Hope in Ruins Book III: The Fountain and the City of Salt

Chapter 10: The Unseen Prophet Returns

ANDA

Anda stared at Peter's father, and a stab of guilt went through her. There was no mistaking him: the eyes, the nose, the chin. He looked just like Peter. She looked to Ben for help, a cold feeling in her gut, but Ben just watched them, the returned fathers.

"What's wrong with him?" Stephen said, taking a step towards Seth and pointing to Eli. "He's not right."

Seth turned to Stephen. "You're a Seer." Stephen nodded. "Ah. Well. I'm glad to see that they have given up their more barbaric practices."

"Not all of them. But how is he possible? He is... far too many. He is—"

Seth raised a hand to quiet him. "Yes. He is too many. But don't worry, he is not dangerous. Ah, ah, ah, no," he said, raising his hand again to silence Stephen's response. "No, he does not have Watchers. He is not what you think."

"Seth found me," Eli said. "He said it was time to return. He said you needed me...." In an instant, the man with the trembling mouth changed. His eyes widened, his jaw clenched, his posture shifted, and he tensed like a wild animal. "What, where am I? No, no!" He pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes, rubbing and rubbing. "Will you never let me go? I'm so tired... too many... too many years...."

Anda shrank back, afraid of this sudden change. It was like before when Eli had changed into someone cold and watchful, but this time he changed into someone wailing and pleading and begging.

Seth put a had on Eli's back, and he quieted. He removed his hands from his eyes and glanced at them but quickly averted his gaze. "I'm sorry, I... can't control it anymore."

"It's all right," Peter's father said. "We will find the cure."

"What's wrong with him?" Ben asked. "Why does he keep... changing?"

Seth lifted a shoulder like it was obvious. "Too many."

"But what does that mean?" Ben asked. "You said it's not Watchers, so what's wrong with you?" He took a step towards Eli, but Eli shrank back from his son. "It's because of the kilns, isn't it?" Ben asked. "Something went wrong."

A memory sparked in Anda's mind. The images of Re-Incarnate Day that she had seen from old films flashed through her head. The kilns were holy. They allowed their Eternal Mother and General Eternal to live forever. But if this man had a kiln, did that make him like the Eternals?

A sudden fear warmed her chest.

Seth pulled at his beard thoughtfully. "No, nothing went wrong, well, not in the way you mean. The kilns just don't work like we thought they did. There are consequences to everything, but right now, it doesn't matter. The important thing is that I found Eli and brought him back. Now we must get to the City of Salt so that we might fight Loraine. Now, let's get going. It's a long way over the White Mountains and—"

"No," Ben said. "I want nothing to do with him. After what he did to us, you think that I would ever want to see him again? That I could ever work with him, forgive him?"

Anda held her breath.

Seth's beard lifted in the stiff breeze. "Please, Ben. You cannot be Perseus without him. The Fox is important—he is part of the prophecy. Your father is the Fox, and the Fox is your father—when the Fox returns, then Perseus will end Loraine. That's what the prophecy says."

But Ben only looked at his father. "You were the one person who wasn't supposed to leave us. How could I possibly forgive you for that?"

Eli hung his head. And shame smiled up at him.

Her gut turned sticky and sour and rotten. There would always be Peter, and there would always be Mica in the back of Ben's mind. No matter what she did, he would always see Peter when he looked at her. She clenched Mica's lighter tighter.