“Tell me everything, Kelara. Spare absolutely no detail,” Soul said. “The clearer our picture, the better we’ll understand what happened.”
“Why is that so important?” I asked.
“Because this is a message from the Night Bringer.” Soul pointed at the plaque. “He wants us to tap into these memories. To witness everything he saw, everything he was able to record.”
I described everything I saw and felt, each noise I heard as I carved the Night Bringer’s message into stone. By the time I was done, Soul was paler than usual, his lips tightened into a thin line, his gaze fixed on me. For a second, I nearly lost myself in the galaxies of his eyes.
“I think the people of Cruor were wood nymphs,” he concluded with a heavy sigh. “They’re rare these days. They were rare even before I entered Zetos and abandoned the outside world. There were only three lands known to be home to the wood nymphs in this dimension. The pointed ears, the leaves and flowers in their hair, the description of their clothes and features… Yes, wood nymphs, for sure.”
“Wood nymphs,” I repeated after him, the image of those people still fresh in my mind, along with their crippling pain.
“Yes. Creatures who lived in harmony with nature,” Soul replied. “This wasn’t a town. This was their capital city. This was as urban as the wood nymphs would ever get. Most of them lived in the forests.”
“Which explains the geographic fingerprints. This whole place used to be lush, covered with trees,” I said. Sadness washed over me like an icy wave, tearing me apart on the inside. “Oh, those poor creatures…”
“The Elders came here at some point. They tried to possess them, to turn them, I suppose. But it didn’t work. The nymphs were not compatible, like you said. They drank each other dry, then their bodies gave out.”
I got up, my knees still shaking. I pulled my hair back into a tight bun—one of the few things that actually helped clear my mind—and looked at the plaque again. “What does the rest of this message say? I remember carving it… Well, I remember the memory of the nymph who carved it, but I don’t know what it means. You obviously do.”
Soul nodded once. “There are five Beta elements we have to break,” he said. “This is the first. Each of these objects has memories embedded within it. The plaque used to be empty when the Spirit Bender sealed it as a Beta element. The Night Bringer couldn’t break the pieces himself, so he managed to possess different nymphs to carve them instead. He put memories within each in order to tell his story, to make us understand what happened here. Perhaps he was worried the Elders might live long enough to spread to other worlds, I don’t know. I’m guessing on that last part.”
“So, this is the first Beta element,” I murmured, staring at the plaque.
“In places of great anguish and pain, memories persist,” Soul said. “Without knowing the history of this place, we must follow these ruins. The anguish has seeped into the ground, Kelara. It drew us here without either of us even realizing it. The plaque wanted to be found.”
My eyes stung, but the truth was right in front of us.
Cruor had suffered deeply at the misty hands of the Elders. It was our duty to unravel this history, to understand it, and it was our duty to break the Beta elements, too. The tasks went hand in hand. We couldn’t have one without the other. As much as the thought terrified me, it had to be done.
“I have to live through more horrific memories before I can break the other Beta elements, don’t I?” I asked, guessing there was a hitch in all of this.
Soul nodded again. “It’s how Night made it. Maybe he wants us to feel at least a fraction of what he’s experienced while we’re here trying to save him. I have to admit, it makes him quite a sadist. I’m impressed.”
Anger burned hot in my chest as I took out my scythe and cut the plaque in half. Thunder clapped loudly above, though there weren’t any clouds—just the reddish, thick haze. Light flashed across the sky as my blade sliced through the stone. The air rippled outward as something of great power was finally released.
Soul exhaled sharply. The air felt a little lighter already, a minor side effect of the broken Beta element. Minutes passed in an eerie silence as I tried to wrap my head around what I’d learned. The Night Bringer was tucked deep beneath the fabric of Cruor. Somehow, he’d wound up witnessing the invasion of the Elders and the destruction of an entire population of wood nymphs. In the midst of all this chaos and misery, he’d managed to reach out and carve messages with embedded memories on the five Beta elements of the seal that held him down.
As twisted and awful as it sounded, it actually made sense. It also broke my heart, because I could only imagine the kind of pain Night must have been experiencing since he’d been trapped here. The kind of pain that had forced him to take over a nymph’s body just to deliver a message. It couldn’t have been easy, but he’d done it. It was a sign that the Night Bringer had refused to let the Spirit Bender defeat him.
It was a sign of hope. Hope that someone, someday, might come along and find his runes and understand what had been done here—and what needed to be done. The wood nymphs had clearly been unable to break the Beta elements; otherwise, the Night Bringer would’ve been free already. Now it was up to us, and I’d just disabled the first piece.
“We need to find the other four Beta elements,” I said to Soul. “Not to sound like a masochist, but I’m realizing now that I really want to know what happened here.”
“You and me both,” Soul replied. “I’ll call the others over, and we can continue our search together. Morning is better off staying with us until she’s able to actually contact Night.”
Wherever there had been death and misery, we had to go. There were four places on Cruor where memories had been hidden along with the Beta elements. If we managed to free the Night Bringer, we’d be one step closer to freeing Death, as well. She needed all the remaining First Tenners to return to her so they could break the rest of her seals much faster.
And we needed Death back at full force, now more than ever.
Derek
Upon learning about Acheron’s unprecedented request, Sofia was just as stunned as I was. We’d settled in the study room, while Amal and Amane were in the quarantine area of the palace, where new patients had been brought in. There were twenty infected Aeternae now, five of whom were slowly slipping into critical condition.
“I can’t believe it,” Sofia said. “After all the ruckus they made about us not bringing in any more outsiders!”
“Let us note the fact that Acheron made the request, unbeknownst to his wife or any other officials,” I reiterated. “He doesn’t want anyone else to know about this.”
“And that, my darling, is what troubles me the most. It means that Acheron doesn’t trust Danika. His soulmate. His wife.”
I groaned softly, well aware of the implications. “I know, but at least he’s showing an openness to us working together against the Darklings. Properly.”
Sofia leaned back into her chair, her gaze wandering through the room. It stopped on Nethissis’s body for a while before moving back to the microscope and the plethora of Petri dishes strewn across one of the tables in the middle. The curtains were pulled back to reveal the overcast day outside. Soon, rain pelted the window, drops of water splashing and pouring down the glass in a steady rhythm. The new season was upon us, and it consisted of daily showers and gloomy skies.
“Danika confuses me, to be honest,” Sofia ultimately said.
“You don’t trust her.”
“I don’t. She’s too caught up in the empire’s old ways, and she doesn’t seem willing to change. The problem is that the empire will end up changing without her, as is natural, and she’ll be left behind. Eventually it’ll become a problem for Thayen, too. He’s young now, but later, when he’s old enough to assist his parents in the empire’s affairs, there will be issues. Acheron is clearly more progressive, since he’s willing to ban the blood slave trade altogether, regardless of what the
nobility might think.”
“I see what you mean,” I muttered. “Thayen will probably have to make a choice at some point in the future. His father is clearly the ruling monarch, while Danika seems to function more as the second-in-command. Yes, they rule together, but I’ve noticed that Acheron usually has the last word. Case in point, the blood slave trade ban.”
Sofia gave me a pained look. “I actually feel sorry for the kid. He has no idea what he’s getting himself into.”
“It’ll be a long time before Thayen becomes a ruling monarch himself,” I said. “He’ll have years to prepare himself, to gather his own experiences.”
“To grow a thicker skin.” Sofia chuckled, though there wasn’t any humor in her voice. “So, what do we do regarding the Darklings? Do we call up Rose and Ben and tell them to put a squad together?”
“More like a regiment,” I replied. “But we need Acheron to give us final approval. He has to make the proper arrangements, to make sure no one sees our people coming in. Once our troops are on the ground, they’ll have to assimilate quickly and infiltrate Aeternae society. The vampires won’t have much trouble in that sense, though they will still be bound by night—”
“Unless the girls refine and reproduce the day-walking cure,” Sofia added, with an encouraging smile.
“Unless… Yeah, that’s an option, too. Yes,” I said. “We can bring in some dragons and witches, as well. A few werewolves, given their exquisite tracking skills. The Maras will be able to blend in, just like the vampires. We’ll organize a proper hunt for the Darklings once our people are here.”
“They’ll need clothes, first and foremost,” Sofia replied.
“We’ll either buy them from different clothing stores, or Acheron will have one of his servants bring us enough outfits for everyone in the regiment,” I said. “Tristan and Esme can coordinate that part. They’ll also be able to assist the agents with basic orientation—the land, the terrain, the overall geography of the continent, and the potential Darkling hiding spots. The key will be secrecy. Acheron is convinced that the higher-ups of the Darkling faction haven’t fled the imperial city. That they’re still here, quietly scheming.”
Sofia nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised. After all, the gold and silver guards were purged, but the nobility hasn’t been touched. Sure, some nobles have disappeared, according to the rumors we’ve picked up from the Rimian and Nalorean servants. Some have left word that they’re at their vacation homes on the east coast. Others have simply vanished. I think they’re Darklings trying to keep their distance from the city.”
“It’s possible,” I said, my mind going back to Rose and Ben. I missed them, and both Sofia and I could use their presence here. Visio had dark sides, dangerous sides. On one hand, I didn’t want our children anywhere near it, but at the same time, I had to admit they were strong and valiant and resourceful. I trusted their ability to pull through. Besides, Tristan and Esme needed more boots on the ground, considering how deep this Darkling conspiracy ran.
“Derek, what’s on your mind?” Sofia asked, leaning forward. Her hand covered mine on the armrest, and every muscle in my body relaxed at her touch. “You look a little… far away.”
“I miss our kids,” I said, offering a half-smile.
“Rose will want to be in the regiment, for sure,” she replied, frowning. “I’m not sure about Ben. He’s been through enough as it is.”
“You’re right. Yeah. Ben is better off back in The Shade, supervising everything.”
The door opened, and we had to set our conversation aside for the time being. Amal and Amane entered, and they both seemed worried, exchanging wary glances as they placed two boxes of blood vials on one of the tables. It was time to get back to the present, since there wasn’t much we could do regarding Acheron’s request. Sofia would speak to Rose later and get the ball rolling on preparing our troops for the trip.
“We’ve got a bit of a problem,” Amal said, hands still gripping her box of vials.
“What is it?” I asked.
Amane exhaled sharply. “We double-checked our results. We tested new blood samples, from both early and advanced Black Fever patients. It’s definitely death magic, but it’s also something more. It’s kind of hard to describe.”
The sisters looked at each other again. Amal’s brows were pulled into a dark frown. “It’s concentrated death, Derek,” she said, glancing my way. “It’s like Death herself bled this thing out.”
“Concentrated death?” Sofia’s eyes were wide with fear. “How… What is that, exactly?”
“We analyzed every single blood sample. We went deep again, on a molecular level. It’s actually more visible in the advanced patients,” Amal explained. “Here, let me show you.”
She selected a vial from her box and dripped some of the blood onto an empty Petri dish, which she then slipped under the microscope lens. I walked over and looked through, adjusting the knobs until the image became painfully clear. My breath stopped for a moment. I could see it then, the blackness. A shapeless, almost liquid mist that consumed the healthy cells and turned them into wispy tendrils, which were then absorbed into the whole.
“Oh, wow,” I murmured, astonished by the microscopic view.
Sofia took my place and looked through the lens, as well. “My God, that’s… that’s the Black Fever. It’s… Jeez, now I see what you meant by concentrated death.”
“It doesn’t look like that in the blood samples we collected from the newer patients,” Amane explained. “From those batches, we were only able to ascertain that it’s some kind of death magic. But it’s… I don’t know, it’s more than that.”
“Whatever is fueling the Black Fever must be coming from some kind of obscure, primordial death magic. The kind that the dark lady herself would likely work with,” Amal said.
“Or one of the First Tenners, maybe?” I asked, the Spirit Bender’s name popping into my head. He was the only one I knew with nefarious enough intentions to pull off something like this. But then that brought up the question of why. Why would the Spirit Bender do this? Or Death? Why would they do any of this? It didn’t make sense.
“I’m not sure,” Amane replied. “But we can back up our conclusion with previous studies. A while back, Taeral let us collect energy samples from Thieron’s blade, and we saw something similar then.”
Sofia raised an eyebrow. “Wait, you found traces of this… concentrated death on Thieron’s blade?”
“We think so,” Amal said. “It looked an awful lot like what we’re finding in these blood samples. This pitch-black entity that just lingers, with no biological sense whatsoever. It was nowhere near as intense and dangerous as what we’re seeing in the Black Fever, but it’s similar enough to consolidate our conclusion. This is death we’re dealing with. The purest and most final kind of death.”
I sucked in a breath, trying to ascertain the depth of what we’d gotten ourselves into when we’d accepted the Aeternae’s request for help in vanquishing the Black Fever. The situation had grown increasingly complicated.
“Who or what could’ve caused it?” I asked, though I wasn’t expecting any of us to actually know. But Amal wasn’t deterred by the lack of information.
“You didn’t sound that far off in suspecting a First Tenner. Then there is Death herself, too,” she said. “A powerful entity has to be behind this for it to linger like a disease, so destructive, so cyclical.”
Sofia ran both hands through her long auburn hair, the hypothesis too much even for her. “This is insane. Why would Death do something like this, if she is behind it? Even if it’s one of those first Reapers or whatever. What’s the point? What was the endgame with this thing?”
Amane smirked. “Death is final, right? It’s the end. To every beginning, there must be an end. At least, that is how things usually work in this universe. It’s nature’s own rhythm,” she said. “Maybe Death or the Reapers didn’t like the Aeternae… cheating, I guess. Living forever. Maybe they worried i
t might put them out of business, especially since other creatures can be turned.”
“That sounds reasonable, and I would accept it as a theory,” I replied. “Had it not been for vampires and Maras, as well. No one’s gotten us sick with this pure death thing. The Black Fever specifically targets the Aeternae. It seems very personal. I think we’re missing something.”
“Oh, we’re certainly missing a substantial amount of history here,” Sofia said. “The problem is, where do we go for answers? Who do we ask?”
Amane stifled a chortle. “Death herself would be my first option. I’m pretty sure she can fill in the gaps. She can confirm or deny whether she’s involved in the propagation of Black Fever. She can even make some assumptions on the matter. I mean, we can keep talking about this with absolutely no end in sight, but if we are to help the Aeternae cure the Black Fever, we’ll need the input of death experts.”
“And there’s no greater expert on death than Death.” I sighed.
That meant addressing this with Taeral again. He was the only one who could reach out to her, who could talk to her about it. The problem was that we had yet to get all the details from his last meeting with Death—since she had sworn him to secrecy—so even if he did go talk to her, there was the possibility he might not be able to tell us what they discussed. We didn’t know whether she already had Reapers on Visio, investigating the Darklings’ affairs. Taeral had simply told us that she would handle things from her end, and that we, the living, should stay out of the affairs of the dead.
Her whole attitude about this didn’t feel at all encouraging. Unfortunately, Amane and Amal were right. Death needed to be told about the Black Fever. She had to clarify some things before it was too late to fix it. The Aeternae’s lives were in danger, starting with the twenty patients already locked in the quarantine area.
A Shade of Vampire 81: A Bringer of Night Page 10
