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I’d never seen a Lord Celestine in person before– no one has, since their essences aren’t supposed to be able to enter the Mortal plane. Yet here he stood, as tall and beautiful and golden as I always imagined they’d be. The brother began to bleed at the gums; the skin inside his mouth started smouldering, charring like pig’s meat on a spit, and as we stared, his body turned to ash, collapsing into a pile of grey-black dust on the floor.
Shuddering, I tore my eyes away from the little heap that was the last remains of the portal and looked at the other brothers. On the other side of the room, a Lord Devilish was emerging in the same way. His ivory-white flesh, accented in scarlet, was clad in shadow. As he stepped into the room, he gave a small bow to the Celestine, who replied in kind.
Others followed, two more from each realm, until six beings – until now refused entry by the natural laws of our universe – stood upon the ashes of their human gates, staring into the faces of their erstwhile allies.
‘The bargain is fulfilled,’ one of the Celestines said, his voice ringing out like a trumpet. ‘As we leave this place, so our pact comes to an end.’
One of the Devilish smiled tolerantly, as if dealing with an inexperienced gambler who hasn’t yet realised he’s holding all the wrong cards. ‘And so the war begins,’ he responded.
They left then, the six of them, like three pairs of newlyweds gearing up for one hell of a honeymoon. For all their magnificence, they might have been mistaken for Mortal emperors and empresses, and only we seven knew any different. Our world had something now that it had never had before.
We had gods.
Chapter 52
Farewell
When it was done and the Lords Celestine and Devilish had departed to transform the world into a board upon which they would play their murderous games, Fidick turned to Shame and said, ‘You are released.’
She looked up at him from where she was still kneeling on the floor, glaring at him with a fire in her eyes that would have set me running, were my legs able to move.
The boy was unimpressed. ‘You have no idea what I’ve had done to me, angelic one,’ he said. ‘Even Galass doesn’t know. I kept it from her, because she did so like to believe she had protected me from the worst of what life had to offer. So kill me if you wish, but it will make no difference. I will die knowing I made the right choice. Men of wealth and power have ruined this world because they lacked someone to fear. I have given them gods, and now they will be very afraid indeed.’
‘Go,’ Shame told him. Her eyes had turned an unnatural polished silver, and even from where I stood paralysed, I could see Fidick’s image was being reflected back at him in her gaze. ‘Leave here now, child of hate, child of spite. If you are wise, you will fade away into the world, never to be heard from again. But know this: should I hear your name uttered, Iwillfind you, and I will make your death a memorable one.’
The boy chuckled, as if he hadn’t really understood her threat. As he walked away, Galass called out, struggling against the hidden bonds that held us all, ‘Fidick, wait! Where are you going?’
He stopped, looking almost surprised. You’d think he’d never given the matter any thought until now. But I knew that for pretence. Whatever else drove the little bastard, he loved to put on a show.
‘At first I thought I might like a little power for myself,’ he said, a slender, childlike hand rising lazily to gesture towards the door through which we’d come. ‘The Apparatus awaits inside the room where the Seven Brothers offered it to us. They weren’t entirely honest, of course. They used up almost all its power enhancing their own attunements. But it’s probably good for one last transformation.’ He pursed his lips then blew out a bubbly breath between them. ‘But no. I think I’m done with all this wonderism business. Maybe I can find a nice couple to adopt me, maybe with an older daughter who can be a sister to me. Maybe a dog.’
Watching his little performance, I wondered if he understood even now, even after all he’d done to her, how deeply he was wounding the girl who’d been willing to give up everything to protect him.
‘It doesn’t have to be like this!’ Galass cried. ‘The Celestines and the Devilish– they manipulated you! They—’
Before he left us there, he turned back to her and said sadly, ‘Oh, Gal. I do so wish you would grow up.’
Chapter 54
The Apparatus
Shame released us then, ending both our bondage and the debt that had bound her to the Infernals. I recalled something Galass said to me when we first met, that not all shackles are visible to the naked eye, nor are they made of iron. I thought the angelic had suddenly found herself at the bottom of a pit where the walls were made of guilt and far too high to climb.
For a moment, I watched her weep, wondering whether some expression of sympathy or offer of absolution on my part would do her any good. To save our lives, she had become her name and betrayed everything she believed in. But Aradeus was already there, and with what comfort a gentle yet daring heart could provide, he set himself to the task of climbing down into the depths of her despair in the hope of someday helping her to climb back out.
It’s the sort of thing rats do, I guess.
Now I just needed to put an end to as much of my own despair as circumstances would allow.
‘Come with me,’ I said to Galass.
‘Where?’
I pointed to the arched doorway that led back into the maze of passageways, and from there to the chamber where the corpses of forty-two slain wonderists awaited us, along with a large, coffin-shaped brass box that for once would bring life rather than more death. ‘Fidick said the Apparatus might work one last time. We’re going to use it on you.’
I’d reached the door before I noticed she wasn’t following me.
‘Don’t you get it?’ I asked, turning on her with more anger than I’d even been aware was churning inside me. ‘You don’t have to be a blood mage any more. You can give yourself a different attunement, become a totemist or an echoist, or even a damned floranist if you want. Anything but a luminist.’
