A Shade of Vampire 82 A Circle of Nine - Bella Forrest Page 0,28
what Seeley, Sidyan, Lumi, and Nethissis had been up to under Death’s orders. But as soon as I’d felt us getting closer to Visio, I reached out to Seeley—he was my friend, and he had no reason to hide things from me. Of course, he didn’t know I was on my way to Visio with orders of my own. He seemed to have less trouble breaking the rules.
“I should tell him we’re coming,” I said, inspired by his brazenness. “Maybe if we all work together, we’ll have a better shot at finding the Unending, too.”
Soul did not hesitate to crush my hopes on this matter. “Don’t kid yourself. If Seeley has been interacting with the Darklings, then we have no business working with him. Besides, he’s got pet ghouls and a swamp witch to help him. We shouldn’t stray from our mission. We have to find the Unending.”
With my hands on my hips, I cocked my head to the side and raised an eyebrow for good measure. “Any idea on a starting point, then?” I asked, albeit rhetorically. “Because all we’ve got right now is whatever intel I collected from Seeley, along with a feeling that mazir and death magic might be one and the same.”
“Well, mazir might have evolved from death magic. They’re not one and the same,” Night felt the need to correct me. “But you’re right, we don’t have much to go on here.”
“What about Kelara’s extrasensory abilities? She could tap into Cruor’s traumatic memories, after all,” Phantom said.
Night and Morning both shook their heads. I understood why, because I could feel it. My head was an absolute jumble, and I couldn’t focus properly. “Visio is too… alive,” I said. “There’s too much happening. There’s death magic. Mazir. Spells have been put in place, for various reasons. People are living and breathing here. Vetruvia was easier because there were fewer creatures left alive. Cruor was a piece of cake in terms of sensing anything, because it was virtually dead. This… this is different.”
“We’ll need a new strategy,” Night replied.
“Gah, I so miss the early days,” Soul groaned, throwing his head back. “Remember? When it was just the ten of us and Death?”
He sat on a cylindrical stone, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his thighs, the fabric of his white silk wraps stretching around his muscles.
“There were fewer souls to reap across all the dimensions.” Phantom sighed, gazing out into the distance. It was supposed to be a touching moment as they reminisced about the old days, about the beginnings of this world, but I had a hard time sympathizing, considering who they’d kept company with.
“Back when the Spirit Bender was loose, you mean?” I asked.
The Widow Maker looked at me. “He wasn’t always a monster, Kelara. He didn’t even like using his power unless he absolutely had to.”
“I don’t know why it’s hard to imagine him as one of the good guys,” I muttered.
Night chuckled softly. “That’s because it’s such a human concept. Good. Bad. Black. White. Those are moral constructs that don’t belong in our existence. Not everything we do is good. Not everything we do is bad. We always did what was needed. What was asked of us.”
“Okay. What about right and wrong? Do we not abide by those moral constructs?” I replied. “The rules Death sets for us are right. Us breaking those rules is wrong. Or am I missing something?”
“We all did right, by that logic,” Morning said. “For a long time, anyway. The Spirit Bender lost his way, yes, but what Widow is trying to say is that Spirit was on the right side. Something happened. Something broke inside him when the other Reapers were created. His purpose was gone, and Death didn’t want to let him go. The anger festered.”
“Much like my anguish on Cruor,” Night reminded me. “Yes, Spirit was free to roam, but his suffering didn’t differ from mine. Not really.”
“Don’t tell me you condone his behavior,” I said.
“Not at all. But I understand it.”
I found myself staring at the traces in the wet dirt. Ghouls’ claws and congealed blood that the rain had not succeeded in washing away. Broken chain links. Faded symbols engraved on various blocks of marble. Everything that had happened occurred because the Spirit Bender had facilitated it, millions of years ago.
“I’m trying to understand what Spirit’s endgame was here on Visio,” I said, changing the subject. “After all, he succeeded in trapping the Unending. Right?”