Morrigan frowned, confused. “How can that be? David has been with us for the entirety of our trip.”
Gaia shook her head. “His soul was summoned by the Holy Watchers right as he fell unconscious, bringing him to my realm in the Upperworld. Apparently their conversation did not fare well, for they promptly banished him to Hell. He has been trapped there ever since and Discordia has been wearing his face, acting like him as she collects power from all of you however she can.”
Morrigan’s heart thumped wildly as she started to rise, until she remembered the babies on her chest, which provoked her to pause.
“Time stays still here,” Gaia assured her. “Do not worry about David at this moment. You must find a way to kill Discordia first, for it is only you who can succeed in doing so. Ending her life will help you save David’s.”
Morrigan struggled to maintain her composure. All this time, Discordia had been there, listening, observing. Sending her dreams to pull her away from Lucius. The babies stirred and she cradled them closer, their heads resting in the crook of her neck, taking another whiff of their hair as they nestled against her skin. Even though she knew it wasn’t real, she didn’t want to let them go.
“You will find the answers that you seek within you,” Gaia told her.
“Why did I choose to come here when this is my most painful memory?”
“For many, the Middleworld acts as a limbo, where a soul becomes trapped in something they cannot get past. Perhaps your subconscious brought you here to show you something that you needed to see, that you could not see before.” The color of her hair and eyes suddenly shifted, bringing back the image of her sister, Isis. She looked at her with sad, earnest eyes. “Though it pains me to tell you, it is time for you to go.”
Morrigan felt the familiar rip within her heart as she thought of being separated from her babies. This is only a vision of what was, she reminded herself, though she began to sob. She knew it was time for her to move on. But as her sister reached out her hand to gently remove Anubis from her arms, she pulled him tighter, the water around her starting to bubble and churn.
Isis looked alarmed. “Nephthys, what is it?”
Morrigan met her sister’s eyes. “Forgive me, sister, but they are coming with me.”
“Now you understand,” Isis said with a smile. “And so am I.”
Her sister dissipated before her eyes, like particles of dust, finding their way into her lungs as she gasped. She shivered with the sudden influx of power, gathering the babies securely in her arms as the bath suddenly opened, swallowing her down into its depths.
LUCIUS
He’d barely closed the door to his rooms behind him when he heard a gentle knock. “It’s open,” he sighed, looking longingly towards the bedroom for the bottle of rum he’d come to retrieve.
“Sorry to disturb you,” a pleasant voice said, entering the room as its owner followed.
Lucius brightened, the lingering anger from the recent upheaval dissipating quickly. “Thoth, what brings you to my area of the house?”
“It’s Thomas now,” he cheerfully corrected him. “I heard the commotion, but Anubis warned me not to intervene. I was planning, however, on checking in with you to see how you were faring, and I figured a well visit would be even more appropriate now.”
“Ah yes, do come in.” Lucius pulled out a chair for him. He ducked into his bedroom to grab the bottle of rum, trying not to think about Morrigan, though his entire room smelled of cedarwood and fallen leaves. He hurried to fetch two glasses, and took a seat across from his old friend. He paused to admire his new visage, the dark brown eyes behind wire glasses, his high cheekbones and stately nose. “This is a good look for you. Very similar to how you once appeared to me.”
Thomas beamed. “I suppose it was in the stars. I have to tell you, I was so distraught once you became a blood drinker and I could no longer reach you. I’m not sure exactly what happened.”
Lucius sighed. “The feeling is quite mutual. I have it on good authority that it was Angelique’s doing.”
“That would make sense.” Thomas looked thoughtful. “In any case, I’m glad you all made it here safely. We heard about your trouble with the creature in the ocean. This business about the realms is just dreadful.”
“Now if only we could reach a place of accord, we might be able to resolve it,” Lucius muttered as he took a sip of rum.
“So that explains the commotion earlier. When you arrived, I was hoping to hear that you’d found the raven woman from your dreams, and all was well.” Thomas took a tiny sip from his glass.
“Almost,” Lucius sighed. “En route to France, one of the humans we were traveling with fell ill. He was the lover of Libraean—Horus reincarnated, if you remember the story—so naturally, it is a very touchy subject. On his deathbed, he told me he was holding the memories I was still missing from a former life and that I should drink from him to receive them. He wanted a swift release from his suffering, so I obliged. However, my brother and Libraean found out and are quite furious with me.” He paused to swallow down the rest of his glass, then poured himself another. “Anubis and Morrigan are talking to the spirits to confirm.”
“Oh my,” Thomas murmured.
“Hopefully Jacob will confirm that I was following his wishes. He was once the angel Gabriel, you know.”
Thomas’s eyebrows raised with interest. “Well, I suppose you are stuck playing the waiting game.”
“Your company could not come at a better time,” Lucius said. “So tell me the story of how you came to be here. The last I saw you, you were some sort of spirit.”
“Well, I cannot say my story is too pleasant of a tale,” Thomas said. “My father fell for my mother—one of his slaves—skillfully hiding the affair from his wife even after I was born. I enjoyed a special sort of privilege being his only son, but as my complexion lightened and my features appeared more consistent with his, he sent me away to another family to work as a tutor. That is where I met Helena, the daughter of a prominent French Captain who owned a lucrative slave trading operation. She was born with a port wine stain that covered the entire left side of her body, tarnishing her porcelain skin to the ruin of her desirability. As we know, that’s all the high society humans see women as—a bargaining chip.” He sighed, folding his hands on the table.
“She and I bonded immediately,” he continued, “both of us trapped in the place between privilege and scorn, accepted by many, but outcasts just the same. It was one day, while we were studying geography outside in the sun, that she suddenly blanched, stammering that she knew me from long ago. She ran back to the house to pull out every old text she could find, finally finding one about the Ancient Egyptians. My memories were quite hazy at that point, but the more she spoke, the more certain I was that she was right. I had the innate ability to solve equations unlike anyone else, while she had been talking to spirits since she was a child. Eventually, she and I were drawn to the salons of France, where our minds were filled with enlightened thinking, quickly becoming swept up in the protests of the abolitionists.”
Lucius nodded. “Oh yes, I found myself equally drawn to the salons, as you might remember. Though I did end up partaking in a more violent insurrection.”
Thomas blinked. “I never thought to put that together. I knew you were headed to become king, but instead you escaped Angelique. Of course you were instrumental in her near beheading; I cannot believe I didn’t see it.”
Lucius shrugged. “We can speak of storming the Bastille later. You were telling me about yourself.”
“Ah yes.” Thomas leaned back in his chair. “Helena and my antics were never caught by her father, but eventually he brought us with him to Africa, to where we are now. Then it was known as the Kingdom of Whydah. Anubis was a human when we met him, the High Priest who served the king, but he and Helena discovered each other and he pieced together who we all were. You see, we died together in the Underworld, not long after you and Nephthys did.”
“She goes by Morrigan now,” Lucius explained. “She was the raven woman from my dreams as a child.”
“Ah, that makes sense. It would make things easier if we all just kept our Egyptian names, wouldn’t it?” Thomas smiled. “Not long after we figured all this out, Shokpana, the god of plagues, arrived on our shores, bringing with him a disease unlike anything we had ever seen. It wiped out the entire French settlement, infecting Helena and I, and trickling out onto the unsuspecting kingdom. It was madness, humans dying in droves.
“By this time, Anubis and Helena had become lovers and he broke into the compound to be at her side. He grew sick with us and for a moment, we believed all was lost. What we didn’t know was that Shokpana, who went by the name Lesplaies at the time, brought Sandrine with him. She found Anubis and turned him so that he might live, causing his powers to heighten while restoring his memories. He found and turned me just in time, but Helena was not so lucky. But she did not cease to exist as we assumed would happen; instead, she found herself stationed in a place quite like the astral plane, where the African vodun live. It enables her to walk the middle realms, to eavesdrop where she can. She taught us how to travel on that plane ourselves, which was how I was able to visit you in the mid-eighteenth century and how Anubis finally reached Cahira. Though it proves much more difficult for us than her.”
“Morrigan and I met Helena a little bit ago,” Lucius told him. “She also told us that Sandrine has a piece of Isis’s soul.”
“Correct.” Thomas nodded. “All the original gods are together at last.”
