job. I’d suspected my origins since before Taeral and his friends had made it to Cerix. I’d shared those thoughts with Inalia, too, though she’d been less inclined to embrace her nature at the time. Weird had always been on my menu, just never in such astronomic quantities.
I’d joined Taeral on this mission for two important reasons. One, I’d had little choice, as Inalia had insisted that I leave Cerix with him, thus stopping the other Hermessi from putting additional pressure on my father, Acquis. Two, I wanted to be here, even though I’d been terrified and baffled at first. I wanted my spot on this quest to stop the elementals from destroying our worlds. My mother needed me to protect her, and I was useless back on Cerix, given all these developments.
There was also a third reason, one that I’d only recently become aware of. To most, it might not have mattered as much as it did to me… but I was fond of Taeral and everyone on his team. I had nothing but respect and admiration for each and every one of them. They’d earned my affection, and I couldn’t bring myself to let them go through this alone.
In the end, my presence here made a lot of sense. After all, I was a Hermessi child. I had a say in this cluster-fumble that the Hermessi had gotten us into. Even so, my brain had trouble processing this reality. It was surreal, to say the least, that I was smack in the middle of an audience with Death. Mind-boggling, yes, but also my new reality.
My wrist itched where Death had marked me. It scared me the most, knowing that I had no choice but to find Thieron as fast as possible, for the repercussions were unimaginable. Not only would I lose my mother, my friends, my new allies, and my world, but I would also be forced to bear witness to it all. I’d live past it, until my mission for Death was over.
Dread was quick to grip my stomach in its claws, but I quickly acclimated myself to the urgency of this new and unexpected situation. Taking a deep breath and finding solace in Taeral’s touch, I looked at Death. “Understood. We will find Thieron and bring it back to you. Those are the terms, and we cannot change them. We know better than to mess with a timeless power such as yourself. I also know that you’re doing this for a reason.”
“And what reason is that, little Hermessi girl?” Death asked, somewhat amused.
“You’re testing us. You want to see if we’ve got the juice and the drive to do what you and your Reapers couldn’t pull off for thousands of years,” I replied. It irked her to hear this, but she’d made a pact with us. She couldn’t undo it; she’d said so herself. Pissing Death off was no longer a potentially deadly affair—at least not for Taeral, Lumi, or me. Besides, she needed to be told these things. Millions of years of isolation and frustration couldn’t have been good to her psyche.
“You know, you aren’t the first ones who came to me with this quest in mind,” Death said, wearing a cold smirk. “Unlike your predecessors, however, I’ve decided that binding you to life would be a sensible way to ensure you will finish your job.”
She was trying to mess with our heads, since she couldn’t kill us or hurt us, but Taeral was quick to pick up on the new intel she’d dropped. “Others have found you here?” he asked.
“About a million years ago, if not longer. Plenty of warriors from worlds aware of Thieron and me made their way to Mortis and tried to help me. Not to stop the Hermessi, of course, since they weren’t a threat at the time. They wanted my favor, and retrieving Thieron had seemed like a good way to get it,” Death explained.
“How did these ancient warriors know that Thieron has been missing?” Taeral asked.
Death took a moment to answer that. “Some of my Reapers had loose tongues. They’ve been removed since.”
“The Reapers?” I asked.
“No, darling. The tongues,” Death replied dryly. “Anyway, you’ve got your work cut out for you. No one passed down any of their knowledge from previous quests. Obviously, none of these warriors made it back with my Thieron, either. I hope the gift I’ve bestowed upon you will make things easier.” She exhaled sharply, shaking her head. “I do wish I’d thought of