As if sensing the defeat of its guardians, the iron bindings on the doors groaned. With a sound like a mountain sighing, the gates to the Black Garden slowly drifted inward.
A scent drifted out—not of rot, but of sweet, cloying honey and old, dried roses.
A figure welcomed the battered warriors from the doorway, clapping. The slow, mocking applause echoed from the shadowy archway that led into the labyrinth's twisted heart.
"Bravo, bravo," a voice drawled, dripping with condescending amusement. "A touching reunion. It almost brings a tear to my eye."
Mersk stepped out of the darkness, a cruel, self-satisfied smirk plastered on his face. He was no longer the suave-yet-simple stitcher of tattered skins. He wore fine, black silk robes, and his eyes glinted with newfound power and arrogance.
And he was not alone.
A figure emerged from the shadows behind him, and the very air in the cavern grew heavy, the temperature dropping. It was a woman of impossible, terrifying beauty. She was tall and regal, with hair as black as polished obsidian and skin as pale as moonlight. Her eyes shimmered with the same sickly green glow as the crystals around them, and a faint, ethereal crown woven from darkest ichor, hovered just above her head. The corruption clung to her; it emanated from her in a palpable aura of madness and decay.
Zeek's breath caught in his throat. It was Lilliana. But it was not. It was a goddess of blight, a queen of rot, wearing the face of the woman he had loved.
"Lilliana?" he whispered, his voice cracking.
She smiled, a slow, cold curving of her lips that held warmth, lunacy, and a hazy recognition. "That was my name before you left me, my love," she spat bitterly, face still stretched in a gentle smile. Her voice was mesmerizing, a melodic chime that was utterly devoid of all but the smallest shimmers of hope. "And you are the man that left me to rot, to spare his own life. Tell me, my love, what brings you back to these hallowed halls?"
"Hallowed halls?" Zeek spat, stepping forward, "Lilliana, this place is sick, I'm here to save you! This place is corrupting everything it touches! Our party, our friends, our lives, we've lost everything in these hallowed halls! This is madness… it's killing the world!"
"No, I am freeing it" she roared, her voice now twisted and enraged. "You spoke of power, of ambition. You sought to cage it, to control it, to use it for your own petty ends. I have become that power! You would seek to peel me away from my throne, or worse. Would you not seek to use me as you have every soul you've brought to these walls? The gifts we've laid at your feet you spat on and discarded! Grigor gave his life to guide you through these walls, and you disrespected his memory. Kaelen and Nyx blessed and defended you and you cut them down for a second time! And what of me…" Lilliana's eyes blurred, inky black lines dripping in streaked tears. "For all the 'love' we shared, you left me to die to save yourself. This labyrinth, this world… it is a garden, my garden. I am simply weeding out the imperfections."
"This is not freedom! It is a plague!" Zeek cried, his heart breaking. "The woman I loved… she wanted to heal, to create! We can still cleanse this place, Lilliana!"
"The woman you loved was a child in need of validation, a fool with herbs and poultices," Lilliana said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "You saw a spark in me and tried to hoard it for yourself. I have become a fire that will consume everything. And you, my dear husband, are no more than its kindling."
Mersk watched the exchange with the gleeful look of a connoisseur enjoying a rare performance. As Zeek stood, speechless and shattered, Mersk's smirk widened. He had let his 'queen' have her moment. Now it was his turn.
"Ah, what have we here?" Mersk looked over Amon with a distorted smile. "And we thought your traitorous line had been cut from the branches of Kemet's nobility." Black tendrils twisted in the palm of his hand before he turned his gaze to Heka.
"You cursed my people," spat Amon, "You fed on the anguish of my people and doomed those under your protection!"
"You filthy lot lay in bed with the Shu-Ra, disgusting as they were, and expected our protection?" Mersk's voice had a dark thrum to it as the words spilled from his lips. "Your line ends here, as do the Shu-Ra," he spat, glaring at Heka.
Mersk lifted a hand, a single black thread wrapped around his finger, and spoke a single, sharp word of power.
"Kneel." A moment passed, and then another. "What is this? You've lost your memento from our first meeting? How rude."
Kerris seethed, still fighting the pain from her burning flesh. Her rage was palpable as she looked upon her friend's killers. Tears welled in her eyes as she fought the urge to strangle Mersk and place a clean arrow through Lilliana's temples. At long last, she'd faced her tormentors after months of nightmares.
"Lilliana, please," Zeek pleaded, "I can still save you, please…just—"
"Then save me!"
Her grimace twitched, something beneath the corrupted veil showed for but a moment, her face twisted in pain and grief. Her body shuddered and quaked as the entirety of the Black Garden pulsed, then, silence. The Queen of the labyrinth raised her head, and greeted her lost love with a final, empty smile.