Chapter 2 #3
“And we cannot rouse Ambrose awake before his body is ready,” I stated, just in case Sylas was now considering that.
Ketheron had healed his injuries and I’d even fed him some of my Ancient blood.
Ambrose would be well, but he wielded an immense amount of black magic so his body needed to settle, for if he was forced awake while in flux and recovery, there could very well be dangerous eruptions.
Sylas shot us both a withering look. “Hence me needing you, Ketheron, to supercharge the ring if things go badly. As a magical defibrillator. And you, Remnant, with your blood to get me back to full operational state swiftly after I’m revived.”
“You intend to perform the spell on yourself?” I choked.
“Of course.”
I shook my head vehemently. “Your loves will not react well to this.” I glared. “My son will not.”
“Your help is just the worst-case scenario. I’m not operating from a death wish mentality here. You know that.”
“And you know that they need you, that Winter needs you. He needs his family whole. You’re not doing this.”
He narrowed his eyes. “My son is in the hands of a madman intending to use him, to warp his mind for ends we aren’t even aware of yet.
We’re having to keep this secret, even just the abduction aspect, let alone whatever Ruxnoth’s true intentions are.
And the fucking massive deal it is that a True Celestial escaped the Severance unknown to anyone.
For over two fucking decades. I can’t even risk telling Cassius, who Ketheron says actually knew this Ruxnoth being once upon a time, because his Soul Brand with Velra will make it impossible to keep it from her.
And if she’s involved, all hell will break loose.
Lazriel, too. She won’t be able to mask her panic and terror for our son.
She’s in the Dark Fae Realm right now with King Darethor whose senses are elite-tier.
That will alert him, the entire Realm, and then it’ll spread everywhere.
” He clenched his fists as his magic starting sparking.
“There is no fucking time! This needs to be done! And it needs to be done now!”
“Sylas, a necromancer needs to walk this plane. You die, even temporarily, and that will send out a shockwave to the higher echelons of the supernatural world. It will be seen as a catastrophic threat. Winter, even part necromancer, is not ready. He cannot do what you can. You cannot be reckless with your life. The days of ‘by any means necessary’ are long gone.”
Ketheron stepped forward and held up his hand, his eyes darting into the mansion. “Ambrose is awake.”
I had been so consumed with trying to get through to Sylas at both his worst and best right now, that I hadn’t felt the change to Ambrose’s resting heart rate immediately.
Then I listened, determining movement, him shifting on the sofa in the luxuriously furnished living room deep within the mansion behind us.
A surge of power had me choking, just a moment before a rush of black magic erupted between Ketheron and I, and directly in front of Sylas.
Ambrose materialized, staggering a little as he did.
“Urgh,” he muttered. “True Celestial power certainly packs a punch. Especially that perversion Ruxnoth wields.”
Ketheron threw his arms around Ambrose, holding him tightly to him.
“My gorgeous,” he breathed into his shoulder.
“I am well, treasure.”
Ketheron slid his hands inside the hood of Ambrose’s studded black cloak, and stroked his nape.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” Ambrose spoke softly, as he stroked Ketheron’s forearms.
That was the extent of the physical display they’d ever show in a public setting.
Ambrose was extremely private and he also didn’t like the idea of Ketheron being “put on display” in any way—a clear holdover from how they’d first met, something Ambrose was very sensitive about on his love’s behalf, sweetly mindful of.
“I also regret my return being punctuated by such a thing. Believe me, returning to you unconscious was not my intention.”
“It’s not your fault. Don’t apologize for something out of your control. There is only one being at fault here.” Ketheron eased his hands away and clenched his fists. Dangerously. His power flared.
“Shh,” Ambrose soothed, grasping his hands. “We will see to it.” He smiled. “Also, I had been planning a surprise to celebrate my return to you, something that can most definitely still go ahead.”
Ketheron’s power calmed. “Surprise? What sort?”
“You’ll see later.”
“Okay,” he said, nodding along. “Later. Yes.” That reprieve was all too short-lived, and anguish played on his features as he told Ambrose, “I couldn’t recover Winter. Sylas couldn’t either. He’s… Ruxnoth took him.”
Ambrose blinked harshly, then addressed Sylas, “It’s my deepest regret that my attempts to defend your son were met with failure.”
“I know you would have tried everything to prevent him from being taken. Ketheron told me you even managed to intercept Ruxnoth tearing into Winter’s teleportation path.”
“For what good it did, yes.” There was a haunted look in his eyes that had me tensing, just as he revealed, “Winter also tried to stop Ruxnoth himself.”
“Winter won’t use his power as necessary even when he’s under threat. He’s afraid of hurting people, and it makes him sick to do so,” Sylas said.
“You don’t understand. He used it to defend me.”
All of us jolted at that news.
“What? I thought the eruption I felt from him was his attempt to overcome Ruxnoth’s teleportation from stealing him away.”
“No. It was him trying to protect me as Ruxnoth tore into me with the full force of True Celestial power.”
Ketheron growled low in his throat.
“I felt his necromantic power, Ambrose,” Sylas told him. “We’re not talking about his Wraith abilities.”
“I’m well aware.”
Sylas cocked his head to the side. “No. If he’d hit anyone with that, even a True Celestial, it would have significantly impeded them. The death magic against life… that alone would have—”
“Ruxnoth was protected. He even uttered those words. He referenced a ‘they’.”
“That… the only thing that can protect against death magic—outside of you—has to be necromantic power.”
“Yes.”
Hades. Sylas and I exchanged a look. Ketheron started shaking his head in disbelief, clearly putting together the severe ramifications of a warped True Celestial having access to necromancers. And several by the sounds of it. One was serious enough.
“That’s where you’ve been. You sensed a disturbance to the balance that was linked to death magic,” Sylas accused.
Ambrose held up his hand. “One I couldn’t explain without further research, which is why I didn’t inform you immediately.”
“Fuck!” Sylas bit out, stepping back and pacing back and forth. “The second you even suspected those missing necromancers weren’t actually dead as we’d all determined, having not heard or felt a single thing for two fucking decades, you should have come to me!”
“With what? A feeling? Not knowing where they were? How they’d survived without detection all these years? Or how they were precisely connected to a disturbance to the balance? With just fearmongering? Would that have served any of us well?”
“It would have set off alarms, Sylas,” I said. “You would have launched your own investigation.”
“And with Winter being connected to necromantic issues, you would have done so rashly,” Ketheron agreed. “Not that I could blame you for that. No one would.” He smiled. “It’s just more proof of how dearly loved Winter is.”
As Sylas scrubbed his hand over his face, Ambrose looked at Ketheron. “Your knowledge of Ruxnoth, treasure?”
“He holds True Celestial status. He began practicing a warped version of it, where he twisted the power so dearly that he managed to sever the tether the Celestial Plane had to him. He was once friends with Cassius, given their common belief that the Celestial Plane held too much control over the mortal world here. Ruxnoth’s concerns were about his own desire for power, though, not for the people here.
He abhorred the restrictions the Celestial Plane forced upon its soldiers.
Before Cassius was marked as unsalvageable due to his alliance with Ariana Martel when he was supposed to be her Guide, Ruxnoth was marked for Fallen status.
But Cassius’ defection was prioritized. Before Ruxnoth could be stripped of his status, the Severance happened.
I now believe he came down the same time as Cassius and hid his presence on the mortal plane here under Cassius’.
When the Severance occurred, he somehow shielded himself from everyone.
No one knew he was here and he’d broken his tether to them, so he wasn’t sent back up to the Celestial Plane with the rest of them who tried to prevent the Severance. ”
“He managed it through creating his own pocket dimension, which are beyond detection,” Ambrose filled in. “Then, when Morien began targeting necromancers, he offered them refuge in return for their help.”
“Their help with what precisely?” I asked.
“In creating much more than just a pocket dimension. A metaphysical construct fueled by True Celestial power and Necromancy.”
I started.
Ketheron took an uneasy step back.
And Sylas choked.
Ambrose went on, “Essentially, it’s a warped, parasitic dimension grafted onto the edges of death itself.
Unlike the Valley of the Dead which has neutral balance, this is decidedly unnatural and an abhorrence when it comes to the balance of nature.
Nor can it be sustained.” His grave expression passed over each of us.
“It needs access to life—this plane, the realms—and the construct requires eternal necromantic architecture.”
“You’re saying Ruxnoth means to bring this construct onto the mortal plane to cement its legitimacy and use Winter’s everlasting nature to forever sustain it?” I asked.
“That is what my investigation suggests, yes.” He told Sylas, “And this is why you cannot perform the Blood Trace. You cannot break the Death Seal either.”
A snarl escaped Sylas. “You’re asking—no, telling—me not to go after my son?”
“I’m telling you not to do it this way.”
Sylas started for him and I burst between them, pressing my hand to Sylas’ chest, having to forcibly hold him back. So long as he didn’t invoke his magic. I saw Ketheron’s same concern as he watched with emotion he was barely keeping in check.
Sylas continued snarling at Ambrose, grinding out, “There is no other way to—”
“We need that link to remain. Should the worst come to pass. Say we extract Winter today, within the next few hours, that doesn’t mean he’s safe from Ruxnoth’s corruption.
And if he’s turned and Ruxnoth is able to achieve his goal, the only way to stop it and to safeguard the very fabric of reality, let alone the balance, will be to use that link.
” He took a moment, then said, “To use your power, the generational connection in the Death Seal between Winter, you, and Morien to override Winter’s necromantic power at its root. ”
“No,” Sylas rumbled.
“You’re suggesting Sylas essentially unmake his own son,” I warned Ambrose.
“If the worst befalls us and Winter, then that’s our fail-safe.” He looked between us, particularly Ketheron. “Can you tell me you see any other solution?”
Ketheron winced and shook his head, then looked away.
“Transmortalis is what Ruxnoth calls Winter,” Ambrose informed us.
“Beyond death,” I uttered.
“Yes. So you see his stance when it comes to Winter?”
“I do. However, it won’t come to that,” I told Sylas who I was still holding at bay. “Winter won’t succumb to corruption.”
“I hope things play out that way, too,” Ambrose said. “Believe me. That boy is such a gentle soul and he deserves better. Your family deserves peace. But we must maintain a fail-safe, regardless.”
As Sylas went to object, Ambrose told us, “Just before Ruxnoth hit, I snagged Winter’s arm intending to tag him as a precaution. Ruxnoth sensed it and stopped me. But as I was briefly connected, I determined another source that had tagged him.”
“Ruxnoth is concealing himself, Winter, and those necromancers—their scents and magical signatures,” Ketheron spoke. “Even Remnant couldn’t obtain a lock via blood tracking.”
“This is something altogether different. And due to it belonging to a species that has spent centuries living in secret, that still hides the full breadth of its people’s abilities, it’s not widely known.” He looked at me. “Do you know what I speak of?”
“Vibrational tracking.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “He was tagged with a vibrational leash by Vaxan Canor.”