6. Leela
LEELA
Something cold on her cheek startled Leela. She snapped awake and stared into a pair of deep, dark eyes.
“She wakes.”
Leela bolted to her feet, but she slipped down on the sand and fell back on her ass. Days of wandering meant her hips were tired, and she cried out in pain, cursing the skies above.
The person crouched before Leela had a look of sincerity steeped within her gaze.
Leela quickly assessed her new surroundings, a lump forming in her throat.
Women held onto their young, and men gripped their weapons.
Tiny clay huts lay scattered beside a tranquil river.
Trees sprouted between the thatched huts and a fire pit flickered and burned behind the crowd.
The twin moons peeked beyond a dune that nestled the tiny village.
Finally. Welcome back, mortal.
Leela jolted as the hissing voice reverberated in her mind. She forgot about the Viperess. How did I get here?
Me, of course.
What?
I carried you.
H—how?
Do you need everything explained to you?
Leela shook her head. When I figure out how to get you out—
You will not be able to. Save your breath, mortal.
“What is your name?” the woman closest to Leela asked in concern.
“L—Leela,” she stammered. She shied back from the burning fire, hoping the villagers wouldn’t see her shadows. Or did they already know? “Where am I?”
“A village near Ji,” the woman said gently.
Leela glanced at the sand. Good. It was still red, which meant she was still on Nihikian territory. Although she wasn’t sure if it was a good thing, not when she was stranded in the middle of nowhere.
“My name is Jaya,” the woman said. “My people speak old Ji out here, but as a traveler between villagers, I have learned to speak universally.”
Safe… A word Leela wasn’t ever going to feel again, not with the Viperess.
“Thank you.” She nodded, relief flooding her. Perhaps she could hide out in the village and lie low until she reassessed her options. She searched for a wall, hoping the village had one, but the longer she looked, she realized there was only sand. “But I should be going.”
“You are hungry,” Jaya said. “Please. Stay and rest before you move. We can put some ointment on your wounds.”
Leela bit her lip and stared back at Jaya, trying to see through her intentions. Fear choked down her next words. Did they know she was a Vessel? Who she was a Vessel to?
“Do you want some food?” Jaya offered. “We have already eaten, but you are more than welcome to have some scraped from our bowls.”
Leela shook her head. “I am fine, thank you. I must be going.”
“Where are you heading? Do you need a camel?”
Leela frowned. As if on cue, a camel tied to a post near the river grunted. She stifled a laugh. She hadn’t seen a camel in so long. That, or Leela was delusional. She had wandered across the dunes for days, and she was tired.
She had conjured this entire village, and she was actually dead.
“Here,” Jaya said, handing her a bowl of something watery. “Eat. You must.”
Leela had no choice but to take the food as her stomach grumbled.
With no second thought, she scooped her fingers in and began to eat.
The taste of turmeric and something smooth and buttery coated her tongue.
She quickly gobbled the stew, more vegetables than meat, as the villagers stood and watched.
Some turned and left, some sat down by the logs around a firepit, staring at Leela like she was an ancient artifact from the sandstorms.
When Leela finished, they gave her water.
“Thanks,” Leela said, feeling guilt ravage her insides over doubting them. “I don’t have anything to repay your kindness.”
Jaya shook her head. “We do not need payment, nor do we wish for it.”
Leela bit her lip. She turned to the villagers as they resumed their normal duties.
Children danced around the fire, imitating the fire spirits that roamed the desert and using their hands to make shadows along the red sand.
Women sat by the lake talking, while the men cleaned their weapons and cut up vegetables in their huts.
Smoke billowed from the fire, and Leela hoped it wouldn’t draw the monsters.
As Leela watched from beside the log, something in her chest twisted.
She thought of her village before it was torn to shreds.
Memories she’d pushed down—when she wandered down the river that divided the village and ran with the children.
Nighttime had been her favorite because everyone, after a hard day of farming or gathering, came together to eat and tell stories.
Leela loved the stars the most, which held such wonderful tales.
Her mind turned to Rajesh. She had pushed thoughts of him down as far as she could. She refused to remember the line of his jaw or the way his curls sprang back after he washed them. The way his fingers caressed the back of her ears as she fell asleep on his chest.
She shoved down what he told her the night of the attack into the furthest depths of her mind. There was no point in reopening old wounds, especially when they were still tender. No matter how much time passed.
Grief was unforgiving.
Heartbreak was heartbreak.
“You are a Vessel,” Jaya finally said, voice steady.
Leela tensed and eventually sighed. What was the point in lying? And Jaya had been so helpful. “I am.”
“To the Golden Viperess,” Jaya said, a tiny gleam in her gaze. “What is she like?”
Leela wished she knew. She didn’t know much about the Flame now harnessing her body or what she was capable of. Yet, the Viperess had somehow taken her across the desert and got her here.
“If I’m being honest, I don’t know. I know she split the realms,” Leela whispered, worried the other villagers would hear. She searched Jaya’s eyes for signs of fear, but there was only an overwhelming tenderness.
It reminded her of Anika.
Jaya only nodded. “The Viperess is said to seek a centuries-old revenge. Hopefully, that revenge has not led you to us.”
Leela frowned. “What else do you know of the Viperess? She doesn’t tell me much.”
Hisssssss.
Leela pushed aside the rattling inside her skull and focused on Jaya.
Jaya shifted on the log beside her. “I know the Golden Viperess is the cause of the sandstorm and the war between the Flames. She had a lover, but she was set to marry another Golden Viper, you see. Her lover’s name was the Purple Scorpion, who lived in the Awakening.
When the Viper found out, he cast her out to the Netherworld to rot, telling the Scorpion she had chosen to marry the Viper.
The tales say she tried to ascend back to the Awakening and find the elixir of immortality to live with the Scorpion forever.
Others say she wants to kill him for believing the tales.
But no Flame has ever gone from the Netherworld to the Awakening. ”
Leela listened intently. Is what she said true…?
The Viperess remained silent.
Jaya cleared her throat. “In order to get back to the Awakening, the Viperess unleashed the sandstorm, and with it, several items appeared. Artifacts with unique gifts.”
“And the monsters, then, I assume?”
Jaya nodded. “The monsters ascended from the Netherworld, and the rest, you are aware of, I am sure.”
Oh, Leela was aware. The sandstorm unfolded from the Netherworld and, with it, brought destruction across the lands.
When the monsters first appeared, the Flames from the Awakening came down to the mortal world and killed them.
But eventually, the Flames were outnumbered and they were killed, left to rot across the globe.
Some were still spread across the sands, bones sticking out of the earth.
Is it true? Leela pressed.
Believe what you want, mortal. Tales are always spun from things.
You are unbelievable. You harness me and yet can’t tell me one thing?
The Viperess slithered back into the pits of her mind.
With every fiber of her being, she hated the Viperess, and she needed to work out how to get rid of her, fast.
Leela pondered the tale for a moment longer, wondering what the Viperess truly wanted. Had she waited this long to possess a suitable mortal to enact a centuries-old revenge? And if so, why Leela? Leela wasn’t special.
“You must sleep,” Jaya said. “Here. You can sleep in my hut, and I will stay out here.”
Leela shook her head. “No, I cannot take anything else. Please!”
Jaya smiled. “I insist. You are a living Vessel. In my eyes, you are a Flame. And I believe the Flames will prevail once again. Whether they’re from the Awakening or the Netherworld.”
“Why not from the Awakening?”
“A Flame is a Flame,” Jaya said with a curt grin. “A Flame is a divine being. Why would a divine being from the Netherworld not be as divine as the ones above?”
Leela bit her lip but nodded. All her life, she was told the Flames from below were the ‘darkness’ of the world, cast into the darker realms. The ones who darkened the skies with their ash and smoke.
Tales.
Jaya led her to a nearby clay hut, as did the villagers.
Children were sung to sleep. Couples kissed their partners goodnight.
When Leela walked by the fire in the center of the village, she noted people raising their hands to the skies, their knees digging into the sand as they chanted in a language Leela didn’t understand.
She assumed they were prayers to the Flames to ensure their survival.
Jaya swept back the cloth of her hut and entered. There wasn’t much besides a blanket and a cluster of pillows used in lieu of a mattress on the ground. A curved window let in the moonslight, which spread across the soft, woven pillows.
“Rest,” Jaya said. “And sleep well, my Flame.”
Leela looked at the kind stranger for a moment longer, wishing she could do something to repay her kindness.
No one had to be this kind, and whether it was because she was now a Vessel for the Viperess or because Jaya was simply kind, Leela chose to believe it was the latter.
She needed to sleep so she could leave early tomorrow.
She just hoped other people would be as generous and caring as this village—and had a wall.
Leela curled up on the ground. The soft pillows and sheepskin were enough for her to relax, and before she knew it, she settled into a heavy sleep.