When I had first learned of the nine punishments that had been hung around my neck like a loose noose, everything I did had been marked by the constant threat of the rope tightening around my throat.

If Anna made me laugh with a story about her and Arthur when they were little children? My breath would run short because my next thought would be the recognition that I could be plucked from the happy moment with no warning. On our first day in the manor, when my new prison was large enough compared to the closet my mother and I had lived in for as long as I could remember that I had spent the first hour running in circles within the walls, my excitement had lasted only for an hour because I had remembered that my leash had been loosened but not removed. Any of the sunlit lunches I had shared with my mother in between memories had been quiet and calm moments that again, could be taken from me at the first whim of The Mothers and I would be powerless to prevent it.

That had been months ago and with all that happened since the start of Amoranora, it had been so easy to let myself forget it.

Too easy, it had been too easy because I was a silly little girl.

I could not breathe. Despite my mother’s embrace, every part of me felt cold and distant.

“Come, little Delpha. You must not make her wait.” My mother said, gently turning me to the door.

She was right, I knew it, but I could not make myself participate in the movement.

Two separate truths showed themselves to be equals in my mind. I must not make The Brown Mother wait, but I also could not go.

I had plans.

I had a date.

One truth meant much more to me than the other.

“No.” I refused and dropped to the ground just before I was taken outside.

Through the open door, I could see the black gate that had seemingly sprouted out of the rain soaked ground. Something dark, a human shape in the loosest sense, crawled through my line of sight. For a brief moment, I thought it to be one of the lich’s creatures like the disgusting hand monsters that had had come for me behind the boarding house, but then I realized I knew what I was looking at.

It had been through the eyes of someone in a memory, but I had seen the strange shape before.

Covered in uncountable layers of shredded and tattered fabric, I understood that I was looking at a gatekeeper.

“Autumn. You do not have a choice,” My mother pleaded and placed her hands on me without actually hauling me up. “She will be merciful. They have been nothing but that towards you.”

“If she wants to punish me so badly, she can drag me through that fucking gate herself.” I insisted, keeping my eyes on the portal that I would absolutely not be crossing through.

Arthur, evidently awake again, cleared his throat behind me. “Who are these people? Are they like queens or something?”

“No,” My mother answered him. “The closest term that mortals use is ‘God’, but unlike what you all think of when I say that, they live among us and shape our reality with their will. The ground you stand on, the rain that falls from the sky, the sun that will return after Patience’s night, all of it is held up and shaped by The Mother in Red’s might and she is but one of nine.”

Ms. Lao spoke to her son. “What happened to you? Why did you faint?”

“What will happen if she refuses to go?” Anna asked.

“They could take her from us, leave her mindless, or execute her. Nothing is beyond their reach,” My mother spoke with the same terrifying tone she had used the night on the bridge. “Which is why you must go, daughter. Face her proudly and accept what she delivers you. That is all you can do.”

I looked at everyone who had gathered around me. The guard, my mother, Ms. Lao, everyone I could see had their eyes focused on me with worried expressions.

What the fuck were they worried for? I had already told them that I would not be going.

“Autumn.” My mother said my name again.

“No,” I repeated. “I have a date. She will have to send for me at another time.”

Again, I looked at the gate. The last time I had crossed through one I had lost three days of my life and not known it until it was over. The gatekeeper came shambling out from behind it, crawling on its hands and feet despite the rain. I could not remember who I had been when I had first laid eyes on the repulsive figure, but she had been disgusted by the sight of it.

I found myself in agreement with whoever she was. Was there really a person beneath the heap of tattered fabric? The sight of it was enough alone to make me want to shut it away and try my best to forget that it existed.

My focus was so complete that I did not notice my mother standing and Anna kneeling down in front of me until she put her hands on my shoulders.

“Hey, look at me.” She began.

I did as I was told.

“This is bullshit, but everything's gonna be okay, alright? I’ll be right here when you get back and we will go on our date.” She looked just as worried as everyone else did, but there was something else in her eyes.

“This is bullshit.” I sighed, repeating her words and blinking the moisture out of my eyes.

“Whatever happens, I will be here.” She insisted.

I had to go. I knew I had to go from the beginning. Anything else except had been a fantasy to protect myself from the terrible unknown I was about to walk into. But, the something in Anna’s eyes, whatever it was, gave me the strength to face my reality without the fantasy. I believed her when she said she would be here. No matter the state I returned in, after all we had been through, I knew that she would take me however I came. That surety, that belief, made it possible for me to continue.

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“Promise?” I asked her, more out of a desire to touch her one more time before I went than it was a need for reassurance, and stuck out my pinky to perform the hand shake she had taught me.

In front of her mother and mine, Arthur and the guard, Sam and the gatekeeper waiting for me outside, Anna took my face in her hands and kissed me softly.

“I promise.” She whispered, withdrawing from me and pulling me up with her.

Something brushed against my leg and I looked down to see Sam slink past me and place himself between my path and the gatekeeper, his presence much more intimidating than it had been days before.

With my heart pounding for more reasons than one and my familiar standing guard against the unsettling presence that had darkened my door step, I found the strength to move forward and pass through the black gate with no idea what awaited me on the other side.

I stepped through the threshold without looking back, knowing that if I did I might never be convinced to do it again.

Darkness.

Then, I fell.

My hands and knees hit the ground hard, but the drop had not been far enough for it to take more than a few moments for me to collect myself and sit up.

I did, and found myself alone in the strangest place I had ever been, both in the memories of others and my own.

Glass, nothing but glass, stood around me. Four massive panes narrowed from their base until they met at a point above me. Each surface was so clear that if it were not for the near infinite stars that shimmered in the dark sky outside of the structure, they almost would have seemed nonexistent. The same material lay underneath me. I sat atop a raised section in the center that dropped down to the bottom and gave a clear view of dark shapes that I thought to be sweeping dunes of sand.

The structure hung in the air with no support.

Through the black gate I had stepped and fallen into a pyramid of perfect glass that seemingly existed under its own power

Not its own power. . . Her power. I thought, knowing that must be the case.

My greatest feat with my power had been holding a full bottle of wine.

I closed my eyes and pictured the strong, calm, face of The Mother in Brown. The only time I had seen her, she had been trying to end a brawl that had broken out between the other Mothers. I had not known what to imagine my punishment from her would be like, but why would I be brought to a place that was so undeniably beautiful? Surely some dark corridor filled with sharp and painful things would be a better setting for my punishment.

It did not bring me any peace that the place I was in was not a torture chamber. In fact, the opposite was true. The inexplicable place I had arrived in did nothing but make my mind run wild with the near infinite pains that possibly awaited me.

Her name. What was her name? I thought, trying to slow my speeding heart enough that I could think. If I knew her name, could say it to her face when she arrived, maybe she would be impressed and take mercy on me. Or maybe, I just wanted to know it because it would give me some small comfort.

Nami, Ola. . . I found no luck, only being able to remember the first two names from my list no matter how many times I repeated it. A terrible thought crossed my mind. What if she didn’t arrive? What if my punishment had already begun and I had been too slow to realize it. If she meant for me to sit alone in the suspended prison with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, how long would it take for me to forget how long I had been there?

“Hello?” I called out, my voice echoing off the glass surrounding me.

From nothing, dust came.

First, a handful of motes danced into the air from the transparent floor. Glittering and gold, more came, rising into a mound before being caught by some unfelt wind and taking flight. The golden spiral spun fast and taller and wider until the flecks of gold began stinging my cheeks as they whipped by.

I fell back onto my ass and covered my face with one hand and kept my dress from blowing up with the other.

An outline took shape in the golden storm.

Black sandaled feet came first, so thin that I could see the bones standing against skin on the top of them. As the dust spun, they gave way to long legs the color of torch light reflected in polished bronze. Thin, slender hands formed within the dust and the fingers of the left hand rolled endlessly in a wave. A pitch black robe that bore only a right sleeve billowed out and streams of gold broke from the storm at the direction of one of her fingers. The streams flowed over the robe, trimming its edges and painting its surface in intricate patterns.

I cast my eyes down. I could not bear to watch any longer. The little I had seen of her was terrifying and bone chillingly beautiful. It hurt me, somewhere deep in my heart, to see something so. . .perfect and know that I would be punished by her.

The dust slowed and settled to the ground and I could do nothing but listen as she took slow steps towards me.

Nami, Ola, Aster. . .

“You will look at my eyes now.” She spoke.

I would have done it on my own, her voice alone could have made stone flow like water if she commanded it, but she didn’t give me the chance.

An overwhelming force pressed underneath my chin and snapped my head up to her.

Irises the color of liquid gold burned down at me. Every sharp and graceful angle of her face was locked into an expression that expressed her superiority and unimaginable power.

Truly, I had never feared anything more in my life. Truly, I had never been so enthralled by anything. Truly, I had never wanted to be something more than I wanted to be here.

The second I met her eyes, words slipped through my lips before I could realize I was speaking it. “You're not Constance.”

She was tall, at least as tall as Arthur, and thin like a blade. Sleek black hair framed her face sharply, ending in a taper that hung just below her jaw at its longest point. Starting just below her left ear, a complex pattern of black lines, none of them curved or rounded, cascaded down her neck and spread over the perfect skin of her exposed shoulder before they continued down to her fingertips. Fingertips, that twitched violently at the sound of my voice.

“You will not speak again unless I compel you to.” The Mother that was not Constance commanded.

Her words became true in the same way that my lungs needing air was true merely by speaking it.

I would not speak again unless she compelled me to.

“I am Mother Azza, I will punish you for your crimes.” Mother Azza spoke, the force of her gaze threatening to break me against the glass beneath me.

It could have been moments just as easily as it could have been hours, but the last time I had been seen by others, their expressions had been filled with worry. They had worried for me because they cared about me. For different reasons and in much different ways, yes, but from my own mother to Anna to the guard Bool, each of them had a reason to be concerned for me. My mother was the easiest to identify. She was my mother after all. Anna was. . . what word had she used? Girlfriend. Anna was my girlfriend, as insufficient as the word felt. It was also easy to understand why she cared. Even the guard, who would be out of the job if he was not tasked with protecting the city from me, I could understand the reason for his concern.

Despite her elegant face and the graceful way she stood, from the moment I met her eyes, an undeniable truth presented itself to me. The emotion in her eyes was not care or concern, it was not even anger or fury.

The Mother in Brown, Mother Azza, one of the nine most powerful souls in all of chaos, looked down at me with nothing but pure hatred.

And I was set to be punished by her.

Anna waiting for me to return would mean little if I never made it back to the manor overlooking Erosette.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, but found that I was no longer capable of making that decision for myself.

Her words had become reality.

“Now, it is time to begin.” Mother Azza spoke as she turned and left me clutched in her unseen power.