Chapter Thirteen
Farren
It carries on, taking longer than I have known it to. It’s not as flashy as some of his other visions, he’s not floating, there’s no wind coming from nowhere, his eyes are simply white, and he’s frozen in place.
Somehow, though, that makes it worse.
“Come on, man,” Kill mutters worriedly.
It takes a few more moments, but finally his eyes clear. He lets go of me, leaning forward and placing his hands on his knees as he takes a couple of moments to breathe, and I rub his back, hoping that I’m being reassuring and not making it worse.
“I have never seen anything like that before. Are you okay, mate?” Rast asks Zev.
Zev straightens and nods, “Yeah, I’m fine. That was intense though. My magic is depleted simply because the vision was so strong.”
“Can you tell us anything?” Khaos asks.
“It wasn’t as clear as some of my other visions, and I think that’s probably because it had, in part at least, something to do with us, but we’re going to get help from an unexpected source.
I don’t know who, and I don’t know when or even in what context.
I think I also saw the end of this realm.
It wasn’t a certainty though. It was like it was showing me a possibility of what could happen if we don’t fix the realm in time.
For some reason, the outcome seemed further away than we’ve been told that it is, but again, that’s all the information I have,” he explains.
“I’m also experiencing the visions more.
Not excessively. I’m not at risk of dying from whatever I could experience in the dream, but I got knocked by someone as they rushed past me because I didn’t move, and he looked back at me, so he felt it too. ”
“What? That’s insane. I thought the whole point of visions was to warn you of what was going to happen so that you don’t have to experience it?” Kill asks.
“It is, in theory. For some reason, this vision behaved differently,” Zev explains. He then looks at Rast, “We have been so busy traversing this realm and learning things that none of us have asked a pretty important question.”
“Oh?” Rast asks, equal parts curious and cautious.
“You were born here, right?” Zev asks.
“Yes,” Rast replies, although shadows and secrets pass over his expression.
Zev nods, “What happens to your dead, those who had passed over and those who came here when they died. What happened to them when the realm slowly descended into darkness and started its slow death?”
Shit, he’s right. I didn’t even think about that.
“Well, at some point the Underworld was created, and Hades was put in charge of that. It must have been when this realm was properly closed to outsiders. The dead had to go somewhere,” Rival points out. He has clearly been thinking about this to some degree.
Hades shakes his head, “I wasn’t the god of the Underworld when it was first made. There was one before me. I don’t know his name. I don’t know what happened. That knowledge wasn’t shared with me, and I was too focused on running the realm and everything that came after it to ask questions.”
“Wow, that’s pretty crazy,” I say. “So what happens to the natives that die in this realm now? They don’t go to the Underworld, do they?”
Hades shakes his head, “No. I know every single realm that the souls come from, and none of them are from this one.”
“No one knows for certain. We know that the punishment side of the realm let everyone out and then shut itself down so that no one can get in or out. It gave prisoners enough of a chance to escape, although we know that not all of them managed to and that there were some guards left behind too, but we don’t know what happened to the Tèarmann side of the realm.
The realm was, I suppose it might still be, split into three separate zones.
The punishment side, Peanasachadh, the zone where all those who died across all the realms went, Tèarmann, and the zone where all those who were born here and helped to keep the realm running lived, àite-Bheatha,” Rast explains.
“Those are beautiful words,” I reply.
Rast smiles and nods, “They are. For some reason, the language isn’t spoken as much as it used to be, despite it being our native tongue.”
“They mean Punishment, sanctuary, and home, right?” I ask.
Rast looks at me with a surprised smile, “Yes. How did you know?”
“How I seem to know everything that I shouldn’t,” I start and then add with a smile, “I have no fucking idea.”
The guys burst out laughing.
They all know I’m not wrong.
Once they’ve calmed down, I ask, “Sorry, I interrupted you. How come you don’t know what happened to Tèarmann?”
“It vanished,” Rast replies. “It didn’t just get locked down.
It completely vanished, and no one has any idea where it went or how it just vanished.
There were theories that the realm used what magic it could spare to shield it, so the inhabitants kept the peace that they deserved, but there’s no proof of that.
The more disturbing theory is that it was eaten by the Abyss creatures first.”
“What about those who die now. Not the souls from the realms but the ones who die here?” Rival asks.
“That’s always been slightly complicated.
Those who are born here and die here still go to Tèarmann, and those who knew them in life can visit them and spend time with them and that sort of thing.
As a general rule, they had to stay in their part of the realm.
It has magic that sustains them, keeps them safe, and protects them from those who wish to use their essence as a spirit for spells and various rituals that should never be performed.
Every now and then they were granted day passes to go into the other parts of the realm, but they went with guards and had to be very heavily protected,” Rast begins to explain.
“They were that sort after?” Hades asks.
Rast looks surprised at his question, “Yes. A soul is pure magic, there are spells that can harness the power of the soul and use it for all manner of reasons, and none of them are good. That soul becomes tarnished, broken beyond repair, and has to go to the Abyss.”
“Whoa, hold up,” Mayhem says. “You’re telling me that you could send things to the Abyss?”
“Are the souls sent to the Abyss the creatures that have come back here to destroy it, or are they trapped there?” Rival asks.
“They aren’t the beasts,” Rast replies with certainty.
“So we could send the beasts back to the Abyss?” Khaos says, excitement threading through his tone.
“No,” Rast replies. “The King was the only one who could send them back, he was a god, an ancient one, and when he died, that gift went with him.”
“The missing souls,” I mutter.
“Fuck,” Hades curses.
“Surely not?” Loki says.
“Think about it: if the fucker who is behind the princes and Hades capture and draining his magic knows that you can drain souls for power, then that’s what he’s using the souls for.
He’s somehow managing to pull the souls back to the living realm and drain them.
” I look at a horrified Rast, “What would happen if those souls were just drained, if they didn’t get sent to the Abyss? ”
“They lose all sense of who they were, they become shells, mindless, violent seeking shells. They can be temporarily stopped, but they will just come back, even if you cut their heads off or incinerate them, they will come back at some point. That’s why they were sent to the Abyss,” Rast explains.
“The Wraiths,” Storm says with shock. “What you described is what we call a Wraith.”
“Which would also explain the Wraith that we found who had the prince's mark on him, and it would confirm our theory that a god and the princes are using the souls for power,” Rival summarises.
“It’s all connected,” Reaper mutters.
“If the only way to stop the Wraiths is to send them to the Abyss, that means that every single one of them that we’ve killed is still out there,” I point out. “How the fuck are we going to fix that?”
“There’s something more going on. The keys that open the gate to the Abyss, he wants them. There are fuck knows how many Wraiths in there and the Abyss creatures that eat realms, why would he risk opening the gate and setting the creatures free? How is he controlling the Wraiths?” Rival asks.
“Fuck you’re right,” Khaos agrees.
“Maybe the keys were a distraction?” Rast asks quietly.
We all pause, even though we shouldn’t be pausing right now. Rast’s words ring true, my instincts agreeing with his statements.
“That would change everything,” Zev says. “It would mean that it wasn’t the realm that sent us after the keys.”
I frown, my head beginning to hurt as realisation hits me, “You said that the princes wanted access to the Abyss.”
“Yeah. That’s what they want the keys for, that’s what we’re trying to stop from happening,” Rival explains with a slight frown as he seems confused about where I’m going with this.
“But we’ve only just learned about the Abyss, the princes wanted to open the gates to the Underworld and let the supernaturals out that would cause havoc and slowly deteriorate when they stepped foot out of the Underworld, where they were supposed to be,” I reply. “It wasn’t the Abyss.”
“What the hell is going on?” Mayhem asks. “I completely forgot that we thought that.”
“We all did,” Kill says. “But now that you’ve said it, I know that it’s right and we were wrong. The god that is in charge and using the princes to do his bidding wants to open the Abyss, not the Underworld.”
“How do they know about the Abyss though?” Hades asks. “I’m a god too, I didn’t know that it existed.”
“Someone must still know about it,” Rast suggests.
“Okay, hang on, let me just get this straight,” Loki says.
“The keys are actually a distraction and not what the god who is taking the souls is trying to get, and he doesn’t want to open the gates to the Underworld but the gates to the Abyss, which is somehow infinitely worse.
Wraiths are souls who have been drained and used for bad magical purposes, and they can’t die.
The only way to get rid of them is to send them to the Abyss, but the only person who can do that is the King of Siorraidh, which is the original Underworld, this place, and he’s long gone.
But in theory, if we could find Tèarmann, then he should be there, right?
If the place hasn’t been eaten by the Abyss creatures?
Because all natives that die here should also still be going to Tèarmann, although no one is entirely sure about that because no one knows what happened to it. ”
“No, that’s not how god deaths work. No one really knows where they go, but it’s not to the Underworld, demi-gods do, but not gods,” Hades replies, and then looks at Rast, “I presume that’s the same for this realm.”
Rast nods, “Yes. We really should keep walking.”
We all start walking again, but my mind is spinning.
“How did I remember that we thought that it was the Underworld that the keys were for and not the Abyss?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” Reaper replies. “Do you think Monty knows?”
I shake my head, “No way. He would have found a way to tell us if he did know. He’s already told us things that he said himself he shouldn’t have shared. I don’t think this would be any different if he were aware of it.”
“He said that things had gotten complicated though hadn’t he?
And that it wasn’t turning out like they thought it would.
Or at least something along those lines,” Storm says with a slight frown.
“I’m getting really fed up with the facts fucking changing on us.
First, the number of princes and now what the keys are actually for. ”
“The key thing could simply be that we didn’t have the right information, although it doesn’t change the fact that we don’t need the keys,” Rival points out. “Now would be a really great time for Xerxes to turn up with some answers.”
“Yeah, it would,” I say. “I’m not sure if he can come to this realm without me.”
“I don’t think anyone can, but you,” Rast says simply.
“Fair point,” I reply.
“It sounds to me like someone somewhere is pulling some strings, most likely the Fates, although it’s surprising that they seem to have pulled the strings a few times for the same situation,” Rast says.
“Monty said that the Fates bound him and Magnus so they couldn’t help me in certain situations.
Does that mean that we can ask them to ask the Fates what’s going on?
” I ask and then look at Hades, “Wait, you’re a god, can’t you ask them?
” My eyes widen as I realise something else, “Fuck, I’m a goddess. Can I get facetime with the Fates?”
“You’re a what?” Rast asks, shock making him pause and turn to stare at me.
I see something move beside him out of the corner of my eye, but when I turn to look at it, it’s gone.
“Erm, I don’t think this is the best place to be having that conversation, Darlin’,” Kill points out as I open my mouth ready to explain the whole messy story to Rast.