Page 130 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
And where I had feared and dreaded this goodbye, peace swept in unexpectedly. The peace settled over my minds and heart, and when I touched upon my soul, I found the child of me staring at her mother.
The child lifted her little hand in farewell.I’ll miss you, Mommy.
I whispered, “Goodbye, Mother.”
Mother touched her heart, and then turned to stride through the meadow and away.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Only as we had ever done.
Iwas ripped savagely back into the cave of five soldiers.
“Perantiqua!” See was shaking me.
I stilled him with a hand on his forearm, then took a precious blink to absorb the change of things. Evil was nearly through the door. I cast my power wide.
Nearly through the olden rock from where we had come too.
I circled the hole on the ground, and sand was spilling out of it now. Time was up. Our battle was overdue.
The world screamed and writhed, and I lost contact with See. He lunged for me, and I pushed my power outward to force my body toward him.
His arms wrapped around me, and then all the sand that had filled the hole to the center of the world was gone.
We fell.
Evil slickened the walls, surrounding us, and though mypower was no direct defense against ruin, I could still save us for another breath. I blasted my power past my feet and gripped See with iron hands.
We shot down to the infected heart of the world. Black clawed at our feet, and I screamed as it ate at my toes.
See added his power to mine, and we surged faster still. I could only fathom that our battle awaited us at the world’s core, but getting there felt steadily less possible.
I choked as black ate away at my legs, and my gaze locked with See’s.
We stared at each other, and the fullness of our union and everything we were and had been to one another was so tangible. With that force, I summoned every shred of my power and released it in a soundwave and a boom.
My mind could not fathom the speed.
Our movement arrested, and there was no pain. I peered around and over my shoulder, and nothing more or less than a pure and shining light had caught us.
Blackness hissed and clawed at the light, but inside the bubble of my mother’s vibrancy, there was only softness and warmth.
A candle burned at the center of the world, and its light flickered, then grew stronger. The candle itself did not grow, but there was no need for that when the flame curling upward radiated such impossible warmth.
Warmth in my heart.
Warmth in my mind and soul.
Mother.
She started to whisper, in her strong and joyful voice, and to my ears, she recited every memory of us. There were our held hands and our cuddles under worn blankets. There were our talks of a different world, and all of our utterings of “I love you.”
My heart swelled so.
With See’s hand in mine, I walked to the candle, and satbefore it. Such warmth, and here I had thought that warmth like this was not possible in monsterdom. See sat behind me, his arms around my middle and his head bent over my shoulder.
Mother’s voice swelled.
