novelzi Chapter 510 – The Empty Room
Chapter 510 – The Empty Room
Arascus looked at Anassa. Anassa looked at Arascus. The four who had tried healing Baalka had been in there for forty minutes now. Forty minutes of being trapped within the Goddess of Disease, forty minutes of whatever they were going through on the inside. And now? If they had not gotten out. Should they not be out by now? But then what were they even doing? Updates are released by novel•fire.net“Do you think they know how to get out?” Arascus asked. Baalka still lay nude on that table. The lights above shone bright. They were in the centre of Iniri’s tree. And they would be in the centre of Iniri’s tree until either seven souls walked out of here together. Anassa had to think for a moment. That was rare.
“Elassa should be able to do it immediately if she has magic.” The pursed lips of consternation did more explaining than anything else his daughter could say.
“And if she can’t?” Those pursed lips did the answer.
The explanation was terribly abstract, yet Arascus had talked with Anassa about this enough to know that she was being serious. “If she can’t paint her imagination over Baalka’s, then she’ll lose it.” Arascus stared at Anassa. Anassa stared at Arascus. The Goddess pursed her lips and swung her hands, swaying that red dress of silk from side to side. Her crimson eyes looked down at the floor. “I know what you’re going to say.” She said. Arascus remained silent. “I didn’t tell her.”
The God took a deep breath. A failure on her part? Well yes. Of course. The whole point of having a preparatory meeting before this had been to share all the information they had on the subject. But then who had predicted this situation to happen? It had gone smoothly with Maisara. Anassa’s lips shook and she looked up at Arascus. Arascus didn’t know if those eyes were capable of sparkling, much less crying, but when he looked at the woman before him, he saw not the Goddess of Sorcery but a scared little girl. Or as scared as Anassa could let herself be. She talked flatly, her eyes were sharp and her gaze flat. This woman could look at the end of the world and shrug. “Have I killed them?”
Arascus gave her a hug. She needed it. “Not until I’ve seen their bodies.” He said gently and Anassa wrapped her hands around his arms.
“Mmh.” She said. “Thank you.”
And then Arascus pulled away. As much as he would like to Anassa again, they still had a situation on their hands. It was his failure that he had not thought of this contingency and it was his failure that he had not ordered Anassa to tell Elassa in the first place. “How long do they have?”
If there was one thing that Arascus rarely expected out of Anassa’s mouth, it was the answer she replied with. “I don’t know.”
“Not even an inkling?”
“The soft cut-off is two days because that’s when dehydration starts swallowing the mind. The hard cut-off is until death.” Anassa said. “But that’s a human going into themselves. That’s not four Divines going into another.”
Uncharted territory. Arascus took a step away and started pacing around the room. This wasn’t the first time they were in uncharted territory. To think it never got any better. “What would we need to awake Baalka?”
“Only Baalka will know that.” Anassa said and smiled at Arascus. It was a slow, sad smile. “I honestly can’t give a better explanation than that.”
Arascus grabbed her hand. “What about when you went in?” Anassa opened her mouth. Then closed it. Then opened it. Her lips trembled. Her eyes went wide. She made a tiny shake of her head. Arascus did not let go. He squeezed tighter until Anassa finally gave the most meagre explanation she could.
“I proved I was the best.” Anassa whispered quietly. “That was all.”
“Mmh.” Arascus let go. He would talk over this later with her. “Have you ever sent a person into a person?”
“We tried it early.” Anassa said.
“We?”
“Me and Elassa near the start. It never worked. She called it off. I stopped believing it was possible.” The sigh was heavy. “It wasn’t insanity, they’d just die. Minds stop working after a point.” Arascus glanced down at Baalka. Her pale stomach was still rising up and down.
“She’s not dead yet.” Options were beginning to run out. They couldn’t wake her with Kavaa here, what could they do without her here? One-by-one, Arascus saw the roads leading off the highway they were going slowly begin to rot and crumble away. “Do you think they have any shot?”
“Kass is there.” Anassa said hopefully. “And it’s Kass.” Exactly. Only Anassa herself would have been worse and that was debatable.
“That’s why I’m worried.” Arascus said.
“Because of Kass?” The shift in tone came immediately.
“Because of Kass.” Arascus said. “Forty minutes Anassa. Forty minutes she’s been in there and that’s if time travels the same.”
“But…” Anassa said quietly, her eyes going to Baalka. The Goddess of Disease still breathed, there had not been a change. “Give them time, I trust them.”
Arascus took a deep breath. To say anything more would be beating a dead horse. The woman had been out of prison for less than two years and she had been behind the attempted razing of the Jungle and then the subsequent Continent Cracking when the first plan had proved too slow. What were they going to do? Wait until Baalka started overheating? Wait until she bled? Would it not be too late by then? How many times had Kassandora been left off the leash? How many times did she make a mess that he had clean up? That was the implicit contract, Arascus had known what Kassandora was she was when he took her on as a daughter. He would let her be whatever she wanted to be, and he would be there to make sure there was still a world left over. “No.” Arascus said, he was the authority in this family. Anassa could have her reservations but someone had to take responsibility.
Mortals talked about it all the time. The pain of inaction was better than the pain of action. It was better to try and fail. A parent would give anything. All of it. And mortals only had to carry such burdens for at most, a dozen decades. If that is how it crushed them, then millennia? Progress was made from other’s mistakes. When one man fell of the cliff, the others did not have to check how high the drop was.
Arascus would not let it happen. “How dangerous would it be to go in?” Anassa pursed her lips. She gave the worst answer imaginable.
“I don’t know. Please…”
He cut her off. “How long would it take for you to send me and for me to reach them?”
“I don’t know but…” Anassa was interrupted by Arascus sitting down by Baalka’s head. He leaned his head back against his daughter’s head. Her hair, the sickly dark that had just a shade of green brushed his cheeks and stubble.
“Send me in.” He trusted Anassa true, she was daughter, she would not lie to him. She shouldn’t at the very least.
“Don’t take anything with you on the way back.” Anassa said as Arascus prepared to lie down. The most surprising was that it was a flat instruction. What exactly was he supposed to take anyway? Anassa slowly came to his side. Her hand hovered just off his forehead.
“Anything else?”
“I mean it literally. Don’t take anything with you.” Well, that presented a problem within itself. “Don’t let anything come with you. Just…” Arascus reached up grabbed Anassa’s, gently guiding it to his forehead.
“I love you Ana.” Arascus said. “You and Kass are the daughters I worry most for. I want it to be said.”
“Don’t say that.” Anassa replied. A drop of wetness dampened Arascus’ head. Arascus would not shame her by watching her cry, not now. “It sounds like you’re not going to come back.”
“I have plenty more to say.” Arascus said. “Now send me in.”
Anassa’s palm touched his forehead.
The world went dark.
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