“Have you noticed anything strange on your side?” He directs to Ryder with a small gulp following his words.
“Nothing yet.” Ryder replies, his jaw tense. “But that’s not to say there won’t be. There’s been talk of unrest on the Other Side for a while now. The spirits have been, let’s just say, a little louder than usual.” River and I exchange confused glances from each end of the burgundy sofa. Ryder is sitting on one of the armchairs opposite us, his choice, to adhere to our agreement.
“What have they been talking about?” I ask as talk of the other side sends a shudder down my spine.
“It’s hard to make out because there’s so many souls all trying to make contact. From what I gathered from the Mourna’s, the veil is overcrowded with way more souls than usual crossing over.” His eyes make contact with mine, and I sink deeper into their depths, knowing this is just about the closest contact we will have for a while.
“Well, do you know why there are so many of them?” River asks, he relaxes back into his chair, but his muscles betray him by tensing slightly. Ryder shrugs his shoulders.
“It happens, natural disasters can wipe out a whole village in one swoop.” He pauses. “But it’s usually in short bursts, never this long.”
“When did it start?” The lines on River’s brow harshen as he questions Ryder deep in thought.
Ryder pauses for a moment before answering. “Around three weeks ago.” He leans in and rests his elbows on his knees, interlocking his fingers.
“The same time we freed the Moons.” I go a little paler as River says what we are all thinking. Surely that does not have anything to do with it? The door slams, suddenly making us jump.
“Sorry, I’m late, guys. Trina wouldn’t stop talking to me.” Nala’s voice interrupts us from our thoughts as she enters the archives and plonks herself between River and me on the sofa. “What’d I miss?” She senses the tension in the room.
“There’s something strange happening on the Other Side.” River fills her in as she fidgets in her seat.
“Do you think it’s linked?” Nala says, worry lines forming on her brow.
“We’re not sure.” River answers her before looking at me. “Have you heard anything from Oriah?”
“Still nothing, I’m getting worried,” I answer with regret. She has never left me in the dark for this long.
“Nothing from me either.” Ryder shakes his head and begins pacing the room. The stomping of his boots in tandem with the beating of our hearts. “Didn’t you say she was having a meeting with the Gods the last time she spoke to you?” I nod my head in his direction.
“And how did she seem?” Nala asks.
“Fine, I suppose.” I shrug my shoulders. “She’s had hundreds of meetings with them since I met her, so I didn’t think anything of it. But now with everything that’s happening with the sun, and the garden dying—”
“I don’t think that was an ordinary meeting.” River interrupts and fills in the blanks of my mind. The silence that follows is eerie. If the Gods were at a meeting to talk about everything that’s going on, why hadn’t they returned?
“I can’t shake the feeling that something really bad is coming.” Nala stands up and looks at us all, then bites the skin around her fingernails in anticipation. “Like end of the world bad.” She says, and an overwhelming sense of guilt heavies my limbs as I hold my head in my hands.
The war that The General said was coming.
Maybe this is just the start.
“There’s something I haven’t told you guys,” I admit with a shaky breath, tears threatening to fall from my eyes. Everyone looks at me with concern.
“What is it?” River says.
“The General said something to me before he died.” I pause and watch as they all tense at the sound of his name. “He said that the world is going to burn, and I will watch knowing I could’ve stopped it.” I recite, my voice cracking slightly. “That his army was going to be the only one capable of defeating the war that is coming.” I shudder at the thought of his words. Hislast dying breath an oath to keep me up at night. Ryder walks over to me and crouches in front of me, placing a hand on my chin despite our agreement.
“You take no notice of anything that man said; he’s delusional.” His eyes hold mine, and I surrender to his touch. “You understand?” I nod my head at him, trying to make out like his words register in my brain, but they don’t.
Not really.
This is too much to be a coincidence.
“What else did he say?” River asks, his face a few shades paler than it was a minute ago.
“River!” Ryder warns him not to take this any further, sending him a glare that could freeze molten lava.
“What if he’s right? He said the world is going to end, and now the sun is fucking dimming, that seems a lot like the end of the world to me.” River matches his glare and stands up fast out of his chair; tensions started rising the minute the General’s name left my lips.
