Loretta of the Lamp - The Fallout

Live it again, all in exsquisite pain

"Loretta! Loretta dearest, are you awake? Can you hear me?"

Loretta knew she was awake. She'd been in and out of consciousness all day. She'd heard people yelling and jeering at her, spitting out names like 'whore', 'traitor', 'thief'. The people of Misbah had no idea what crimes had left her chained up and exposed as she was, but that wasn't about to stop them having their fill of mockery and slander.

She'd had plenty time to absorb and understand the world around her in between dodging rotten food and lewd remarks. This involved knowing that she was chained to the top of one of three platforms that spanned the wide road from the gates to the top of the city. The stone platform on the far side was identical to the one she was tied to, built of yellow stone with a raised totem in the centre, empty chains dangling from the top of it. The carving on the totem portrayed heads of the Jin, piled on top of each other and screaming in agony.

The centre platform was different altogether. From Loretta's first sluggish gaze it was the same as the other two platforms, but with no totem in the centre, only a flat brown surface. The stones could have been brown naturally, but the slick of stains that trailed over the sides of the platform and spread down toward the bottom stairs as the stench rose toward Loretta's nostrils told her something entirely different and terrible. The stones had once been the same yellow as the other two platforms. Her mind wandered, her ears were too well attuned to the sound of the flies that swarmed over it. She knew she had to focus on the voice in front of her, the familiar voice.

"Hess," she croaked through dry lips.

"Heeey–"

"Hess, you can't be here, you shouldn't be."

"I know Loretta, beautiful girl, I know."

Loretta forced open her one good eye. The right hand side of her face had swollen so much that she couldn't focus properly on what she saw, but Hess was there, kneeling on the other side of the flames.

Though her vision through the flames was blurred, she could see Hess smile at her, a sad, wistful smile that made Loretta frown. It hurt to frown. She could also see the two men who stood there holding Hess down by her arms.

"Hess," she tried to force her other eye open, and pushed herself up straighter.

Behind Hess, further down the stair road a growing mass of people were flooding the streets like flocks of sheep over a mountain side. Curious and gathering, more than Loretta had ever seen in one place within the lamp.

"Loretta. I want to know that you won't blame yourself, or anyone else."

There were people everywhere.

"Hess!" Loretta could hear cracks in her voice.

Hess continued, "We were on a path that we couldn't stop, it's true right? That fate is a wheel and once it starts turning you can't just get off."

People were chanting and jeering, the crowd growing larger and larger as their shouts drew more attention. The men who held Hess down made no attempt to interrupt her conversation with Loretta.

"Hess, I don't understand."

"Tell me you'll see it through. Not for me, not for you, and not for vengeance. Tell me in the end that we'll have done it for the helpless, for them." Hess looked over her shoulder at the crowds spilling down the stairs behind her.

"Hess, please! I can't see properly! Tell me what is happening." Loretta was hysterical, but there was nothing for it.

Hess wouldn't answer her directly. "Do me one more favour Loretta," she asked, never breaking eye contact.