more. They even seemed a little impressed.
“You’ve accomplished more in a few weeks than we did in millions of years,” Mira murmured. “I suppose you had nothing to lose here on Visio. The Darklings held nothing over your heads.”
“I think it has something to do with our collective experience, as well,” I said. “GASP has dealt with some enormous problems in the world. About a year ago, we were at war with the natural elements. We even fought the Spirit Bender and defeated him.”
Both Mira and Kemi were rendered speechless, and Kalon allowed a tinge of pride to taint his satisfied smirk.
“The Spirit Bender is gone?” Mira gasped.
I nodded once. “I’d say dead as a doornail, but he was already dead by default. You know what I mean, anyway.”
“Then congratulations are in order. You’ve cleansed the world of great darkness,” Kemi said. “Unfortunately, it’s not enough to stop the Darklings, is it? You wouldn’t be here if you’d managed to take them all out.”
“We’re struggling,” I replied. “Valaine Crimson is the Unending’s latest reincarnation. Her father, Corbin, is the Master of Darkness. The Darklings are trying to emerge as legal and official enforcers, and popular opinion seems to be shifting in their favor. We have Valaine, but she’s got a lot of work ahead of her in order to break free. We were hoping you might have some knowledge on the matter.”
Mira’s smile faded. “I’m afraid not. All we did was struggle to make her remember who she was. Back then, she’d only been reborn once. I can only imagine the amount of digging she must do now in order to remember.”
“The Darklings will know how to break the three seals,” Kemi said. “The Whips and the Master, in particular. They’re the only ones privy to such information. It’s passed down across generations.”
I emptied my glass. Despite all the progress we’d just made, it didn’t feel like we’d moved ahead much. We’d found the Seniors, and they seemed open and willing to talk to us, but we still had no clue regarding the Unending’s seals. We didn’t know how to set her free, and time wasn’t on our side.
Beyond this island, the Darklings were advancing, taking more towns and stepping further into the light as bastions of hope for Visio. Corbin was looking for Valaine, determined to kill her—his own daughter. Hope was nowhere to be seen, no matter how much I wanted to believe otherwise. The Darklings held all the best cards, and I doubted we’d find a way to get any of them to tell us what we needed to know.
As if sensing my dismay, Kalon touched my hand, gripping it gently on the armrest. I looked at him and found reassuring warmth in his blue eyes. Wordlessly, Kalon reminded me that this was only the beginning. I knew it was true, but it felt nice to see it coming from him. We were only just getting started, and we’d just made friends with the very first Aeternae of Visio. Our pure ancestors.
From here on in, the only way was up.
Esme
We spent hours talking to Mira and Kemi about the Darklings and the Seniors’ lives before they were forced to “retire” here on this island. The feasting and music continued in the background, as the rest of the ancient Aeternae lived through another day of drinking, laughing, and dancing in a peculiar but enticing atmosphere. The sun set beneath the reddish haze, and darkness swept over the trembling ocean.
The leaves whispered and rustled as night fell beneath a starry sky, the mazir spell that enveloped Visio gradually subsiding, leaving room for the moon and other celestial bodies to shine their milky light upon the land.
“Is this what you do all day?” I asked as Kemi returned with a pitcher of fresh blood for us. “Do you just drink and sleep and party?”
“We also grow gardens. We swim. We harvest rare flower crossbreeds. Dabble in the occasional crafts and pottery,” Mira replied with a faint smile. “There isn’t much left for us to do in such isolation, so we’ve all agreed to not let a day go by that might give the Darklings any satisfaction. Our true and most miserable death will happen the moment we allow ourselves to live like prisoners here.”
“Some of us write and paint. We have a few architects who help us revamp our homes once in a while. The layout you see now will change in a few years, once we’re bored with it,”