Far, far away from where a young dryad lay down in the grass and wept to hear the world speak to her once more, the bard fumed. It had been a whole month since Erebus had stepped through his portal to Avalon and since then there’d been nothing. Worse they hadn’t dared spy on their other interest, Questing Beasts were simply too dangerous to mess with, especially one an immortal had all but admitted to being unbeatable.
They had other projects of course, some of them years in the making. Right now it was one of those projects they had deferred to. It was common knowledge that the mission that had turned Erebus from a powerful battlemage to the kind of being who stared down demon lords without blinking had been the result of a terrible accident.
Erebus might have never looked much further than the official report, a simple untracked mark in a ledger had let to a mage on the verge of elemental apotheosis never getting the letter to recall them to Vulcanus. The clerk responsible had been fired and that had apparently been that.
The bard knew this was a lie. They’d checked the records meticulously, not just of Vulcanus but of every major elemental cult who’s records they could get, either by requisition, by them being publicly accessible or by theft when no other choice had presented itself.
They had confirmed years ago what Amara, Natalya and Erebus had only just began to suspect, a conspiracy amongst the elemental cults. The number of failed and uncontrolled apotheosis had tripled over the last century.
A failed apotheosis wasn’t so bad, at least in terms of collateral damage, the mage, unable to contain the terrible power coursing through them would simply be consumed by it, leaving little but ash, snow or some other detritus attributable to the element in question. Uncontrolled was a lot worse.
Their minds ravaged by their power, often literally being brain damaged in the process, the mage would lash out in pain, destroying everything in their path until they either stabilised or died.
It was possible that the rise in incidents was just coincidence but the bard would have bet a fortune beyond measure that it wasn’t.
And the attempt to kill Amara was likely the final piece of the puzzle they’d been waiting on. With no way to harm Erebus the bard had decided to help him instead, it hurt them not at all which of their enemies died when the two collided.
*
“That was unpleasant.” Susan’s quiet voice said from beside Erebus, the shadow seemed smaller, hunched even, compared to her earlier self. The necromancer had to do a double-take as he realized something that was more than a little disconcerting, the entire time they’d been in Avalon he hadn’t even once noticed that Susan was with them. He wasn’t the only one, Lana even going so far as to half-draw her blade before she remembered that Susan was on their side. Amara hadn’t even noticed, they’d emerged in daylight and it had taken her a second to get her hood up and she was currently trying to put out the flames.
“I should have thought of that.” Erebus admitted, rubbing tiredly at his eyes, and it wasn’t a physical tiredness. “The highest form of a shadow… when you don’t notice it at all.”
“Beats being some sort of annihilator.” She shrugged, “That was… risky, what if Avalon had enhanced the more destructive side of my nature?”
“It hadn’t even occurred to me. Or rather it had but I assumed that you would be immune to Avalon’s glamour.”
She laughed, “Breaking news, read all about it, the great Erebus is not in fact omniscient.”
“Don’t let him off the hook that easily,” Natalya interjected, “what’s this about an annihilator?”
“Anything I touch, living at least, and inanimate if I focus on it, is destroyed instantly, or absorbed, I’ve never been entirely sure which it is.” Susan explained, and it was a good thing they couldn’t see her eyes roll as everyone but Erebus and Lana took two sharp steps away from the hole in the world.
The older necromancer whirled upon her former subordinate, “And you thought it was a good idea to bring her into Avalon?”
“My assumption was that she would consume the glamour as well.” Erebus explained, the words as mild as he could make them.
“So you’re telling me we just came a coin flip away from just ending an entire plane of existence, with us in it?” There was a real edge in Natalya’s voice, the kind you could shave with.
“That would be accurate yes. Good thing that didn’t happen.” The younger necromancer apparently determined not to help his case.
“If you were still part of my squad I wouldn’t even wait for the trial, I’d end you here and now.” She growled, mayhem in her eyes.
“I did have some assurances.” Erebus told her calmly, before pointing his chin at Lana, “She would have warned us if Susan represented such a threat, that or killed her herself, no offence Sue.”
“None taken.” The shadow said quickly, the former umbramancer was carefully stepping her way through the group to outskirts so as to avoid the risk of accidental contact, leaving a trail of grass that was simply gone in her wake, perfect footprints, like an artist’s impression of someone walking through the sand barefoot.
“Is this true, demon?” Nat demanded, not placated quite yet.
“Of course, the child of oblivion was never meant as a destroyer. The adversary simply lacks the artifice to create a less dangerous tool.” Lana drawled, as if speaking to a particularly slow student.
“The adversary?” For once it wasn’t Alec nor Holly asking the obvious question. Natalya was a master necromancer and had faced just about every enemy Reath had to offer at one point of her centuries long career, but she’d never been one for offworld travel.
Reath offered more than enough problems without bringing interdimensional politics into it.
“The last primordial? The encroaching darkness? The great annihilator? Devourer of realities? The all consuming one?” Lana tried, growling in frustration as she saw not a glimmer of recognition in their eyes before turning her literally glowing gaze upon Erebus, “You surround yourself with mayflies. It ill becomes you.”
“They’re my friends Lana. Just like you. Treat them accordingly.” The necromancer stated, it wasn’t an order, orders could be refused, this was simply a statement of how things were going to be and the demoness narrowed her cat-slitted eyes at him before looking away. In that moment Erebus could probably have won a staring contest with a gorgon.
“The adversary” Lana continued as if nothing had just happened, pride demons quite literally knew no shame, “desires the destruction of all life, all worlds, all realities, their hunger so endless they consumed their own name. They consume realities, leaving nothing. Back during the Primordial War, or so legend has it, as the last titan fell against it and the last of the Old Ones, Great V’larnoth, The Hungering One was themselves consumed in a brutal attempt to out-eat the other, the gods saw that defeat was inevitable. So they created Reath, and forged it with a thousand thousand chains such that the adversary could never step foot upon it, not so long as even one chain remains.”
“This is a fairy tale.” Natalya snorted, “Folklore and nothing more.”
The demoness smiled, showing far too many razor sharp teeth, “But the adversary was cunning, they created agents, creatures that reflected its devouring nature, that could reproduce and thrive in the hostile worlds that surrounded Reath. You came to call these agents demons. Alas they made them too well, daemonkind could indeed thrive in the hells, but the devouring one’s hunger was endless and its patience non-existent. It began consuming the hells with its own servants still inside them.”
Lana smirked, pleased to see her audience enraptured, “We rebelled, naturally. But its hunger is never-ending and the eternal darkness encroaches upon our worlds more every day, held back by a few beacons, imperators like the demon I served and Erebus apprenticed under. It’s why we covet Reath above all things, here, and here alone, the adversary cannot reach, in person at least.”
“They created new agents, this time shorn of personality, of will, tiny fragments of itself kept safe inside the shell of a victim’s hollowed out soul, like Susan here.” Lana smiled, “I suppose technically that makes us cousins.”
“That makes no sense.” Amara objected, “Susan still seems like, well, Susan.”
“She got incredibly lucky. Her rescue confirms a few things, that the shadows cannot convert their victims, or they would have done so, so my master concludes that the work is done by the adversary personally. It has been… distracted of late. The imperators have been attempting a counter-offensive and it has, presumably, had little time for Reath, content to let its unseen hands work for it.”
“What are imperators?” Holly asked, going so far as to raise her hand to try and get the demoness’ attention.
“You would know them as demon kings. Bearers of ignited chaos, much as the fae queens and king bear their shards of reflection and the gods had their divine sparks.” Lana explained having to resist the urge to facepalm at their blank expressions, which was probably for the best, with just how spiky the armour was it would likely prove painful.
“It’s all just a stupid translation error, back when daemonkind and humanity were still at the getting to know you stage of things, well the first devil summoned was male and was asked to explain daemonic politics, devils, imperators, that kind of things. Bear in mind he had almost as little knowledge of you as you did of him, so he, like an idiot, asks what the highest rank in the land is and they tell him it’s a king. Boom, imperators become demon kings and devils become demon lords.” Lana managed to an impressive amount of derision into the explanation, “We still haven’t let Amelon live that down.”
“So what is a devil?” The dryad pressed.
Erebus, for once, cut the lesson off, “Table it for later, the point is that Susan isn’t a threat unless she chooses to be. Now we need to get inside that wall.”
“Seems like standard enchanted masonry, no actual spells of containment in the mix, nothing offensive or particularly defensive. For a death zone it’s very lightly contained.” Sato noted, reading the runes from a distance, “Where did you bring us?”
“Forsaken Valda.” The necromancer said, beginning to walk around the wall and beckoning the others to follow him, “Don’t worry, there’s a gate on the other side.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“It’s not having to get over the wall that’s worrying me.” Sato told him, “That place is a deathtrap.”
“You couldn’t have picked somewhere that at least has a survival rate? Forlorn Ulyss? The Abellian Abyss? Malice’s Cottage?” Natalya added for good measure.
“I’ve got a hunch that I know what’s inside.” Erebus assured them.
“Oh a hunch. Marvellous. Hey everyone there’s no need to be worried about the certain death inside because Erebus here has a hunch.” Nat practically spat.
“Sarcasm is beneath you.” The other necromancer retorted loftily.
“So is getting murdered by an unknown monster. Seriously, nothing has every walked out of there. Everyone who steps inside just vanishes without trace.” She hissed, though she was still walking with him towards the entrance.
“I have a hunch.” Erebus repeated.
“It had better be a damn good hunch, because you’re about to bet all of our lives on it.”
“Just trust me Nat, this is the last step and then I’ll tell you all everything, we’re nearly there.” He took her hand in his, squeezing gently, “Please.”
Natalya all but tore her hand away from him, “Fine. Fine, but you really are pushing this. Amara and I want our lives back and I’ve really starting to wonder if the easiest way is just to do their job for them and kill you.”
The necromancer paused, “Please don’t do that.”
“Then give me a reason not to.” She snapped, “One more evasion, one more ‘not right now’ and I will take drastic action.”
“You won’t survive it.” Lana told her, the demoness all but breathing down her neck.
Natalya wasn’t taking that lying down either, stepping back and away, the tip of her staff pointed at Lana’s forehead, the smooth, green sphere atop it beginning to glow azure. “Oh don’t get me started on you.”
“Please, get started.” The target of her new ire invited, seeming more amused at the threat than insulted or concerned.
“Why should we even begin to trust you? Even if we take everything you just told us to be true, and that’s a big if, you more or less just admitted that your people want to invade Reath, that it is, in fact, their top priority.”
It was, Alec had to admit, a good point. The demoness certainly made him uncomfortable, and not just because she was dangerous to walk close to, it was the way she looked at him, at all of them really. It wasn’t predatory, that he could have lived with quite easily, supernatural predators were practically in the majority in Seruatis, but when Lana looked at him it was like he wasn’t really there, not really a person, just a piece on a board to be moved and eventually discarded.
It was only different with Erebus, there, and there alone, her gaze softened and the permanent superior smirk became something a little more genuine and less practiced. If Reath were a chess board then Erebus would have been the king, to be protected and guided to where it was safest, which, Alec supposed, would have made Lana the queen. Somehow he doubted he and Holly even qualified as pawns.
“You shouldn’t trust me.” Lana told them, gazing sweeping imperiously over the assembled mages, “Trust is for fools and the newly spawned. Even my own master trusts me not, and she charged me with protecting her prize pupil all the same, because it matters, not just for your petty little world but for all the worlds. The prophecy he wishes to tell you of, once you are safe enough to make plans, is a prophecy of apocalypse.”
Alice sighed, rubbing at her eyes with liver-spotted fingers, even as Amara and Natalya looked to Erebus for confirmation, the necromancer nodding reluctantly. Sato, as always, watched unperturbed, it was a poor precog who could not conceal their reactions.
“I’ve told you how important Reath is on a cosmic level.” Lana continued, “Something threatens the one safehouse in the entire multiverse. That is my priority and I will gladly sacrifice each and every one of you to achieve it, on that you can trust me. Once we are inside I presume my charge shall give you the prophecy verbatim. Are you concerns addressed, Natalya of the Gardeners?”
“For now.”
“Good then let us continue, I have been looking forwards to finding what makes this place a death zone. Though I suspect there will be little sport in it, even the greatest hunters lose prey betimes, likely the threat is environmental.”
Noone felt much like talking after that dire pronouncement, the doorway into the death zone soon appearing, a thin, archway, big enough for one person and no more. Again there was no great protective magics, just words above the arch, bespelled to be comprehensible in every language:
‘Within lies nothing but death. We do not know the cause or the source but nothing returns past this point.’
“They’re really not going to try and stop us?” Alec asked, a little stunned that a place that apparently just killed people didn’t even have a guard.
“With what manpower?” Surprisingly it was Sato who answered, which a cynic might interpret as whoever answered it in the timeline his eyes were seeing gave a bad one. “Forsaken Valda is only dangerous to those fool enough to enter it, and the Council of Mages is always stretched thin. Right now for example they’re hunting a fugitive necromancer who’s hunted demon lords and threatened to wage war on Arcadia.”
Amara snorted, “That and it’s the mage way, there’s always someone who’s convinced they can do what has proved impossible before, easier to just let them try, who knows one day they might even be right.”
“That seems… irresponsible.” Alec said slowly, such a blasé attitude would certainly have been anathema under the Paladin aegis.
“It is.” Erebus said simply, “Allowing people to make their own choices is usually irresponsible, foolish and dangerous but the alternative is tyranny.”
“Surely there’s a middle ground?” The teenager asked, both stances seemed dumb to him.
“Of course there is, and thousands upon of hours have been spent arguing where that middle ground should be. This is one example, there’s a clear warning, but people can still choose to throw their lives away if they choose.”
“Like we’re about to.” Amara chimed in, “Not that I don’t trust you Ere, I do, but this seems like a risk.”
“It is, but it’s a necessary risk.” Erebus assured her, “Now everyone through the gate.”
“Oh no you don’t.” Natalya growled, “You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what again?” The younger necromancer asked innocently, whilst carefully stepping out of reach.
“The thing where you force us all through a portal except the person you want to talk to.”
“Oh that thing, well yes. There’s a possibility, a vanishingly small one, that this might involve some forbidden magic, and in that case I really can’t have anyone who isn’t part of the plan to deal with it knowing about it.” Erebus admitted.
“Because none of us have ever encountered forbidden magic before.” The elder necromancer snapped, “I think we can handle the knowledge.”
“Of course you can, but as you yourself have so heavily stressed, this is a big risk, I don’t want you all going in with my paranoias colouring your perceptions when it very well could, and probably is, something else entirely.”
“That’s… reasonable. I don’t like it but I can’t think of a good argument against it right now.” Nat conceded, “Who do you need?”
“Alec and Holly.”
“The children?!”
“I won’t say more on it, as I said it would colour your perceptions.” Erebus stated, resolute on this point.
“Fine, but can I please have my boots back now that you’re not threatening armageddon with them?”
“Of course.” There was a brief lull as various items were returned to their rightful owners.
“Now, everyone through the doorway. Lana first please, if there’s something directly harmful on the threshold you should be the most likely to resist it.”
The demoness nodded, stepping through the stone arch, and vanishing. It wasn’t a slow vanishing either or a gradual disintegration, one moment there, the next popped out of existence. Erebus winced, resisting the urge to say something like ‘I do hope I’m right about this.’
“Sato next.” He ordered, the precognizant stepping up to the archway and just stood there.
“All clear upon crossing, there’s a town in the distance which I suspect is Valda. Lana is with me, tapping her foot and looking impatient. It’s dawn here rather than midday.” With that he stepped through and too vanished.
Everyone let out breaths they hadn’t realized they were holding.
“Sh-shouldn’t we have sent Sato first?” Amara asked cautiously, not wanting to seem overly critical after the rows they’d all borne witness to.
“No. If the cause of death took longer than five seconds to appear we’d never have had a clue.” Erebus said smoothly, “that’s why I sent our toughest,” He glanced at Alice, “well second toughest. I don’t want to waste your last shift on a simple environment check.”
“Appreciated.” The old shifter growled, stepping through without being prompted.
“I was going to say Amara next, but that works too. Mar, do a quick sunlight test once you’re through.”
“Will do.” The pyromancer vanished as well.
“Me next?” Susan asked, getting a nod from Erebus before she stepped through. With her it took a little while longer, leaving a few barren footprints before her silhouette disappeared.
Natalya gave him a long look, “Whatever advice you’re planning on giving me I don’t want to hear it.” She went to step through only to step as Erebus grabbed her sable sleeve, “Let go.”
“No. This needs to be said.” He told her, calm but slightly sad, “Natalya, I’m not your subordinate any more. And no you aren’t mine either. Yes I keep secrets from you. I don’t like doing it, but the stakes I play for these days are just too high not to. You look at me and see a rogue mage, someone dangerous and out of control, and that’s simply untrue… well the dangerous part is true but I’ve never been more controlled than I am now. I want us to remain friends but you have to realise that I cannot open up to you like I used to. I can’t run every plan past you like I used to.”
“Was that it?” She demanded, pulling her sleeve free with both hands. “You’re full of crap Ere. You’re not some grand arbiter of chaos, you’re an arrogant and broken toy that one day the demon you serve will discard.” With that she too stepped through.
“I don’t serve a demon.” He told the empty space she’d been standing in, looking older and more tired than Alec had ever seen him, even when he lay dying in the Seruatis infirmary. “I don’t serve anyone anymore.” Slowly he turned to the dryad and her host, “Sorry you had to see that.”
“You said you had a task for us?” Holly asked hesitantly, trying to put her best foot forwards.
“Did I? Oh yeah, right, that.” Erebus shook his head, trying to shake loose whatever funk was gripping his thoughts, “I need one of you to stay behind.”
Alec winced, that was going to hurt, the bond became strained and narrower by any distance more than a few hundred metres (a feat he was informed was already incredible for a dryad Holly’s age), if dental drills had been invented he’d have described it as having one pressed to his temple.
“Why?” Holly asked him, not saying no but equally apprehensive.
“A few reasons,” Their mentor told them, “wherever possible always do things for multiple reasons, saves a lot of time. The first reason, and the important one, you saw how people vanished through the barrier, all at once? My guess is that it won’t be able to do that to either of you, not with part of your soul still outside the barrier.”
“That’s interesting but I don’t see what it achieves.” Holly replied.
“Well for starters it gives us a set of eyes outside the barrier, say there’s some sort of flare up or whatever they’d be able to tell us that something’s happening, and vice versa, maybe help us narrow down what the problem is.”
“What are the other reasons?” asked Alec, beating Holly by about half a second.
“It’s good training. Regularly straining the bond should allow you to be further apart without pain.” He told them. “That’s all I want from whoever goes inside with us, just practice sending things across the bond, emotions, magicka, senses, whatever, but take it seriously.”
There was a moment of silence as the pair mentally confirmed before saying as a single voice, “We’ll do it. Any other reasons?”
“One, but that one’s a secret.” Erebus assured them, “Just remember that no matter what happens you have to stay outside the barrier. Now who’s going and who’s staying?”
“I’ll stay.” Both answered heroically before glaring at each other.
“I should stay.” Holly argued, “I don’t need food or water and there’s no way of knowing how long this will take.”
“That’s all true.” Alec agreed, “But, counterpoint, you are literally the most impatient person I’ve ever met.”
“And you love learning about magic.”
“And you literally agreed to radical magical surgery so you could explore the world.”
Erebus sighed, fumbling in his pockets for a single copper piece, “Shield or skull?”
“Shield.” Holly said, moments before Alec could say the same.
The necromancer flicked the coin up, caught it, glanced at it once and put it back in his pocket. “Alec stays, Holly comes with me.”
The teenager nodded his acquiescence, taking his pack off and begin to get out his bedroll and pillow, planning to use them as a seat propped up against the wall. “Do you want the sword Hol?”
The dryad thought about it, “No I’m good, anything that can get past the mages a pigsticker wouldn’t be much good against, whereas you’d be left defenceless.”
Alec nodded, he hadn’t thought of that, or rather he’d more been focused on the fact his other half was going to be entering a place that literally had death in its description. “I’ll keep you all updated.”
Erebus nodded, “Just remember, no matter what happens on our end, you do not go through that doorway unless the only alternative is death.”
“I’ve got it sir.” Alec promised, as he settled down to stare out at the empty grassland surrounding Valda. The plantlife cut back every year or so in the interests of safety and the path long overrun.
“I mean it, even if you can’t feel the bond, even if it hurts so badly you want to die, it’s important you stay in this spot,” Erebus told him, “and don’t call me sir.”
“I can do this.” The teenager assured him one final time, resting his sheathed blade on his lap.
There was nothing more to say after that, Erebus and Holly stepped through the barrier, and then Erebus was gone. If Alec had been looking he’d have seen that Holly, and Holly alone, remained, walking in lockstep with their enigmatic mentor.