Infernal Father of Mine (26 page)

What's happening to me?

I saw the crescent shapes of the suns and moon
appearing as the orbs drifted out of perfect alignment. Within what
seemed like seconds, they once again stood apart fully intact, just
in opposite positions. The moon was now at the top of the triangle
with the bright and dark stars reversed. The pull on my mind
vanished. The sky and everything else melted away, and I jerked
awake on the table.

Serena smiled down at me. "Did you
decide?"

"I—I almost had it," I said. "But, no, not
yet."

"You can still help me." She waited as I stood.
"I will show you."

"You okay, son?" David asked, watching from a
distance. A sentinel held him immobile by both arms.

"I'm fine," I said. I still didn't trust
Serena, despite her sudden interest in me.

"This way," Serena said, and moved toward a
large double door at the back of the room.

I looked back and saw the sentinel remaining
still with David. "Isn't he coming?"

"There is no reason for him to see this," she
said.

"I'd feel more comfortable if he came
along."

She frowned, head tilting like a curious puppy.
"If it will make you feel at ease, then of course." She took out
her notepad and wrote something down, tapped the pen to her chin,
and then added,
Possible daddy issues.

I groaned. "Everyone has to be so
judgmental."

She moved on, though I noticed the sentinel
guiding David behind us. I followed her through the door. We
emerged in a huge room with a domed roof. While the room itself was
impressive, what nailed my guts to the floor was the huge Alabaster
Arch in the center—or at least it closely resembled one. Instead of
a black arch veined through with white, this one was white veined
with black. Large granite pylons shaped like pyramids stood in a
circle around the arch just outside a thick silver ring.

"Did you build this?" I asked.

She shook her head. "A research team recently
discovered a cache of large stone cubes in Thunder
Rock."

My heart skipped at beat at the mention of the
abandoned relic. When the rebellion against Daelissa and her
minions had removed the Cyrinthian Rune from the Grand Nexus, the
shockwave had gone throughout the Alabaster Arch network, draining
the light from anyone caught in the blast. Thunder Rock had an
Alabaster Arch. In that accursed place I'd encountered my first
husked angel. I called the infantile little creeps
cherubs.

Serena continued. "At first, we thought the
cubes were building blocks for another city like El Dorado. By
accident, we discovered they were merely packaged
arches."

"Packaged?" David asked.

She nodded. "Whoever constructed the arches
built them elsewhere and shipped them here as stone cubes. A
specific series of frequencies will activate a cube, causing it to
grow into an arch. The arch roots itself in the ground, latching
onto the largest available ley line. If there are no ley lines, it
will stunt the growth of the arch and the structure will not
function." She grimaced. "We wasted two cubes in such a
manner."

I was tempted to ask if she asked for a refund,
but restrained myself. "So you brought one into the Gloom and grew
it here?"

"Yes." She motioned us closer to the arch. "As
you can tell, it was supposed to be an Alabaster Arch—a gateway to
other realms."

"Would it even work with the Grand Nexus
disabled?" I asked.

"As you may or may not know, the Gloom
Initiative was about discovering why and how the Gloom functions in
relation to Eden." She motioned toward the arch. "As you can see,
it has an interesting effect on arches."

"Does the arch work?" I asked.

"It does, but is rather erratic." She smiled
again.

I heard the sound of chains dragging on the
stone floor, and looked around. A creature, humanoid, but walking
on all fours appeared from behind a granite pylon. Chains hung from
its neck, and manacles on its arms and legs. A mass of sharp
crooked teeth jutted from its lower jaw and mangled gums while a
single serrated tooth shaped almost like a saw blade protruded from
beneath its upper lip.

"Master," it hissed in a gurgling voice. "What
will you have of me?"

"I did not call you." Serena looked at the
thing with disgust. "Return to your den."

It bowed ever so slightly, though its solid red
eyes burned with what looked like hate. "As you wish, master." It
crawled away, the chains rasping on the floor.

"What in the hell was that?" I
asked.

Her smiled returned. "The arch opens upon the
plains of the Nazdal realm."

"That thing was a Nazdal?"

She nodded. "Justin, you were sent here for a
reason."

"I'm starting to realize that," I said,
thinking she must be talking about the choice.

Her hand rested on my shoulder. "I hope you
will help us."

I gave her an uneasy look. "How so?"

"Alysea attuned the Cyrinthian Rune on the
Grand Nexus." She pointed to a small sphere in a socket on the
arch. "Inside you resides the ability to attune the rune on this
new nexus—the Shadow Nexus. That is why she sent you to
us."

I was even more confused. "Are you saying my
mother sent me here to help you?"

"Of course not, young man." Another motherly
smile. "You are here to help Daelissa."

I already knew the answer, but hearing this
woman speak the truth as if Daelissa were some wonderful woman who
needed help getting her groceries out of the car, jolted
me.

"This is insanity," I said. "You want to help
Daelissa rule the world?"

Serena kept on smiling. "I have no interest in
who rules, but Daelissa has offered me full access to all the
realms I desire so I can advance the cause of magic."

"Wait, I have a counteroffer," I said. "How
about you help us against Daelissa, and I'll grant you the same
thing. I'll make you the Minister of Magic. How's that for a snazzy
title? I'll even throw in a new diamond-studded magic wand with a
fine Corinthian leather carrying case."

She sighed. "There is no way to prevail against
the Seraphim. Whether you want to or not, you will be helping
Daelissa's cause. You will help me calibrate this new Grand Nexus
to allow us access to Seraphina."

"First of all, you're bat-poo crazy woman.
Second, I don't know the first thing about fixing
arches."

Her smile faded to a sad frown. "But you have
the answer inside you. You're the son of Alysea, the Seraphim who
attuned the Cyrinthian Rune on the Grand Nexus." She pointed to a
small glowing orb set in the side of the arch. "You may not know
how just yet, but you have the ability to attune this
rune."

I backed away and felt the hard bulk of a
sentinel behind me. "Why don't you just take that rune and use it
on the Grand Nexus in the real world?"

"We cannot simply remove the rune without
attuning it. To do so might cause another Desecration."

I felt might eyebrows pinch. "Why did you build
this arch here instead of Eden? You would have had another Grand
Nexus."

"Unfortunately, one of my former assistants
took it upon himself to use the cube here," she said. "I was very
distressed about his poor decision."

"Lucky for the world," I muttered.

Serena didn't seem to hear me. "Nevertheless,
it functions as the Grand Nexus does." She touched my arm. "You are
the key to a wonderful future full of discovery. Does that not
appeal to you?"

"Oh, I'm all for discovery," I said. "But not
if it means helping a maniacal tyrant like Daelissa use it for her
own gains."

"You misunderstand her," she said, not seeming
to take offense. "She will bring enlightenment to a world of
chaos."

"This woman is as crazy as Daelissa," Dad
whispered.

I agreed. "Boy and how."

Serena moved toward the arch. The sentinel took
me by the arm and dragged me after her until we stood closer to the
rune. I'd never gotten a good look at the Cyrinthian Rune. We'd
found it hidden inside an omniarch beneath the mansion in Queens
Gate, but Jeremiah Conroy had plucked from beneath our noses. From
what I remembered it was white with an intricate pattern of glowing
lines in it. This one was black with glowing lines.

Serena held out a hand toward the rune as if to
reverently touch it, seemed to realize something, and jerked her
hand back. "As I said, we have no safe way of removing this rune
without possibly causing a backlash like the one during the
Desecration."

Maybe that's what needs to happen
. Sure,
it would husk all of us, but at least it would prevent Daelissa
from achieving her goals.

The Arcane seemed to sense my thoughts. "Let me
give you a little more information about the Gloom before you
decide on heroics."

"I wasn't thinking about being a hero," I lied.
More like a suicidal maniac.

"The Gloom is a mirror of the real world, but
it lacks true natives."

"What about the minders?" David
asked.

A smile curled her lips. "As you've noticed,
the Gloom is a realm where dreams and thoughts from Eden become
something of a reality. Psychic emanations from the beings in that
realm reach the minders. The minders enact the dreams."

"Makes sense," I said. "They eat
dreams."

Another smile. "Every time a new life enters
Eden, a version of itself appears in the Gloom."

"Like ghosts?"

"Nearly so." She raised an eyebrow. "We call
these shades minders."

I reeled back. "Wait, everyone in Eden has
their own minder?"

"Yes."

"What happens when someone dies?"

"Those minders will eventually fade and die
unless given a live host to feed from." She tapped her pen against
her chin. "Darkwater takes orphaned minders and repurposes them for
guard duty in the mortal realm where they can feed on the living.
The minders that comprise the brain feed from live subjects we
bring from Eden."

A sick feeling came over me. "You're feeding
Wax to those things? You've got serious issues. Why bother keeping
the minders alive? Is that your perverted notion of
fun?"

She waved a hand at the room. "The minders who
comprise the brain are the ones who maintain the dreamcasted parts
of this fortress. They control the sentinels. I'm sure you noticed
the bubble of clear air around this fortress. They are the ones
keeping the aether fog at bay."

"Why are you telling me this?" I
asked.

"If you risk another desecration, the aether
fog may carry the blast wave like magical conductor to all corners
of the world." Her eyes lit with horror. "You might husk every
minder in the Gloom."

My chest tightened. "What happens to the people
in the real world if their minders are husked?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea, but I imagine it
would be catastrophic."

"No doubt."

She nodded. "Well, please keep that in mind
should you think of causing a Desecration here."

I've got to kill this
woman.

"Come along, dear," she said, and started back
the way we'd entered. The sentinels pulled me and David along
behind her. We took a right through Serena's laboratory and walked
down a long corridor before exiting the fortress through
twelve-foot-tall double doors in the rear of the facility. The
granite quarry curved around the back of the fortress. The part of
the pit to our left touched the far corner of the fortress. The
large circular structure of the domed arch chamber ran from the
center of the fortress up to the very lip of the quarry.

The ledge we stood on was nice and wide. It led
down a slope, presumably into the quarry depths. A quick scan of
the far side revealed a rugged cliff face without any obvious
trails or ways out without rock climbing gear. I had to hand it to
Jarvis—this place was a tough nut to crack.

Serena led us down the slope and onto a winding
path about five feet wide which led to the bottom of the gaping
hole. I figured out immediately this must be the pit Jarvis had
referred to. Murky water filled one corner of the quarry. The rest
was filled with rubble, granite, and something else—Nazdal. The
chained creatures occupied nearly every square inch from what I
could tell, even though part of the quarry disappeared around the
bend, presumably curving toward the other side of the
fortress.

I grimaced. Hopelessness wrapped a cold hand
around my stomach as I considered the army lurking in these depths.
Serena stopped on a ledge about fifty feet from the bottom and I
saw the horrors close up. Some of the Nazdal had no chains while
others wore even more than the first one we'd seen. They varied in
size, from toddler, all the way to a couple boasting the bulk of
small bears.