Beyond the Void

Chapter 80, A god hidden in human skin

AERIN

Five moons and two tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

Slowly, the man stood up and out of nowhere, a blood-red blade appeared in his hand. He threw it towards the chimney Aerin had hidden behind. The blade had barely hit the chimney when darkness oozed outwards from nowhere and produced the outlander onto this rooftop. He struggled to find even footing on the roof while Aerin had to look back down at the balcony to make sure this had truly happened.

"You and your lot keep dancing around me. Well?" Standing in front of him like this Aerin realised the man was towering above her. He might have been taller than Will had been. But his voice was nothing like Will's. Something smoky hid behind that clear ringing. And he sported a thin beard.

"You're not afraid?" Aerin demanded.

The man looked surprised hearing that. Aerin noticed he still held the blood-red blade in his hand. "Afraid of what? Of you? Or your friends? Your organisation has been buzzing around me for the past ten days or so. I know you are alone here."

"You didn't answer. Not really." Aerin said awkwardly. It was difficult keeping her mind focused. She was not even sure what she was doing.

"Am I afraid? A little. But I am not sure what am I supposed to be afraid of anymore." There was a hint of a confusion in his face.

"And where are your friends?"

"No idea." The man said without hesitation. He looked like a good liar.

"Where are you from? And who are you?" Aerin began, but the questions did not end there. Once the first had left her mouth, Aerin found herself spewing forth every question plaguing her.

"What are you? Why did your friends breach the warrens? What are you doing, wandering all over the city? And the Repository of the Pure? What are you doing there? You and your friends caused this mess and now you are lounging about, gazing at the stars every night and chatting with complete strangers all day? You had a bit of fun and now you're just taking a vacation? Seeing the sights of the Eternal Empire? But first you had to put Edd and the others into the hospital. Or a wheelchair. Break some of them for the rest of their lives. Did you come to haunt me? Or the others? Are you some sort of ghost? Undead? Are you after revenge? Are you Will?"

Every possible question poured out from Aerin's mouth and she did not know why. After she had reached that last question, she could say nothing else. She was breathing heavily while the outlander stood there. There was a sombre look on his face.

"I could have killed them." He said after a few moments of silence. "If you kill someone, then the people left behind will be in pain. But if you try to remove an insect from your path, you will inevitably hurt it. I did what I needed to do, to reach the others. If I killed your friends, I thought your organisation would be more inclined to get revenge. I chose what I thought to be the road with the least consequences. People get hurt all the time. If I understand you and your organisation correctly, then someone else could have come along and done worse than what I did. Eventually someone will come along, I imagine. And this situation leaves a possibility for negotiation."

"Negotiation." Aerin mumbled. "You tear through our territory, leaving people injured and you think you are in a position to negotiate something? Some of these insects have a family. You think those families aren't in pain?" Her voice grew louder and more passionate with each word.

"I am not proud of what I did, and I have practised every speech possible when someone would finally confront me. I don't like this situation. But the one determining force is this now." Aerin could not react in time, when the outlander grabbed her by the neck. The next moment she flew through a pair of doors and landed heavily on a wooden floor.