In the Square

Their lips parted as they were ripped apart by grasping hands.
"No..." Eirlys moaned as she was swept back into the crowd of furious worshippers, her hands reaching forward to reclaim their hold on her lover, her white robes tearing and being trampled in the frenzy.
"Zephyr!" The girl's white face disappeared into the angry crowd as they turned on her. Eirlys began to struggle hard, kicking out with her bare feet at the arms that held her, scratching with her clawed fingers and biting with sharp white teeth.
"Hold her!" A gruff, hard voice shouted, then a sharp pain blazed in her head and her vision swam, fading to black as her body went limp.

Zephyr was caught in a maelstrom of violence. Thrown to the ground she was the target of vicious kicks and punches, sticks were used to beat at her as she curled into a ball to try and protect herself. The mob was rabid, baying for her blood, and she knew she was going to die. Through her raised arms she saw the glint of steel as a knife swept down towards her, and a searing pain swept through her chest, taking her breath away. In seconds she was gasping, straining to breathe. She tasted blood in her throat and coughed, spraying red foam over her attakers legs. They screamed in triumph and revelled in her pain. Zephyr closed her eyes against the anger and hatred in their eyes, and waited for the end to come. She was calmer now, resigned, though her breaths were short and ragged as her damaged lung filled with blood. She listened to the shouting of the crowd with detachment. As she listened, the sound changed, from triumphant to fearful and then terrified. She tried to open her eyes, to see what was happening, but her eyelids were leaden, too heavy to move. She felt a space open up around her and she was kicked once or twice, not viciously, but as though someone had fled past her and caught her with a stray boot. Then there was silence, and a feeling of emptiness all around her. She lay motionless on the cobbled square, the slick wetness of her blood seeping from the wound in her chest and dribbling in a frothy river from her mouth and nose. After a moment she managed to crack open one eye and look across the square. A light blazed, bright and blue, hovering just above the cobbles. It burned into her mind and soothed the pain from her wound.
"Zephyr...?" The spell broke and the light faded, and then suddenly Eirlys was by her side, her green slanted eyes peering down at her, her velvet fur soaked by the rain that fell in a light mist over the city. She reached out a hand, claws sheathed, and laid it gently upon the wound in Zephyrs chest. Zephyr sighed as the pain left her completely, and opened her eyes fully to stare up at Eirlys' melancholy expression. Tears glistened in her emerald orbs making them sparkle and dance. Zephyr smiled bravely.
"I'm dying." She whispered, a statement not a question. She knew that Eirlys could do nothing to save her. Eirlys smiled sadly.
"I love you." She whispered back.
"But I cannot save you myself." She stooped and lifted Zephyr into her arms, cradling her gently to her chest and spoke a single word.
"No!" Zephyr pushed weakly at Eirlys' arms, trying to make her stop what she was doing.
"You can't take me there." She wheezed, coughing more blood onto the front of her robes.
"Let me die here." Eirlys shook her head.
"I can't do that. If you die here you will be lost to the void of your own world. If we pass the gateway we will be together for eternity in the afterlife of my world. We must go through now." Zephyr wept in Eirlys' arms.
"I don't want you to die, not yet, not because of me. You have so much to live for Eirlys, so much to give." Eirlys shook her head.
"Without you I am nothing, my power comes from you, from your love. When you die I will be useless to these people who use me. They will kill me as they have killed you. We must go." Zephyr closed her eyes, too weary to argue, to weak to struggle anymore. The blood from her wound slowed it's flow and her breathing shallowed. Eirlys hurried to the gateway and stepped into it's welcoming warmth and rosey light. She looked down briefly at Zephyr's still, peaceful face, and kissed her dead lips gently.
"Goodbye my love." She whispered softly.
"I'll be with you soon." Then she stepped forward into the void beyond the gateway, and into the oblivion that waited for her as she started her journey to the afterlife.