Lumi looked at me. “She wants you to help her. She just isn’t very good at asking for help.”
My heart stopped for a moment as the realization caught up with me. “Oh… okay. Yes. We’re in. We’ll help. Yes! If you need Thieron back to stop the Hermessi, we’ll do it. We’ll do whatever it takes! We can use the pink waters to take us straight to their locations.”
Death smirked. “You make it sound so easy. It doesn’t work like that. The pieces are protected by ancient, powerful magical. You won’t be able to use the pink waters for this one, I’m afraid.”
“Nothing about this is easy,” Eira chimed in. “But it’s the only chance we’ve got.”
Death leaned back into her throne, measuring each of us from head to toe. “You’ve gotten yourself quite the merry band of supernatural creatures, dear brother. But the universe does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?”
“Our brothers and sisters will likely agree,” the Word replied, drawing my attention.
“Brothers and sisters?” I asked, trying to imagine what the siblings of Death and the Word would be like.
“The universe is fueled by a number of forces, Taeral,” the Word explained. “Myself, Death, and a few others, above the Hermessi. The currents that put everything in motion, that birth stars and clump chunks of rock and metal together to form planets. I’m afraid it’s far above your level of comprehension. You should, perhaps, focus on Thieron for now.”
Dry-swallowing, I nodded slowly. “Like I said, we’re in.”
“Let this be official, then,” Death said. “You deliver Thieron back to me, and I will stop the ritual. My spoken word is a binding contract which I cannot avoid or undo.”
My wrist burned. Eira hissed from the pain. I heard Lumi’s skin sizzle. In an instant, a symbol appeared on our wrists—an uneven spiral, about three inches wide, drawn in what looked like glimmering red ink.
“A blood pact, sister? Do you not trust my student and her friends to carry the mission to the end?” the Word asked, sounding slightly offended.
Death cocked her head to the side. “I’m well aware of the nature of mortals. I’m just making sure they do the job they’ve signed up to do. I really want my Thieron back, and… well, the blood pact stops them from dying until they deliver it to me.”
“Whoa… wait, what?” I croaked, my pulse throbbing in my ears.
“I’ll make it clear. The sooner you find and bring Thieron back to me, the bigger the chances of me stopping the ritual,” Death said. “Should you fail, and should the ritual happen, you, Eira, and Lumi will not die until you finish this assignment. Until you recover Thieron for me. I can’t come fetch it for you—its absence has weakened me enough to keep me here, on Mortis. I won’t do your job for you. I need to see for myself how determined you are. How far you’ll go to save your world. But Thieron back in my possession is what I care about the most. Even if it means you three will live, while everyone else you know and love dies in the ritual.”
My blood curdled at the thought of such a scenario. For a moment, part of me wondered what I’d gotten us into. Eira gave me a troubled stare, as if asking, “Is she for real?” What could I say to that? Yes, yes, she was. Death was absolutely for real, and she’d just bound us into an unbreakable agreement. We had to find Thieron sooner, rather than later—if we didn’t, not only would our worlds die, but we’d be there to see it, to live past it and spend who knew how much time in absolute misery, still searching for Death’s scythe.
Failure was certainly no longer an option. And the thought terrified me more than the ritual itself.
Eira
I’d never, even in my wildest dreams, thought I’d be standing here.
Every minute that passed while Death and the Word conversed about the state of things, I found myself wondering which decisions throughout the course of my life had led me to this place, to this incredible moment.
For most of my life, I’d lived for my career. I loved the military; I couldn’t live without the action, the excitement, the firm discipline, and the honor that came with my job. I’d suspected my origins since before Taeral and his friends had made it to Cerix. I’d shared those thoughts with Inalia, too, though she’d been less inclined to embrace her nature at the time. Weird had always been on my menu, just never in such astronomic quantities.
I’d joined Taeral on this mission for two important reasons. One, I’d had little choice, as Inalia had insisted that I leave Cerix with him, thus stopping the other Hermessi from putting additional pressure on my father, Acquis. Two, I wanted to be here, even though I’d been terrified and baffled at first. I wanted my spot on this quest to stop the elementals from destroying our worlds. My mother needed me to protect her, and I was useless back on Cerix, given all these developments.
There was also a third reason, one that I’d only recently become aware of. To most, it might not have mattered as much as it did to me… but I was fond of Taeral and everyone on his team. I had nothing but respect and admiration for each and every one of them. They’d earned my affection, and I couldn’t bring myself to let them go through this alone.
In the end, my presence here made a lot of sense. After all, I was a Hermessi child. I had a say in this cluster-fumble that the Hermessi had gotten us into. Even so, my brain had trouble processing this reality. It was surreal, to say the least, that I was smack in the middle of an audience with Death. Mind-boggling, yes, but also my new reality.
My wrist itched where Death had marked me. It scared me the most, knowing that I had no choice but to find Thieron as fast as possible, for the repercussions were unimaginable. Not only would I lose my mother, my friends, my new allies, and my world, but I would also be forced to bear witness to it all. I’d live past it, until my mission for Death was over.
Dread was quick to grip my stomach in its claws, but I quickly acclimated myself to the urgency of this new and unexpected situation. Taking a deep breath and finding solace in Taeral’s touch, I looked at Death. “Understood. We will find Thieron and bring it back to you. Those are the terms, and we cannot change them. We know better than to mess with a timeless power such as yourself. I also know that you’re doing this for a reason.”
“And what reason is that, little Hermessi girl?” Death asked, somewhat amused.
“You’re testing us. You want to see if we’ve got the juice and the drive to do what you and your Reapers couldn’t pull off for thousands of years,” I replied. It irked her to hear this, but she’d made a pact with us. She couldn’t undo it; she’d said so herself. Pissing Death off was no longer a potentially deadly affair—at least not for Taeral, Lumi, or me. Besides, she needed to be told these things. Millions of years of isolation and frustration couldn’t have been good to her psyche.
“You know, you aren’t the first ones who came to me with this quest in mind,” Death said, wearing a cold smirk. “Unlike your predecessors, however, I’ve decided that binding you to life would be a sensible way to ensure you will finish your job.”
She was trying to mess with our heads, since she couldn’t kill us or hurt us, but Taeral was quick to pick up on the new intel she’d dropped. “Others have found you here?” he asked.
“About a million years ago, if not longer. Plenty of warriors from worlds aware of Thieron and me made their way to Mortis and tried to help me. Not to stop the Hermessi, of course, since they weren’t a threat at the time. They wanted my favor, and retrieving Thieron had seemed like a good way to get it,” Death explained.
“How did these ancient warriors know that Thieron has been missing?” Taeral asked.
Death took a moment to answer that. “Some of my Reapers had loose tongues. They’ve been removed since.”
“The Reapers?” I asked.
“No, darling. The tongues,” Death replied dryly. “Anyway, you’ve got your work cut out for you. No one passed down any of their knowledge from previous quests. Obviously, none of these warriors made it back with my Thieron, either. I hope the gift I’ve bestowed upon you will make things easier.” She exhaled sharply, shaking her head. “I do wish I’d thought of binding them. Perhaps the thought of living longer than the people they all loved would’ve made them more effective.”
“You’re digressing, sister,” the Word said. “And you are not telling us everything we need to know.”
“What else do you want?!” Death snapped. “Brendel took my Thieron and dismantled it into three pieces, which she hid somewhere in the universe, across dimensions! They need to find them and bring them back to me—oh.” She paused, then giggled. “You’re right. I did forget something. Getting the pieces back won’t be easy.”
“What do you mean?” Taeral asked.
“I’ve fused my three most trusted lieutenants to the pieces of Thieron. The first three Reapers I ever created, beings almost as old and as timeless as I am,” Death replied. “They will test you before they even let you take the pieces back.”
“Way to bury the lead,” Taeral grumbled, crossing his arms. “How come they didn’t stop Brendel from taking Thieron in the first place, then?”
