The Fall was heard, the battles were waged
Mortals deceased, lands wept in rage.
A perfect utopia crumbled to dust
Where Mortem did fall and a heart did lay
Love, love, love was slain.
The price was too high
The cost was too much
The exchange of Eternity demanded just
Life demands Death
Death demands Life
For true balance
Makes no sacrifice.
I stare at the words, incredulous, as something hungry shifts in the back of my mind. As it sinks sharp teeth into my subconscious, obliterating all rational thought. Surely it cannot be this simple. Surely the answer I seek hasn’t been hiding within meter and rhymes. Still, the hair at my nape lifts as I reread those first, simple words:Deep in a chamber / A heart doth lay.
No other text has revealed a location. Unbidden, my eyes skim the rest, and this time, the ink does not blur. This time, it leaps from the page with crystal clarity.In ruins of white and eyes wide and clear.
The Fall was heard.
Shit. The Fall of Mortem. The fall ofAbysses. They’re… they’re connected. Of course they’re fucking connected, which means there is only one location wherein the heart would lie. My magic stutters as shock washes over me.
I read it again. Again.
Once more for good measure.
I can hardly believe my eyes, my heart pumping faster, louder, until it might split my chest. “What do you know about Abysses, Gavriall?”
His brow furrows, and though he opens his mouth to respond, the mermaid beats him to it.
“Abysses?” Zephyra echoes through the sudden weakness of my magic, and her voice—feeble and breathless—sounds just behind the curtain now. As if she’s crept closer to listen. “What the fuck do you want with Abysses?”
“No one was speaking to you, demon. Why don’t you waitsilentlyfor death to claim you?”
She slices her nails through the curtains at that, shredding them to ribbons. I don’t bother maintaining them with my magic. They aren’t worth it.She’snot worth it.
“Gavriall?” I implore. “Abysses?”
He bites his lip, head tilting from side to side as he thinks. “No one has found concrete evidence of its existence. In ancient texts,historians hardly mentioned it beyond the odd sentence here and there. Most believe the kingdom was no more than a symbolic metaphor of Mortem. A utopia fallen, just like the god.”
“Bullshit,” Zephyra snarls.
“So no one has any idea where it might have been? Has anyone searched?” I ask. Something like desperation snakes up my throat now, choking my voice, but I force it back down. I force calm. I force composure, apathy even, as Elder Branche’s reprimand rings in my head.
Emotions have no place in a warlock’s life.
“You could read a thousand texts and learn a thousand different conspiracies. Some believe Mortia itself is Abysses. Some believe it was a land swallowed by the sea. Some believe it was an island in the sky. Humans have searched for hundreds of years, of course, but all expeditions have proved futile. The seas and skies are treacherous. Most explorers don’t return.”
Zephyra cackles wildly. Her fingers curl around the bars as she presses her face between the crack. “Abysses wasn’t this shithole, and it wasn’t in the fucking sky. It was a utopiasharedbetween merrow and humans. It was the heart of civilization for centuries beforeyourgod decimated it.” Her turquoise gaze sparks with more rage. “Abysses wasbeneaththe sea.”
