Chapter Nineteen
Farren
The thing with that is that we just met some of the Others, the ones who were supposed to be from the punishment side of the realm.
They were souls after all, which means that they can’t die again.
This is their realm, so they aren’t going to look like souls.
Not that I’m entirely sure what souls look like.
I am also aware that there are now generations descended from the originals, both the escaped prisoners and the natives of this land.
Possibly the other side as well, although that seems unlikely because no one knows where that is.
So the Others that we met may well have just been descendants and not the original souls that escaped.
What I’m getting at is that none of them attacked us. In fact, they asked us not to attack them. I didn’t get any sort of warning from them, nor did I get a warning from the realm itself, and that has been a constant companion.
I liked the Others who are supposed to be the escaped souls or the descendants of them far more than I liked the ones from the compound who are supposed to be the natives of this land and the ‘good guys’.
There is absolutely something that we don’t know. There is a big piece of the puzzle that we’re missing, and I have a feeling that once we get that piece, a lot of things are going to start to make sense.
Having said that, knowing how our luck goes, we might get the piece that answers most questions, but I would be willing to bet that it also gives us questions too.
If we ever get that piece of information.
Everything is up in the air, as it always is. The fact that it happens so regularly should make it easier to deal with, but it doesn’t.
“If the Others are the souls who have escaped the punishment side, what happens to them when they get killed again here? Do they die?” I ask suddenly as the thought occurs to me.
Rast’s eyebrows rise. “They mostly stick to wherever it is that the Others call their home base now and send out their descendants, and the generations that have come after them, those who choose to switch sides and support them instead. They can be injured, but they won’t die again.
If they are injured, it weakens their soul, and if the soul gets too weak, then they risk being unmade entirely.
They fade into nonexistence and become nothingness. ”
“Wow, okay. Thank you for explaining that,” I reply, and he nods with a slight smile.
They’re all looking at me with curiosity. My question did come out of nowhere. I really don’t have a very good answer for any of them. My brain is still trying to process and make sense of what it’s trying to figure out. I might share as soon as I figure it out.
If I ever figure it out.
My thoughts turn inwards again.
I always trust my instincts. I will not be going anywhere with any of the members of Rast’s compound.
I don’t know if the members of the other compounds feel the same to me, because I haven’t met any of them, and I will reserve judgement until I do.
But I do know for sure that the members of Rast’s compound do not feel like friends.
Quite the opposite.
As for the Others, I suppose it is possible that we met an outlier group, although they spoke about that crazy prophecy that told them about us, and that would suggest that there was more than just the group of them, and some of the things that they said also make me think that there is something else going on.
I had every intention of asking them about it, as I’m sure Rival did, but we got attacked before we could ask anything, and then we had to move before any more of the Abyss creatures came to investigate the death of one.
My eyes catch on Rast.
I tried to keep my eyes on him when we were fighting against that Abyss creature.
I’m not going to lie, I was hoping to see what kind of supernatural creature he is, or at the very least what he’s capable of.
However, that seemed to be impossible, not just because he was moving so fucking fast that even I was struggling to track him, but also because he wasn’t using any magic, apart from the small amount that he was using to make himself go faster.
At least not that I saw anyway. I was rather busy trying to see if my magic could make a dent in it, stopping those who were flung by it from being extra hurt, and trying to figure out if I could kill it like the other one that I killed.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that there would be different kinds of Abyss creatures.
Then I was stopping someone from crashing into a tree and didn’t catch Zev in time, I decided that enough was enough and to risk it anyway. If I could kill one of them, surely I could kill another one.
Khaos was not happy that I asked him to throw me, but he relented, and I will always be grateful to him for that.
All of that meant that I couldn’t actually keep very good track of Rast.
Which is frustrating and just means that my curiosity is even higher.
I can feel the amount of power that he’s kicking off, and usually I’m relatively good at guessing what someone is capable of, but with Rast I have no idea.
He said that he’s the Ferryman, but that’s obviously a new development that happened when the compound leaders did the ritual to send him over to our realm to get help.
He never told us what that entailed, and he never told us what he was before that and whether he’s still that or whether the ritual eclipsed what he used to be and changed him into something else entirely.
The Ferryman.
I frown, if that is what happened, that must have been incredibly difficult for him to go through.
I’ve lost access to the Void and my magic before, regularly actually, but I always knew that it was there and that when the poison wore off, or the torture faded enough, it would come back.
Having it taken completely is not something that I think I would have handled well at all.
Even if it was replaced with something else.
I think I would grieve for it. I think most supernaturals would.
The flicker appears at Rast’s side briefly again, and he frowns heavily for a moment before his expression clears again.
He’s not behaving like someone who is grieving the loss of their magic, but then again everyone grieves in completely different ways and copes with grief differently, so how would I know?
I really hope that he’s okay though, and if he’s not, I hope that he feels comfortable enough with us soon that he can tell us if he’s struggling, or if we can help with something.
For some reason, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon. He seems like the kind of person to do everything he possibly can to deal with it himself before he asks for help from someone else.
If he ever asks for help from someone else.
I frown and look down, my gaze catching on my clothes.
Unfortunately, the lightning realm means that I can see just how disgusting my clothes are, and since we’ve been walking for a while, they’re now getting a bit crispy and crunchy too.
I grimace.
That is so gross.
“Are you okay?” Reaper asks me, watching me with concern and somehow managing not to trip over his own feet like I would and have.
I gesture to my clothes and then move my shirt, demonstrating the crispiness.
“Oh, that’s gross,” Loki mutters.
“Thanks,” I reply with snark, which only makes his smile widen.
“We can stop for a moment if you want to change quickly?” Storm suggests. “Laikynn, Poca, Meri, and Oryn are all guarding the perimeter. At least I think Oryn’s with them.” I nod, and he continues, “And we can create a circle around you to block you from anyone else's view.”
“I pinched a couple of washcloths from Ignatius’ place. I can wet them for you so you can get the worst of it off your face and out of your hair. I don’t think it would be a good idea to have a full shower,” Mayhem suggests with a slight frown.
“No, I agree. I’ll take anything at this point,” I reply. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to be walking around smelling of the blood of an Abyss creature anyway. At least you guys managed to stay far enough back that none of it got on you.”
“Shit, good point,” Kill agrees, as his eyes scan the darkness around us.
I start to reply when the ground buzzes beneath my feet, and I try to understand what it’s trying to tell me.
With sudden understanding, I get it.
“Erm, the realm is warning me that I need to get it all off,” I start, then change direction. Heading to the right.
“Where are you going?” Rival asks. “We can use our magic to shower you?”
I shake my head. “You shouldn’t use your magic right now. The realm wants me to go this way.”
The guys share a look, but they don’t say anything as I lead them back into the trees. Although we’re a long way from where we started with the Others, the forest seems to go on forever.
I keep walking, following the directions that the ground is giving me, until I hear it.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Rival mutters. “It’s led you to a hot spring.”
“I need to do this quickly,” I say, still following what the realm is telling me.
“Got it,” Kill says. “We will spread out around the hot spring and keep you safe. If the realm has told you that this is the best course of action, then we would be stupid not to follow its advice.”
I nod.
They all spread out, and I wait until I know that they’re in position before I dump my bag at the edge of the small spring and look at the water.
The realm brought me here, so I know that it’s safe, but I’m still stepping into a body of water with no way of knowing what is in the water, and that’s a concern for me.
I’m sure it would be a concern for most people.
I don’t have the time to let my fear of what could be in the water stall me. I start to take my shirt off when the ground vibrates beneath my feet- oh man.
Seriously? I can’t help but direct the thought at the realm, and I’m surprised when the realm comes back with a resounding yes.
At least that’s certainly what it feels like.
Doing as I’m told, I abandon the idea of trying to take my shirt off and walk straight into the warm water, clothes and boots and all.
I immediately submerge my head under water too, reaching up and raking my fingers through my hair to get any trace of the creature out of it. The water is deliciously warm, and under any other circumstances I would be taking my time and bathing properly.
I would definitely be inviting the others to come in too.
But we don’t have that time. There was an undeniable urgency to the warning that the realm gave me.
I struggle to pull off my wet clothes and leave them in the water like the realm told me to do.
I fucking hate wet clothes.
I pause when I get to my boots so I can pull my jeans off. I can’t leave my boots behind because they’re my only pair, so I scrub them really well and then place them on the side by my bag so that I can use my air magic to dry them off.
Once that’s done, I dive under the water one more time to make sure that I’ve gotten everything that I’m supposed to off and then climb out quickly, pulling on a set of my clean clothes and grateful that my boots are actually dry.
“Alright guys, I’m done,” I call out.
They’re back surrounding me within moments.
“Where are your old clothes?” Rast asks. “If the realm warned you that you needed to get all of the ichor off you, then it probably isn’t a good idea to take them with you.”
I point to the hot spring, “In there. The realm had the same idea, and that’s what it told me to do with them.”
Rast smiles and shakes its head, “It is absolutely nuts to me that the realm speaks to you like it seems to.”
I shrug, “I know. It doesn’t exactly feel sane to me either.”
“Come on, let’s get back on track,” Kill suggests. “We’ve already wasted so much time.”
We all start to turn around so that we can head back the way that we came, but before we can get very far, flames blaze to life in the hot spring.
Reaching high into the air but somehow not touching any of the trees, they crackle and hiss and pop.
It burns so hot that I wince and move further away, along with the others.
The flames die down as quickly as they appeared, and when my eyes get used to the darkness again, I’m surprised to see that the hot spring looks exactly as it did before.
It’s not even steaming or hissing.
“Holy fuck!” Hades exclaims. “You could have been in that when it did that.”