Mirai

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Hera gave Tamah a month in her home. During that month, Tamah was more a shell than a person. She had cried that morning, but after that, she was empty of emotions. They all tried to cheer her up and when that didn't work, they tried to make her angry and upset, did anything they could think of to make her show any emotions.

All failed.

After a month, Hera came back in the middle of the night.

"My dear Lamia, I require your assistance," she told Tamah before ripping her from her home to never return.

What followed was Hera forcing Tamah to change into Lamia to defeat whatever enemy Hera wanted gone. Likely Hera could have done it herself, she was a goddess after all, but she seemed to enjoy watching Lamia create devastation and always laughed at the pain Tamah showed when she became aware of what she had done.

Hera used her like that for a while, then she discarded Tamah to be picked up by a coven that used her all the same. She was reduced to a weapon, not viewed as a person who had feelings.

It all made me feel broken beyond repair and I was angry with myself for not having known her earlier, for not having been able to save her. If only I could go back in time, I would take her away from everything to a place with only her and me. There we could be happy, I could make her smile and laugh again. Make Lamia into nothing more than a past nightmare.

I felt a certain level of pride watching her, though. For no matter what happened to her, no matter how cruelly she was treated, she still showed glimpses of herself and moments when she would fight back. It either happened when a stranger would show her kindness or when she would see children among Lamia's victims. The kindness would make ghosts of smiles appear on her lips, the dead children would make her shed lonely tears, both of them would make her tell anyone that called her Lamia that her name was Tamah.

I kept watching all of the wrongs that were done to her. Kept taking in all of the horrors she had to face until one fight came that was too much for me to handle.

Tamah was at the outskirts of Jerusalem. She was locked in a wooden cage and some men set it on fire before jumping on horses and galloping away. That seemed to be one of the things that triggered Lamia to come forth, pain and when Tamah feared for her own life. So as the flames ate up the cage and burned Tamah, Lamia rose.

By then, the men had gotten far enough away so Lamia couldn't focus her rampage on them. Instead, she set her eyes on Jerusalem and the sounds of the city. She slithered her way over and began killing whoever crossed her path. Slashed with her claws, threw them back with her tail, broke them as if they were nothing more than porcelain dolls.

Then Nox came. He fought her back and proved to be stronger than her. But Lamia persisted. From what I had seen, Lamia would continue to kill until there was nothing left. Only then would she calm and Tamah would return. So no matter how badly Nox injured her, Lamia continued the fight. She was bloody and torn, broken like so many of her victims when she lost consciousness and finally became Tamah again. Nox stopped and I could see in how the eyes of the lion narrowed, how the goat threw his head back, how the snake hissed, that he considered slashing her one more time, kill Tamah to stop Lamia forever. But finally, he flew away.

I couldn't take it anymore, couldn't watch more of her abuse. I moved back and found myself standing in the cave, looking into the mirror and onto where Tamah lay on a street in Jerusalem, covered in her own and other's blood.

My body shook and silent tears fell. I needed to find her, needed to get to her as fast as possible. But... I was no closer to knowing where she was.

"Please," I whispered. "Can you just show me where she is?"

The image in the mirror blurred and once it cleared again, I gasped and took a step back.

She was dressed in rags and had filth all over her body. Stone walls surrounded her, and the place wasn't big enough for her to lie down in, though she wouldn't have been able to. Her hands were in chains that hung from the ceiling and her feet were cuffed to the ground. Her head hung, so I couldn't see her eyes, but I was sure she was awake.

Was that her now? Locked up in a prison?

I moved closer again and reached my hand out to the mirror. I wanted to hug her and comfort her and take her far away from wherever she was.

As my hand connected with the glass, I felt it disappear again and a wind forced me forward. I assumed I would end up in another series of visions, but instead, I stepped out and onto the floor of the cell.

It was such a shock that I first looked down myself to make sure I actually had a body. Then I held my hand out in front of me before touching the wall of the cell. The stone was cold as ice, but the fact that I could feel that meant I had indeed somehow managed to step into wherever Tamah was.

"Tamah," I said in a soft voice.

Her head snapped up and our eyes connected. The bond clicked in place. Since I already knew she was my mate, I assumed the feelings weren't as overwhelming as they usually were. It only amplified my feelings a little. The love I already felt, how I cherished her and wanted to protect her. How she was my everything and nothing could ever change that. How I belonged to her and how I would never let anyone take her away from me. How I wanted to hunt down everyone that had ever hurt her and make them pay.

Her lips trembled and a crease appeared between her eyes. I wondered how she felt, if she understood. All that she had been through, how she had been surrounded by pain and hate, how she had partly lost herself, made me think she didn't. She had to feel something of the bond, but I doubted she understood what it all meant.

"Who..." she said. Her voice was raspy and horse and that one word was enough to make her cough. I looked around in the hopes to see water, but there was none. So instead, I moved closer and placed a hand to her cheek.

She continued to cough, and I felt completely useless because I had no means of helping her. I tried to use magic to make water appear, but I couldn't. It was as if my magic was all gone. That made me aware that even though I was there, I also wasn't. I wouldn't be able to save her from that place right then and there. I would have to return to the cave, leave the Maze, and then go to her.

"Talk as little as possible, alright," I whispered to her when the coughing had finally subsided. She nodded. "I'm Mirai. And I'm going to get you out of here. I promise. Do you know where you are?"

She shook her head and I sighed. I wasn't surprised, but that made everything much more difficult.

"Do you know who imprisoned you?"

She started by shaking her head, but then she nodded.

"Can you tell me?"

"Witches," was all she said. It was lower than last time, barely audible, but thankfully she didn't start to cough again.

"A coven?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Do you know the name of the coven?"

She shook her head.

"Do you know what the area outside looks like? What is the last thing you remember before this?"

"Forest," she whispered.

It wasn't much. It wasn't anything really. But I instinctively knew she wouldn't be able to give me any more answers.

"Okay. I will have to leave you, Tamah. But I promise I'll be back and I will take you away from here. We will go somewhere together where no one can hurt you ever again." I leaned my head against her forehead and closed my eyes. I didn't want to leave her, but I knew I had to.

"You know my name," she whispered, and I felt my lips turn up to a smile.

"Of course I know your name," I told her and opened my eyes to look at her again. Her eyes were wide, and they held a sliver of something, of what could be happiness.

"I'd forgotten," she murmured, and that sliver disappeared as she looked down towards the ground.

"I'll help you remember," I promised and kissed her forehead. Her skin was cold and it tasted of dirt, but I let my lips linger.

"Mirai," she whispered.

"Tamah," I answered her and in the next moment, I found myself standing in sunlight with trees behind and to my sides and the entrance to the Maze before me.