Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nico
Kill smirks, but agrees with me, “You aren’t wrong.”
“I always thought of the creatures as mindless,” I mutter. “I’ve watched Oryn though, and he’s not. Farren talks to him, and he responds. He genuinely cares for her.”
“How could he not?” Rast mutters and then winces when he realises that he’s said it out loud.
Fortunately for him, although the others all smile, already knowing how he feels about Farren or at least guessing, they decide to let it drop and not pull him up on it.
“Is that why we can’t see him?” Reaper asks curiously.
Laikynn shakes his head, “No, I think that’s just because he doesn’t want you to see him.
I mean, if Rast were to see him, he would have killed him on sight or tried to.
Like all Abyss creatures, he’s notoriously hard to kill.
He’s also extremely rare and usually only those who are in the realm that’s being consumed are allowed to see the creatures because, after all, they won’t have anyone to tell. ”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Rival points out.
“How is it that you know so much about these creatures?” Mayhem asks curiously.
Laikynn sighs, “They are not evil. They are doing a job. Their job is to restore the balance, and they do that by consuming the realm where the imbalance occurred, and if the problem has spread, then they follow it until it’s completely wiped out.
Their leaders, however, are evil. They control these creatures, and the creatures don’t get a say in whether or not they stay in their realm or are sent to other realms. It’s not a nice job, and they will get hurt, and some of them don’t return.
Every realm that they consume, a portion of that power goes to the Abyss to help sustain it and keep it strong.
If the creatures of the realm who actually are the ones who are capable of consuming decide they don’t want to do it anymore, then the Abyss loses power and becomes weaker, and there’s no one to step up and restore the balance.
The Abyss creatures are the only ones who can do it.
It’s incredibly complicated, and there’s a lot more to it, but I have managed to speak to a couple of the ones who don’t want to be here.
There are only a few of them, granted, most of them enjoy what they do, it’s all they’ve known. ”
With that absolute bombshell, Laikynn disappears again.
“Er,” Loki starts. He shakes his head, “Yeah, I have absolutely no words for that.”
“You’re not the only one,” Hades agrees.
“That was a surprising amount of information,” Khaos agrees. “A lot more than we usually get.”
“We need to keep moving,” Rast says as he digests yet another bombshell.
Loki
The surprises just keep on coming.
I think if we went for longer than an hour without a surprise, that would then become the surprise.
We came here for one reason, and that was to free Ignatius and those who are trapped underneath the castle, and yet this realm seems to have disrupted that plan at every turn.
Not because it doesn’t want us to find Ignatius and the others and help to stop this realm from being destroyed, but because it has a lot to say and for a long time it hasn’t been able to say it.
I don’t know why, but Nico feels like Rast does to me, which means I instinctively trust him. Plus, Farren obviously knows something that we don’t since she has her ancient cat thing guarding him.
What the fuck even is that?
She seemed to greet it with familiarity, so how long exactly has that thing been around for, and we didn’t know about it?
For now, I don’t want to think about everything else that’s going on and all of the other questions that we now have. I just want to get to the damn castle without another interruption.
Why do I feel like that’s wishful thinking?
My gaze keeps moving over to Farren every few minutes. Maybe I should be suspicious that Nico feels like he belongs with us, and that I’m not as concerned as I should be about him carrying Farren. The thing is I’m getting used to this sort of shit now.
We all are.
I mean, Rast feels like he belongs too. We know that there’s something else at work here, which means that there’s a reason why they feel like they belong with us, and we just don’t know what it is.
“We’ve been walking for hours, and Farren clearly needs more time to rest,” Kill starts, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“We need her when we get to the castle, and we can’t take her in unconscious.
I think we should find somewhere to rest for a few hours and then head off again in the morning, when Farren is hopefully awake again. ”
“I think that’s the best plan you’ve come up with for a while. I’m hungry,” I add. “It’s been a while since I ate properly, and I think that resting for the night would be a really good idea. The question is where?”
As if I spoke it into existence, which, to be honest, with the way things are going, I really could have, as we turn a bend in the road I see Ignatius’ house in all its run-down, uninviting glory.
“You guys see that too, right?” I ask, rubbing my eyes and then looking back at the house, just to check I’ve not gone crazy and I’m seeing things.
“I see it,” Rast replies, sounding as confused as I feel.
“Did we somehow manage to walk all the way back here?” Nico asks. “I could have sworn that it was the wrong direction.”
Reaper frowns as he looks around. “I don’t remember there being a dirt road near Ignatius’ place before. I could have sworn that we walked straight through trees.”
Khaos looks around. “It is Ignatius’ place, right?”
“It would be a damn big coincidence if it weren’t. It looks exactly the same,” Hades says. “Come on, there’s one way to know for certain.”
“Laikynn and Poca, can you check the perimeter, please?” Storm says into the darkness, and we hear a short, sharp bark in reply.
I’m assuming that came from Poca since Laikynn responds in words.
We all move cautiously forward, and I glance back at Nico to make sure that he and Farren are safe and see Mayhem and Rast flanking him with Farren’s giant cat walking behind them.
There’s a good possibility that this is a trap.
Laikynn appears just as we get to the gate. “The perimeter is completely clear, and the place looks and smells exactly like Ignatius’ place, but we are not where Ignatius’ place was when we left it this morning. Which means it’s moved.”
“How is that possible?” Reaper asks.
“I would bet that it has something to do with the fact that it’s Ignatius’ place and he’s an extremely powerful warlock.
The house knew that we needed more space and grew to fit us when we first arrived.
It’s entirely possible that Ignatius somehow had it spelled so it would appear when we needed it.
He knew that we were coming even though he’s been in the cell for such a long time,” Rival theorises.
“Very good points,” I agree. I bounce toward the front door, there’s food in there, and as I said, I’m hungry.
“Whoa, hold up a second,” Nico calls after me. “It could still be a trap, go a little more cautiously.”
“Oh, good point,” I reply and slow my pace.
Kill chuckles, “You’ve already got Loki down to a T.”
Nico smiles, “Well, I’ve been with you since last night, which I know doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you’ve got nothing else to do, you’ve got plenty of time to observe.”
“Kinda creepy,” I reply with a grin so he knows I’m joking. “I get it though. It must have been lonely not being able to actually talk to anyone.”
Nico’s smile falls, and I instantly regret saying anything.
“Yeah, it wasn’t fun,” he replies honestly.
I slow so that I can walk next to him, Reaper letting me take his place as he moves with the others to open the front door and clear the house.
“Well, I like to talk. Don’t feel like you have to stay silent or worry that you’ll talk too much,” I tell him honestly.
“I’ve missed you. I’ll talk for hours, if you need me to,” Rast adds.
Nico looks at him in surprise. “Oh. Wow, you really must have missed me. You’re usually the strong, silent type.”
Rast chuckles, “I know. Feel special.”
“I do,” Nico says, and then looks down at Farren. “I really hope there aren’t any consequences for her. That’s the last thing that I want, and I would go back to the silence if it meant that she was okay.”
Zev appears in front of us. “The house is clear, and as we left it this morning, although the table already has food on it for us.”
My eyes widen.
“I fucking love this house,” I grin as I pick up the pace, and so do the others with me.
Zev looks at Nico, “The consequences for Farren helping you are not dire. She is going to be absolutely fine.”
“You’re sure?” I can’t help but ask.
Zev nods, “Yep.”
“Because you had a vision?” Nico asks, needing the extra layer of reassurance, and to be honest, I do too.
Zev smiles, “Yes.”
“Awesome,” I grin. “Let’s eat.”
Farren
I’m unconscious.
I know that.
Well, I suppose unconscious isn’t quite right. I’m fucking exhausted. I know what happened, my magic brought Nico back to life. As soon as it happened and I passed out from sheer tiredness, I knew exactly what happened.
I also knew that my guys were going to try to kill him and that under no circumstances could that be allowed to happen.
What I don’t know is why that can’t happen, other than the obvious. I just spent nearly all of my magic bringing him back, and he didn’t even get a say in it, so let's not kill him immediately and undo my hard work.
There’s another reason as well, I know there is.
I felt protective enough over him that I’m pretty sure that I managed to call the beast that was guarding Hades’ throne room to me to guard him. Which is awesome but didn’t help the whole exhausted from using too much magic thing.
Hence why I’m now floating in nothingness.
It’s quite relaxing, to be honest.
After a while of floating in the nothingness, I get bored, and with nothing to do, I flip and spin through the darkness pretending I’m one of the acrobats in the travelling circuses in the Fae Realm.
I saw one once when I was a child, and my not-father was trying to keep up the appearance of being a good father.
I loved the circus.
I wanted to join the circus for a long time, using my magic to flip and spin through the air.
Obviously, that wasn’t meant to be. Not only did my life take a much deadlier turn, but it turns out that if I actually have to think about doing flips and twists and the fancier dance side of things, I end up with two left feet. I was never supposed to perform.
Now that I’m older, I know I would probably hate to have all of those eyes on me anyway. I stick to using the flips and things in combat. It’s far more fun to have things explode anyway.
I do a triple front flip through the darkness, letting out a shout of surprise as my surroundings turn from black to white.
Fortunately, I land on something soft.
Prying my eyes open, I’m surprised to see that I’m in a huge white room and I’ve landed on a couch.
Well, that was lucky.
Before I can dwell on the fact that it most likely wasn’t luck that had me land on the couch, because I mean, come on, of course it wasn’t. Anyway, before I can figure that out, a familiar shape bounds up to me, wriggling excitedly.
“It’s you!” I grin as I give the creature that I left guarding Nico some love. “Wait, is Nico safe?”
The creature pulls back and then gives me a look that says, ‘Of course he is. I know how to do my job, ’ and I pull a face and give him extra pets.
“You really are like the feline version of Poca,” I grin, and the big cat just nudges my hand so I can stroke him better. “I really should give you a name. I assume that you’re going to be hanging around for a while?”
It lets out a noise that I’m not entirely sure how to classify. It’s a weird mix between a meow and a growl, but I’m going to take the sound as a yes.
“Alright, now I could go meaningful and strong,” I start, and he gives me an unimpressed look. “Okay, I hear you. Not something meaningful and serious. So what about something a bit ridiculous?” I ask. I think for a moment and then grin, ruffling his mane. “What about Fluffy?”