Chapter Seven
Elerrina: Is she going to go to Thom? Huh…I didn't know that…
Magewhisperer: I hate Morgan's mother too, glad we agree.
Eowyn the Flamer or CCer: I actually haven't ever taken an English class where I was taught grammar so I think I do decently at it. You were right about the faults thing, they're coming.
Lady Em-Chan: Thankya
Clair-a-net: I didn't let her do anything, her mother did it. Her mother is completely out of my control.
Cede: Thankyou?
White-wolf2: I just finished my Russian history course actually. Good tip on the beard thing.
Pussin Boots: Yeah me too. I actually did write it, but I think it was more for my sake than for yours. I needed to know what went on, but I don't think the rest of you did, and there is no reason to put things like that out there just because.
Atsuibelulah: We've already talked about your review for the last chappie. Thanks again!
Sirladyknight: I am implying nothing, just causing your minds to wander.
Thankyou! I love all of you! I am rewarding your lovely, or not so lovely, reviews with another chapter. Also constructive criticism in a GOOD THING! I like it, now if you're going to go, this sucks and that is all you say, well, then I will laugh a LOT but, well, I'm kinda crazy.
Chapter Seven: In Which there is a Meeting with a Goddess
A/N: Just so you know, I know this confused you before, KallistoMorgan Helené. They are all the same person! Got it? I didn't really want to have to explain this, I wanted it to be clear, but it confused you the last time and I didn't want that. Now, enjoy.
The rain began to fall as she made it to the edge of the temple district. At first it was the warm comforting rain that falls on a warm summer's night, relieving some of the hot. But soon it turned to the cold, pounding rain that serves as a reminder to people that the elements are never to be considered friends. Her cloak was soon soaked through, and shivers that caused her to bite her tongue overtook her soon after. I am never running away without first checking with a weather witch. She promised herself.
The door to the Temple of the Mother Goddess was easily thrice her height, and solid oak. The carvings of women on the front did nothing to qualm the spirit of worry that had consumed her. What if they're not home? She asked herself. What if they're not home? What are you a nitwit Morgan? They're priestesses; where else would they go three weeks before midsummer? Her stupidity lessened the knot of worry in her stomach and she began pounding on the temple door, hoping that a constant echo would wake someone. The door opened almost immediately.
A woman in a white shift stood in her bare feet, giving her a look that could burn brick. She had pale blue eyes a white blonde hair, lighter than Morgan's own. "Come in, we've been expecting you." Her voice was soft, and traveled around Morgan like the wind.
"I am Morgan." The green eyed blond whispered. The blue eyed woman looked Morgan over carefully, as if she were critiquing every part.
"To us you are Helené. The one to whom there will be a siege laid." And then she turned and walked, but with such perfect balance that it looked as if she were floating. Morgan, Helené nodded and followed, frowning as she lifted her sodden bag. "Leave it, one of the others will get it later. Helené nodded again, she seemed to be doing a lot of it, and followed. She didn't know for how long she walked, or where she went. She only knew that at the end of her trek there was a bed and a fire.
--:--
Neal was frowning again, she hated the frowning. Frowning meant much pondering, pondering meant half hearted attempts to listen to her wailings about her charges and Atsuibelulah's newest argument on why she should not become a knight. Basically Neal's frowning meant that she had to accept that the pages were inept, her youngest daughter was not her eldest daughter and Atsuibelulah was different than both her mother and her eldest sister. And Keladry knew that, knew it and tried to accept it. But sometimes, she just did not understand Atsuibelulah's lace fetish. It was almost neurotic.
"Neal!" She finally yelled, two weeks after the frowning began. He looked up, completely startled by the noise.
"Gods Kel! Who died?" He asked, sliding his feet out of the windowsill.
"It's nice of you to join us in the land of the living again love. Now, what seems to be the problem, other than Kallisto married an evil sorcery, and Thom ran away." She said pertly, a character flaw she has absorbed by spending too much time with the first Lady knight.
"Well, that's pretty much it, except there is one more thing…" He trailed off, looking into the abyss that was his mind.
"Neal." She said, calmly this time, though it didn't seem to phase him. "Brusselssprouts, cabbage, turnips." He looked up. "The other thing?" She asked him and he handed her a many times folded note. She frowned as she read it. "So we're going to fetch him then?" She asked and he looked at her and nodded. "Well lets get to it then shall we love?" She asked and he smiled as he got up and walked towards her. He wrapped his arms around her and grinned.
"I could not have married a better woman." He whispered in her ear.
"I know, aren't you the lucky one." She said with a smug grin.
--:--
"I hate it, I hate this, I hate him, I hate- well, okay, I don't hate her, I'm still madly in love with her, why I have no idea, she married and absolute git with conquer- the – world tendencies. Stupid blighter." He was muttering, again, down at the southernmost, okay, not the southernmost, but past Carthak, anyway, down at the southernmost point of the world and he was muttering about her. Still. Four months after he met her, three months and one week after her marriage, and unbeknownst to him, one week after her daring, okay well, rather normal escape from a tyrant.
"What was that Master Thom?" One of his slave boys, yes slave boys asked. He had picked up slave boys because he didn't feel like paying one gold noble a day for a servant who would whine and gripe the entire time they were down in this slimy jungle. So, he had picked up two slave boys, one almost thirteen (or so he reckoned) and one fifteen (again, a guess). It was cheaper, and by the time they got back to Tortall they would be highly trained excavators and he could grant them their freedom and then they could get good jobs. A fair bargain he thought, they spend a year or so in a slimy, muggy jungle digging in dirt, sludge and anything else he decided to dig in. They make a few archaeological finds and go home. And hopefully he would be cured of his love for Morgan. Hopefully.
"Oh, I was just…um…" He tried to come up with something intelligible to say and failed miserably.
"He was just ranting about the girl who loves him but was forced to marry the dog again Enitan, that's all. Not important." Folami said with a laugh as he continued to brush what Thom knew to be a tree root.
"I figured as much." Enitan said with his little boy giggle. "Thommy, is this an important piece of vase or can I chew on it?" He asked. Thom sighed, these boys had long ago lost their fear of him, they still did what they were told promptly and efficiently, but they were teases.
Thom held out his hand for the vase. "She wasn't forced. Women in Tortall cannot be forced to marry anyone they don't want to. It's been the law for three years now." He said grumpily as he tried to clean the pottery shard with the murky water from the possibly poisonous river.
"Did she know that? From what we've heard about the mother woman, she wouldn't have told miss Kally-morg-helen now would she?" Folami said wisely. Freaking sage. His mind muttered. Great now I'm muttering in my head. Wait, did she know that?
--:--
She rolled out of her bed and onto her feet and staggered to stay upright. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and pulled on the white shift she had been wearing for a month. She should have pulled on the wool one, it was getting colder out now that it was September. A knock on her wood door caused whatever urges she had to go back to bed to flee. She sighed, pulled up the hood and tucked her hair into it. She opened the door.
"The Mother wants to see you." Agaue spoke, her voice spinning and whirling like the wind. She looked frail, her body thin, sometimes Helené would say she looked starved, but she ate like a soldier. A fat soldier. Then she actually heard what Agaue had said. The Mother. As in the Mother Goddess. She was going to die.
The two women walked silently down the halls. Morgan had gotten used to these quiet women. At first the quiet had unnerved her, all she could do was think, and remember. She had tried valiantly to remember the good times, the times she spent with Thom, instead of the time she spent with Rasputin. It had only worked for so long. The memories had some flooding back, and eventually she had fallen to the floor and sobbed, for days. And only then had the healing begun.
She had never noticed any particular bad habits, she didn't scratch or wiggle, but after arriving at the Temple she realized…She was a nail biter. And not just the innocent nail biters who only nibble. She was a full out, bite them until they bled, and then begin chewing on the cuticles nail biter. Morgan wouldn't have noticed except that weeding the gardens got dirt in them, and then they got infected and she had visited the healers several times with bleeding, puffy, and infected fingernails. She was disgusted with herself. And now that she was on her way to the Mother she realized that she was yet again chewing on her fingers. She quickly took them from her mouth and folded her hands behind her back. Out of sight, out of mind…For now…
The Temple room of the Mother goddess was not open to the public, there was a public room, but the Mother never liked to reside there. Too many people, complaining of too many stupid things was the excuse the older priestesses made. Which made sense to Morgan. In her weeks at the temple she had worked in the pubic temple. Women came and complained of their monthlies, how bad they were, and could she please so something about it? Morgan understood bad cramps, the ones that made you faint or vomit. She had had them a time or two in her life an knew how painful it could be, but it wasn't something Helené would have asked the Mother to take away.
The other priestess moved respectfully to the side when the reached the door to the inner temple. Helené smiled her thanks and opened the door. The room was beautiful, Morgan had known it would be, but she hadn't expected it to be made of glistening white marble and gold trimmings. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the alter where a beautiful woman sat.
"
Hello Kallisto." The Mother spoke and Morgan was driven to her knees. The voice of the mother was painful, echoing in her head. Bouncing off of the walls of her inner membrane. It penetrated to the core of her being, separating joint from marrow, soul from self. It was a pain like any other, and a pleasure at the same time. She grit her teeth and bit her cheek to keep from screaming. "Or should I say Morgan? Helené? Guinevere? Anastasia? Elizabeth? Mona Lisa? Cinderella?" The mother's voice was mocking and Morgan wished to cry.
"Just Morgan. I am not all those women." She ground out between bursts of shattering pain.
"But you are, have been, or will be." Morgan looked up in shock, the pain momentarily abating.
"I am not, will not, have not been all of those things." Her protests were in vain, the goddess laughed.
"Listen to me. You began as Kallisto. You became Cinderella, the abused, confused girl. You morphed into Morgan, the misunderstood beauty.
You became Anastasia, are Anastasia, coveted and wanted by an evil sorcerer. You will be Helené, the woman for whom a war was waged You will be Guinevere, a woman who betrays her lover. You will be Mona Lisa, a woman with a secret. You will be Elizabeth, a queen." She spoke all this, prophesying Morgan's future, near and far. And then she was gone, and Morgan, Helené was left crying on the floor.
A/N: Look the real storyline! YAY! Only seven chapters of waiting. I have the feeling this is going to be very long…good thing summer is coming huh?
A/N: Just so you know, I know this confused you before, KallistoMorgan Helené. They are all the same person! Got it? I didn't really want to have to explain this, I wanted it to be clear, but it confused you the last time and I didn't want that. Now, enjoy.
The rain began to fall as she made it to the edge of the temple district. At first it was the warm comforting rain that falls on a warm summer's night, relieving some of the hot. But soon it turned to the cold, pounding rain that serves as a reminder to people that the elements are never to be considered friends. Her cloak was soon soaked through, and shivers that caused her to bite her tongue overtook her soon after. I am never running away without first checking with a weather witch. She promised herself.
The door to the Temple of the Mother Goddess was easily thrice her height, and solid oak. The carvings of women on the front did nothing to qualm the spirit of worry that had consumed her. What if they're not home? She asked herself. What if they're not home? What are you a nitwit Morgan? They're priestesses; where else would they go three weeks before midsummer? Her stupidity lessened the knot of worry in her stomach and she began pounding on the temple door, hoping that a constant echo would wake someone. The door opened almost immediately.
A woman in a white shift stood in her bare feet, giving her a look that could burn brick. She had pale blue eyes a white blonde hair, lighter than Morgan's own. "Come in, we've been expecting you." Her voice was soft, and traveled around Morgan like the wind.
"I am Morgan." The green eyed blond whispered. The blue eyed woman looked Morgan over carefully, as if she were critiquing every part.
"To us you are Helené. The one to whom there will be a siege laid." And then she turned and walked, but with such perfect balance that it looked as if she were floating. Morgan, Helené nodded and followed, frowning as she lifted her sodden bag. "Leave it, one of the others will get it later. Helené nodded again, she seemed to be doing a lot of it, and followed. She didn't know for how long she walked, or where she went. She only knew that at the end of her trek there was a bed and a fire.
--:--
Neal was frowning again, she hated the frowning. Frowning meant much pondering, pondering meant half hearted attempts to listen to her wailings about her charges and Atsuibelulah's newest argument on why she should not become a knight. Basically Neal's frowning meant that she had to accept that the pages were inept, her youngest daughter was not her eldest daughter and Atsuibelulah was different than both her mother and her eldest sister. And Keladry knew that, knew it and tried to accept it. But sometimes, she just did not understand Atsuibelulah's lace fetish. It was almost neurotic.
"Neal!" She finally yelled two weeks after the frowning began. He looked up, completely startled by the noise.
"Gods Kel! Who died?" He asked, sliding his feet out of the windowsill.
"It's nice of you to join us in the land of the living again love. Now, what seems to be the problem, other than Kallisto married an evil sorcery, and Thom ran away." She said pertly, a character flaw she has absorbed by spending too much time with the first Lady knight.
"Well, that's pretty much it, except there is one more thing…" He trailed off, looking into the abyss that was his mind.
"Neal." She said, calmly this time, though it didn't seem to faze him. "Brussels sprouts, cabbage, turnips." He looked up. "The other thing?" She asked him and he handed her a many times folded note. She frowned as she read it. "So we're going to fetch him then?" She asked and he looked at her and nodded. "Well let's get to it then shall we love?" She asked and he smiled as he got up and walked towards her. He wrapped his arms around her and grinned.
"I could not have married a better woman." He whispered in her ear.
"I know, aren't you the lucky one." She said with a smug grin.
--:--
"I hate it, I hate this, I hate him, I hate- well, okay, I don't hate her, I'm still madly in love with her, why I have no idea, she married and absolute git with conquer- the – world tendencies. Stupid blighter." He was muttering, again, down at the southernmost, okay, not the southernmost, but past Carthak, anyway, down at the southernmost point of the world and he was muttering about her. Still. Four months after he met her, three months and one week after her marriage, and unbeknownst to him, one week after her daring, okay well, rather normal escape from a tyrant.
"What was that Master Thom?" One of his slave boys, yes slave boys asked. He had picked up slave boys because he didn't feel like paying one gold noble a day for a servant who would whine and gripe the entire time they were down in this slimy jungle. So, he had picked up two slave boys, one almost thirteen (or so he reckoned) and one fifteen (again, a guess). It was cheaper, and by the time they got back to Tortall they would be highly trained excavators and he could grant them their freedom and then they could get good jobs. A fair bargain he thought, they spend a year or so in a slimy, muggy jungle digging in dirt, sludge and anything else he decided to dig in. They make a few archaeological finds and go home. And hopefully he would be cured of his love for Morgan. Hopefully.
"Oh, I was just…um…" He tried to come up with something intelligible to say and failed miserably.
"He was just ranting about the girl who loves him but was forced to marry the dog again Enitan, that's all. Not important." Folami said with a laugh as he continued to brush what Thom knew to be a tree root.
"I figured as much." Enitan said with his little boy giggle. "Thommy, is this an important piece of vase or can I chew on it?" He asked. Thom sighed, these boys had long ago lost their fear of him, they still did what they were told promptly and efficiently, but they were teases.
Thom held out his hand for the vase. "She wasn't forced. Women in Tortall cannot be forced to marry anyone they don't want to. It's been the law for three years now." He said grumpily as he tried to clean the pottery shard with the murky water from the possibly poisonous river.
"Did she know that? From what we've heard about the mother woman, she wouldn't have told miss Kally-morg-helen now would she?" Folami said wisely. Freaking sage. His mind muttered. Great now I'm muttering in my head. Wait, did she know that?
--:--
She rolled out of her bed and onto her feet and staggered to stay upright. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and pulled on the white shift she had been wearing for a month. She should have pulled on the wool one, it was getting colder out now that it was September. A knock on her wood door caused whatever urges she had to go back to bed to flee. She sighed, pulled up the hood and tucked her hair into it. She opened the door.
"The Mother wants to see you." Agaue spoke, her voice spinning and whirling like the wind. She looked frail, her body thin, sometimes Helené would say she looked starved, but she ate like a soldier. A fat soldier. Then she actually heard what Agaue had said. The Mother. As in the Mother Goddess. She was going to die.
The two women walked silently down the halls. Morgan had gotten used to these quiet women. At first the quiet had unnerved her, all she could do was think, and remember. She had tried valiantly to remember the good times, the times she spent with Thom, instead of the time she spent with Rasputin. It had only worked for so long. The memories had some flooding back, and eventually she had fallen to the floor and sobbed, for days. And only then had the healing begun.
She had never noticed any particular bad habits, she didn't scratch or wiggle, but after arriving at the Temple she realized…She was a nail biter. And not just the innocent nail biters who only nibble. She was a full out, bite them until they bled, and then begin chewing on the cuticles nail biter. Morgan wouldn't have noticed except that weeding the gardens got dirt in them, and then they got infected and she had visited the healers several times with bleeding, puffy, and infected fingernails. She was disgusted with herself. And now that she was on her way to the Mother she realized that she was yet again chewing on her fingers. She quickly took them from her mouth and folded her hands behind her back. Out of sight, out of mind…For now…
The Temple room of the Mother goddess was not open to the public, there was a public room, but the Mother never liked to reside there. Too many people, complaining of too many stupid things was the excuse the older priestesses made. Which made sense to Morgan. In her weeks at the temple she had worked in the pubic temple. Women came and complained of their monthlies, how bad they were, and could she please so something about it? Morgan understood bad cramps, the ones that made you faint or vomit. She had had them a time or two in her life and knew how painful it could be, but it wasn't something Helené would have asked the Mother to take away.
The other priestess moved respectfully to the side when the reached the door to the inner temple. Helené smiled her thanks and opened the door. The room was beautiful, Morgan had known it would be, but she hadn't expected it to be made of glistening white marble and gold trimmings. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the alter where a beautiful woman sat.
"
Hello Kallisto." The Mother spoke and Morgan was driven to her knees. The voice of the mother was painful, echoing in her head. Bouncing off of the walls of her inner membrane. It penetrated to the core of her being, separating joint from marrow, soul from self. It was a pain like any other, and a pleasure at the same time. She grit her teeth and bit her cheek to keep from screaming. "Or should I say Morgan? Helené? Guinevere? Anastasia? Elizabeth? Mona Lisa? Cinderella?" The mother's voice was mocking and Morgan wished to cry.
"Just Morgan. I am not all those women." She ground out between bursts of shattering pain.
"But you are, have been, or will be." Morgan looked up in shock, the pain momentarily abating.
"I am not, will not, have not been all of those things." Her protests were in vain, the goddess laughed.
"Listen to me. You began as Kallisto. You became Cinderella, the abused, confused girl. You morphed into Morgan, the misunderstood beauty.
You became Anastasia, are Anastasia, coveted and wanted by an evil sorcerer. You will be Helené, the woman for whom a war was waged. You will be Guinevere, a woman who betrays her lover. You will be Mona Lisa, a woman with a secret. You will be Elizabeth, a queen." She spoke all this, prophesying Morgan's future, near and far. And then she was gone, and Morgan, Helené was left crying on the floor.
A/N: Look the real storyline! YAY! Only seven chapters of waiting. I have the feeling this is going to be very long…good thing summer is coming huh?