Song Suggestion: Oogway Ascends from the Kung Fu Panda Soundtrack
MARE
"None of this makes any sense."
I've been wearing a path in the carpet for the past five minutes, the plush carpet peeping through my toes.
They all just stare at me like I'm some kind of puzzle.
"How long has it been since that day?"
"A week," Davidson answers.
"A week?"
"That's what I said."
The dress that I wear, sways a few inches over my knees. It fits well enough and the material is comfortable but not extravagant. It's olive green and smooth and soft against my skin.
"Go over it again," Davidson insists.
I sigh. Talking to Alex about it is one thing, but to Davidson it's different. "Maven and I were… embracing. I remember I was just about to call Riley when I felt this pinch in my chest. I saw a brief splash of blood, both of ours. And then the next thing I know I'm waking up here."
In the Premier House. That was the only straight answer I could get from anyone so far.
"And you don't remember anything in between?"
"No, why?
"Well a few days ago," Alex says. "We too believed you were dead until Jon decided to tell us otherwise."
She sounds annoyed, but she it's still out of breath. She's taken my place in the bed, while Davidson sits at her side. Jon stands in the corner, silent. I stand the balcony doors. Something about sunlight keeping me calm.
"We tried to get to you as quickly as possible. But when we found you, you were… out of it."
"We brought you back here to Monfort," Davidson includes. "There was no other place we could hide you and keep a close eye on you without drawing suspicion and the cabin wouldn't do."
"You say I was dead-"
"You were."
"How do you know for sure?"
"It was clear from the moment we found your bodies."
"How so?"
He sighs, it's clear he doesn't want to tell me, but I need to know every detail.
"Based on your wounds and Maven's and what you've told me, I can say with certainty you were killed by a sword. But whoever killed you wasn't finished. They then took it upon themselves to carve out your heart."
I put my hand on my chest where my heart now beats in a steady rhythm. But the pain still echoes.
"You'll grow to call it a death mark," Jon says.
"What?" Alex asks. But Jon only speaks to me.
"The pain in your chest where they killed you. It leaves no physical scar or mark, but you feel its sting all the same."
A death mark.
Carving out my heart. Whoever killed me, it wasn't enough. It was a crime of passion, of anger. They stayed behind to rip it from my body. They risked death to ensure I would stay dead.
But they failed.
"If everything you say is true, then how am I alive?"
"The short answer? Your son."
My hand goes to my stomach, where my child, somehow, still grows.
"And the long answer?"
"That first time you channeled your son's ability, when you killed Evangeline, you felt a surge of strength when you took her hand."
It's been so long but I remember. I remember taking her hand. I didn't want her to die alone but I wished that she would hurry up. I took her hand and I felt strength flow through my body. And then she died.
"Your son took what was left of her life force," Jon continues. "Then there was Larentia and the snake. Both are now dead. Then Ptolemus, you used your child's ability on him as well. All that energy stored in your veins. When you were with Maven in your last moments, what was going through your head?"
The words come easily. "I wanted to protect them both. I didn't want anything to happen to them."
"Your child felt this in your womb. And when your heart stopped, he did not die right away. He never died at all. The life he took, the life that he held, kept him alive. And in some time, he was able to take that life and channel it back into you. Bringing you back, growing your heart, healing you in every way. Making you stronger. And that strength courses through your veins still. "
He's right, I know it. In a way, I do feel stronger, different.
If my child could bring me back, then…
"You will only have enough strength to bring one person back and even then it will cost you."
He looks at me differently than Alex and Davidson. I suppose it's because he knows my decision already. It hurts more than even my death mark. Like someone is ripping my heart out all over again.
"Maven or Shade," I whisper. The choice is impossible.
"There is a way you can have both."
My new heart responds to his words. Hope and also disbelief. I don't want to believe him. Because if I do and he turns out to be wrong or worse lying, I'll never recover.
"Your family knows your dead," Jon continues. It's takes everything in me to not break down at this fact. "If you chose your brother then both of you can return to your family. Your child will be accepted by them, but eventually, people will learn of his father and he'll pay with his life."
"Or."
"You choose Maven. The child lives into adulthood. He will be able to fight for himself, defend himself and protect. But your family and friends will struggle to find happiness and fulfillment for years to come. But eventually, you will be reunited once more."
When it comes down to it you will have to choose blood over blood.
This should be hard. The decision I come to shouldn't be this easy to make. But it is.
"Where's Maven?"
They understand. Davidson moves to stand.
"There is one thing you need to see before you do this," Jon says. And I notice Alex stir uncomfortably.
"See what?"
"Yourself."
ANALYSIS
Could that be hope rising in our hearts? Am I actually bringing Maven back? Hehe. I told you guys to trust me.
So just to go over it and break it down. Basically what the child's ability is, is the ability to "transfer" energy or life force of a living thing. So when he takes someone's life force he stores it away. And it can be used for a number of things, from having a surge of energy to healing to bringing people back from the dead. And this ability does have limits, but I'll go more into detail in the sequel.
If I had sum up his ability in one word I would call it: balance.
Earlier, in Chapter 40 I mentioned I had dropped a bit of foreshadowing within a shadowhunter allusion, hidden inside the song suggestion. So here is where I explain it.
Word of caution if you have not seen it or read the books, SPOILER WARNING.
If you watch the TV show Shadowhunters, in the first season, Clary's best friend Simon is killed. So the allusion was comparing Clary and Simon's friendship to Mare and Kilorn's.
In the scene when Simon is buried so he may rise from the ground and become a vampire, the song Hurts Like Hell by Fleurie plays in the background. The foreshadowing was Simon came back from the dead and so did Mare. So yeah.
On the subject of songs, the suggestion for this chapter is...out there, I know. And although I have done instrumental suggestions before, this will be the first chapter in which the chapter title is not a lyric. But this just stuck out at me. And the irony isn't lost on me of what goes on during the scene in which the song is played. Oogway dies and Mare comes back to life. But Shifu is forced to carry on his journey without direction. It's metaphorical. Oogway's death is the death of Mare's previous life. Now she must start anew. Her ascension into this other life she will build.
As for the end of this chapter, did anyone catch how Davidson and Alex were taken back a little by seeing Mare last chapter? I want you to ask yourself this:
If Mare's child can bring her back from the dead, grow her a new heart, then what else do you think he is capable of doing?
Oh, and did I hint at bringing Shade back? Why, yes. I did.
;)