The young princess put on a bright smile, trying to defuse the situation. “There is no need for violence. Unending and Tristan have come in peace. I know they have because I feel their intentions. I feel their minds.”
“Yeah, but what if you’re not able to properly read them, huh?” Joy interjected. “If they know what you are and what you’re capable of, I wouldn’t put it past them to use various mental tricks meant to throw you for a loop.”
Loren placed a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “She has a point, child. I sense goodwill from them, as well. But it could be a trick.”
“Oh, for the love of…” Unending snapped. “I didn’t even know you people existed until an hour ago. Frankly, while I find myself fascinated by your species, I have no interest in dealing with you or your abilities. I’ve experienced your spiritually violent side many times before, and I do not wish to play football with this hornets’ nest!”
The king frowned. “That’s almost insulting.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing you never met the Spirit Bender,” I mumbled.
“Who?” Sissa asked.
Joy scoffed. “No one you should concern yourself with. He’s gone forever, and the world is better for it.” She paused and moved her focus back to Unending. “What are you doing here, if not messing with these people?”
“There’s something we need. It’s in here,” Unending replied. “One of Death’s artifacts.”
“You mean the Mixer.” Joy’s forehead smoothed. “Don’t tell me you’re running errands for Anunit. I promised her I would show no mercy if she tried any dumb tricks.”
Unending shook her head. “No. We’re not running errands for her. That’s not what this is about. It should please you to hear that we’re actually hunting her. It’s a known fact by now that Death wants Anunit more than anything. Tristan and I are using the only workable approach. The Mixer is a crucial part of it.”
“You intend to use the artifact as bait?” Joy asked. She seemed intrigued, her hostility gradually subsiding. I could tell from the way her shoulders were dropping that tension was slipping away, slowly replaced with curiosity. “I’ve thought about it myself a couple of times.”
“If Anunit was here, why didn’t you catch her?” I demanded, hands on my hips as I adopted a scolding tone. It wasn’t difficult to see where Unending was taking this conversation. We were playing Joy from a different angle while also lying through our teeth, but we kept our minds clear and our lips smiling. The shimmer from Unending’s scythe wasn’t just a sign of activity, I realized. My whole being tingled from the effect of a spell she must’ve whispered, unbeknown to anyone. “Are you doing something to shield us from the soul fae?” I asked her telepathically.
“Yes. Both Loren and Sissa are trying to read us in deeper detail, but I can hold them off for a while, just long enough for them to miss the deceptive notes in our voices,” she replied, then spoke to Joy. “Tristan is asking a very good question, Joy. If you’ve crossed paths with her, why isn’t she already in chains back on Mortis?”
The Reaper looked slightly befuddled. “She was too fast. Resourceful. I underestimated her.”
“Then you’ll absolutely support us in our endeavor to do what you couldn’t?” Unending shot back with a ruthless grin. By the stars, I loved this woman at her softest and her hardest with equal passion. It was difficult to keep up with her sometimes, but the millions of years of existence and experience that she carried within herself were my best reason to follow her lead in situations like this.
Joy had gone from fierce warrior to uncertain guardian. “I will have to verify this with Death. It would be foolish of me to trust you.”
“Why, exactly? Have we ever done anything to deceive you, or anyone else, for that matter?” Unending replied, knowing that Death had tried to keep that seal issue under wraps, given her tumultuous ego. In the meantime, she was also reaching out to Death through their spiritual connection without Joy’s knowledge. I had no idea what Unending was telling her, but I would soon find out.
“No, but—”
“By all means, consult with Death,” Unending said, unwilling to give Joy enough verbal freedom to suggest dishonesty on our part. We didn’t want the soul fae to get suspicious and poke even harder at our spirits. The magic Unending used had managed to shield us from intrusion without raising any red flags, by the looks of it. So far, so good. “I’m sure she’ll be pleased to hear you’ve had the Mixer all along. We’ll wait.”
That was an excellent blow, I realized, as Joy’s fierceness temporarily vanished, leaving her looking like a lost little lamb. Silence settled as Loren and Sissa exchanged glances. Around us, the other soul fae were doing their best to go about their business, but they still couldn’t help themselves, occasionally stealing curious glances at us. It made me smile as I listened to Unending’s voice in my head.
“Before Joy reached out to her just now. I wanted Death to get a heads-up about us having found the soul fae and about me using the Mixer as part of our first trial for Anunit. So, I told her. Our maker was obviously surprised to hear about the artifact, but she didn’t hesitate to respond, nonetheless,” Unending explained. Joy was in the process of speaking to her maker now, I noticed, as she gazed out into the distance, her lips pressing into a thin line.
“And what was her reply, exactly?” I asked.
“To keep going. Since I told Death that the trials represent our only way to accomplish our side of the mission, we’ve got her approval. After all, that was our deal. We get what we want out of Anunit, then Death gets Anunit. Fun fact, she didn’t react to our discovery of the soul fae, nor did she ask about how Joy had been involved with Spirit and the Mixer… she only said to leave this with her. My guess is she’s giving Joy the green light to let us do this properly while also chewing her ass for not disclosing the Mixer’s presence in the village from the moment it was brought here.”
“Hopefully, it will work. We’re playing a dangerous game here,” I told her. “What if she decides she doesn’t want Anunit to have the Mixer, regardless of our mission? What if she decides to pull the plug on this whole operation and just have us trap Anunit, our family plans be damned?”
“I think we should worry about that later. We have to approach this on a step by step basis and get past Joy first. Death made a point of specifying that Joy isn’t the brightest or the most stable of Reapers, but that she is, indeed, insanely powerful and obedient. Loyal to a fault, she said, adding that our family planning issues should not be shared with her. She wouldn’t understand, and she’d get frustrated over her inability to understand, and then the powder keg would blow... I mean, I don’t know how she made Joy to begin with, whose soul she copied, what abilities she put in… but if she’s telling me we have to deal with an unstable Reaper, I know we’re better off following Death’s lead on this. So, we keep the sharing of intel to a minimum, get the Mixer, and get out. On another note, I am dying to figure out exactly what purpose the soul fae are supposed to serve in this cosmic equation. If Anunit is right, and Death plans to use them to keep us all submissive someday, we obviously need to know about this. We need to prepare.”
There were many ways in which this scenario could go wrong. Death could have used the soul fae more than once until now, with minimal effort and damage to all the parties involved. She could have used them against Spirit on Visio before the Darklings’ siege. She could have used them against Unending to get her to remove the seal she’d left inside her. But she didn’t. Either weaponizing the soul fae against the Reapers was never really an option for Death, or she was waiting for something truly beyond her control to whip them out. These were the only possibilities that made sense.
Either way, Unending and I agreed to keep playing our parts. One way or another, we would get to the whole truth. Anunit was playing games of her own, and we were both determined to make sure she got her just desserts. It all depended on how much intel we were able to get out of this place and ho
w smoothly the Mixer’s extraction operation went.
Joy exhaled sharply. “Death says it’s fine.”
“Meh. Go figure,” Unending grumbled. She put her scythe away. “What were her thoughts on the Mixer being here?”
“Death said we will discuss that at another time. She only asked that I cooperate,” the Reaper replied stiffly. I figured Death would tear her a new one over this, eventually.
“Shall we consider this a clean slate, then? No issues?” Unending asked.
“How did you know about the Mixer? Anunit? No, you said you were hunting her,” Joy muttered, clearly displeased with her current position.
“Spirit told me a while back,” my wife said, her mind working like a turbo engine. “I kept it to myself because I knew you’d get in trouble with Death over this. For what it’s worth, it’s better you told her first.”
Joy hadn’t been the first to tell Death, but she didn’t need to know that. I could certainly see why Death didn’t want us to tell this Reaper too much. Something had definitely gone wrong during her creation—it was as if her whole mind wasn’t quite… there. She seemed to oscillate between groggy and hyper-alert at times. Adding territorial on top of this unstable pile and yeah, potentially explosive reactions.
“I’ve got my eyes on you, either way,” Joy warned us, but she didn’t seem as fearsome as before. Like all the other Reapers, she was accountable to Death, and if the supreme leader had decreed that we were allowed to be here, then so be it, whether Joy liked it or not. Judging by how she’d reacted, I was inclined to assume that she felt powerless at times. We’d breached her little corner of the world. We’d invaded her turf. Whether we were sanctioned to be here or not, it didn’t matter. It still irked her, and she had no problem giving us an attitude over it.
“Relax, Joy. We’re only here to get a job done,” Unending said. “We’ll get out of your hair once we have the Mixer.”
Sissa seemed content with how the conversation had progressed. “Well, I am glad it is working out. We’ve been isolated for so long, it’s actually nice to meet strangers.”
“Yes, it would be a pity if Joy had to kill you both,” Loren added, equally pleased with our current agreement. “We will be preparing for supper soon. Would you like to join us?”
Unending and I looked at each other. “I don’t see any reason not to,” I replied. “Getting to know you and your people better would be an honor. The Mixer can wait until later.”
“Absolutely,” my wife said, giving Joy a friendly smile. “Personally, I can’t wait to talk to you about that enormous scythe of yours. It’s truly a work of art.”
Joy blinked rapidly, suddenly bashful as she stared at her weapon. “Thank you, I guess.”
Much like the soul fae, this Reaper wasn’t accustomed to strangers waltzing into her village after slipping through the potentially destructive protective measures she’d put in place. She and the soul fae had only had one another for company, year after year. They didn’t go out exploring. They didn’t know what the rest of Rothko looked like. Isolation could be hurtful in the long term.
I was actually eager to better understand the soul fae’s collective psyche. I also looked forward to getting out of here as quickly as possible so we could move things along with Anunit, but my anthropological curiosity had won this tiny battle, at least for the time being.
Tristan
On the other side of the village, beyond the last of the white stone igloo-style houses, a river flowed. It had been here for only five millennia, Sissa had told us. The fountains were independent streams and endless sources of clean water, but the river had been a pleasant surprise. Apparently, a massive earthquake had rocked the entire region five thousand years ago. The soul fae had not felt a thing, protected by the death magic bubble around their community, but Joy had thought it would come as a nice change of scenery to have the newly formed river passing through.
Ever since, the soul fae had made a habit of enjoying a community dinner once a week, with nectar from the orchids pouring freely. Apparently, these flowers had certain natural properties that enhanced the senses. “From their description of this stuff, it sounds a lot like the succubi’s spiced rose water,” I said to Unending as we gathered around a massive campfire built beside the rocky riverbank.
The people were bringing fruit platters and bowls of nectar, sharing them around the fire. Unending and I stayed with Loren, Sissa, and Joy. Clusters were forming—even at this low number, the soul fae couldn’t exactly all talk over dinner. Groups were bound to happen, and it illustrated the depth of their interpersonal relationships. The soul fae I’d seen in familial packs earlier were identically gathered around their fruits and nectar, few of them crossing over to other groups. It told me that they weren’t only isolated as a community. Sure, they got along, but they mostly kept to themselves and their families, plus a close friend or two at most.
“It’s always like this?” I asked, looking at Sissa.
“Like what?”
By now, we’d learned a bit more about their history, at least as far as the past couple thousand years were concerned. The soul fae kept an archive of documents, carefully preserved in the caves beneath the village with a little help from Joy, but they didn’t dwell too much on the distant past. Even so, two millennia were enough for me to get a better idea as to what kind of people they were and how their society functioned.
Any violent inclinations or tribal skirmishes were swiftly put out by the Reaper. Peace was more or less obligatory. Few had been the instances of murder or theft, as the soul fae had made a habit of reading one another’s intentions. They had trust as a currency, trading favors and thoughts for other goods. Some of them were better at working the land, while others were excellent craftsmen. The society itself was healthy, and Joy served as an enforcer—not only against any outside forces, but also against any elements within that could cause chaos or create disruptions.
“I don’t see a big gathering, exactly,” I told Sissa. “I was expecting you’d all sit by the fire and expand your conversations to the whole village, not just the family clusters.”
“Oh. I don’t know,” Sissa replied. “We’re fine like this. The dinner itself serves mostly to have us all in our collective company, but no one expects us to bond beyond the friendships we’ve already formed.”
“Yes. And it’s a little strange,” I said, then looked to Joy. “Have they always been like this? Normally, people in settings with bigger crowds enjoy shuffling through and talking to as many others as they can throughout the evening.”
“Parties. You are basically talking about parties.” Unending chuckled.
“And festivals. Symposiums. Any large gathering where people break away from their familiar circles and interact with acquaintances or even strangers,” I said, trying not to smile.
Joy raised a skeptical eyebrow, watching the fire burn, its orange tongue licking at the night sky. “They’ve always been like this. They’re shy, if you ask me.”
“We’re very sociable,” Loren replied, frowning. “Just with a limited number of people.”
“Good grief, a whole village filled with introverts.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “No wonder you’ve been living here so well, uninterested in going out and seeing what the rest of this world has to offer.” It was interesting, to say the least, since introverts were the happiest in their safe spaces, with barely a family member or two around. The soul fae showed some similarities to the Amazonian tribes I’d studied decades ago. “Your bloodlines are strong, though,” I added. “I see you place great value on such ties.”
Sissa nodded. “We do. Family is everything to us. We think the same. We feel the same. We would never hurt one another. The same cannot be said for the others. I suppose it’s why we stick to our… clusters, as you call them.”
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad thing,” I replied. “It’s eerie but not unseen or unheard of. I’m simply expressing my fascination.”
Unending had telepathically tried to find out more about Joy’s relationship with Spirit, but the Reaper had dismissed her request, saying it belonged in the past. She clearly didn’t want to talk about it, and I wasn’t exactly shocked. Spirit must’ve charmed her, and she must’ve felt foolish and ashamed upon learning of his machinations. It was a sensitive topic.
An hour went by as Loren and Sissa told us more about their village and what they remembered from the earliest pages of soul fae history. Joy didn’t do much talking during this time, focusing mostly on watching Unending and me like a hawk. Every movement I made sparked her interest. She followed each of my wife’s wandering glances. Death may have told her to stand back and assist us, but Joy wasn’t done being suspicious of us. She didn’t have much reason for this. It had to be instinct.
I couldn’t taste any of the soul fae’s fruits—wonders of their gardens and orchards. They looked like sublime crosses between peaches and apples, but they came in the wildest variety of colors, from bright yellow to rabid pink, neon purple and lime green. They smelled amazing, with faint notes of citrus lingering in my nostrils long after I’d put the fruits back in the bowl.
The nectar, however, was something I could ingest as a vampire, though only in moderation. A few sips were enough to virtually open me up to the universe itself, my senses suddenly exploding and stretching beyond their natural limits. My head felt as light as a feather, yet I could hear the wings of a butterfly-like insect flapping half a mile away. I could see the microorganisms that dwelled around the crude green bulbs of nearby orchids—tiny beings with too many legs and caterpillar bodies. I could smell sweat of the wolf-adjacent creatures that Unending and I had seen in the jungle before we’d entered the village. The animals were circling the protective layer, unable to get in. It was an interesting fault in the magic’s design. Smell was the one sense that was constantly underestimated.
A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors Page 12