“We drink, together,” she said.“For our health, and your health, and the new one’s health.”
“What is this?”I asked.
“Just drink the soup,” Clemenza said, a worried look on her face.
“Not until you tell me what’s happening,” I said.
“We have met here, in the Tower, at last,” the Hag said.“We three; and of course, we.”
I closed my eyes, sitting down and clutching at my head.
“I’ve got the worst sense of déjà vu,” I said.“What are we doing here, Clemenza?Where are the others?”
“The men who tried to climb the tower,” the Hag said, and she hacked a putrid laugh.“They are as the beacons outside are—aflame.Adding their power to the barrier that keeps the Boughs of Heaven in check.”
“I need someone to explain to me what’s happening,” I said.“Clemenza.Why did you melt those people?”
“I didn’t!”she said.“Someone must have stolen my appearance.I did steal the Dragon’s Eye, though.I was worried about what Dr.Kaz was getting up to with it.”
“I’m having trouble believing that,” I said.
“Look,” Clemenza said.“You remember what we talked about?The Imperium?There’s a myth to it, and a reality behind it.The truth of the matter is.I think Dr.Kaz had engineered that formula herself.She was trying to trigger something to come about.We’ve all heard the rumors about your birthmark, Stacey.”
“It’s just a birthmark,” I said.
“Nay,” the Hag interjected.“We are the Keepers of this White Tower—and We know the Kiss of the Goddess more than most.See?”
She exposed a bit of her sleeve.I could see it—the same shape, the same size.Another almost identical birthmark.
“We are alike, you and we,” the Hag said.“Both of us keeping the Beacons alight to keep the Boughs in check.”
“What are you rambling about?”I asked.
“The Emperor lay at the top of the Tree,” the Hag said.“Asleep ever on his Golden Throne.Meanwhile his attendants stir and wonder what they must do to rouse their Lord from slumber.They machinate, they conspire.They descend to the worlds below, curating and selecting the most flawless of souls they can fashion into trinkets for their Emperor.All in hopes their tributes may stir him once again, so that he may hold Dominion over all the Tree.”
“The moon, then,” I said.“In my dreams.I see it turn into—into God, or something.”
“Yes,” the Hag said.“Holiest of Fires, Creator of Light.Yet he scorches, and the Mother Earth herself sends her healing darkness to temper us, to ensure we can withstand the merciless beating of the sun’s rays.Our task is to hold up the firmament here—to awaken the Beacons, to add their power, to ensure we do what we must in here and out there, in every world, to ensure the Boughs of Heaven grow no closer.”
“This is what Dr.Kaz was trying to show you,” Clemenza said.“This is the Keeper of the Tower.She stays here, to watch over it, while whoever else has the Moon Kiss works in their realm.It’s a piece of a puzzle, Stacey.It’s a mantling process.I don’t care about the Imperium.All I know is this is part of the cycle they’re trying to harness.A new Avatar comes to stop Heaven from coming closer to Earth.”
“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” I said.“I want off this ride.”
“Then you doom us all,” the Hag said.“You doom us!We will all be but sparkling diamonds screeching from the encrusted grip of the Emperor!”
“Where are my friends?”I asked.
The Hag shook her head.
“You would choose them?”she asked.“You would sacrifice the Tree itself to save them?You would deny the destiny imposed on thee by thy mark?”
The Hag stood up, her ratty gown flowing as if shadow at her ankles.
“You will come to understand one day the foolishness of this decision,” she said.“You will come crawling back—back to the Firmament, back to the Veil that holds back the Bough.You will scream in anguish when you see what you have released, insolent, idiotic girl!”
Clemenza got to her feet and threw her soup at the Hag.It hissed as it smacked against the wall behind the old woman, eating straight through the stone.
“Drawn here by Four Flames,” the Hag said.“You could come, cloister here.Learn all there is to learn.I beg of you.Come to stay.We shall be comrades.”
