Chapter 15 Lazriel #6
“True Celestial magic and energy is so potent, that drawing a fraction from each one of those who ventured down to this plane went unnoticed by them and was more than enough for our purposes. Cassius, before he was Fallen, was able to tether Velra Nox and pull her from death state without any consequences to the Valley of the Dead itself. Ariana Martel, a True Celestial and arguably the most infamous one at that was able to forever sever the Celestial Plane’s connection to our mortal world.
It is so very potent and also multifaceted in what it is able to do, and what can be fashioned from it, as well as what it can be fashioned into. ”
“Taking advantage of the Severance spell like that—disturbing and darkly impressive at the same time.”
“We do what we must.”
“When I first came down here, you said you’d help me, you said The Shadowed was looking into Sylas’ condition and researching viable solutions. You also mentioned that you needed him well for some sort of bigger picture reason.”
“All true. Yesterday we were able to stabilize the cores and revitalize them fully. It’s time. That’s why I brought you here today. We are missing only one more piece of the puzzle.”
“What’s that?”
“The blood of Sylas Morgrave.”
Before I could get a word out at that, he explained, “Sylas is no ordinary necromancer. His power eclipses most others. As such, he will require three necromantic cores to stabilize him and enable him to call on the full force of his magic, and—”
“Wait. You’re saying The Shadowed intends to do a necromantic core transplant on Sylas?”
All this time Sylas and Kai had been working together to find a cure for Sylas’ sickness and here The Shadowed had created an artificial solution.
“Yes. That is one of the purposes. Another is that, given what the Mystic Heart can do to necromantic cores that were decidedly expired, it is also very plausible that the damage done to the Valley of the Dead can be undone—healed. I am sure Sylas has determined just what damage was done now that he’s had some quiet time on his hands. ”
I stilled. “Quiet time? What does that mean?” It certainly didn’t sound like the man I’d come to know so well and love even more.
Since I’d been here, Remnant had been keeping me updated in a limited way, just making sure I knew Sylas, Velra, and Cassius were all safe.
And Ketheron, that sweetheart. I knew he had eyes on them through his whisper network of The Shadowed.
But he hadn’t offered me any specific details because he knew that my focus needed to be on what he’d been teaching me.
And, honestly, as hard as it had been for me to cut it off like that, even slightly, with my loves, I’d known he’d been right about it.
I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this otherwise.
I’d been holding onto the fact that with what we were up against, I needed to be the best version of myself.
But now, hearing this about Sylas… I couldn’t let it go. I had to jump on it.
And it threatened to open up everything.
“That’s right, you infuriating, stubborn, reckless, know-it-all motherfucker… I love you. I fucking love you and I can’t lose you either. Do you understand me?”
He’d cleared his throat, then grasped my nape and held me to him. “I love you, too,” he’d breathed into my hair. “Truly, deeply, and maddeningly.”
I blinked back to the immediate before I sank into it too deeply.
“Dad?” I pressed.
It jolted the both of us.
It was the first time I’d used that word with him—at least outwardly, and not just interchangeably in my own head along with Remnant.
He stared at me with a mixture of surprise and unveiled emotion.
And it was the worst time for it—when he needed to give me this information about Sylas. There was an urgency there that transcended what should have been a defining moment for us both.
His lips lifted and then he reached out and laid his hand on my shoulder.
I felt it then. Him silently acknowledging the moment between us, without adding so much weight to it when it was marred by what else was going on, what else was at stake.
I could see it from him—it wasn’t lost. There would be others like it. Especially now that line had been crossed from me.
Maybe it had been better this way, not having the first time I’d called him Dad being steeped in heaviness. It made it easier to go there again without pressure attached to it.
I smiled to myself. It was kind of like what I’d been trying to convey and teach Velra for a while, something she’d actually embraced.
“The goal to life is happiness, right? To see and feel beyond the pain that’s afflicted us? It doesn’t just feel good, it sticks it to those who’ve harmed us and tried to keep us in that pained state.”
Good to know that, through all the pain and bullshit lately, I could still uphold that.
Even in small ways, it made a difference.
It sustained us.
Especially in the dark.
His hand tightened a little on my shoulder, not painfully, but definitely demonstrating an urgency he was trying hard to check, meaning it was something really bad he needed to tell me.
“No one can know of the Mystic Heart. Do you understand me? He—and your other two loves—can be made aware that we have the means to revitalize necromantic cores. But that must be the extent of it. I am putting my trust in you.”
“Not just your trust. This is a test. And if I fail, you won’t reveal the answers to what else I came here for, right?”
“Correct. Secrets and information carefully guarded and disseminated only strategically and tactically is the lifeblood of The Shadowed.”
“I get it. I honestly do. After spending all this time down here with you and them, how could I not? And I respect it. Especially the fact that you’re giving this to me now. A way to help Sylas. A major way.”
“A way in which he needs. There are limitations to this sort of transplant, and we will discuss them, something you will need to pass onto him.”
“Pass onto him?”
“Yes. Very soon. You will wish to take your leave of me to go to him.” He sighed and then revealed, “Sylas has been bound.”
I staggered back from his hold, an awful shudder rolling through me. “No. Sylas without his magic isn’t… no. He can’t… he can’t be without it.”
“He would have perished, so Cornelius Martel performed the spell that bound his magic. Time had run out, Lazriel. I am sorry.”
“But this…” I gestured at the display before us. “This can fix that, right?”
“On a temporary basis, yes. Long enough for Sylas to do what needs to be done.”
“What are you talking about? What exactly is going on? Why go to these lengths, put all this research into this Mystic Heart, the cores? I know you care about me, but you also admitted there’s an overarching goal here. What is it?”
“A threat is rising. We need him strong. Restored to his Almighty Necromancer status.”
“That threat is already here.”
“Not Puritas. One such threat that is distinctly dangerous to vampires. Even to the likes of me, the network that I command, all of us throughout the supernatural world.”
“Something worse than Puritas?”
“Something different.”
“What is it?”
“They call it Scion.”