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Ben and Annie glanced at each other in silent consternation.
Note taken.Be careful what you say in front of the Master. The being had only so much forbearance.
Apparently, having his voice turned to a sheep’s didn’t stop Ere from expressing his ire, for he continued bleating a blue streak, practically spraying the Master’s face with spittle.
The aged being simply spoke over him.
“We can always take back the soul and body our magic revived,” he said calmly. “Perhaps you wish to join your mostly dead Mate. How will you help him then, do you suppose? Or would you rather take your chances in the afterlife?”
Ere finally stopped bleating, going deathly still to focus on the Master’s words. Only his chest heaved with the intensity of his frustration and terror.
Ben could only sympathize. He wished there was more he could do.
He was shocked to have been whisked away to this realm in the first place. The Master had not looked at him or Annie even once. Perhaps the being had forgotten their presence. Perhaps it had been a mistake.
Nevertheless, he was glad to be here with Ere. He would do everything in his power to help if he could.
“Oh, you can help indeed,” the Master said, reading his thoughts, and turned toward him for the first time since they arrived in the Palace.
Arresting Ben with those eerie, swirling, unknowable eyes.
“As the natural son of Erebu, only you can take on the quests in his stead.Ifyou should choose to do so.”
This was news to Ben.
His shocked expression must have showed it. An expression that was wholeheartedly shared by both Ere and Annie, as they stared dumbfoundedly at him.
The Master’s head tilted slightly in consideration, as his shrewd eyes took Ben in.
“What say you, Spawn of the Black Dragon?” he pressed softly, eyes glinting.
“Are you willing to accept the next quest?”
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Ere was torn in two.
Half of him wanted to shoutHell NO!
Gods knew what awaited Benjamin on this expedition. Aside from the many foes and unforeseen dangers he could encounter on the journey, what if he got stuck in another time and place?
It didn’t bear thinking.
Even though Ere and Sorin, as well as their tag-along, always came back from their time travels, was their return an absolute guarantee? Could he assume that when the sandglass ran out, the adventurers would automatically be brought back to the present? Whole, unharmed, and with all of their marbles intact?
Ere had learned the hard way that when it came to gods and other powerful Immortals, it was never wise to simply assume.
Aside from Sorin, Benjamin was the greatest love of Ere’s life. No matter that, as far as being a son went, Benjamin belonged to Inanna and Gabriel, not Ere. He lost that privilege before he even knew of the boy’s existence.
But…
The other half that wanted to scrounge through every nook and cranny to the ends of the earth to find a cure for whatever was ailing Sorinneededto stay by his Mate’s side. Ere couldn’t even imagine hieing off to however many thousands of miles and hundreds of years away while Sorin lay paralyzed and vulnerable like this.
Barely breathing. Deathly ashen. The spark of life completelygonefrom him.
To see his warrior love brought so low… Ere wanted to howl with the injustice of it.
Sorin was the sun. He was the moon and the stars and the entire cosmos all in one. Such light, strength and goodness should never be dimmed, never mind extinguished. How would the rest of them go on?
