Into the Abyss (The Nightslayer Trilogy, Part 2) - Chapter Fourteen

The room – he thought it was a room, anyway, though he had the impression of something much more vast than that – Thaddeus found himself standing in was pitch black. He had no memory of how he’d gotten here, and though he wondered if he might be dreaming, he was almost certain that he wasn’t. So, if he wasn’t dreaming, but he also had no memory of how he’d arrived in this room, that meant the most likely conclusion was that he’d been brought here. But who, or what, had brought him? And was that really a question he wanted an answer to? What I want doesn’t matter. If I don’t get an answer, I’ll be stuck here.

Suddenly, Thaddeus heard the sound of approaching footsteps. At first, the sound came from a distance, but, as Thaddeus listened, it grew closer, the steps even, measured, accompanied by the click of what must have been the tip of a cane. The footsteps and click of the cane echoed, confirming that Thaddeus was in a room of some sort, though, given how long it was taking for whoever was walking toward him to arrive, it must have been immense. All at once, a circle of light appeared in front of Thaddeus, and the person who approached stepped into it, the sound of his footsteps and clicking cane coming to an abrupt, echoless stop.

The man who stood in the circle of light looked ordinary enough, though the dark clothes he wore seemed a bit odd. His cane was odd, as well, almost seeming more like a staff, and looking as if it had been carved from ebony. The cane was topped by a piece of metal that had been shaped to resemble the head of an animal Thaddeus had never seen before, but which he thought might have been a cat of some kind. As Thaddeus watched, the man took off his hat – which had a tall, flat crown and wide brim – and bowed.

“A pleasure to meet you, at last, Thaddeus Alvarem,” the man said, straightening and putting his hat back on. He smiled, though the smile failed to reach his eyes, which seemed less like eyes and more like deep pools of blackness. “I must say, the exploits of you and your companions have been, to date, most entertaining to behold.”

“Who are you?” Thaddeus asked. “What is this place?”

The man sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head. Both of his hands rested on the top of his cane. “Why must everyone I meet always ask the same questions? Why can’t there ever be something more original? Something more pertinent?” He opened his eyes. “Where you are is nowhere, the Void, the place no rational mind would seek out on its own. As for who I am, for the time being, friend Thaddeus, you can call me Jack.”

When he heard the man say Jack, Thaddeus had a sudden, mental image of a woman being brutally murdered in what looked like a darkened alley. It lasted for only a fleeting moment, but it was enough to make him flinch backwards. Flinching backwards did no good, however, as the circle of light the man stood in – as well as the man, himself – moved with him. The man grinned, and Thaddeus shivered. “Jack isn’t your real name,” Thaddeus said.

“No, it isn’t,” the man said. “Nor was it the name of the man in the image you saw in your head. But, for the purposes of this discussion, it’s what you can call me.”

“Why?”

“Because it amuses me. And because it disturbs you.”

Thaddeus studied the man for a moment. He tried to probe him with his magic, but found that, wherever he was, his magic had been cut off from him. The man – Jack – seemed to realize what Thaddeus had tried to do, because he grinned, again, and put his finger against the side of his nose. “No magic here, my friend,” the man called Jack said. “Not for you, anyway.”

“But you can use all you want, I suppose?” Thaddeus asked.

“Of course. After all, what else is a living personification of the force you call magic supposed to do?”

“You’re one of them, aren’t you? The ones Aylander called the Gods Beyond the Gods?”

Jack chuckled. “Such a quaint term. The Gods Beyond the Gods. So full of drama and gravitas. But that’s Eltarans for you. If anyone has mastered the art of being pretentious, it’s them.” He looked at Thaddeus. “The answer to your question, though, is yes. Oh, I wasn’t always as I am, now – once, I was rather like you, in fact – but, for longer than you can imagine, I have been what used to be known as an Ascendant. Ascendants, like myself, once thought we knew all there was to know about the universe. We were sure we understood all the forces that drove it, and it even seemed we had learned how to shape and mold them to our will. And then came the Cataclysm. Those of us who survived tried to stabilize what was left, and then we came here, to the Void, where never again would we be tempted to give in to the delusion that we were gods.”

“You left a lot of nasty things behind when you came here,” Thaddeus said.

“Indeed, though they were never supposed to be able to escape from the place you call the Abyss – the place that was once our home. Little did we think that our descendants would be stupid enough to try mastering the forces that not even we could control, ourselves. But they did, and so here you are, groping about for answers while, at the same time, looking for a way back home that shouldn’t exist. It does exist, however – to our shame – and you will not be the first I’ve helped return over the millennia. It is my sincerest hope, though, Thaddeus Alvarem, that you will be the last.”

“I find that hard to believe. You just told me you that you find our exploits entertaining. Won’t us being the last people you help bring an end to that entertainment?”

“Oh, it will. It will. But there are some things that should end, and I know you – you and the people you so righteously call your family – will be the last of your kind I ever interact with. For good or ill, you will be the last.”

“And what if I fail?” Thaddeus asked. “What if, even with the help of my family, I am unable to defeat the Demon Lords?”

“Then that is the way it shall be,” Jack said. “Even a victory by the Demon Lords brings balance.”

“Won’t a Demon Lord victory affect you?”

Jack grinned, again. “Not in the slightest. Here in the Void, nothing can touch us. Nothing.”

Thaddeus didn’t respond to that right away. “How certain are you of that?” he said at last. “Surely more certain than you were of the knowledge and power you had before the Cataclysm, am I right? Otherwise why say it? Unless you’re still blinded by the same pride. You aren’t, are you?”

Jack gave a dismissive laugh, brushing at a nonexistent speck of dust on the lapel of his jacket. “Of course not. We know better.”

“I don’t think you do,” Thaddeus said.

Jack gave him a sharp look. “Oh, is that so?”

“It is.”

“And what makes you think that, Nightslayer?” The last word came out of Jack’s mouth in a hiss.

“You wouldn’t be willing to help me get back, otherwise.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. I mean, isn’t watching something be destroyed more entertaining than watching that same something be saved?”

“You’re so sure you can save it, then?”

“Not at all.” Thaddeus offered Jack a grin of his own. “But, if I don’t get back, and my family doesn’t make it back with me, then its destruction is a surety. And that’s something that frightens you, isn’t it?”

“Nothing frightens me, mortal!”

“Except two humans, an Eltaran, and a Sprite. That was you skulking about just before we fell asleep, wasn’t it? Tell me, Jack. What would have happened if we’d faced you there, instead of here, in your precious Void?”

“I don’t have to help you, you know,” Jack said, suddenly not sounding so sure of himself despite still trying to maintain his bluster. “I could kill you where you stand. I could turn your precious little family into specks of dust.”

“So why don’t you do it?”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“I’m not temping you at all! You’re afraid. But you don’t have to be. Help me get back, and I’ll do what I can to protect you, too. It may all be for nothing, but I swear to you, I will do what I can.”

For a long time, the man who called himself Jack said nothing. Then he said, “The Sign Universal is indeed engraved on your sword. It, and the Sign Unknown, are remnants of the power of the Ascendants. None who has come before you has ever been granted their use. Don’t make us regret giving them to you.”

Jack turned to go, but, before he could step out of the circle of light, Thaddeus said, “How do we get back?”

Jack turned back. “You’ve never needed my help for that, Thaddeus,” he said. “You’ve always known the way.”

“Why bring me here, then?”

“To see if we were right about you.” Jack smiled. “The jury’s still out on that, by the way. But no one before you has ever sworn to protect us, and that goes a long way toward helping your case.”

Jack turned, again, and stepped out of the light, his footsteps, and the clicking of his cane, slowly fading away.