7. Infiltrate #3
“Neutral ground,” she said. “I also had this idea that there would be some safety there. Some remnant of you, Grayson, that would keep Weryn at bay. But no. Quite the opposite.”
“How did Eyros not know you were coming, Ryder?” Grayson asked.
“I subsumed my consciousness as deep as it would go into various animal forms. I didn’t shift into just one of my forms, but many and spread my consciousness out amongst them.
That way it would be less likely for Eyros to sense me,” Ryder admitted.
“I almost lost myself, to be honest. Well, what was left of me in any event. I was terribly bestial at times even in my humanoid form so, in a way, some would say there was little difference.”
Grayson gripped his hand tightly even as he was fisting it in Khos’ thick, invisible fur. “I’m so sorry. For all of you. I wish I’d been there. I know I could not have stopped it, but…”
Grayson simply shook his head, unable to find words for what they all understood.
He felt that he’d left them all alone in their terrible fate.
But it was a fate that they’d each chosen.
Eyros was still in the middle of that fate.
Ryder felt pity for him. Truthfully, it would be better for Eyros when it was all over.
“You don’t seem that angry at Eyros, Fifi,” Charlie said tentatively. “Or Ryder either.”
She turned and smiled at him and Charlie both. Though she wore another face–a man with a massive white beard and long hair tied up on the top of her head–that smile was all hers. There were tears in her eyes, but they didn’t seem to be ones of grief or anger.
“No, I’m not. It was a terrible time. We all did things that are truly unspeakable,” she said.
“I know in my heart that I betrayed many by teleporting away instead of staying and fighting. And, if truth be told, if Eyros hadn’t used his power on me, I would have abandoned him to Weryn.
Even with all my strength, when Weryn had a hold of me, I knew that I had one shot to get out.
I couldn’t teleport to Eyros and then away.
It was just leave or die. And I was going to leave. ”
“But Eyros froze you?” Grayson stated more than asked.
“Yes.” She nodded. “So he survived to fight another day and die another day. Somehow, as awful as my end was, I feel that his is infinitely worse, especially now that he knows what’s coming.”
“He didn’t buy himself a future so much as elongate his own suffering,” Ryder agreed.
“I wonder how he comes here,” Grayson muttered as he looked at the Spire with hands on his hips. “He’ll know the moment he steps in here that it will be his end. What could tempt him to come?”
Though Ryder didn’t say it, he had a feeling that it would be despair that sent the Eyros Vampire racing towards his death. The ever present pressure of knowing that terrible fate was awaiting him would propel him eventually from the safety of Destiny to, ironically, face his destiny.
“I’m just relieved that Elgar seems so at peace with his own fate. I do not think I could be.” Fiona shivered.
“He has more strength than I do,” Grayson agreed. Then with a shake, he said, “All right, we need to think carefully here about what we do next. There aren’t just Kaly Vampires here and there aren’t just slices here either, but plenty of Vampires of every Bloodline.”
“Do you think some Eyros are in the mix?” Fiona asked.
“Yes, I’m sure there are,” Grayson said.
“So we’re going to have to keep our thoughts as carefully clean and neutral as we can.
Don’t think past the present moment if you can help it.
Don’t project your thoughts in any way. We have to suppress all emotions, too.
Strong emotions will draw an Eyros’ attention to us. ”
“Even though we’ll be able to keep them out of our heads as we’re all Immortals,” Ryder added, “that will actually be a detriment in some way.”
“They’ll realize we’re odd and come in to investigate,” Fiona nodded. “Right.”
“There are plenty of people in the square outside of the Spire that we can likely scout out who is allowed in and who isn’t. If they have any passwords or secret handshakes or whatever paranoid stuff that Kaly has instituted,” Grayson said, “we need to be on the lookout for those.”
Fiona’s forehead furrowed. “I wonder…”
“What, Fifi?” Charlie asked.
“These may be true believers. Those clothes Rakash and Cirillen are wearing–and now you’re wearing–are definitely the first version of Order robes,” she said.
“And you used to be a Confessor in the Order,” Grayson said, catching on quickly. “You think that it’ll be something to do with the faith that will get us into the Spire.”
She nodded. “Undoubtedly. Kaly will be trying out their ideas here. Seeing what sticks. Indoctrinating all of them. So let’s keep an ear out for that.”
“Let’s do this thing,” Grayson said.
For a moment, the wind shifted and it blew up from Solace. A scent–rotten and familiar–reached his nose. Grayson looked up at him curiously when Ryder stiffened.
“What?” Grayson asked.
He let out a soft breath. “Legion is here.”