a small bowl to light the area.
“Yes,” Cass said without looking up at Bren. “I would guess that we are getting close to an exit. Hopefully, it will be the exit you are looking for. I don’t relish spending any more time in this pit than the rest of you.”
“Then why are we stopping?” Bren asked, his voice holding a slight edge to it.
“We are stopping because we have no clue what is at the end of the tunnel. If we can smell fresh air, then the exit has to be close; most likely less than an hour’s walk. I would prefer it if everyone was well rested…just in case there is trouble awaiting us.” Cass spoke with a little hitch to his voice, and Bren could tell that Cass had to force himself not to run toward the exit.
Everything inside of Bren screamed at him to run toward the exit. It was a fierce feeling inside of his gut that twisted his stomach and made him want to vomit.
Bren returned to where Faye waited and took solace in her company. He was so close to his goal, and yet he was being forced to wait. That news more than anything ate away at him.
Bren could tell that Faye knew something was bothering him, but she didn’t put it into words, it was just the look on her face, and she gently stroked his back when he sat down. Bren looked at her and the pain in his chest slowly drained away. He was uneasy still, but not nearly as much as he had been moments before.
That night as he slept, Bren found his dreams as troubled as his waking moments. He dreamed of himself entering the veil and standing in the middle of it was a large shining doorway of light, and on the other side was his father banging against the door his face contorted into screams, though Bren could not hear what he was saying.
Bren rushed over to the doorway and banged against it. Small ripples moved across the doorway like a stone thrown into a lake, but the door of light didn’t budge. Bren tried to pull in magical energy but nothing came to him. He had made it to the very doorway that he had searched for, had bled for, and that his friends had died for, and now all they could do was look through it to the other side.
Large tears ran down his face as he continued to bang on the door. “Father,” Bren yelled as he dropped to his knees, his hand sliding down the golden doorway as the image of his father slowly disappeared.
Thad sat in the darkness still looking at the empty space where he had watched his son not long ago. He didn’t know how much time had passed since the small window into the real world had disappeared, but he had little care to do much of anything but watch the darkness where his son had once been.
“It seems that your son will be in the vail soon,” Humanius said with a mixture of sadness and finality in his voice. “It seems that he is much more resourceful than I gave him credit for. That or my children were not as ready for him as I had hoped.”
“What?” Thad asked slightly taken aback by the god’s words.
“I am telling you that the abyss is about to be destroyed. You, me, my sister, and all those wandering the endless darkness will soon be freed from this prison, and the doorway between your world and the world I came from will be opened. Let us hope that not all is lost due to your son’s decision.”
Thad thought about what the god had said. His son had made it to the vail or would soon be there, and he would be free. He had heard the god talk about it more than once since his son had cost him his source of magic from the other side of the window, though he let the words slip past him at that those times, more worried about his son than what the god was saying. That had changed now that it was coming to pass. He knew that the god was worried that the world would either end or be thrown into a massive war with the dissolution of the abyss, and Thad just hopped that his son’s actions didn’t bring such a thing to pass, but at the moment there was little