9.

Three carved wooden bowls and the Hag limped over to the bench opposite the two of us.

“We drink, together,” she said. “For our health, and your health, and the new one’s health.”

“What is this?” I asked.

“Just drink the soup,” Clemenza said, a worried look on her face.

“Not until you tell me what’s happening,” I said.

“We have met here, in the Tower, at last,” the Hag said. “We three; and of course, we.”

I closed my eyes, sitting down and clutching at my head.

“I’ve got the worst sense of déjà vu,” I said. “What are we doing here, Clemenza? Where are the others?”

“The men who tried to climb the tower,” the Hag said, and she hacked a putrid laugh. “They are as the beacons outside are—aflame. Adding their power to the barrier that keeps the Boughs of Heaven in check.”

“I need someone to explain to me what’s happening,” I said. “Clemenza. Why did you melt those people?”

“I didn’t!” she said. “Someone must have stolen my appearance. I did steal the Dragon’s Eye, though. I was worried about what Dr. Kaz was getting up to with it.”

“I’m having trouble believing that,” I said.

“Look,” Clemenza said. “You remember what we talked about? The Imperium? There’s a myth to it, and a reality behind it. The truth of the matter is. I think Dr. Kaz had engineered that formula herself. She was trying to trigger something to come about. We’ve all heard the rumors about your birthmark, Stacey.”

“It’s just a birthmark,” I said.

“Nay,” the Hag interjected. “We are the Keepers of this White Tower—and We know the Kiss of the Goddess more than most. See?”

She exposed a bit of her sleeve. I could see it—the same shape, the same size. Another almost identical birthmark.

“We are alike, you and we,” the Hag said. “Both of us keeping the Beacons alight to keep the Boughs in check.”

“What are you rambling about?” I asked.

“The Emperor lay at the top of the Tree,” the Hag said. “Asleep ever on his Golden Throne. Meanwhile his attendants stir and wonder what they must do to rouse their Lord from slumber. They machinate, they conspire. They descend to the worlds below, curating and selecting the most flawless of souls they can fashion into trinkets for their Emperor. All in hopes their tributes may stir him once again, so that he may hold Dominion over all the Tree.”

“The moon, then,” I said. “In my dreams. I see it turn into—into God, or something.”

“Yes,” the Hag said. “Holiest of Fires, Creator of Light. Yet he scorches, and the Mother Earth herself sends her healing darkness to temper us, to ensure we can withstand the merciless beating of the sun’s rays. Our task is to hold up the firmament here—to awaken the Beacons, to add their power, to ensure we do what we must in here and out there, in every world, to ensure the Boughs of Heaven grow no closer.”

“This is what Dr. Kaz was trying to show you,” Clemenza said. “This is the Keeper of the Tower. She stays here, to watch over it, while whoever else has the Moon Kiss works in their realm. It’s a piece of a puzzle, Stacey. It’s a mantling process. I don’t care about the Imperium. All I know is this is part of the cycle they’re trying to harness. A new Avatar comes to stop Heaven from coming closer to Earth.”

“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” I said. “I want off this ride.”

“Then you doom us all,” the Hag said. “You doom us! We will all be but sparkling diamonds screeching from the encrusted grip of the Emperor!”

“Where are my friends?” I asked.

The Hag shook her head.

“You would choose them?” she asked. “You would sacrifice the Tree itself to save them? You would deny the destiny imposed on thee by thy mark?”

The Hag stood up, her ratty gown flowing as if shadow at her ankles.

“You will come to understand one day the foolishness of this decision,” she said. “You will come crawling back—back to the Firmament, back to the Veil that holds back the Bough. You will scream in anguish when you see what you have released, insolent, idiotic girl!”

Clemenza got to her feet and threw her soup at the Hag. It hissed as it smacked against the wall behind the old woman, eating straight through the stone.

“Drawn here by Four Flames,” the Hag said. “You could come, cloister here. Learn all there is to learn. I beg of you. Come to stay. We shall be comrades.”

“I already have friends and a life outside of here,” I said. “I intend to live them, in my way. If the Emperor wakes up on his own. I”ll see to him myself.”

The Hag considered this.

“Connived, We did. Drawn by the struggle, and the dimming of the Beacons. Connived, worked with the other—the Doctor woman. Told her that only calamity drives thee forward. That the Flames may die yet if they are not kindled. Drawing you here, that was the plan.”

“Why kill people to do it?” I asked. “Why try and kill me?”

“A test,” the Hag said. “Drink thee the soup. Then thou shalt find thy destiny. If thy stomach bleed, and you yet melt... then yours was not the Moon Kiss. Should you slurp, and should you stay, then the Moon Goddess looks down on you.”

“Fine,” I said. A great fire had surged in my stomach. “I do this. I drink the soup. I live to talk about it? Then you can tell me where my friends are, so I can leave. I’ll do what I can to keep the Flames flickering in the real world.”

“You would stoke their passions, then?” she asked. “All of them?”

“What other choice do I have?” I asked.

The bowl scraped across the table.

“Then drink,” the Hag said, her teeth bared.

I stared at her. Stared at Clemenza. Stared down at the bowl, my chest heaving.

“Does this have gluten in it?” I asked. The Hag snarled. “Okay, okay.”

I picked it up in both hands. Put it to my lips. Imagined, I was a creature just like Gurg—impermeable, powerful, able to eat anything without dying. And down the hatch it went.

I waited, eyes closed, for a pang of fire in my stomach. Waited, even, for my flesh to sag, for my brain to hurt, for my bowels to loosen.

“Decent soup,” I said, and belched.

I opened my eyes. Clemenza and the Hag were both staring up at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You look putrid,” Clemenza said.

“Eeew,” said the Hag.

My hands were slimy tentacles, my whole body long and large and pale, and I was desperately, suddenly thirsty, parched and dry…

I closed my eyes and imagined my real body again. Opened my eyes. Saw boobs and my normal hands, yet again.

“Thank God,” I said.

“You passed,” the Hag said. “You are worthy. Retrieve thy Beacons. Though their power lies extra in this place—it is yet incomplete. Their flames are not yet stoked in their entirety.”

“Can you show them to me?” I asked.

The Hag nodded.

“We walk,” she said.

Down the spiral stairs again, Clemenza, the Hag, and myself. Through the forest, whose woods parted as the Hag moved her hands. Creatures stared, stirred and scared, as we trudged on. Three powerful flames belched up against the horizon from a squat building. It was not as tall as the tower, nor the lights in the distance, but the Hag stood outside it, arms crossed.

“The power of Fire, Water, and Earth,” she said. “The South, the West, and the North. Enter, and claim thy flame.”

I put my hand on the ceramic door. The tile moved beneath my fingertips, drawing itself into the ground, and I stepped over the barrier.

“Stacey?” I heard.

Sconces lit in every corner, yet again. There were three tables—almost like sacrificial altars made of marble. Vic, Nagi, and Eddie were strapped to one apiece.

“Are you guys okay?” I asked.

“Had better days,” Eddie moaned.

Eddie was shirtless, blood blossoming from his wrists, back flat against the altar. I bent over him, staring at his shirtless torso. He looked like he was in a great deal of pain.

“It’s a trap,” he gasped. “There’s a locking mechanism around our hearts. If you pull me off the slab, it’ll kill the other two.”

“Party foul,” I said.

“I’m serious, Stacey,” Eddie said. “This really fucking hurts.”

I walked to the other two. Vic stared up at me through fogged glasses.

“Stace,” he said.

“Vic,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

He cracked a grin at me.

“It’s fine,” he said. “You were. Worth it. All of the pain. All of the agony…”

He coughed, spitting up blood. I kissed him on the cheek and made my way over to Nagi. Nagi tried to smile at me—his face like a pumpkin glowing against the table—but his gums were red and cracked, his eyes tearing up.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

“Very bad,” he said.

“What’s the point of all this?” I asked.

“The Hag did this—she wants you to make a choice,” Nagi said. “She wants you to select one of us.”

I paused. Thought on this.

“What are the parameters of the puzzle?” I asked.

“Whoever gets pulled off the slab survives,” Vic said. “The other two get impaled from the back.”

“Sophie’s Choice,” Eddie said.

“Maybe not exactly like Sophie’s Choice,” Nagi said. “At least each of us has our own unique attributes.”

“There has to be a way around this,” I said.

“I don’t think so,” Eddie said. “They were pretty serious about all of this.”

“This is just so contrived,” I said. “Really stupid.”

“Stacey, goddamnit,” Eddie said. “Can’t you ever just go with the flow? Can you just take it as a given that we are in a railroad problem and you need to pick your favorite?”

“You guys know I’m terrible at that,” I said.

“Yeah, we know!” Vic snapped.

“Okay,” I said. “What about this. Nagi. You can shapeshift, right?”

“Correct.”

“Can you move your heart around your body?”

There was silence.

“I’d never questioned whether I could, but now that it’s been brought up…” he said.

He made a face—parts of his body rearranging and moving, and then finally, he gasped.

“Oh God,” he said. “That was unpleasant, but it’s done.”

“So now you’re safe,” I said. “What about you, Vic? Can you… I don’t know. Restructure your flesh, or rebuild yourself? Some kind of necromantic flesh-crafting?”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Vic said. “Hold on.”

He pulsated up, his chest opening like a putrid flower, and his black heart beat in the open air like a rose had opened and exposed his weak point.

“That would make a radical tattoo,” Eddie said.

“Okay. Almost on the other side of this,” I said. “Now I’m going to pull Eddie off the table. Slowly. And then when the impaling mechanisms happen, it’s going to hurt, but you should survive it.”

“This better work, Stace,” Vic said.

“It probably will,” I said. “Alright. Three. Two. One.”

I pulled Eddie, who screamed as the metal implements fell from his body, and he gasped as he got to his feet. When the pressure was gone from his table, there was a series of metal thonks from the other side of the room. Eddie and I stared at one another, eyes wide, and then swiveled around.

“Safe again,” Vic said, his heart slithering back into his chest.

“Me as well,” Nagi said, somewhere near the ceiling. He’d grown, arching his back up and up and up to avoid the implements.

“Let’s go home,” I said.

“Yet again, you have avoided managing to pick one of us,” Vic said.

“What can I say?” I asked. “That’s what I’m good at.”

The Hag fell to her knees when she saw all four of us leave the compound.

“You passed!” she shrieked. “You are the chosen! You are the Moon-Kissed!”

“No,” I said. “I’m not.”

“Tend the flames,” the Hag said. “Tend them there, and I will tend them here.”

“Fuck off,” I said. “Come on, Clemenza. We’re going home!”

The exit to the Dragon Eye appeared before me. I could not help but look at the sky, briefly, before I entered.

Something was staring back down at me. I gulped, and then stepped into the Portal again…