by Daniel Caet
“Welcome friend. I see that you have been punctual.”
“Is this the woman you told me about?” The devil answered roughly. “Her power is great, I can feel it from here, but she does not like my kind.”
“Don't worry about that, she needs your help, she will not do anything against you. And I have your price ready.” The woman uncovered the bundle and under the fabric appeared the body of a baby of two or three years, sleeping peacefully oblivious to everything that happened around her. “A girl as you asked.”
Upon seeing the girl's body, my mind immediately understood what was happening and what the price requested by that being was. The Kruh'Tah demons do not have females, all their members are males, an inconvenience for their survival that caste of demons had solved in a horrible way. When they did not look for corpses to devour, they were dedicated to kidnapping girls and young women that they kept locked up until they reached their fertile age. Then, those unfortunates were raped successively by the entire clan to ensure that they were pregnant, and thus became the vehicle of the next generation. At the time of delivery, their destiny was even more cruel because they would be devoured by their own child at the same moment they gave birth.
“No!” I screamed with all my might. “You cannot do this; do you know what they will do with that little girl?”
“Silence, stupid,” old Neka yelled in response to my screams, waking the little girl who joined the chorus of voices. “Who is more important to you, this poor wretch or your own? You decide the life you want to save.”
At that moment, the image of Semekté came to my head and my legs began to tremble until they could not hold me anymore, and I fell to the floor crying inconsolably. I knew that this woman was right, nothing was more important to me than my little one, she was the reason why I did all that, and pressing my heart with my hand, I kept quiet and let her go on. The old woman handed the little girl, who was crying, to the demon who studied the bundle given to him as an animal is checked before buying it in the market. When he finished, he nodded and immediately another member of his species materialised behind him. The first demon gave the package to the newcomer who disappeared in a moment taking the little girl with him. The first demon looked at me then fixedly, extending his arm.
“Quick, what are you waiting for? Take what you need,” the old woman screamed.
The words came to me as in a dream, but somehow my subconscious took control and I put my hand in my cloak to take out a small clay cup I had carried with me. I brought the chalice close to the demon who tore his own wrist with his teeth and shed his blood, black as his skin, in the cup. I took it in my hands and turned to begin the ritual while repeating to myself that what I was doing was necessary for the good of my little girl.
My heart was still accelerated by what had just happened. I had just allowed the life of a little innocent girl to be sacrificed to save another, but even though something inside of me was dying of pain because of it, I had to force myself to stay calm and breathe deeply looking for the concentration that would allow me to perform the ritual. My eyes fixed on a painting on the far wall. It was a worn and almost discoloured image of Hathor, possibly the only one left in the whole temple. The goddess was painted with her headdress of cow horns that held the sun and carrying in her arms her son Ihy, the living image of maternal love. Looking at that image I felt that the mother spoke directly to me telling me that what I was about to do was just and necessary, and gave me the strength I needed to find my concentration. Immediately I entered the state of trance that I knew so well, my mind was isolated from everything that surrounded it to enter a world of absolute light where I was only disembodied consciousness. I knew that my body had begun the song that would initiate the flames of destiny, the eternal fire that would consume everything, including my mortality. The slow rhythm of those words came to me like a distant echo, a music that seemed to farewell the part of me that I was about to deliver to the flames. Suddenly, before me there was a blue fire of immense intensity and size, and I could feel its warmth in my whole being. I knew that the fire had also appeared on the earthly plane, and that right now old Neka and the demon could see it as I did. The part of me that remained in the temple raised the cup to drink the blood of that creature. As soon as the thick, dark liquid touched my lips I could feel how it made its effect, how that poison killed my human soul. On the astral plane, my soul began to leave my body to enter the flames that embraced her as an anxious lover. At that moment my consciousness returned to my body and I was surrounded by the blue fire that, as had happened on the astral plane, had covered my entire body. The pain I felt was greater than any I had felt before, although I knew it was not my skin and my flesh that was being consumed, but my mortal soul. The pain increased until it became intolerable and, suddenly, a sweet woman's voice filled my ears with a single word.
“Be!”
Around me the flames were extinguished and the cold invaded my body, but I appreciated the feeling. Immediately I realised that much had changed in me. On the one hand I felt a strange sense of emptiness that I had never felt before, as if I was missing something very big, but without knowing how to explain what it was. But that feeling was accompanied by a much greater one, power. I could feel how my power had multiplied by thousands, making me feel more powerful than I had ever been, more than I could ever have imagined, almost invincible, immortal. My fears and insecurities were gone, I felt I could reach the stars with my hands if I wanted to, that no one could face me, not even death itself.
“Has it worked?” The old woman asked loudly. “Tell me, has it worked?”
The shrill sound of her voice brought me out of my thoughts and I turned to look at her coldly.
“Yes, it worked,” I said, approaching her.
Her jubilant laughter resounded throughout the temple.
“Then it's time you pay, I've fulfilled my part of the deal, now it's your turn.” I approached her and holding her face in my hand I spoke in whispers.
“Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Of course, I'm sure, what are you waiting for? Give me my youth and my beauty back as you promised.”
I closed my eyes without letting go of her face and in just a moment it was done. When my eyes opened again the old Neka had disappeared and in her place was an extremely beautiful young girl of about thirteen. When the woman saw her new body, her cries of joy resounded throughout the temple.
“Finally, finally! It's me again, I'm the one I never should have stopped being. Now I can recover everything that was taken from me.”
“So be it. You'll finally have everything you deserve,” I said, turning to look at the demon. “She's yours.”
The demon opened its eyes and returned a crooked smile. Old Neka, when she realised what was happening, began to scream and tried to run away, but the demon reached her when she had barely taken two steps and together they disappeared forever. Silence filled the temple and part of me tasted the pleasure of revenge. That woman had sacrificed the life of a child not to help me, but to help herself, and now she would share her destiny.
Without paying any more attention to what had just happened I left the temple to return to my house as fast as my steps would allow. When I arrived, I breathed calmly when I saw that Saersh and Semekté were safe in the cellar where I had left them. Saersh woke up when he felt I had arrived and looked at me with wide eyes, if he noticed something different in me he did not say anything. I took Semekté in my arms, careful not to wake her up and pulled her up to her cot. That same night I started packing all our possessions and placed them in our cart, making sure everything was ready, so we could leave at dawn. We would change the village, the names and the past to start over again as I had done many times before, but this time there would be a difference. I closed my eyes invoking my power, and the intensity that it had now, took me by surprise. I had to concentrate deeply so that this new energy did not overflow, but finally I could channel it to reinforce my spells of con
cealment; and this time the result was absolute, my new powers assured that we would not only be hidden from any human or supernatural creature that tried to find us against my will, but they had split us from the world, any person who saw us would forget us at the same moment we left their sight, no one would remember our names, our faces, nothing of us unless I wished otherwise. We had become invisible. The next morning, we started our way, a road without direction, one that we did not know where it would take us, but that would allow us to have a life. Not for a moment did I stop to think about what I had just done the previous night would mean for me. I could only think of Semekté and her security, of her life and for a moment I did not consider that she was mortal, that the time that meant nothing to me would be inexorable for her and for Saersh. And in the pain that it would bring. Now I can say, there is no greater suffering than that of being immortal. How many times have I had to shed the bitter tears of someone who says goodbye to the ones she loves the most? It is always me who must see them leave, always me being left behind. I do not know if my actions would have been different should I have known it, but the reality is that at that moment I was completely oblivious to what my new state really meant.
During the following years we had a quiet, happy life, as normal as any family. We kept changing city and names whenever it was necessary, so that the lack of change in my appearance did not arouse suspicion, but otherwise, in the eyes of everyone we were just another family. Saersh and Semekté grew up very quickly and formed their own families that made ours bigger. Suddenly I found myself taking care of her children as one day I had taken care of her. And one day, without expecting it or foreseeing it, life reminded me of the price I would have to pay for what I had done that night. A plague of fever affected the village where we lived and my little Semekté was one of the first to fall ill. All my knowledge was insufficient to save her, and in just two days I saw myself surrendering her body to the earth as I had done years ago with her mother. The pain ripped me inside as it has done all the other times after that, but life does not even offer me the luxury of being able to suffer. Semekté’s children had inherited their powers as she had from her mother, and although their intensity was smaller, that made them easily identifiable by Narmesh; so I devoted my life to their protection and over time, to that of their children and the children of their children. Although maybe I should say better, daughters. It was soon evident that although the women of the family passed their power to both their male and female children, only the daughters were able to follow the chain, so that the children of their sons were as normal as the descendants of my good Jeshar could be. This resulted in that, as the family tree spread, I became for many of them a non-existent figure, a distant aunt, a forgotten name. For those who descended in direct line from my little Niel, I was Aunt Tyri, the eternal one, as they liked to call me. The descendants of Jeshar meanwhile, have honoured the promise he made a thousand years ago, and have always been at my service and that of your whole family, Helel. I, for my part, continue to take care of all your children as if they were mine, as I did the day we fled Uruk, as it will always be until the end of time.
Slave
Hearing her story from her own lips caused something inside me to break. How far could the damage my actions have caused go? My decision to stay at Armesh's house had ended with his death and that of Suriath, with the transformation of Liliath into a monster, and with Sadith being forced to sacrifice her soul and her mortality to protect my children, the children I had never been able to meet. The amount of misfortunes reported by Sadith made me understand how much I owed that woman who, despite all the past and the time elapsed, remained serene in front of me promising to take care of my family until the end of time.
“I'm sorry, Sadith.” Those were the only words that came out of my mouth.
“Helel, I have made my own decisions throughout my life and I am old enough to know how to live with their consequences” she answered with a resigned smile. “I do not regret any of them and, if necessary, I would do everything I did again to protect my family.”
That last sentence stuck inside me unexpectedly. Her family, yes, hers. I had long lost the right to consider any of them as something of mine and Sadith was reminding me in no subtle way with her words. I tried to look her in the eyes, but her face had turned and where her eyes had been there was only one shadow left.
“The girl who accompanied you in the market ... Ankhsemkepté ... does she know that …?”
“No, she only knows that she comes down directly from my sister and that the power that runs through her veins is a family gift. Obviously, she knows my secret, but I am the only mother she has known and that is enough for her. Her real mother died in childbirth.”
“Are there others?”
“There are others, but none with traces of power. As I explained before, the power runs only in the female branch of your family, she is the only direct descendant in which your blood manifests.”
“I have to talk to her Sadith, I need to see her up close.”
“No way!” she said, standing before me. “I will not allow it, in fact you must leave right now. I have told you my story so that you understand how dangerous our situation is, I will not allow your presence to put your life or the life of your child in danger.”
“But, she's my daughter, Sadith.”
“No, she's not, she's mine!” she answered defying me with her gaze. “It is me who have raised her, her and everyone else, who has protected them, who has covered them at night and who has taken care of them when they fell ill. It was me who brought their bodies to the grave, not you, Helel!”
“It's my blood!”
“You abandoned us!” she cried, and her voice was followed by an eternal silence that said it all. The harshness of her words hit me again and it reminded me that she was right. All that situation was the result of a single act, of a single decision. I had put Liliath ahead of everything else, above my family, above myself. That night in Uruk I could have chosen to stay with my children, but I went after Liliath. If I had stayed in the house it is possible that Armesh and Suriath had not had to die that night, and in that horrible way, maybe I would not have lost my children and Sadith would not have had to sacrifice her life for theirs. But a part of me whispered to me that I was deceiving myself. All of them were dead long before that day, they were sentenced the day they met me because, in reality, I had destroyed the life of that family the day I decided to stay at their home. In my search for time to return to being the one I was, I had been fooled into thinking that I could play the happy families, that the love of men could replenish my life as one day my father's love had done and finally the illusion blinded me, and I did not know how to see the truth, that I was only death for everyone around me.
Suddenly, the sound of Ankhsemkempté's laughter came back to me from the other side of the garden, a sound full of light, of life. Life born of the death that surrounded me. In spite of everything, in spite of the pain, of the misfortune, the light that girl carried was born of me and of my acts. In some way, that girl had the power to redeem the sins of her father. The immense need to get close to her, to talk to her, to try to give her everything I could not give to Niel and Narmesh grew inside me again, and I knew that I was not prepared to receive another refusal from Sadith.
“Sadith, I beg you! She does not need to know who I am, I just want to be around her. I know you cannot understand it but, somehow, I feel that this is my destiny and hers, I feel that I have been brought here for this, to be by her side and protect her as I could not protect Niel.”
“But what you'll get is just the opposite. Now more than ever it is necessary that you move away from us. For our sake and for your own.” Seeing my lack of understanding, she got up to approach a wooden box that one of the servants had left next to the cushions. “I knew it would not be easy for me to convince you to leave, that's why I asked them to bring this to me. Someone delivered this for Ankh at the west gate the other day.”<
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Sadith handed me a small package. When I opened it, I found a very old, wizened doll dressed in rags.
“Yes, it's the same kind of doll that was given to Semekté many years ago. Do not ask me how, but somehow Narmesh, or someone who knows our secret, has managed to find us. This doll is a veiled threat, a way of telling me that the persecution continues and that those I love are still the easiest way to destroy me.”
“All the more reason to have me by your side.”
“Helel, do not make me laugh. What can you do to help me?”
Almost without thinking my power manifested and all the bushes around us were in flames. I kept the fire for a few moments and then extinguished it with a simple desire. When the flames retreated none of the bushes was burned, as if that had never happened.
“You are not the only one whose power has grown over the years, Sadith. A thousand years in a cave go a long way, even to recover part of my old nature, I suppose.” And it was my old pride who spoke.
Sadith looked at me very seriously and I felt something break inside her. For a moment that seemed eternal, she did not say a word, she only prolonged her gaze as if she were trying to read in the deepest part of my being.
“It's alright,” she said. “I know I'm going to regret this, but you can remain with a condition.”
“I have not accepted anyone's conditions for a long time, Sadith,” my pride answered again.
“You have no choice if you want to stay with us.”
Looking into her eyes I understood that this woman was not the same girl that I had known, and that she was not the type of woman that is willing to negotiate, so I decided to accept whatever she proposed so that I could stay next to who was my family.
“What is the condition?”
