Through The Storm
Chapter 6 Hide, and Go Seek

On the sixth day, Rowida intentionally avoided Ethan the entire morning, and even when he ran to her, she shook her head fast and kept walking.

Ethan smiled a knowing smile and ran to join his friends.

By the time Rowida finished eating, Mariah had come to her table. “Thank you for accepting my point of view.” She smiled kindly. “I know that you grew fond of Ethan, and I appreciate your sacrifice.”

“No need to appreciate my actions,” Rowida scoffed. “I didn’t do this for your pleasure. I did it for the benefit of the boy.”

“Still, I wanted you to know something of importance.” Mariah sat facing Rowida. “The portal, which will take you to the surface, will seal immediately after you. You can’t use it to come back.”

“I figured this would be the case.” Rowida laughed. “You wouldn’t want me to come back and disrupt the good life of the citizens of Beimini.”

“Please, listen.” Mariah had a hard expression on her face as she urged Rowida to heed her. “There are tens of portals, and even tunnels, which connect Agartha to the surface, some are not far in between, and some will allow you to come back.”

Rowida opened her eyes wide. “Are you giving me a way to come back?”

“Not exactly, without the magic of an aura inside you, you can’t get access, but I think you already know that.”

“I do,” Rowida smiled as she gazed away from Mariah. “I was a good student of history in Nafoura, I know how our aura and magics built around it works.”

“Good, then know this.” Mariah lowered her voice, “There is a way for you to come back, and it can’t be prevented, not even by the entire council of the purples.”

“I am listening, please continue.”

“If you are with child, pregnant, its aura will give you access, directly to Beimini.” Mariah sighed. “Agarthan babies by ancient tradition and law, belong to Agartha.”

“Even if the father is from the surface?” Rowida leaned closer to whisper to the older woman.

“Yes, the child will still be Agarthan, and if you were in Agartha, you would have had the call of Beimini.” Mariah had a worried expression as she continued, “Whoever passed the sentence on you, knew of this, and knew of the possibility that you will return as a mother.”

“They must have.” Rowida nodded. “But tell me, after I deliver and the child reaches the age of admittance to Nafoura, then what?”

“I think they will banish you again.” Mariah sighed. “It is not a perfect solution to your problem, only a temporary one, but good for at least seven years in Beimini, which is better than none at all.”

“You seem to know this intimately.”

“I am far older than you might think.” Mariah threw her head in a bout of laughter. “The water of the fountain keeps me young to do my job, You are not the first to be banished, and would not be the last to come back.”

“But once I pass childbearing age, there is no way for me to come back.” Rowida gave a long throaty laugh in her turn. “Worse punishment than stripping my soul, indeed.”

“I am offering you something which might help with that,” Mariah said and pulled a long bamboo flask from the folds of her voluminous dress. “This is concentrated water of Nafoura, good for at least a decade of youth if used regularly, or up to six decades if it is used just to slow the progress of time, not stop it.”

“You are giving this to me?” Rowida’s eyebrows climbed all the way to her forehead, and she felt a warm thrill pass through her inner void.

“Yes, and not because of letting Ethan to his own.” Mariah sighed. “But because even in your almost soulless state, you showed compassion to an orphaned boy, and I believe that you will make a good mother.”

To her surprise, a tear slid down Rowida’s cheek, and all she could say was, “Thank you.”

“Don’t think I will not be here when you come back,” Mariah said as she stood, leaving the flask on the table. “I will be waiting for you, watching you, making sure you never do something bad to this city.”

Then she left.

Rowida stood with a jerk and almost ran to her room.

Once inside, she shouted at the emptiness of the room, “I want to cancel our ‘Deal’.”

“Do you hear me, Violet,” Rowida screamed. “No more schemes and plans, I have a way back, no thanks to you.”

Violet materialized, but not as a woman of around Rowida’s age, she materialized as a roiling and churning violet cloud with thunder and black water in its middle.

“You wretched ignorant girl,” Violet the cloud thundered. “You think that what Mariah did was not a direct result of my plan?”

Rowida cowered at the corner of the room, feeling real fear for the first time in months.

“I planted the seed of approval in her malleable soul.” Violet rolled too close to Rowida that the hair on Rowida’s arm stood electrified. “She was just another pawn in my long game, you arrogant child.”

The fear went away as any other feeling, and Rowida was left with the void. “I am not scared of you. You don’t strike me as all that powerful. You are just air and bad intentions.”

Suddenly, Violet rushed Rowida and engulfed her whole in her mass.

Rowida screamed, but the scream didn’t reach out of her mind to her mouth. She was disassembled to primary concepts of what made her what she was. Floating in the cloud were Rowida’s eyes, and they stared out in shock at her mouth, which was wrapped by lightening in the vast space, which was Violet.

Pieces and bits of her mind floated around, dreams and hopes bubbled in shades of green, fear and nightmares floated in shades of grey, her arms and her legs raced after each other with no purpose.

“I am all-powerful.” A deep voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. “I am all there was, and all there will be.”

Then Rowida dropped out of Violet, panting and crying. She was whole again, but she felt that something was left inside the vastness of Violet, something important, but she didn’t remember what it was, perhaps a memory or a past emotion, now lost to Violet.

Violet, the cloud, started to coalesce and stood in front of Rowida as the woman she knew her for as long as their ‘Deal‘ was enacted.

“I told you,” Violet said in a soft voice, “you have only an hour after the contract is signed.” She sighed. “Neither you nor I can change a word in it now, and it will remain binding as long as the terms of the ‘Deal’ are not met.”

Rowida continued crying, curled around herself on the floor.

“Rise Rowida,” Violet said firmly. “We still have a lot to do before this day is done.”

“Can we leave the boy?” Rowida raised her head, and a shiver went through her entire body. “Please?”

“No, we can’t.” Violet shook her head. “He has to serve his role, so much hangs on this.”

“But he is innocent and sweet, and I don’t think I want to harm him by dragging him to a dangerous new world.” Rowida cried hot searing tears, as her whole body shook with every word.

“See, it this way.” Violet touched Rowida’s forehead gently, as gentle as the touch of a soft breeze. “He will be your new small brother, facing the hardships of the world as much as you, always balancing you and your urges.”

“So, you will not harm him?” Rowida stopped crying, but her breathing was still ragged, and her body still shook, with the occasional moan and hiccup coming out against her will.

“As long as it is in my ability, I will never harm him.” Violet glowed like the sun for a moment, then the glow ebbed, and she said, “He is more important than you think.”

“Hello, Ethan.” Mariah approached the kneeling Ethan, as usual deep in his drawings. “How are you doing?”

“Fine, Miss Mariah.” Ethan left his drawing twig and smiled at Mariah.

“Good.” Mariah smiled, patted his head, and said, “I am glad that you are.”

Then she walked away from the boy.

As she turned the square and was gone from sight, Rowida rushed from her hiding place near the edge of the road. “See, she didn’t even see me or doubt my presence.”

“Amazing,” Ethan squealed. “Although I never doubted that you can hide so well from her.”

“I know you didn’t.” Rowida smiled, then kneeled and hugged the boy hard.

“I can’t breathe.” Ethan’s muffled giggles came from the depth of Rowida’s embrace.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to choke you.” Rowida pushed the boy away from her with a look of concern on her face.

Ethan laughed. “No, not at all, I liked it,” and he threw himself at Rowida and hugged her.

Rowida laughed for a moment, then pushed the boy away and said, “Tomorrow, we make you the spymaster, hiding where nobody will replace you.”

“Yes.” Ethan punched the air while jumping. “I will be the best spymaster ever.”

By the end of her sixth day in Beimini, a woman came knocking on Rowida’s door ’.

She entered, and she was almost Rowida’s age, maybe two or three years older at most, making her in her early twenties.

“Mistress Rowida,” the woman said. “I have been sent from Miss Mariah to inform you that you will leave tomorrow.”

“I understand.” Rowida nodded resignedly.

“Here, these are the things found with you on the day of your capture, eighteen months ago.” The woman passed a tight bundle to Rowida, then she added, “They must never return to Agatha.”

Before Rowida could open the bundle, the woman said, “Tomorrow, we will empty the eastern quadrant of the town, where the portal is.” She looked at Rowida intently, then added, “Miss Mariah didn’t want this tragic event to affect the fragile status of pregnant women and children around the city.”

“So, I will leave alone, as I did for the last eighteen months.” A bitterness dripped from each word Rowida said, one which the messenger woman missed or ignored.

“You will have from the crack of dawn till dusk,” the woman said firmly. “If you don’t leave by dusk, Miss Mariah wanted me to remind you that there are always worse things than your current punishment.” Then the woman shivered a little.

“No need to throw threats,” Rowida scoffed. “I am keen on leaving your city more than you can imagine.”

The woman nodded and left the room.

Rowida opened the bundle in a hurry, and among her other belongings, was the staff of souls.

“They gave you back your staff, just as I predicted.” Violet appeared next to Rowida’s bed.

“And they will empty the whole area of the portal.” Rowida nodded. “Also, just as you predicted.”

“Yes, I have lived long enough to read the hearts of your people like simple alphabet parchments.”

Then she threw her head back and laughed for some minutes.

Right after dawn, Ethan sneaked out of the common rooms of the orphaned children and headed to the east part of the city, where there was a big gate guarded by two black marble lions.

He hid immediately behind the rightmost statue and crouched.

A smile grew mischievously on his small face. He was going to be the spymaster, and Rowida was doing everything she could to help him. Soon, she will be here to show him the ultimate hiding place, and he will be hidden where nobody can ever replace him.

He giggled at the thought, but stopped his giggles fast, as he remembered he was to stay hidden till Rowida arrived.

Rowida had all her gear from before her capture set in front of her, already stacked and ready to be worn, or to be hidden around her body, to start the last preparation for her journey. She also had a pack of parchments, holding the legendary locations of other portals, as well as some believed to be long lost Arcanos, with rumored placement on the surface world.

She doubted if those maps were real, or even if they were real, were accurate, but they held clues to some elusive targets on her journey, worth pursuing.

She snorted. When she collected these maps, it was for a far future where she will lead armies to the surface to take hold of these Arcanos. She never imagined she would have only a small boy and an enigmatic spirit as her army. Yet, she never imagined she could be stripped of all her powers as well.

She hurried to dress up, Ethan should be where she told him to wait for her by now, and she wanted to move fast before his absence was noticed.

“Rowida,” Ethan whispered in a very loud voice. “Over here.”

She moved to where he squatted behind the statue and smiled. “You hid perfectly.”

He smiled back at her, brimming with pride.

“Now, we must go to the other place, before they replace you.”

“Yes,” he whispered in the same loud voice, excitedly. “Let’s go.”

Rowida nodded and touched the gate for a second, knowing Mariah must have activated it before sealing this part in time for her departure, and immediately the entire gate glowed, then a vibrating shimmer went all over it.

Rowida offered her hand to Ethan with a smile, he took it, and they both stepped into the shimmering gate.