Chapter Text
The sun was just rising in the northern mountains when I arrived. I wanted time to observe the area first and make sure there was not an extremely dangerous water entity or wind-eating worm nearby before I called anyone.
The shelter still stood in the cave. None of the other confluences had camps set up around them. Perhaps Pirithous had created them, searched the aetherial sea, determined they weren’t near enough to his objective, and promptly left. Perhaps this was the only one he thought suited his aims.
I had a feeling I knew what he wanted from the underworld.
I couldn’t sense any danger nearby, though I tried to make my flights over the area as brief as possible. Because fiery wings. Are hard to conceal. It was possible I was wrong, and this was just a shack with a spectacularly useless door. And there was no creation around here, and no corresponding confluence. But it did occur to me that the water creature had stayed in the wetlands where it was made. In a hanging valley. On an uninhabited mountain. On the opposite side of the mountain range from his students and colleagues. The threat it had posed came from the wildlife it displaced, not the entity itself. The worm had been made at the bottom of a sheer cliff, thousands of fulms high. He had probably not expected it to eat its way from the base of the mountain to the summit. Even the chelonian had not truly been fiendish so much as absurdly huge. Had it not caused earthquakes with every step, it would have been simply… a chelonian. I didn’t think he’d intended to unleash horrors upon the star.
It’s just that he had.
And whether or not he’d meant to do so, he’d hurt numerous people as well as other living creatures with his polluted aetherial currents and his monstrous aetherial excavators. He’d nearly gotten himself killed by hungry flora in Akadamia. In the face of actual harm, his intentions no longer mattered. This needed to stop.
I had put off calling long enough. Trying to shake off the feeling of impending doom, I flew to the cave, transformed back, and called Hades and Hythlodaeus.
“Oh, what an intriguing landscape!” Hythlodaeus immediately went to peer out of the cave mouth.
“If you like the interstratal delta, you should see the floating mountain peaks some time.” I told him.
“Well, there is a confluence here,” Hades said sourly, glowering at the shelter. “Monster or no.”
“This region is uninhabited.” I winced, thinking of the fact that uninhabited did not account for the flora and fauna native to the area. “Whatever was created here, there’s no one to report it to the Convocation.”
“And Pirithous himself is conspicuously absent.” Hades grumbled.
I was fairly certain we would find him inside the confluence.
Hades led the way into the shelter. Much of the equipment that had been there was gone. But there was a cold kettle of tea sitting on a table. A couple of unused recording crystals. And a spear missing part of its haft leaning against one wall of the shack. Well. That was odd. Why would he create a spear and just leave it somewhere? And why keep a broken weapon? Why not just unmake it and create a new one?
“Someone was here.” I warned the others. “The equipment that I saw before is gone, and all of this is new.”
“Let’s get this over with,” Hades sighed, drew his aetherometer, and opened the second door.
It soon became apparent that this confluence was a different beast than the others. I had gotten lost in those aetherial spaces, and they were little more than short hallways into nothing. This went on and on. I immediately began to worry that a single explosive would not destroy the entire thing, and how were we supposed to set off more than one while were still inside it? We walked in featureless darkness for what felt like aeons before Hythlodaeus spoke.
“There’s someone up ahead,” he said in a low voice.
And as we went further, the light from Hades’ lantern seemed to draw a figure out of the depths of the dark.
Back to the entrance, bent intently over one of his instruments, he startled when we approached. He’d apparently been so focused, he hadn’t seen the light coming. “Who—?” he began in surprise.
“Professor Pirithous.” I cut him off. “I’m sorry. You have to end this experiment at once. Please exit the confluence.”
“Azem’s sword?” Oh good. He remembered me. That would either make this easier or far worse, depending on whether or not he’d guessed which one I was. “I only need another moment. Your mistress won’t begrudge me one moment, surely.”
“You’ve been indulged more than enough already,” Hades growled. He… really didn’t look well. His aether was noticeably darker than it should have been, and it occurred to me that this confluence descended much farther into the underworld than the others had. If I could have teleported him out right then, I would have.
“Please do come along, Professor,” Hythlodaeus added helpfully, “surely your experiment is not worth incurring the anger of the Convocation.”
Pirithous looked from his instrument to me and back again. “One moment. That’s all I need. Theseus is right here. I almost have him.”
And it’s not that I didn’t feel some sympathy for him. I didn’t know anyone in the underworld, but if I did, would it be worse to drag them out, or to leave them there? That was a question I hoped never to be able to answer.
“Your confluence is corrupting the aetherial flow to Amaurot as we speak.” Hades’ voice… barely sounded like him at all. Almost an octave lower and not entirely like a person anymore. I had one moment to contemplate whether I should just pick him up and try to drag him to the doorway, even though I was more likely than not to just… run into the wall repeatedly in the process. Or worse. Off a precipice. The other confluences had them, and I assumed there was one. Probably here. Since this was where Pirithous was fishing in the aetherial sea for souls.
Then I saw the threat blooming from the darkness. Threats. Plural. One from Pirithous and one from the inky void.
I made a snap decision, which I desperately hoped would not be the wrong one, and charged Pirithous on the assumption that he was either about to transform or summon his familiar. Because I knew he had gotten to the cave somehow. And I hit him in the solar plexus hard, but not quite as hard as I could, because I did not want to crush his heart or lungs, and I was going to be in enough trouble as it was for breaking the No punching rule.
He dropped like a sack of grain, air driven from his lungs, and having blacked out from pain. This. Has gotten me in trouble in the past. But he was alive, and one blossoming threat had vanished from sight. I grabbed him before he hit the ground.
The second threat emerged from the darkness behind me.
“Oh dear.” Hythlodaeus said, slightly worried. That. That was the most terrifying sound I’d ever heard.
I turned to find a revenant, somewhat like the one from Mount Elbrus. But bigger, and this one had armor reinforcing its robes and a spear in one hand. A broken spear. Missing part of the haft. I guess this was Theseus. Or. Part of him, anyway. Maybe not the good part.
The revenant hefted his spear and tried to strike directly at either Pirithous or me, I couldn’t tell which. This… was perhaps an excellent object lesson in why you should never try to bring someone back without asking them first. What if only their anger returned from beyond?
I drew my shield with my left arm and caught the blow before it could skewer us. The blade of the spear punched through my shield and got stuck. I tossed the now-useless shield aside.
Perhaps by reflex, Hades pulled his staff from the aether and a third threat rippled across the confluence. From him.
Shite.
He cast a titanic lightning bolt at the revenant, which dissolved the specter into aether, and then it seemed as if shadows just... devoured him before my eyes and dragged him into the darkness. That. Idiot. I told him not to cast spells in here!
Shite.
I dumped the unconscious professor onto the stunned-looking Hythlodaeus, and shouted, “Take Pirithous. Go to the exit and hold the door!”
“You can’t be serious! Why?” Hythlodaeus managed to stop staring in horror into the darkness that had just stolen Hades to look at me with an almost equal measure of horror.
“Because I can’t find it without you there!” I shouted. I didn’t have time to stay and argue with him, I just hoped he’d do it.
I turned back towards where Hades had been. Not even the tiniest glimmer of him or his lantern remained.
So be it. I would get my idiot friend back, or die trying.
I unfurled wings of flame, and dove after him into the abyss.
I was dimly aware of other things in the darkness chasing after me, but good luck with that. Down was the easy part. Because I was driving myself towards the depths of the underworld at top speed, with the pull of the star’s heart adding acceleration to my dive. And I am very good at finding things. I had the ken of Hades’ aether. I could have located him anywhere.
He was nearly impossible to see, even with aether-sight. A lengthening shadow in the depths of the abyss. And he was harder still to grasp. His form had doubled in size, and he seemed to be more shadow than flesh. It kept slipping through my fingers. I grappled with him for what seemed ages, both of us tumbling further and further into the abyss, but I finally managed to get both arms around him and pull.
And this was the tricky part. Because now I had to fight against the inexorable pull of the underworld as it tried to drag us both down into the heart of the star. Every wingbeat felt like I was flying straight into solid rock. And I couldn’t tell if the fires of my wings were singing Hades, because he increasingly didn’t seem to be made of anything but darkness itself.
There was no sense of direction there in the abyss. Nothing but towards the depths and away, and I strained for every ilm and fulm as I pulled us back, eyes fixed ahead on the faint pathway of possibility that lead to Hythlodaeus.
I knew I’d reached the confluence again when my feathers brushed a solid surface. And I swept the tips of my wings against the walls deliberately. If I’d learned anything from Hythlodaeus’ incendiaries (other than the fact that I find explosives with faces unbearably creepy) it was that confluences were not fire-proof. I let the corridor to the underworld ignite around me as I flew.
And I didn’t. Quite. Slow down enough as we reached the doorway. Because I was much more concerned with getting out before the confluence collapsed in a fiery inferno, or another revenant appeared, or I dropped Hades who was not getting any easier to carry. Than I was with safety. That. Was perhaps not my wisest choice.
I slammed into Hythlodaeus and Pirithous, knocking them backwards several fulms out the door, and landing on top of them in an awkward heap, my arms full of idiot. Where, naturally, my wings set part of the shelter on fire before I transformed back. Accidental fire record increased by one.
“Shite! Are you hurt?” I hastily doused the fire and scrambled to help Hythlodaeus to his feet so I could make sure I had not burned him.
“You have wings!” He was beaming. Of course he was. He would have been cheerful even if he were, in fact, on fire. He was not. Thankfully.
“No, I don’t, and we’re never talking about that again.” Maybe. I should have stayed in the confluence. While it burned. That. That might have been fine.
“You were the giant bird on Mount Kazbek!” Hythlodaeus was delighted with himself for having deciphered that particularly embarrassing incorrect Prometheus story. Great. I. Was never hearing the end of this, was I? Was it too late to fake my own death? There was a probably-monster in this region somewhere I could throw myself at.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. But whatever it is. Shut up.” I muttered. I turned my attention to the others and not solely because I wanted to ignore him. Pirithous was still unconscious. I had hit him possibly too hard. Well, I would live with that. At least he survived. Hades was the one that worried me more. Away from the energies of the aetherial realm, he’d transformed back. Somewhat. Some of him still looked like a shadow stretching across the shelter.
“He’s absorbed a great deal of primordial darkness,” Hythlodaeus declared, joining me beside Hades.
The door to the confluence vanished abruptly with the sound of crackling flames.
I cast translocation circles under all of us. “I think… we need help for this.” I said, and I took us all to Amaurot.
***
I was pacing miserably inside the Words of Emmerololth. On the vast list of skills I do not, and never will, possess, waiting patiently was probably at the very top.
I had made a huge commotion in the Macarenses Angle, teleporting to the Aetheryte in the busiest part of the largest city on the star with two completely unconscious people, one of whom was enveloped by darkness, and the Fourth Chalice who’d been sent by Pashtarot to investigate had been extremely cross by the time she’d made her way through the crowd of gawping onlookers to find out what had happened. I was not. Going to imagine. What story would arise out of this debacle. Faking my own death seemed increasingly like the sole future path ahead of me.
Several healers from the Words of Emmerololth were looking after Hades. And Pirithous, too, although he didn’t need as much attention for his cracked sternum and bruised lungs. That No punching rule exists for a reason.
Hythlodaeus was in a nearby room, telling the entire story of the confluences, and currents, and monsters to Emet-Selch. Again. I think this might have been the fourth time, total. Because I’d already told him once. And then he just kept getting Hythlodaeus to repeat parts of it over and over again. I wondered how much trouble I would be in if I teleported Hythlodaeus out of the room before he went mad.
I mean. My disturbance had finally interrupted the Convocation’s damned review. And now all of the Fourteen were furious. How much worse could it get, really?
Never mind. I did not want to think about that.
“Ithas! There you are! I’ve been looking all over!” Azem had finally arrived in the Words of Emmerololth. My heart tried to climb into my throat to strangle me, perhaps as a last, desperate attempt to save me from whatever Fate was about to unleash upon me.
I watched one of the attendants rise from his desk, briefly consider stopping Azem from barging into the quiet area near the recovery rooms, recognize her, rethink his entire life, and flee his post.
I wish I had that effect on people.
I forced myself to stop pacing. I tried to think of something, anything to say, and failed. I just stared hopelessly at Azem as she crossed the room and stood before me.
“Are you hurt? I’d heard there was a rather pitched battle inside the Bureau of the Architect yesterday. As well as one in the Words of Halmarut, just a few days prior.” She was giving me an appraising look. Oh. Perfect. Now I was going to get in trouble with Euphrosyne as well.
“No, I’m fine.” I was not fine. My stomach had just tied itself in a knot. But that had nothing to do with battles. Or. Nothing injury-related to do with battles. Probably. “No one was hurt. Except. For. Whatever those creations were.”
“Three greater aetherial currents repaired. By yourself. Emet-Selch is having fits. He had several teams searching for the source of the contamination without success.” She sounded amused by this. Having been stuck talking to him for an entire hour or so (and contemplating having to rescue my friend for the past two), I wasn’t certain I completely shared the feeling.
“I had help. And there’s still one left. At Lake Asimi.” In the midst of the panic I was already having, I suffered another surge of panic. “Please don’t make me fix it.” If I never set foot in another confluence again so long as I lived, it would be too soon.
She laughed. “Leave that to Emet-Selch, dear one. If you don’t let him do something he becomes impossible to deal with.”
“I broke the No punching rule,” I blurted out. Better to just. Admit that one. And get it over with.
She picked a bit of ash out of my hair. How long had that been there? “I believe we can overlook it, just this once.” She looked towards the room where Emet-Selch was still interrogating Hythlodaeus. “It seems your friend has a bright future ahead of him.”
I hoped they both did.
“There’s no way… to make him. Stop. Asking Hythlodaeus the same questions over and over, is there?” I asked, slightly worried. Because even with foresight, I could not predict him ever escaping that room.
Azem laughed again. “Leave that to me.” She sounded mischievous, and she walked straight into the room with Hythlodaeus and the unnervingly-fixated Third Seat.
A moment later, Hythlodaeus successfully fled Emet-Selch. Azem truly could work miracles.
“Thank the stars!” He grinned and joined me in the quiet area. “Has there been any word yet?”
I shook my head. “Maybe you should run. Before you get asked about the worm again.”
He sighed. “Sadly, he can probably find me anywhere in the city now.” Then he tried and failed to entirely stifle a laugh. “Unless... you translocated us both out of Amaurot. I believe you said something earlier about floating mountains?”
If I survived this, I would take him sightseeing anywhere he wanted. Even if I had to break the no active volcanoes rule. But that was a big If.
“If I teleported away while Azem was here, the next rumor you’d hear about me would be, And Prometheus was never heard from again…” I sighed.
He laughed.
“Wait. Are you Prometheus?” Came a shocked question from nearby. Shite.
I turned to find the attendant had snuck back to his post at some point once the coast was clear. He was now approaching me and Hythlodaeus with that aura of, this is going to make my life miserable that so many Amaurotines have.
Patience. Calm. No punching.
“Can I help you?” I asked instead of answering that question because nobody calls me that. And I was already in so. Much. Trouble.
“Oh. It’s just that…” he seemed nervous talking to me. Which. Was probably fair. If he believed that I routinely blew up volcanoes. “I thought you might want to know that the team sent to Pentheus on the southern continent has returned. The city is well on its way to recovery.”
I. Actually did want to know that. And I also hadn’t ever known what the name of the city even was. “Thank you.” I said, trying my best to react like Iris would have. “That’s a great relief to hear.”
“They were fortunate you intervened when you did. I heard—well. It could have gone very badly.” The attendant still seemed nervous, and he kept glancing at the room where Azem was distracting Emet-Selch from… being Emet-Selch at any other defenseless people. She truly is the greatest hero on the entire star. Then he paused, listening to something I couldn’t hear. Aetheric waves, probably. “Your friend is awake. He’s not supposed to have visitors yet, but… do you want to see him?”
He was breaking rules? For me? I nodded. “What’s your name?”
“Actaeon,” he said. And he lead me and Hythlodaeus towards Hades’ room.
“You can call me Ithas,” I told him as he left us at the door.
Hades was lying in bed, looking cross but at least like a cross boy and not so much like a cross vast shadow filled with the unchecked energies of the underworld, so I counted that as an improvement. Hythlodaeus and I came to stand at his bedside.
“That was exceedingly foolish.” He grumbled. His voice sounded normal again. Sour, and slightly embarrassed. I wasn’t sure if he meant himself falling into the underworld, or me diving in after him. I went with the one I considered the greater fool.
“The first time I accidentally transformed, I ignited a grass fire that claimed fifty square malms of open prairie before Azem managed to put it out. So. Yours. Could have gone worse. Is what I’m saying, I suppose.” I glanced at Hythlodaeus. “You didn’t hear that.”
Hythlodaeus grinned. Hades stared at me and then started to laugh.
“Thank you.” Hades said. And. Wait. Actaeon hadn’t said anything about him being on the verge of dying or anything, had he? Was it possible that I had retrieved the wrong idiot from the underworld? I had honestly not thought Hades was capable of forming those words with his mouth.
“You’re welcome.” I managed to say after a moment of complete shock. “Let’s never do that again.”
Someone cleared their throat from the doorway behind me. I turned to find Actaeon fidgeting there.
“Azem wants to speak with you.” He whispered. Why. Did he whisper that? Who was he afraid would hear it?
I left Hythlodaeus to look after our idiot without me and returned to face my fate.
Azem was waiting for me in the room where Emet-Selch had been. And I knew he wasn’t there, but I still cast a worried look around, just in case.
“The Fourteen will take care of the remaining confluence and the hunt for whatever creation was unleashed in the northern mountains.” Azem sounded grave. “Several of my colleagues were heartily embarrassed that their entire domains were outdone by one student of mine.”
I tried not to fidget. It wasn’t my fault they’d left things to students and interns and the odd adjutant who wasn’t too busy. But I had a feeling it was going to blamed on me anyway.
“Well done.” She was… beaming? Why? I’d embarrassed probably half the Convocation. And interrupted their very-important-but-boring endless session. Wait. Was that a good thing?
I burst into tears.
Azem wrapped her arms around me. “Since you’re here in Amaurot anyway, dear one,” she smiled, “as your mentor, I feel it’s it's an important lesson to show you where to get the best sweetmeats in the city.”
That was a lesson I could certainly use. I nodded, wiped the tears that had gotten out from under my mask with my sleeve, and followed her out into the streets.