Chapter 18
Bo sat there in silence for a long time, before she eventually stood up and announced, "I think I'm gonna…go take a walk."
Vug raised his ears in great excitement. "Can I come with?" He jumped up and down.
"No, you can't!" Bilith bit out as he slapped the hound on his nose.
Valefar gave her a slight nod, before he took the hound and the little panther and headed to the back of the store.
Bo let out a deep sigh as she took Tamsin's hand. "Let's take a walk."
The two of them exited the sweets shop and headed to a small park on the other side of the road.
Along the walk path they ambled quietly. To their right, trees were changing colors, blushing in red, orange, and rust. To their right, the sunlight rippled and flickered on top of a pond.
"Are you feeling alright?" Tamsin eventually asked.
Bo sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Should I be? All the things that Valefar just told us…it was a lot to take."
After a brief pause, she asked, "do you think…it was true that my father might have something to do with my mother's death?"
Tamsin didn't answer her. She tilted her head at a bench by the pond, before she sat down on one side. After Bo had sat down beside her, she wrapped one arm around Bo's shoulder and pulled her closer.
"Honestly? We don't know anything really. A lot of things Valefar said were just his best guess. I think…it's on us to figure out if they are true."
"I mean, it makes sense. The one who benefited the most from her death should be the prime suspect, and…look at what he has gotten after her death. Everything. "
Bo huffed slightly. "You know what scares me? It's the fact that…I wasn't even surprised when he said my father might be involved in her death. It was like…deep down, I just knew that he was capable of doing something like that."
"We both know that he's capable. It's just…"
"Just what?"
"It's just… I mean, he was married to the Queen of Hell. He had everything already."
"Everything but the crown," Bo reminded her.
"Sure, everything but the crown, but…was he really so power hungry that he'd kill her for it?"
"He's after the device," Bo said as she turned the two rings that she put on her right index finger. "You heard Valefar. This decoder ring is very powerful."
"Yeah, I heard him. Yes, it's powerful. It can alter life and death, but…what's he gonna use it for? To kill someone? To revive someone? He could already do those things without this ring or the crown. Why would he risk everything for something he could already do?"
"I…I don't know," Bo shook her head. "Maybe he's just one of those people, you know, who would do anything for power. Valefar said that my mom told him that my father was not the person she had thought he was. Maybe she had figured out that he was that type of person."
She leaned back and let out a long, deep sigh. "I just wish that…they could have told me about these things sooner, you know. I feel like an idiot for trusting my father. I mean, I didn't really trust him that much, but what a fucking idiot I was for trusting him even just a little bit."
Before Tamsin could make a comment, Bo continued ranting, "they told me that they didn't know if I could be trusted at first, and of course, they also wanted to protect me. I'm not 7! I think I have a right to know. Don't I have a right to know that my father might have killed my mother?"
Tamsin sighed as she held Bo tighter. "Well, we'll figure everything out together, okay?"
After a long pause, she asked, "what about Kenzi? Do you want to see her? If you do, I can-"
"No," Bo interrupted her as she closed her eyes and let out a deep breath.
"No?" Tamsin raised her eyebrows.
"I want to see her, Tamsin. Believe me. I really do." Bo squeezed Tamsin's hand gently. "But…my father lied to me about Kenzi, and he's done things that I can't even-I can't drag Kenzi into this mess right now. I think for now it's best that we all pretend that we don't know that she's in Heaven."
"Okay," Tamsin nodded and gave her a kiss on her forehead.
They sat there for a long time, watching the sun slipping behind the tall trees across the pond. They sat quietly, until Bo let out a light sigh.
"What?" Tamsin glanced at her.
"Nothing, I'm just thinking about…this decoder ring," Bo murmured as she looked down at the two rings on her index finger.
"What about it?"
"Do you ever feel that…it's so…it's almost scary how this ring found me?"
"What do you mean?" Tamsin frowned a little.
"I mean…what are the odds, Tamsin? Three hundred something years ago, my mother sent the silver ring to her old friend. Little did she know that it would travel to the past and find her old friend years before she even found the ring. Somewhere along the journey, the ring found you. Then, three hundred years later, it found me. You just…gave it to me, without even knowing what it was."
"It's a bit of a coincidence, isn't it?" Tamsin nodded.
"I think the word you are looking for might be fate," Bo corrected her teasingly.
Tamsin let out a few chuckles. "Well I'm glad that it found you."
"I'm glad that I found you," she added in a whisper as she kissed Bo softly.
Coiling a lock of Bo's hair on her finger, she asked, "if you are not meeting Kenzi, what are we gonna do next?"
Bo took a deep breath. "I think we should first go search for the last piece of the ring. We have to get to it before my father does, if it's still out there."
"Okay."
"I want to check out the crypt of the Dark Temple too. I didn't get to do that last time I was there, and-"
"-and you want to know that big secret that your mother discovered while she had been down there."
"Yes."
Tamsin paused briefly as she examined the look on Bo's face. "You think that secret had something to do with her death?"
"I don't know, but it might. I just…I want to know what she knew."
"Well, we are gonna go to the River of Flames anyway. Might as well stop by the crypt afterwards."
"Okay, then. Let's…go to Hell, I guess."
The two women talked to Valefar and Bilith briefly afterwards. The two Demons agreed to create a diversion to distract Bo's father while they traveled to the River of Flames.
Glancing at the cracked river bed, Tamsin held Bo's hand in hers and asked, "are you ready?"
"I'm ready," Bo answered. She squeezed Tamsin's hand as she forced herself not to think about the time when she was being washed down the river by scorching flames.
"No matter what you see or hear, do not turn back, okay?"
"I know."
Tamsin gave her a nod, before she jumped down into the river. She turned to Bo and reached her hand out, helping Bo get in.
Slowly they hiked. Accompanied them were the wandering souls and their agony.
When Bo heard her name in a whisper, she flinched and stopped.
"Don't turn back," Tamsin immediately held her from behind and warned her. "Whatever voice you are hearing right now, it is not real."
"I know," Bo murmured as she fisted her hands.
"It's this damn place playing tricks on you."
"I know," Bo closed her eyes. She knew it wasn't real, but still, it sounded exactly like Kenzi's voice, and her guilt - despite it being irrational - wanted her to turn her head and take a look. It wanted her to face that voice. It wanted her to feel sorry for something that she had done wrong. It wanted to destroy her.
"Remember, she's in Heaven now. She's not here, Bo. She was never here."
"I know," Bo took a deep breath and nested herself into Tamsin's warm embrace.
"Now, let's keep walking, shall we?" Tamsin suggested softly.
Bo nodded firmly. As she started walking again, that whisper, along with that strong urge to turn back, vanished.
A few hours later, they had finally arrived at the landmark where three rocks were stacked.
"So this is where you released the captured soul and let it guide you to the Dark Temple, huh?" Bo asked as she got down on one knee and examined the rock on the bottom.
Right at its base, there was a carving of a pair of spreaded wings. Covered in soot, it was barely visible. Bo dug her fingertip in and wiped off the grimes. As she was doing that, the carving seemed to have faintly glimmered along her touch.
As she slowly traced the wings carved by her mother, for the first time ever, she felt a sudden, strange connection, a connection to the woman who had given her life.
She barely remembered her. Whatever little memory of her that she had, was so distant and vague. She knew her through all the stories told by her father and by Valefar, stories that she couldn't help but wonder how much of those were true.
This was the very first time that she felt somehow they were connected. There was a bond between them, a bond that still existed even after her mother's death.
That woman, her mother, she existed. She had lived, even if it had been hundreds of years ago, even if she had not been in her life for long….
A strong rush of sorrow seized Bo abruptly. A drop of tear fell along her cheek and eventually landed on the two rings on her index finger.
The rings gently quivered and hummed, like they were feeling what she was feeling, like they knew and understood her.
For reasons that she couldn't fathom, Bo started to sob quietly. It was perhaps not her own sorrow, but someone else's, that made her cry.
Through her tears, she noticed a crimson spot appearing beside the carved wings.
Is that…a drop of blood? Bo wondered as she wiped her tears.
Then, that "drop of blood" wiggled. Something was squeezing its way out. Something red and small.
It was a crimson salamander. The little creature painstakingly pushed itself out of the dry river bed through the tiniest crack.
Bo thought, I know you. You are that salamander.
That salamander that she had seen in her vision, small, slithering, crimson, like the most vibrant flame, like a tear of a fresh wound.
The salamander tilted its head slightly and stared back at Bo, trying to figure her out.
Bo reached her hand out and lowered it in front of the creature. Her rings sparkled.
The salamander flicked its tongue quickly. Before Bo knew it, the little creature had jumped onto her index finger. It wrapped its body around the two rings she was wearing and took its own tail in its mouth.
The salamander closed its eyes. All of a sudden, its bright crimson color faded. It turned into the same color as the soot on the bottom of the rock. Crumbling into dust, it was blown away by a puff of air.
"Whoa!" Bo exclaimed as she jumped to catch the dust, but it was completely gone already.
"Look!" Tamsin held her wrist and pointed at the rings on her index finger.
There, out of nowhere, a pair of metal wings appeared.
Bo examined the wings and quickly discovered that, whenever she would inhale, the wings would gently fold themselves, and whenever she would exhale, the wings would unfold slightly.
The entire ring seemed to have suddenly come to life.
"Whoa…" Bo murmured, frowning slightly. "So…I guess this is the device?"
"The device that would make the Book of the Dead spells work," Tamsin added.
"Mhm…" Bo raised her index finger closer to her eyes and carefully examined the ring. With the two rings locked together and the wings that were alive, she felt that it had a pulse and it was connected to hers.
"Valefar said that this pair of wings would allow me to travel anywhere in the underworld," Bo said as she brushed her fingers against the wings. "How do I do that?"
"How the Hell would I know?" Tamsin snorted as she gently rubbed the tip of her finger on the wings. "Maybe there is a spell for that?"
"Maybe…I wish I knew how to command it to take us to the Dark Temple-"
Before she was able to finish her sentence, she felt a strong tugging force and a brief darkness.
The next thing she knew was that she was standing in front of the ruin of the Dark Temple with Tamsin right beside her.
In daze, Tamsin concluded, "I guess all you have to do is to…wish it?"
"Mhm," Bo murmured as she scanned the surroundings quickly. Then, she rushed to the trap door behind the statue inside the temple.
It took the two of them, a heavy duty crowbar that they had brought with them and half an hour prying and lifting to open that stone door.
"So…this is it," Bo murmured as she stared into the pitch dark entrance.
She gave Tamsin a nod, before she grabbed the edge of the entrance and lowered her body into the darkness.
She thought she'd find a ladder or a flight of stairs, but she found none. As she looked up for help from Tamsin, her fingers slipped and she fell.
It was a long fall and she couldn't see anything. In great panic, she threw her limbs out, desperately trying to grab something, but it seemed to be nothing but an empty void around her.
Abruptly she landed, with her back hitting the hard ground.
She groaned and pulled herself up.
There, in the middle of the darkness, she saw a brazier burning with pale flames.
"Tamsin…?" She called, for she had no recollection of having the Angel with her during the fall.
No one answered her, not even the echo of her voice. It was as if the crypt had absorbed all sounds.
"Tamsin, are you here? Can you hear me?" Bo called again while wondering if Tamsin had followed her into the crypt. Did she fall as well?
Still, no answer.
"Anybody here?" Bo asked. Her voice started to shake.
She quickly decided that she'd go back up and regroup. Maybe Tamsin was still back at the entrance of the crypt. She should go back too, and let her know what happened, so she wouldn't worry.
But then, it hit Bo: how could she go back up? She didn't come down the stairs. She fell. She couldn't possibly go back up, for she had no wings….
Wings!
Bo quickly glanced at her ring and said loudly, "I wish I could go back to the entrance of the crypt."
She waited for the ring to teleport her, but it didn't respond.
It was then that she noticed that the wings would no longer move. The entire ring seemed…dead.
Great. Bo thought as she slowly pulled her dagger out and looked around vigilantly.
Vaguely, she saw something beside the brazier. It took her a while to realize - or rather, remember what it was.
It was a stone casket with hieroglyphs inscribed all over, exactly like the one she had seen when she had entered the Ghost Chapel.
She recalled what had happened next. She opened the casket and there lay a woman inside. That woman seemed dead, but at the same time, she seemed alive.
She remembered her eyes. They were like black holes and they sucked her soul out.
One thing she couldn't remember was the woman's face. She only remembered the feeling when she laid her eyes on her face. It was as if she was seeing someone that she had held dear but was long lost.
She gasped heavily as she approached the casket. Would it be the same? She wondered. Would the same woman be inside? No, it couldn't possibly be the same woman. The Dark Temple had been abandoned for so long, anyone who was in the casket should only have bones left by now….
With her wandering thoughts, she placed her hands on the cover of the casket.
Her lucid mind screamed at her not to open the casket, but her body betrayed her mind. With all her strength, she lifted the heavy cover and pushed it aside.
She gasped slightly as she found the same woman inside the casket.
In silence and great peace, that woman slept. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest. There was a small bunch of blue lotus flowers in her left hand. Those flowers still had drops of dew on them.
Bo couldn't help but stare at her rosy cheeks, her full lips, her golden tiara and her gemstone adorned hair.
Hesitantly, she reached her hand out. First, she quickly brushed a finger over the soft, fresh petals of the flowers. When she pulled her hand back, she could smell the flower on her skin. Suddenly, it was as if she was in that dark river again, floating among all those shimmering, blue lilies….
With her breath held, she gently touched the woman's cheek. In fear that she'd awaken her, she quickly withdrew her hand. The skin contact was too brief for her to tell if that woman was still warm like a living person.
After pacing in front of the casket anxiously for a while, she eventually gathered enough courage to place her hand on the back of the woman's hand.
The moment their skin touched, the decoder ring suddenly…woke up. It sent a shockwave through her body.
She stumbled back with a racing heart and a broken gasp. Then, she froze, with her jaw dropped and her eyes shot wide open, when the woman in the casket opened her eyes and sat up.
The woman turned to her slowly. "Ysabeau," she called her name softly. Her voice was both cold and warm.
Bo stared at her. She couldn't not stare. She gazed into her eyes, her beautiful brown eyes. Then, she shuddered, for it suddenly felt like she was looking into a mirror.
Bo swallowed hard as she eyed the woman. And the woman smiled back at her. Her face, and her entire figure, softened with that smile. It was a smile that Bo had seen a long time ago. It was something that she remembered. That smile and this woman's voice, she remembered them. She remembered them like she remembered Valefar's bushy tail, like she remembered the soft hums of a lullaby, like she remembered the sparkles in those beautiful brown eyes….
"Who are you…?" Bo asked in a mutter.
"I think you already know," that woman replied to Bo.
Bo took a deep breath. The resemblance between herself and the woman was uncanny. Her old memories came bubbling up, paralyzing her.
"Mom?" She blurted as her heart pounded both in joy and in fear.
