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The consequences for people all across the world, across Kamabai.
“The vales are a sign,” Sarla says, nodding their head as if they’re reading my mind. “A foreshadowing of things to come.”
Something about their words strikes deep inside me. That premonition, the one I’ve had again and again. For the first time, I don’t look away from Sarla’s endless gaze as they explain, “The very fabric of this realm is coming apart. This world, as we know it, will soon cease to exist. A few years, perhaps even a few months. The actions of the Oterans endanger not only their empire but the entirety of Kamabai as well.”
After Sarla finishes speaking, I remain as I am, letting their words wash over me, sink into me. So it is true. The inkling I’ve had, the thing that I’ve feared all this time—it’s a reality. The world truly is ending.
And yet, somehow, I’m not panicked by this fact.
I suppose I’ve suspected it for so long, I’ve had time to get used to the eventuality. Which is why I turn back to Sarla, anger now erupting. “So let me see if I understand correctly. You want me to risk my life by killing the gods of Otera so you don’t risk your own. These are the very same gods you allowed to brutalize Otera for centuries while you hid behind your little barrier. The very same gods you didn’t stop when they strayed from the path—that’s what you’re telling me?”
I give a short, bitter laugh, amazed at the gall of these pious, ethereal-seeming creatures. For a moment there, I almost thought they were different. That they were better than the gods I knew. But deities, it seems, are similar everywhere—only ever concerned with their own survival and petty rivalries.
To their credit, the gods of Maiwuri don’t even bother denying it. When they reply, they do so as a collective. “Untold millions—billions of souls—depend on us, even those in Otera. As the pantheons there have abandoned their duties in their quest for more and more power and sacrifice, we are the ones who step into the void, who fulfill their duties—a feat that requires the birth of ever more fledgling gods to compensate.
“For now, all we can do is power the Great Barrier and keep the entirety of Kamabai, our world, from imminent collapse. But if we enter into a fight with the Oterans, all these efforts will be for naught. We will be corrupted, as will everything else. The world will end, and us with it.”
“But gods don’t die,” I retort. “At least, as long as someone like me doesn’t end them.”
“We, do, however, disperse,” Sarla corrects. “Only to form again. As does every living thing eventually. But that takes centuries across light and time. And by then the existence that we call Kamabai will be lost…. This lifetime may be fleeting, but it is precious nonetheless, and we would like to preserve it. And that is why we ask your aid, Angoro.”
Sarla rises now. Then they do something startling—they sink to their knees. A rustling sounds in the chamber as all the other gods do the same.
I watch them all, mouth agape, as they say in unison, “We beseech you, Angoro Deka—fulfill your purpose. End the Oterans. Save Kamabai. Save us all.”
“Save us all…” The words repeat around the hall, a reverberant plea that sinks deep into my bones.
I’m in such a state of shock now, it takes me moments before I can gather my thoughts again. “But I need my kelai,” I say, returning to the question that drove me all the way here, to this strange, floating place in a strange ocean leagues upon leagues away from my own. “Where is it? Do you have it here?”
Sarla shakes their head. “We do not.” But as I stiffen, panic already rising, they turn to my mother, who has been watching the scene, agitated, and gesture. “Umu, however, knows where to find it. Umu?” they beckon. “You should explain to Deka how you came to join us. And how you came to be as you are.”
“As she is?”
I watch, confused, as Mother walks over to me, then slowly begins unfastening her hood and cloak. “Now, Deka,” she says, “I want you to remember one thing: I’m here. That’s all you need to know, is that I’m here. I’m still me.”
“What?” I frown, confused by her words. “What are you talking about—”
And then she removes her outer garments, showing what I didn’t realize she was concealing all this while.
And I begin screaming.
15
Mother has no body. Or, rather, she has only the barest outline of her body from the neck down. Her face is as it always was. Her wrists and hands. Even her feet, which are covered in delicate leather sandals. But the rest of her seems to have faded away, become translucent like those gelatinous creatures I passed on the way here. A map of blood vessels is all that remains inside, all of them emanating from her beating golden heart. But her skin, her muscles, her bones—they’re all gone. I’ve seen all sorts of awful things over the years, a thousand abominations frightening enough to haunt my nightmares to eternity. But to see my own mother like this, more a specter than a person…I clutch my stomach, all the food I ate earlier rushing to my throat.
Mother hurries over, embraces me. “It’s all right, Deka, it’s all right. I’m here. It’s as I told you, I’m here.”
But that’s not true. While she feels like she’s here—her body feels as solid as it did when I touched her earlier—
“You’re not,” I whimper, unable to hold back my emotions now. “I can feel you, and you’re solid, but you’re not here. Why are you not here?”
“Umu is a wraith.” The answer comes from all the gods, who stare at me implacably, as if they cannot possibly understand my agitation.
I turn away from them, inhaling in quick one-two-three breaths to get my emotions under control. I cannot allow them to take me over like they used to. I vowed I never would again. And yet here I am, weeping and carrying on like a neophyte entering her first battle. One two three, I count swiftly in my mind. One two three. And when you reach four, you will stop. Four.
Stop.
Inhaling again, I hold on to that word. Then I straighten, releasing my emotions and all my other doubts into the currents. I take a few more breaths before I turn back to the gods. “A wraith? I saw vale wraiths in the shadow vale. Mother is nothing like those creatures.”
