Haven: Book Seven of "The Liminality"

Chapter 23: News from Above

I'm watching these two Ophanim spiral down and my first reaction is: Oh shit! Here come the Argents. But these craft are missing the usual gleam and sparkle you see with loyalist vessels. The rebel Ophanim have gotten pretty weathered since the uprising and these vessels descending  have quite a bit of patina on their shells. I'm thinking one of these has to be Gaia.

How does she find me? Dumb question. I know for a fact that she keeps my strand tucked in her pocket at all times. Not only that, she has my access to looms that allow her to locate any soul living or dead in the before or after. That puts them one up on the Sing, which is pretty much excluded from the higher realms.

The Ophanim touch down gently in the middle of the cordoned area. People in the crowd are freaking out, some hightailing it, though most stick around and cheer like it's some gimmick in a rock concert. For the most part, the guards keep their weapons down. They know better than to challenge an Argent, rebel or not.

Grehl is still lying crumpled in the dirt, her soul still away in the hands of the Sing. I have to keep my hands on her to maintain the connection with the Sing, so it makes for an awkward scene when the sizzling hit carapaces of the Ophanim pop open and Gaia steps out of one. Alexei, her fellow rebel Argent steps out of the other. There's me, kneeling beside a girl with my hands on her shoulders.

Gaia's eyebrows scrunch as she approaches me.

"So! May I ask, what you are doing here? In Sheol, of all places?"

Her voice is calm. She seems at most, quizzical, not angry. Maybe because nothing I do surprises her anymore.

"Helping out some friends."

"Do you not realize what is happening back in Root? No. I take it that you do not."

"You mean the new rift? That's why I'm here. It closed on these guys before they could get through. They were trying to... uh ... immigrate."

"Rift? This is not about rifts, as you call them. What is about to become a portal to nowhere."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The Powers have returned to finish the job they started."

"Fuck! Not more killfire."

"Perhap something worse this time."

"But why?"

"I will assume your question is rhetorical. The Powers have sealed all interfaces on the surface and the voids. Delivered countless engines of destruction. Each is protected by contingents of their best Centurions. They aim to turn Root back into the void it was before its creation."

"Because of these folks trying to immigrate?"

She shakes her head.

"No one cares about them. Their souls are irrelevant, other than providing further justification of the threat that Root poses for the realms."

"You all are trying to stop them, right?"

She smiles sadly.

"There is not much to be done. The Powers are determined. They have the means to exclude us and they are doing everything within those means.

"Shit! I need to get back there!"

"There may not be a 'there' to go back to."

"What the fuck?"

I am flabbergasted. I had thought for sure that the Powers would have just swept us under the rug and forgotten about us. They had gotten what they had wanted. The direction connection to Earth had been severed. The population of souls had been depleted and guaranteed to dwindle going forward, at least before this new rift popped up. That's what makes me think this new connection with Sheol has to be the reason they're doubling down on eradication. But why? They had sealed the rift. Wasn't that enough?"