Some part of me, whatever ragged piece that remained, thought that dying would not feel all that different than falling into The Well.

I would fade, I would fall. . .

Then, nothing.

I hoped.

A gentle breeze swept over me and forced my ravage skin to shiver suddenly.

“Hnnn.” A broken sound escaped from me despite my bitten lip, the sudden shaking forcing me to cry out. The taste of blood filled my mouth and I wet the bleeding cracks with my tongue. If it would not have made me scream to do it, I would have covered my face with my hands to muffle the sound.

If I woke the guards, they would not have to search for very long to find me. When they found me, my time to die would pass without my permission.

I still burned from the inside.

I had only had a fever once in the part of my life that I could remember. For two days, my whole body had ached and shivered. My head had grown so hot, my mother had sat at my bedside and melted ice on my forehead until I could go to sleep. Nightmares, I had learned afterwards they were fever dreams, had haunted me. They had felt so real that I had woken up screaming to my mother about the shadows standing around my bed. I told her how they had loomed over me, that I could not see their faces, and how they had grabbed me. She had assured me that they had not been real and told me a story until I had finally fallen back to sleep.

There were no shadows standing around me in the tall grass, but the burning I felt reminded me of the fever.

Maybe, that would be how it felt at the end. I would get hotter and hotter until I cooked from the inside out.

The thought of the guards carrying me on one of the bronze platters from Morrow’s night made a laugh shake out of me. Red and white flashes of light blinded my view of the night sky and the laugh turned to a quiet moan as fresh pain washed over me. It never ended, but the flashes of color faded and I settled back into the slow agony that I had grown used to.

I missed my mother.

I imagined her laying in her bed, wondering when The Mothers would return me to her. Exhausted from the newest celebration she had surely created for Amoranora, she was probably fighting sleep just in case I came home. Continuing the festivities to distract the Lao' s from their memory of me being torn away from them was exactly the sort of thing she would do.

I missed her, but I would never see her again. The owl had come out of Arthur just before I had taken the black gate.

I held no doubt that my mother had learned every secret I had been keeping from her in my absence. How could she not have asked how the spirit had come to be within Arthur? Once she learned that it had saved his life, her next questioned would have been why he had needed saving. Then, when she understood that a horror had gored him through the back of his stomach, she would ask where the horror had come from. From there, the channel on my palm, that I had found my color, and that I had slipped through the barriers in The Well would be revealed.

She would be bound to tell The Mother’s, and they would take me from her.

I could not bear to face her. Being returned to my tomb sounded like a better time than having to see the pain and disappointment on her face. When I had run away, I imagined that the hope that I would be found and returned had helped her carry on. When The Mother’s took me from her for the last time, no such hope would be allowed to live.

I would not let that happen to her.

Which was why Mother Azza had been wrong about my place in one small way.

She had been right that I belonged at the bottom, that the pressure and weight of The Well should crush me. She had been wrong in thinking that the other Mothers were responsible for me continuing to live. There was no shame to be brought on my mother if I was dead. She could not be hurt by our distance if I was nowhere at all. I did not have to see how much I had hurt her if I could no longer see anything.

I had learned that living was a choice, and I had the power to make that choice. It would allow me to commit a small and final act of rebellion. The Mother's could take The Well back then, and everyone would be better off.

The breeze came again and sent new flashes of red and white pain through me. I closed my eyes and thought of Delpha and the Dragon. I thought of all the times she had told it to me and all the times she had called me by the little fox kit’s name. She would have to tell it differently after I was gone. Delpha would never wander out of the warren or make it up the mountain. She would never meet the crow or bite the dragon's red bushy tail. It would become a much shorter story where the little fox dies when the tunnel she is in collapses.

“I am sorry, mother.” I whispered, finding fitting words for the end of me.

Listen. The thought passed through my mind almost too quickly for me to understand it.

A wild sound came from the hills beyond the manor. Somewhere farther out of the city than my place in the tall grass was, barks that into shrill whines echoed. I had heard a similar sound before. My mother would mimic fox calls during Delpha's story to wake me when her words had begun to lull me to sleep.

Again, it barked and whined, calling out into the night for its own mysterious reasons.

After hearing the true sound, I realized how far off she had been. I did not care, she had tried after all. She had done nothing for me but try, despite how little I deserved her effort. and I understood how it would happen then. Death would not be like slipping into The Well. The heat within me would not burn me away no matter how much it felt like it would. Death was a cold ache that hung heavy in my heart.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The fox called out again and received no response. It was alone, just the same as I was

I went numb from the cold and everything began to slow down.

“You have returned.” A sudden voice rumbled.

My familiar had found me.

“Hey, Sam,” I said, feeling my bottom lip curl and my eyes trying and failing to well with tears. “Did you hear the fox?”

My fleshless familiar’s skeletal face appeared above me, his yellow eye lights too bright in the darkness of night. “Your mind is clouded and your soul is darkened. Why?”

“Because, you are the most fucking annoying thing I have ever met, but I’m going to miss you." I sighed.

“Do not embarrass yourself. Where do you mean to go?” Sam asked.

“Nowhere. I am going to die,” I realized one other small power I still held. My words came out with as much strength as I could fill them with as I forced myself to stare into Sam’s eyes. “You are bound to my will, Samsara. When I am no more, you will ensure the safety and well being of Anna Lao. I command you to do this. in my name.”

A moment passed.

“No.” My familiar denied me.

Fuck.

“Please? I need to know she is going to be okay.” I begged.

“No.” He repeated.

“Fuck you,” I spat, and cringed at the pain that came along with the small motion. “You gave her skull. Why can't you do this for me?”

“Because you will not be dying. I will be unmade before I will allow you to perish.” Sam said, looking up from me and back towards the manor.

Voices I recognized spoke in hushed tones.

“Go see what it is talking to. It gives me the chills, like something is walking over my grave.” Smit whispered.

“It spoke to you. It is only fitting that you follow it.” Bool through a yawn.

The guards I had assaulted when I had not been myself had been awoken by my familiar. Once they decided who would investigate his strange behavior, they would find me.

I tried to focus my aura and shape a glamor that would conceal me, but it would not come to me no matter how hard I tried.

“I’ll play you in points to see who goes?” Smit offered.

“Mothers help you boy, not everything is a game,” Bool yawned again. The sound of his boots growing closer filled my ears.

Die. . . faster. . . I thought, clenching my jaw as if that would quicken my demise.

The footsteps stopped suddenly.

“Smit! Get Lady Aubrey!” Bool shouted. The shape of the man that fancied my mother appeared above me.

“What is it,” Smit called back. “One of the refugees?”

“Go! Now,” Bool shouted over his shoulder to the sound of his partner running towards the manor. He looked me over before turning his face away in a grimace. Without a moment passing, he began ripping the armor from his body. He threw every piece away carelessly until only his red undershirt remained. With nothing but his thumb, he tore it off and laid it over his arms. “This is going to hurt, little Aubrey, but you're home now. I'm gonna help you inside.”

“You are not supposed to talk to me. It is against the rules.” I whispered, looking up at him.

“Damn the rules. Just close your eyes. I've got you." Bool said.

“Be gentle with her, mortal or I will come for you.” Sam growled.

“Yes, Cat.” Bool nodded at my familiar while he waited for me to close my eyes.

I did as he asked and closed my eyes,

The small piece that was left of me was torn away as he lifted me out of the tall grass.

The sound of my own scream echoed off the hills and back into my ears.

The lights of Erosette were a distant blur as Bool carried me in his arms.

I caught sight of my legs.

Whatever had been left in my stomach from the last time I had eaten came back out.

“That’s alright, little Aubrey. Whatever you need to do. We all get sick sometimes.” Bool spoke softly, his eyes held forward in a hard locked scowl.

My head rolled to one side.

The double doors of the manor exploded outward and I saw my mother.

One of her emerald eyes brimmed with tears and the sight hung in my mind like a painting.

“Momma. . .” I moaned.

“Inside. . .On the. . . Yes! On the table!”

I could hear her voice between the darkness I teetering on the edge of.

Bool stopped walking and lowered me.

I screamed again.

The wooden beams of the kitchen ceiling hung above me.

“Autumn?”

A name, I heard a name. . .my name.

And then, I saw her.

Anna.

She must have been asleep, her black hair was all tangled and messy.

My heart thumped so hard in my chest It felt like it would burst through my skin.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Anna went away.

“Fix her. You can do that right? You have to fix her.” I heard her demand.

Quiet.

“Lady Aubrey?” Bool said.

“I cannot!” A loud sound made my eyes snap shut and there was quiet.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

“They have forbidden me. . .We need water. Cold-no, hot water. And towels, as many as you can find.”

“Momma.” I moaned again.

“Oh, my little Delpha,” She cried and I felt her hands cradle my face. “You're burning up. . .”

“Delpha’s outside. I heard her. Delpha’s outside on the hill." I told her.

“Idensyn. . .” Anna said from somewhere close. I wanted to see her but I was too tired to open my eyes again.

Quiet.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

“Forgive me, mothers,” My mother sighed. I felt her kiss my forehead. “It is time to go to sleep, my little Delpha. Goodnight and sweet dreams. Tell her goodnight, Anna. She needs to sleep now.”

“Goodnight, Autumn.” Anna said.

Thump. Thump. Thump. My heart beat on.

Thump. Thump.

Thump.

“Goodnight.”