The Seeker from Above: A Gregor the Overlander Fanfic

Chapter 27

Previously...

"Oh, you did not kill it, did you?" she said.

"No, Nerissa, we didn't kill it," he said, sounding totally baffled. "We couldn't."

She heaved a huge, shuddering sigh and sank down to the ground at his feet, laughing in relief. "Oh...oh..." She patted his knee reassuringly. "Then we may all yet be saved."

.

.

.

She sat on the floor rocking back and forth laughing, the very picture of madness.

Geez, this girl needs some help, thought Stella.

Vikus came up and crouched beside her on the floor. "Nerissa, perhaps you should rest longer. Are you feeling ill?"

"Oh, no, I am well. We are all well!" giggled Nerissa. "The Warrior and Seeker have fulfilled the prophecy."

"No, Nerissa, they did not succeed in killing the Bane," Vikus said gently.

"Vikus," said Nerissa. "The baby lives. So lives the warrior's heart. The gnawers do not have their key to power." Vikus looked like a lightning bolt had hit him. He plunked down on the floor next to her. "This is what Sandwich meant?" he said. "We never considered it."

"What?" said Gregor.

Stella wasn't sure what was going on.

"The baby in the prophecy was never your sister, Gregor. It was the Bane," said Vikus.

"The Bane? Why would it kill my heart if the Bane died?" said Gregor.

"Why did you not drain its light?" asked Vikus.

"Because it's a baby. It's just wrong," said Gregor. "It's the most evil thing...I...I mean, if you can kill a baby, what can't you do?"

"So says your heart. So says your most essential part," said Nerissa.

"Oh," said Stella silently. Nerissa's meaning was slowly dawning on her.

DIE the baby, die his heart, Die his most essential part.

Gregor's most essential part was the part that had spared the Bane. If he had killed it, Stella guessed that he would have never been the same. He would have lost himself forever.

"You know," Vikus said to Nerissa, as if they were the only two in the room, "I am continually amazed by how badly we can interpret one of Sandwich's prophecies. Then the moment it is understood —"

"The whole thing is as clear as water," agreed Nerissa.

Vikus quoted a section from the prophecy:

What could turn the warrior weak? What do burning gnawers seek?

Just a barely speaking pup, Who holds the land of Under up.

"The gnawers have always sought the Bane...," said Vikus.

"Who is just a barely speaking pup. Sandwich even went so far as to use the word 'pup.' The gnawers' own word for baby," said Nerissa.

"And the Bane holds the land of Under up," nodded Vikus.

"Because if the Overlanders had killed it...," continued Nerissa.

"Total war," said Vikus. "Its death would have been enough to rally them. Taking that pup to Ripred was a stroke of genius, Gregor. Oh, they will not know how to parry that move."

"What of the stanza about the Seeker?" Asked Vikus quoting it:

Something falls from above, A seeker's blood that she is of,