Internal: Viperpath (volume 1)

(17) Vigil

Still visibly disturbed by her most recent 'specter of sleep', and with her own lord husband not currently available to help smooth her concerns, Mama Viper elected to take a nightly stroll.

"Huh... how very strange. Last time when I burnt that kitty, 'twas Dastra I ended up flingin' into the in-dream flames; now Silas was there too, and the abyss, and that dragon..." The queen stopped in her tracks. "Could it be that... the worse the crimes I got Zal do, the scarier those dreams are gonna get? Heck, this is the sort o' warning that's gonna require proper n' deep reflectin', if so..."

With this in mind, Mama Viper resolved to re-enter her subterranean chamber--the very same place where most of her schemes had been brewed and hatched--all by herself, in a vigil of sorts.

Picking up a torch from a niche in the wall, this queen started on her way, with only the night chill (and possibly her own fear) for company as she turned another torch leftwards; that opened a well-concealed passageway down to a long winding flight of stairs. As she reached the first landing, once more Mama Viper paused.

"Hmm... Might this not 'ave been how Mu and Ras had felt moments before those catspaws struck, I wonder..." She briefly looked at the cavernous ceiling.

God does exist, after all; and He seems to will that I start patchin' things up with my girl after all this time, eh...

Mira did not stop again until she had reached said subterranean chamber, where she had first held a session with Razin and the rest of their collaborators to plot that fateful nocturnal attempt at Mustafa and Rashid's lives; closed its door behind her; put the torch in another niche; and seated herself with a hearty sigh on the edge of a round stone so large, it could also have been used as a table.

Momentarily, she covered her face with both hands in deep shame.

"Azalea, my dear, outspoken daughter... What had I been makin' her do, huh? The only one with the guts to tell me, to my face, how screwed my old family legacy must've been... Oh! How, with her and Das by my side, I'd in truth been given a second chance to remold that legacy anew! Yet instead of pausin' to really listen to Zal, I..." She glared at both her hands, indignant tears starting to well up. "With these very hands I slapped her, broke her, made 'er swallow blood. I, Mirani Tharia, had turned a harbinger o' truth into a criminal, by choice; my own firstborn, for that matter! Dear God..!"

Her anguished scream echoed in the cavernous chamber. Silence greeted her.

"How Mustafa could be so fierce in his rebukes to me, come to think of it... That faith-fortified punk..."

Mira once more pulled off a hearty huff. Where crimes had been committed, recompense must be sought--that much she realized.

She thought again of Silas.

"Alright, Mirani, focus," she told herself. "With regards to my siblings' ignoble ends, the fault really lies not with the sons, but the father. His day o' reckoning shall come, and may it be granted that I'll be alive to witness that. More to the point, though... I gotta apologize big time to Zal. Maybe even admit to havin' engineered that scheme against her siblings, in good time..."

At length, Mama Viper rose again; her face a study in rekindled determination. "That said, bloody justice must still be sought against the true traitor to our cause! Just ya wait, Yasnar! But for yer twisted advice, Urdin's forces would not 'ave romped through my homeland as rapidly as they did... my guiltless siblings need not 'ave lost their lives... and maybe, just maybe, that ol' friend o' mine, Kahina, would still be here... Dammit..."