A Mother's Love

Final moments of a magus as she tried to save her son.

We…

We….

Who?

Who?!

YOU.

Me.

Me…

Me.

We.

WE.

WE.

WE.

WE.

NO.

ME!

I!

I AM

I Won’t

I-

I-.

I WILL NOT

LET

YOU.

OVERWHELM ME

A cacophony of hundreds, no, thousands, of voices assaulted my mind. The unholy chorus snapped me out of the nebulous state of stasis that my mind drifted in earlier. I felt a pulsing sensation within me as I willed myself through the sea of voices slamming into my brain.  In my vision I saw Ricardo, my son, lying face down on a cold metallic bed. The skin of his upper back pried open with bloodied hooks to the point where I could see his spine and ribs.

NO!

A scream boiled inside me, but no voice came out. The brutality inflicted on him snapped the haziness in my vision and I saw everything. The snap into reality made me realize that I had no body. No mouth to scream with, no arms to pick up my son nor legs to run away with. I saw nothing but a swarm of gray surrounding me as my sight slowly approached the opening on Ricardo’s back. I tried to force something, anything within me to move and grab Ricardo, but it was useless.  My vision faded into black as I heard the repeated noise of metal cutting into flesh.

NO. NO! BASTARD! I WON’T LET YOU-

A sudden sensation filled me, it felt like I was gliding in the air. At first I thought I regained control of this floating mass of gray I called a body, I was a fool to believe it to be true. A burning sensation filled me, the feeling of hostile and foreign mana searing through me and controlling my every movement. The sound of flesh being burrowed, slightly muffled by the crowd of voices in my head, was as grating as scratching a chalkboard.

I’m pathetic. What kind of mother becomes a form of torture for their own son? I felt the feeling of my surroundings shaking, as if an earthquake struck, but deep down I knew that it was Ricardo struggling from the pain. I felt no physical pain, but every twicth, every shudder, stabbed a knife deeper into my heart.

STOP. STOP. I HAVE TO STOP. DAMN THAT BALETE. I HAVE TO-

I have to…

I h-

Ricardo…

I’m sorry.

I’m…

I…

We…

We.

We must-

We must forge a suitable host.

He will become part of us as we are of him.

We will be the tide.

Cover and conquer.

Minutes turned into hours, hours into a day. Our orders were followed. We will become the Tide. We are the Tide. We begin with one, them two, then four, then eight, the world will see, the world will know, that the Gray Tide are we. **COLD. COLD. COLD. COLD. COLD. COLD. COLD**.

**NO. NO! NO! YOU WILL NOT CONTROL HIM!**

It took every fiber of my soul, but it is unclouded. My last gift to you, my son, my beloved boy.

**I WILL NOT LET YOU BECOME HIS TOOL!**

The panicked voices of hundreds of thousands rushed like a storm, but my heart and soul was at the eye, clear and steady. Something was causing the Tide to disperse. It was a freezing sensation that I couldn’t see, but I felt the cold bite straight into my core. Whoever was causing this, I thank you. My vision began to feel heavy, the light flickering in and out. I’m out of time. Whatever was binding me was broken. The thousands were silenced in an instance. At long last, serenity. All were gone, except for one.

*“Mama.”*

The only voice I wanted to hear. I’m sorry, Ricardo, for putting you through all of this. Even though I could no longer see you, I still felt your presence, I felt your warmth. I was damned to never embrace you again, but at this moment, I felt like it was the last time I hugged you.

I’m sorry, I’m really sorry. The only thing I gave him in those final moments was a mother’s love.

**We-**

**I love you.**