Page 44 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“She told him the truth, Kaly,” Fiona said. “Daemon has found his one.”

The Kaly-slice’s finger trembled ever so slightly. “So one of those insignificant humans survived his blood. So what? How old are they? Not even a hundred! With little experience! Little understanding! Not worthy of him!”

“Julian has more wisdom than most who have lived a thousand times his age,” Charlie said loyally. “But it is good for Daemon to be with someone so new and fresh. They come to him with such joy and wonder. He is remade himself. All of us are.”

The Kaly-slice shifted to face him. “You expect me to believe that this future we all have together is glorious, wonderful, and peaceful? I know you’re lying. I’ve seen you all claw each other’s eyes out. You could never live in true peace again!”

“You can’t believe the future will be what it is because it means you are wrong. About everything,” Fiona said with sadness and empathy that Charlie wasn’t sure he could feel for this thing before them right now.

“Really?” The Kaly-slice mocked. “Your best friend Eyros leaving you to die while he ran away. Mirryr, you fled like the rat you are into the garbage heap! Seeyr letting me put her inside this cage without even the littlest fight! So many others dead, gone, finished! But you want me to believe after you ripped your masks off in front of one another that you can forgive and forget? Let bygones be bygones? Please!”

We’re right to take other names. Caemorn is not this being. He could never be this being.

“It is not easy and we are still healing. But this War–and what comes after–taught us lessons we desperately needed to learn. Including you,” Fiona said. “I am ashamed of what I did here, how I behaved, how I allowed myself to fall into the expert traps you laid for me, and how, even before then, I separated myself. But no more. I am a part of the whole now. I am with my family.”

“I don’t believe in fairy tales, Wyvern. You shouldn’t either. It is what walked you into this trap after all.” The Kaly-slice smiled.

“It’s not a trap, Kaly. I have to speak with Seeyr. Perhaps, this was the only way that would happen for certain. And you brought us here. Why? Why did you accommodate us? Why did you give us the one sure way to accomplish what we need to do?” Fiona asked.

That was true. They needed to be down here. And while they might have been able to fudge their way down through the Spire, kill the guards, hide their bodies, and slip into this place, it would have raised alarms. He doubted they would have been able to get out. Maybe this was the only way they’d ever have gotten in here and had a chance to escape. After all, this was only one Kaly-slice and they’d already dealt with Artemis. They could deal with Tanis, too.

“I only have one cage–presently–set up to hold Immortals. So you’ll need to share some space for a while until I construct others. I thought of using Daemon’s cells… but Nightvallen must remain empty. For now,” the Kaly-slice explained.

“You wouldn’t dare use Daemon’s palace for your vileness. The only person that will be down there is you and your people,” Fiona said.

“If you truly believe that fate is on your side and there is only one future that will come of all of this, go inside there. See what happens. Find out if you’ll truly be saved.” She pointed to the cage where Seeyr still stood silently in the near darkness.

Fiona crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back. “We’re not going in there. Try to make us and you’ll see just how capable I am of teleporting out of here.”

Charlie wondered if they shouldn’t do that now. But he knew that they couldn’t. Seeyr was here. And without the information from her, they couldn’t get back home. So they had to stay in the maw of the monster and hope to escape before that maw shut. He sidled along the back of the wall. He wanted to keep near the stairs, but maybe there were weapons or something down here he could use.

“You won’t be teleporting out of here, Wyvern,” the Kaly-slice said with certainty.

“Really? Because I’ve done it before. Or I will do it. I just need to have a talk with Seeyr and then we’ll be on our way,” Fiona said with her hands fisted.

“Ah, yes, the future. This glorious future where everything is sunshine and roses!” The Kaly-slice laughed. “Again, get in the cage and see what happens!”

“In the future, you are hunted. You are so pathetic. Slices of slices. Running for you little half-lives.” Fiona shook her head. “It’s inevitable.”

“But you’re here and now I know–”

“But are you here?” Seeyr asked softly.

It was so soft that, at first, no one knew who had spoken. But then all eyes were upon the other Immortal in the cage. She had walked up to the bars, but did not touch them. Charlie knew that they were spelled to hurt. Badly. His heart ached. She had her eyes, but she looked so gray and ghostly.

The Kaly-slice slowly turned around. “I’m most definitely here. This is my creation. The Order. The Confessors. The rules. Everything is mine. There will finally be some semblance of peace.”

“But no one will ever know your role in this,” Seeyr continued. “Wyvern told you, didn’t she? There is no trace of you in her past.”

“No trace of Tanis perhaps, but perhaps I will simply have shifted to a new form. What does it matter? It will be me,” the Kaly-slice retorted with an angry light in her eyes.

“You’ve cut yourself off from yourself, Kaly. Truthfully, you shouldn’t even be called that. The others–like Artemis and Roan–have, at least, acknowledged that they are different from whom they once belonged to, but you still think of yourself as the whole,” Seeyr continued in that quiet way. “You will get to experience that wholeness again. Sooner than you think. And you will be horrified by what you’ve done.”

Charlie felt a stab of satisfaction–and relief–as Seeyr spoke of them returning to the future and the Kaly-slice becoming a part of Caemorn again. That meant they succeeded. That meant that things were still going to plan even though things had seemingly spun out of control.

“There’s no escape, Seeyr. Not for them or for you,” the Kaly-slice told her in no uncertain terms. “With a bare thought, this whole place will be filled with my people.”

“You haven’t called Roan yet? You haven’t told any of your other selves about us, have you?” Fiona took a step towards the Kaly-slice, whose head whipped around.