sit and watch with my jaw dropped.

She was not the Azza that had punished me.

She was not Azza at all.

She was a force of nature.

Mother Gwyn clutched my shoulders and pulled me back down on top of her. “Look out!”

I had been so caught by Goldluster’s gilded dance, I had not noticed the flurry of molten rocks that were dropping from the sky straight towards us.

Something hit the stone between my legs.

I snapped my head down to see one of her needles sunk halfway into the rocky ground.

All around it, the stone broke away into golden dust. At first it was only in a small circle around the needle, but it quickly expanded outward. Just before the erupted rocks broke against my body, the mound of gold that had formed underneath Mother Gwyn and I splashed up like struck water and formed a protective wall.

The rocks struck the wall in a scattered series of dull thumps.

Every single impact brought a frightened whimper from Mother Gwyn.

The wall continued to rise until it crashed down over us and left us in a dark tomb. The dust underneath me began to writhe against the bare skin of my legs.

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Pressure and weight. Azza had made me understand my place.

The golden dust brought my mind straight back to when I had been buried at the bottom of the glass pyramid. The memory of the slow grind of the sand against my flesh and the punishing weight that had held me there echoed up from within me. I remembered the dark red wine stain on the shoulder of my white dress. I had followed it down until my eyes had met the sight of my ruined flesh.

Powerless.

I had been powerless.

My arms and legs still bore the scars from my first punishment and I could feel my dirty night clothes brushing against them.

I screamed, unable to stop the painful memories from running through my head.

Just as quickly as it had started, the golden dust ceased its writhing and a sound drowned out the ringing in my ears.

Mother Gwyn was screaming as well.

For a moment, we lay there in the dark. Me, holding my broken arm to my chest and taking shaky breaths as I reminded myself that I was not back in the glass pyramid. Her, screaming for reasons I did not understand.

“Why are you screaming?” I asked her once I caught my breath, placing my hand on the terrified woman's leg. I still lay on top of her, but turning to look at her would do nothing in the darkness.

“Because you did. You scared me.” She whimpered weakly, a pitiful sound that I had a hard time imagining coming from The Mother in Green.

Light began to shine through the golden tomb in uncountable places no larger than a pin prick. The dust receded from the place directly over my face and the walls of what seemed to be the shape of a dome returned to the ground.

The first thing I saw was the red dust that blanketed the ground like freshly fallen snow.

The second, was the peak of Vowkeeper’s anguish.

We had been moved inside the tomb all the way down the mountainside until we had come to flat ground. The golden streams that Goldluster had filled the fissures with had turned to seams. In every direction I could see, the mountain had been knit back together in every place it had broken and capped with a sharp pyramid shaped peak. No black smoke billowed from it. The ground no longer shook. There was no trace of pale blue light peaking through any of the cracks.

Goldluster had stopped the split and held the mountain together with nothing but her will.

The third thing I noticed was The Mother herself standing over me and offering a hand up.

“Come, child. You are safe for now.” She said with a warm, golden lipped, smile.

Pressure and weight. Remember your place. The thoughts ran through my mind faster than I could realize I was having them.

I did not take her hand.

Even though it was a struggle and brought fresh stabs of pain through my arm, I rolled off of Mother Gwyn and climbed to my feet under my own power. The hatred that she held for me was not in her molten eyes, but it had been the last time I had seen her. It had burned me and that pain was still fresh enough that I did not want her help.

She made no expression at my rejection. Her eyes went from mine, to the choker, my bandaged hand, and finally down to her sister

Laying flat on her back on top of what was left of the tomb, she flinched at Goldluster’s gaze and covered her face. Every part of her shook and a terrified whimper slipped out from her.

“Gwyn, her arm. Did it happen during your punishment?” She asked, her warm smile turning down into a sad one.

“No. She was like that when I took her.” Mother Gwyn answered through her hands.

“Before you began, you should have healed it then.” Goldluster sighed, turning to me with her arms outstretched. “May I?”

I kept it held to my chest defensively. “Why?”

“It is not my wish for you to suffer unduly, child. For your mistrust, I do not blame you. Allow me to heal you. I will not have the strength to do so in a moment.” She said softly.

Terrified that I would regret it, I slowly gave my hand over to her and held my breath. The look in her eyes was too sincere, her golden smile was too warm, and her words felt too true.

I found myself trusting that my former punisher would do as she had said she would.

I hated it, and part of me knew that as soon as she had me in her grasp that she would hurt me, but that part was wholly wrong. Her long fingers worked carefully to unwind the bandage from my hand. I felt no pain or discomfort and a moment later, she had clasped it between the cool touch of her golden gloves.

“This wound is several days old. How did it happen?” She asked as the warm brown of her aura covered my hand.

This is a dream. I thought, certain that I had been knocked out sometime between the shift and the split. The beautiful woman healing my hand could not be the same person that had buried me alive and let my skin be literally sanded away. I ignored her question and asked my own, the conflict between the two versions of Azza frustrating me.

“I thought you hated me. Why are you doing this?” I asked, feeling my brows furrow as I spoke.

“The way I am in this moment. . .This is the best of me,” She looked down and smiled through a sigh. A single ray of sunlight broke through the dissipating smoke and Illuminated her. The wire in her hair, the golden gown, and her long gloves were thrown into a dazzling gleam. “But, just as you have seen with my sister, you will soon see the worst of me.”

The worst of Azza. . .

The thought was enough to make me want to run as far away from her as fast as I could.

“It is unfair, but I must ask you a favor,” She continued, the hem of her golden gown beginning to fall away into the red dust. “You must make Gwyn think that she is on a hunt. It will bring her back to herself.”

I nodded, looking over at where the Mother in Green still lay with her hands covering her face.

“Listen to me, child. I will hold onto my power as long as I can, but you must bring her back before I lose my grip.” Goldluster said, the power in her voice making a chill run down my spine.

“Why?” I asked, new fear rising within me from her words alone.

“Because neither you or I are strong enough to stop me from killing you when the afterglow comes over me,” Goldluster said with a sad expression. “She is.”