“That makes a lot of sense,” Rival points out.
“How is it that you know so much about these creatures?” Mayhem asks curiously.
Laikynn sighs, “They are not evil. They are doing a job. Their job is to restore the balance, and they do that by consuming the realm where the imbalance occurred, and if the problem has spread, then they follow it until it’s completely wiped out. Their leaders, however, are evil. They control these creatures, and the creatures don’t get a say in whether or not they stay in their realm or are sent to other realms. It’s not a nice job, and they will get hurt, and some of them don’t return. Every realm that they consume, a portion of that power goes to the Abyss to help sustain it and keep it strong. If the creatures of the realm who actually are the ones who are capable of consuming decide they don’t want to do it anymore, then the Abyss loses power and becomes weaker, and there’s no one to step up and restore the balance. The Abyss creatures are the only ones who can do it. It’s incredibly complicated, and there’s a lot more to it, but I have managed to speak to a couple of the ones who don’t want to be here. There are only a few of them, granted, most of them enjoy what they do, it’s all they’ve known.”
With that absolute bombshell, Laikynn disappears again.
“Er,” Loki starts. He shakes his head, “Yeah, I have absolutely no words for that.”
“You’re not the only one,” Hades agrees.
“That was a surprising amount of information,” Khaos agrees. “A lot more than we usually get.”
“We need to keep moving,” Rast says as he digests yet another bombshell.
Loki
The surprises just keep on coming.
I think if we went for longer than an hour without a surprise, that would then become the surprise.
We came here for one reason, and that was to free Ignatius and those who are trapped underneath the castle, and yet this realm seems to have disrupted that plan at every turn. Not because it doesn’t want us to find Ignatius and the others and help to stop this realm from being destroyed, but because it has a lot to say and for a long time it hasn’t been able to say it.
I don’t know why, but Nico feels like Rast does to me, which means I instinctively trust him. Plus, Farren obviously knows something that we don’t since she has her ancient cat thing guarding him.
What the fuck even is that?
She seemed to greet it with familiarity, so how long exactly has that thing been around for, and we didn’t know about it?
For now, I don’t want to think about everything else that’s going on and all of the other questions that we now have. I just want to get to the damn castle without another interruption.
Why do I feel like that’s wishful thinking?
My gaze keeps moving over to Farren every few minutes. Maybe I should be suspicious that Nico feels like he belongs with us, and thatI’m not as concerned as I should be about him carrying Farren. The thing is I’m getting used to this sort of shit now.
We all are.
I mean, Rast feels like he belongs too. We know that there’s something else at work here, which means that there’s a reason why they feel like they belong with us, and we just don’t know what it is.
“We’ve been walking for hours, and Farren clearly needs more time to rest,” Kill starts, pulling me out of my thoughts. “We need her when we get to the castle, and we can’t take her in unconscious. I think we should find somewhere to rest for a few hours and then head off again in the morning, when Farren is hopefully awake again.”
“I think that’s the best plan you’ve come up with for a while. I’m hungry,” I add. “It’s been a while since I ate properly, and I think that resting for the night would be a really good idea. The question is where?”
As if I spoke it into existence, which, to be honest, with the way things are going, I really could have, as we turn a bend in the road I see Ignatius’ house in all its run-down, uninviting glory.
“You guys see that too, right?” I ask, rubbing my eyes and then looking back at the house, just to check I’ve not gone crazy and I’m seeing things.
“I see it,” Rast replies, sounding as confused as I feel.
“Did we somehow manage to walk all the way back here?” Nico asks. “I could have sworn that it was the wrong direction.”
Reaper frowns as he looks around. “I don’t remember there being a dirt road near Ignatius’ place before. I could have sworn that we walked straight through trees.”
Khaos looks around. “It is Ignatius’ place, right?”
“It would be a damn big coincidence if it weren’t. It looks exactly the same,” Hades says. “Come on, there’s one way to know for certain.”
“Laikynn and Poca, can you check the perimeter, please?” Storm says into the darkness, and we hear a short, sharp bark in reply.
