“What?” Hayde asked. “Kinzer, what if we’re being led into a trap?”
“Then we’re really screwed, aren’t we?”
One of the fallen with a bow flew off and returned shortly after with blindfolds, which he handed over to them. They wore them and followed the fallens by the sounds of their voices.
Kinzer found it a repeated struggle as he continued walking into crystals, and through their continual grunts and cursing, he was sure Quintz and Hayde were having the same problem. The fallens were obviously enjoying their foolishness, something Kinzer could tell by their whispers and laughter.
After some time of zigging and zagging, spending maybe an hour of traveling what likely would have been a twenty-minute walk had the fallens assisted them more, Daddy announced, “Stop!”
Kinzer felt someone take his arm to hold him still before his blindfold was removed.
“Just Kinzer’s,” Daddy ordered as he stood before him.
Kinzer’s eyes adjusted to the light.
They were in a space designed similarly to the Seredey Sanctuary, with platforms built across the crystals, encircling a courtyard. Fallens crowded the platforms, moving to the edges, watching on like they wanted to see who their city’s new visitors were. Opposite where Kinzer and his companions stood, waterfalls flowed down either side of two columns. Behind the columns, a stairwell connecting to each level of the construction led up to a crystal statue of what looked like a higherling falling from the heavens. The Leader’s fall from Heaven, Kinzer suspected.
“Stay here,” Daddy said before taking off and flying several stories high.
Kinzer watched the fallens, who continued creeping out from doors and openings around the building.
“What’s happening?” Quintz asked. “Are there a lot of them?”
“Let’s just say I think ‘gang’ was a slightly misleading term for Myor to use,” Kinzer replied.
As time passed, more and more gathered until they’d acquired an incredible number of spectators, something that made Kinzer increasingly nervous.
Daddy emerged from a hole in the wall, followed by a figure in a blue hooded cloak, its face and body concealed beneath it. They walked together to the main steps across from Kinzer.
“State your name, please,” Daddy called out, his voice booming through the place.
“There is no need,” a light voice came from the figure at Daddy’s side. Lovely hands pushed forward from the cloak and reached back, removing the hood that covered its face.
Kinzer recognized the voice even before seeing the image before him—a goddess to him and so many other immortals.
“Eilee,” he muttered.
Even hating the privileges of such an immortal, he couldn’t help but marvel at her in all her glory as she stood there, the faintest smile on her face, for surely she knew how pleasant it looked on her. She was, after all, the epitome of vanity, shamelessly so. And few could fault her for it when her existence had been all about her appearance since her creation. Her bright blonde hair fell in large curls around her pale-white face, a few shades lighter than Kinzer’s own skin. Her lips were naturally pink, though it seemed by the red on her cheeks that she was wearing some sort of rouge, something that was a bit of a shock to Kinzer, who couldn’t imagine why she would have needed anything to accentuate her beauty. She certainly hadn’t worn any makeup when he had seen her in the golden days of Heaven.
She walked down the set of steps, moving slowly, as though she wasn’t in any rush. As she reached the bottom, she pulled the cloak back and allowed it to fall behind her. She was nude, displaying the beauty of her body, presenting it for all around her to behold, to adore, to crave. The sight reminded Kinzer of why she was the most beautiful of the Almighty’s creations, the one who had been doted on and revered since the dawn of creation.
Now, such an extreme fall to see that she was in this lowly place in the depths of Hell, where it was clear she now resided.
As she stopped before Kinzer, she said, “I have heard about your adventures with my Treycore, but I see they have only gotten you into more trouble. Such a mighty reputation for one such as yourself.”
And Kinzer knew she meant inferior, less than her or Treycore. That wasn’t an insult to her, he knew that. She simply couldn’t empathize with how such a statement could offend someone else.
“Are you in contact with Trey?” she asked, her smile spreading as tears stirred in her eyes. She didn’t look hopeful as much as just trying to keep herself together, to maintain the beautiful expression she forced. “I heard about what happened at his Day of Judgment.”
“I have been in contact with him, and as far as I know, he’s still alive. We plan to meet with him.”
“When you last saw him, did he look horribly heartbroken?” she asked before he had a chance of saying more. “You look confused by my question, so I’ll clarify. I encountered Treycore just a short time ago, and I navigated him through Hell, where we encountered various beasts and creatures who sought to defile us, and while we endured the worst of the Almighty’s creations. The keepers of the outerlands managed to stop us before the gates. We battled them, and I was quite seriously injured. He went on without me, so I had hoped he would have seemed very upset by losing someone so important to him.” She took a breath before continuing. “If I was really all that important to him.”
“I’m certain he was devastated,” Kinzer assured her.
“There’s no need to be deceitful, Kinzer. I had a question, and trivial as it may seem to you, it matters very much to me. Too much, even. I realize that. But I don’t need any pretense or coddling. I spent too long living behind a veil of lies, and it never did me any good. If anything, it only made it worse when the veil was lifted and I was forced to see reality for what it is—the collective nightmare we all share. This horrifying place where we all must do what we do to survive. Now, I will ask you again, did he seem particularly devastated last time you saw him? Did he even mention me?”
“He told me what happened, and he seemed genuinely saddened by what he was sure was your death.”
