confused. “What just… What happened? We were in there, weren’t we?” she asked me.
I understood then that the Word had blocked her from the conversation, though I didn’t know why. Maybe its presence was too powerful in her body to leave any room for her consciousness, since there was no reason why it would keep her in a blackout.
“She is such a bitch!” Taeral burst as he got up. He quickly brushed aside his anger to focus on Lumi. “Are you okay?”
She nodded slowly. “I think so. I don’t remember anything.”
“The Word took over. I suppose you were cut off, completely,” Taeral replied.
The knowledge of this clearly baffled her. “It has been a long time since I’ve felt like this… What happened?” she asked, but a quick glance to her side, at the Hermessi, made her shudder. “You know what? Tell me on the way out. I don’t want to be here another second.”
“I don’t think we have any other choice, anyway.” Taeral sighed. “She gave us our assignment and kicked us out.”
We moved back through the hallway, eager to leave the palace and continue the mission. We didn’t have a destination yet, but we had a little more knowledge than before. As we walked, Lumi became more aware of her surroundings and the last thing she remembered.
“I heard the word ‘sister’ coming out of my mouth,” she said.
“Oh, yeah. Guess you didn’t know that part. Death and the Word are siblings, it seems, and they’re not the only ones,” Taeral replied.
Lumi’s white irises glistened with surprise, the iris and the blue edges widening momentarily as she looked at Taeral. “Are you serious?”
“She also said I should expect bad news from home, but kicked us out right afterward, leaving me on the edge of my freaking seat here,” Taeral added, angrily walking toward the first hallway. We could see the gilded doors at the end, getting bigger with each step we took. “I have to say, she’s definitely not my favorite in the cosmic pantheon.”
“We clearly have a lot to talk about,” Lumi said slowly.
We most certainly did. Most importantly, we needed to get out of here and reunite with our friends. Death had said they were waiting for us, which meant they were still alive. Perhaps the Reapers and the ghosts had pulled back once they’d noticed we weren’t there.
There was still a lot of work to be done, and the quest that Death had thrown us into needed all hands on deck and all the brilliant minds involved. While Taeral, Lumi, and I were marked by Death, the others weren’t, and I wasn’t willing to lose another soul in this fight.
Lumi
Taeral brought me up to speed before we even reached the gilded doors of the palace. Needless to say, I was astonished. I’d learned new things about the Word, and I felt a little foolish. The supreme power I’d been serving for so long had kept me in the dark concerning the truth of its own existence and relation to Death. No wonder it had dropped in occasionally to help, when it had thought I might not make it by myself inside Death’s palace on Mortis… It wanted me to find her. It wanted to be there when I did, so it could speak to Death directly.
“We need to find out where Brendel hid the three pieces of Thieron,” Taeral said.
I set my concerns about the Word aside and focused on the mission. I’d commune with my maker later, and I’d ask the right questions, this time. I was done serving an entity that wasn’t forthcoming with me. I’d tolerated a lot over the years, including the fact that it had left me stranded with the Exiled Maras and the daemons for millennia, but this… this took the cake. My patience was irreversibly deceased.
“First and foremost, we need to tell the others everything we’ve learned. Every detail, every single thing we saw in here, too,” I replied.
We stopped in front of the double doors, and Taeral took Eira and me by the hand, ready to teleport us outside. He didn’t, though, as the doors opened on their own with a sharp squeal—the sound of metal hinges moving for the first time in centuries. Beyond, the entire crew waited, on their own, at the base of the stairs.
“Thank the universe,” I heard Amelia whisper.
They rushed up the stairs and met us halfway. We hugged each other, thankful to be alive and able to explain what had happened to us