by Plum Pascal
“He isn’t thinking. He’s being controlled by someone who’s doing the thinking for him. Same thing with Variant,” Aima demands.
“You sound as though you have this whole thing figured out.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t, but I’ve figured out that much.
“Then who is controlling Theren?”
“I don’t know.” She takes a deep breath. “I want to see Theren as much as you do, but I was just in Oronrel and he wasn’t there.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I love him and I would sense him the moment I stepped inside the palace!” She knocks my blade to the ground again and drops her sword, as well. Then she shoves my chest with unexpected strength, causing me to fall before she climbs on top of me and uses her weight to pin me down.
“I know it hurts to hear me say that, but I do. I love him,” she says.
“It doesn’t hurt me to hear you say that.”
“Once upon a time it did.”
I cock my head to the side as I consider her words. “Once upon a time it did, but that time is long ago.” I take a deep breath. “Your love for Theren will get you killed.”
She shakes her head. “No, it won’t.”
I flip her over, locking my arms around her neck. “What do you know about my brother?”
“He’s breaking, Cambion,” Aima responds. “Variant will win if he attacks Oronrel, and Theren doesn’t care. Theren’s going after the throne of the gods and he’ll kill anyone who stands in his way. He seeks to destroy Abedon or he’ll die trying.”
“Abedon is dead.”
She chuckles darkly. “Might want to ask Morrigan that question again.”
I release Aima and help her to her feet. She grabs her sword and tosses mine to me. My lungs burn and my chest heaves, as I try to draw enough breath to soothe the disbelief coursing through me. “You’re saying that Morrigan lied?”
“We grew up together, Cambion. You, me, and Theren were like three beings who shared the same soul. The Midnight Queen practically raised us, but Theren and I always saw her for what she was,” Aima claims. “You never did.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she’s manipulating the game, Cambion. Open your eyes and you’ll see she’s pitting you against everyone so you’re isolated. And isolated means you’re easier to pick off.”
“Leave me,” I say, suddenly angry.
“No,” she insists. “You need to come clean to Eilish and face the truth about Morrigan.”
“I said, leave me.” My shoulders slump and Aima tilts my chin up to gaze into my eyes.
“Morrigan has a plan. Variant has a plan. Theren has a plan. What’s yours?”
“I’m figuring it out.”
She shakes her head. “If you open your eyes, you’ll see that all of us are ready to fight beside you. Even me.”
“You don’t love me.”
“And you don’t love me. Not anymore.” She smiles and shakes her head. “Help them figure out the book of prophecies they’re losing their minds over.”
“The book of prophecies?” I repeat.
“Ask Pyre,” she says and takes a deep breath. “But, let me handle Theren.”
“You’re going back?”
“I always go back to Theren, even if I shouldn’t.”
“He isn’t right for you, Aima.”
“Neither were you, Cambion.” She takes a deep breath and faces me with a serious expression. “I’ll find the one I’m supposed to be with. You will, too, if you pull your head out of your ass long enough to see what’s been standing in front of you.”
We walk back to the cottage together, arriving just in time to see Eilish and Dragan return as well. She makes no effort to acknowledge me. It’s what I want and it’s what I’ve encouraged her to do, to ignore me. But it’s upsetting, nonetheless.
SIXTEEN
Baron
The Veil
The dark room between the library and the second bathing room is faintly lit by a small candle at the center of the table. Stacks of crates clutter the corners, and there are no windows here. I sit at the table with Flumph, Noni, and Pyre as we discuss what to do about the Midnight Queen. My head is spinning as a million questions rattle around in my brain.
Flumph says Morrigan keeps using the word “ineffable,” and I’m starting to understand why. We’ve poured over the ancient scrolls and texts for hours, searching for inconsistencies between the records and the Lexicon while Eilish and Dragan attempt to decipher the book of prophecies.
“I tellin’ you, she ain’t right in the head,” the sprites declares. “I were watchin’ her the other day an’ she fuckin’ did somethin’ real freaky with her eyes that made me shit myself.”
Always so dramatic.
“But we know she’s been talking to both Variant and Theren about seemingly different things. Could she be trying to pit them against one another? To see if one is more worthy to serve her purpose?” Pyre asks. “I’m thinking she might have heard her own prophecy.”
“Aima thinks she’s after Silvanus, and I agree,” I reply.
“But, why?” Eilish asks.
I face her. “Morrigan would naturally want to get rid of Silvanus because he’s the only one who knows the truth about her. The problem with that is, while we have an idea of what her next moves might be, we have no fucking clue as to why she’s doing it. Hell, she won’t even tell me the real truth in the reason why I’m walking around again after Variant killed me.”
“I think I have the answer to that…” Pyre says as he reaches into his robes and pulls out a ratty book with strange markings on it. They are unlike the runes I’ve become accustomed to seeing in The Veil or even the Realms.
“What is that?” I ask.
“This is English. It’s a language humans used to speak before the Singularity. I took a walk through the past with a spirit the other night and came across this book hidden in the catacombs of an old church.”
“What’s it about?”
“It was written by a man who once hunted your kind, Baron. It speaks of many types of vampires and sorts out the myths from the facts about your species. Though you may think of yourself as a Revenant now, according to these texts, that’s untrue.”
“What the hell does it say, then?”
“Vampires were once said to have had two souls or two hearts. One that was killed in your mortal death, and the other that brought you back. You have a heart, Baron, but no soul. That means Morrigan knew she could reanimate you in the ways of old... witchcraft. Not necromancy—it’s very different. Necromancy requires a full death of both the heart and the soul; you were only a partial death,” Pyre explains. “With your second heart still alive, she simply had to keep your body in the earth until she needed it. In ancient times, humans used to put bars over the graves to keep vampires and ghouls from returning to the land of the living.”
“So, that explains how she was able to do it, but not why,” I say.
“I’m getting to that,” he answers while turning the pages. “In this form, you have the ability to use your body as a vessel, to house souls that haven’t crossed into The Veil. Morrigan has the ability to project her soul outside her body, which is how she contacts Variant. But... if she regains her full power, she could project her soul and possess you, use your strength and abilities for herself, and you would be helpless. Without a soul to combat hers, you would die again. And while your heart still beats within your body, your conscience would go into darkness—”
“Then I become a true Revenant.”
“What the fucks that mean?” Flumph asks.
“It means I would haunt those around me and feed like a ravenous beast, creating more of my kind.”
“Yes,” Pyre agrees. “You wouldn’t be yourself any longer, but a shadow on the wind that brings death to those unlucky enough to cross your path.”
I lean back in my chair and close my eyes. “We can’t let Morrigan get her powe
rs back.”
“Wait! Wait!” Noni jumps up onto the table from her seat and walks over to Pyre. “Master, if Mr. Baron be a vessel, then so can the angel, right? She able to pull stuff inside her and hold it ‘cause she a succubus, right?”
Pyre goes quiet and my mind starts racing once more. Morrigan could use Eilish as a receptacle of power, to absorb power with her succubae abilities and then wield the force of it with her angel gifts. Like a never-ending font, a well Morrigan could tap into whenever she pleased.
Pyre must be thinking along the same lines, because he shakes his head in disbelief. I stand to take my leave as Pyre assigns Flumph and Noni their duties. Both the sprite and the brownie promise not to let anything spoken here be mentioned outside this warded room.
Pyre and I meet in the clearing. I whistle to get Eilish’s attention, where she sits on a patch of grass beneath a large tree, reading. She shuts the book in her lap.
“What is it?”
“Time to start training you,” I reply. Those words are even truer now that we have some inkling as to what Morrigan may be up to. “Pyre will train your abilities and I will train you to fight, but you need to know how to do both at the same time.”
She huffs, but I see her lips twitch a little. “All right, what first?”
“Show me what you know already—what Dragan already taught you earlier. I need to know where you’re at in terms of skill and instinct.” I circle her, watching as she strikes, giving her directions that make her hiss in irritation, but the angrier she gets, the better she fights—most probably owing to the succubus. I like that about her. There’s a natural strength to Eilish that she’s unaware of.
“Strike with your entire body or else you’ll just tire your arms. You’re smaller than most creatures you’ll be up against, so throw all your weight into the attacks and save your strength for defending.” I grab her arm and throw her. She hits the ground with a roll and pops back to her feet, but I see she’s favoring her left side.
“You were holding back on me before…” she accuses, looking even more irritated than before. “What’s the point in training me, if you don’t attack me as fiercely as an enemy would?”
“You make a good point,” I say and make the decision not to go easy on her again. As soon as I speak the last word, Pyre hurls a spell at her. Eilish has the sense to duck out of the way, but I can see the uncertainty in her eyes—she knows the stakes just got higher.
No more pulling punches.
###
Dragan
Pyre has begun referring to Eilish’s angel abilities as a “miracle,” and even then I don’t think the word suffices. She is amazing. I watch her miracle herself to mimic her surroundings, allowing her to sneak up on Revenant as he sharpens his daggers. I’ve seen other angels use a similar ability on the battlefield, but none were quite as skilled as Eilish. She presses her blade to the vampire’s throat and he gives a deep chuckle before tossing her to the ground. Eilish stands calmly and miracles the dagger into her hand the way Noni taught her. The smile on her lovely face causes my heart to clench. We continue to grow closer each day, but I fear what’s becoming of her as another strand of hair turns to inky black in the midst of her pale locks.
“When you’re stronger, you may be able to pull the life force from someone without bedding them,” Pyre says to Eilish. “A simple touch could drain your enemy and leave them dead at your feet. So far, we know you can summon a red smoke to bewitch and beguile, but it also helped leach the pain from Kolvar. This leads me to believe there are endless possibilities.”
“I’m getting better at the miracle thing as well, but it drains me if I use it too much.”
“Very good, Eilish.”
She beams under his praise and I see a faint glow surrounding her. In the darkness of The Veil, she appears like a star in the night sky. This... this is more beguiling than any succubae powers in the Realms. I return to the cottage and sit in the chair beside the fire. Morrigan shuffles weakly from her bedchamber, still not quite able to do much more than take her meals and socialize for a few hours.
“Good evening, Dragan,” she says with a quirk of her lips.
I reply with a grunt, but she doesn’t take offense. Part of me wishes to believe that Morrigan isn’t the sort to abandon her charges, but then again, how well do any of us really know her anymore? “Is it worth so many secrets? So much pain and anguish in the Realms?” I find myself asking.
“What do you mean?”
“This... great plan that you’re privy to that none of the rest of us are,” I clarify. “Is it worth the destruction and loss that precedes the glory? Because, unlike you, I’ve been out there, and I’ve seen the toll that losing the war has taken on everyone in the Realms.”
“Whatever this plan is, I hope it is worth it. And, as for my knowledge of such plan, I know very little. My hesitance to tell you and the others stems from caution only, Dragan, not malice.” Morrigan folds her hands in her lap and sighs. Like Revenant and Eilish, I have questions for the Midnight Queen. I was seduced and enslaved by Lamia and her daughters—something that Morrigan should have been there to prevent. She was supposed to ensure that the balance remained as it was, but here we are... fighting for answers that seem impossible to find.
“Have you ever heard of Lamia?”
“The queen of the succubae?” she asks. “Yes, I knew her and her daughters.”
“Did you know that I was the one who killed them? That I nearly wiped out an entire race to seek my vengeance?” My words don’t seem to surprise Morrigan. I feel myself growing more suspicious of her. Did she know that Lamia would try to seduce me? And did she know that Lamia would succeed?
“How did this come to be?” Morrigan asks, her expression giving nothing away.
“Variant sent her. Told her to sell me pretty words to get me to turn on my allies. I’m ashamed to say she succeeded.”
Before either of us can say any more, Kolvar opens the door to the cottage. Though I don’t fully trust anyone around me, it’s good to see him well.
He crosses his arms over his barrel chest and grins from ear to ear. “Wanna spar, gargoyle? I heard your sort are skilled fighters. Bet I could give you a beatin’ that’ll have you cryin’ like a baby,” the satyr snorts.
I nod with a smile. This is exactly the thing I need to calm my racing mind. “You’ll regret challenging me, asshole.”
SEVENTEEN
Flumph
The Veil
The cottage smell real sweet-like, all sugary and chocolatey and stuffs. My round little belly growl an’ Noni come runnin’ into the Mother Heifer’s room with a plate o’ cookies. I up here’s ‘cause Pyre told Noni an’ me ta keep an eye on the Queen bitch so that what I’m doin’.
Them cookies lookin’ real tasty, but I don’t asks her for none. I can’t start treatin’ her different ‘cause we sayin’ we friends an’ all. Then she gonna go an’ get a bigger head than whats she already got.
Noni climb up to the window by me an’ then summon the plate o’ cookies up to us. She wave one big one in my fuckin’ face, tryin’ to tempt me an’ whatsnot. It look real good, with chunks o’ chocolatey bits.
Queen bitch ain’t doin’ much. She sound asleep across the room, snorin’ even.
“Want a cookie, Mr. Flumph? Noni make them real special for her friend.”
“Maybe.”
“Noni make the cookies with dark chocolate pieces to make them real extra special for Mr. Flumph.”
I take the cookie from her hand an’ gives it a little nibble, hopin’ she ain’t tryin’ to poison me or somethin’. “HOLY FUCK THESE GOOD!” Thems explodin’ on my tongue like the best damn cookie I done ever had. I love chocolate, most sprite do, but this better than anythin’. I looks over an’ Noni grinnin’ at me again, so I shoves a cookie in her face.
“What Mr. Flumph do before he join Mr. Dragan?”
I don’t like thinkin’ bout my time with Anona, but Noni been nice to me.
An’ I know she ain’t gonna tells nobody if I real honest. “I work for a butt-ugly demon an’ a clusterfuck o’ her demon pissheads that didn’t treat me good. I were their slave. They tell me what to do, all bitchy-like, till I don’t think I worth nothin’ but the scraps o’ food Anona feed me.”
“Oh, no! Was Mr. Flumph scared?” Noni ask.
“...I was... back then, but not no more. I ain’t the same as I were. Fetchin’ water an’ haulin’ bowls o’ slop around were better than gettin’ kicked in the head. But when Anona start bringin’ in ladies, ones that don’t got nowheres else to go, an make ‘em fuck the demons for food an’ bed, that when I know I gotta gets outta there.” I munch on my cookie, gettin’ crumbs on my little tunic an’ the window. “Only when Pretty get there that I finally do somethin’ bout it.”
“Noni understands,” she say. “The naughty king used to be Noni master. He very mean to her, make her do things she didn’t want to do, and he hit Noni. When things got really bad, he get mad at Noni and make her leave the castle. She almost starve when the soldiers trample her. When Master find Noni, that be the best day ever. Noni love Master.”
“What the naughty king makes you do?”
“Noni was told to pull the carts with the wings on them to the trophy room and put them in the shiny boxes on the wall. She have to use her magics on other faeries and spy for him.”
“Ain’t you spyin’ now?” I asks in a real soft voice as I look over at Mother Heifer. But she still passed the fuck out an’ droll even be rollin’ down her chin.
“Oh, this different. Noni want to do this. Before, Noni spying got other faeries taken to the big sphere they call the Threst. Noni never been inside, but no faerie that go in there come back out.” The little brownie shiver, an’ I pats her hand. Maybe we is friends. Maybe Noni more like me than I think. She smile, an’ we get back to watchin’ the Mother Heifer where she sleep.
She been real quiet lately, not talkin’ to mirrors or projectin’ in her sleep like before. It borin’ an’ I rather be out watchin’ the satyr gettin’ him’s butt kicked, but I gots a job to do an’ I’m gonna do it.