Origins of the Fates

12: Gormlaith Laurent

Banshees are not a typically plentiful race of people. No, we are all beings from Beyond, even more so than the others are. I sense death like others would sense being watched.

As we leave the healer's hut, Romi guides us over to the spare house we have on our small swath of property. The Morn girls will be sleeping there tonight, and tomorrow is when we see how powerful they are.

Once I lay down in my bunk bed, which is over top of Astoria's, that sensation of death prickles in the back of my mind. I look around, wondering if that is something that anyone else senses. But when I look around the dim room, where our two sets of bunk beds is, I don't see any sign of the others being awake.

I fall in and out of wakefulness, my mind a haze of death and confusion. Finally, I cannot take it anymore. So, I crawl out of bed and pad down the narrow hall and into the small kitchen/dining room.

I do not need a light, so I keep it dark. The lights outside, in the huge chamber of this section of tunnels, they're all dimmed. We may be underground but there is an obvious way to tell if it's day or night. Bioluminescent flowers and moss cover the walls and ceiling of this chamber. They glow bright at night, and dim during the day.

I watch the turquoise flowers as they glow all around, their bright silvery lights illuminate the whole cavern.

That strange, cold death feeling flickers in my mind again. I turn around, listening close to the sounds of the others sleeping down the hall. I sigh and slip out into the outside portion, walking down the narrow dirt path that takes me to the spare home, where the Morn sisters are.

Eisley and Elidi are fast asleep, but Emmeranne is up, reading. When I tap on the front door, still able to see inside the house, Emmeranne jumps up, a pair of shadowy swords forming in her hands. She sees me and sighs, allowing the twin shadow blades to vanish.

She glances around before slipping out of the house. She stops when she reaches the edge of the walkway, watching me.

"Walk with me," I say. She glances back to the house. "No one would dare hurt them. Trust me, they're safe."

"Better be," Emmeranne whispers.

She follows me down the dirt path and onto the gravel one that leads around the underground camp in a wide circle. We walk in silence for a bit, before I finally speak.

"I am sorry that the world has not been kind to you or your family," I whisper.

Emmeranne scoffs.  "Literally no one's happy in this city. Why should we be the exception?"

I shrug. "Perhaps there is a place where all of us here could be truly safe. Not just here, in the heavily warded underground. Not just trapped in Ilyntalos, but just under their feet."

"I don't believe in fairytales anymore," she says.

"Who's to say that it has to be one?" I ask her.

"Everyone in this city is trapped. Every single one of us is under the thumb of Mercury. He's got an iron grip on every single person, regardless of what or who they are. He has too much power."

I nod in agreement. "He does. But that power will only take him so far, won't it?"

She shrugs. "I guess. But he has already managed to keep it for so long, and he's just getting more powerful than ever, with the more people he's got."

"So, uh, tell me about your sister, the one you're trying to help," I say.

Emmeranne sighs heavily. "Eris .... she's always been looking out for us. But when we were captured by Mercury, she told him she'd do anything. So long as he let us go. He twisted the deal, though. Said that she would do what he said, and as long as she did, we would be left alone. But he put us in a cell in the dungeons. Promised he wouldn't kill us, as long as Eris did as she was told."

"So, she was forced to do unspeakable things in order to ensure your survival?"

"Yep. He kept changing the deals to better suit himself. But we ... we escaped. Her boyfriend, a dark fae whose name is Aires, he teleported us out of there, but he was trapped. He might be dead now. I don't know. I just hope that Eris can escape soon, too. And Aires, if he's alive. But like I said, I doubt he is."

"He's a loose end," I say.

Emmeranne nods solemnly, brushing her hands on her long sleeved shirt. "He was so kind. Eris and Aires, they did not seem to be a likely couple. They even lied to Mercury and everyone else, but .... Mercury found out"

"Well, I'll tell you this, Emmeranne. We will do our best to help save them both, if we can."

"But why? Why help us?"

I shrug and smile at her. I can tell she isn't used to kindness, and likely would not believe me if I told her that we do this out of kindness.  So, instead, I say, "We would all love to give Mercury and his allies a black eye. They deserve it. Badly."