Tad Williams.
I had eventually fallen asleep and was woken up by a servant summoning Tal away from me. The palace was safe enough, and she could handle herself, so I got up and redressed myself for the rest of the day. I already had a pounding headache going on, as it was probably unwise to drink so much Tequila the previous night.
We were all hurried towards a basin with some kind of ceremony occurring. Whilst myself and Pepper were watching intently, some of the others had taken chagrin to the upcoming sacrifice. Luckily, nobody made a scene and my father-in-law was reborn successfully, with Tal also standing nearby in a dress, we were soon summoned to his private chambers for a discussion, and questions.
We told Huitzilopochtli what memories we had retained in exchange for asking questions of our own. Tal and I asked questions regarding our ressurection, or at least returning us to earth where we could do s ourselves and Huitzilopochtli revealed he had no such plans, as fate would just repeat itself. The others asked questions along those lines, all except Rhiannon who wanted to sleep with my father-in-law. I don't know what she was getting at, but it seemed like a waste of a question and worse, it upset Tal enough to cause her to storm off towards the door.
Huitzilopochtli was telling Tal not to disappoint him, to stay here in luxury, not to go against fate because she couldn't change things. Something inside me just snapped. Huitzilopochtli was a coward. He knew we could change fate - he was just too scared to do so. I stared him in the eye and told him as much.
Bad enough that he keep my and my companions in this gilded cage, bad enough that he lie to us, but to endanger the people back on earth for what? To keep us safe? To keep him safe? No, that wouldn't do.
The accusation obviously struck a nerve because he was unable to hold his composure, his face transformed into one of hideous bestiality and he ordered me gone or he'd kill me. Let him, I knew I had won this show down, and I knew it was something he would never forgive me for.
I held back the urge to run, and left with Tal and the others (discounting Rhia and Wuyi). Tal quickly moved off and I spent the rest of the day racking my brains as to our next course of action. When the sun fell, the two women who had been with Huitzilopochtli reappeared. We exchanged our opinions on what each had done. I called them cowards for assenting to his will, they called me a fool for earning his ire, we then split ways, personally, I felt that they may have had a point.
I found Rupper who had found himself a phoenix, the regal old bird was demanding freedom, so we assented. There was some initial screw ups as the phoenix set everything it touched (including my coat) on fire, but we got around that problem and returned with Cal to Tal who had persuaded Huitzilopochtli's retained, Painal to aid us. If I had just kept with Tal, I could have known that he two was lying to us and planning betrayal and none of what happened next would have occurred.
We rode the litter through the skies again. Tal refusing to even acknowlege the other women, other than young Kelly, who had frustrated me earlier by having that spider follow me again. I was about to tell Tal that she'd forgiven Rhia before when she had apparently laid with her father, so she should do it now as well. Unfortunately, we had no time, and everybody began to panic as to what to do next with Painal surprised us.
Rupper set the old bird free, the phoenix valiantly fighting to slow us down. Kelly knelt down to pray, and I grabbed at the memory still in my pocket in the hopes I would get some kind of revelation. I did, but not the kind I expected. I saw the hideous true faces of the Keepers, and I saw them slaying someone I did not know. Scratch that, I was the someone, but it was not me.
Whilst I was reliving this memory, Tal had stabbed herself in the heart and Wuyi and myself worked to restore her to health. Great winds were erupting around us and Pepper was thrown out. Tal was safe. I trusted Rhia, trusted Wuyi to look after her whilst I saved my best friend. I'd already said my piece to them, now they just had to prove themselves to Tal.
I leapt from the litter, hearing Rhia shouting out in rage at me for abandoning Tal. No matter, Pepper was struggling whilst she fell. I used my own weight to fire myself towards the bird and managed to wrap myself around her. Soon, we landed on the ground, creating a path of destruction as we slid through the earth. No matter, Pepper was safe and in the distance, the litter had stopped.
At that moment, I knew that if I wanted to, I could fly back to the litter just as easily as I allowed myself to fall through the air. That didn't matter for now though, for in the distance a small cottage had drawn my eye.
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