Garder mon Ame

Chapter Eleven: An Acrimonious Proposition

. . . But to that second circle of sad hell,

Where 'mid the gust, the whirlwind, and the flaw

Of rain and hail-stones, lovers need not tell

Their sorrows. Pale were the sweet lips I saw,

Pale were the lips I kiss'd, and fair the form

I floated with, about that melancholy storm.

~Keats

How we can war, how engine our great wrath!

O speak your counsel now, for Saturn's ear

Is all a-thunder'd Though, Oceanus,

Ponderest high and deep; and in thy face

I see, astonied, that severe content

Which comes of thought and musing: give us help!

~Keats

Weak were the souls which haunted the fields of Asphodel. Ardin passed the wretched on her way, and it was when Dante's Inferno and Keats entered her mind that she felt the wind. She suspected she did not bear its brute force, but the hurricane-like gale still tore at her wings and flesh. The cold wreaked havoc on her skin, goosebumps rising like mountains, causing more pain than just a simple chill. If she could turn blue, she suspected she would like the other souls.

And icy the other souls looked! They stumbled about in the wind, unable to stand up straight from the force of Hell's nature, their demons nipping at their heels, causing mental harm along with physical.

She knew what she was looking for, and a particular damned scream alerted her to her victory. The pitiful ram was huddling on the ground, braying in terror as the storm shot ice and rain through its dampened fur. It saw Ardin through the gale, and it tried to stand, only to fall to the ground in pain and terror.

"This is interesting," Ardin commented, huddling down near the ram. "'Carnal malefactors.'"

Kyle just turned blue eyes up at her; they were weeping.

"This is the second circle of Hell. You're punishment is eternal," Ardin mused. "Do you know where Madeline is?"

At the mention of his lover's name, the ram lifted its head up against the wind. Were husband and wife still connected in the Underworld? Could he still feel her presence, naked in his arms, feeling the demons poke and prod?

"She's enduring a torment much less than yourself. She only has to sporadically be tortured by the demons in the fields of Asphodel. Otherwise, she must just be bored. But you . . . your lust has given you ceaseless pain. Madeline was just slightly envious, but your desire was all that defined you."

The ram shook his head, sobbing. What was the taker of his soul doing, harassing him even into his afterlife? Ardin figured if she had to tolerate Envy, he had to at least answer her questions before suffering alone for the rest of eternity. The wind tousled her hair and caressed her bullet wound. It was more loving towards her than harmful, she began to realize; it was caring in its own way to the demons of Hell.

"'The soul is the most valuable thing in the world,'" Ardin said. "So 'What shall it profit a man?'"

Kyle was obviously at a loss of what to do with his oppressor. He rolled over on the dead grass as though to block her out, but she flew to be in front of him again. She forced his face into hers.