Chapter 10 #2
Morgan’s expression is grim. ‘Bryn is tied into this deal until Fiana is brought down and someone wants her dead. Perhaps it’s a group of Light Realmer zealots and it has nothing to do with the Underhill. But, if Voss was there, I find that hard to believe.’
He takes my hand. ‘After what happened this afternoon, I think we need your deal with the Underhill to be fulfilled as quickly as possible, Bryn. We need to finish this.’
I nod in agreement. ‘So, how do we get there if the Underhill didn’t give you a tether?’
A round, purple stone drops from Morgan’s hand, hanging by a chain.
Locke’s brows rise. ‘Lia’s the one who gave you the means of getting to Merediea?’
Morgan gives Locke a narrow-eyed look. ‘Being a friend of the Harbinger does have some advantages. This will take us where we need to go.’
Jak picks up his bag. ‘Come. The Great Library will expect us this evening if the bird gets there in time.’
With final, irate glares at Locke, they both draw me from the room.
Gwen immediately approaches when we emerge. She looks at Locke accusingly, her lips pursed in annoyance. She must know what we were doing…
'Eat,' she says, thrusting a pastry into my hand. 'You must eat, and then you must rest.'
'Don't blame Locke,’ I murmur, feeling a bit protective of him as Jak and Morgan are so angry with him again. ‘It was I who…’
Gwen’s brows rise, but she says no more about it. Instead, she hands me a bag. ‘There are more pastries, and some teas to help you regain your strength quickly.’
I nod, belatedly seeing Gwen’s two massive orc mates at the table nearby. Jak, Morgan, and Locke stay very close to me, and the orcs appear amused.
‘Thank you,’ I say, and Gwen gives me a fond smile.
‘I’m glad that the Light agrees with you, Bryn,’ she says. ‘I’m only sorry that some would see your freedom stripped from you. We won’t allow it, you know. They don’t know what hardness the Dark Realms breeds in us, those who grew up in the cruelties of it.’
She looks away, her eyes unfocused. ‘But you’re stronger than they realize, Bryn. Remember that.’
I nod jerkily, tears coming to my eyes as I take her hand and squeeze it. Gwen really does understand. She knows.
She turns away, her eyes suspiciously glassy, and she goes to the table, sitting on the lap of the biggest orc, whose arms encircle her without hesitation as she leans against him.
‘Be safe.’ She gives us a small, solemn wave as we leave the house.
As soon as we're a few paces from the house, Morgan activates the tether. I'm kept between all three of them as we enter the Breach.
But, once we’re inside, they aren’t with me any longer. Panicked, my gaze darts around.
But I’m not in the passage between worlds either. I’m in the white room.
The man in the white robes is here as well, but I’ve arrived as me. I’m not a child, like I have been in my dreams.
I approach him cautiously, and he turns when he hears me. He opens his mouth, and I cover my ears, bracing myself for screams.
But they don’t come.
'Please tell me you can actually understand my words,' he says, stepping closer, looking hopeful.
He sounds different than in the place with the Black Lake, as if this is his true voice.
My breath catches and I nod cautiously.
He closes his eyes and says something in a language I don't know. He strides forward, his forehead pressing against mine.
'You're here,' he whispers, his cheeks wet.
'Who are you? How do you know me?' I ask, frozen in place by my surprise.
He draws back and answers this time. 'I’m your father, Bryn.’
My brow furrows as my eyes search his. 'I don't understand.'
'You were taken from me. You were so young. I was tricked, and you were stolen.'
I step back. 'If that’s true, why didn't you come for me? Why didn't you find me?' I ask, the feeling of betrayal twisting through me, though I don't comprehend why fully.
I don’t really know him, but I’m his kin and I know that I would never leave my child if they were taken from me. I wouldn’t rest until I’d found them. He abandoned me to The Barrack, to the Dark Realms.
He looks sad. 'I wanted to. I would have if I could. But I was trapped, my child. I still am.'
I look around the white room. 'This isn't really where you are, is it?'
He shakes his head. 'No. This was our home once. Me. Your mother. You. In the Light. But it only exists in my memories now. We’re in the Breach still. I've been stuck here since you were taken. There's no way out for me. It’s been too long.'
The white room melts away and so do his pristine robes. In their place are the dirty, gray ones, ragged and torn. His face is thinner. Older. Gaunt.
'This is where you are now?' I ask.
He nods.
'Can I help you? Can I get you out of this place?'
He cups my cheek, shakes his head. 'There's no getting out. I will wander the ether until I am no more. I cannot be rescued. I’m tied to the void as surely as if I was molded from it.'
'Who did this to you?' I ask.
He sighs, taking my hand.
'It's no matter now. I'm just sorry that I let him trick me, my child. He was a friend. I trusted him.'
'But why? What did he want?'
'He was searching for something. A lake. Lost long ago to the Dark Realms. I wouldn’t help him find it.
He punished me by killing your mother and hoped to force my hand by taking you away, but he miscalculated, and I was lost. Even he couldn’t bring me back.
I believe he thought you would be able to help him once you were old enough. ’
'But how could I? I’m no mage,' I say helplessly. 'I’m Fate Touched.'
‘He assumed being Kismet meant that Fate works through us.’ He scoffs. ‘He assumed that he could direct events, and Fate would simply lead him to what he wanted. But that isn’t true. We wield Fate, Bryn, and so much more. I had the gifts, and so do you.'
'What gifts?' I ask dubiously, ‘I can do little that Fate does not wish.’
He takes my hands. ‘You are the hand of Fate. You apply it. You decide.’
I shake my head. 'But it doesn't work. It doesn't happen when I want it to.'
‘Now that you are here and able to hear me, I believe you are strong enough. It will come to you. Quickly. You will find it easier.'
'But why now? All that time I was in The Barrack, in the Dark, and I could never…'
He closes his eyes sadly. ‘I’m so sorry, my little one. If I could have spared you, I would have.’
He squeezes my hands. ‘But as to the timing, even I cannot say for sure. Power is based in strength and you’re much stronger now than when I saw you the first time.
I was trying so hard to call to you every time you came through the Breach, in your dreams when I could find you, but you couldn’t hear me until now. ’
‘I heard screaming and whispers before.’
My father nods. ‘Specters of the ether. But your strength has increased. You have enough food and rest now…and other things that a father would not speak of to his daughter, that are based in the carnal nature of the Gods.’
‘I’m a god?’ I ask dubiously, wondering errantly if that’s why the attacks of need came upon me, and why I felt stronger after each one.
He lets out a soft chuckle. ‘Not quite, but carnal energy is sometimes needed from those whom Fate decides are worthy and our gifts come from the same source. The lake.’
‘The Black Lake that I saw in my dreams,’ I guess.
He nods.
‘An ancient and sacred place. Lost long ago. There are those who would do anything to find it. The gifts it can bestow. Beautiful. Terrible. But you have more than Fate to draw upon, now. Other gifts will emerge.’
‘Others?' I ask.
'Yes. The reason my friend turned on me was because he realized my power could consume his.'
'I don't understand.'
'He was a mage. Kismet have the very rare ability to drain them of their magicks, for a short time, or, more permanently, if we desire, and their conjures cannot kill us. He feared it, and me, greatly.'
My eyes widen. 'In the Dark Realms,' I say, remembering Locke keeling over in the cave. ‘I didn't know what I was doing, but I think I did take a mage’s power for a moment.'
He nods. 'It will be easier to find it, that well within you. Be careful.'
He looks over his shoulder, his brow creasing as if listening to something I can't hear. 'You must go. You can stay no longer without the ether trying to bind itself to you as it has to me. It’s drawn to us. If it finds you, you’ll be stuck here with me. Never spend too long in the Breach.'
He cups my face with both his hands.
‘Daughter, I could not ask for more than this. To know that you have the power that you need to survive. You are the most important thing. I can die happily now. Go.'
He pushes me away.
'No, wait—' I say, but it's too late.
The Breach ejects me and I find myself in a wooded glen with Jak, Morgan, and Locke. The sun is just setting here over the horizon now that we’re not high in the mountains. I look around. The wood isn’t thick, it’s just a smattering of trees with a path running through it really.
I glance at the others, wondering how long I was gone for, but they aren't looking as if they missed me, or that anything untoward happened to them in the Breach at all.
In fact, Jak, still looking as angry as he did at Gwen’s home, strides forward and hits Locke across his cheek, hard enough for the bigger fae to stagger back against a tree.
‘You cunt!’ Jak snarls.
JAK
I hit him again, and the satisfying crunch of his jaw is something I will cherish for a very long time.
'You cunt,' I hiss again.
He doesn't speak, doesn’t even try to defend himself.
'I don't understand,' Bryn says.
She's looking upset, and keeps peeping over her shoulder where we came through the Breach, though it’s closed now.
I turn away from Locke with an angry noise in his general direction, focusing on who truly matters.
'Are you all right, Bryn?' I ask.
'I— Yes,' she says too quickly, and I frown at her, catching Morgan's eye.
Something isn't right, but if she doesn't want to talk to us now, then we'll wait and ask her later when we’re in Kitore.
Once this has been taken care of.