Sub Terra: Et Reditus

Twenty-Four

Devi

I was speaking on my Screen when I heard the knock at the door.

"Sorry, Ally. Gotta go now, love you."

I put the Screen away and opened the door.

"Devi, we need to talk. It's super important." Daniel said, forcing his way through the living room and dropping onto a cushion.

"Huh?" I said with confusion.

I turned back to the door and saw Nadia looking up at me.

"Oh, hi," I said. "Don't just stand there, get inside!"

I pulled her in and closed the door. We all sat in the down on cushions. I didn't understand what was going on, but the air had a worrying feel to it.

"Where the hell is Gus, Daniel?!" I snapped at him. "And why is Nadia here?"

"Don't worry about Gus. He went to help out Madame, he's fine. As for her, well..."

"It's about Aries." Nadia finally spoke.

"He did something, didn't he? He got someone mad?" I asked. 

"Oh, he did something alright," Daniel said. "I'll take over from here, Nadia."

He adjusted his seating position.

"This motherfucker... this motherfucker sold his soul to the devil!" he grumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"That was a poor choice of words, but... Aries hired someone off the black market, according to Nadia."

"What? He's got all this wealth... all this influence... you're joking, right?"

"He wants Mom to get cured." Nadia said.

Those words brought images to my head. Images of a frail, unsightly figure lying motionless on a bed. Images of a pale hand touching mine. Images of a tired-looking maid at her side.

"Shouldn't you be glad that he's doing that? I mean, after everything I heard--

"Aries is a stupid, immature kid. You've seen how he acts, right? He can't see the full picture. Nadia, you've tried convincing him to stop, right?" Daniel asked her,

She gave him a short nod.

"Even his own sister can't get it into his head!"

"I can wait," Nadia said. "I can wait as long as I have to, for a proven, safe cure. Mom would to, I know."

"So that's how it is." I said. I turned my head away in thought. Nadia wanted Daniel to help her do something about Aries. But how were they going to stop him?

"This black market guy. What do you know about him?"

"I only met him once. He has a code name called the Sapphire King. He can create a cure for Mom and make it like she was never, ever sick. He specializes in Nark-related illnesses."

"That doesn't seem suspicious to me. Not completely. But the fact that he's from the black market is... rather unsettling."

"Devi, when I saw him, he looked normal. Like someone you'd walk past on the street, but when I got near him--

She suddenly buried her face in her hands. She started to tremble.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. She slowly pulled her face away from her hands, revealing a sweaty, pale forehead.

"N-nothing, I'm sorry."

"Take a minute to breathe, it's okay." I reassured her. 

Once she returned to her senses, she continued.

"When I got near him, I had a horrible, horrible feeling. I felt like something disastrous was going to happen. It's so hard to explain but-- it was worse than fear. I felt like just being by him was going to rip my soul out."

I had a general understanding of what she was saying. Clearly, this Sapphire King was not a normal person.

"Yep, and he's doing all this on one condition."

"A condition?" I asked Daniel.

"To get him out of La Ciudad. Nadia's pretty sure that this is where Aries led him to."

"With us? You're saying that the Sapphire King came with us on that plane?"

"That has to be it. Regardless if he's here or not, we need to stop Aries. We can't let him leave this village."

"Now, just how are you going to do that?" I asked Daniel.

"We're going to kill him." Nadia said with a blank expression.

I was stunned. I couldn't believe the words I'd just heard.

"He's your brother, for fuck's sake!" I almost yelled at Nadia. "Do you know how much it takes? To kill someone, let alone your own blood? Are you out of your damn mind? Can't we get him arrested?"

"This situation way outside of the sphere of conventional law. We're dealing with someone... something, that is unnatural, as far as I can tell. Besides, we're not in the territory of any Cities that would take him in. Devi, look," Daniel said, dropping a hand on my shoulder. "I don't want to kill him either. But if we let this go on for too long, the whole world could get dragged on to it."

"Daniel, not you too!" 

"I won't do it right away. I'll need to think of something. I have an idea, though."

I looked at him with a grim expression, not responding to him. 

"Tomorrow night, we all go on a little camping trip."

I stared at him with puzzled eyes.

"The hell's that gonna solve anything?"

"Aries, Nadia, and I. We're gonna borrow camping gear from Caldwell and head out somewhere away from the village. That'll give me plenty of time to figure out what's going on in his mind. If I think he's bad enough, I'll go through with it. You agree with that, Nadia?"

The girl bobbed her head in assent.

Suddenly, I felt an urge to halt my protesting of his decision. I didn't know why, but I thought that if I were to stop Daniel, something would happen. Something that wouldn't benefit anyone.

"Want me to come?" I asked.

"That's a better way of thinking," Daniel complimented. "Sure, you can. If you do, Gus'll have to stay at Madame's place. No way am I letting him get near Aries."

I let my face relax in relief. Daniel wasn't an idiot. He could handle things, just in his own, insane way. 

"If it does come to you doing... it, how will you go about it?" I asked him. This was the my most pressing question.

"I know something, don't worry. It's not like I was just sitting around at the Front meetings."

Just then, I heard the front door swing open.

"Sorry for the late entrance," Gus said, cheerily. "I got some great news!"

Our attentions all shifted towards him.

"What's up, bud?" Daniel asked him.

"We're being invited to an engagement party, all of us. It's for Amir and his fiancée." 

"Sweet!" Daniel said, his tone having changed from serious to keen. "When is it?"

"A week from now."

"A week from now?" I heard Daniel whisper to himself. I could hear the deliberation in his voice. He wanted to deal with Aries within that time. "Perfect. By the way, you should probably take a shower now. All that red dirt's getting into your pores. Wouldn't wanna show up to a party with a face full of acne, would you?"

That was enough to send Gus walking up the stairs. Almost as if he wanted to impress someone, I jokingly thought.

"We're gonna have to tell him, right? He's your friend," Nadia said out of the blue. "He'll find out sooner or later."

"Yeah, he will." Daniel said.

We let Nadia stay in for the night since she didn't want to leave, it being dark and all. All I had to do, I told myself, was to be patient.