Divine Apostasy Book 8 - Prologue

Author's Note: DO NOT READ if you have not finished book 7, Shadow's Seventh Step. The below Prologue of book 8 contains massive SPOILERS. Enjoy!

AFK

Prologue

Echo let out a deep breath and forced herself to open the waist-high metal gate that surrounded her father’s oasis. Stepping out of the blasted landscape of the Infernal Realm’s ninth circle, her feet sank into soft green grass. The number of creatures capable of crossing that threshold without instantly dying only required a single hand to count.

The grass ended at a wooded area fifty feet away. White barked aspen trees, their leaves colored red, yellow, and brown of an eternal fall, clumped between tall evergreens. The air no longer smelled of sulfur and death, but pine.

Echo strode slowly toward the trees, her mind roiling. She had waited for her hands to stop shaking before coming here, delaying her arrival by an hour. The inhabitants of the Infernal Realm feared their lord, Lalquinrial, and would sympathize with her, but she didn’t fear her father. She feared no one. Her shaking stemmed from an emotion just as powerful, one she rarely experienced—doubt.

From their very first meeting, that blasted human had thrown Echo off balance. She hated him for it. She hadn’t thought he could get any more insufferable, but she’d been wrong. So wrong. Why did he affect her so? She knew it wasn’t something as simple as attraction. While some probably found him attractive, he wasn’t her type.

Echo reached the trees and took a deep breath, enjoying the clean scent. Denying that Ruwen Starfield didn’t matter to her, though, would be an exercise in self-delusion. His approval had created joy in her otherwise bleak existence.

Echo stopped and leaned against the rough bark of an evergreen. She clenched her hands and pheromones flooded the air around her. The sudden release of the cinnamon-smelling hormones just another example of how easily Ruwen rattled her. She hated how even the thought of him created such anger and happiness it caused her to lose control of herself like some fourteen-year-old siren.

The scent of cinnamon reminded Echo of her father and their impending meeting. He had affectionately nicknamed her as a child for this exact issue. Like her mother, she had issues with her emotions sometimes.

Echo relaxed and pushed herself off the tree. The damage was already done, she’d smell like cinnamon for the next hour, and her father would know something had upset her.

The grove of trees didn’t have any paths, it didn’t get enough visitors for that, but Echo had come here often and knew the way. A tinge of another unfamiliar emotion touched her thoughts—guilt. After the horrible events on Savage Island, and the loss of her precious Rung One and the rest of her class, Ruwen had beat himself with shame and anger for not killing the Aspects in the Infernal Realm. He believed had he done so, this horrific incident wouldn’t have occurred.

Echo had wanted Ruwen to suffer, so she hadn’t told him the truth. The Infernal Realm had thousands of superb candidates for those Aspects, and if he’d killed them, new fighters would have filled those robes before they cooled. The blame for what happened on Savage Island didn’t rest on his shoulders as heavily as he believed. She bit her lip, as the guilt increased.

Ruwen’s responsibility for what had occurred paled in comparison to Echo’s. Thoughts of Rung One made her stop again and the air filled with mist as pheromones poured from her body. It was as close to crying as she could bring herself.

Echo stood up straight and shoved the unwelcome emotions and thoughts into the third darkness, feeding them to the all-consuming creature that lived there. Regaining control of herself, she marched quickly toward the grove’s center.

Two minutes later the temple came into view through the trees. Ten seconds later she stepped into a clearing and paused, searching for her father.

The clearing held three white marble buildings. Each a single story high. They surrounded an open-air temple encircled by twenty-foot pillars, each depicting an important person from her father’s past. The smallest structure held her father’s library, and the largest the artifacts he’d gathered related to his obsession. Her father practiced his Shattered Clan Steps in the last building.

“I’m at the pond,” Lalquinrial said, sounding as if he stood next to her. She still didn’t know if the communication occurred telepathically or if he displaced his voice somehow.

Echo turned away from the temple and strode along the clearing’s edge to the right. A small stream and pond sat among the trees in this direction and her father liked to meditate there. In less than a minute she’d entered the trees again and soon heard the softly crashing water from a small waterfall. The air cooled as moisture saturated the area. In a few more moments the fifty-foot pond, her father floating cross-legged in the center, came into view.

“Hi Cin, give me a moment,” Lalquinrial said, not opening his eyes.

“Sure, take your time.”

Echo studied her father and frowned. Sweat darkened the hair at Lalquinrial’s temples and actually dripped down his face. His whole body shook, although it would take Gem-level perception to notice. Worry blossomed in her chest. She had never seen her father like this before. Sweating and trembling? Her father was invincible? Had something terrible happened?

Lalquinrial opened his eyes, and the trembling stopped. He smiled at her, his expression caring and happy. As it always did, Echo’s chest warmed and she relaxed.

“Are you worried about me?” Lalquinrial asked as he stood and walked across the water toward her.

Echo returned the smile. “Well, you are old. Like really old.”

Lalquinrial stepped onto the grass and wrapped Echo in a hug. “It’s good to see you, Cin.”

Echo’s throat tightened. “You, too.”

Lalquinrial released Echo and sat cross-legged on the grass. She mirrored him.

“Have you seen your mother yet?” Lalquinrial asked. “She’ll be thrilled you’re back so soon.”

Echo shook her head. “I just finished up the trial.” A shy smile escaped. “I passed. I’m a Master now.”

“I’m so proud of you. I never had any doubt. How blessed is that Clan to have such a practitioner as you.”

“Thank you, Father. Thorn will oversee my Viper Grandmaster training herself.”

Lalquinrial nodded. “The Sisters are very wise. Congratulations.” He leaned forward and gave her another hug.

Some of the tension drained away from Echo. Her father always made her feel better. “They even gave me a Sijun. Can you believe that?”

“Already? That is extraordinary. They must see your incredible potential. Do I need to address you as Sisen now?” Lalquinrial asked playfully.

Echo grinned. “No, Cin is fine.” Her smile faltered a bit. “I’m not sure how I feel about it. I don’t like being bound to someone else. Especially a human.”

“Responsibility is a heavy burden. It only demonstrates your accomplishments that they would entrust you with it. Take it for the compliment it is, and let your worries go, they do not serve you.”

Echo nodded, embarrassed a little by all the praise. She changed the subject. “What were you doing? I’ve never seen you like that.”

“You mean working?”

They both laughed.

Lalquinrial leaned back, his arms supporting him. “I encountered something recently that I didn’t think possible. It has inspired me to try and replicate it, or at least deconstruct its secrets, and it takes a lot of effort.”

Echo nodded. “I saw something similar, during the trials. It made me question what’s possible as well.”

“Interesting,” Lalquinrial said. “Can you tell me about it? Or is it a Clan secret?”

“I don’t know if it’s a secret, because I don’t know how he did it. Speaking of which, I assume you know the package I sent isn’t in the Infernal Realm anymore.”

Lalquinrial sighed. “Yes, I’m painfully aware. Let me guess, this thing you witnessed you can’t explain was something he did?”

“Yes, and for some reason nobody knows he challenged the Founders to combat.”

Lalquinrial leaned forward. “Which Sister did he fight?”

Echo met her father’s gaze. She lifted her hands slightly in a helpless movement and shook her head. “All of them. At the same time.” She shook her head. “That isn’t even the incredible part. He figured something out at the trials. He can affect his surrounding with just his Steps. He fought all three Founders and never looked in danger.”

“What did it look like?”

“You won’t believe me.”

Lalquinrial smiled sadly. “Oh, I passed disbelief shortly after he arrived here. Trust me, Cin, I will believe you.”

“It didn’t look like a fight at all. He just mirrored them perfectly.”

“I have witnessed his grasp of probability waves.”

Echo shook her head. “I’ve studied you my whole life. I know what probability wave fights look like. This was something more. It looked like he’d connected himself to them and they moved him along with their own bodies. And—”

After Echo didn’t continue, Lalquinrial encouraged her. “What else?”

Echo swallowed hard. “He controlled at least two elements that I could see, air and stone. With his Steps.”

“Anything else?”

“It could be his reflexes, but he completely nullified the effectiveness of their Shadow Stepping and other Soul magic.”

“No, it wasn’t his reflexes. He’s found it. What all of us gave up looking for thousands of years ago. How can one person be the source of so much impossibility?”

Echo nodded, thinking about the artifact Nymthus had taken home with her. The artifact that her father had requested. What were the odds of Ruwen acquiring that precious item? The impossible followed Ruwen Starfield around like a lava hound.

“What is it?” Lalquinrial asked.

The memories of that artifact and Nymthus were locked behind a powerful oath. To cover, she brought up another issue Ruwen had caused. “He took your Crossing Stones.”

Lalquinrial sighed and rubbed his temple. “He took four and destroyed one.”

“I wondered about that,” Echo said. “But I assumed if he’d destroyed it, I’d have died.”

“Somehow, he captured most of it in a dimensional portal. It’s currently in the depths of Miranda’s vaults. That isn’t the only damage he caused, however. The sudden disruption caused by the ring’s destruction caused the linked portal to become unstable. Twenty percent of the Infernal Realm’s Spirit reserves bled into the linked world.”

“I figured the other ring would have detonated as well?”

“I stabilized it long enough to recover most of the soul power. It did eventually explode but lacked the energy to damage the world.” Lalquinrial shook his head. “That would have been ironic. It would have destroyed our gateway to the Darkness and ruined millennia of planning.”

Echo shook her head, as she realized what world her father spoke of.

“What?” Lalquinrial asked.

“I just can’t believe how linked everything is. The Sijun Thorn gave me is on that planet. What are the odds of that?”

“Interesting. That almost seems too coincidental to be an accident. Maybe we can discuss them after you meet.”

Echo nodded. “Will all the Spirit you lost cause problems there?”

“I’m not sure yet. Anything dormant on that planet might stir. I’ll do what I can to stabilize the situation and minimize the consequences. A world in chaos doesn’t make for a good launch pad.”

The Infernal Realm’s expansion made Echo think of Nymthus again and how Echo’s father’s armies had ravaged that world all in the pursuit of a single journal. Before the trial and meeting Rung Four, Echo had never given it a second thought. Now after catching a glimmer of the results, it gave her pause. Another unwelcome change. Since when did she care about the cost of what she wanted?

“What’s wrong Cin?” Lalquinrial asked, detecting her mood.

Nymthus and the crimes of the Infernal Realm were not what she wanted to discuss with her father. Instead, she shifted the topic to something different, but still believable as responsible for her suddenly dark mood.

“I failed,” Echo said. “I gained access to the Bamboo Viper Clan relics, but they didn’t have any books or journals.”

“That is not your fault.”

Echo twisted her hands nervously. “I searched the island as well and didn’t find anything. Unfortunately, I had to fight three different Clans who detected my presence in their vaults.”

“A valiant effort. I appreciate your thoroughness. Be at ease, Cin. Many before you, including myself, have failed hundreds of times in the search for either of those cursed books.”

Echo nodded, relieved not to see any disappointment on her father’s face. She hated disappointing him.

Books were a bad description of what they searched the universe for. One looked more like a logbook with geological survey information, the second volume of a set of two. The other, an alchemy research journal, the twenty-third volume to be precise. Both related to her father’s Darkness obsession.

“It wasn’t a total loss, though,” Echo said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. “I saw two things from your list.”

Lalquinrial focused intently on Echo. “Please tell me.”

“I’m almost positive I saw the black ring with the odd runes across the surface.”

Lalquinrial sucked in a breath. “What? The Apocalypse Hoop? Where is it?”

Echo hid her shock at her father’s emotional display. The ring must truly be something of incredible value for him to care so much about it. It made her a little jealous, but she immediately recognized the ridiculousness of that thought. Had she become so insecure that she now fought for attention with jewelry?

“Ruwen wore it when he arrived. He dropped it into his storage portal.”

Lalquinrial leaned back and closed his eyes. “The Universe surely shines on me and blesses my endeavors. How can this all be a coincidence?”

“What?”

Lalquinrial focused on Echo. “Likely the most precious and valuable ring in existence is in a vault deep in the Wyrm’s Pyramid. Vaults so secure it is impossible to portal into them, even for a god. There is a high likelihood that ring contains the twenty-third journal. An item many desire, although for different reasons. Then, within weeks of the ring’s arrival, not only does the universe provide me a doorway into those vaults, but the power to open that door. This luck defies comprehension and makes me highly suspicious of a trap. This fortune is just too astonishingly good.”

“Speaking of fortune, it’s the second thing I found from your list. The Bamboo Viper Clan had one of the divine golems.”

Lalquinrial went very still. “Which one?”

“Tarotmethiophelius,” Echo said.

Lalquinrial glanced down at the three small cards on his right wrist. Echo didn’t need to look, she’d grown up seeing the Archfiend, reversed Death, and Tower, the only markings on her father’s skin. She had thought them beautifully drawn tattoos until she’d seen what Tarot did to Ruwen. Now she knew her father had also interacted with a Misfortune Golem. Maybe even the same one.

“I wonder if you’re helping me, old friend,” Lalquinrial said to himself. He looked up quickly and locked eyes with Echo. “Did Ruwen take the golem?”

Echo nodded.

Lalquinrial smiled. “Now it makes sense. One man’s misfortune is another’s fortune.” He leaned forward and hugged Echo. “This is splendid news. Thank you, Cin.”

Echo returned the hug, enjoying her father’s rare display of joy.

Lalquinrial released Echo. “Since we are on the topic, did you have any success meeting with our contact in the Wyrm’s Pyramid?”

Echo nodded, pleased to give her father even more good news. “They didn’t know the location of the collection but revealed the identity of the curator, a large bird-creature named Skeeter.”

“Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Thousands of years of searching, and then like an avalanche of good fortune, everything comes together at once. With one incursion, we can retrieve that collection and Pen’s dimensional ring.”

Echo pieced together from her father’s words and her knowledge of the events on Savage Island to understand what had happened. Ruwen had snatched the four dormant Infernal Crossing Rings from the underground warehouse on Savage Island, giving her father exact rune coordinates for the Black Pyramid vault’s location, and also captured the explosion of Infernal soul energy, giving her father the power to open them.

For the first time, Lalquinrial had both the mechanism and power to break the Black Pyramid’s security. And now, Echo had given him the reasons to do it.

“We will flush Starfield from his nest,” Lalquinrial said. “Give him a reason to venture into the open and then capture him. We will strike the Black Pyramid at the same time, using the chaos on Grave to our advantage. I’ll agitate the explosion, which will keep Miranda too busy to interfere with our ambush of Starfield, the retrieval of the Apocalypse Hoop, and the capture of her Curator.”

“What if Ruwen’s Goddess arrives?”

Lalquinrial shrugged. “Eiru willingly relinquished her Architect Role. She is a Divine Apostasy and will die in seconds.”

Guilt surfaced again, and Echo pushed it away angrily. Why would she feel that? She should feel nothing but happiness for her father’s success.

“Again, with the dark mood,” Lalquinrial said. “Is something wrong?”

Echo looked down, and shook her head slightly, unsure where these feelings had originated.

“Are you worried about War’s report?” Lalquinrial asked.

Echo had worried about that, and she latched on to the explanation. She looked up and sat straight, prepared for her father’s anger. “Yes.”

“I would like to hear your version.”

Images of Rung One, and the rest of Echo’s class, surfaced and stuck to her thoughts like dried blood. Headless bodies, dead eyes staring accusingly at her, their souls swirling around the clearing in confusion and pain.

Unbidden, just like on that awful day, rage consumed her, the overpowering scent of cinnamon filled the glade. “He slaughtered them,” she hissed. “Desecrated and dishonored them. Had I not been in shock at the complete and unnecessary annihilation of my Class, I would have carved his soul into a thousand shards and scattered them across the nine circles. If I see him again, I still might.”

Horror filled Echo as the rational part of her mind translated her response, but she couldn’t take the words back, even if she’d wanted to, and prepared herself for her father’s wrath. Her response confirmed her allegiance to the Bamboo Viper Clan, in defiance of her own Realm. Her father’s Realm.

Three dreadful seconds of silence passed.

“I’m proud of you, Cin,” Lalquinrial said. “Words have power, and we must take our oaths seriously. Defending your Step Clan, even against your own people, was the correct and honorable action. I expect nothing less of you.”

Echo sat in stunned disbelief.

Lalquinrial gave a small smile. “I do wish your response sounded less like your mother.”

Echo laughed, her tension draining away. “Mom does get carried away sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Lalquinrial asked, standing.

Echo stood as well. She couldn’t remember a time her father looked happier.

“Unfortunate as War’s behavior may be, it confirmed a critical fact. Ruwen Starfield did not use Spirit a single time. Even when faced with such drastic losses. It means however he managed to escape my prison, it severely damaged his Core and Meridians, most likely permanently. By the time he Fortifies to Divine, assuming he retains that possibility, it will be a thousand years too late.”

Echo nodded, her emotions roiling and making a response difficult. Underestimating that wretched man seemed unwise, but she kept her opinion to herself. Her father already knew that anyway.

Lalquinrial placed an arm around Echo and squeezed her. “Let’s go find your mother and celebrate all this marvelous news. What a wonderful day for the Infernal Realm.”

Echo grinned, her chest warm from making her father so happy. The day had turned out much better than she’d thought.

Even with this abundance of good fortune and joy, Echo couldn’t eradicate the sliver of guilt that plagued her.

A memory surfaced of Ruwen sitting on the edge of a tower, his feet dangling over a three-hundred-foot drop. I don’t know you, Echo, but you contain both the fierceness of your mother and the darkness of your father. I have learned through hard experience to listen to that ancient wyrm and never ignore her. When I released you from the webbing at our first meeting, I glimpsed a person I have not seen since. Maybe it’s the girl from where you began. Whatever Blapy meant about changing your trajectory, this is my attempt. Don’t confuse this with forgiveness. You have debts, and I will see them paid.

Echo couldn’t help feeling, she had, once again, added to her debt.