water.”
That was an unsettling revelation. Not that it should’ve come as a surprise, since Death was omnipresent and likely omnipotent. But still. She’d known about our presence here all along, yet she’d let us wander around, dazed and confused. She let us struggle against her Reapers and murderous ghosts and even the Hermessi she’d planted outside her door.
In that moment, I understood that the conversation we were about to have would be anything but easy and fruitful. The playful glimmer in her midnight eyes confirmed my suspicions. No matter how many eggshells we walked on around her, there was a chance we’d walk out of here empty-handed—or worse, we wouldn’t walk, but rather be carried out, our bodies lifeless and our souls swiftly sent into the next world.
Death was capricious and unpredictable. That much I could tell from what I’d seen and heard so far. And both Taeral and Eira were too young and unprepared for this encounter. That being said, it was too late to turn around now. “We might as well get this show on the road,” I said quietly to myself.
“So. What do you want?” Death asked, her tone rather clipped, as if we’d disturbed her from an important and time-consuming task.
I had to give her credit. She sure knew how to set a crippling mood.
Vesta
Exhaustion was setting in after my brief “ghostly” chat with Zeriel. I’d had some minutes all to myself, with Seeley gone for a bit. The “bit” turned into an hour, eventually. He’d only briefly excused himself before vanishing—he’d seen something in the sanctuary, something that had troubled him, but I was too worn out and tired to ask him anything about it. Frankly, I was more focused on finding a way to give Zeriel more complex messages, but I needed a fresher state of mind.
In the meantime, however, I allowed myself to smile more, as Derek and Sofia had come in bearing some good news, along with some that was anything but. Harper was back in her body, delivered by Herbert, whom Ibrahim had released from his bond. I wasn’t sure whether they were worried about the ghoul being out there on his own, but I figured we had much bigger issues to deal with, for the time being. It had been my understanding that Herbert was remarkably well behaved, unlike others from his unnatural species. While I was thrilled to know Harper was safe and soon to deliver new information she’d picked up from Herbert, I didn’t like the thought of what had happened with Ramin.
The flames had gone out on Neraka, much like on Cerix when Brann had been destroyed. It seemed reasonable to assume that Ramin had suffered a similar fate, given his brazen rebellion, but it still hurt. He was one ally we simply couldn’t afford to lose. The details of how that had come to pass had yet to come through, and I hoped Harper would be able to fill in the gaps. Derek had said that his great-granddaughter needed an hour to recover, to feed, and to get reacquainted with her body, and that Phoenix was in constant contact with her, recording all the information she’d come back with.
We’d also learned that Taeral and his crew had been on Mortis all along, without even knowing it. That had made their reunion with Varga’s team all the sweeter. I remembered breathing a sigh of relief at the thought of that group finally back together, though we weren’t sure where they stood with their mission to find Death. No one had been able to speak to them over the past thirty minutes, but River was with Viola now, on Calliope, keeping an eye on the comms line, while the Daughter listened carefully to her Telluris link.
As always, the universe gave us servings of hot and cold in such contrasting snippets that it made our teeth and our souls hurt. On one hand, we rejoiced that Taeral and his band were inching closer to their meeting with Death. On the other, more fae were falling under the Hermessi’s influence, our allies were gradually incapacitated, and the elementals grew stronger with every hour that passed. We’d taken more damage than we could bear, but we were still standing. I thought it was nothing short of a miracle, certainly better than nothing.
Glancing at my soul-chain, I shuddered. Another link had gone black. Only three healthy glowing ones remained, and dread was once again gnawing its way through my stomach. Death had