Steam Submarine: Fully Annotated Edition by Robert Denethon

Author:Robert Denethon [Denethon, Robert]
Language: ara
Format: epub
Publisher: Submarine Media Pty Ltd
Published: 2015-08-09T07:00:00+00:00

Interloup Sixty Seven - Into The Darkness

Zelf

Zelf was following some distance behind Zev, with a feeling of terrible regret aching in her heart. What had she done wrong? All her best efforts had only driven Zev further and further into the clutches of the old woman’s deceptive spell.

She tried to think how she might have done things differently.

It wasn’t her fault Zev had followed the old woman.

She ought to have tried to make him think things through herself instead of telling him. If she had been a bit gentler, and simply asked him to explain why he thought the old woman was worth following even if she didn’t like Hiyeswa, instead of pushing him in the direction she thought he ought to go in...

But he himself had spoken of the importance of Hiyeswa’s name! And now, here he was, following an old woman who couldn’t stand hearing Hiyeswa’s name.

Perhaps it wasn’t Zelf’s fault. But she wasn’t going to abandon Zev.

They had to get through this.

Zev was the one she was going to marry.

She knew that now.

Zev

Zelf was still loping along about forty yards behind them, most annoyingly. To think Zev used to like her. She was, quite simply, annoying.

He was very happy talking with this woman, learning from her, having his eyes opened to the truth about things. Perhaps the old woman might not yet like Hiyeswa’s name, but was that the be all and end all of wisdom?

“I’m speaking of wisdom you can see with your eyes,” said the woman. “You humans need to ssssee things to believe in them. Soon you will see the wisdom I am speaking about. The light that is darkness.”

It got darker the further down the tunnel they went, and Zev began to have doubts again. What is ‘the light that is darkness?’ It just doesn’t seem plausible. How can light be darkness? They’re opposites.

He glanced back at Zelf, trying to make it look as though he wasn’t. He didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of seeing him looking to see if she was following him.

After a long walk the tunnel opened out into a large honeycombed cavern, with stony arches stretching from the bottom to the top.

The old woman was walking ahead of him, leading him through the tunnels.

Zev didn’t like this place. It felt, and smelled, somehow wrong.

He couldn’t put his finger on what it was exactly - it just... reminded him of insects.

Zelf was closer behind now - he heard her soft padding steps, just behind each arch or stalagtite. As they went further into the darkness, Zelf’s presence seemed very comforting, and he became more and more grateful that she was there.

But then the footpads faded and Zev felt a terrible grief and wondered if she had gone, if she had abandoned him.

Soon after this Zev tried to take a step, but he couldn’t - his foot was stuck on something - what was it? It was like glue, or....

Zev felt a sudden prick on the neck - the old woman had turned around and leant her face up next to his face and done something.

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