Both dragons raised their heads high, yet kept looking down at her. They both said in unison, “We deem you ready to receive judgement, Roxie Lohr.” They lifted their paws and the way was clear.
“Enter, little one,” the male said gently. “Steel yourself for this trial so you may embrace your task.”
Relief washing over her, Roxie began walking forward but stopped when the female spoke.
“But be warned, once you enter, there is no turning back. There is only one way out.”
“Up.”
“Good luck.”
Swallowing, Roxie gave the darkness a second look. If this leg of her journey was a one-way path as well, then so be it. She’d made it this far without turning around. She could go a little farther. “Thank you.”
“Welcome to Chthonian Mountain,” the male said. Both dragons straightened their legs, pressed their necks to the mountain, and became still as statues.
Roxie stepped inside with one hand on her hilt and her heart pounding. The smell of dirt, rock, and water filled the darkened air. Thrilled and relieved as she was, she felt afraid of this unknown place and the god she was about to meet.
Once inside, it suddenly became pitch black, as if someone had thrown a hood over her eyes. She turned around but there was no sign of the entrance; just blackness. She wiped her eyes, just in case, but there was nothing covering them. She reached out, felt cold rock greet her hands, and flinched. That space had been open air a moment ago. She tentatively reached again and found the same solid rock.
They really hadn’t been kidding about not being able to go back.
Chapter 22
Specters
Taking a deep breath, Roxie faced the darkness and used her mind vision, casting her surroundings in an outline of grey and white images, like someone had done a pencil drawing of the place. A broad stairway spiraled up along the circumference of the space she stood in, with a featureless slab of rock lining the stairs like a thick bannister. The stairs were smooth and even, and the rest of the space was empty.
Roxie approached the stairs and gazed up them. A white outline of a ceiling two floors up blocked her view of what lay deeper inside the mountain’s heart. She felt like she stood at the beginning of a video game dungeon, with a bunch of monsters waiting for her to get close enough to attack. She began climbing the stairs anyway. With all she’d been through, she could handle a few bosses.
Up. That was the only way out, so up she went, jogging up the steps one at a time, figuring she’d slow down if she got tired. Training for the race on Sconda had boosted her stamina, in addition to her speed, and getting used to the enhanced gravity on Druconica had made her even stronger. She figured that, with both pieces of training combined with Frava, she’d be able to climb a mountain of stairs no problem. The stairway wasn’t wide enough for her to stretch her wings, so ground-bound it was.
A handful of energy sprites darted out of a hole in the wall and sped towards Roxie. She blinked and stopped using her mind vision as the sprites bathed her and the stairway in a soft white light. One orb floated ahead, as if to show her the way. Their company eased her nerves a little. It was nice to not feel like the only thing in the mountain.
The stone steps were a puzzle-work of flattened rocks mortared together. Every last stone was uniformly spaced out and lined with a precise amount of mortar. The level of precision amazed her. Thanatos really cared about this place; it wasn’t just some creepy passageway meant to unnerve souls seeking judgement.
Roxie reached a round, empty chamber, and the sprites spread into the room. As she climbed the last step, a lone figure walking away from her manifested, a tall, slender male with orange hair that stood up like fire. She gasped. “Yayu!” She’d forgotten all about being able to see him in spirit here.
Yayu spun at the sound of his name. Roxie ran over and hugged him. He was freezing cold, like Aerigo and the rest, but she didn’t care.
Yayu pried her arms off and looked at her with a studious gaze.
Roxie stepped back, confused, then realized he’d never seen her with wings and armor. “It’s me, Roxie. I’m still alive. It’s so good to see you again. I’ve missed you.”
His gaze hardened into a severe frown and his normally light eyes turned a stormy grey. Roxie wished he’d smile. That was his default expression in life. Cheerful was natural for him; serious wasn’t. Frowning was so unlike him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Don’t you remember me?”
His eyes narrowed. “You killed me,” he said angrily.
“What?” Did he think she was someone else?
“You and Aerigo both. In that war. Your distractin’ me led to my gettin’ killed. I’d still be alive if it weren’t for you two.”
Roxie stood there, gaping, as memory of the giant snapping turtle-like monsters burst out of the ground and killed Yayu. She’d blanked out the memory so she could focus on Nexus. Now that she recalled Yayu getting shaken like a dog’s toy, she wanted to hug him again. But apparently he hated her now. How could he say such a thing, much less believe it? “We weren’t trying to get you killed. Why would we want to?”
“I don’t know. I thought we were friends. I gave you a Scondish name and so much more.”
“We are friends. Yayu, we didn’t try to get you killed.”
“I don’t believe you.” He drew a pair of curved daggers. “My soul was at peace, until I saw you. I’d accepted my death. But now I don’t.”
Roxie stared, stupefied, as Yayu held his weapons in a reverse grip. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. He had to know he didn’t stand a chance against her. When he came at her, using his Scondish speed, she raised her shield between them. Maybe he didn’t care at this point. His weapons scraped along the metal and fell away, lacking the superhuman strength Aigis had, but his lightning speed made up for it enough to knock her back a step.
Force equals mass times acceleration, one of the few things she remembered from Physics class. While Yayu wasn’t strong, he could compensate with how fast he could move, to an extent. Roxie kept her shield between them as he peppered with her blow after blow, yet she didn’t attack back. Something was pulling him towards the doorway she’d entered. “Yayu, stop! I don’t want to fight you.” Leaning towards her, he said nothing and kept attacking, methodically trying to slip inside her defenses as he fought the pull. “Please stop. This isn’t like you.” This wasn’t like him at all. He was kind, compassionate, and understanding. Even when he’d lost his wife to a water monster, he’d used the experience as a life lesson, a reminder to live every day to the fullest; not go out and kill every last drogue.
Maybe the pull was the wardens removing Yayu from the mountain. He was no longer ready to face Thanatos.
Sekiro’s words about Roxie possibly seeing other souls and that she should just ignore them cropped up in her mind. Roxie had anticipated a queue of ghosts, all waiting their turn to receive judgement; not this. Not someone she knew and cared about trying to hurt her. She couldn’t get over how out-of-character this was for him.
Come to think of it, maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe this was all part of some test to gain an audience with Thanatos. The wardens had tested her. Maybe Thanatos was now. But still, that pull drawing him to the archway...
Keeping up with Yayu’s attacks, she waited for the right moment before throwing all her weight into a shield block. He bounced off and fell sprawled on the floor.
“You’re not the real Yayu, are you?” It was more a statement than question.
The supposedly fake Yayu sprung back to his feet and came at her again, leaning towards her like he was bracing against a heavy wind. She flung out a hand and held him in place with a thought. He froze mid-stride, eyes fixed on her and breathing hard. His armor was torn from a semicircle of bite marks from shoulder to hip, and bloodless gaping wounds filled the holes.
She reached for her sword but didn’t draw it. “Whoever you are, go back and find peace.”
“Not yet. You killed me.”
“No, I didn’t. The sooner you accept that, the better.” She began walking past him. “I have to go, now.”
“Don’t!” the ghost said in Yayu’s voice.
It was such a perfect imitation that her heart wrenched. It hurt to hear such anger and desperation in his voice. She wished she could make the ghost see reason, see how flawed his logic was, but to what point and purpose? Hopefully that wasn’t the real Yayu. He’d never think or do such things. Still, she would have this memory for as long as she lived.
“Don’t leave me, Roxie!”
She tuned him out and an opening formed in the wall as solid rock dissolved into nothing, revealing an archway with stairs leading up. The closer she got to them, the fainter Yayu’s voice grew, and the easier it became to keep walking. She ascended the steps and more sprites flew out of the wall as Yayu’s pleading fell silent. The light behind her went out and she looked over a shoulder. The opening she’d just walked through was no longer there, just like the cave entrance. The sight was disconcerting, but she made herself keep climbing. She had a feeling more confrontations lay ahead and they would only get harder to ignore.
The energy sprites guided her up two more floors of stairs to a chamber directly above the first, also empty, but Roxie hesitated before entering, taking one cautious step at a time.
Roxie stepped inside and a second archway opened up next to the one ahead. A figure jogged up the steps and marched inside. It was a man. It was... “Dad?”
Dad’s face brightened. “Roxie!” He hurried over and wrapped her in an icy hug. “I finally caught up with you.” He let go.
“What are you doing here?”
He smiled. “My soul’s finally found peace, so I went looking for you, but boy were you hard to follow, until you came here. You’ve been quite busy.” He started guiding her towards the archway he’d entered.
“Yeah, I have,” she said unhappily. She felt drawn to the archway on the right but her father confidently led her towards the one on the left.
“Now that I’m at peace, I’m free to help your mother, but I need your help. She’s suffering pretty bad.”
“My help?” This couldn’t be right. “I’m not a Numina.” She stopped.
Dad stopped and looked at her. “You’re her daughter. That means you can help/”
“I already tried and it didn’t go over well.”
“So I heard,” he said with a frown. “But the two of us working as a team should make all the difference. Please help me, Rox. I love your mother very much.” He started guiding her towards the left archway again, slowly.
Roxie let him lead her but she couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that she needed to take the other archway. She halted before the threshold.
Sekiro’s words played in her head over and over. She wouldn’t have given such advice if it weren’t true, much less important. Was this really her father holding her hand?
Just keep going, okay?
Roxie took a deep breath and looked at the stone floor. “I’m sorry. I can’t go with you right now.” She freed her hand, torn between helping her parents or acting for the greater good.
Dad gave her a frown that broke her heart. “But she needs your help. Don’t you love her, too?”
Roxie closed her eyes. “She’s my mom. Of course I do, but I don’t think I’m the one who can help her right now. I have to go.”
“Go where?”
“To stop Nexus and his war. I’m the only one left who stands a chance.”
“And you’re the only one who can help me help your mom. Please, Roxie.”
I can’t be the only one. Was this really her dad, or was this a test, a temptation? Her father seemed at peace and eager to help Mom find peace, but why did he need Roxie now of all times? Maybe this was a fake. She hoped it was.
Putting the needs of others before her own wants, she turned for the right archway and exited the chamber.
“I’m so sorry, Dana,” Dad said and the archway sealed up. Roxie winced and climbed the spiraling stairs, more sprites leading the way. She repeatedly wiped her eyes, until she found the next chamber. Heart heavy, she took a deep breath and entered.
Two archways appeared on the other side, with stairs leading up in opposite directions. Movement in her peripheral made her turn. A dark-skinned woman stood next to her, taking in the room as if she’d never seen it before, a fourth archway behind her. It was Sassy.
Sassy noticed her and went wide-eyed. “Roxie! You’re still here! Do you need help?”
Roxie hesitated. Was this another fake? “What happened to you and Daio? Shouldn’t you two be together?”
“He should be somewhere not far behind.” She stepped farther inside and the archways they’d both come from disappeared, becoming one solid stone wall. Sassy took hold of Roxie’s hand, plunging it in ice, and tugged her towards the other end of the chamber. “Come. Let’s go find Thanatos together.”
Confused, Roxie let Sassy guide her across the room. Roxie wanted to assume this soul holding her hand wasn’t the real Sassy but she had no way of telling. Unlike Yayu and Dad, she was acting like herself, and since Roxie had no way of telling how much time had passed, Sassy could’ve very well have found peace and caught up to her by now.
Sassy guided her to the archway on the left. Why the left? How’d she even pick one already? The closer they got, the stronger a feeling in Roxie’s gut that she shouldn’t go that way. It’d be a mistake. She halted before the archway and gently pulled her hand free.
Sassy scrunched her brows. “What’s wrong?”
“There are two archways. How do you know that’s the right one?” She nodded at the one on the left.
“If you’re to go with me, you have to take this one.” Sassy gestured to it.
“So what about the other one?” Roxie pointed to the one on the right.
“I can’t follow you through that one,” she said unhappily. “That way you have to go alone.”
Roxie didn’t want to be alone but... she was supposed to face Thanatos alone. Sekiro had made that painfully clear.
“Come with me, Roxie.” Sassy held out a hand.
Roxie took a step back, even though her heart reached for the hand. “I don’t think I’m supposed to.”
“Why not? I don’t understand.”
“Sekiro said I have to do this leg of my journey alone. We have to go see Thanatos separately. I’m sorry.”
Sassy gave her a sympathetic smile. “She’s wrong. We can go together. Not only do I want to be with Daio again, I want to come back and be a real mother to you. Would you like that?”
Roxie stood rooted in place. “How...?” She hadn’t said anything to anyone about seeing Sassy as a mother figure.
“Aerigo told us about what your mother did and how she treated you. I would never do such a thing, or be so selfish. Come.” She held out both hands like a mother beckoning her child to come over and hug her.
Roxie swallowed. What would happen if she went through the archway with Sassy? She’d love to have someone like Sassy be a surrogate mother. She seemed loving, honest, and candid, a great combination, but how would Sassy be a mother to her in the next life? Roxie would be older than her next incarnation. That’d be too weird. Was this just a soul giving voice to her wishful thinking?
Her gut gave her the feeling that she was right. This was another test, this time a temptation.
“As much as I’d love to have you as a surrogate mother, I’m going to have to say no. I’m sorry.” She turned to leave.
“Please, Roxie. I want to be your mother.”
Those words cut right to her heart. The real Sassy or not, Roxie went over and hugged her. “Thank you. I really appreciate the gesture, but we have to go our separate ways now. I don’t want to but it’s necessary.” She let go and stepped back.
Eyes watering and glowing, Sassy’s face creased with sorrow. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sorry. My gra
ndmother did a great job of being my mother as well. I’m sure you’d be just as great. You’ll have to have kids in the next life.”
“But I want you as my daughter.”
What to say to that? The loving words made her heart wrench again. “Then consider me your adopted daughter. I’d gladly take on that role. And I’ve gotta go now, Sassy.” She made no move to leave.
Tears rolled down Sassy’s cheeks. “If you believe this is what you must do, then I’ll be a good mother and not get in your way. You’re all grown up and old enough to make informed decisions. I trust you, Roxie, and I love you. Good luck.” She planted a frozen kiss on Roxie’s forehead.
“Thank you,” Roxie said sorrowfully. They held each other’s gaze a moment before she left through the archway on the right. She grimaced when Sassy started crying aloud, but took the stairs one step at a time. Hopefully that hadn’t been the real Sassy, yet at the same time she wanted it to be. Sassy really would’ve made a great surrogate mother.
Darkness and silence fell over her as the archway sealed up. A new cluster of energy sprites emerged from the wall, lighting the way.
How many stairs did she have to climb? How many chambers did she have to cross? How many souls must she walk away from?
The spiraling stairs led to a third chamber and the energy sprites darted inside. Roxie tensed as she passed through the archway. No on awaited her inside, but one corner was cloaked in shadow and the sprites stayed away from it. Roxie eyed the darkness while holding her hilt as she crossed the chamber. This place made her feel like she was being watched.
Once she reached the center of the room, a figure stepped out of the shadows. It was Daio, covered in even more chains. His chin was plastered to coils of chains burying his neck.
Determination Page 28