Blethinette gazed at Mundus as she sat next to him. Her hair pooled around her, falling on Mundus' lap and enveloping Verden like a blanket.
"My lady," Radi said, eyes wide.
Reyna's insides twisted. "It's not her. It can't be."
Was it the broken balance that brought her back? But Blethinette's death had triggered the final crack that shattered it. She would have vanished along with it, but here Reyna was, staring at the deceased queen.
Mundus also gaped at his mother—if that was really her. He gritted his teeth and placed a protective arm over the still sleeping Verden. Clawed hands dug into his brother's shirt. "What are you?" Mundus asked.
Blethinette recoiled as if hurt. "Dear. It is as you called me. Your mother."
His eyes narrowed. "No. She is dead, her essence of reincarnation gone."
Her confusion seemed genuine. The softness of her face and wavering of her multicolored eyes even gave Reyna pause. "Mundus." Blethinette captured his face between her hands, her expression begging for something. "It is me."
"I..." He paused, and Reyna saw it. Even if it wasn't really her, he was going to take it.
Mundus threw his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder. Without hesitation, Blethinette stroked his hair as his shoulders heaved with silent sobs. "I am so sorry for what I did to you," he said. "Mother, I am so sorry for killing you."
Reyna sighed at the ground as a gnawing feeling chewed insider her chest. She saw Radi cross her arms, but there was a forlorn look in her orange eyes as she saw the scene in front of her.
Blethinette pulled away from her son and noticed Verden on the ground. She narrowed her eyes as if seeing him for the first time. Reyna tensed as she leaned over him, and Mundus arm went over his brother again.
"Mother," he said, the warning in his voice evident.
"It is Verden." Her voice was soft as she placed a hand on the sleeping half demon's cheek. "My first born. My lovely baby Verden."
That was when Reyna sat on the ground and threw her head back. It wasn't Blethinette. Whoever or whatever it was, it couldn't be her. As relieved as she was, she was also disturbed by how cruel it seemed to be. Her head snapped forward when she sensed Verden wake up and she saw he had gripped Blethinette's wrist in his hand. He was silent, but his expression said it all.
"Verden." The hurt on her face didn't seem to come from how tightly he was holding her wrist.
He sat, his gaze holding a calm intensity.
"You look so much like your father. I am certain that elates him so." She smiled, pride on her face.
Verden stared.
Her smile widened and she disappeared.
Reyna blinked. She couldn't sense the queen's odd essence anymore, verifying that the vanishing act in front of her was real. She chewed over the thought of walking over to the two brothers, but Radi beat her to it.
"That was not truly her, was it?" she asked Mundus.
He shook his head and turned away from her.
Verden stood.
"Are you okay?" Reyna asked him.
He nodded. "I think I was just tired."
"You think?"
He grin reassured her.
"Shall we continue now?" Radi asked.
"If Reyna is ready," Verden said.
She stiffened. "Right. I'm ready."
"You do know how to locate Auronmar's castle, right?" Verden asked seeing through her answer.
It wasn't so much that she didn't remember but that earlier Verden had said she should use her newly acquired see magicka to help her find it. Everything about her powers made her nervous. She was either going to fail, lead them on an unneeded goosechase, or maybe actually find it after weeks of circling around.
But...
She did remember how Gahn had showed her and Dante how to do it. All of those under King Auronmar had been sealed with an invisible mark. It not only allowed them to enter the castle, but also find it. The imprint was like a magnet, drawn to the castle. It was how his troops knew where to go. Though those that came back were always fewer and fewer.
Reyna recalled when Auronmar had placed the seal on her and Dante. It had been one of the first interactions she had had with him since living in his castle. Her nerves had turned into snakes under her skin when she had walked up to him, but her anxiety had been for nothing. All Auronmar did was touch her forehead and smile, saying Gahn would explain how to use the mark he had placed upon her. Rarely she had used the seal since she had always stayed within the boundary of the castle's own, and when she had left it and lived with Verden, she had found no use for it.
Reyna brushed her forehead with a finger as she gazed at the fragmented horizon. "Yeah, I know what to do."
A heat began to coil inside of her. It was calm and soothing, a tiny flame on a candle in a darkened room. The warmth gathered on the left side of her body. She turned and the heat moved, settling on her chest and on the tip of her nose and toes.
"I suggested to Master Auronmar to make it like that hot or cold game where ya tell the person if they're getting warmer to what ya hid from them. I thought it would be fun," Gahn had told Reyna and Dante when he had taken them outside the castle's seal. "Now find ya way!"
A sad smile sat on her lips as his voice faded inside her head. "This way," Reyna said, pointing in the direction the heat spoke to her. The tip of her finger burned the hottest, the closest part of her to where the castle was.
"Such a convenience," Radi said.
Reyna knew she wasn't originally supposed to be there with them and laughed softly.
"Don't get any ideas," Verden said. "You're only here because of your own stupid decision. I should have know you would've done what you did." He said the last sentence more to himself than her.
She ignored him.
"Is it far?" Radi asked.
"I don't think so. Walking, we can reach it there in a few hours." She hoped they took her not so subtle suggestion for them to walk. Though their powers had returned to them recently, the fatigue was obvious on all their faces and Reyna didn't want anyone else to faint again.
No one protested but no one raced off either.
⁎⁂⁎
Mundus was unsettled. That was all. He should have been angry, distressed, grieving, horrified. Maybe even slightly elated, but no. he was unsettled. As simple as that and it bothered him. His mind hadn't been able to process anything since... He paused. Was it really since Erian's death? Had it started when his father died? Or with the strain of his tensed arm as he beheaded his mother?
It hadn't been her. The woman he had held hadn't been his mother. She looked like her with her soft skin and flowing hair. When she had called him "dear" it resonated in him the way only a mother's voice would. He had fit in her arms like he had when he was a little boy crying over a skinned knee. So it had been easy to tell himself that it was her.
There was a stinging feeling at the side of his neck. His face scrunched up at the nagging sensation until he recognized it for what it was. Someone was staring at him. He turned to see Verden.
"What is it?" he asked him.
"How was it living with your parents?"
Mundus blinked at the question. His mind went blank, giving space for each word as it appeared in his head with placid heaviness.
"What?" Mundus stared at Verden.
His brother didn't flinch. "I'm sure you heard me."
"Yes, I did."
A pause.
"My parents." Mundus sighed through his nose. "Why are they my parents? Are they not our parents?"
"Answer my question first." Verden's gaze shifted away from him, but his posture said he was listening.
Mundus tried to gather his thoughts, but ultimately answered truthfully. "I do not know. There is not much to remember."
Most of his memories were of civil war, of when his mother raised him to fight those who opposed her. When Cerus and Erian were trained until they cried. And then trained again until they stopped crying and the sheen of life Mundus remembered seeing in their eyes disappeared.
He remembered how his secret admiration of Gahn as the strongest, fastest demon was crushed under her mother's foot. How his questions about his father were met with answers he didn't understand, so he kept asking and asking until his mother's glares silenced him.
And in it all, there was blood and death and Mundus couldn't recall when he had accepted it, much less when he had started to enjoy it.
But there was something.
Mundus held his breath for a second before he spoke. "There was a giant fountain like a lake in the middle of the courtyard. I would play there with Cerus and..." Mundus inhaled to halt the trembling in his voice. The air entering him held his body together with tiny invisible hands. "And Erian.
"There was a day when I saw mother and father walking along the odd shore. They were talking, and then, father splashed her. I recall the brief shock on mother's face before a smile overtook it and she returned the favor. Soon, they were caught in a water fight." Mundus chuckled. "Those around froze in awe and confusion, but I raced to them and joined in the fight.
"The cool water beading through my fingers and hair. The warm security of sitting on top of father's shoulders and the hot embarrassment of mother kissing me in front of the court and my friends. I recall it all. We stood there, soaked, and my mother and father were laughing."
It wasn't until he finished that Mundus noticed the hollow ache in his chest that echoed with a sound he would only hear in his memories.
Verden nodded, but other than that, he showed no reaction. He waited a few seconds before he asked his next question. "How do you feel knowing that I'm taking your throne?"
Again, Mundus didn't know the answer. He had never really expected to take the title of demon king. He had thought his father would be king forever because he felt the war would have gone on forever.
Mundus shook his head and gave a small grin. "You must answer my question now. Why did you not call them our parents?"
Verden returned the gesture and Mundus felt like his father was reborn. "Because I have no parents."
"Father loved you." Mundus words cut into Verden's as if he was expecting that answer.
He frowned, another gesture that had Mundus seeing Auronmar. "I never knew him."
"How can you say such? You have know him if even for-"
"It is your turn to answer my question, Mundus."
Hearing him say his name always had a strange affect on him. "In all honesty, I do not care for the throne. It has come to this, and I have accepted it as such."
"Verden," Reyna said. The glance she gave Mundus made him wonder if she had heard his brief conversation with Verden. "We're here," she said.
Mundus saw only the sad, broken mass of demon world's land, but he knew Auronmar's powerful seal kept his castle hidden.
"You're a friendly body to this seal. Go through and summon a portal for us. It'll be easier to do it from the other side. Just do what you always do when opening up a portal," Verden told Reyna.
Mundus watched as Reyna effortlessly phased through an invisible wall. Seeing her disappear caused a small swell of panic to seize his ribs. He knew it was irrational, that Reyna hadn't really disappeared, but his heart still embedded itself in his throat at seeing how easily she could vanish from his world.
Minutes passed as Reyna summoned a hole through the seal for them to cross. Mundus wondered how much longer it would've taken if Reyna had not been with them. He was certain her presence was not part of the plan Auronmar and Verden had pieced together. The plan Mundus had not been originally privy to. The sting of it was amplified by Verden's detachment toward their father.
"Done." Reyna's voice was accompanied by her figure. She was outlined by the signature silver line of an open portal. Mundus sighed at the sight of her, a dull sense of peace settling on him.
"The castle itself is further in. Auronmar's seal stretched out over a lot of land, and yeah, it's all broken up over here too." Reyna pointed at the landscape behind her with her thumb.
The trek to Auronmar's fortress was made in silence, but it was the kind that felt heavy and saturated with their thoughts that refused to quell themselves. When the structure came into view, Mundus halted. He hadn't expected to see it in the broken shambles it was. Half of it was a giant, forlorn pile of debris and dirt. The towers were crooked teeth that took a hideous bite out of the dark sky. Pieces of earth pierced through fallen walls and windows. With a painful ache, Mundus realized he was staring at his demolished home.
"Will the fountain still be intact?" Radi asked as she eyed the fallen structure.
"We won't know until we look for it," Verden said.
"And you do know where it is, yes?"
"Yes." Verden strode into the castle.
Mundus and the others followed. After the profound impact of seeing the castle broken down, Mundus hadn't expected emptiness to gorge his being. His footsteps felt heavier than the emotions he had expected to overwhelm him.
And then he passed by it.
The staircase where he witnessed Gahn kill Azul under the influence of Suld's magicka. Despite the centuries that had passed since then and the crumbling mess the castle had succumbed to, the floors were still the same. Mundus felt like a child again. He was seeing Azul's blood blemishing the marble, appearing matte and dull upon the brilliantly polished surface. He shook his head, throwing the image out of his mind, but he was plagued by more.
He figured he was being punished. Verden walked them through the throne room where he had seen his parents sit countless times. They passed by Gahn's personal library where he had warned Mundus to rethink his allegiance. There was a hallway that held only two rooms and based on the quick frown that pulled at Reyna's face, he figured it must've been her and Dante's rooms. So close to each other.
By the time Verden stopped, Mundus was tired with the memories that weighed on him. However, he didn't recognize where they were. It was as if a space had suddenly come into existence. He watched as Verden paced around the bare room only to stop in the middle. His eyes turned red as Mundus felt him tap deep within his power to break through an illusion he now noticed was in the area. It was a potent spell with several layers of magicka locking away what Mundus figured was the fountain. This was, after all, sealed away by the demon king with all of his power.
"You are going to require assistance," Mundus said.
Verden remained silent, but he also didn't protest.
Mundus stood next to his brother and knew his eyes matched his as he searched for the illusion and its countless seals. Only his father could overlap several kinds of magicka like that. Sometimes Mundus thought he had been the lineage born Dark Blood and not his mother.
Reyna and Radi stared at the two, waiting. Mundus ignored Radi's pacing as he followed the flow of his brother's power. Even within the magicka, he was like Auronmar, a strong natural in dominating his abilities. Mundus regretted the times he had neglected honing his own. Verden seemed to notice his lacking as well.
"Reyna." Verden looked at her with his red gaze.
She flinched.
"Help us with this."
"Right but how?"
"It's like the portal you summoned for us earlier. Just follow our magicka and help us dig through this. It should be easier for you to hone in on it."
Mundus tightened his jaw. That jab had been at him.
Reyna inhaled and nodded. "Okay."
He felt the flow of her own power. It was hesitant and unstable, but after a few seconds, she secured a solid current that synchronized with their own. Her eyes took on a familiar red hue, and Mundus hated it.
It took over an hour to chip through Auronmar's locks as Radi sighed and paced and glared. The three of them felt it at the same time and they stopped. The floor in front of them blurred and warped like a mirage. A stone crown rose from the ground, the tip of Auronmar's makeshift aqua oscura fountain. The next tier of it appeared, followed by a third and finally the base of it. As soon as entirety of it surfaced, water began to cascade down and darken the stone. It was a poor imitation of the original, resembling the actual fountains found in the human world as opposed to the ethereal behemoth Mundus remembered it to be.
There was a moment where time froze for them as all eyes gazed on this plain object that was supposed to save their worlds.
"Now what?" Reyna whispered.
"You and I are the current king and queen," Verden said and then looked at Radi. "But after this, it should transfer to you. I'm the lineage born dark blood, so I'll guide you through it. Just know we are going to have to kiss."
Radi's upper lip curled.
"Is this how it shall be? Shall we have to simply piece back together the reality in which demons and humans must give up their spirits in order to keep the balance between two worlds alive?" Mundus asked. He stared at the fountain. They were at the root of it. There had to be something they could do. Something that could spare others from giving up their very existence.
"Eternally sacrificing two lives to keep two worlds alive? I in actuality believe that to be quite a bargain." Radi stepped closer to the fountain and stared at the water gathering at the base. "Oh."
Flowers with familiar orange and purple petals started to bloom on the surface. They bobbed and whirled and occasionally dipped under the crystal pool when the current brought them under a ribbon of falling water. They were also small but Mundus had no doubt the potency of the power wouldn't be any less. Reyna touched one of the blossoms with a single finger. The melancholic look in her eyes broke his heart.
"I am so sorry, Reyna," he said to her.
She shook her head but didn't look at him. "You didn't know, Mundus."
"Wait."
The voice that filled the room was familiar and leaden. The shadow Mundus expected to see manifested next to the fountain.
"Two Dark Blood pillars will always be needed, but that does not mean they have to be a king and a queen. It does not mean their children have to take their place. The two worlds don't have to be divided. In fact," -Umbra observed them with jade circles- "there is no need for there to be two worlds at all."
Hey, y'all.
I know I said I wanted to finish this story over the summer, but unfortunately, my father was diagnosed with cancer and passed last month. Along with being a super awesome dad, he was, of course, proud of the fact that I loved writing. It was hard to come back to writing after he passed away, but I did. This chapter took me weeks to write, but I still pushed myself to do something every day even if it was a sentence. A word.
Good news is that the book is almost done. Just a few more chapters...assuming I don't drag this stuff out like I usually do.
As always, thank you for your patience and for reading. I appreciate it all. <3
P.S. Have a nice look at this AMAZING drawing of Mundus that the lovely @LadyofthePond made! She's so great, and she also has an AWESOME book called Hero that I've enjoyed reading this past week. It has also helped inspire me to finish this chapter. Her writing is a lot better than mine though. Haha!
So, whatcha think of the drawing? :D