Chapter 7: proposition

“Take it in, it isn’t likely we will see this room much.” Litnu says. “Being vampiric creatures and all, there's not a lot we are likely to be able to eat here. They cook skin and sear the food across the hall, but it’s mostly smaller coldare that are served live, not enough sustenance for most lilum.”

“Cold… air?” I ask, as Litnu leads us to the door on the other side of the room.

The walls are a dark stained wood. Blackberry bramble covers the walls just as in the chael’s  inner sanctum, but the vines are much more sickly and dried. The table between us is ornate with claw-foot legs and a long wide marble tabletop. The reflection of the moon shimmers across it through the curtained windows.

“More beast than djinn.Hard to sustain oneself draining life force from a coldare.

I walk around another of the unusual redwood sculpted chairs to catch up with Litnu. There’s a large c shaped gap on one side and a single armrest. There is one thick leg at the back of the chair keeping them suspended in the air, and the seat is much shorter and cushioned. Hanging from the roof is a multicolored crystal chandelier with no backlighting.

“What exactly can I do to help? …I’m not always the most useful. I’m only here, because I hoped I could be more useful to someone I care about…”

“I know. You can help us here though, much more than you could ever possibly know.”She says, taking my hands in hers.

She slides through a door behind her, as it swings open I feel her fleeting touch, and long to feel her close to me. I can help her. I can be me and be useful. For all my predilections and shameful fantasies, few else has aroused me much more than such a thought.Right on her tail, like a love sick puppy I follow into a short hall with curved wood forming the roof’s arches. The wall in front of us is lined with doors. THere is a sharp corner to my right where it leads, a mystery to me as she guides me to the left down a straightway. She turns on her heel, I yield a bit too slow caught in my thoughts, almost bumping right into her. She cups a hand against my face, and slowly walks backwards with me in toe.

“We have to be quiet now sister. We don’t want to wake the mounts.”

“Mounts?” I ask, as we walk into a wide open stable, with large stalls and a loft above us.

The strange swampy smell draws my attention, and I see several large crocodiles, basking on the floor, and the rocks outside the wide open stable doors that feed into the sea.

“Oh my gosh! Are those-'' I gasp, cut short as Litnu pulls me in for a kiss.

My being fills with her, briefly sating growing hunger deep in my bosom. She separates, staring me straight in the eyes.

“Shush, quiet now.”

She once again grabs both my hands, and maneuvers us around the laying reptiles looking over her shoulder occasionally as she does. In the last stall in the curved stable, there is a small wooden door laying on the floor. Litnu glances at the door, and a gust of sweet smelling wind brushes by us. The door is flung open by some unseen force, revealing a set of old stone paved stairs leading down.

“Is this still part of the tour?” I ask, as we descend, making a left turn at the platform down another set of stairs. She switches to one hand as she nearly drags me down.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I will have to show you to our bedchambers later tonight. You will likely have to attend service at some point this week too. This place isn’t a part of any map a typical guest might be given though, no.”

As we round a ruffled rock wall down the stairs more of the room opens. Another symmetrical set of stairs sits across from the room. The roof is covered in stalactites and drapery. Between the two stairs is a large stone tablet, much like the one I first woke upon. Behind it is a clawtooth red water ring stained marble tub. Upon the tablet is a gutted deer stretched across the stone. Its chest however, shockingly, is that of a man’s arms raised above the cervine head. Both its hands and hind legs are hogtied, and various tools splay across the workstation.

“Heheh… D-did you take me here t-to kill me?”

“Huh? Oh, don’t mind the sacrificial table. Besides, you’re already dead.”

“What? I am? But, I thought, Illiana said… Oh god, Gehenna. Am I like, eternally damned now?”

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“Illiana is a sweet child. I’d take her with me if the stakes weren’t so personal, but alas, she is painfully naive.” Litnu stops at the bottom of the stairs, and turns to me. “No judgment has been given of your soul yet however, that is why you’re here. I desperately hope you may help us, after seeing for yourself why I need you to return to your home.” 

“I can do that?”

“You can, with my help. You must journey to the east and try to seek redemption in Jabulqa.”

“Why? Are you like… an angel? Are there uber secret heaven spies???” I gasp.

Her stoic composure is cracked as her face falls into her hand.

“What? I don’t know how things work down here!”

“Litnu is that you?” A hoarse voice echoes around the cave.

“Yes, Dakini, and I brought someone here to meet you!”

Suddenly feeling rather anxious, about just what I might see turning the corner I lag behind Litnu as she walks around a curved gem embedded limestone wall. I see in the dark corner of the cave a young chudail holding a small child in her arms. Litnu wraps her arms and wings around the kneeling woman’s neck. Taut chords attach to the wall behind her. Where they connect I cannot tell. There is a metal skewer through the woman’s cheeks. In the center of the alcove is a round red sandalwood slab. Upon it are small hand carved beads in a rosary, a lily surrounded by bright powder in the shape of a flower, an incense holder, a bell, a clay pot, a spoon, and piece of wood with a four armed woman on a two legged crocodile carved into it. The small oil filled clay diya provides the only real light in the cave. It suddenly occurs to me, there hasn’t been a single artificial light in the mansion since tonight, and yet I have been able to see clearly all the while. I also haven’t seen any other children despite being surrounded by pregnant djinn. Dakini, embraces Litnu’s warmth. She looks as if she hasn't slept in a millenia, and her eyes are bloodshot. Of all the lilum I saw at the orgy, she wasn’t one of them.

“What… is this?”

“It’s an altar to Goddess Ganga. Dakini has been down here all decan praying for karmic forgiveness.”

“Nila, Please allow me the little agency I have left trapped here in Naraka.”

“Sorry Reya, you’re right it’s your story to tell. You call me every name under the moon, and you’ll confuse this poor soul though.”

Dakini, or Reya or whoever she is, slowly stands from her kneeling position. The chords behind her follow, and I realize they are in fact anchored to the lady herself. As she sheds the lamps near impenetrable shadows I can see more clearly the child in her hands. She is so calm. Not once in this cave have I heard the child scream or kick, and it’s when seen in the orange glow of the diya I realize why.

It’s stillborn.

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