The Tent of High Healing

Chapter Four: The Gates of Sheol

The setting Sun blazed, making Rea feel more exhausted than she already was. She regretted committing to meet Inami in the Old Quarters tonight but she promised her a night out. She chucked off her gloves and mask and was too tired to walk home and change out of her robes, so she hailed a rickshaw from one of the dusty streets, and let her mind go numb to the sound of life buzzing around her.

She stepped off the rickshaw and into the bustling city. The Old Quarters were built out of Ashrah stone, and gleamed golden under curving lampposts and the evening sky. Merchants advertised their wares by shouting outrageous claims, louder than their competition across their stalls.

"Bananas! Fresh from this morning! Buy a bunch and I give you one free!!", bellowed a grubby short man with leathery skin, eyeing her as a potential customer.

"Figs!! Sure to be as sweet as you are beautiful" Hollered his rival from one stall over, "half price for you! He furthered, vying for her attention.

The market was full of life, so different from how she spent her days. Swaths of glittering fabrics, copper crockery, and intricate lanterns covered a makeshift ceiling, with slivers of the dusky sky peaking through. Music swirled around her as a cacophony of horns and percussion danced in the air tumbling and twirling with market gossip and bargains struck. Dancers with gauzy veils and tambourines rolled their hips and shoulders to each beat of the drums, becoming one with the music.

A figure emerged in the throng, slicing through the bright colours, wild and riotous, Inami. One hand clutching a bottle of wine and the other half dancing, half waving towards her. "Once again, you are late!" Her voice slightly slurred.

"You're wearing that?" Inami exclaimed, exasperated, poking at Rea's crumpled blue robes, damp with sweat.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Inami rolled her eyes. "You are entirely hopeless." She wore a cream dress that was tailored to fit the dips of her body, her arms were wrapped in gold bangles and she wore a crown of braids coiled atop her head.

"The drunks will be lining up—for hangover cures." Inami snorted.

"There is only one drunk I care about is the one standing in front of me hoarding all the wine!" Rea giggled as she snatched the wine bottle from Inami, taking a swig.

The market bustled around them, as they waded through the crowd, paying homage to each stall. They stuffed their mouths with samples of halva, sticky dates, and the sweetest figs, hands and stomachs full. The beat of darbouka and crash of horns trailed after them.

"The last time we were here, Terra was with us." Rea whispered, as she felt that hole in her heart bare itself. No amount of wine could fill it.

Inami's smile disappeared, her eyes glittered as they became wet. "...I miss her."

The crowd thinned and as they wandered away from the market. At first they wandered aimlessly, down narrow alleys and streets, until they found themselves at the gates of Ashrah where a black obelisk marked the edge of a bone white city. The tower was different from typical Ashrah architecture, it was made of onyx, as if carved out of the shadows itself. It was rumored to be haunted by men and women, whose bodies were never recovered in the Long War. Rea finally broke the silence, "how could she just disappear, without telling us anything?"

Inami's golden eyes misted with silver. "I don't know, Rea... Hopefully the veritists will find something... this time"... Inami whispered.

It had been over four months since they had last seen Terra. It was at the Tent of Healing. She was acting differently, complaining of headaches and constantly looking over her shoulder, as if she was being watched. The next day she was gone. The investigation led nowhere. As it had for the missing healers for the past two years.