“I already have friends and a life outside of here,” I said.“I intend to live them, in my way.If the Emperor wakes up on his own.I'll see to him myself.”
The Hag considered this.
“Connived, We did.Drawn by the struggle, and the dimming of the Beacons.Connived, worked with the other—the Doctor woman.Told her that only calamity drives thee forward.That the Flames may die yet if they are not kindled.Drawing you here, that was the plan.”
“Why kill people to do it?”I asked.“Why try and kill me?”
“A test,” the Hag said.“Drink thee the soup.Then thou shalt find thy destiny.If thy stomach bleed, and you yet melt...then yours was not the Moon Kiss.Should you slurp, and should you stay, then the Moon Goddess looks down on you.”
“Fine,” I said.A great fire had surged in my stomach.“I do this.I drink the soup.I live to talk about it?Then you can tell me where my friends are, so I can leave.I’ll do what I can to keep the Flames flickering in the real world.”
“You would stoke their passions, then?”she asked.“All of them?”
“What other choice do I have?”I asked.
The bowl scraped across the table.
“Then drink,” the Hag said, her teeth bared.
I stared at her.Stared at Clemenza.Stared down at the bowl, my chest heaving.
“Does this have gluten in it?”I asked.The Hag snarled.“Okay, okay.”
I picked it up in both hands.Put it to my lips.Imagined, I was a creature just like Gurg—impermeable, powerful, able to eat anything without dying.And down the hatch it went.
I waited, eyes closed, for a pang of fire in my stomach.Waited, even, for my flesh to sag, for my brain to hurt, for my bowels to loosen.
“Decent soup,” I said, and belched.
I opened my eyes.Clemenza and the Hag were both staring up at me.
“What?”I asked.
“You look putrid,” Clemenza said.
“Eeew,” said the Hag.
My hands were slimy tentacles, my whole body long and large and pale, and I was desperately, suddenly thirsty, parched and dry…
I closed my eyes and imagined my real body again.Opened my eyes.Saw boobs and my normal hands, yet again.
“Thank God,” I said.
“You passed,” the Hag said.“You are worthy.Retrieve thy Beacons.Though their power lies extra in this place—it is yet incomplete.Their flames are not yet stoked in their entirety.”
“Can you show them to me?”I asked.
The Hag nodded.
“We walk,” she said.
Down the spiral stairs again,Clemenza, the Hag, and myself.Through the forest, whose woods parted as the Hag moved her hands.Creatures stared, stirred and scared, as we trudged on.Three powerful flames belched up against the horizon from a squat building.It was not as tall as the tower, nor the lights in the distance, but the Hag stood outside it, arms crossed.
“The power of Fire, Water, and Earth,” she said.“The South, the West, and the North.Enter, and claim thy flame.”
I put my hand on the ceramic door.The tile moved beneath my fingertips, drawing itself into the ground, and I stepped over the barrier.
“Stacey?”I heard.
