Chapter 5
Trust with Scrutiny
Lightrise greeted Jesstin with stark silence.
First thing he did was check for his sacred flame. Still there, secure against his chest.
Shioven was gone, but he’d had a feeling he wouldn’t see her again.
Magic would never allow her near her daughter, and after everything she’d revealed through their shared vision, what else was there to say?
He’d gone straight from her “story” to the Night Soul, with no time to decide how to explain any of it to Elloven.
He’d tell her when he found her, and he would find her.
Mon and Shioven had both claimed it would be exceedingly difficult to find Elloven, but he’d done it on his first fucking night in the Infinitum, so what did they know?
He’d beaten the unbeatable labyrinth. No living man had ever entered the Infinitum before, and he’d done that too.
Everyone who’d tried to manipulate him had instead underestimated him.
Something was on his side. Fate. Luck. He didn’t need to give it a name.
Jesstin practically skipped down the steps of the cloister.
The stained glass offered a cheery glow to the fresh day.
Alice and her friend in the stairwell were gone, and most of the people who’d sought shelter had left as well.
Only a few remained, including a sandy-haired man sweeping the night’s refuse into a neat pile.
Long tables had been brought out where people had danced the night before, and another man had just finished arranging what looked like pieces of a game at each of the seats.
It was all so strangely... normal.
That alone reminded him he could trust nothing.
“Hello!” he called.
The man straightened, hands glued to his broom. “Aye, do I know ye?” His Southerlands brogue was strong.
“Not yet,” Jesstin said. “Jesstin Skylark.”
“Stef Garrick.” Stef resumed sweeping. “First night at this cloister or the Mori?”
“Both.”
Stef whistled. “Donnae ken what ye were told, but this is it, mate. Learn to love it. That’s my counsel.”
“How does one find their way around?”
“This locality?”
“Pardon?”
“There’re ten thousand and sixty-eight localities. Yer standing in Locality Seven.”
Jesstin frowned. “How big are these localities?”
Stef sucked his teeth. “Sizes change as they please. Today, maybe it’s fifteen square miles. Tomorrow, could be forty... or four.”
“Like time.”
“Aye, like time.”
“Which localities can I find a library in?”
“Never heard of any libraries in the Infinitum.”
“There must be one,” Jesstin said. He recalled how Elloven knew. “There are signs on the road.”
Stef halted sweeping. “The Magna Annalis? It’s the cosmic archival.”
Jesstin shrugged in confusion.
“The annals of all things and all time? All men and beasts who have ever lived, every class of tree, plant, and rock? Dry as the desert, reading all tha’, I ken, worse than The Book of All Things.
Only the scholars give a toss. Nothin’ like them filthy pamphlets they used to distribute in taverns, aye? ”
Jesstin nodded, though he’d never needed to distribute any bawdy literature in his club. What he provided was the real thing. “Do you know where I can find it?”
“As ye said, signs on the road will point ye.”
“How far is it?”
“Does it matter? You’ve got, oh, aye, forever to find it.” Stef laughed and moved closer. “Ye donnae ken that yet, do ye? You’re never leaving this place, mate. None of us is. So take your time! Time is all we have here.” He gestured around.
But he didn’t have forever. Asking Elloven to turn around and meet him in the middle might be faster, but she couldn’t remember the exact path she’d taken or how long it had taken her.
He was cynical she’d learn something useful at this Magna Annalis, but if the research kept her busy and safe, there wasn’t a better place for her to wait for him, which meant he had to travel.
“I’ve learned the ways of distance here, and if the signs can be trusted...” Stef said, gentler. “I ken you’re looking at two to three weeks, if time isn’t stingy with the daylight.”
If the signs could be trusted. If time isn’t stingy. Was anything sure in the Infinitum? “What if I needed to be there sooner?”
“What’s the rush?”
“I guess I just fucking love reading, mate.”
Stef’s eyes narrowed slightly. “The only shortcuts in the Infinitum are traps.”
“Go on.”
“Those sepulchral market fiends aren’t to be trifled with.”
“Sepulchral market?”
“Where’d you say you were from?”
Jesstin saw no reason to lie. “Riverchapel.”
“White Kingdom as well. Sandymount myself.” Stef tapped his shoulder. “No dark magic markets near the Reliquary, aye?”
“Had your fair share in the Southerlands?”
“Nay.” Stef frowned. “Ken I hadn’t really thought about it though. Been gone sixty-odd years now. Another lifetime.”
Jesstin didn’t have time for a trip down that lane. “I’ve been to one. In Rivenholde, a village in the Seven Sisters. Heard of it?”
Stef shook his head. “Met plenty from the Sisters here though. Always a bit cagey, them.” He snorted. “Ken they’re better than everyone, when they’re just as dead, just as stuck.”
“Didn’t like ’em either.”
“Delusional to boot. Most believe they came from another world, not another region. Mountainfolk.” Stef lifted his brows to affirm his claim. “Delusional,” he said again.
“Don’t believe them?”
“Aye, there are other worlds, learned that well enough down here. Or are we ‘down’? Are we under the world? Beside it? Atop it?” Stef’s brows coalesced in genuine puzzlement. “Seven Sisters are in the White Kingdom though. Anyone with eyes knows that.”
So Jesstin had believed as well, until he’d been there. “Tell me about these sepulchral markets. What can they do with time and distance?”
“Forum Obscura. You can find one anywhere.”
“Anywhere?”
“When you need it.”
“There’s no sense in anything you just said.”
“You’ll see. Walk out this door, think of Forum Obscura, and before long you’ll come upon a sign showing you the way.” Stef said good-bye to a small group who were leaving. “I can’t recommend it though. I don’t trifle with dark magic, and neither should you.”
“Tell me what you do know,” Jesstin replied.
“They...” Stef said after a nervous pause. “Have trackers and mirrors. They’ve made a deal with time and distance, some say.”
“Trackers and mirrors?” Jesstin glanced toward the wide-open doors. The sun was brilliant and welcoming beyond. A good omen, as Sesto would say.
“I wouldnae trust any of it. The cost will always be higher than the reward.” Stef’s hand traveled to his flame. “The dealer always comes out ahead. Nothing in there can be bought without losing a piece of yourself.”
“Been losing pieces of myself my whole life. That doesn’t scare me.”
Stef didn’t crack a grin. “It should. Here, it should.”
“I better get a move on, if the daylight does whatever the hell it wants here.”
“Just follow the road, mate, aye? The signs to the archives? Forget the market. Signs will get ye where ye need to go. Plenty of havres and cloisters along the way.”
He wasn’t getting anything else out of Stef. “I’ll do that.”
“Oh! And the trouble with daylight... There’s a trick to staying safe. The signs above the havres and cloisters, you know ’em? The symbols?”
Jesstin nodded.
“You’ll find them along the roads too, in the stones themselves.
The number beneath them is the steps to find the nearest one.
See twilight coming, look down before ye look forward.
A hundred steps, you’re close enough, might could walk.
A thousand, hope ye like running. Follow those if you see the sun dying.
Much of the time, we get a full day, but others, we’re lucky to sneak an hour of warmth and light. Never stray too far from the stones.”
“Appreciate the tip, and the information.” Jesstin started toward the door.
“You’re a necromancer, aren’t ye?” Stef called.
“What makes you say that?” Jesstin glanced over his shoulder.
“The necromancers are never properly afraid of anything.” Stef chuckled and returned to his chore. “Particularly when they damn well should be.”
Elloven had fallen straight from the Night Soul into an energized sense of purpose. Jesstin was there, in the Infinitum, and the reckless, obstinate man had found her!
There was still so much unresolved, but looking to the past wouldn’t tell her where to go. They had a plan. The part where he believed he could... resurrect her was a fantasy, but seeing him again, touching him, hugging him...
Kissing him. Almost. Elloven’s belly retracted as she followed the rutted road toward Magna Annalis.
She couldn’t believe she’d done that. Her emotions had been running hot.
Neither of them seemed capable of the resentment they’d parted with in the mortal realm, but it was still there, and she’d be a fool to assume he wasn’t holding onto his own, no matter what he’d said last night.
Light moved from left to right like the wind had carried it.
The sky erupted with lightning. She ducked off to the side of the path just as a burst of rain hammered the ground, but the edges of the forest canopy offered minimal relief, and she was closer to the Nemus than she was comfortable.
She fastened her hood tighter right as a group of children ran by like giddy sprites, arms spread, welcoming the soak.
She almost laughed with them, but her good humor dissolved as they passed.
They may be gleeful children, but they were still dead children.