RE: Monarch

“As far as Elder Veldani and I can tell, this was likely an old staging ground for the Sanctum from long ago.”

“It’s thoroughly different from the layout at the heart.” Maya noticed.

“True,” Bacchus walked backward to point at her, nearly tripped, then thought better of it. “Many of the structures were the same—apothecary, barracks, various resource processing areas. But no mercantile to speak of.”

“Mother always told us to avoid broken chambers. But she could never really tell us the way. Completely unlike her.” Maya’s tail was wrapped around her arm.

“A warning likely born out of superstition, but a rare one, where following it is likely not bad practice,” Bacchus admitted. “If whatever design behind the Sanctum is displeased with an entire chamber enough to shunt it from the collective, it is likely best avoided by the rest of us. Not to mention the practical concerns. They are typically abandoned, wide open spaces with very little traffic. A combination that is the perfect refuge for giant spiders, drakes—there was even one in the lower strata packed to the dome walls with hibernating vivisectaurs.”

“In other words, all things large, territorial, and angry.” Jorra shuddered.

“Succinctly put.” Bacchus nodded. “But there’s nothing to worry about. I’ve done quite a bit of exploration in this chamber and nothing has even tried to eat me.

There was a ruined tavern had a bar that faced out towards the street. It caught my eye, but then I thought I spotted a dark shadow moving behind it. Likely a ghost of my mind, but I angled that way, relaxing my eyes as the rangers had taught me.

“How’s that cat doing, Bacchus?” I asked, still staring at the edge of the bar, my nerves climbing higher as we drew closer to it.

I nearly snickered at the image of the intimidating and cold half-demon cooing over a common house cat. It struck me, how casually he spoke of her.

“And you’re happy there?” I asked him. “Given her… uh, vocation, It’s quite the change of pace from a bookstore, I imagine.”

“It is.” Bacchus chuckled. “At first, I wasn’t sure. All sorts of shady types, coming and going. My first day in the district, I saw a red buy something from a cart-side vendor for more gold than I’d ever seen in my life. And mother—she was nestled in my memory as this scary woman who paid me to stay away from my home. But she went out of her way to welcome me. Cooked every night for a week to celebrate.”

“We got the same treatment. Maya, and then me. Kilvius went heavy on the good stuff.” Jorra was practically salivating at the memory.

Maya smiled. “I can’t believe they bought us Sceo. It’s absurdly expensive. They’re probably trying to make a good impression, knowing how dangerous things are here.”

A dark cloud came over us. Both for the friend that we’d lost, and the uncertain future ahead.

“It’s been rough, hasn’t it?” Bacchus asked quietly.

“For some more than others.” Maya’s mouth tightened. The statement felt, obliquely, like a shot at me. That didn’t seem like her, but we were all suffering from weeks of accumulated fatigue and mental baggage.

It surprised me when Jorra was the one to change the subject. “Did—no,” he shook his head, “does she have any friends or family? Anyone we need to notify?”

“None that I know of.” Maya sighed. “She had interests, competitive dueling, a weirdly in-depth knowledge of religious history, but she always talked about us like we were her whole world.”

Maya’s comment on religious history stirred a memory. “The Void Temple.” I realized.

“That’s right,” Jorra glanced at me. “That one time she ran away from Ralakos’s estate. You somehow knew to find her there.”

I nodded, but felt a pang of sadness. Jorra would never the first time we really met Bell, when Erdos brought her to spar, or when we stumbled across her at the Void Temple several loops after.

“Bacchus,” Maya took a few extra steps to catch up with him. “I have a question for you, but feel it might be rude to ask.”

“O-oh. What sort of question?” Bacchus stammered, shifting to the side. Maya noticed, and did not try to close the gap. I smiled to myself. Probably not many female customers in that musty old bookshop.

“It’s about lineage…” Maya trailed off, waiting for a cue. I almost stumbled.

Oh. There was so much else going on, I’d nearly forgotten the minor revelation that Bacchus was Kilvius’s son by blood. Apparently, after seeing my memories so recently, Maya hadn’t.

“Ah.” Bacchus rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re curious about the Dantalion flame, yes? Where I got it from.”

“I thought magic didn’t follow genetic lines,” Jorra frowned.

“Not strictly, no.” Maya shook her head. “But it trends genetically. That’s why there are entire families of water and earth magicians.”

Jorra eyed me. “Got an infernal in your family history you haven’t told us about?”

“I seriously doubt it,” I said. Outside the obvious physical characteristics, my family was absurdly picky about bloodlines that the idea was outlandish at best.

Bacchus shrugged. “Wish I knew. I’m curious about it as well. But my mother doesn’t know her heritage, and she’s always been tight-lipped about who my father might be. Now that I’m older, I might be able to get something out of her, but I didn’t spend that much time at home.”

“I… see.” Maya deflated a bit. I could practically see her go through the thought process. It was probably exciting to her, to have an older brother. One that perhaps explained her inheritance of the demon-flame through a shared father. But she wanted to avoid saying more without knowing for sure.

We reached what was once the town center. There was a fountain, overlooked by a terribly inaccurate depiction of Infaris. “Well. This is where I leave you,” Bacchus’s shoulders sagged. He turned to me. “I wish I could help more. Not to mention, there are a few choice words I have for the person chasing you.” He shivered. “But Veldani actually threatened to track me down if I didn’t return promptly.”

“Best not to keep her waiting, then.” I clasped his arm. “Hopefully, I’ll see you soon. And if I don’t, it’s all up to you.”

He waved to us, and disappeared into the fog.

/////

“Why didn’t you mention your awakening to Veldani? Or Bacchus for that matter?” I asked Maya.

“Probably the same reason you refuse to tell us about this plan of yours, despite the fact we are still not fully recovered from the last time you pulled this.” Jorra trudged by us.

Maya glanced down at the oversized vibrant red jewel of the detection artifact, shifting it from side

to side and frowning. “He is not wrong. Mainly, I do not have the same blind faith in Veldani that you seem to.”

I shook my head. “She saved my life and gave us safe harbor.”

“Yes. Actions taken out of her self-interest—getting the dimensional gate open. She is a pragmatist, not unlike you. So put yourself in her shoes. If your current solution is lacking, and two more possibilities present themselves, would you truly let them go?”

“Cynical.”

“It is not cynicism if it comes from experience.” Maya shrugged. I wasn’t sure. There was some merit in her words: the time she spent in Barion’s clutches would have easily crushed any trace of wanton optimism. But it seemed much more likely that Maya was running from the nightmare Infaris had shown her. Maybe she never intended to use the flame. Yet, as I had learned so clearly, so recently, it was not my place to pressure her.

Which is why I’d planned around her, despite the fact her power would make things easier.

“It’s no use,” Jorra called back, reappearing in the fog a few feet in front of us. He looked frustrated, tired. “Can’t scout if I can’t see.”

We walked in silence then. The last time I’d felt this weight, it’d been right before the waterside chamber opened. The perfect respite, right when we needed it. Beachside conversation with Maya. Jorra, teaching Bellarex to swim. It felt almost nostalgic now. I thought, not for the first time, of my friends. Of lost opportunities. I’d wanted to train with them. To hunt artifacts and monsters. To learn together. It crossed my mind more than once that I might take them back to Whitefall with me when I returned, expand my little circle: Cephur, Tamara, Maya, and Jorra. And of course, Bell.

But it was becoming a more obvious delusion the more I thought on it. Especially with what I had to do.

My mouth was dry as I spoke. “If this goes sideways. If it doesn’t work. Be smart. Don’t throw your lives away.”

Jorra snorted. “We’re not letting that schlackfei have you. Not after all this. It’s personal now.”

“I mean it.” I snapped. Jorra looked hurt, confused. “Sorry. But I can’t go into this worrying about what will happen to you after if I fail.”

Something struck me in the jaw, and I staggered. Maya rubbed her hand, glaring at me in cold fury. “It all makes sense now. That’s why you were so interested in Bacchus’s progress. I have been running through it again, and again, trying to figure out the angle. And the truth is, you don’t have one.”

Jorra looked between us, panic rising in his face. “You’re giving up?”

Maya shook her head. “No. It’s worse than that. He intends to surrender. He’s being an idiot.”

I wanted to tell her that she was wrong. But my cold, calculated side of me screamed for me to be silent.

Jorra’s fists balled, and for a moment, I thought I was about to take my second punch of the day. Then, he relaxed. “He’s not being an idiot.” Jorra turned to Maya. “Losing Bell changed things. He’s trying to save us.”

I sighed. “More than anything else, Thoth wants to hurt me. I don’t know why. Honestly, I wish I did. Other than the crushing life lesson, the one thing I learned from Infaris is that we have a more complicated relationship than I realized. There might be something I can use there.”

Maya looked betrayed. She rounded on Jorra, standing less than an inch from his face. “You saw her. How angry she was. You really think she will not just kill him on sight.”

Jorra considered. “That level of anger is beyond what I can understand. It’s not normal, or rational. But Cairn—for whatever reason—seems to understand her far better than we can. And I’m assuming the surrender is a contingency, yes? We’re still going to try?” He cocked his head at me for confirmation.

I nodded.

Maya laughed, and placed her face in her hands. “What a brilliant strategy, for when things get hard. To place yourself in the clutches of an enemy, yet again.”

“Again?” Jorra asked, confused.

I stiffened as the words cut deep. Maya was alluding to the Asmodial situation, my capture and torture. I knew she wasn’t trying to open old wounds. She was likely imagining what Thoth would do to me, and the guilt that would come with it, knowing how, in many ways, I’d already been through hell for her.

“I’m trying, here,” I said, my voice quiet.

We stood there, three points of a triangle. Maya was still seething. Jorra seemed aware there was some context he was missing, and as such, unable to help.

The artifact lit up, a vibrant red. Taking a deep breath, Maya looked down at it, taken aback.

“Is that the exit?” Jorra asked.

“That can’t be right,” Maya muttered, shifting the device around. “Something is opening. That can’t be right. Broken chambers are supposed to be cut off from any new branches.”

We followed the signal for a half mile, making a clear trail easy to follow back. The sinkhole opened beside us with a gasp of air, sucking in a current of fog. A scarlet hand reached out from the open grave, clear nails painted brown with dirt. “Fog! Again?”

I watched in a combination of disbelief and awe as Bellarex, daughter of Erdos, hauled herself up and brushed off her armor. She turned and saw the three of us gaping. “I found you!”

At that moment, as Jorra rushed towards her, and Maya followed only steps behind, I felt a great many things. Relief and happiness at seeing a friend I thought dead. Confusion, at how she’d escaped Thoth’s clutches. And something else.

Jorra was crying, snot dripping down his nose as he touched Bell everywhere, as if trying to convince himself she was real.

Maya embraced her, hesitant at first, then relieved and happy.

“Welcome back,” I said, absent anything more convincing.

Bell’s story and explanation was a long one. It essentially boiled down to how Infaris had given her a clue—an image. Something she hadn’t understood at the time, and when Thoth had cut her off at the portal, that clue led her to the tunnel. But I wasn’t really listening to the story. Instead, I watched her. The sweat accumulating on her brow, the way she kept touching her neck, how her tail was anchored firmly around her arm. How she couldn’t seem to bring herself to look at me.

And finally, I identified the last feeling, an animal instinct nestled underneath the rest. Dread. Because it was all too good to be true.

But still, I waited. When we reached the exit that would inevitably take us to the heart, I pulled Bell aside for a conversation long overdue.

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