here about Erisvyra.” Her fingers wrapped around mine gently, her claws just avoiding digging into my skin, and a long minute passed between us.
She finally inclined her head. Her double-curled horns extended above her head like a halo, catching the light.
“Come with me, and I’ll tell you what I can.”
6
Melisande
The High Priestess led me up winding stairs, her hooves creating a gentle rhythmic tink with every step. We climbed past several more floors filled with injured and sick women, and every succubus we passed bowed her head reverentially to the Priestess leading me upwards.
When we finally reached a floor that was almost empty, I thought we were near the top. Instead she kept climbing, and I followed, rising high into the tower. My legs were shaking after six flights of stairs; I’d felt full of energy that morning, but healing Rhalys had taken more out of me than I’d thought.
The flickering sconces became few and far between, and soon the white marble was painted in shadowy shades of gray. The High Priestess herself began to look less angelic and more demonic as it grew darker, her horns no longer shimmering gold, looking much sharper and more dangerous than they had in the light.
I pushed back a twinge of misgiving that maybe I’d trusted too much. The floors we were passing were empty; all of the succubi were downstairs, tending to the injured.
I was completely alone with the High Priestess, and despite their reputation as the protectors of women, it wasn’t entirely unthinkable that maybe she blamed me for most of the destruction that had left their lower floors full.
When I was close to pulling back, she turned and looked down at me, her eyes invisible behind the veils. “Not much farther to go.” Her voice was gentle, not the voice of someone plotting to murder me.
Besides, I’d come for Vyra’s sake. I couldn’t back down now.
I nodded and climbed the final set of stairs that culminated in a black door. The High Priestess waited patiently for me to catch up, her hand splayed over the door.
“This room is as far as you can go,” she said, her words echoing down the empty stairwell. She pushed it open, motioning me inside. “The white door is forbidden to you, as you are not a succubus, but you may come inside and see a small portion of our temple.”
It was pitch black in there. I swallowed my nervousness and stepped into the room, my hands out to prevent me from running into anything.
The click of her hooves filled the room as she followed, shutting the door behind her. I felt her near me, the breeze of her movements carrying the scent of incense to my nose, and she clapped her hands.
Several lights flickered on, tiny flames in sconces that gradually grew in brightness until the entire room was lit.
I drew in a sharp breath. Unlike the rooms below, this one was clearly the temple. There was only one more door opposite me, made of lacquered white wood, but it was the walls and ceiling that caught my attention.
Every inch of them was covered in black and white paintings, extending from the floor and stretching high above in an unbroken mural. Small dots of light gleamed on certain points of the mural, and I drew close to one of the brightest points of light.
My mouth dropped open. “This is… Dis.”
It was a stylized interpretation, but the enormous circular city with its descending rings was clearly drawn right there on the wall. The points of light were mostly concentrated on the second tier of the descending rings.
“Yes.” The High Priestess clasped her hands in front of her, standing in the center of the room and watching me from behind her veils. “The known entirety of Hell is depicted in this room.”
Outside the map of Dis, small brushstrokes gave the impression of endless sand: the wastelands. I followed them to the right, finding the jagged mountains that held the path to Hekla Fell, and then stepped left.
There was the Starsea, a massive black stretch with dabs of white paint for the glittering dunes and misty clouds overhead; there was the dark river Styx, running far overhead and extending over the ceiling.
The High Priestess said nothing as I walked the length of the room, picking out new cities, rivers, and their names written in delicate script: the river Lethe, the City of Sight, Elysium.
There were so many I had yet to see in person. High above me