(Ereshgal POV)
I turned toward Kisaya's voice, but it took me a few moments to process what I was seeing.
Dark dust stretched beneath a gray, sunless sky. The only thing breaking the horizon was an immense black wall, with a pair of doors framed by towering pillars.
Where was I?
I had been fighting Kudur. He had said something about my mother, and then…
My hand went instinctively to my neck. Had he cut off my head? I felt along my skin, searching for a wound.
Did I die?
My gaze returned to the gate.
Then those doors… this place…
No. There had to be another explanation.
Before I could think about it any further, a white glow drew my eyes downward.
Light shone through the front of my clothes. I reached toward it, but before my fingers touched the fabric, I felt something pull beneath my ribs. A sphere of white light slowly emerged from my chest, passing through my hand as I tried to catch it.
It drifted a few steps away, then began to change. The light stretched and took shape, forming a head, a torso, and limbs until a man stood before me.
I stepped back.
He was white from head to foot, his body so faint that I could see the dark ground through him. His mouth moved, though no sound reached me.
He looked at me like he knew me. Like I'd done something to him.
Before I could speak, another light emerged from my shoulder. Then three more from my chest. More followed, one after another, until I lost count.
People gathered around me. Men and women, some young, others old enough that their faces were deeply lined. Most had the same pale appearance as the first, but a few carried traces of color. Blue shone within one man's chest. A woman's outline held a dull green light, while another figure glimmered faintly gold.
Some pointed at me, their mouths moving furiously. Others only stared.
"Who are you?"
They all tried to speak, but I couldn't hear a word.
I searched their faces. None were familiar, but the longer I looked, the more unsettled I felt.
What were they doing inside me?
The first man turned toward the gate.
The others followed, their bare feet leaving no marks in the dust. I watched them go until one last light slipped out of my arm and became an old man with stooped shoulders. He didn't even look at me. He hurried after the others.
Do I follow them? But if that really was what I thought it was...
I looked around the vast, empty plain, searching for somewhere else I could go, but there was nothing.
With no other choice, I started after them.
As I approached the gate, I began to see more figures of light, all of them heading toward the doors. I was the only one who still looked normal. Being so different from everyone else made me uneasy, but it also gave me hope.
The doors grew larger as I approached. By the time I reached them, I had to tilt my head back, and still couldn't see the tops of the pillars.
One by one, the figures passed through. They did not open the doors. They simply crossed the threshold and slipped through them as though the stone were never there. Even the ones that had come out of me did the same.
I raised my hand and reached toward one of them, but my fingers met solid stone. I pressed against it, and to my surprise, the door swung inward with barely any effort.
There was nothing but a white light.
I could always come back.
Crossing felt like stepping into cold water. A heavy sound came from behind me. I turned just in time to see the door swing shut on its own.
I hurried back and tried to push it open, but it wouldn't budge. Even when I put my full weight against it, nothing happened.
I even tried to summon my spiritual energy, but it wouldn't respond.
There was only one way forward, then.
I turned away from the gate. The barren plain had given way to a wide passage between walls of black stone. Their surfaces were covered in carved figures. Kings with raised weapons stood beside kneeling servants, women carrying children, and old men leaning on staffs. All faced the same direction, deeper into the passage.
The figures of light continued ahead, illuminating the carvings as they passed. Beyond their glow, I could barely make out the path.
I continued down the passage. I couldn't tell how much time had passed before I saw the last thing I wanted to see.
A second gate.
I didn't want to think about what that meant.
The door opened just as easily as the first, then shut behind me.
Beyond it, a long flight of stone steps descended between bare walls. I followed the figures down, their pale light barely reaching the stairs ahead.
Eventually, a third gate came into view.
Past the gate, the stairs ended in a vast hall. Thick stone pillars rose into the darkness on either side of the path. As the figures moved between them, their light seemed clearer than before, and the faint colors I'd seen in some of them were beginning to fade.
Had the gates done that to them?
At the fourth gate, I stopped.
There was no point denying it any longer.
I was passing through the seven gates, just as I had in the temple. Only this time, they were the real ones. The figures surrounding me had to be the dead.
I closed my eyes.
Had I really died?
I was still different from the figures. That had to mean something. There had to be another explanation. But I couldn't think of one.
This was the underworld.
Was that really how it ended? One moment of carelessness, when I'd been so close to killing Kudur?
I sank to my knees.
I'm sorry, Mother. I hope you're safe. More than anything, I hope you never found out I was alive. Losing me once must have been painful enough. I don't want you to have to go through that again.
Ennari, I'm sorry. When you reach Uruk, please don't get involved in any of this. Just find somewhere to hide and stay there.
And Kisaya... knowing you, I'm sure you went straight for Kudur after seeing what happened to me. I just hope Hadan managed to stop you.
Only then did I notice the tears running down my cheeks.
And Kudur... I hope that throne brings you nothing but misery.
I didn't know how long I stayed there. Eventually, only one thought remained in my mind. Did the gods really hate me that much? I wanted answers. And I knew exactly where to find the one who could give them to me.
I got to my feet and pushed the door open.
Beyond the fourth gate, the walls gave way to a broad stone road stretching across a vast expanse of black water. I couldn't see either shore, and the water was so still that it reflected the pale figures moving ahead of me.
The figures seemed to be growing more alike, their colors fading. I paid little attention to it and kept walking.
On the other side of the fifth gate, the ground descended in a series of wide terraces carved into dark rock. I followed the figures from one level to the next.
Almost all traces of color had disappeared from their bodies now, leaving them glowing a pale, nearly uniform white. Were the figures that had come out of me the people I'd killed when I lost control? If so, why had they been inside me?
I reached the sixth gate.
Beyond it lay an enormous chamber lined with stone statues. Most were human, but as I continued walking, I began to notice others. I recognized a wendigo and a child of the guardian, along with a few I'd read about or knew of from Liraya's and Namur's memories. Many others were completely unfamiliar.
Some had horns, others wings or limbs unlike anything I'd ever seen. One was particularly enormous, with a muscular body, a long snout, pointed ears, and claws where its hands should have been.
A dog? No, that didn't seem right.
I looked at the statues farther ahead. I couldn't even begin to guess what some of them were.
The light figures continued between the statues. By now, every trace of color had vanished. Their bodies shone with the same pure white light, making it impossible to tell one from another.
At the far end of the chamber stood the seventh gate, a single enormous door set into a wall of smooth black stone. Carved above it was a woman seated on a throne, her face hidden beneath a veil.
One by one, the figures passed through.
I stopped and looked up.
Beyond this gate, she should be waiting.