Cries of Innocence part 7

My cheek stung from Ziusudra's sudden hit, I hadn't of expected it, he seemed so calm now he was boiling over with anger, "Ow! What was that for?" I asked, regaining my balance and rubbing my cheek. "That really hurt!"

  "Good, you are smart enough to know what pain is. Do you know how painful it would be for your brother and sister to lose someone else that they care about!?" Ziusudra snapped. "Or how painful it is for a bullet to run through your heart!?"

  "What are you talking about?" I frowned.

  "I know you went with Crevan willingly." He glared. "How could you be this foolish!? Even after I told you to keep fighting?"

  I looked down towards my snow covered feet guiltily, "I ... I'm sorry ... I just didn't want anyone else to get hurt like Mom did ..."

  "You have this gift for a reason, Melody." He knelt down to my eye level, but his look was still cold and unforgiving, "Do not someone else judge what you have or decided what should be done with it. You have to decide the right way to use this, whether never or not you do use it that's your choice."

  "I ... I wanna use it ... To bring Mom back ... But, it doesn't feel right."

  He gave a stiff nod, "This is good, that means you know right from wrong. Your mother died protecting you, she made her greatest choice in life and she would stand by it even in death. But, you have to make it mean something. But, always remember, even healing can be limited ... You can not heal wounds that have already begun to heal themselves and are starting to close, and maybe even killing someone or bringing them back is more difficult than you imagine."

  "I ... I don't understand."

  Ziusudra looked down at his brass knuckles, sliding them off and putting them inside the his robe's pocket, "If you bring someone back, you may very well be taking someone else's life in the process and vice versa with taking a life ... Not much is known about Tiamats, you need to be careful ..."

  I let my hand drop back to my side as the pain slowly faded from my face, "I never thought about it like that ... But, does that mean healing-"

  "No, healing does not harm someone else." He chuckled a bit. "When you are healing, you are holding that person's very life in your hands. You're just combining your energy with their's to strengthen them. In a way, you're sharing your life."

  "How do you know all this?" I finally asked, I couldn't help it. This question was lingering in the back of my mind.

  Ziusudra stood up, he turned away, his robes blowing back and reminding me of the heroes in the movies Blaze use to watch with me on the weekends. "My father was a Tiamat ... And our temple paid for it ... I saw what they did to him. They didn't kill him ... They made them kill himself, they made living seem like torture to him ... I will not allow the same thing to happen to you."

As the sun began to fall, the temple members lit fires in small chambers in the temple halls to provide light. I closed the curtain that was meant to be a door for the temple. I ran my hand over the symbols carved in the door frame. I was never good at Sumerian, but I noticed that a few were the same ones Mom had carved into our door when we was younger; Protection, happiness, and peace.

  Ember sat on one of the beds, a surprise look on her face, "I would have thought it was stone ... It's cotton."

  "Cotton?" I almost thought she was joking. "It's snowing outside! How do they grow cotton?"

  "The temple has mystic properties. It's actually starting to feel pretty warm in here." She patted the quilted blankets. 

  "Yeah, mystic stuff ..." I muttered.

  "... Something on your mind?"

  "I just ... Crevan to got to Mel so easily ... The more I think about it, the more I wonder if it's really safe here."

  "No place is going to be safe, unless we make it safe." She explained, pulling her suitcase next to her and clicking it open. "Ziusudra said we're have to start wearing the temple clothing-"

  "Woah, woah." I turned to face her. "What do you mean we have to make it safe?"

  She pulled a sheet of paper out from underneath her clothes, unfolding it and revealing a large map, "I may have Crevan's hideout pinned down, he and everyone else that hunt people from out temple."

  "Are you saying that ..."

  "I hate to say it, but if we don't do something, they're going to kill Mel and possibly everyone else in this temple if they get inside. If we don't stand up for ourselves, who will?"

  "This isn't exactly a smart plan ..." I couldn't help but smile.

  She smiled too, folding up the map, "Obviously, we're not going to just run in there. We need a plan, one that will end with peace and hopefully no one will get hurt."

  "Or killed." I added. "Of course, that doesn't include Crevan ..."