Haven: Book Seven of "The Liminality"

Chapter 20 - The Other Side

This encounter with the Sing proved far more aggressive than what Grehl had experienced under the much gentler guidance of Mirhani. She felt like a goldfish flushed down a toilet. She lost all perspective, all connection with her surroundings. Ripped from her body, she spun through a kaleidoscope of extracorporeal sensation.

As with Mirhani, she found herself bouncing between the souls of people with souls encased in bodies, but then, like a river opening into the sea, she found herself in a wilder place without boundaries, where souls mixed and smudged and intermingled.

Here, some stability returned. She felt coddled by a million helping hands, like being in a sickbed attended to by a battalion of Aunties, advising her not worry, to go with the flow, to not be afraid.

And then, just as suddenly she was back in a physical realm bouncing through countless minds and bodies till she found herself in the presence of Barth and Gijantus. Their presence calmed her. It was Barth who had welcomed her into the cabal long before they realized that she had any special abilities. True, the cabal had been desperate for recruits after being on the losing end of many raids, but they had given her a voice, taught her how to fight and kept her safe long before she had discovered her unique talents.

Now, it seemed like she was seeing through many eyes at once. She occupied both sides and either end of a long table inside the council tent and even held some awareness of what was happening away from the table and outside the tent. The hubbub generated by the myriads of souls in the crowded camps surrounding them intruded on the edges of her consciousness.

Her cabal mates did not seem to notice her presence as they engaged in intense deliberations with the other cabal leaders. She recognized some of these faces, but some were new.

"Fuck them," said Gijantus. "They want to go, let them go. Nobody invited them anyhow."

"No. We need them here," said Barth. "There is strength in numbers. Who know what awaits us on the other side."

"Other side? What other side? Did you not say the portal had sealed?" said a woman with a booming voice Grehl did not recognize. There were legends of a powerful cabal with a female leader from across the Sagmire. Could this be the notorious Margarit?

"The portal could reappear. It is premature to disband the camps."

"The masses are restless. Anxious for news. The sooner you come clean with them the better."

"Restless? You people have only been here a day."

"Rumors fly and create panic."

"Fuck them!" said Gijantus. "If that's all the patience they got, who needs them?"

"What do we tell them?" said another woman.

"Ten souls to Avernus for every soul who blasphemes the Summoner," said Burrus, the leader of a small but notorious cabal of former cannibals who had seen the light. "That's what I would do."

"This isn't about faith," said the woman. "This is about being misled."

"I'm not convinced that this so-called portal ever existed."

"Three of our cabal crossed the seam in broad daylight," said Gijantus. "It was witnessed by many."

"Sleight of hand! Magic tricks!"

"I crossed myself," said Barth. "The portal is real. There is no question."

"What? When?"

"Even it was, now it's gone."

"We came a long way for this bullshit. Lost half our number to hunters."