“The stories you’ve heard,” Cedrick says, “they paint a prettier picture than what really happened. Yes, some of the children of the first parents did plot to separate and imprison them so they could escape their controlling grasp. They never got the chance, though. The parents discovered their plans and retaliated. Tū and Tāwhiri didn’t start the war, the Mother and Father did. She defeated the other children and absorbed their energy. It was only the combined power of the twins, Tū and Tāwhiri, that they were able to stop them and do as much as they could.”
Cedrick shakes his head wearily. “Tū thought he could bribe the Mother into submission with a beautiful place on Earth to rule, but she refused it and ran. Tāwhiri believed he could keep control of the Father here and save the Aerling world from losing power, but he could no more stop us from weakening than kill his parents. Power does what it will no matter who wields it.”
“Tū has the Sentinels kill Aerlings to gain their power and stop either of the parents from gaining it,” Olivia says, “but he’s killing this world at the same time.”
“He is harming us greatly,” Cedrick says, “but this would have happened naturally even if he hadn’t interfered. An Aerling’s power is absorbed if they are killed—a design of the first parents in order to benefit themselves and maintain control—but when an Aerling dies naturally their power is released to the world, this world. At least, that’s how it was meant to work. The barrier stops any power trapped on Earth from returning. It does stop the Mother from using that power as well, which is a small comfort, but the loss of power has hurt us more than anything.”
Olivia and I glance at each other, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who seems confused. “But, you guys can still access some of your power through the wind spirits, right? Why is all the power trapped on Earth hurting you guys so much?”
Sighing, Cedrick runs a hand through his hair. “Aerlings are born of power…literally. We are running out of power. Soon there will be no other Aerling children. Those of us left will die off and no one will be here to contain the Father or stop the Mother. When that happens, the Mother will bring down the barrier, collect all the power on Earth, and return to the Aerling world. She’ll be so powerful at that point, she won’t stop at just collecting the stray power, she’ll suck the life right out of your world, ensuring its death, and then she’ll abandon everyone who’s left.”
Well, we already knew we had to save both worlds. Now we just understand things a little more clearly. We still need a few answers, though. “Where’s the Father?” I ask Cedrick.
Now Cedrick really looks worn out. “I’ll take you to him, but I doubt it will do you any good.”
He doesn’t elaborate. Turning around, he turns his back on the people who rely on him for answers and motions for us to follow him. I feel bad for all the Aerlings standing around looking like their feet have just been cut out from under them, but I don’t envy Cedrick the job of repairing the damage the truth will cause. He’s done the best he could. The lies wouldn’t stick forever. I’m sure he knew that, especially when he sent Mason and Olivia off to stop the Mother, but I doubt he envisioned having to explain millennia’s worth of lies without time to prepare. How do you come back from learning that your world is ending? What possible hope can he offer his people?
Four teenagers who have only a slim chance of saving anything? No, I don’t envy his position at all.
Chapter 21
Bled Dry
(Olivia)
At least I finally understand why Cedrick wanted us to repair the barrier. It’s slowly killing their world, but releasing the Mother will likely kill them all a lot faster…not to mention everyone on Earth. Knowing that doesn’t really tame my anger much. He should have explained all of this before. It wouldn’t have changed our willingness to go. Understanding would have only made it more clear how desperate the situation is. Instead, Hayden and I are losing three days just to spend a few hours here to get the answers we should have had from the beginning.
Frustrated beyond belief, I follow behind Cedrick as I silently fume. I’m sure Hayden is taking this all in with his usual calm understanding, but he doesn’t try to impose it on me. He knows me too well for that. Instead of ranting at Cedrick, I try to focus on reassuring myself that Mason and Sloane are fine and busy figuring out all kinds of things that will help piece everything together when we make it back to them.
“This is where Tāwhiri imprisoned the Father after helping to separate his parents,” Cedrick says after stopping in front of a strangely formidable door.
It looks like a normal, solid wood door. The intricate carvings and decorative scrollwork are beautiful, but the power pouring off it makes me wary of even approaching. Turning back isn’t an option, so I step forward. The heaviness of the power feels oppressive, but at the same time, familiar. I reach forward to open the door and stop.
“There’s no doorknob,” I say.
Cedrick shrugs. “I told you it wouldn’t do you much good to come here. There’s no way in. Never has been. Tāwhiri was the only one who could enter or exit the room, but he’s gone now. I have no way of letting you speak to the Father.”
This can’t be. We can’t have come all this way, lost all this time, just to be told there’s no point. We can’t just go back now with nothing more learned than that the Mother is even more deranged than we realized. How does that help us? I need real answers, and this door is the only thing stopping me from getting them. I refuse to give up that easily.
“Tāwhiri may be gone,” I say, “but his power isn’t. There has to be a way to get in.”
I turn to Cedrick for some kind of hint, but he only shrugs. “I don’t know how he got in. He visited this place regularly, but never with anyone else to witness how it was done.”
“It must to react to his power,” Hayden says as he steps up behind me.
My stomach clenches. “But I don’t know how to access his power. It’s just sitting there doing nothing.”
“All you can do is try,” Hayden says.
He’s right, but I’m suddenly fearful of making the attempt. What if it doesn’t work? Will that mean the end to this mission…failure? Even if it does work, then I have to face one of the most powerful beings in either of our worlds. He could tell me anything. It could all be lies, or it could all be true. The truth won’t necessarily make anything better. The truth could be worse than finding out nothing at all.
Hayden puts his hand gently on my shoulder. That’s all he does, but it’s enough. The thoughts racing through my mind slow down. All my focus turns inward, to where Tāwhiri’s power is nestled around my heart. When I explored Mason, I found his well of power in his head. At first, I wondered why that was, but I remembered Tāwhiri saying how my natural empathy led to me becoming a Seeker. Mason has always been more analytical—underneath his pranking-loving, laid back exterior. He thinks things through very deeply. If power lends itself toward natural inclinations, it makes sense that Tāwhiri’s power would choose such different spots. I feel instinctively that I need to make use of that knowledge, now.
Reaching forward, I press my hand to the door. I try not to think about all the questions, the half-answered puzzles, or the confusion. I can’t think my way through this door. I have to feel it. With my skin pressed against the wood, knowing the power keeping the Father within came from Tāwhiri is a simple thing. It resonates beneath my touch, waiting for an answer.
Strangely, it’s not the Aerlings or humans or either world that I think about. It’s the Father. I can’t help wondering what it feels like to be shut up in a place for thousands of years, alone, secluded, miserable. Here he is, in the middle of a world full of Aerlings, and he’s alone in this place as a consequence of his greed.
I wonder why he and the Mother ever created their children if they were so against sharing their power, but then I remember Sloane mentioning how difficult it’s been for the Aerlings to fulfill all their duties lately. If all the Aerlings there
are can’t keep up with the demands of being stewards over Earth, it must have taken a lot out of just two people. They created the first Aerlings to make them slaves. When they rebelled, they tried to slaughter them. Any sense of sympathy I had for the Father vanishes, and as it does, the door swings open.
“What did you do?” Hayden whispers.
“Realized what kind of monster we’re really dealing with,” I reply.
My answer gains me a puzzled look from Hayden, but I don’t stop to explain. Tāwhiri knew we’d come here. He was prepared for us to use his power to gain access to the Father, but not without understanding the depth of evil we’re about to face. Perhaps his plan didn’t work the way he hoped, but he was a wise ruler.
Hayden and Cedrick are right behind me as I step through the door, but neither one can get past the jamb. Catching my arm before I get too far, Hayden growls, “You’re not going in there alone.”
I twist out of his grip and face him. “I am. The Father won’t be able to hurt me while I hold Tāwhiri’s power.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” he argues.
Taking a step further away from him, I shake my head. “I’m not going back with nothing.”
He says something else, but I turn away and keep walking deeper into the strangest room I’ve ever encountered. Despite having a door set in a seemingly regular hallway, this space has no dimensions. No walls, either. Or maybe I just can’t see them. Everywhere I look, mists and ephemeral haze cloud the view. It seems to go on forever. I have no clue where I’m going other than an instinctive direction to move in. It’s not until I see a parting in the mists that I have any confirmation that I’m not just wandering in circles.
Stepping out of the mists a few minutes later, I gasp in surprise. It’s not just the size of this captive man, but his youth and striking appearance. He’s easily the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. Even crouched and weighed down with heavy chains that seem to be made of air so thickly condensed that they look like glass, this god is easily at least seven feet tall. Muscles ripple over every part of his body, most of which is exposed. But like his hateful eyes boring into me, every aspect of his being is sharp and destructive.
“Who are you to approach me?” he demands.
I don’t answer right away. Instead, I step to the side and watch his eyes follow me. He postures as if he’s the one in control, but there is an ocean of fear behind his bravado. “My name is Olivia,” I say calmly. “Tāwhiri sent me. I’m here for answers.”
He scoffs. “My son thinks his time too important to spend on me now? He sends a child in his place?”
Smiling inwardly, I realize he has no idea what happened to Tāwhiri. He probably has no clue at all what’s happening on Earth or on his own world. Shut up in here, his knowledge is limited to what he’s told. A hasty plan forms in my mind as I take a few steps closer.
“Do you have a name other than the Father?” I ask.
“What other name would I need?” he sneers. “I am the father of all power. There is none greater than me. I have no use for another name.”
I nod. That was really just something I was curious about, not part of my plan. There are other things I’m curious about, but I put them off in favor of getting the most pertinent information. “Tāwhiri has come to a realization,” I offer.
That seems to pique the Father’s interest, as I hoped it would. No doubt there has been an ongoing conversation these long millennia between father and son. My best guess would be Tāwhiri trying to convince his psychotic father that there’s another way while the Father tried to convince his son that nothing is worth giving up control and power.
“He can’t beat Tū without your help.”
The Father’s eyes narrow in suspicion. “Tū? His brother is hardly his biggest problem.”
“No,” I say, “but the Mother will never bring down the barrier and return to the Aerling world while Tū is stealing her power.” I swallow hard, hoping this sounds convincing. “He needs to get rid of Tū before he can attempt reconciling with the Mother, but he knows he can’t kill him. Taking the same path the Mother did is the only way to win.” I hope the vagueness of my comments won’t show how little I know.
“Win,” the Father sneers. “There is no way to win, because this is not a fight that can be won by human or Aerling. Only power will survive this battle.”
Stepping directly in front of his bound figure, only a few feet separating us, I say, “Everyone is so concerned about power. Gaining it, holding it, capturing it, setting it free. You all talk like you can actually control it, but I think we both know you can’t. No one can.”
“The Mother and I can,” he growls, “were are the only ones who truly understand the power.”
Shaking my head, I crouch down so we are eye to eye. “If that were true, you wouldn’t be imprisoned here and the Mother wouldn’t be exiled to live on the scraps of power left by the few dead Aerlings not killed by Tū.”
Rearing against his chains, the Father proves my words true when his strength is crushed under Tāwhiri’s bonds. A vicious growl erupts from his lips, but it is as impotent as his struggling. “Tāwhiri cannot win this war!” the Father shouts. “He will never have enough power to conquer his creators. He came from us, from our power. You are foolish if you think we would ever give up so much power that we would make ourselves weak.”
Sitting back on my heels, I can only stare at him for a few seconds. Slowly, I stand and glare down at him. “Weak? Like you are now?” My expression is withering, even though I know this man could break me in two with barely a thought. “The twins, they overpowered you and the Mother both. You’re not a powerful as you think you are.”
“Twins,” the Father growls, “they were not expected. They hold less power, shared between them, than our other children. We didn’t know what that meant, but the next time they try to interfere, we will be prepared. Control will shift to its rightful masters.”
His words bounce around in my head a moment before I’m able to piece everything together. Mason and Sloane’s rescue of the man in the building melds with all my other thoughts, cementing a realization. Even still, I don’t want to give away what I know just yet.
“If Tū and Tāwhiri had gained the upper hand here in the Aerling world, instead of on Earth,” I say, hoping I’m right, “the barrier would have been much different, wouldn’t it have?”
The Father doesn’t answer, but the enraged look on his face says enough. Neither of the parents knew what Sloane and Mason discovered, that combining power somehow makes it more than it is on its own. I suspect that blood connection increases the strange effect, or else the two brothers never would have been able to overpower their parents. I have no doubt that they were very careful about how much of their power they gave up to their children. Their two oldest sons, twins, must have shocked them pretty good when they discovered that little trick.
“I didn’t come here to discuss how you and the Mother ended up as you are. I came to find out how you killed your other children,” I say as calmly as I possibly can when my nerves begin to get the best of me. This guy is so old, I can’t even process the number. He knows more than I ever will and has experienced a million lifetimes of deceit and manipulation. Playing games with him is not a good idea, yet here I am.
The Father’s muscles tighten, but he pretends at being relaxed. “We cannot kill. You know that, little Escort. Don’t pretend to understand things that are clearly beyond you.”
That’s all I’ve been doing since the day we met Robin. “Maybe you didn’t kill them,” I say testily, “but you did enough to take them out of the game. That means their power was gone. Taken by you or the Mother somehow. Just like Tū found a way to steal the power he needed from the both of you, you two found a loophole as well. I want to know what it is.”
“Desire is not enough.” He sneers at me and looks away, as if he’s delusional enough to think he’s the one in control here. He’s not. I won’t let h
im be. He had his chance to run the show and he failed miserably, condemning two entire worlds because of his greed and selfishness!
His arrogance infuriates me when I think of all the Aerling children who have died, all those that will die when the barrier falls or both worlds burn themselves out to extinction. Molly’s pleading eyes flash in front of my face and I am suddenly inundated by the faces of all the Aerlings who will die because of this creature. Hot, burning anger wells up inside me, and before I know it, my fist slams into the Father’s pompous mouth.
The answering pain nearly doubles me over, but I freeze, the throbbing in my hand fading as I stare openmouthed at the blood running down his lip. I probably wouldn’t have been so freaked out about it if the Father wasn’t panicking like a toddler who just got stung by a bee. Rearing and bucking against his bonds, he rages in fear.
“No! He can’t have. No! An Escort?” he screams. I think he’ll just go on ranting forever, but his eyes suddenly snap to me and I stumble back under the force of his fury. “Where is my son?” he bellows. “Where is Tāwhiri? How do you have his power? An Escort! He wouldn’t dare!”
I’m too terrified to answer, never mind being able to actually listen to the warning bells blaring in my head right now. I’m half a second from sprinting out of here. The only thing holding me back is the desperate need for answers. Racing from thought to thought, I scramble to patch a few of them together.
Me having his son’s power seems to be a huge red flag that something’s happened to Tāwhiri. Does that affect anything? Does it matter if he knows whether Tāwhiri died or gave it up willingly? I have no clue. He’s also having a meltdown about me being an Escort and having Tāwhiri’s power. Why? I can only guess it has something to do with me being able to travel between worlds…or maybe it has something to do with Mason?
Focusing on one thing at a time, I try to figure out the first question. “I’m not the only person with your son’s power,” I say slowly, testing his reaction. I get it when his bronze skin pales to a sickly grey.
Invincible (The Aerling Series Book 3) Page 18