The Luminous Widow

Fiction iNthacity Network December 19, 2024 0 Comments

The Luminous Widow

The Incan capital of Cusco in the year 1485 was alive beneath a canopy of stars, its stone streets echoing with the sound of wooden flutes and the beat of ceremonial drums. Beneath the sacred glow of the Milky Way, the Thirteen Steps of the Sun Temple gleamed like molten gold, the polished stones said to reflect the heat of Inti himself. The high priest had declared the evening a time of penance, but one among the crowd walked with an altogether different purpose—a woman wreathed in mystery, her steps steady as the pulse of the Earth itself.

Pillcu Huayta was a widow of no renown, at least that’s what she allowed the world to assume. Draped in the vibrant crimson and black of her llama wool shawl, fastened with a gold tupu pin shaped like a condor, her wardrobe spoke of no special privilege. Her tunic, or aksu, was practical, yet its hem was embroidered with a geometric design that hinted at her noble ancestry. Her raven-black hair was braided and coiled atop her head, crowned with a golden circlet etched with glyphs of suns and stars. Beneath her sharp cheekbones, her obsidian eyes flickered with purpose, as though they harbored the reflection of flames unseen by others.

Tonight, in her small sling pouch, she carried something precious and forbidden under Incan law: a glimmering, pulsating shard of celestial stone known only by whispered legend—Intiya Yawar, the “Sun’s Blood.” Villagers claimed it was a gift from Inti himself, fallen during a meteor shower decades before, though most dismissed the tale as part myth, part madness. Yet here it was in her possession, glowing with an otherworldly blue light, its hue unyielding like the Cherenkov glow itself.

The Secret Beneath the Temple

Pillcu descended the Sun Temple’s steps, her sandaled footsteps almost soundless. She ignored the priests and the humming chants around the great altar—her destination wasn’t the ceremonial fire, but below, where whispers and secrets combined into shadowed history. Formidable guards, with their feathered helmets and obsidian-tipped spears, stood watch at a doorway leading into the temple’s depths. With a fleeting movement of her hand, Pillcu revealed a carved stone amulet etched with her family crest, a mark of her late husband’s lineage. The guards stepped aside reluctantly, solemn as mountain sentinels.

Within, the chamber was lit not by flame but by the eerie blue glow emanating from spiraling glyphs carved into the walls—arcane shapes pulsating rhythmically, as though breathing. The tunnels were hewed from the very bedrock of Cusco, a labyrinth stretching deep into the earth where no outsider had ever ventured.

And there, at the heart of this maze, was her target: an ancient pool brimming with sacred water, illuminated by the same impossible blue. It looked ethereal, unnaturally still yet alive, like a frozen sheet of stars glimmering beneath the surface of the Earth.

The Forbidden Experiment

Pillcu knelt at the edge of the pool, her reflection shimmering in that flickering light. She reached into her sling pouch, revealing the shard of the “Sun’s Blood.” As she held it aloft, the glow of the celestial stone pulsed brighter, resonating with the water below. A faint hum filled the air, a sound that seemed to vibrate through her chest and down to her bones, as though she had awakened something asleep for centuries.

“Forgive me, Inti,” she whispered, her voice trembling yet resolute, “but I seek what was stolen from me. If you hear me, grant me light for my vengeance.”

Five years earlier, her husband, Tupaq Yupanqui, had gone missing during his expedition deep into the Amazonian jungles. Official reports claimed it was a jaguar attack that left his bones unrecognizable, scattered and lost to the mokey-covered ruins they’d sought to explore. But Pillcu had uncovered the truth—treachery orchestrated by those who feared Tupaq’s growing influence within the empire. They’d fed him to the jungle, but his wife would feed their secrets to the stars themselves.

The shard descended into the pool with a ringing splash, and the blue hue erupted into chaos. For a moment, the world flickered as though the walls of reality itself were bending. The water began to boil, shifting shades of azure and sapphire as though pulling forth something on the edge of existence. Suddenly, a figure emerged from the maelstrom—a silhouette made entirely of light, yet bearing Tupaq’s unmistakable form. His features sharp and shining, his hand reaching toward hers.

The Revolution Begins

Pillcu Huayta exited the Sun Temple that midnight not as a widow, but as a woman determined to dismantle the power that had stolen her husband’s life. The priests had their myths; the Empire wielded its laws. But she had seen what true power lay beneath the surface—a force that neither priests nor rulers had fully mastered.

She would harness it. She would unearth every secret the forbidden glow could offer. And when the time came, the traitors who orchestrated Tupaq’s fall would see the same blue light reflected in their terrified eyes, like the wrath of Inti made manifest.

Far above the temple, the stars burned brighter, their cold gaze fixed upon the unfolding of a tale too large for mortal men.

For Pillcu Huayta, the Luminous Widow, had only just begun.

Genre: Historical fantasy with a dash of science fiction

The Source...check out the great article that inspired this amazing short story: When Matter Moves Faster Than Light Speed… THIS Happens

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