Chapter Twenty-Four: Gateway

“Sophia…” a voice called to me. 

I knew that voice from somewhere… but where?

Was this the Netherworld?

It was not how I remembered.

The first thing I felt was warmth.  A sweet, soothing warmth that wrapped around me and made all the pain fade away.  Silk caressed my skin and cradled me in its embrace.  I took a steady breath in, and I tasted honey on my lips.  Music drifted through my ears, and I stirred, sighing with the sheer beauty of it.  It was like a chorus of a thousand breathtaking voices, and I could not only hear it, but feel it and smell it, a kaleidoscope of sensation and sound.

Sophia…” the voice called to me again.

That voice…

It was strong and smooth, and it beckoned me back to a time before prophecy, before war, and before dragons.  It called me back to the days where I would lie curled in front of the hearth with The Illiad.  Safe, happy, and held in the unshakable arms of the first person that I had ever loved.

Mother…”  I murmured, turning over.

The aching in my muscles was gone.  My skin had never felt so clean.  I felt as new as a babe, as fresh as morning dew, and as beautiful as the sunrise.

I was not a ghost.  This was not the Netherworld.

My eyes shot open and I bolted upright.  The tresses of my hair fluttered around my shoulders, so light and airy that I had to resist reaching up to touch them.  Color and light flooded every inch of my vision, and as I opened my eyes wider, blinking in disbelief, the image only came more into focus.

There she stood.  Her wrinkles and scars were gone.  Her eyes were a brighter gold than I remembered, and her skin glowed with an inner light.

She smiled, and her golden eyes sparkled with love.  “Sophia.”

My lips trembled.  I had a fleeting thought that I must be dreaming, that it was impossible for her to be standing before me now.  But every sense I had was singing with the music, sighing with the warmth, and dancing with the colors, all the while screaming, Real!  Real!  REAL! 

Nothing in my life had ever felt as real as this.

“Mother?” I asked, and the sound of my own voice startled me.  It was my voice, but feathery and elegant.  Not the voice of a woman who had ever screamed in pain or wept in anguish, but clean and unbroken.  New, like everything else.

“Welcome home, Sophia.”  My mother said, and she held out her arms.

I launched from the silken covers of the bed where I lay and wrapped my arms around her.  I wanted to weep, but the joy bubbling up inside me could not allow for tears.  I buried my face in her long, golden hair and breathed in her scent.  She smelled like spice.  Like sunlight in the center of a storm.  Like home.

“I have missed you…”  I sighed, “So… so much.”

“It is all right now.”  she replied, rubbing my back.  “I am here.”

I lifted my head and looked into her eyes.  “I have so much to tell you!  I have a husband… and children!  You would love them…”

Mother’s smile only widened.  “I have seen them.  And I already love them.”

My brow furrowed.  “But… how?”

Mother nodded over her shoulder.  A massive bronze gate stood in the center of the rolling hills.  I stepped towards it, and a cold wind swept my hair back over my shoulders. 

Looking into the gate was like staring into a well and trying to see the bottom.  The Netherworld hung over the earth like an ink-black shadow, twisting and changing with every ripple that ran over its surface.  If I blinked, I thought maybe I could see the people who still lived.  But their images were wrapped in a bleak fog, and the vivid colors of the reality around me called my eyes back to them.

I shivered, stepping back from the gate and into the meadow’s warm embrace. 

“It seems so small.”  I whispered.

Mother laughed.  “That is because it is small.  Everything is small in the face of eternity.”  She held out her arms again.  “Come, beloved!  There is so much you must see!”

I laughed along with her, and wrapped my arms around her again.  In life, when I held her in my arms for the last time, she seemed as though she might crumble into dust.  Now, her shoulders felt stronger than steel. 

I felt a chill against my back.  Mother unwound her arms from me, and stepped away.  Her smile was gone.  I turned my head.

Light shined out from the gate.  It was an empty light.  The rays that brushed against my skin felt cold.  Still, it seemed to reach straight for me.

“Reece has cast the sunlight charm.”  Mother said.

I held my hand out into the light.  “He did it.”

Mother nodded her head once.  “Yes.  He has illuminated a path for you, straight through the Netherworld.  If you pass through the gate, you will be able to return to Earth and live again.”

           

I pulled my hand back and frowned.  “I could go back?”

Mother’s expression did not change.  “If you so choose.”

I stared into the gate.  The longer I looked, the more it seemed the light shining from within it was darker than the world that surrounded me.  A small part of me thought of Reece and the children, but my heart did not ache for them.  It could not ache, it was too full of happiness to allow room for sadness.  How could the pain of tearing myself from this place ever compare to the tiny hollow thought of missing them?

And Mother…

“Come with me.”  I whispered.

She shook her head.  “No, Sophia.  I am at rest here.   This is the place I belong.  You belong here too, Sophia.”

I breathed in, drinking in the honeyed air and letting it warm my heart.  Butterflies with breathtaking iridescent wings danced on the breeze with music that I could see, music that shimmered like starlight on the ocean waves.  Mother was here, a thousand times more vibrant and alive than she had ever been in her youth.  I breathed in again, and closed my eyes.  This place was perfect, and in it, I was whole and new again.  Yes, I belonged here.

But, standing in the shadow of the gate, one dark memory echoed in the back of my mind.

Black mist.  An endless corridor.  The smell of ash and rain.

And a thousand other glowing figures in the night.

“Yes.” I said, opening my eyes.  “All souls belong here.  That is why I must return.”

Mother nodded her head once.  I walked into the light of the gate, still looking back over my shoulder at her.  With every step I took, she seemed to move miles and miles away.  The warmth in the center of my chest faded, as though a candle next to my heart had slowly gone out.

“Goodbye, Mother.” I said, my voice shaking.

Mother shook her head.  “No, Sophia.  This is not goodbye.  This is not the end.  We will see each other again.”

Her words gave me the courage to take the final step across the threshold.

A sob shuddered through my voice. “I will miss you every day until I do.”

It felt like falling.  As soon as my feet left the soft ground of home, they were swept away.  The cold seemed to penetrate straight through my flesh and burn away all sense of feeling.  The color drained from my outstretched fingers until all that was left was a hollow, golden shell.  Flames lapped at the surface of my skin, but I felt nothing.

Beneath me, ash and fog swirled around my feet like a rushing river.  Each step felt like dragging my legs through tar.  The path twisted and turned in circles.  Shadowy archways and corridors flew by my head, and other ghosts flickered in the darkness that lay on either side of me. 

But I kept my eyes on the light just ahead, and I kept my hand stretched out towards it.

The mist at my feet crept up higher.  The stone walls on either side of me grew blacker.  The numbness in my skin sunk down into the core of my soul until I felt nothing and heard nothing.  Even the light ahead of me dimmed.

Then, I awoke.

The dark and dreamless void was gone.  A pair of turquoise eyes stared down at me. 

Hot tears ran down his cheeks.  He let out a shaking breath and pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms so tight around me that I felt I could not breathe.  And I did not want to.

“I told you I would just bring you back.”  He whispered.

“Mommy!”  Evangeline cried.

She launched herself at me, burrowing through Reece’s arms to curl in my lap.  I laughed, clutching her shoulders and pressing my tear-streaked cheek into her hair.

We stayed locked in each other’s arms for an eternity, crying and whispering ‘I love yous’ until the sun rose.

Down in the catacombs, Orland had gained the upper hand over what was left of the Lucian coven.  

While a number of the Lucians were captured and successfully imprisoned, one figurehead was notably missing.

Gaia had escaped.

Even more disturbing, the tome with the Apocalypse Curse scrawled across its pages had vanished, and Constantine's broken body had not been left behind.

For the moment, the Lucians that were left were quiet.  The cold war that had raged for decades fell into an eerie silence.

The bodies were buried and the rubble was cleared.  Orland and Eldora began preparations for the trials of the captured Lucians.  Hale and Nirina set about planning their wedding.  I returned to work.  Things seemed to be back to normal.

 But inside my mind, a plan was taking shape.  I had a new mission to complete.

One morning, weeks later, I walked into Tome Traders.  Mr. Peters beamed the instant he saw me, and rushed out from behind the counter.

“‘Eyes that fire and sword have seen, And horror in the halls of stone, Look at last on meadows green, And trees and hills they long have known.’  It is wonderful to see you, my lady!  My humble bookshop is honored by your presence.”

“Oh please, Mr. Peters!”  I laughed and hugged him.  When I let go, I looked down at the ground and spoke in a low voice.  “I require your help again.”

Mr. Peters nodded his head and touched his hand to his heart.  “Anything you ask, my dear.”

“I need to find Philosopher Stones.”

Mr. Peter’s mouth twisted.  “Philosopher Stones?  Those… those are difficult to come by.  How many do you need?”

“As many as I can find.”