He pulled David down into the cellar, leaving Dragos to speak with the general. David was helpless to resist, feeling as though all the strength he had managed to gather the last few hours had been drained from him. His mind was a whirlwind of incoherent thought.
He slumped onto the straw littered floor as Danulf pulled open a cupboard that housed a variety of lopsided decanters. He grabbed one labeled, “oxblood”, removing its cork with his teeth, spitting it against the wall, and jamming the opening between David’s lips. A stream of sour, tepid liquid found its way down his throat. David tried to hold on to consciousness, knowing it would only take a few moments before the nourishment revived him, but he couldn’t halt the sensation of falling.
“This is the worst time for this,” he heard Danulf curse as David watched the floor tremble and crack open between them, revealing the flames of a volatile inferno that rose up from the crevice as if determined to consume him. Dozens of skeletal hands beat them to it, crawling forward until they attached to his skin and clothing, twisting around strands of his hair. It was no use fighting them off, for as soon as they captured their prey, they descended, dragging him into the raging abyss in one seamless, brutal swallow.
The Underworld
David was becoming more accustomed to traveling through the realms, yet when he opened his eyes to reveal the tenebrous domain of the Underworld, he immediately sprang to his feet in panic.
“Do not fret, you are only a visitor.”
David turned to see Anubis before him. They stood upon the only plateau in the rocky, cavernous world, crags jutting up all around them from an unforgiving river that loudly vocalized its vexations.
The plateau’s high elevation was enough to alarm David, who tried to maintain his footing as he beheld the creature standing in front of him. Anubis was purely anamorphic in his kingdom, lacking any obvious human appendages, but standing on hind legs, his claws wrapped around a slender staff. His jackal head cocked to the side as he curiously observed David’s apprehension. “Shall we move somewhere that is more comfortable for you? You loved the rushing waters in your first life.”
David shook his head stubbornly. “I will be fine,” he assured him, though his voice wavered. “I have recently discovered that traveling realms takes a toll on me, but I am learning to adjust. It seems this is a part of my life now.”
The jackal nodded although his onyx eyes remained marked with concern. “I would not have summoned you had there not been urgency,” he explained. “As you now know, I am the head of the Council, as well as the guardian of the Underworld. Since we last spoke, Lucius has prevented any further interference by the Council. Libraean and I are the only ones now who can reach you.”
“How can this be?” David was perplexed. “I thought the Council was responsible for harboring and protecting the heka for Isis, existing above the rule of gods? How is Lucius able to control them?”
“This is why I brought you down here to speak with you. The mortal witch, Hekate, is as she told you, a part of Isis reincarnated, but she is above all, Lucius’s daughter. This affects her decisions greatly.”
“Before I fell unconscious, Dragos told me Isis was once Lucius’s companion—that there was no animosity between them, that all of this was planned.”
“This is true,” Anubis confirmed. “The Underworld exists much like the Upperrealms, chambers of space created by each religion—except many of them are so similar in concept, they tend to bleed together, the lines between them often quite blurred. We never thought a banished god would find a way to rise up from Tartarus, yet Set found a way by claiming to be the Greek god, Hades. He fooled us all, taking on the role with such precision that all the Underworld guardians believed him. I had no reason to question it, assuming the Greek Underworld simply bled into ours.”
“So, the rest of what Dragos told me is also true.”
“See for yourself,” Anubis suggested.
Suddenly they were both in a chamber of the Underworld, the inside of Hades’s palace, a near identical version of what was described in mythological texts. David was immediately accosted by memories of the Ancient World and his brief stay in Greece as he admired the smoky marble that created every arch and statue, Lucius’s take on classic Doric columns, and the massive fountains that either spurted out sapphire liquid or struggled to contain plumes of vehement fire.
Lucius sat at his throne, a gargantuan chair carved out of a solid block of obsidian. His hair was much shorter, kept in waves. His bone structure appeared even more angular when free of facial hair, but when he looked up from the scrying pool that he had been studying with keen interest, his golden eyes were undoubtedly the same.
David also recognized Isis, whose skin was now milky around her emerald eyes, waves of sunflower hair flowing from her narrow, but soft face. Her dress was the color of Lilies of the Nile, sweeping across the polished floor as she paced it. “If you go back to earth, your memories will be erased,” she said with emotion that revealed they were in the midst of an argument. “That is how the two of them were able to live in bliss, roaming the earth without a care in the world, oblivious to their true history.”
“Yet, if I return, I can wrest you from that cursed acacia tree that you've been trapped in for good,” Lucius pointed out. “You will finally be free to come and go as you please, instead of waiting until autumn, when the leaves die, to visit me.” He rose from his throne, descending the stone steps to where she stood. His tall frame towered over her as he spoke. “I have always tried to convince our counterparts that humans need direction, to be dominated by their gods. Now you can understand my point. You and I should be roaming the earth, as King and Queen of them all, with full control of heka—your heka,” he reminded her. “You are the one who gave birth to them, the true mother of them all! Why should you live like a prisoner in your own home?”
Isis stared at him, her mouth twitching as she considered his proposal. “How?” she finally asked. “How can we do this?”
Lucius lit up with excitement. “When the Druids brought the souls of Osiris and Nephthys to earth to act as their own deities, they created a tear in the fabric that separates the realms. When it is time, I can use that tear to rise to the earth, concealing myself just as I do here. Then I will find the Acadia Tree and pull you out of it. Once you are restored to a physical being, then you can return the favor to me.” He grinned, visibly proud of his idea.
Yet Isis looked doubtful, still not convinced. “Bearing the heka in its entirety was a terrible burden to bear. I do not think I can do it again.”
Lucius frowned. “Is there any way to ease the burden?”
“I cannot risk it being vulnerable again, especially with the way humans act now,” she sighed.
Lucius suddenly brightened. “I have an idea.” He gripped her hands, his words brimming with fervor as he stared into her eyes. “We will create new life on earth that will belong to you and I. Our children will help you bear the heka, ensuring that only you or I can access it while relieving you of its burden.”
“You cannot bear sons, Set,” Isis gently reminded him.
“You leave that part to me,” he assured her. “I will make it happen, I promise you.”
“How do you intend on pulling me out of the tree?”
“You gave me some of your power long ago,” he told her. “It never left.”
“But how do we know your plan will work?” Isis continued to press him, although her pursed lips had finally lifted.
“We do not know anything for certain,” he shrugged. “But I do know that anything we try is infinitely better than wasting away down here.”
David began to see flashes of a history he’d already learned, similar to how he had observed his own death and botched resurrection. He watched Lucius possess the body of the young tree worshipper, pulling Isis from her wooden prison and giving her a child which she channeled her heka into. He saw Isis in the cave that bore Lucius, her arms outstretched as she chanted, the four elements swirling around her, fire radiating out of her palms as she manifested a giant black dragon out of nothingness. He watched them use the body of the poor tree worshipper once more, funneling the hideous creature into it to give Lucius human form. He saw a ravenous, newly transformed Lucius search for the human Isis in hunger, only to realize she’d already disappeared, apparently remembering the tragic reanimation of Osiris. He watched Lucius tear his way through any animal he could find until he met Libraean. He witnessed their confrontation, Libraean’s death, his painful rebirth.
“Once Lucius had quenched the raging beast inside, he left Libraean behind in search of Isis,” Anubis’s deep, melodious voice broke through. “The transformation had taken away most of his memory, leaving him unable to recall the deities of the Morrigan and Daghda, but still remembering Isis, Nephthys, and his brother. He was unable to find her, nor any of their daughters, until many years later in the Dacian Kingdom, the territory that is now Transylvania. It was there that he finally stumbled upon the oldest daughter and the rest of the Pădurii tribe, none of whom wanted anything to do with him. But before the eldest sent him away, she explained that since Isis gave her heka to her daughters through each new birth, she was unable to maintain her immortality. Before she withered away, she decided to inhabit the Acadia Tree once more, hoping none of her daughters would ever be strong enough to bear the heka in its entirety, as she was once forced to. Centuries later, however, that strength occurred in a set of twins—the brother taking the human aspects, allowing the sister to inherit the heka.”
“Dragos and Hekate.”
“Correct,” Anubis nodded. “Both of whom are reincarnated gods—Ares, the Greek god of war made immortal, and the ancient Isis, reborn and brimming with power.”
“They could both be in league with Lucius,” David realized. “I need to return to earth.”
Anubis put up a hand to halt him. “And you shall. Do not worry, time can stop here and it will not move forward until you return. There is one final part that I must share with you, one that you were shielded from when uncovering the rest of your past.”
David nodded, attempting to quiet his impatience.
“Once Lucius heard what happened to Isis, he tried to pull her out of the tree a second time, but found he no longer had enough power to do so. So, he scoured the earth searching for the magic that could. He eventually found the Druids, the only sorcerers known to man who could bring a god to life. He convinced a handful of priests and priestesses to embark on a harrowing overseas journey to the Acadia Tree, where they chanted before it for days.
