The Thanaton Syndrome

Chapter Thirty Four: Pt. 1

Seth let the two archers drag him to the prison without protest. He knew he couldn't fight them, but more than that, he had neither the physical or emotional strength to will himself to fight.

The town was small, so they got to the prison soon afterwards. Other archers still stood guard from taking the other questers, and so Seth found himself handed over to them. They brought him to an aisle of cells, walking him past the ones where they kept each quester. As he passed, he could tell they noticed him and their spirits seemed to lift, but they didn't try to call out or talk to him.

Finally, he got to an empty cell near the end, across from Piper and next door to Jenna. It looked pretty plain, the back wall made of concrete while the sides were metal bars. Straw covered the floor, but other than that, the cell was bare. Immediately after they pushed him in, he plopped down into the straw with a sigh. Now they got to wait.

Since the walls were only metal bars, he could see all the other questers. Jeremiah gave him a small nod of acknowledgement from a few cells down, but most of the others seemed too preoccupied in seas of thoughts and emotions to pay him much attention. Everyone except Jenna and Piper were too far away to really hold proper conversations anyway.

After what seemed like hours of sitting and waiting, Piper took it upon herself to talk to him. "What happened to you?" she asked.

He glanced up, startled to hear her voice, then quickly looked back down as her question brought the scene from the inn swirling back to him. "I, uh," he began, not quite sure where to start. "You mean, with Spencer?" He looked up at her again, but this time she looked away at the mention of Spencer.

"No...well, yes, but before that, too. You didn't get captured with us from camp."

He told her, and anyone else who listened, how he'd snuck into the forest, met Thomas, and tagged along with the archers until they arrived at Frell. When he got to the moment where Spencer gave him up, he paused, unable to get the words out. He simply couldn't get Spencer's pained look out of his mind.

"He told them you're the outlander," Jenna said softly.

Seth glanced at her, then quickly back to the straw floor, nodding. "Yeah," he said, "and then I tried..." He squeezed his eyes shut. He'd tried pleading with Spencer. Spencer hadn't even looked at him. He'd ignored him.

Seth vaguely remembered resenting Spencer, when they'd first met. Spencer had introduced himself, apologizing for not having done it sooner, but Seth hadn't cared. Spencer was just some royal doofus who wanted him to give hope to the questers...or maybe he didn't want that. Maybe he never had, because what good would hope do them now? Seth didn't know anymore, but he did know that despite resenting Spencer at first, he'd come to see him as a friend. He'd grown fond of the prince and tended to rely on him when things went wrong. Now something was terribly wrong, but Spencer wouldn't save them this time. He wouldn't show anyone what to do. Seth had lost someone he'd begun to care for as much as some of his dearest friends from the Outland.

Apart the sting of betrayal, what would happen to the quest? Would they remain in the prison to rot? Would he ever get to save Lydia? How many days left did Lydia even have now?

"Seth," Jenna said. He looked up to meet her eyes, so soft and full of tears. "Don't lose hope. I saw what he did to you—to all of us. But I've seen more as well, and though I don't know what it all means, please, take courage."

She reached through the bar, and squeezed his hand. He nodded, and she held his gaze for a few seconds before scooting away to lean against the back wall of her cell. A few minutes later, Seth looked around to find her and many of the others sleeping.

Piper still sat awake, staring at nothing and never moving.

"You okay?" Seth said, knowing it sounded stupid but craving words from her. He couldn't lose her, too.

Her red eyes flitted up to meet his. She didn't say anything for a moment, but when she did, her voice was raspy and small. "I thought he'd changed. After all these years, he apologized. At the..." her voice trembled, "...the Arboris of Lucias. He talked to me, and said he was sorry and that he wanted...he wanted me to know he'd always be there if I needed him." She broke down in bitter tears, burying her face in her cloak. "I trusted him," she said through muffled sobs. "I trusted him. I believed...every word."

Seth watched her, and murmured, "I'm sorry." He didn't think she heard, but he let her keep crying. It seemed to comfort her.

By the time he managed to shut his thoughts out and drift off, her cries had long since turned to the soft, peaceful breathing of sleep.

~

The next morning, almost everyone had recovered well enough to play around a bit. After the first few hours of silence and brooding, Jeremiah and Christian came up with a game consisting of singing a little song called "Big Faerie." They would number everyone who waned to play, and then sing the song to a silly beat they made by slapping their hands against their legs. The designated "Faerie" would then name themselves and call out a number, saying, "Faerie to the six." Whoever was the six would have to name themselves and call another number, saying, "Six to the four." Whoever got the four had to then call their number and randomly pick another. They went on with this process until someone messed up.

"Four to the seven!"

"Seven to the three!"

"Three to the two!"

"Two to the...twelve."

Then they'd all chuckle, because there was no twelve. Someone would eventually get messed up by the beat, taking more than four beats to answer or calling out some number they didn't have. The more people who played, the more confusing the game got.

Seth listened, and eventually managed to come out of his depressed stupor, finding himself laughing with the others. As they played, more and more people joined in.

"Would you like to play?" Jenna asked him, smiling. She herself hadn't yet joined the game.

"Nah...you know, I think I've played something like this in my own world."

Jenna tilted her head. "Yes," She said. "I think you have, but...you called it, 'Big Fishi'?"

"Yeah." Seth chuckled. "Did you have a vision of it? My dad showed me."

"Your dad?" Jenna frowned and hesitated before speaking again. "Yes, I saw it. That man though...your dad... He seems familiar. I can't place him though."

"Oh?" Seth leaned forward, speaking so she could hear him over the shouts.

Jenna shook her head. "I don't know. I've seen a lot of visions of him, but I don't know who he is."

"You know he's from the Outland though, don't you? You recognized it when I mentioned that."

Jenna shrugged. "Well, yeah I've seen him in both the Outland and Alaisia."

"So you've had to know he's unusual?"

"I see lots of stuff from the Outland and Alaisia. Actually, anything I see from the Outland also eventually shows up in Alaisia somehow, and I've seen a fair amount from the Outland."

"So you couldn't tell me if he's, like, alive or anything, could you?"

"I don't think I could, at this point," she said. "Look, Seth, I'll tell you anything that makes sense, but... I don't know anything for sure, so forget it, okay?" She spoke gently, but it still felt like a slap in the face to Seth.

He nodded, remembering right then that he needed to talk to her about Rachel. He almost opened his mouth to speak, but realized the laughter and noise around them had died down.

Looking up, he spotted Spencer standing at the end of the aisle, surveying them all in silence.