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Chapter 14

The staff didn’t follow them back. Indearie wished them all well, and asked that they talk soon. Millie, and Reginald and Holkum and all the rest stayed in the trees. Gwen would have sworn they looked fearful.

“They’re scared,” Indearie agreed. “Scared of what we’re going to do when we know.”

“When we know what?” Gwen asked. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

Indearie shrugged. “Rosamund mentioned something about an Everwynn secret. Something that not even the duke will talk about.”

“She said that to me, too,” Gwen muttered. “I thought she was just being mean.”

“Gwen!”

“I’ve tried to find it!” Gwen said. “I’ve looked through every book, every history. And while every history mentions that the Everwynns existed, no one goes into details. Over a thousand years, and no one has anything to say about this family. Good, bad, or otherwise.”

“Why do you think that is?”

They stood in front of the tower. It was the same blue as the orbs. Gwen balanced on one foot, and then another, squirming through her response.

“Only two reasons I can think of. Either this family is so boring that it just manages to stay out of news…”

She stretched, trying to hide a shiver. “Or it’s so powerful that nothing ever makes the news.”

Gwen remembered the courthouse. How the judge, and all the other nobles, shied away from Duke Everwynn. They weren’t scared they were going to be outbought. They were scared for their lives.

Indearie looked up at the tower. “And this is supposed to answer all of our questions?” she asked.

“Mmhmm.”

They watched the clouds go by, contemplating the mysteries of existence.

“I’m not going first,” Gwen said.

“I didn’t ask.”

“You were about to.”

“Well, if we think about this rationally…”

“Rationally, they like you more. The tower won’t roast you alive in a second and then bite off your gullet. You go first.”

“It’s not going to bite off your gullet!”

“You’re right, because you’re going first.”

Indearie shook her head. “The last time I tried something magic first, we ended up in prison.”

“Because you’re a klutz when it’s not dancing.”

Indearie turned, and arched an eyebrow. “And what do you call this?”

Gwen thought about it. “Interpretive entrance, movement one. In flat foot.”

“Ha. Ha. You go first.”

“You.”

“You a thousand.”

“You a bazillion.”

Indearie turned on Gwen, exasperated. “Oh, for gods’ sake, are you just going to be that…”

She flailed, tripping over a tree branch. She sailed backwards towards the tower.

Gwen reacted on instinct. She flung herself in between the girl and the building, catching Indearie in one hand and steadying herself in the other. Right on the side of the tower.

“Your turn,” Indearie said, smiling.

“I hate that I like you.”

The wall gave way, plunging them into darkness.

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Gwen felt herself falling through a void of blue.

It wasn’t unpleasant. No sense of vertigo, no fear. Just a small feeling of weightlessness as she drifted in the air.

She tried to orient herself right side up. Find a way to get herself straightened with the orientation of the world. But with no gravity, no windows, and an atmosphere that looked the same everywhere she looked, there wasn’t a good anchor for her to latch onto.

“Why are you upside down?”

Indearie was next to her. To Gwen, she was the one who looked upside down. With one leg raised up, her arms splayed out to center herself.

“How do you know which is up?”

Indearie pointed down. “Because earth is that way.”

That made as much sense as anything else in that place.

“What are we supposed to be seeing?” Indearie asked.

Gwen drifted, lazily spinning in the air. Around her the walls stretched in every

Indearie’s hair crackled. Sparks flew off of her fingers. Gwen smiled, and tried not to think about how cool that looked.

“What’s that like?” Gwen asked.

“What?”

“Having magic.”

Indearie furrowed her brow. “It’s…it’s unlike anything else I could talk about. Sometimes, it’s as simple as learning a new dance, like foxtrotting, or tango. But that’s not enough. It’s like I discovered another foot that was always there. Because the magic is a part of me.”

Magic. The ever-present stranger, that alien that has always been a friend.

The two girls looked up. The sound reverberated around them in the void, rattling off the walls.

But what is the quintessence of magic? From whence did it come? Can the force be measured, graded, dissected, expanded?

“Who’s out there!” Gwen called out. “Come on, show yourself!”

Magic is a curious, odious gem. Energy that has eclipsed the sun, tinier than a hangnail. She commands the seas, at the beck and call of a child. And for all of magic’s purported power, the pure essence of life bound up in each individual soul, there are more secrets hidden in the transparent depths than the deepest caves under the ocean.

Gwen clutched her head. “I can’t deal with this. We’re trying to save Everwynn, save this house and everyone, and someone thinks it’s funny to start spouting riddlespeak!”

Everwynn…the sound trailed off. You are of the manse?

“We’re here to learn the truth!” Indearie called out. “The secret of Everwynn’s manse.”

For what purpose?

“So we can help people,” Gwen said.

Their words rattled again. There was a long sigh.

If I were someone, I would say you are lying. But there is no sense of self anymore. There is nothing anymore, save this Tower. And Perseus Everwynn.

Indearie’s foot touched down on something solid. She crowed, and clutched at the floor. Yes! Something secure. Wobbly, brittle, and rounded so Indearie slipped at every turn, but it was good.

She reached towards the ground. In a second, there would be a waltz and…

Gwen grabbed her hand. “Stop, Indearie,” Gwen whispered.

Indearie looked up. “What?”

“Don’t look down.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just look at me,” Gwen said. Gwen begged, her eyes pleading. “Please just look at me.”

She grabbed Indearie and held her close. A hand clamped over her friend’s eyes, and the two shuffled backwards. Gwen led them back, back, until they were touching the same blue substance of the walls.

“Gwen?” Indearie asked. “What’s going on?”

She needs to know.

“I’m right here,” Gwen said. “Just know that. I’m right here.”

Gwen lifted her hand. Indearie frowned, and blinked. The light was too much for an instant. They needed something else to focus on. She looked towards the floor, trying to focus. There, a couple black spots. Something to let her focus on while she cleared her head.

The dots sharpened, and gained edges. They peered back out at her, and rolled onto one side. A jaw opened, and closed, the blue skull tumbling on the ground.

Indearie shrieked. She looked away, and there was another one. And another, and another. The whole floor was bones! They were surrounded by human skulls!

Indearie looked at the solid floor, pale. Finger bones, femurs, kneecaps. They were standing on skeletons. She shrieked, and ran towards the wall.

More faceless bodies peered back. Everything, everything was bone. It all glowed with a pale blue light. She was in a tower built on human bones.

“No,” Indearie whispered. She collapsed on the floor, panicking. “No, no no no no.”

It wasn’t any comfort. She was stuck, surrounded. Even with her arms wrapped around her legs, she was touching bone. She could feel it, she could feel them. They were surrounded by death.

The human body is filled with magical potential. A chaotic mass of flesh, blood, and bone, but where does the energy reside? Where does one extract this limitless power?

Gwen looked up. “You stole it. You stole these people’s magic.”

The Tower flared red.

We OWNED it. We bought every single one of these wretched lives. Raised them, and their children, and their children’s children. We gave them a home, a life, a purpose. Why should we not receive our due?

Indearie sobbed. Tears splashed against the bones. “So these…these are the staff?” she asked. “This is what the Everwynns did to the maids, and cooks, and anyone who worked for them?”

And it made us mighty.

Gwen bet. Magic already determined who had the power in the court system. But if you knew how to get more of it, and nobody else did? Suddenly the Everwynns not being in the history books made a lot more sense.

The Everwynn family ruled this land, in all but name. A name we didn’t care for at all. The rest of Callgar’s nobility had to beg and scrape for every morsel. We deigned to give scraps to those who amused us. And to the rest…what occurred to them was dependent on our amusement.

“What happened to them?” Indearie asked.

Who?

“These people!” Indearie shouted. “These defenseless people that you stole from!”

She laid a hand down, and picked up a skull. The girl looked at it, tears in her eyes. “What happened when you sucked out all their hopes, their dreams? The will to live? Did they keep moving? Did they just drop dead?”

She held up the skull. “Could you even tell me who this is?”

A pathetic, lonely waif. So sure of herself. Of her power. Wait until she realizes how small she truly is in the scheme of this world.

“Answer her, you dumb voice!” Gwen thundered. A wave of energy rolled of the girls, and the bones rattled again.

The sound paused, considering.

You do not belong here. None of you belong here. The Everwynn name has transcended what was once thought impossible. We have defeated death. We have conquered life’s pleasures and the boundaries of time. We are…

“Stupid little voices in the dark,” Gwen said. “No one’s heard of you. And from what I can see, you’re trapped in this Tower.”

THANKS TO ONE REBELLIOUS LITTLE FLEA OF AN HEIR!

Gwen and Indearie looked at each other.

“The Duke.”

We had been brought low by a demon. Made almost impotent. But it was Perseus who cast us back into the confines of this wretched ritual, and locked us away. His own blood, his own legacy! And he only comes now when his dwindling powers have finally met their match.

The world was spinning. Gwen held up a finger, and put herself in a different headspace. Don’t focus on the bones, or the here and now. Focus on the facts. Try and understand the entire picture.

Indearie turned, and looked at her. And she smiled. Gwen always found a way. Give her enough time, and enough information, and she’d figure out the world.

Sure enough, Gwen looked up to the sky with a smile. “Percy Everwynn is the last of the family, isn’t he?”

Our line will persevere.

“Without a living relative? If you had that kind of power, you wouldn’t be stuck in this tower, would you?”

Gwen laid a reassuring hand on a skull in the wall. “No. I think I’m understanding what this is. Your conduit, right? The focus of all this magical energy. Sucked out of poor schmucks who couldn’t fight back, and giving your souls all kind of juice. And now it’s all just floating in here.”

Wasted.

“Because Perce won’t use it.” How much magical energy was stored in here? Ten thousand souls worth? A hundred thousand? More? And how much magic did that even entail?

Gwen and Indearie were probably smack dab in the middle of the greatest artifact in Callgar. Maybe even on the planet. If anyone learned how to harness it, and turn the Tower to their own ends…a kingdom would just be an appetizer before conquering the world, now wouldn’t it?

“Can anyone else do what you’ve done?” Gwen asked. “Learn how to steal another’s magic?”

Our secrets have been closely guarded for centuries.

“That’s not a no.” and armed with this house, and everyone in it, someone like Deveren would find a way to crack the code. They’d start this practice up again.

Gwen snorted. Not if she had anything to say about it.

“All right, listen up, you disembodied freak family.”

The air flashed red around her again. Big deal.

“We’ve got invaders coming on. Big, bad ones, that don’t care who they have to kill to gain this tower.”

Let them pit their might against our own. We will feast on their souls.

“You can’t feast on a lollipop right now,” Gwen said. “Not without Percy Everwynn’s help.”

“How do you know that?” Indearie whispered.

“Because they haven’t killed me yet,” Gwen said. “And I’ve been annoying them since I got here.”

The Students are a vexation. And a nuisance. Your power is worthless compared to ours.

She pointed at herself and Indearie. “And we’re the best you’ve got. Now that we know what’s going on, it’s time to rally the troops. Let us out, big spooky voice.”

She winked. “It’s time to go to war.”

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Dead by the Book

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I didn't ask for a destiny.

Especially one that says that I'm supposed to destroy every god in existence.

It made the name William Creed a curse. Made me turn tail and run from the only home I knew. Left my friend, my favorite ghost, and hoped that the gods would just forget about me.

But now I'm back. Chasing the one good paycheck I've seen in years. Chasing some kid who's in way over his head, searching for a book that could break reality.

I'll have to take on dragons, the undead, a whole cosmos of deities, and my own mother.

Welcome to God Street. Where miracles become realities.

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