The Dance Part III

Now Adam was in front of the domed building he saw several times now. There was always somebody at the door, the first one was Ogrario, and the second one was Lady Domaney, whom he recalled offering him her bloody womb while still smiling. Today, though, it was significantly different. The building was gloriously located in a center of a town, an old town, from the looks of it. He recognized the town as the same town he'd seen multiple times in this purgatory, only not yet in ruin. Despite its condition, the town was empty and dark, safe the domed building, which brilliantly lit from the inside.

The building was still in its prime condition. Several statues framed the pathway towards its double door, which was painted in colorful colors. The outer wall was carefully sculpted with various scenes from stories he didn't recognize, with a peculiar detail: every two meters or so, there was a plain flat pentagon. There was a flat, unpainted pentagon also on the double door, right in the middle framing its handle. At the top of the dome, there was a smaller five-sided pyramid, which reminded him of the Mayor's office. He didn't remember whether or not the pyramid was there before, the couple of times he was there.

He saw a white mist fell from one point in the sky to the outer limit of the town, and something inside of him told him that it was not a good sign. The mist slowly fell to the ground and crawled the town's streets. He saw that the mist emanated white light. It broke itself into several arms and started to enter each house it blew past. He heard a faint sighing sound every time it did it.

He didn't want to know what will happen to him if he let the mist crawl to him and touch him, so he quickly walked towards the domed building. Without any effort to open the door whatsoever, he was teleported inside. He gasped.

He was in a marvelous court ballroom. There were people with colorful and elegant dresses moving about, dancing in the middle of the room. The court musician played slow, pleasant music to accompanied the dance. Other people were talking, eating, and laughing on the tables placed at each side of the room. The high and arched stained glass windows above the tables were alternating with beautiful embroidered tapestries. Four on each side, and each tapestry had a dominant color: gold, silver, dark brown, and black. The gold one had a sun and a sword emblem on it in red, the silver one had a crescent moon and a hand mirror in white, the dark brown one had a masked face of a stag in black, and a black one had a white skull wearing a teardrop-shaped pair of earrings.

Wait. A sword, a hand mirror, a mask, and a pair of earrings. Some things started to click, but Adam still didn't know how.

At the end of the room, though, under the clock that seemed to move backward, there were four figures, sitting on four thrones. All of them were female. The right one was garbed in a white toga, put her hair up in a bun, and she wore her tiara in a way that it was dropped in front of her forehead, with its pendant looked like a crescent moon. She was holding a hand mirror, the same one he kept seeing on the drowning ship visions. The lady who sat on a throne beside hers was covered in feathers, she wore a huge mask with a beak in front of where her nose was. The mask was glorious, almost half a meter high, made by various colorful feathers, Adam suspected that the mask would fly off of its own if it's not secured to her head.

Beside her was a very beautiful and regale woman. Her hair was blonde, shone brilliantly like fire. Her countenance was demure but fiery. Adam suspected she was the leader. She was holding the same sword he'd seen on his past visions, being stabbed to the earth. Beside her, on the very left, was a dark-skinned woman. Her eyes were white, and her clothing was scant. Her chest was bare, and she had colorful gemstones stuck directly onto her skin, in a sort of swirly pattern. Adam recognized the earrings. It was the same pair Hagar wore on his vision of the dessert when she was chased away by the giant spiders.

He remembered those figures, those women. He saw their statues in Mayor's office. They were the Goddesses: Tia, Amnu, Aster, and Sin. Each with their own ... object. He asked himself again whether or not he had died, and he experienced the afterlife. He felt relieved somehow, although he never believed in an afterlife.

He looked around the ball. He wondered if this was the dance he kept hearing about. Should he dance? Should he ask one of the Goddesses to dance? How could he do that, and for what end? Besides, nobody seemed to be aware of his existence here.

"Come on," a voice startled him from behind. He turned around and see George was there behind him, "have your investigating brain come up with something?"

"Are you always there behind me?" Adam was perplexed.

"I might, I might not," George answered, "tell me what have you conclude."

"I... I don't know. There was a recurring pattern, but it's not coherent."

"Yes?"

"I keep seeing five. Pentagrams. But I also keep seeing four. Four objects, four tapestries, four thrones, four types of visions, four... Goddesses..."

"Good."

"Good? What do you mean?"

"Well, you'll see..."

Suddenly the room grew quiet. The four Goddesses stood up. The musicians stopped their music, and the guests stopped dancing. All of them looked at the clock above the Goddesses' thrones with a look of terror and apprehension. The clock rang one time, signaling one o clock. After it was finished, the four Goddesses sat down once more, the music started, and everyone let out a sigh before laughing nervously, then continued their conversations and dance.

"What just happened?" Adam was bewildered.

"They were locking themselves from the plague," George answered playfully, "but every hour, they become nervous of the possibility if the plague would take all of them, despite their trying to forget that it exists."

"The plague? You mean the white mist outside?"

"Yes," George said, "although... it was only a 'plague' from their perspective."

Adam didn't respond. A plague only for them. The pattern of four in a building which had a motif of five, huddled around to lock themselves from something they considered a 'plague'.

Could it be that the plague...

Before he had finished his thought, the room grew silent once more. The four figures on the throne stood up. Adam looked at the clock. It was twelve. Did an hour already pass? Was he thinking too long or was the time here fucked up?

The guests gasped. Adam looked at the door. A white veiled lady stood there, with white mist floated around her.

Was she the bearer of the plague?

Was she the one who would make four becoming five?