La trista riviera d'Acheronte, January 1, 1923
At the outer edges of Pride, a timeless river flowed...
An immense black river, flowing endlessly from horizon to horizon...
Like on the shore of a dreadful sea, no one could see the other side, for thick, impenetrable mist rose like a wall from its waters...
It was the final circle, wider than all the Rings of Hell...
...and its endless bank was covered with the corpses of demons from all eras, those souls foolish enough to attempt to reach the other side...
...of the Acheron.
...
A shining portal, its purple edges brimming with magic, appeared in the red wasteland before the river.
Charlie and Vaggie stepped through, and the portal quickly closed behind them.
"Remember, girls..." Stolas had told them, "...once you are on the other side, no one will be able to reach you. Even if you brought an Asmodean Crystal with you, it would not work. Once you have arrived on Earth, you must journey to a major city; an Emissary of Lust will find you there and open a portal to Mongolia..."
"I'll journey to the Court of Mandos from the other side, from Earth..." Theodore added, "...I'll see you there..."
They both sounded so confident that Charlie and Vaggie would succed in their dreadful task. Vaggie wished she could feel half as confident right now...
...for never in her wildest dreamings had she felt like this, like some horror beyond imagination was about to happen...
...
They silently walked to a small wooden dock on the river. There was nothing alive anywhere around them, and not even the flowing waters made any sound...
When they heard something was arriving from across the river, the sound felt deafening in the blankness of that complete silence.
The sound of paddling, of a boat on the waters.
A shape slowly emerged from the mist, like it didn't belong there. The long, thin, shape of a man hidden completely by his black cloak, standing on an even thinner wooden boat.
No one could say if the man had seen them: he acted like they were never there, like nothing had ever been there but his boat and the dock.
Charlie approached the ferryman and broke the stony silence:
"Caronte, I am the Princess of Hell and I demand safe passage for me and this mortal woman, Vaggie."
The old, frail thing slowly tilted his head.
"Thy title means nothing here. Thou hast no authority here. Thou shalt go no further."
"Charlie, we are wasting time here..." was that fear, dread in Vaggie's voice? "We should..."
"Wait..." she had remembered something...
...She remembered words from long ago, words spoken to her by a man, a living man who had visited Hell six centuries prior...
"Caron, non ti crucciare: vuolsi così colà dove si puote ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare!"
They felt like the silence that followed would last for all eternity...
...
Then he spoke:
"By the will of Another thou seekest the paths of shadows. Very well..."
They embarked. For a fleeting moment, Vaggie hesitated before taking Charlie's hand.
The boat threatened to crack and to sink with the smallest movement, but nothing happened.
The mist engulfed them. It was like nothing existed anymore but the waters, the boatman and his two companions holding each other...
...
A horrid sound loud as thunder woke them from their sleep.
The mist was gone. It was only darkness that surronded them now. The sound was that of the boat reaching the dock on the other side.
Caronte didn't say a word. He didn't even seem to be looking at them. Again, like they never existed, like two more grains of sands had flowed in the hourglass of eternity.
As they looked around them, they realized something more solid than the darkness stood at the end of the dock.
They were at the bottom of an immense gorge; gigantic canyon-like walls of black stone, their height immeasurable, rose from the waters on either side.
The right side looked completely smooth; they were on the left side, where a path lied before them. A narrow path going up further and further, higher and higher on the edge of the black abyss.
They walked in the darkness, hand in hand, for what felt like unnumbered Aeons...
High above them, somewhere between those walls of stone, winged, black monstrosities filled the air with their distant screeches.
Still they walked. And walked. And walked...
...
They almost didn't notice it when it approached. Upon seeing it next to them, they froze in sheer and absolute terror.
A shade. A black figure, like a shadowy silhouette that somehow one could see in the depths of the surrounding darkness.
The shade had absolutely nothing but two eyes, two empty pits of white nothingness.
It floated past them, oblivious to its surroundings. Or to anything else.
...
Another eternity went by in the darkness.
Then the path before them stopped abruptly, or so it seemed.
There stood the entrance of a cave. As they came near, a figure came out...
...and flew away, shrieking like some ghastly mutant bat.
It was sounding the alarm.
More creatures arrived, some descending from above, others climbing from below, like they had truly invaded a colony of huge cave-dwelling bats spawned by the darkness itself.
The "bats" held lances and swords in their clawed hands; they had to be the guardians of the cave, protectors of the dark.
The intruders were quickly surrounded. Vaggie held her spear, defiantly.
"Which of you freaks wants to die first?"
"Vaggie, wait! They are not attacking us... Maybe we should..."
"What?"
"...ask them to take us to their leader?"
"Sure, like that's going to work..."
...
"I can't believe that actually worked..."
The monsters were dutifully escorting them trough narrow passageways and corridors guarded by more horrid creatures.
At certain points they walked past openings, like windows carved in solid stone, and caught fleeting glimpses of vast buildings and dark streets that looked like they were hanging over a bottomless abyss.
They were led through a door into a grand hall, and then another. This had to be the Court of Mandos that Theodore had described...
...nothing but black stone and elaborate scenes carved on black walls, showing eldritch races and gods as they fought over ancients planets...
They entered the Throne Room at last, and there they found an assembly of shades.
They were nothing like the shade they had found in the abyss; these looked like shadows of living people, of men and women in elaborate attire.
Next to the Throne, there was the Grim Reaper, intent on talking to the King.
The immense figure of the King turned to see Charlie and Vaggie had arrived.
"O voi che venite al doloroso ospizio..." Mandos began, "...the Reaper was just telling me how the whole commotion in Heaven right now is happening because of you..."
"Your Majesty," Charlie said, "every attempt at peace had been done, and the Grim Reaper had helped us in that endeavor! Surely you cannot fault him for forsaking his neutrality..."
"You stand before a god of death and your first thought is to valiantly stand up for one of your friends..." he scoffed, "...Admirable but pointless. It was abundantly clear to me that the fools of Heaven and Hell would go to war. The Reaper's neutrality was meant to keep the peace, not to survive it."
"That's a relief, Your Highness. But I've come here..."
"No need to explain yourself, Princess. I know you want to bring this mortal friend of yours with you to the realm of her birth..."
"Yes! This is Vaggie and she..."
"I won't allow it."
"What! Why?"
"Because I enforce Laws that are binding on ALL the dead. No soul Heaven has forsaken can ever return! Unless..."
"Unless what? I'll..."
Vaggie grabbed her arm. "No, Charlie, don't say it..." she pleaded.
"...I'll do ANYTHING!"
...
Mandos was so enjoying it. He loved when they said that...
"Unless..." he resumed, "...an immortal freely gives up their immortality for the mortal's sake."
...
Vaggie felt like she had blindly refused to believe it all along. Like her premonition of a horror beyond imagination had come to pass.
For it truly had.
"STAY BACK!"
She held her spear, like every living, dead and undead thing in the great hall was going to try and take Charlie away from her!
"WE ARE LEAVING, AND IF YOUR ARE SENDING YOUR MONSTERS AFTER US, THEY ARE LOSING THEIR HEADS!"
"Vaggie!"
"Come on, Charlie, we still have time to-"
"VAGGIE, NO!"
If Charlie had stabbed Vaggie through the heart with a holy dagger, it would not have hurted nearly as much.
For either of them.
"I must do this..."
"NO, YOU DON'T! YOU CAN'T DO THIS..."
"Vaggie..."
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME,CHARLIE! You can't do this..."
She fell to her knees, grabbing her own trembling shoulders, her wings writhing in pain.
Her tears resounded on the cold, black stone floor as they fell.
Charlie took Vaggie's face in her hands, pressing her face against hers.
"Charlie, you... you will die and leave me... and I will spend all of eternity searching for you..."
"Vaggie, I... if you have not died, we would have never met... I don't know why, I don't know if I even can, but... I feel like I must have... faith... that death will bring us us together again..."
"You don't know that... and I can't do this... I can't let you go..."
"...I'm not as strong as you..."
Charlie rose to her feet, her teary eyes filled with... determination? Resolve?
Hope, even?
"No..." she said, looking at her love one last time.
"...you are stronger than me."
...
Charlotte of House Morningstar, first of her name, Princess of Hell, kneeled before the Throne of Shadows.
"Reaper," the King said, turning to his left, "your Scythe."
Theodore handed his weapon, and Mandos rose to his feet holding it high with his right hand...
...then lowered it, until it almost touched Charlie's left shoulder.
And he spoke.
"Do you swear on Azatoth and all the Gods that you henceforth relinquish, here and now, your immortality for the sake of this human?"
"I swear."
"Do you swear on Azatoth and all the Gods that you shall never seek to regain your immortality by any means?"
"I swear."
"Do you swear on Azatoth and all the Gods that you are giving your free and complete assent to an Oath binding for all time?"
"I SWEAR."
...
After a single moment that could have lasted forever, the King of Shadows lifted the Scythe above Charlie's shoulder...
Then he struck.
In a fraction of an instant, the blade straight through her shoulder and down to her heart.
Too fast for the mortal eye to see, the blade was gone. Charlie fell to the floor like a boulder.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"
Vaggie run to take Charlie in her arms. She wasn't breathing, she wasn't fucking breathing!
"CHARLIE, CHARLIE, SPEAK TO ME, SPEAK TO ME!- ANYTHING- don't go- don't go..."
...
"Vaggie..."
Charlie's hand touched Vaggie's face.
She could feel Vaggie's tears, like warm, shining jewels, falling on her face.
"CHARLIE!"
Vaggie kissed her. She kissed her furiously. She kissed her with every fiber of her being. She kissed her like she would never let go of her again.
Suddenly, Charlie felt a fit of pain near her left shoulder.
"Vaggie, my shoulder..."
She looked, and saw a horrid black scar where the Scythe had hit Charlie.
Without thinking, not even for an instant, she kissed the scar, like the magic of their Love would make it disappear.
And it did!
"I knew it!" What a bold-faced lie on Vaggie's part; but she meant well. "You were strong enough! You real strength was always here..." She said, touching Charlie's chest.
She looked confused. "In my boobs?"
"YOUR HEART! I MEANT YOUR HEART!"
Every shade in the vast hall seemed to shudder as they heard- for the first time in forever- the sound of joyful laughter within those black walls...
...
"I don't understand..." Charlie said after a while, "...I don't feel much different... Am I..."
"Mortal?" Mandos spoke, "No. If you had not truly intended to keep your word, you woul be GONE. It was a test, and you passed."
Overjoyed, the two Chosen Ones were going for another round of kissing...
"ENOUGH WITH THIS SICKENING DISPLAY! REAPER!" he shouted, giving him back his Scythe, "SHOW THEM THE WAY OUT! !"
Teddy smiled, "At once, my good sir..."
Vaggie, still holding Charlie in her arms, joined Theodore. "You knew it all along, didn't you?" she asked.
"Yes, and I never doubted you." he replied, "Either of you."
...
As they were leaving the great hall, one of the shades, looking like an old man, approached them.
"My liege the Great Khan will be waiting for you..."
"Thank you, royal beki." Theodore replied.
"One more thing before you go..."
The royal beki (a shaman among the Mongols) started reciting a chant or mantra...
...and Vaggie's wings vanished!
"What in the..." She could barely feel them now!
"I made your wings invisible... So you won't attract as much attention to yourselves when you are among mortal men..."
"Thank you again." Theodore said, "My friends are looking forward to meet your generous master in his kingdom."
...
Soon enough, the two of them (Vaggie insisted on carrying Charlie) were walking further and further up an endless, narrow tunnel in the darkness.
After one more, one last eternity of walking, a faint, crystalline light shone from somewhere beyond the farthest end of the road.
"That light..." Charlie whispered.
It was a portal. It seemed to hover above the very edge of a bottomless abyss, its round shape shimmering in the starlight.
Un pertugio tondo...
...and beyond it was the most wondrous sight Charlie and Vaggie had ever seen...
There was a plain all around them, as far as the eye could see.
The dazzling dome of the equatorial stars above them, the glimmmering of placid waters in the distance...
The fresh nightly air filling their lungs...
And somewhere, far away, trees like towers standing gloriously, giving shelter to many animals in their nightly rest...
...across the savannah.
...
Charlie and Vaggie fell exhausted in the dewy grass, not knowing, in that moment, where they were meant to go or why...
...It all seemed so simple, so clear to them in that moment...
...they had come out to see the stars.