Page 71 of Of Sockets Of Stitches
The way was blocked.
And here, so close to freedom, I had been. Sickness had cut me off, and what now? I would be dragged back to its lair and devoured and feasted upon.
The world would end.
My power was of no use here, but my mind held great value and my body also.
I screamed my rage at the black wall separating me from my champions, and then—quite simply—hoping that this villain had been arrogant in the thickness of its blockade, I employed the use of my bobbing powers to blink six feet ahead.
I reappeared in the night, and out of a tunnel. Champions fell back as I landed.
No amount of this ruinous villain could hold backthisqueen. I twitched my trench coat back into place. “I prefer the other method of travel.”
The tunnel through the world sealed over, and the bubbling black was gone.
“I felt unable to travel any other way, my queen. A greatforce overtook me.” Duchess Raise was still clutching her husband. They were certainly fused together.
I scanned our surroundings, and bile rose in my throat as the putrid smell of rot registered. Princess Bring clung to Princess Change. We stood on an island in the middle of a sea of black. Of pus. Of infection.
“This is what a frayed seam looks like,” I murmured, switching off my sense of smell. “I had wondered.”
Now I was left to wonder how the heart would appear.
“We are here,” I said. “And are my champions prepared?”
“Prepared and daunted,” said Princess Take grimly. “We must defeat this at some point.”
Her connection echoed my own, and that of other champions. Operating through power and purpose, the three princesses surrounded the duke and duchess.
As soon as they had contact with the couple, their power pulsed out in a barrier that I could not have replicated even if my power was ten times stronger.
The black sea surrounding us started to ripple and bubble. Viscous mucous splattered upward from the agitated black to hit the barrier.
“I begin,” I said. “Duchess Raise, Duke Raise, do what you feel called to do against this ruin. Here is your monstrous purpose. Here is why you were made. Your love, your acceptance and uniquity—which is everything that humans could not achieve—is the antidote. Your union is strong, and now you will heal it entirely forevermore. This is what we do this night.”
“Yes, my queen,” said the duchess. “We are ready.”
That was well because as soon as I touched the stitch on my shoulder, I expected that a wave of black unlike anything we had experienced would attack.
I drew my power forth despite myself, and in my mind, I then dove into the stitch on my right shoulder.
There was an instant to see that the world had been erased,blackened. So instantly and completely, and then all I could do was fulfillmyrole as quickly as possible.
Mother.
The mother of the stitch was Richalle. Hurt and betrayal from her daughter’s abandonment had hardened this mother’s enormous heart. And so Richalle had rubbed and rubbed at her heart until it calloused.
I had dragged this mother, screaming, to be stitched. But I could not do that now. This mother must fight of her own accord. “Richalle, you have withered for this world. You have existed in turmoil in death. Your reconciliation with your daughter… too brief. I would give you more time. I would ask no more of my mothers, for my heart weeps for each goodbye.”
“Yet the world needs more of me,” Richalle answered.
She was stitched in vigil, but I could not see any of the other mothers. “Will you do this?”
“Only if this is the end, Daughter. I might have happily existed with my daughter in deathly vigil, but I will be equally happy to die in truth now that I am healed in heart and at peace with my Yasmin.”
Tears flowed over my cheeks. “This is the end, Mother. I rejoice that you feel all that you do at your end. Thank you for all you have endured.”
Richalle stood from vigil, and in my body, I felt her stitch loosen from my shoulder. She walked free of the mothers beside her. “I endured it for myself. For my daughter. For respect of the mothers before and after me. Rejoice, but do not feel remorse. My heart is full, and how many might say that and mean it?”
