I smile, “Don’t worry about it. Something tells me that I will probably share that story with you at some point, but I’m not quite ready yet. It’s not a pleasant thing to re-live.”
“Understandable,” Rival replies, and then falls silent.
“You can ask me something else though?” I prompt. I can’t stand the silence, especially not now. I don’t know why, but I add, “It’s nice to have someone to talk to who will respond. I think Rast may need a little bit more time to get used to the fact I’m here. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, he’s not great with big emotions.”
“Nico,” Rast warns, although he’s smiling.
“Yeah, I sort of figured that out,” Rival agrees with a smile.
“Wow,” Rast chuckles. He becomes serious again, “I have a question. Do you know where the souls are going? The ones that die here? The good and the bad?” I shake my head. “Not a specific place. I know that the good are somewhere. They haven’t been eaten by the Abyss creatures or anything like that. As I said before, I also know that I did know at one point, but when I stepped through the light and ended up back here, that knowledge was left behind.”
“That’s interesting,” Hades says. “It wouldn’t surprise me if that was a failsafe, a way to make sure that those souls remained safe, and that no knowledge of their whereabouts could be shared with anyone.”
“That’s a really good theory,” Rival agrees. “What about the bad souls, the prisoners that have died here, or anyone else who is a native that needed to go to the punishment side?”
“Well, the souls can’t die again, at least that’s what we’ve always been told, but I know that a good portion of them have disappeared since the first lot escaped. I don’t know what happened to them, and I also have no idea where the bad inhabitants of this realm go,” I reply with a frown as something niggles at me.
“I bet the compound leaders know,” Khaos replies.
I shrug, “Probably, they are the originals after all, and they remember how this all truly started. You would be hard-pressed to find a native that’s managed to survive since the beginning, it was thousands and thousands of years ago.”
“So our best bet of finding out exactly what happened, and the answers to any questions that we have about this realm and the beginning of the end, is to talk to one of the souls that escaped the punishments side of the realm?” Kill asks.
I frown, “Technically yes, but these are dangerous people. They’re also what you would consider ancient beings, some are even what the ancients would consider ancient, which means there are supernaturals that you have never seen or heard of before, and that you wouldn’t know how to deal with.”
“You really have been following us for a while. You immediately knew that we were going to kidnap and torture one of the compound leaders,” Storm says.
My eyes widen. “Well, I didn’t think that you were going straight for a leader, but I did think that you wanted to do something along those lines.”
“We’ll put a pin in that,” Loki says with a skip in his steps.
I can’t believe he’s so excited about facing so much danger.
I frown. “I’m not sure I like the sound of putting a pin in it. That would suggest that you’re going to come back to the idea later on.”
Khaos grins, “You’re not wrong, wait until Farren finds out that there’s a torture opportunity on the horizon.”
“She’s wanted their heads since she learned about how they treated Rast,” Storm grins.
I start to protest, but actually, when I really think about it, I owe the fuckers for some things, and I would love to get the opportunity to repay them.
Mayhem’s smile is nothing short of feral as he says, “They’re souls, right? It doesn’t matter what kind of supernatural they were in life, a soul is a soul, and that means it's mine.”
“Dude, that was scary,” Loki says, although he doesn’t look scared at all and just grins.
“Wait, why don’t you check Farren’s soul?” I suddenly ask.
Mayhem looks surprised. “She didn’t give me permission. I will only check her soul under dire circumstances. You and Laikynn have both said that she’s not in any danger, and that she’s just in a deep restorative sleep because she used so much magic. If that changes, I’ll check her soul.”
I smile, “Fair enough.
Everyone falls silent again, as we all carry on walking.
It’s interesting to see the two very different sides to Mayhem in such close succession. He was just grinning at the amount of torture he could inflict on the compound leaders in order to get them to tell us what we want to know, and then in the next sentence almost hewas saying that he wouldn’t check on Farren’s soul because she hadn’t given him permission and he wants to respect that.
I think that says a lot about the kind of person he really is, and shows how much of a contradiction he is, they all are really.
I’m surprised that Rival hasn’t asked me any more questions. I thought for sure that he was going to come out with a whole list of them, but he’s only known me for a short amount of time, so maybe he’s just letting his brain compile a more comprehensive list and simply asked me the most pressing questions that he had.
