The Near Infinite Names of Autumn Aubrey (Psychological Fantasy Progression)

The last time that I had passed through a black gate, I nearly fell off a cliff, and if it had not been for Alexei I would have.

Not a moment later, I'd taken my first look at what I would come to know as Silkcradle, and a dragon made of paper had let out a mighty roar in the sky above me. Confetti had fallen down to the little mountaintop like flurries of snow. Every mother except for the mother and purple had taken me through one of those strange portals. Floating glass pyramids, dark and twisted woods, a seaside manor that was so big Lun would have likely fit inside of it, I had seen it all.

Granted, I had not been awake when The Mother in Green took me, but I refused to believe I slept all the way through being carried off to her deep woods.

There was nothing that grand waiting for Anna and I when we appeared on the other side of the black gate.

We were in a room with no windows.

The only other thing there was to see was a large crystal that was as clear as clean glass and almost filled the floor completely.

Even though it was far warmer than it had been in Lun, a shiver ran through me the same moment that the back of my dress came free from the gate.

"I hate those things. They make me feel like I'm going to be sick." I said to Anna as we walked towards the crystal.

She rubbed my back gently and shrugged. "I don't feel them at all. It's just like closing my eyes."

"Lucky. Where are we?" I asked aloud as I put my hand on the cold crystal.

Gray appeared from the gate behind us and actually answered my question. "We are taking this route to avoid having to have separate gates prepared for just this matter. This is a place where myself and all of my sisters perform some of our duties."

It would not have surprised me that she answered if I had not spent most of my life having my questions be avoided or denied.

"This way. We have one more gate to cross before we reach my domain." She explained before leading us to the far end of the room with her still silent footsteps.

All Anna and I could do was follow, but I had been led to much worse places without her, so I did not find myself being upset with that reality.

From the room we had arrived in, she took us to another that was filled with nothing but doors.

Nine of them in total, and each one had a stone set into the front of them that were bigger around than both my hands put together.

The one in the door that The Mother in Gray shut behind us was perfectly round and filled with unmoving waves of deep blue. On our left, the next was a dull green with flecks of black spread through it. A vibrant purple with sharp faces and angles followed before we stopped in front of a mirror or perfect silver.

"You may release your glamor now if you wish. There is no risk of you being seen beyond this point." Gray said as she led us into a room that was almost identical to the one we had arrived in.

Like the first sigh when I laid down in my bed, I let Ire dust off of me without the need to be told twice. Anna brushed what remained of my mask out of my hair and off my shoulders with her hand. All the black on her, her hair, nails, dress, and eyes took on the silvery light that shone out from the massive crystal in the center of the room.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She whispered as Gray passed through the open black gate and left us briefly alone.

"How could I not?" I asked, wishing there was some way for her to see herself through my eyes.

With a deep breath and a focused effort to push away my thoughts of running away with her, I crossed the threshold of the gate with my eyes closed, letting her lead the way.

Of all the places black gates had brought me to, none had ever scared me more.

It seemed like just another room at first. Four walls, a ceiling, soft light, a door, and the gate, but then the dull metal floor beneath the bottom of my sandals fell away beneath us.

It was not fast, and I did not go sailing down towards whatever ground my body would break against, but my legs shook out from underneath me all the same.

Above, it was only the empty shape of where the floor had been a moment before.

Below, there was an entire city. Wider, taller, and deeper than what I remembered Erosette looking like from my perch atop the manor, I could not see all of it at once. Lights shone back up at me in silvers, whites, soft purples, and blues. There was a river that all of them reflected off of, making it seem like it was flowing metal that cut through the center of the city. All of it was surrounded by what looked like countless stars shimmering in the air in every direction.

"I should have given warning about the lift, that is my mistake," The Mother in Gray said as Anna tried to help me back up to my feet. "But, Welcome to my domain. You are my guests and you will be treated as such by all that you encounter."

"Does it-does it have a name?" Anna grunted as she got me up and then had to catch me as I went down again.

"Several. Although I am fond of Distadiglandtz, the city that gleams. Most call it the silver city." Gray explained.

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I gave up on standing and Anna gave up on trying to make me as I pulled my knees to my chest and scooted to the center of the lift. "Why could it not be the city with stairs?"

"That is also one of its names. There are thirty three thousand six hundred and ninety three steps that lead from the surface to the bottom of the city. The lifts are far more efficient and far less taxing however," She continued as she reached her hand out towards the edge of the lift. "And completely devoid of danger."

From what had been open air only a moment before, the color of her aura played at the tips of her fingers. It took Anna reaching out and doing the same for me to realize that The Mother had not channeled her aura.

"To fall from any of my lifts would require breaking my desire for those that use them to be safe." Gray said as let her black and white sleeve fall back down over her hands.

Anna braced one of her notebooks against her chest and started writing. "Has that ever happened?"

"No." Gray said in the same voice that she would have spoken in if the answer had been the opposite.

Just as I found the will to reach out and touch the unseen barrier that we were surrounded in, moving walls rose up around us and I snatched my hand back before it could be ground away.

Expanding out as we were lowered beneath the ceiling we had been lifted down into, it was all I could do to hold onto myself and not scream in panic. Even after we came even with another floor, it took several deep breaths for me to open my eyes.

Anna offered me a hand when I did and smirked as she said." Look down, dummy."

I did.

When all I saw beneath me was a radius of Mother Gray's aura in the shape of the impression my weight made on the unseen barrier, I leapt up and into Anna's arms to save myself from plummeting to my death.

"We shall take the stairs to avoid causing you any more fear." Grey explained as we left the place that the lift had sunken into and went to one of the open stairwells on either side of the room.

Anna kept my hand in hers as we walked, but she was so interested in everything we passed that Mother Gray had to stop and wait several times.

Wherever we were could not have been more different from Lun.

It was just as Gray had said, warmer than The Mother in Blue's frigid school, but not quite as warm as Erosette. Everything I could see was all straight lines and sharp angles. The stairs, the black railing that ran down their sides, the uniform slabs of light gray stone that made the walls, it was as if curves were not allowed to exist inside the place we had been brought.

"Where are we?" I asked aloud once we left the stairs for a hall made entirely of black marble and polished silver.

"The most fitting word to use is safe. We are in a safe, although it is an order of magnitude larger than those that most have ever seen," Grey answered as she stopped in front of a metal door that was big enough for Zizicoltain's spirit and the titan Schwarz to fit through side by side. An even tick sounded dully from the other side, like a clock that had been wrapped inside a blanket. "This is where your punishment will take place. We may begin now if that is what you wish. Though I would prefer that you be well rested while you were here. You are more exhausted than what you are accustomed to, are you not?"

The sooner I could return to Lun, the sooner Alexei could teach me how to disappear like he could. If I could get it over with, I could tell Nami the things I needed to tell her. I could try on all of my new dresses, put on my jewelry until I glittered like the silver city, and try not to cut myself with my new swords. There was no reason not to begin immediately.

Anna and I could sleep in our own bed.

It did not matter how tired I was, It would be better for everyone involved if I took my punishment as quickly as I could.

I opened my mouth to insist on starting right then, but Anna covered it with her hand before I could take a breath.

"She is. Thank you for your patience, Mother." Anna said with a smile.

The Mother in Gray nodded once. "Then I will see you to your accommodations."

For what felt like the hundredth time that day, I started walking again as we followed Gray.

"You were going to try to do it right now, weren't you?" Anna whispered to me.

"No." I lied and rolled my eyes.

"Yes you were, I could see you getting all serious. Samsara had you up way too early, you need to eat, take a bath, and go to sleep." She said and bumped her shoulder into me playfully.

How was it that she was the one who had faced down a monstrous spirit and a Mother in the same day, but I was the one that needed to go to bed?

If I was ever half as strong as my beloved was, there would be no one alive that could tell me to do anything besides her.

"I was told by The Mother in Red that you slept within The Lady in Purple's room and on the floor of The Mother in Red's training room while you were with her. I have prepared a room that both of you will hopefully find comfortable," Gray said as she showed us where we would be staying. "If anything is not to your liking, there will be two guards stationed outside your door that will care for you in my stead."

Anna wasted no time running in and going straight to the corner of ceiling high bookshelves.

Gray said through the door after her. "Yes, I was told that you are a voracious reader. I have included a number of volumes that cover a variety of subjects as well as stories that I personally enjoy."

She turned back to me and looked at the wall past my shoulder as she spoke. "There will be a steward arriving shortly to take your dinner orders. Rest well, Autumn Aubrey. I will return when the morning light shines onto your balcony."

Sometime shortly after her parting words, I closed the door behind me and stepped into the room we had been given.

"She seems different from the others," Anna said from where she had climbed halfway up the ladder that was connected to the bookshelves by silver rails. "And she trusts you. There is no barrier on the balcony. We could escape."

I heard her, but I did not really hear her.

All the curtains and rugs in the room had been done up in both of my colors. There was a bathroom that looked far too nice for anyone to ever bath in. The view from the balcony that Anna had spoken of was breathtaking, but I could not have cared less.

It was the bed that drew me forward.

Other than the color, it looked identical to the bed that Anna and I had shared in Erosette. All of the sleep I needed came creeping up on me as soon as I saw it. It was only by a single step that I made it over to it without collapsing.

"Anna?" I called out as I slipped through the canopy and crawled inside.

"Oh, no, wait, you have to eat first." She called back as I heard her climbing back down the ladder.

A yawn took me. "Can you play with my hair?"

"Only if you sit up and stay awake." She answered.

I was asleep before she made it to me.