The War Without Fate

Chapter 23- Heresy and the City of Dis.

Quick note before we begin the next instalment in "The War Without Fate". I would like you all to know that I absoulutley hate this story at this point and I am constantly trying to figure a way to make me like it again and I am having trouble. I will finish it of course. In fact I am going to attempt to get at least 2 chapters out in tonight alone. It should be doable. Though it is going to take a ridiculious amount of time to get through the entirety of hell, but I think when Evangeline joins the party again I can once again up the entertainment factor. Im going to attempt at bringing back in the comedy and I believe I will still be able to achieve that through Tony's eyes anyway. Beyond that, please enjoy the next chapter. I'll try to enjoy writing it :)

I glanced around at my surroundings. It was like a colliseum and when I looked at Holly, our guide, I found the doubt and fear upon his features unsettled me. He straightened himself and walked forward toward the three harpies and Medusa who lounged on her throne as she watched us approach. 

"Good day ladys," Holly smiled around at them as we reached the foot of the throne. "I'll get right to the point then. There is a war about to start, we would like your assistance with some of our enemies. WE came to your ladies because we know how you enjoy that kind of work. While we're at it, we would also like to pass through to find the soul we came down for. If you wouldnt mind." 

The harpies that sat behind Medusa smiled their sharp teeth at us nodding their oddly shaped heads like excited children. They were, to say the least, hard to look at. Medusa however was not. She had the snakes that stemmed from her head pulled up in a ponytail so they were quite as noticable and her grey eyes examined the visitors with a strange intensity.

She stood with a sudden movement, her wide eyes settling on the thicket of the group. She moved with a certain smoothness that made it seem like she had hovered down the steps to stand in front of us. Holly took a shakey breath and looked up at her carefully. She flashed a set of surprisingly squared off teeth at him and gently moved him to the side, going through out the entire group and lining us up in a line instead of in the funny cluster that we had been stuck in before. 

Once we were in her perferred formation she walked up and down the line past us, she reached me and tapped on my mask. I had it peel back to reveal my face and I smiled at her, she nodded and continued down the line until she had reached Max and Jacqueline. She stopped and her face became somewhat desperate.

"I was once young and beautiful like you," She spoke as if she were speaking to children. She sighed heavily and her sharp grey eyes bounced between the two girls. "If I leave my post here at the entrance to the city of Dis, well then I reclaim my true form. That, I assure you ladies, is no pretty sight, and while I want to go back to the surface and assist you with your war I am afraid that I must decline. My friends here will of course be willing to. They will accompany you through the rest of Dis and make sure that the horrors meant for those souls who commited the crimes that those horrors are meant to punish them for. They will also make sure that you can retrieve your the person you look for without much fan fare or fight."

She retreated back to her throne, her long silvery gown swishing as she went up the stairs to sit on the large stone chair. The harpies took flight and hovered above our party. Medusas's eyes were still settled on us as a grand door appeared across the round room on the left. We began walking toward our exit until Medusa's voice ringing through the hall stopped us.

"I only ask," She started as we turned back to face her "That you remember that some things are sentenced to a hell that they do no deserve. Live out your lives with the ever present memory of me, and the kindness I showed you. I would greatly appreciate that, perhaps one day I will be allowed to the world of the living, redeemed to for my former life and forgiven of my miniscule mistake."

She gave us one last kindly smile as we exited through the door into the first level of Dis and the sixth level of hell. I found myself marveling over her motives. She seemed like a good person, perhaps the many that she had come across in her days of life regarded her as terrible because of how she had looked. I felt a pang of sympathy for her and I found that my view of this place became more warped as we descended through it. To say the least it was not what I had expected at all. 

As we entered this new circle, Holly informed us that it was filled with Heretics. That we would not find a worthy soul to ask to assist us in our fight amoung these and that we had to move quickly through them. They were far angrier than the others in previous levels and would take it out on anyone if they got the chance. 

"I assure you that no more people are sentenced to this strange area of Hell, perhaps the most filled." Holly said

"Why is that?" Max called from the back of the line 

"I suppose the governer of this hell wised up to the ridiculiousness that the idea held. Heretics are punished in a different way now." Holly answered sadly

"How is that?" I asked 

"They get exactly what they expect," Holly said as he watched the darkness pass beneath his feet.

We soon emerged into a large room with fiery pits all around it. You could not see the walls of the room except the one we had entered through. It seemed to stretch for miles and miles in both directions. The harpies hissed at us and motioned for us to follow. 

"We will show you the safe path," She screeched in her high pitched scratchy voice 

The harpies landed and began weaving their way slowly and carefully through each of the firery pits that were set in rows and columns. I peered cautiously into one to see that it was a tomb. Encasing ever burning people that glared up at me with their mouths open in silent screams. I yanked my head back and continued after the harpies as fast as the person in front would allow. 

We cleared the stage in a much faster time than I had thought. We reached a woman whose skin was charred and burnt. She peered at us through black eye sockets and her loosely pieced together jaw unhinged. 

"What the soul's in hell know of life above comes from seeing the future not from observation of the present." A voice boomed from the tiny crippled body. 

Holly cringed and patted the skeletal black shoulder as he passed through the door way it guarded after the harpies "Yes, thank you for that  Farinata,"

We continued on through the darkeness to the next level and as we passed through Holly turned back to me with an assuring look, yet still precarious for some reason. He tapped his hand lightly on my suit and leaned in close.

"She says it to scare people. She said it Dante, she says it to the partys I guide through here every time. She has a certain flare. She was a profit in life and was the last to be sentenced to that ring. Which is why she sees all who exit it. It is disconcerning I know, but I urge you not to take note of what she said. Please dont feel the urge to ask anything or any...one about the future. In short shes full of shit and Im afraid it would be a waste of time." He assured me and walked on 

I looked after him pecularilly. What an odd thing to say to someone. Dont get me wrong, he was an odd young man, but that was particularily off base for him. He continued to give me anxious looks back and I couldnt help but wonder what his true meaning was behind that. Wht say something like that unless it served a different purpose. He had never mentioned it before, only when the thought had been put in my head. I hadnt been tempted to ask a occupant for the future before but I found myself with a desire to now. I wanted to taste that forbidden fruit.