carrickfergus

by Out of the Orange

Of all the things he'd learned to lose and put behind him, there was just one he never could let go of. Zelgius x...um, not Sephiran.

The Tower of Guidance is filled whispers, countless generations' worth of them. They do not speak to everyone, for it isn't everyone who can listen.

I can. The voices speak to me sometimes. The first time I came here with Sephiran, I heard:

'Give him back to me!'

'Love, you are unreasonable. His blood is tainted!'

'And whose fault is that! This mark is from your line, and you would reject him – your own child –'

Sephiran turned to me. "Is there something wrong?"

I shuddered. "No. Nothing is wrong."

We both fell silent. I strained to hear the voices again, but they had grown still. After a moment I faltered, "Master?"

"Yes?"

"You said – that the Tower of Guidance is where souls must go to receive the Goddess' blessing before they go to rest."

"Aye, to relieve them of their sins and sorrows. This is so."

"And does she bless them?"

Sephiran did not answer for a long moment.

"Master?"

He strode forward evenly, looking straight ahead. Then: "Why do you ask? Do you hear them?"

I couldn't give him an answer, and he did not seem to be waiting for one. After a minute of silent contemplation, Sephiran continued – as if to himself – "The souls of every living thing travel here when they die, carrying all the sadness and regrets they could not unburden themselves of in life. They come begging for someone to hear their sorrows and absolve them.

"But so few people have ever set foot in this part of the tower. There is only the Goddess."

"And she sleeps," I remembered.

"Soundly."

I hesitated. "Then I imagine that not many have had their sorrows absolved."

Sephiran paused for a moment and closed his eyes, his face contorting, ever so slighty, for the briefest of seconds in an uncharacteristic expression of pain. "I, too, hear the voices," he whispered. "I hear them well, every time I come here… But I suspect we two hear very different things. The souls seek out their own."

I stood still for a moment, struck by the truth of his words. Sephiran turned and smiled at me.

"Am I not correct?"

He did not need me to respond. He turned on his heel and continued onward, through the great massive doors before us. I watched his back, moving away from me. I thought about all of the voices that must have beckoned to him.

And then I thought about the voice that beckoned to me. It was the voice of my mother.