Mother's face...?
No, I remember what she looked like. Her hair was straight and long, colored like the night sky. She had a soft voice that soothed me during stormy nights, when the customers were more drunk than usual, hitting harder than I could handle.
I remember the way she held me within her soft hold, cradling me as I cried.
I remember how tall she stood, how she gazed toward the star-filled sky on that balcony, her back facing toward me.
And her face...?
Her smile...?
I know she had black eyes. I always stared into them as she taught me how to read, write, and even do math.
No, I know her face.
That Somata doesn't have it, they don't look the same.
They're different.
They have to be.
"You're a liar!" My voice echoes within the chamber. "You creatures always lie! You always speak as if you know the truth, as if you own it! You only speak lies! Convincing lies! That's how you tricked my mother into leaping!"
The Matriarch's crescent smile doesn't fade, it transforms into a smile full of pity. She moves her hand, moving it toward me, cupping my chin.
"Oh, you summer child," the Somata whispers. "You lost touch with reality, haven't you? It's sad, truly, when a child loses their memory of their mother's face."
"No, you lie!"
"If I'm lying, then tell me Seer, describe your mother's face. Is it not what I'm wearing?"
No, Mother doesn't look like that. She has a bright smile, a soft voice, and black eyes. Are those looks? That's all I can remember. Is there more? Does there have to be?
No, this has to be a trick, some type of trap the Matriarch is setting up. She only wants my soul. That's it. Everything is a trick. Her words are venomous. I have to remember that. That's how they killed Mother.
I grip my knife, my gaze locks with 'IT'. I know my Essence, the thing in front of me wants me to forget it. I know my truth. I understand why I am living, and this thing can't spin the truth.
Nothing can.
This thing, this walking like, the manipulator cloaked in lies, thinks it can pretend to wear her face and make me believe it.
No.
I won't let it.
My breath hitches as my Essence surges into the knife. The blade glows white, pulsing like a heart, my heartbeat. Every crack in the chamber flickers with the light of my soul, of my will.
I lunge, arms snapping forward as my blade comets forth, slicing straight for that crescent-mouthed parasite. "You're not her!" I scream. "You'll never be her!"
The knife carves through the air, trailing brilliant light and—
Snap.
My blade shatters with the tap of her needle-thin finger.
The light explodes in shards, raining down around us like glass and ash. I stumble backward, my breath stolen, my soul cracking as the glow sputters out of my hand. I' left clutching a jagged handle, nothing more.
There's not a scratch on the Somata.
The same blade that freed Amira is broken. Gone.
Why am I breathing so fast? Why does my throat burn? Why is there a pressing heat behind my eyes?
Why is that putrid crescent smile still hanging on that horrible beast?
The demon.
"There's a Seer who lies," the demon's hand grabs my throat, pulling me into the air. "Finally."
Liar? I lied?
I'm not supposed to lie. Mother didn't teach me to lie.
I don't lie.
Yet I lied to John.
I told him he's going to live and escape the sewers, and now we're stuck in this Domain of Flesh, where death is ready to devour us.
I don't lie.
Yet I did. Mother's face, I don't remember it. It hurts to remember. I couldn't do anything when she lept. I only stood and watched.
I saw her face then, full of tears and regret as she was already in the air. I still can't see it. Were her eyes black, or were they merely reflecting the night sky?
I don't know anything.
I know nothing.
"You're going to be an excellent meal, Seer. I'm glad you revealed yourself to my children. I haven't had a See in so long."
Something in my chest flares, a singing heat begins to stir. It's warm. There's a blazing fire starting to grow. It's a wildfire.
It's Ikaris, it's his flame.
The Matriarch's face might be my mother's, or it might not. I don't know the truth. I might never learn. I don't remember her face.
But I do remember this: I remember her love. I think that's all I need to remember. That's all I need to know.
She loved me, and I love her.
"You're wrong," I whisper, the words crawling up my throat weakly as if scared to be heard.
The thing tightens its grip. Its long, spidery fingers squeeze my neck, lifting me higher.
"You have no idea what I am," I hiss through my teeth as pain rakes down my spine.
A grin grows across my face as the flame in my chest flares. It's awake., It screams through my bloodstream like a comet, wrapping around every bruise, every wound, pulling me back into myself.
"What do you mean, Seer? I don't need to know who you are. I know the truth, the absolute truth. You're a liar."
"No."
"No? Then what are you?"
"I am a son, a son who is still loved even through death."
The Somata reels back, just a breath. It snarls, its face twitching at the edges. The skin rippled as the poorly made mask began to bulge. The muscles underneath shake with anger.
"You know nothing," it hisses. "You are a boy shaped by fear. You are a vessel, Seer. You were made to be consumed."
I shake my head as my grin grows into a wide smile. I stare into the Somata's eyes, no, I see through her dark abyssal eyes, and stare into darkness.
That darkness begins to take shape, I see Mother, staring into the sky, watching the stars.
She turns around, her hair covering most of her face, but I know she's smiling. I see her. I know her. I love her. And she loves me.
There's something inside me, something roaring—a sun, a star—a flame.
The fire ignites in my chest, screaming.
The pain vanishes. My soul, my Essence, howls in tune with it. A peaceful light surges through me like a thousand spears erupting from my ribs.
And I begin to burn.
My body is wrapped in light and fire. Flame spills from my eyes, my veins run molten. I see it blaze along my skin, white lines of living flame coils over my arms, my shoulder, my spine. Every heartbeat echoes through the chamber.
The Somata recoils, her face starting to bubble, the mask of my melting at the edges like wax. The thing squeals a thousand voices. Her hand jetsk from my throat as the fire leaps onto it.
It crashes into the Somata. It's an inferno wrapped in Ikaris's will. The Somata's arms flare and blister, her flesh distorts, muscles wrapping, skin peeling, as it stumbles back.
I fall, my back hitting the ground hard, but I don't feel anything. My heart is beating too fast for me to feel anything.
I roll to my knees and grab a piece of the broken blade. My fingers close around the shard of the knife, cutting into my palm, blood dripping.
I don't let go. I can't. John and Morgan are still trapped.
I dash toward them, driving the shard into the flesh surrounding Morgan. The flesh screams as the shard cuts deeper than it should. I could feel my Essence inside the sharps, ripping through the flesh. It grows brighter than ever.
The blade carves a clean arc through the binding cocoon, and with a welt squelch, it snaps open.
Morgan falls forward, hitting the floor.
I spring to John and cut him out as well.
The Chamber shakes, and something massive roars behind me.
The Matriarch.
The guttural roar turns desipates into laughter. I turn back and see it still burning, but laughing. Its skin has melted off, replaced with black muscles, tendrils of flesh connecting to the Somata from the chamber walls. Its crescent smile still lingering.
"You Seer," it laughs. "You will be mine. You can run, you can hide, but when that sun disappears and that moon rises, I will hunt you and murder you like you murdered my child. When the hunt begins, you will die."
I blink.
And the Domain of Flesh is gone.
We're back in the ballast chamber.
And then, I collapse, pain filling my entire being.
Ikaris's flame is gone, and nothing is keeping me standing.