Tymall rubbed a hand over his face. “Impossible. Do you know how old you must be to possess such wings, and what you must be capable of doing?” Tymall halted the flow of words, noticing how those dark eyes shifted infinitesimally to his father. “Father?”
Tristan watched Tymall, his gaze unblinking. He wondered what Tianoman saw in this man as a father.
Torrullin sighed. “Elianas released his wings, yes, and may have been led astray.”
“Poetic,” Elianas murmured. “Led astray by wings not earned in good deeds.”
Tristan said, “What about your wings, Torrullin?” Immediately he realised his error.
Elianas gave a wry grin and subsided against the tree, leaving Torrullin to deal with the aftermath.
“Wings? You?” Tymall whispered. “How? And how does he get them? Damn it, Enchanter, I have no wings!”
Torrullin did not know what to say. Had he known more about the purpose that brought Tymall into this situation, whether by choice or duping, he might have had an inkling as to how to proceed. It was one thing telling Tristan about their wings and darker secrets, but telling Tymall, Warlock of Digilan, could lead to trouble. Tymall never allowed opportunity to pass and, truth be told, he could not afford to, not in the realm of mists and evil.
Then there was his disappointment over what Elianas sacrificed; he could not believe the man was prepared to let go.
He looked at his son and knew he dared not trust him. He loved him, but trust was another matter.
After an unpleasant silence, he said, “I cannot tell you more than I already have, I am sorry.”
Tymall pulled a face. “I expected you to do this.”
“You are Warlock, son.”
“As if I have forgotten recently,” Tymall muttered. He glanced at Elianas and studied Tristan more boldly. “You know, don’t you?”
Tristan shrugged.
Tymall lifted one shoulder in resignation. “At least I am free of Digilan for a time; this is a gift I shall not misuse.” He glared at Elianas. “If you relinquished true Shadow Wings, I am impressed.”
Elianas smiled.
Silence descended for a time as four minds wrestled individually with the uniqueness of a strange situation.
Chapter 68
How do you grapple with slippery nuances and then hold onto a facet long enough to affect the change required to alter a situation or perception? Faith, reader, and self-belief.
~ Book of Sages
Alternate Valaris
“THERE ARE CHALLENGERS in Digilan not backed by the Magi, and one in particular stands out. I think he might have the support of the Mor Feru; he isn’t one himself, but there’s a gathering movement among the draithen that smacks of cohesion and leadership. Digilan moves across a few realms and it is possible someone in Digilan is pulling the strings.”
Elianas murmured, “We were warned about this. Likely, then.”
“Who is the challenger?” Torrullin asked.
“His name is Adam - human. That is all I know,” Tymall responded.
Tristan said, “Ixion mentioned finding Sabian when realms overlap.”
“That means Nemisin,” Elianas growled.
Torrullin sighed. “Did Ixion ‘mention’ how to find Sabian?”
Tristan’s eyes shifted. “Sort of.”
Elianas leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He already knew what Tristan meant, and also understood it could not be easily said and then discussed before Tymall.
“Sort of - you are not sure or don’t want to say?” Torrullin snapped.
“I don’t want to say.”
“Tymall is as stuck as we are. Say it.”
Tymall’s gaze, Tristan noticed, was sharp and he listened intently. “Fine. We’re talking the Goddess of Souls here.”
Tymall was confused, and it was satisfying, but Elianas was so silent it was discomfiting.
Torrullin did not move his gaze from Tristan, knowing every nuance was read. “We need more detail than that.”
Elianas sighed.
Tymall asked, “Who is the Goddess of Souls?”
No one answered. No one even moved.
Tymall got to his feet, frustration evident in every movement. “Being trapped here means being trapped here until something moves us onward and closer to a solution. Warlock has nothing to do with it, as Elixir and Alhazen has not. Gods, I get the trust issue, and I will further admit you are right, but now you have to risk it.”
Still no one said anything, although Torrullin moved his head to check on Elianas. The man did not move. “Elianas, for Aaru’s sake.”
Without opening his eyes, he responded, “He is your son.”
Torrullin stood, paced away, stopped, looked at Tymall critically, and paced more. Coming to a halt directly before Elianas, he kicked at his feet.
Elianas opened one eye.
“This concerns you as much as it does me.”
“Agreed, but you take the responsibility.” Elianas closed his eye again.
Tymall approached. “How does it affect him?”
Torrullin sighed and moved away. Tristan noted Elianas’ chest rise and fall in silence when Tymall moved on as well.
“The Goddess of Souls is seen only when two like powers clash,” Torrullin said. “Thus only Elianas and I see … it.”
Elianas’ eyes snapped open and he studied Tymall intently.
“It? Goddess is female.”
“It is a name, a term, for a collection of wise souls, and has been coined Goddess.”
“And why is that? Goddess implies power.”
“That would be right.”
“Father, stop beating about this tangled bush.”
“Simply put, it is a line preventing sorcerers joining forces, clashing or one taking power from the other. The power lies in agony.”
Tymall paced. “That tells me nothing.”
“And yet that is the truth of it.”
“How do you circumvent the agony?”
“One mind and will power.”
Elianas’ gaze shifted to Torrullin.
Torrullin felt it, for he pinched his nose, and said, “That isn’t important now. I am not saying more until we know we need to go there. Tristan, what exactly did Ixion say?”
Tymall pursed his lips. “Don’t brush this off …”
“Tymall, not until I deem it necessary,” Torrullin retorted. “Tristan, go on.”
From his seated position Tristan said, “Realms overlap all the time - you’ve told me this yourself. Ixion explained more clearly to clarify this difference, this situation. He may or may not be responsible for this, and if he is, he also gave us the way out. If he isn’t, he still gave us the way out. I don’t think he was lying.”
“How did he tell you?”
“Fingers on pulse.”
“That kind of direct communication allows no untruth,” Elianas murmured. “Seems our Ixion was not completely untrustworthy.”
Torrullin agreed. “Explain the difference.”
“I am not going into everything; we don’t need it. Simply this; realms overlap, but planes do not. Realms, however, overlap in every plane, and for each it is different. There is a singular point always the same, whether realms, reality, planes, universes.” Tristan paused there, and then, “When the Goddess of Souls is enabled a portal is created that transcends all. It is the escape hatch.”
Elianas did not move a muscle.
Torrullin inhaled deeply.
Tymall murmured, “Seems we need to go there.”
Torrullin snapped to him. “Shut up.”
Elianas climbed deliberately to his feet, and approached. “We need to talk.”
Torrullin nodded and moved instantly down the rise towards the stream. In Torrke of their reality there was a bridge and a path; here there was none of that.
Elianas followed almost casually, as if he had not a care in the world. Tymall watched them go and, to his credit, did not make a move.
Instead he eyeballed Tris
tan. “You will tell me.”
“I bloody won’t,” Tristan snapped.
He closed in, his manner threatening. “Tristan, know this one thing about me. I love my father and I love Tian, and will do anything to protect them. I have been through hell in my life, and those two are my constants, my only reason for living. I shall use information garnered here to my advantage, yes, for I am the Warlock of Digilan and I do deal in advantage and information without conscience, but if what I know can hurt either my father or Tian, it goes to the grave with me. That I swear.”
He closed in more when Tristan stared at him.
“I see you are your own man, no longer a shadow to my father, and that is excellent. It means your mind is your own and you do not need await permission to tell me what I need to know. Gods, man, I am Warlock, I am able to help, and I swear nothing will harm him.”
“I believe you, but the telling is not for me to do. It breaks the laws, Tymall. You father must do so.”
Tymall studied him and then nodded. “Fine. Then tell me about Elianas. Laws don’t apply there.”
“What do you want to know?”
“How old is he?”
“He is an Ancient.”
“Therefore the wings, and that explains that. Where has he been all this time?”
“Recently? The Throne.”
Tymall gaped. “Pardon?”
“The sentience in the Throne - that was Elianas.”
“How?”
“How, I can’t answer, for I have no idea. But I do know the Throne is now close to the seat Nemisin cast; it has the power of before, now without the voice your father heard for years.”
Tymall harked back to the time his father beat him to within an inch of his life and then threw him onto the seat of power as punishment for Taranis’ death. He wondered if Elianas, as sentient inhabitant, had anything to do with that agony. If so, he deserved similar pain.
“How did Elianas emerge from there?” he asked.
“Again, the actual method is beyond me, but your father used the Lumin Sword.”
“The one he called Elianas. Nemesis. Interesting. Is Elianas his nemesis, Tristan?”
Tristan was stoic. “That is their business.”
“Wrong, but you don’t have to get involved. What is their relationship?”
“They are brothers of time and experience.”
“That isn’t what I heard.”
“I don’t care what you heard.”
“I hear whispers of a sexual relationship.”
“The whispers are wrong.”
Tymall changed tack. “When did you last see Tian?”
“He was there when we left for Lethe.”
“How is he?”
Tristan realised then how hungry Tymall was for information about his son. At the portal to Digilan on Valaris proper he saw how much Tymall loved his son also, and thus he was more forthcoming.
“Tian is fine, although he misses you. Aislinn gave birth to a boy not long ago.”
The man’s face lit. “His name?”
“Lunik.”
“A child of the moon,” Tymall sighed. “With a name like that, the future seen for him must be smooth and kind, and I am glad. Perhaps at last the curse of my name can be laid to rest.”
Tristan sighed again. Now he liked bloody Tymall. “He wanted to come to Digilan.”
“He must stay away if he is to have a chance at normality.”
“He wanted to tell you and he wanted to bring Lunik.”
Tymall squeezed his eyes shut. “He mustn’t, tell him that. Digilan is no place for an innocent. He must forge ahead on his path without my influence. Tristan, no matter how this goes here, I think Digilan will be sealed afterward. Tell him I love him and I love his son and that will never change. Tell him to go on, be strong, and tell him to raise his boy in the Light. The child has Tristamil’s blood also and Tris was a good man.” His face twisted. “My brother was a good man.”
He swung away.
Tristan let him go, realising for the first time even evil was not complete.
He watched Tymall wander off to the north, and Torrullin and Elianas deep in conversation to the west.
“WE ARE FACING the expediency issue again,” Elianas murmured as he caught up with Torrullin.
“It will not be expediency.”
“Of course it is.”
“No, Elianas. Whatever the reason prompting action now, it occurs to me everything we do leads us to exactly the same point time after time. We need to choose, brother, and then we need believe in that choice.”
“And take action?”
“Yes, whatever it is.”
“Torrullin, nothing will change my mind.”
They stopped on the bank of the stream. Water rushed by musically at their feet and in the heavens clouds raced in abandon. They saw none of it.
“One of us must give,” Torrullin murmured.
“To find Nemisin at the other end of it? I think not. I am done with him.”
“You are not so done with him.”
“I want to murder him, and thus I need to stay well away. I am not adding shadows now.”
“Or your wings will grow?”
Elianas frowned. “Are we doing circles? Fine, brother. My wings will grow, yes, if I confront that fuck. No more. I have been used enough.”
A smile blossomed on Torrullin’s tense face.
Elianas swore under his breath. “I wonder what that smile means.”
“Only that you are a step closer.”
Elianas stared at him. “Know your goal is not necessarily mine.”
“I am well aware. Know what you think my goal is could be wrong. Maybe mine is close to yours.”
Elianas’ dark eyes sparked. “Gods, Torrullin, then you would be inside my skin already.”
Torrullin’s glittered apace. “But how, Elianas? How would I be inside your skin? Submissive? Or …”
“You are not stupid. You know exactly what I mean.”
“Yes, but I do not think you mean what you say.”
Elianas went on walking, muttering under his breath. Torrullin, feeling contrary, did not follow. A few minutes later the dark man returned and sat on the bank. He cupped his hands into the water and drank.
“It might not be a bad idea to stay here. Start fresh.”
“With Tymall?” Torrullin snorted.
Elianas pulled a face. “There is that.”
“There is also the issue of abandoning our reality to voids in the future. I cannot leave there now as I have in the past.”
Elianas squinted up. “Elixir has bound you.”
“Unluckily.”
“Tell me, brother, do you regard me as bound?”
“To reality?”
“Amongst others.”
“I do not know enough of Alhazen to answer.”
“I wasn’t asking about Alhazen.”
Torrullin sat. “Do you want to leave?”
“There might be a time, yes.”
A beat, two. “The only binding I am aware of is what lies between us. Is it binding? I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Why do you hope so?”
“Did I not tell you I am afraid to lose you?”
“You are afraid you will not find me, Torrullin, and this isn’t about your fear. Why do you hope I am bound by what is between us?”
“Do I need to answer?”
“Not now. Sometime. From your heart.”
“My heart can answer easily,” Torrullin murmured.
“Ah. It is your soul that holds back?”
“My soul knows also.”
“Are they in tandem?”
Torrullin laughed. “No.”
“Problem for you. And you dare suggest making a choice.”
“I will stand by a choice.”
“No doubt, but will the Goddess recognise a choice when heart and soul is not one?”
“Gods, why do you make everything complicated?”
&nbs
p; Elianas smiled and lay back on the grass. “Because you need to look at this issue from all angles.”
“It may not come to that.”
“It will. You already know it. We are stuck here. We could start afresh, you, me, Tristan and Tymall … and then? Tymall will soon be at my throat, and I am itching for his, but even if we live in glorious harmony on an untouched paradise world out of time and removed from every issue, there will be no future. Three of us are immortal and Tymall will live a long while yet. Can you see us in five thousand years? You, me, Tristan and Tymall, on and on and on without change? We will not last a week.”
Torrullin flopped backward and crossed his arms under his head. “Sabian apparently knows something.”
“And my point is made.”
“Then so is mine. Choose.”
“I am not changing my mind, I told you.”
“Then I must choose.”
Elianas’ eyes were unreadable.
“I want out of here. I want to go to home to Avaelyn. I need to know Tian is safe, and all the others. Fine, Elianas, have it your way.”
Elianas lifted up on an elbow. “How wonderful.”
“Well, god, what did you expect? Fucking trumpets and shooting stars?”
“That would be nice.”
Torrullin started laughing; he laughed until tears streamed over his cheeks. “Priceless!” Elianas sat and stared into the water when he finally calmed down. Torrullin slapped him on the shoulder. In return he received another unreadable stare. “Lighten up.”
“This is no laughing matter.”
“What do you want of me? A serious face? I, too, am sick of being used.”
“Torrullin, shut up. This is how it stands. We pick Tristan’s brain for a clearer answer. With a clearer answer we have more to proceed with and only then do we choose.”
“You still think it’s expediency.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I feel nothing but anger right now. I could not even touch a woman. Someone would have to force me at the point of a sword.”
“Ah, you do want the trumpets and shooting stars.”
An expression of absolute fury crossed the man features before he dipped his head out of sight. “Go talk to Tristan.”
Wordless, Torrullin walked away.
He was as furious.
Lore of Sanctum Omnibus Page 121