ONE
Time heals all wounds.
Whoever said that, lied.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds.
All time does is scab over the wound.
Grief doesn’t diminish with time. Most of the time, the grief gets deeper, stronger, driving claws of pain and anguish deeper into your heart, slowly ripping it apart from the inside.
Time hides the wound, only to reveal it when you least expected.
A sudden word, a familiar scent—there were any number of triggers that would reopen the wound, fresh as the day it was caused.
As for healing them…
Time hadn’t healed a single wound I had suffered in my life. That was before I became the Marked of Kali. Now, afterwards, I knew for certain that concept was a lie.
It was becoming increasingly apparent to me what kind of curse Kali had hit me with as we made our way back to Murkwood—Brimo’s plane, which was currently in a state of mourning after losing Paige, the leader of the blademaidens.
We had traveled via the Hellfire Club again.
Erik had allowed us to travel back through the portal we had used last time. I knew Erik was no stranger to death, but even he was subdued as we returned to the Hellfire Club on a mission of mourning.
Monty had made the arrangements to have Paige’s body delivered to his Aunt Brimo in full warrior regalia, with a message that we would be arriving within days to attend the blademaiden rites of death.
According to what I learned, Monty and I would have to describe Paige’s final battle, who or what she fought and how she lost her life. We would have to confirm that she died a warrior’s death, and according to Monty, we were tasked with avenging her death.
I was familiar with vengeance.
The gray sky mocked me as I stood in the endless field.
Not even the artificial bliss that surrounded me could break through the overwhelming sadness that wrapped itself around us.
I glanced to the side and saw Monty as he led the way. Beside me, my hellhound kept pace, letting out a low rumble every few steps.
Behind us, the door portal gleamed a deep violet as we headed deeper into Brimo’s plane.
I glanced over at Monty who was dressed in black with accents of darker black. His rune-covered Zegna was covered with deep violet pulsing symbols that were hard to read.
Beneath it, he wore a black rune-covered Armani shirt and finished off the look with a black tie. His expression was darker than his entire ensemble and I could feel the power coming off of him in not so subtle waves.
Dira had made an enemy I don’t think she was prepared to face.
She took something that wasn’t hers.
She took Monty’s mother’s blade.
Phantasm.
We crossed the Fortunate Field and an unexpected pang of sadness gut punched me as I looked around the field of bliss. The last time I was here, Paige was too.
On the edges of my awareness I could sense the effect of bliss, but it was having a hard time breaking through my anger and sadness. Beside me, my hellhound rumbled as we padded through the field. He wore a black and red collar, which Monty had obtained for him to wear during the ceremony.
I could tell that even my hellhound, whose main focus in life was meat and how much he could devour at any given moment, was sad at what happened to Paige.
I had chosen to wear one of the Armani suits Piero had given me, and matched Monty, with an all-black ensemble, though my suit didn’t compare to his in the runic symbol accents.
“This artificial bliss is only getting on my nerves,” I said. “Can you open a portal to your Aunt Brimo?”
“I can, but I won’t,” Monty answered, looking off into the distance. “Today we stand on protocol. My Aunt will send a blademaiden to bring us to the ceremony.”
“Oh,” I said. “I didn’t know that was how this worked.”
“I didn’t expect you to,” he answered, not looking away. “For the time being, don’t think about the bliss effects. If you focus, you should be able to ignore them, mostly. I think today they have been diminished due to the ceremony.”
“This is not a day of bliss anywhere in Murkwood,” I said, gazing where he looked. “Do you sense something?”
“Our escort is approaching,” he said. “Ready yourself. My Aunt will be asking some…difficult questions.”
“Asking me or asking you?”
“Asking us.”
“What could she possibly ask me?”
“We were both there when Paige fell,” Monty said. “She will ask about her conduct, about her final battle, how she died, and who killed her.”
“Why would she ask me?” I asked. “She was fighting beside you near the end. You saw what happened as clearly as I did.”
“I know,” he said, pulling on one of his sleeves. “There are however distinct differences of perspective. Who was she next to when she faced the manticores?”
I thought back to that moment.
Peaches had blinked in to deflect some of the manticores’ poisonous spines away from me. By that time, his battleform and mine were gone.
We were defenseless.
Monty had been hit by the spines as well, meaning he didn’t have access to his abilities. In technical battle terms, we were screwed.
She was the one who stood between us and the cloud of spines that would have killed all of us. She wielded Phantasm like an impenetrable shield against certain death.
She saved our lives at the cost of her own.
“She stood between us and the deadly manticore spines,” I said. “Even when they overwhelmed her, she stood her ground, protecting us.”
My words felt like ash in my mouth.
“You will have to explain that to my Aunt…in detail.”
“I don’t know if I can—”
“It is part of her death ritual,” Monty said as a blademaiden wearing black armor approached us. “You must describe her last moments as not only a blademaiden, but as the leader of the blademaidens and more importantly second to my Aunt.”
“Is that why I have to describe her enemy?”
“Blademaidens are honored in death by the caliber of their enemies,” Monty said, peering at the approaching blademaiden. “Paige died a glorious death. There will be no need to embellish her final battle. The onslaught of poisonous spines she withstood was nothing short of impossible.”
“Could you have done it?”
“Had I not been hit by manticore spines?”
“If you were at one hundred percent,” I said. “Could you have stopped them?”
He looked off to the side.
“I’ve asked myself that question several times since her death,” he answered after a brief pause. “No, I don’t think I could have done what Paige accomplished.”
“No?” I asked, incredulous. “Not even with an energy shield?”
“Paige didn’t use an energy shield,” he said. “She used…Phantasm to deflect the spines…all of the spines.”
“Not one got past her.”
He nodded.
“Not even with both of my Sorrows, could I have pulled that off,” he said. “She did with one blade what I couldn’t do with both and my abilities. She was a true blademaiden and died with honor.”
The approaching blademaiden was close now.
She stopped a few feet away and placed a fist over her heart as she gave us a short bow.
We both bowed in return.
“Tristan Montague and Simon Strong,” she said and paused for a moment. “Brimo the Mistress of Murkwood awaits your presence.”
Monty bowed again.
“By whose blade do we enter Brimo’s presence?”
“I am Takeko,” she said. “Leader of the blademaidens. My blade will bring you to her presence, and my blade will be the one to taste the blood of the enemy who took Paige’s life.”
“By the code of the blademaidens, your blade will be the blade to avenge the life of Paige,” I said. “As I have spoken, so shall it be.”
Monty had briefed me on the correct answer to her response. I understood that I was agreeing to giving Takeko the killing blow when it came to ending Dira.
How this was going to happen, I had no idea, but it was what I was supposed to respond with when she claimed that her blade would taste the blood of the enemy who took Paige’s life.
Judging from the armor she wore, she was ready to hunt Dira down this very second. She wore armor that was similar to Paige’s, complete with an arsenal of blades in sheathes along her legs and arm. Like Paige, she wore a short sword on one forearm and a much longer blade sat in a sheath across her back.
It was this longer blade that she now removed.
She nodded and raised the long, black, rune-covered blade which looked like a longer version of Ebonsoul. She took a step forward and slashed down with her blade, opening a portal in front of us.
Monty stepped in, followed by myself and Peaches at my side. Takeko stepped in last, slashing downward again and closing the portal behind us.
Unlike the last time we were in Murkwood, this time the portal opened to lead us directly into Brimo’s palace. Last time, all of Murkwood was sunshine and flowers.
This time the place lived up to its name.
All of the marble that had been bright white when we last visited, was now black. There were no birds singing and the flowers I managed to see were black roses. All throughout the palace, every single person I saw was dressed in black.
The mood was somber and respectful.
At every doorway, I saw two blademaidens with drawn swords in hand, standing in black armor. Their faces were covered with dark veils over faceplates of black armor.
Takeko led us through another walkway which took us deeper into the palace. I looked up to take in the palace, remembering the shining white marble reflecting the sunlight.
This time the palace appeared to absorb all of the light around it. It wasn’t just black; as I looked at the stone, it felt as if it was a hole of darkness that led out of the plane.
I realized this was Brimo’s doing.
She possessed enough power to transform the marble from bright white to the deepest black. We continued walking on in silence until we reached the entrance to the palace.
An ornate woven rug ran the length of the entrance where we stood, down an enormous passageway into a large atrium where a decorated coffin lay on top of a large steel pedestal in the center of the floor.
The ironwork on the pedestal was made up of delicate filigree that seemed impossible to create by hand. The main decorative element I noticed were blades and daggers repeated throughout the atrium.
“This is the Hall of Blademaidens,” Takeko explained. “It is where we honor our fallen.” She pointed to the large coffin. Next to it stood Brimo with two other blademaidens by her side. “Your Aunt awaits, Tristan.”
Monty nodded as we proceeded to walk ahead without Takeko, who took her place on one side of the atrium, first in line close to Paige’s coffin.
Monty and I approached Brimo who wore a gown of black and silver. Her face was covered with a black veil which shimmered with dark energy.
In fact, dark energy filled the atrium, adding another dimension of solemnness to the entire ritual. One of the blademaidens standing next to Brimo held a large tablet. The other held an empty sheath.
We kept walking until we stood several feet away and opposite Brimo who walked forward and spread her arms outward.
“Today we honor Paige, the leader of our blademaidens,” Brimo said as her voice echoed through the atrium. She turned to Monty and me. “Tell us how she fell so that we may remember and honor her.”
I was about to step back when Brimo pointed at me.
“Simon Strong,” she continued. “Come, Deathless. Tell us of Paige’s last moments on the battlefield.”
I glanced at Monty, realizing there was no getting out of this. I stepped forward a few feet into a large circle of black granite surrounded by silver borders which shimmered with power the moment I stepped inside.
My hellhound stepped into the circle next to me and placed his head next to my leg. I was grateful for his presence as I turned to face the assembled blademaidens.
Slowly, they all started materializing inside the atrium.
At first, I thought there were only several dozen, but I quickly realized it was closer to several hundred that had assembled here to honor their fallen leader, Paige.
All of them wore black armor, creating a small army of darkness that stood at attention as I gazed upon them.
I cleared my throat, the emotion of the moment making it difficult to speak, and began.
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