of us could’ve hoped for.”
The moment I’d died, I’d quickly learned to accept every single good thing that I was handed. In this instance, still being here with Seeley, with Lumi and the others, forming this merry band of in-betweener misfits… it was a good thing. It was a wonderful thing. It was better than I could’ve hoped for, considering that I was dead.
Deep down, I didn’t want this to end. It wasn’t something I could voice, but I felt it. The end would bring about a conclusion, and, if Sidyan’s fears were to come true, that would mean I’d be reaped and carted off into the land of the dead. I’d never see Lumi or any of my friends, ever again. I wouldn’t have my shot at loving and living, like I’d always wanted. Of all these prospects, however, the absence of Seeley scared me the most.
Lumi
Now knowing that the Spirit Bender had likely meddled with Visio eons ago, I had a better understanding of the dangers that awaited us if we dug deeper into the Darklings. It scared me, because death magic was something that we had not truly dealt with until now—not on such a personal level. Taeral was the exception, of course, but the rest of us were still pretty new at this.
My poor Nethissis was dead, merely a ghost. I’d teach her how to conceal herself while carrying a scythe soon, but first we had to check what the Darklings had left behind.
I worried about her, but there was also a part of me that preferred optimism to despair. She was clearly special, given how much she’d accomplished despite being just a spirit. It further proved that my own judgment regarding her had been just and accurate.
I could only hope that she would emerge from this victorious, eventually. I certainly planned on having a few words with Death about this, as soon as I got the chance. Reality was against us, but hope had never failed to at least carry us forward.
“I’m starting to think that the Spirit Bender founded the Darklings,” Sidyan said as we walked out of Astoria, heading north up the coast. Maya and Rudolph ran ahead, while Seeley and Nethissis watched our backs. The ocean glistened with its tourmaline waves beneath a faded red sky, the sun descending into the afternoon somewhere beyond the red haze—the mazir spell Petra had cast upon the empire. “I mean, he obviously gave them the death magic and the knowledge, so I’m guessing they didn’t even exist before he got to them.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
The road tightened before us, tall shrubs rising, their long green leaves stretching outward. Here and there, a scarlet flower poked out from a delicate stem, butterfly-like creatures settling on its petals and drinking its golden nectar. For a moment, I forgot where we were, reveling in the simplest and most beautiful thing that nature had to offer wherever it had been allowed to evolve.
Echoes of the Word rippled through me, as I briefly remembered the spell I’d cast against the Darklings. For the first time in days, I had felt my maker with me, coursing through me like a river of light, reminding me that it had never truly left my side.
“I’m basing my assumption on the complexity of the death magic wards I had to break around Astoria,” Sidyan said, bringing me back into the present. “That is not easy stuff to learn. Even someone like me would have trouble performing those kinds of spells. And the Darklings are living creatures. They shouldn’t even be able to fiddle with it.”
“So, they’ve been doing this for a very long time. Likely since their inception,” I concluded.
“It just feels that way,” Sidyan replied. “What really irks me is how they’re able to use the scythes. They can’t all be future Reapers.”
“I know. We’ve addressed this before, and we’ve yet to find a reasonable answer,” I said.
Sidyan exhaled sharply. “It’s why I keep going back to the Spirit Bender now. I think he did something that allows them to operate death magic.”
“Yet one more reason to get closer to them, to study them properly,” I said. “Not just hunt down their leader.”
“The two should come hand in hand,” Nethissis replied from behind. “Studying them and following them, that is. We should get as much as we can out of this whole mess, in order to understand. For our own peace of mind, if nothing else.”
“What I find encouraging is