The guardian raises Rhianelle's hand in invitation and the curse bearers are pulled toward the gates.
"You fucking whore!" the boar curses, clawing at the snow.
"Wait, we didn't mean it!" the vulture shrieks, her nails leaving bloody furrows in the earth as Hel’s gravity pulls them inexorably forward.
One by one, they're dragged through the gates and into the Hollow beyond.
That's when I see her.
Lilith.
The enchantress has been summoned from whatever hiding place she's been rotting in since her death. She looks exactly as she did a thousand years ago when she cursed me.
"Hello, Andras." She speaks my name like a victory, like she still owns it.
She is smiling, until she sees the gates. Her smug expression shatters into pure terror.
"No!" She drops to her knees in the snow, her hands clasped in supplication. "Please, Keeper of Hel. I beg you. Mercy!"
Mal looks down at her with indifference. His hollow gaze shows neither anger nor satisfaction.
"Mercy is for those who show mercy," he says simply. "You showed none."
He reaches down with Rhianelle's hand and seizes Lilith by her golden hair. She kicks and thrashes, clawing at his hand with desperate strength.
"This is not how I end!" Lilith screams. "I was wronged! I deserved justice for what was done to me!"
"You will receive it," says a child's voice.
I hadn't noticed her before. The small figure perched on Mal's shoulder like a bird.
She's tiny, with silver hair that falls past her shoulders. Those lilac eyes remind me of my wife's. In fact, she looks exactly like Rhianelle must have looked as a child. But there's a weight of eons that no six-year-old should carry in her expression.
This is another Un, wearing the face of a younger Rhianelle.
"I was wronged first! What I did was justice!" Lilith's voice breaks. "I don't deserve this!"
The child tilts her head, considering Lilith with detached interest. "You will receive exactly what you deserve."
The Keeper drags Lilith toward the gates. She fights every step, her screams turning incoherent. Her terrified eyes sweep across the clearing.
They land on me.
"Andras!" She reaches out with one hand while the other struggles against the god's grip. "Help me! Please! After everything, you can't just watch me burn!"
I stare at her, this creature who damned me for a thousand years. This fucking witch who turned me into a weapon, a slave, a thing to be used and discarded. Who broke me into pieces and scattered those pieces across centuries of suffering.
The Keeper reaches the threshold of the gates and holds Lilith suspended there for a moment. She sees what waits beyond and the eternity she faces dawns on her.
Just as the god is about to hurl her through, he pauses and turns.
He looks directly at me. The weight of his gaze is crushing. This is what it means to be seen by a god. To have something eternal and infinite turn its full attention upon you.
The child on his shoulder focuses on me as well.
Her lilac eyes are so like Rhianelle's and yet so utterly different. They study me intensely. I force myself to meet her gaze.
She smiles.
