Weight of the World

Chapter Sixty-Seven

—The Crooked Forest—

Without Kellaran—they were fucked. Completely and totally fucked. Lulu stood in the stunned silence of her disappearance, feeling as though the world had just dropped out from under her. Her best and only lead—gone. There was no way for them to track Osric, no way for them to beat him to the Mistborne Caverns now either. There was nothing they could do. They were helpless.

"What. The. Fuck. WAS THAT?!" Mervin yelped as he stared at the devastation that now surrounded them. Blue fire continued to burn on the edges of the great ring of blackened earth, only the small portion that had been deflected by Uncle Baloren left alive. "Does anyone else actually understand what just happened? Because I am so FUCKING CONFUSED!"

"Kellaran didn't like my revelation," Orik said simply with a shrug. "Gotta say, that was a bit more than I imagined. I thought she'd just throw a tantrum, not...burn us to cinders."

"Oh!" Mervin threw up his hands. "Oh, you just thought she'd...Well, you were fucking wrong, weren't you? And I almost ended up a blackened piece of toast!"

"My daughter," Archbishop Whittle wheezed, his eyes straying from the destruction to settle instead on Orik. "Please, what you said before..."

"She's the Conduit for the Ascension," Orik began to explain. "A ritual that the King of Bones seeks to use to bring Ori back from the dead. Your daughter is the one who is going to open the door to Shambhala."

Whittle recoiled at the news. "The King of Bones is...The Voice has never said a word of it to me or the other Archbishops. If he truly sought to do such a thing, The Voice would put a stop to it. Such a ritual would never truly bring the Savior back. It would only..."

"Oh, he knows," Orik nodded. "My confirmation comes from the most trustworthy source. My husband. The Voice has sent him to Avalon to stop it, and apparently, he's going to die doing it. Or so Kellaran famously told him."

Whittle could do little more than stare down at the tome in his hands. "The Voice knows that my daughter is to be used in this profane ritual? He never...This is sacrilegious. I hope the Shadow sees his mission through."

"You realize, his success means he dies, right?"

"As tragic as that may be...to bring the Savior back as a mindless husk..."

"The ritual will work," Baloren interrupted, a deep scowl on his features. "The magic was checked over by my wife. She would not allow this to proceed if it would turn Ori into anything such as that. The magic is sound. My wife will be overseeing the process as well. Ori is coming back."

"You...You really believe that?" Lulu asked, her breath shaking with every word. "You actually think she can...come back?"

Baloren nodded firmly. "It is the only reason I fight with the King of Bones."

Lulu swallowed thickly but returned the nod. "Good enough for me."

"Good enough for..." Mervin gaped. "Are you serious?! Do you have any idea how fucking insane that sounds?"

"I don't care," Lulu shook her head. "I...If Aunt Teryn says it will work, then it'll work."

"Just like that...You'd...?"

"Yes," Lulu looked at him fiercely. "Just like that. I question everyone and everything in these worlds, except her, except Aunt Teryn. The Ascension will work."