19. Strategizing Mates
Archer
Feeling confused at Baz's sudden departure, I ask Azael, “Why did Baz rush to his lair? We've more than sufficient funds and power to take the portal route to Egypt.”
“We’d need to bribe the ferryman––Aken and possibly offer the god something in return for Aleiraah.” Azael responds.
“What do you mean? What special thing does Baz have in his hoard that we’ll need?” Rinn asks, sounding just as confused as me.
“Are you always this slow?” Zien sneers.
Rinn ignores him, forging ahead, “If Aken is not another god, then can’t we just fight him and get to the god who took Aleiraah?”
“Brute strength is not the answer to everything. But I don’t expect you to understand that.” Azael derides.
Feeling bad about them ganging up on Rinn, I try to intervene, when he suddenly bursts out. “Don't talk like I'm dumb! I don’t know these details, okay? I'm not a scholar like Baz. Give me a fucking break!” Ifrinn’s voice breaks.
“You don’t get to feel sorry and wallow in self pity, Rinn.” Alistair interjects seriously. “We need to move fast and you playing catch-up is not helping.”
“I know! But Azael, you were there too. You saw what happened!
And when I showed you what I saw and heard, you all made your own choices.
Just like I did. A choice to punish Aleiraah.
To hurt her like we were hurting, and the guilt is eating me alive!
" He pounds his fist on his chest. "I'm worried out of my mind for her too!
I'm trying to understand how to get to her so I can make up for my mistakes.
I thought we're working together to get her back. Looking down on me is not how we can move fast, Alistair!” Rinn yells, chest heaving.
His tentacles have flared out in obvious agitation. He tries to visibly calm himself before announcing, “I'm going to be in my room for a while to gather up a few things. I don’t want my lack of knowledge to be a hindrance in your plans. Call me once Baz is back.”
Ifrinn
They hate me. Well, I hate myself too. Azael was with me when we discovered Aleiraah in that compromising position. Yet he acts as if he is beyond reproach.
Well, fuck him!
No one knows about my challenges with reading and writing other than Aleiraah. I tried to learn demonish while growing up but failed miserably.
My parents didn't bother getting me any help but Father likes to taunt me every now and then. And my brothers take their cues from him. I can speak all the supernatural languages of this realm well, but written words get all jumbled up in my head.
I don’t need it particularly since I’m an Oblivion demon.
My powers focus on erasing selective memories.
Even wiping minds clean at times. Aleiraah found out about my learning disability one day in the library when she’d asked me to read her a story.
I was embarrassed. She shrugged it off like it was no big deal.
When she realized I remember things best by listening, in her thoughtful way, Aleiraah got me a learning mirror called Eòlas. It answers any questions I ask, provided the information is recorded somewhere.
She got it for me as an anniversary gift and joked that it'd be my learning assistant when she’s not there to indulge my never-ending questions.
Aleiraah likes to call it Mirror Know-it-All.
I wish she was here teaching me all about Egypt and its Underworld.
Instead, I drove her away with my actions.
Why did I act like a total ass? I hurt the only person who gave a fuck about me.
Entering my room, I close the door behind me, and head to the hidden panel in the wall where Eòlas floats.
“Eòlas, I need help.” I say with urgency.
“Of course, Master Ifrinn! How may I be of assistance?” A shine ripples on the mirror's surface as it replies in a jovial tone.
“Tell me about the different Underworlds. No, wait! First start with Duat and how it’s connected to Egypt.”
“That’s a good one! The Underworld of Egypt, also known as Duat…” Eòlas begins.
Time flies while I try to absorb the information Eòlas spouts at me, but the sound of huge wings flapping outside cuts the session short. Baz is back with probably precious treasures from his hoard to bribe the Underworld god.
“Thank you, Eòlas! As usual you do know it all.” I say while strapping a pair of battle axes to my back and head out.
Alistair
Baz is back!
The dragon lands in the gardens outside and then he shifts into his human form with a cloth-sack tied to his back.
We had moved out of the room where Aleiraah was taken––or most likely chose to leave us from. The common area is abuzz with restless energy. Archie and Silas were mind-linking their packs, letting elders know they’d not be available for the foreseeable future.
Their mind-linking abilities wouldn’t work once we leave Mytherra. Baz might have done the same already with his flight.
I'm secretly relieved that I’ll be spared from the compulsion of Queen Raine for a few days at least. I’m hopeful that her commands would be easier to resist once I leave Mytherra.
More than half of my energy is spent in deflecting her command to fuck her.
She’s nothing but a dirty used up cunt who holds the highest power among the Fae.
Her sister, Sunflare, is the next in line and a decent fae unlike her evil sibling.
But she doesn’t have the right to the throne unless Raine is dead. Hence, we're stuck with a vile monarch.
Raine satisfies her urges by forcing faes to pleasure her at her whim. Against their will. She calls it her unofficial harem. I often get the impression she's jealous of Aleiraah.
Half of her court is disgusted but powerless against her, since all faes have to swear fealty when a new monarch takes the throne.
The other half caters to her filthy demands to stay in her good graces.
Over the centuries she has commanded me to fuck her often.
And to my shame, even while I was courting Aleiraah.
After I got married, I thought she’d stop. I was wrong.
A few years into my marriage, Raine commanded me to have sex with her. And that one time was betrayal enough toward my heart’s Delight. It broke something in me.
The taint would forever stain my soul.
Raine depleted her well of powers in forcing my hand. Later I learned she was out of commission for weeks.
I had no control of my body while she violated me.
Laughed as she treated me like a pet. Disgusted and humiliated, I had to bend to her will as she enjoyed using me like a toy to fuck herself with.
She kept going at it the entire night. After it was over, I felt soiled, unworthy of my mate and fell into a dark hole of despair.
I was but a shell for weeks, and made excuses to everyone. The guilt constantly ate at me. I considered coming clean to Aleiraah. But I couldn't find the words.
Then slowly, somehow my Delight, my lovely Aleiraah, was able to pull me out of the hopelessness. But nothing was ever the same. The guilt sat like a weight in my stomach. I couldn't be open with Aleiraah in the years that followed. No matter how much I wanted.
But one day, after passing out from drinking too much fae wine, when I woke up, I didn’t feel Raine’s command so strongly anymore.
And until recently, I was able to deflect her compulsions. But off late, it consumes more energy and concentration. Raine, feeling angry, threatened me at the mermaid ballet, but I escaped making an excuse. Every time I refuse her, Raine turns uglier.
I hope to higher powers that Aleiraah never finds out what happened. She'll never look at me the same way. Or worse, she'll think I betrayed her. Which I did.
Rhazien
Baz enters the common den followed by Ifrinn. He looks a little tense.
“Problem?” Silas probes.
“No. Just ran into my mother before returning back. She had questions. I chose not to answer. Things got tense.” Baz replies with a shrug.
His mother is controlling, more than Ifrinn’s father probably.
It’s common knowledge. Baz is an academic at heart and is often buried under books for days.
His mother, the Emberfang flight’s matriarch, took an active role in leading the flight after his father passed away in a battle with an enemy flight.
Baz was a young dragon at that time. Even though Baz is the eldest and has been the leader for a few centuries, she keeps challenging his authority at every chance she gets.
He doesn’t really retaliate since she’s his mother. She pushes that advantage, and keeps parading female dragons before him, even though he’s married. Baz says she does it out of some misguided responsibility to continue the Emberfang line. He ignores her most of the time.
I call bullshit. She just doesn’t like Aleiraah for a daughter-in-law because she can’t be manipulated. I heard her calling Aleiraah weak once, and Baz intervened. Given a chance, I can prove that my Aleiraah can any day do more damage than a fire-breathing dragon.
“What did you get from your hoard?” Ifrinn asks, full of curiosity.
Baz turns, looking at him speculatively and Ifrinn stares back, his gaze steady.
“I chose some curated valuables that I gathered over my lifetime. You've to understand that items from a dragon’s hoard are not only precious, but my dragon is immensely possessive of them. I’ll part with them a thousand times over for Aleiraah, but I need you all to not act covetous after seeing the artifacts.
My instincts would force me to defend the treasures causing unnecessary conflicts we cannot afford right now. ”
We nod, acknowledging his warning. Nothing is more important than getting to Aleiraah.
Baz opens the cloth-sack and takes out a single, petrified golden apple, the size of my palm. “This apple is from the garden of a powerful Olympus god. When consumed, it grants immortality.”
He takes out a golden chalice next. “This is the ‘Chalice of Time’. Drinking from this cup halts time around the bearer for several heartbeats.”
He pulls out an ordinary looking scroll after that. “The ‘Sunscroll of Ma’at’, written in solar script, readable only by divine eyes. It reveals the history of the universe as witnessed by the sun—and hints at what is yet to come.”
He follows it by fishing out an onyx palm-sized heart with a strange violet light swirling within.
“Is that…?” Archie whispers, shock coloring his tone.
"The ‘Heart of a Hollow Star’—a celestial object found by the first warden of an unknown Underworld with the help of a dying dragon. It allows the wielder to recall a soul from any Underworld. I’m certain Anubis or Osiris would be interested in this.” Baz states with confidence.
“You...you had it all this time?” Archie's voice is unreadable, but his eyes are wide with disbelief, and I find it a little disconcerting.
“Yes, I’ve collected many things over centuries, Archer. Why do you ask?” Baz questions, pinning him with a predatory gaze that doesn’t bode well for him.
“Nothing.” Archie answers in a clipped tone. “I'm not being greedy or anything. Go on, sorry I interrupted.”
Baz keeps staring at him for a few tense moments and Archie finally looks away. Only then he snaps his focus back to the cloth sack.
“Last but not the least, if all fails, I'm sure this would tip the scales for us.” He takes out a black scarab carved from obsidian and lapis lazuli, with golden inlays of hieroglyphs that shimmers in the dying sunlight filtering in through the windows.
“What’s that?” Azael asks and Ifrinn side-eyes him. I'm surprised too that Azael doesn’t know what that beetle-like artifact is. I bet neither of us do. Excluding Baz of course.
Baz studies Azael for a heartbeat. Finding no threat to his treasure, he explains. “This is the ‘Weighing Scarab of Ma’at’. It’s believed to have been crafted in the primordial age by the priests of Ma’at.”
“The Egyptian goddess of truth and cosmic balance.” Baz and Ifrinn speak at the same time. We all look at Ifrinn in surprise and he looks uncomfortable, as if he didn't mean to say it out loud.
Baz continues without further ado. “It’s designed for use in the afterlife during the 'Weighing of the Heart' ceremony. It served as the divine counterweight during soul judgment ceremonies in Duat. Lost during a rebellion many centuries ago, it was buried deep within the sands of a forgotten necropolis. I discovered it during one of my treasure hunts in my youth and have had it ever since.”
“Why do you think Anubis or Osiris will be swayed by this in particular?” I wonder out loud since the other treasures seem important too.
“Well, rumor has it that Anubis was the one who lost this Scarab during the rebellion. I'm certain that he’d like to get back into the good graces of Osiris, his father, with this.” Baz turns the shimmering scarab this way and that, studying it with a quiet focus.
“And if it’s Osiris who’s taken Aleiraah from us, he'd still want it back anyway, given its value.” Silas adds.
“What about the ferryman, Aken? What will appeal to him? Coins?” Ifrinn chimes in.
I'm again surprised that he is not acting clueless as he was a few hours ago.
Azael tips his chin at Baz. “Why don’t you show him?”
Baz delves into the sack and takes out a fistful of round pieces of orange-red gold, etched with a fire breathing dragon’s sigil.
“That’s dragon’s gold.” Ifrinn breathes.
All of us are in a bit of awe seeing the glinting pieces on his open palm. Even though we've lived with Baz for years, we’ve never seen him trade using dragon gold. He’s extremely possessive about it and has shown the caves filled with it only to Aleiraah.
“Will this let us gain entry into Duat?” Alistair breaks his gaze from the shiny pieces of gold and asks skeptically.
“That’s our hope.” Azael answers, sharing a look with Baz. “Aken transports the souls of the deceased across the waters of Duat.
“The Nile connects to the waters of the Egyptian Underworld?” Ifrinn interjects.
“Yes.” Azael answers, looking at Ifrinn assessingly. I feel slightly bad for calling him slow earlier.
“Well, are we ready to portal out of the realm then?”
Without delay, we head out, leaving Rozalin in charge.
Aleiraah, my Love, we’re coming for you.