RECAP— #2
“And how the hell did that happen?” Bullets wondered, his suspicion front and center.
“Ask her.”
All eyes turned to the one called Colton Graves. “She spoke,” he added. “And Velkratos fell.”
Seer’s gaze shot to Beth in astonishment. The guilt on her face aimed at the table said she was still as oblivious as ever. “It wasn’t… it wasn’t like that,” she said quietly.
Colton shrugged. “Pretty damn sure it was exactly like that.”
The tension in the room twisted as shoulders shifted with exchanged glances.
“Because you’re a blasphemer,” Zahir muttered under his breath.
“Here we go,” Colton drawled. “Our mind magician graduated to high priest of know it all.”
“All of you wanted the truth.” All eyes swung to Sinrik who bore the barest hint of a smirk as he leveled his gaze on Colten. “She gave it to you.”
Colton met his stare with a cocky challenge. “What do you know, Loverboy.”
“Uh-oh,” Cherie barely said.
Sinrik looked ready to fully inform the man’s face. “I know your kingdom wasn’t able to handle it, Titan of Talk.”
The water under the bridge came to an immediate boil, putting the kind of energy in the room the Marsh Kings were very familiar with.
“What is done, is done,” Nexus declared with a firm, final authority. “And we are here to learn whatever it is the universe needs to teach us regarding it.”
“If you can learn it,” Sinrik muttered, a last jab they decided to ignore.
“Which brings me to introduce one of our top students,” Nidev hurried, gluing down the temporary band-aid Nexus had just placed over the ugly wound. He turned slightly. “Maggie.”
The sudden attention brought Maggie to a flurry of fidgeting as she nodded at nobody then eyed Spook.
“Maggie possesses a rare ability.” Nidev glanced at the Pillars. “Through touch, she can see things others cannot. Memories, patterns, truths hidden beneath the surface. With your permission, she will touch each of you and see what her gift shows her.”
Nidev turned and beckoned her to come.
She stood quickly then ducked toward Spook. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” she whispered loudly.
“Baby, it’s fine,” he whispered back, urging her toward Nidev with his hands.
“But we agreed I wouldn’t—”
“This is different,” he pled, his desperation making Seer bite his grin.
She nodded and turned, then hurried back and kissed his cheek before making her way to Nidev.
“Damn, bruh,” Hurricane chuckled quietly as she went. “You got that leash tight.”
Snickers erupted and not just on the Marsh King’s side. The bat bite had taught the Creole Kings all about the obsession Spook suffered with. Seer had news for them all. It wasn’t a new symptom.
The brief comedy relief faded when Maggie stood next to Nidev. “She will not ask you to speak.” Nidev said. “She only needs to touch you.”
“Their hand,” she hurried, glancing back at Spook.
Cherie buried her mouth in Seer’s arm. “That poor man.”
“Yes,” Nidev acknowledged. “And once she does, she will translate what she sees onto paper.”
Maggie’s brow furrowed slightly as she turned toward the table. “Where’s the paper and pen? I have to have it ready.”
One of the Creole Kings lifted them in silent answer.
She nodded, sliding up the sleeves on her red sweater, shifting from foot to foot. Lord, still her, Seer prayed at seeing her fear.
“Okay,” she exhaled, turning her focus toward the Pillars.
She shot out for the first one as if some inner it’s go time signal went off.
Hesitation gone, she stood before Oblivion. “Just your hand,” she reminded.
He stretched out his left one and the room fell entirely silent as she took it in both of hers, closing her eyes. Seer could hear her uneven breaths as her fingers explored all along every inch and crevice, every line and pore.
Ten seconds later, she released it then moved right over to Volkan.
He gave his hand, and she repeated the same touching.
Ten seconds.
Fifteen.
Release and next.
Seer watched, wondering over her quick pace. Was it because she was seeing a lot and needed to draw it or because she wasn’t liking what she saw? Or both?
At Noctis, she paused during touch, angled her head as if listening, then turned his hand over and resumed, sliding her fingers along his skin as if rubbing something in or off. She raised her head and looked right at him. “You will know.”
Nexus was last and he took the longest. She even requested his other hand after many seconds, her gasps coming more frequent. Then she was done.
Seer stilled when she moved to Sinrik, surprising the entire room.
He eyed her. “I’d prefer not—”
“Please,” she begged quietly. “I need to.”
So, she felt it with him too.
Sinrik slowly held his right hand out to her.
“May I have your left?” she whispered.
He switched hands. “You’re her sister,” he barely murmured, a light recognition.
She paused and nodded then began her task. This one had Seer tense as he watched every detail.
Maggie’s fingers trembled as they ghosted just above his skin as if seeking a point of contact. The moment their skin touched, her breath caught. Her lips parted like she wanted to say something but didn’t know how.
She turned his hand over, tracing the veins beneath, her touch featherlight yet deliberate. Her thumbs pressed the center of his palm like she was feeling for a pulse. A sharp inhale and then she dropped it, wide eyes on his.
She regarded his other hand. “May I have your right?” she whispered.
Sinrik’s jaw flexed. His stare was heavy, unreadable. But after a long pause, he switched hands, watching her closely.
Their skin met a second time and her breathing shallowed.
She moved slower, maybe careful, maybe reverent.
She pressed her fingertips along the length of his fingers, then over his wrist, like she was searching for something buried.
A flicker of confusion crossed her face.
Then something like recognition. She yanked back, her whole body shuddering as she stared at him.
Sinrik’s eyes darkened. “What did you see?”
Maggie spun and ran straight for the paper. Grabbing the whole stack, she dropped to the floor with them and began drawing. Fast.
Her pen scraped loudly and her entire body shifted with the movement.
One page.
Another.
Another.
No hesitation, no looking up, no thinking. Just translating while the room remained deathly still.
Seer’s gaze flicked to Bishop who had subtly shifted forward, clearly interested in likely what she’d seen in Sinrik who now sat with an impenetrable expression.
Beth looked too, face gripped in a mix of worry and curiosity at what secrets were unfolding.
Seer felt it. This was it. Something was happening. They all knew it but none of them knew what yet.
Page after page filled the floor.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Seventeen—
A single drop of red hit the page.
Maggie barely reacted, wiping at her nose absently, smearing blood as Spook hurried to her.
“That’s enough—” He grabbed her shoulders, steadying her as she tried to keep going. “Maggie, you’re done.”
She suddenly surrendered then gave a weak nod, dropping the pen.
Twenty pages.
The answers were there.
Now they only had to read them.
At the head of the room, Nidev called the only one who had done it before. “Zodak.”
Seer saw the shift in his friend before he even moved. He knew the storm that churned behind those black ocular gates, the way his mind dissected before his body followed.
The whole room watched as he stepped forward, his long, black skirt whispering against the stone floor, the tattoo-swirls covering his front and back seeming to move with him.
The air in the room shifted, like pressure dropping before a storm as Zodak walked around the spread sheets, angling his head as he went then circling back to the beginning.
He raised his hand and lifted his ocular gates.
Again, he moved from sheet to sheet, studying. Slower.
He suddenly paused. Looked back at the previous sheets. Then turned to the ones on his left.
He lowered and lifted one, moving it. Then another.
“What’s he doing?” Cherie whispered.
“I think he’s organizing them.”
When they were all in a single line, he turned those sharp, silver eyes right on Seer. “Come.”
The single word cracked through the silence and Seer’s pulse rose to answer as he made his way to him.
Once next to him, Zodak pointed. “Look here.”
Seer’s gaze was already locked on the first image. Had to be the Velkratos stronghold before it fell. Then another picture of a jagged, gaping abyss consuming the stronghold, dark lines dragging into the depths. But at the edges of the darkness—shapes moved within the void.
“This,” Zodak whispered, pointing. “Is the Groaning Deep.” His voice was smooth, but there was something underneath—something dark. “It is the place of the swallowed. The forsaken.”
He moved to the next image.
“And this.” A sharp gesture. “Are the sayyidat al-khaliyah.” Seer met his gaze. “The Lords of the Hollow.” He returned to the pages. “But they have many different names over the centuries.”
Seer’s throat tightened as he stared at them again. The figures were wrong. Twisted, elongated, too many eyes, too many mouths devouring each other.
“Their war is not new,” Zodak murmured, slowly moving. “It is still the first war. The war that never ended.”
He moved to the next image and lowered. “Do you see?”
Seer knelt next to him, seeing the Pillars. But—not as they were. Figures drawn in a past they had never known, their shapes woven into something... forgotten.
Zodak straightened and turned to the kings. “You were once the keepers of the past.” His voice lifted slightly as Seer stood too. “You believed you were tracking chaos. But you were tracking a decoy.”
A decoy.
Zodak pointed to the next page and retrieved it, showing it. “These… are the Creole Kings. Keepers of the hidden knowledge.” He regarded Nidev now. “Hidden even from them.”
“What is this war you speak of?” Volkan demanded in quiet wonder.
Zodak turned and stared at him. “It is a most ancient and ongoing war. Not for fortune, not for might, not for human domains. It is for humanity itself.”