I wasn’t sure how we were going to handle Miles’ teammates after the boy himself ran off, or Trice for that matter. We couldn’t just leave them behind, considering tying them up would’ve been a joke. Fortunately, Judas turned out to have the solution. He produced what looked like a simple playing card-sized piece of cardboard. But it magically unfolded into the size of a box about three feet wide and two feet tall. When the lid was opened, it revealed a set of stairs leading down to a pocket dimension. Or, rather, a pocket greenhouse. Apparently Judas really liked plants. He had the whole space, about the size of a high school gym, filled with flowers, trees, bushes, and more. Various sunlamps hung from the ceiling to provide light, heat, and energy. These guys would be fine in there for a while.
So, we carried them down the stairs and left them there. They all argued and struggled, especially Trice. But between all of us, we managed to get them in there and closed it up. We also made sure to take any weapons and tools they had. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but we didn’t have time for perfection. Miles was still out there, and had undoubtedly told Denuvus what happened. I wasn’t sure what her next plan would be, but she was going to have one. We had to keep moving.
Once the box was folded down and back in Judas’s pocket, we ran over to examine the unconscious guys briefly. Yeah, we still had no idea what was going on there. It was just a bunch of guys who looked as though some other people had beat the living shit out of them. But how could a whole other army have jumped this army right in this secret room and we didn’t hear or notice any– never mind, magic, superpowers, whatever. The real question was who had done this, and where were they now? Were they on our side? Did we have some sort of local guardian angels or something? That seemed unlikely for a whole list of reasons. But I couldn’t think of anything else. Maybe some other group was after Denuvus and had come here separately?
There were no answers to be found there. And when I stood over the spot where the hole had opened up to take Persephone and Robin, I couldn’t find anything either. Crouching down, I ran my hand through the dirt and then punched it before shaking my head. “There’s gotta be a tunnel or something under here, right? Wait, Rahanvael?” The rest of my ghosts were exhausted from that whole situation and needed time to recover, but I’d made sure to give her enough power to stay out with the rest of us.
The ghost girl was distracted, staring off into the distance. But she quickly recovered, giving a nod before floating down through the dirt. She was gone for about fifteen seconds, while I exchanged looks with the others and we kept a wary eye out for anything new from Denuvus. Finally, Rahanvael returned, floating back up before explaining, “There is a chute which appears to transport anyone who falls into it elsewhere. Would you like me to keep following it?”
“No.” That was Judas, holding up a hand. “We should split up. I know, I know. But they forced our hands. We can’t leave Robin behind, and we might need them to punch this lady in the face if she starts using her power on the rest of us.”
I grimaced. “But at the same time, whatever she’s doing with Mom… we have to interrupt it.” Letting out a breath, I looked to the others. “Okay, so who’s doing what?”
It was Stasia who answered. “Judas and I will find where the chute goes, and bring back Robin and Persephone. The rest of you should push on.”
Part of me wanted to argue with that. Splitting up in general seemed like a bad idea, and besides, I wanted to help Persephone. She was my friend. But I also needed to find my mother. We didn’t have time to do everything, not when we still had no idea what Denuvus was even doing here. There was no choice but to split up, and sending these two off to find the others made the most sense. After all, this was my mother we were talking about.
So, with a heavy sigh, I nodded before turning to the others. “Okay so do we try the mute spell again? It didn’t work so well this time.” My gaze flicked over to a set of runes we had passed on the way through the cave. Judas had pointed them out and let us know that those were what had disabled our protection spell when we passed it. “Figures she’d be one step ahead on that too.”
“The ‘transport if she starts to introduce herself’ spells are still active,” Shiori noted. “She didn’t think of everything. And we can watch for those runes now. I mean, it’s not perfect, but…”
“Better than nothing,” Asenath finished. “But we should hurry. No telling what she’s going to do when that boy lets her know what happened.”
“Yeah,” Judas agreed, “and we need the telepathy spell to stay in contact anyway.”
“Actually, Rahanvael, could you go with them?” I asked. “That way we can stay in contact even without the telepathy bit. And if they run into… anything weird, you can probably help better than the rest of us.”
She agreed, but we still used the spell again. As Denuvus had proven, having contingencies was a good idea. Then Judas used a different one to turn himself and Stasia intangible for about thirty seconds. Long enough to go down through the dirt, find the chute below, and follow it. Rahanvael quietly promised to do everything she could to keep them safe, then went after them.
Which left me standing there with Shiori, Asenath, and Twister, while Tabbris stayed inside me. I also had the card thing that would unfold into the entrance to the greenhouse. Judas figured it was better if I held onto it, since we were going to be the first to find Miles. With any luck, we could get him in there with his friends and then deal with that whole thing later.
I still couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t thought more about the boy and his whole situation. It hadn’t even really occurred to me to wonder about him and his whole family situation, despite Fossor being dead. Was that just… was it Denuvus? Had Denuvus done something to me and I didn’t even remember? I had no idea, but the very concept on its own was a bit terrifying. She could have talked to me, could have made me forget any number of things. When? What had she done? What was she–
Pushing all those thoughts out of my mind, I started moving.The other three kept up, as we headed through the same tunnel Miles had taken. There wasn’t time to do anything about the unconscious troops littering that exposed area to the side, so we just ignored them. Which was sort of what we were doing about the question of who had beat them up in the first place. We still didn’t have any answers to that, and none were presenting themselves.
Obviously, we were keeping our eyes open for any more of those runes, or anything else that could have been a trap. I also kept glancing toward Shiori to see if she sensed anyone watching us, but there was nothing. Honestly, that worried me more than if there had been someone watching, in a way. Miles had to have gotten back there by now, right? He must have warned her. So where was her reaction? The longer this went without saying anything, the more concerned I was about what her eventual response would be.
The four of us (five with Tabbris chilling out within me) ran up a winding, gradually sloping tunnel that seemed to lead somewhere above ground at first, but then went even higher. We had to be inside the volcano by this point. I could still see Miles’ footprints in the dirt from his quick retreat. From that, it didn’t look as though he’d slowed down at all at any point. The prints were far apart, so he’d obviously been running the whole time. And they were deep enough that it had been a hard run. His feet had come down firmly on each spot. He wasn’t faltering or turning back. He was just full-on sprinting up this tunnel. I hoped that would mean he hadn’t taken the time to put down any traps or other surprises, but we still kept our eyes open.
It turned out to be a good thing we did too, since there really was a trap. Asenath spotted it first, catching Shiori and me by the arms while sticking a leg out to block Twister. Then she nodded toward a very small, almost completely imperceptible rune symbol near the bottom of the wall ahead. It looked more like a cave drawing than anything dangerous. Still, we weren’t about to take anything for granted. That tiny symbol could do any number of things.
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Squinting that way, I asked. Tabs, any idea what that thing does?
There was a momentary pause while my little sister considered it before she tentatively replied, I’m pretty sure when you pass it, the thing triggers a cage. A pocket dimension cage.
Well that’s not very nice, Shiori put in. We all exchanged looks, before I produced what looked like a small plastic water pistol that fit in my pocket. There were several wires around the barrel, leading into a couple batteries attached to the side. It was a little gift from Avalon. Taking aim with the thing, I pulled the trigger. A blast of gel-like liquid shot out, covering the rune in slime just before several sparks of electricity jolted across it. Then the slime turned to dust and faded away, leaving the wall bare. It got rid of the spell, just as Valley had promised. Apparently the thing didn’t work with really powerful magic, but for simple traps like this, it would do just fine.
Once we were sure it was safely disabled, we moved on. There were several more similar traps on the way, but we spotted them all and disabled them while continuing to make our way up that tunnel as quickly as possible. None of these things were anything big. They were meant to slow us down slightly. Which really worried me even more. If all Denuvus cared about was delaying us a bit, that had to mean she was close to getting what she wanted. And I was pretty sure we were not going to be happy about her getting it.
On the way, I checked in with the others. They had gone all the way down through that chute and came out in some other cavern much deeper underground. Persephone and Robin weren’t there, but they had found an assortment of footprints leading off through another tunnel and were following them. From the prints, it looked like there were more than just those two, so others had been down there to meet them. Whether Robin and Persephone had been taken prisoner (somehow) or were being helped, we had no idea. Judas, Stasia, and Rahanvael would update us when they found anything new.
Finally, we reached the top of the tunnel, and found a metal wall blocking our way. We tried knocking it down, to no avail. The thing was really thick. Asenath even attempted to cut through it with Bobbi’s power, but it didn’t work. I summoned a couple ghosts to go through, and they were blocked as well. Nor could I touch the thing in order to use that power I had to mark objects and see through them in order to check the other side. There was some sort of shield around it, as well as the nearby walls (we tried to send the ghosts around the metal wall). All of which meant we had no way to go through the damn thing.
Or rather, almost no way.
Tabbris, you’re up, I announced. Then I stepped out of the way with the others, while Tabs hopped out of me. She focused intently, producing her wings once more. They glowed bright enough that the rest of us had to glance away for a moment, while the younger girl pushed the wings forward. She cut a large hole right through the wall and let the metal piece crash to the floor. Despite all the trouble we’d had, it only took her a couple seconds. Which was good, since that was basically all the time she could keep them out. A moment later, they fizzled and faded away. It would be a few minutes before she could use them again. But now we were through that, and hopefully wouldn’t run into anything else blocking us from reaching the manipulative bitch ahead.
Tabbris stayed out of me for the moment, and the five of us kept going. Moving through the hole she had made, we found ourselves in what looked an awful lot like a classroom back on Earth. We’d come through into the back of the room, behind several desks and chairs that were lined up in front of a white board. The larger desk there, clearly meant for the teacher, had an apple sitting on it, next to a woman who was perched on the edge. She was clearly waiting for us.
Denuvus. It had to be Denuvus. I didn’t trust that this was her normal appearance, but at the moment she had short dark hair and appeared to be only an inch or two taller than me. Her skin had an olive complexion. Deep brown eyes seemed to study me intently while a tiny smile played at her mouth.
The second I saw her, everything else flew out of my head. All I knew in that moment was this was the woman who took my mother away again, who had forced her to do things against her will. My staff appeared in my hand as I lunged that way, only to immediately rebound off of an invisible force field just a few feet in from the hole we had made.
Shiori and Tabbris each grabbed one of my arms to stop me from falling backward after I hit that shield. Asenath and Twister, meanwhile, punched it themselves, to no avail. With a thought, I summoned Seth and sent him that way, but just like the field that had been around the wall, ghosts couldn’t go through this one either.
Denuvus watched all that with what looked like curiosity, then opened her mouth to speak. But our spell was still up, muting her voice. Clearly realizing that immediately, the woman gave us a put-upon look before gesturing. Behind her, words appeared on that whiteboard reading, ‘Really? This is just going to make communication more difficult.’
Shaking my head, I thought intently her way. I can communicate without words just fine. Why don’t you take down this shield and I’ll show you with my staff.
Visibly chuckling at the threat, the woman offered a shrug as more words appeared. ‘I suppose all these precautions mean I don’t need to introduce myself. At least tell me where your friend is, the one who helped you stop my backup troops. That one caught me by surprise.’
Oookay, so she didn’t know what the deal with that was either. Rather than address that however, I exchanged a glance with the others before replying, I’d say probably where you least expect them to be. Now why don’t you tell us where my mom, Nevada, and Mercury are, and what you’re doing here, or Tabbris is gonna wing blast this shield down whether you’re in the way or not.
Again, the previous words on the board finished, before more appeared. ‘Oh, I don’t think she’ll be doing that, at least not for the next few minutes. Why do you think I put the first shield and wall there to begin with? Couldn’t have you cheating your way to me that easily.’
Well of course that had been her plan. Swallowing back my frustration, I took a second to find the right words. But Senny spoke up first. What are you doing here? Why did you have Joselyn bring the other two and come here in the first place? What are you looking for?
Denuvus seemed to be considering those questions, leaning back on the desk before picking up the apple. She tossed it up and down a couple times thoughtfully, finally taking a bite as more words appeared. ‘Well, first things first, I should tell you that your mother is fine and I was always planning on returning her to you when I was done. And I am sorry for what Fossor did for all those years. A parent and their children should never be ripped apart like that. Not for that long.’
After we had read that much, the words changed. ‘Now you want to know why I had your mother bring those two here with her. And, I assume, why Rasputin has come as well.’
Rather than reply telepathically, I simply met the woman’s gaze and gave a short nod. I hadn’t even been certain that Denuvus knew anything about Rasputin. But I wasn’t going to tell her that. Especially since if we could keep her ‘talking’ long enough, Tabbris’s wings would recharge.
Thankfully, the woman seemed to be in an explaining things mood. More words appeared on the board. ‘If you want to know the truth about why we’re all here, you have to know the truth about this world’s history. You have to know why it produced a necromancer as powerful as Fossor, and why that talent is so prevalent in these people in general. It’s the whole reason Ehn had the Gehenna prison built here first to begin with.’
That made me do a double-take. Ehn is a prisoner, he doesn’t get to decide where the prisons are built.
Denuvus chuckled as the board continued to get new words. ‘And if you believe that, I have a great bridge to sell you.’
She rolled her eyes pointedly then, shifting to stand up while pointing at the next words. ‘Have you ever wondered why Fossor and the people of this world look completely human? They don’t, of course. They look Seosten. Because they are. Or they were. They share a common ancestor, long in the past. When Cronus was first… infecting the Seosten with what would eventually become their possession ability, a large group fled their home world on a very experimental spaceship. They remained what they would call pure and eventually came to this planet. Here, they originally planned to regroup and develop new weapons to regain their home world from Cronus. But when they learned about the changes that happened to their own people, they chose to stay away.
‘Despite that, the original settlers still planned ways of defeating Cronus. Over the centuries, however, most gave up on that plan and the history of where they had come from was forgotten. But some continued their original work. And they succeeded, in theory. They created a way to defeat not only Cronus, but the Fomorians as a whole, a way to save the entire universe from the Fomorian scourge forever. And now that way is standing right in this room. Right there.’
And with that, Denuvus released her hand and pointed at me.