Loretta of the Lamp - The Fallout

We are all afraid to die

It was the heat that woke her. That combined with the tingle across her body telling her it was Akil's arms she lay in. It was enough to calm her waking. He had to realise she was awake, but he said nothing. He knew how exhausted and drained she was, and she was thankful that he let her continue to rest in that moment, absorbing the warmth of his body crushed against hers.

But it was over too soon. The heat grew and grew until it would have been considered unbearable except that Loretta knew exactly where they were, and why she would be able to bear it. She opened her eyes, expecting to see the plateau around them milling with children. They were on the top of the ziggurat, but there were no children. The landscape was entirely bare, and the furnace burned hotter than it had when Loretta had walked out of it before. Sparks flew and whipped across the plateau, driven by the rage in the mouth of the furnace, they scorched the stones of the ziggurat and burned anything they touched. Smoke billowed around them as the Djin king smiled at his success.

Akil gently set Loretta down on her feet. "Where are your soldiers now?" she asked.

"I don't need them Loretta. They would die if they came this close. Since you walked out of the mountain, the flames have never burned so fierce."

She smiled sardonically at him, though she wondered if it looked more like a grimace.

He smirked back, and gestured for them to walk first into the flames. She shrugged and strode forward, not prepared to show him that she was afraid, or that she needed to know for sure that Akil would fall into step beside her. She needn't have worried, Akil caught her hand and stepped into the flames behind her. She felt the heat, and she felt the pain, but she didn't burn. The pressure of Akil's hand gave her the strength to keep walking, even when she felt his grip weaken as he too struggled to manage the pain.

"I embrace you," she whispered to the fire, knowing she was probably a little insane for saying it, but there is little room on the doorstep of the end of your life to care whether you are sane or not.

The world turned, and they were on the highest peak of the mountain looking down on the barren land of smoke around them.

Loretta inhaled the sickly sweet fumes of incense and instantly felt the call to sleep, but she fought it off. "Lead the way," she bowed mockingly for the Djin king to go on ahead, despite Akil's restraining squeeze of her hand.

"Remember what I said, my sweet one," he replied, the benign layer of smile never leaving his face. I can end his life with a click of my fingers. His words reverberated inside her mind. She gritted her teeth and glared at him as Akil took the lead down the narrow and winding path off the peak.

Her feet grew heavy as they walked, each step a burden, each time she lifted her foot it felt like she lifted a block of lead with her. Akil kept her close, willing her the strength to keep going and widening the space between her and the king as much as he could. It annoyed her that he seemed so unaffected no matter what happened. He just kept going. Loretta had never had the desire to 'just keep going'.

The king was so confident of his control over them that he did not even look back when he passed them and pushed on ahead. With the blood magic protecting him, there was nothing Akil or Loretta could have done to harm him.

"You know," he said to them over his shoulder, "the beauty of the curse I have prepared for you, is that you are not going to die." He did look back now to smile once, "I think I have made you bleed enough," he added. "I'm going to send you back to your world, Loretta. Both you and Akil, I will send you back, and the door that your father opened will finally be shut."

"You don't know anything about my father," Loretta hissed.

"I think by now you suspect I do," he said, matter-of-factly.