Chapter 41
Theo
After Veridus left, I returned to the celebration.
The others, predictably, were curious about why the God of Lies had paid me a visit. I explained his role in Maelis’ plan and the letters he’d left behind.
I omitted the part about his dreams. They wouldn’t understand, not the dreams, and certainly not the fact that I was still willing to chase them.
That night, I stayed up far too late, combing through anything I could find on trances, on the dead reaching through dreams.
Unsurprisingly, the sources were scattered and speculative.
Eventually, exhaustion caught up with me.
I must’ve fallen asleep at my desk.
Caelan found me the next morning.
I woke to the soft shuffle of boots on stone and the sound of my office door creaking open.
Maelis’ letters were still strewn across the desk.
He saw them. The look on his face said everything.
He assumed I’d fallen asleep reading her words again.
I let him believe that.
I told him I’d be heading to the temple today, to work.
He nodded, likely relieved that I was choosing discipline over another spiral into the bottom of a bottle.
An hour later, I was back in the library. Veridus arrived not long after, a young priestess trailing behind him and a suitcase in hand.
It smelled like midsummer.
Herbs, crushed leaves, something sharp and clean.
Whatever came next, it wasn’t going to be ordinary.
“Auretheos, this is Syllaca. She is my trusted priestess and has assisted me in many journeys to the realm of lies,” Veridus announced.
The priestess bowed slightly, and I nodded at her, trying to relax my face into a smile.
“It’s an honor to meet you, God of Wisdom,” she said smoothly. “It might take some time for Veridus to descend into a trance this deep. We will have to hope he can insert himself into your wordsmith’s dream state.”
I left Veridus and Syllaca to prepare everything while I sent all the sentinels at the temple back to their homes.
I told them I didn’t require their services anymore tonight and needed quiet to finish some work. The sentinels were too happy about their shift ending early to question my motives and soon enough the whole temple fell completely silent.
I stood in the hallway for a moment longer, forcing myself to breathe.
Slow.
Measured.
My chest felt too tight, like hope was something physical pressing against my ribs.
Hope.
A dangerous thing.
It sustains, yes, but it also erodes.
Still, if there was any chance, however small, I owed it to her. And to myself.
Peace would never come if I didn’t at least try.
I exhaled slowly, releasing some of the tension knotted across my shoulders. When I stepped back into the library, Veridus was already lying down on the blankets the priestess had arranged at the center of the room.
Incense curled in the air, mingling with the sharp, earthy scent of burning branches.
“Would it be possible to dim the lights?” Syllaca asked, her voice calm and steady.
With a flick of my wrist, the lights dimmed and cast the library almost in complete darkness.
“I will start the chants soon and we need absolute quiet for it to work. Once Veridus is in trance, we can start talking again and bring the lights back on,” she explained.
Veridus looked up at me, “Do you have your message for Maelis?” he asked and I nodded, handing him a note I had written late last night.
Veridus smiled at me encouragingly and unsaid words passed between us. He leaned back on the covers and closed his eyes, my note between his fingers.
Syllaca guided Veridus through a series of breathing exercises and after a good 30 minutes started chanting.
I could feel the air changing, a soft hum appearing in my ears.
Maybe it was finally going to lull me to sleep too.
But the moment passed and I remained completely silent, watching and hoping that Veridus would be able to get to her.
* * *
Maelis
The Fates had left me to “confer” about the conundrum that was my life, or my death, once more. At this point I was ready to just be dead and be done with it all.
I missed my mother, my friends, but I tried not to think of Theo.
Every time his face flashed in front of my eyes, my heart was breaking inside my chest all over again. Surely this was hell. Being awake and conscious, but not being able to leave.
I had walked around all day, only to end up right next to the mirrors again.
I was like a hamster stuck in a wheel, going round and round without ever getting anywhere. I collapsed to the floor and closed my eyes.
A soft humming sound filled the air, so faint it was almost impossible to notice. I tried to focus on it, thankful for any kind of noise in this Fates forsaken place.
The gentle hum called to me, pulling at something deep inside my chest and I could feel my eyes closing of their own accord.
I opened my eyes. I was standing near the crumbled up temple on the field where Theo and I had fought against Ignara. There was no sign of the battle, nor was there any other indication that somebody had been here. There was no town in sight and the light seemed off, unnatural and somehow surreal.
A shiver raced over my neck and back. I started walking around, unsure of what I was supposed to do here. There was movement at the far end of the field, a man walking towards me.
I gasped.
“Veridus???” I screamed and he looked up in stunned surprise.
I started running, faster and faster with each step, not caring how my body ached in response. After months of barely moving at all, I had gotten weak.
Veridus’ face lit up and he started running too, opening his arms up as I crashed into him.
“Fates be damned, it worked!” He laughed.
I drew back and couldn’t hold back my happy tears.
“I don’t even care if this is just another dream. I am so happy to see you!” And to emphasize my happiness, I gave him another squeeze.
“I don’t know how much time we have, Maelis, so let’s make the most of it. I saw you in one of your dreams a while back, you were just a child. I went to Theo to tell him about my dream, and we decided to try and find you again.”
“Theo knows that you are here? He sent you?” I managed to say between sobs.
The God of Lies smiled gently. “Theo has not given up on you. He has been working tirelessly to find you and he will be so relieved to hear that I did.”
We sat down on the steps of the temple ruins and I tried to sum up where I had been all this time and that the Fates had tried to send me back.
He looked worried when I told him that it hadn’t worked and scratched his chin.
“I have never heard of anything like this happening before. The Fates revealing themselves to someone, let alone a human. You must have created quite the stir in the in between.” He chuckled.
Panic was seeping into my bones because I knew there wasn’t much time left before Veridus would disappear. And who knew when or if he’d come back again.
“What are we going to do now? We still have no idea if it’s possible for me to come back or how to do it.”
Veridus took my hand in his in a comforting gesture.
“We have plenty of new information now and that smugly intelligent God of yours won’t rest until he can piece the puzzles together. Give us some time to figure out what to do from here. But whatever you do, don’t go into the light, do you hear me, wordsmith?”
I smiled at him brightly. “Thank you for giving me some hope. How… how is Theo doing?” I asked quietly.
“Meh… I admit he has looked better, but he is doing as well as can be expected after losing you. He almost single-handedly took down the Fraction and disappeared for weeks after your… death. He was frantic trying to find you, he never stopped believing you were still there. He told me that he could still feel you around and I guess he was right.”
I was crying again now, hating that I could not speak to him myself.
“Can you please let him know that I am… I don’t know… well? Tell him I miss him and I love him and I will never stop trying to come back. And that I am sorry for lying to him and hurting him and…” I broke off with a sob.
That surely wasn’t the most poetic message, but it was all I could muster.
Veridus took in a sharp breath.
“Our time is up, I am coming out of my trance.”
He handed me a folded note.
“Theo gave me this for you. Be strong, Maelis, I will be back. Don’t lose hope!” And with that, he was gone, and I fell into a deep black hole again, pulling me under like usual.
* * *
Theo
I didn’t remember falling asleep.
The exhaustion from the night before must’ve caught up with me, dragging me under despite every effort to stay awake.
When I opened my eyes, my neck protested immediately, stiff and aching from the angle I’d been lying in. It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up.
The familiar scent of old books and leather settled around me.
I was still in the library, stretched out awkwardly on one of the sofas.
Someone had draped my coat over me.
A quiet, simple kindness that pulled at something in my chest.
Then it hit me all at once.
Why I was here, what had happened.
I sat bolt upright, heart pounding, eyes darting around the room.
Where was Veridus?
The suitcase was packed again, sitting neatly off to the side. The rich scent of coffee lingered in the air, warm and grounding.
And just as I was about to get up, the library door opened.
Veridus walked in, composed and steady, followed closely by Caelan, Lydia, and Lythandra.
Something in my chest loosened at the sight of him. He was here. They all were.
“Ah, you’re awake. Excellent!” I couldn’t believe how nonchalant he was standing there, as if this wasn’t the single most important moment of my long life.
“And? What are you doing standing there? Tell me, did you see her?” I almost shouted at him.
He had the nerve to shrug and took a slurp of coffee.
“Has he seen who? What is going on, Theo?” Lydia asked with alarm.