“Hello,” Heather said, mesmerized.
“My, you’ve grown into such a beautiful young woman,” the woman said. She walked toward Heather; behind her followed a train of shadows. “I could not have foretold your impeccable beauty.”
Heather blushed and touched the scar on her face self-consciously. The other woman looked down at the dagger on the table in front of her. Heather quickly covered it with a cloth.
The woman glanced around the room. “I am looking for Cyril. Where can I find him?”
He stood in the doorway as if beckoned by her. “Leave us,” he commanded Heather. She stood where she was, confused. The woman gave her a kind smile and Heather left the room, her head down.
“Don’t pretend to be kind to her,” Magus said harshly.
“I wasn’t pretending,” Vivienne said. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yes,” he said curtly. The slightest hint of pride escaped in his voice.
Vivienne walked across the laboratory toward the window. The trail of shadows followed her. Magus glanced down at the spirals of dark energy behind her, then out the window. The moon was high.
“It would seem a new era has arrived,” he said calmly.
“The thirteenth moon. The reign of night has come,” Vivienne said. “It is the realm of the feminine. You must be so pleased.”
“Water hasn’t flowed in that fountain for thirteen thousand years,” Magus said, staring at the fountain below.
She nodded and turned away from the window. She returned to the worktable and looked at the cloth covering the dagger. “Still clinging to worn-out plans, I see. Still shrouded in ignorance and revenge.”
“Revenge was your domain,” he said. “I simply want power. It’s what runs the world.”
“Your world, maybe,” she said.
“It was your world once,” he said.
“No,” she said. “This was never my world, this synthetic shell. You could never replicate Sophia’s world without love.”
He laughed. “You don’t know love any more than I do. You think you do. I don’t make such pretenses.”
Vivienne winced. “Your words hurt, even now, after all this time. It would seem some wounds wait unhealed, only to be ripped open again by the one still holding the knife. The life between us remained frozen, just waiting for this moment. The Dissolution is upon the world. And that includes us. We are not above it. I must face you, face our past and forgive it. I am not above the wheel of Karma.”
“Karma is for the ignorant,” Magus said.
“Yet here we stand, back in our same bodies, our same feelings. Thirteen millennia later, we are exactly where we were then,” Vivienne said. “That sounds like karma to me. I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about our relationship, Cyril. We attracted each other for different reasons. I wanted your attention. You wanted my expression, the life force that ran within me that no other could possess. Did you really believe you could own the power of the sea?”
He looked at her with intensity in his eyes, and the corner of his lip turned up slightly.
She shook her head. “I fell for that look once. I was so stupid to be so naïve, mistaking what you had to offer as love. So you’re right, I do not know what love is. But you still covet the light. You’ve been chasing the light you wanted from me for an epoch. And you’ve attached its worth to that silly stone.”
“Don’t pretend that stone means nothing. Its energy has the ability to control the planet. It will be whole again.”
Vivienne picked up the dagger within the cloth. Magus made no move to stop her. She removed the cloth and a rose-golden orichalcum blade shone brightly, its tip encrusted with one half of the emerald. She took in a deep breath. “You cling to the notion that you can erase all of the responsibility of the past with violence.”
“Knowledge!” he snarled. “If arrived at through violent means, so be it. You have your own trail of casualties.”
Magus stepped closer to Vivienne and she appeared to grow in size. Her blue-black aura shone off her skin, transforming her appearance into the goddess Kali.
“You never were the goddess of death,” Magus said. “You embody life, and that’s why I loved you.”
He reached out to touch her face and she pulled away. “Where is Argan?”
Magus smiled. “He is taking a break from his duties. I think it became too much for him.”
“I’m sorry this is what you’ve become.” She spun around and strode out of the laboratory, her dark trail following.
As she walked down the hall, all the men bowed at her feet. She paid them no mind. When she reached the aquatic tank, the mermaids were already lined up, waiting for her arrival. She climbed the metal staircase and stared at the soul cage trapping Argan. She looked back at Magus, who stood at the bottom of the stairs. He was clouded in a fine, dark mist that filled the room.
She descended the stairs slowly. “I cannot help him. He is there by his own accord.”
“You didn’t believe me,” Magus said. “This is the realm of the gods, not a playground for children. It all became too much for him. You see, Vivienne, we are shown time and time again that love does not conquer all. It is not enough to heal the betrayals of the heart.”
She had heard enough. Turning on her heels, she left Magus standing alone in the great room.
Skylar stood in the Sanctuary doorway, disheartened. Magus and his goons had torn it apart. The one shred of love in this whole place was ruined. She looked on the desk. The map was gone. He knew how to get to the Underworld now. He had Argan’s stone. All that stood in his way of completing all of it was the stone in her own chest.
She looked at the wall for the jeweled mirror. It had been smashed; pieces of glass lay on the floor. She knelt down and held it in her hands. She was startled by her reflection in the shattered glass: she saw her face cut in pieces—not just by the glass but by life. How similar she was to Heather, the wounds of loss sliced across her face. She touched the glass and for the first time, she had compassion for the girl staring back at her. Seeing what she carried on the inside, so emblazoned on the outside, she couldn’t help but love this girl. She was able to appreciate her strength and all she’d endured.
“Life isn’t meant to be endured, child,” Vivienne said in the doorway. She shut the door behind her as a trail of shadows followed her into the Sanctuary. “It’s meant to be embraced.”
“Grandmother.” Skylar stood. “How wonderful to see you. I had half expected Ocean.”
“She won’t set foot in this realm,” Vivienne said.
Skylar saw the trail behind her. Vivienne tracked her gaze.
“As this mirror shows you the pain you carry, here in Atlantis, I can’t hide mine either.” She looked around the torn-up room. “Things appear to be quite a mess, don’t they?”
Skylar nodded. “But I’ve been in these situations before,” she said.
“I’ve been far away but closer than you may believe,” Vivienne said. “I’ve seen the last few years of your life unfold. You started your journey as all young women do: giving away your power to men, to misplaced desire, on the quest for wholeness. We simply don’t know any other way. Only through experience is wisdom gained.”