Page 28 of Of Realms and Chaos

Still, he was nauseating to listen to. Or, well, bear witness to was more like it. I could only make out the conjured images. Which was what made this so increasingly repetitive.

The male spoke then, his speech foreign to me. He had a smooth voice, the words blending together with such speed that I struggled to fathom how anyone could understand what he was saying. Henry did though.

Every once in a while, the demon would nod, scowl, or hum. Very rarely did he respond in kind, mostly opting for silence unless speaking was required of him. Hiding his accent was not something Henry would be able to accomplish for long, but it was best that no one suspected who—or what—we were.

I had not known before that the mortals did not speak the common tongue—that each of the six kingdoms spoke six separate languages. Henry had explained to me that only those of noble birth were required to speak the language of the gods, though others chose to learn. Incidentally, this was also the language of both the fae and the demons, who had once not only been civil but close allies.

That was an interesting part of fae history that had not been told correctly. In Academy, younglings learned of how we had attempted to teach the demons our ways, to nurture them with good and prevent their evil roots from taking hold. We learned to speak as they did, allowing the language of The Old Ones to fade. We granted them access to our lands, traded with them, even taught them how to manage their magic. Still, they had turned on us, slaughtering any power-wielder they could and eating the raw flesh of their victims. Our past was broken, missing pieces and confusing at best, but we had all known of the wicked creatures to the west that threatened our realm.

Henry had contradicted that. Many demons remembered the time before the splitting of Betovere. They were privy to the knowledge that fae and demons and creatures of all kinds had been united once, thus the reason highborn demons were taught all six languages of the Mortal Realm.

Which begged the question: what happened to the memories of the fae and the mortals?

No one knew, not even Bellamy. With Pino gone, his soul free to return to Eternity, there was likely no way to find out.

“We have our answer then,” Henry whispered to me as he offered the man three gold coins. The mortal’s eyes lit up in astonishment, then a triumphant smile split his face. With his payment in hand, he left us be.

Henry grabbed my arm, tugging me up from my seat and out of the tavern. He was testy this evening, though so was I. We had been in the Mortal Realm for three days with no luck.

Our first day here, we had felt hopeful. The maps were exquisitely detailed, allowing us the opportunity to portal without the fear of ending up in the sea or someone’s home or the center of a volcano. That meant we could go to any of the kingdoms in a moment’s notice, find what we were looking for, then continue on with our journey. No longer would we spend weeks on the back of a horse or the deck of a ship.

That was, until we realized how little the people of the Mortal Realm knew. Their rumors and tales gave us no results. We would wander into wooded areas or deserted homes and find nothing, just as empty handed as before.

The first day, we decided it was just poor luck. The second, we began to suspect that we were in for a much more difficult excursion than we originally thought. Today, however, we awoke with an astonishing sense of defeat.

As we made our way into the early fall air, the residual pollen from summer’s blooms burning my nose while we walked, I readied for bad news. I was fully prepared for Henry to tell me what I already suspected—there was nothing to find in the Kingdom of Behman.

We stopped not far from the inn, hiding from the afternoon sun under the canopy of a tree. This kingdom was full of trees, even along the coast. They were everywhere, as if forests had taken control of every piece of the land and the inhabitants had decided to simply build around it.

Green grass spread for miles, only interrupted by the dirt roads that were a result of carriages permanently destroying the plant life. Henry had not dressed for the weather, his top so thin that the white was nearly transparent. His brown trousers clung to him and tucked into his black boots that reached mid-calf. His fiery hair nearly passed his chin now, the stubble on his face closer to a beard.

“We have a lead,” he said, a reluctant smile spreading across his face as he released my arm. “This is it. I can feel it.”

I froze, unsure if I heard him right. For a moment, I simply stared at him, wondering if he was being hopeful simply for the sake of my sanity or because he genuinely believed that this was going to be our first success. When he did not break under my gaze, I decided that this just might be a good day after all.

“Where is it?” I asked, suddenly far more energetic than I had been in a while. Without realizing it, I began to bounce on the balls of my feet, thinking of how much this could change the tide of the coming war.

We did it. We finally did it.

“Here in Behman—just as we suspected. Although, I think we were wrong about what it is based on the description that man gave. Either way, we will know as soon as we portal there. There is a small range of mountains just north of here called the Eldor Peaks. All of the signs are there, but if we want to make it before the sun falls, then we have to go now. I want to portal just outside of the range to make sure we have a safe landing.”

I nodded, eagerly grabbing onto his hand and leaning up on my toes.

Henry pulled out the map that had been in his satchel, giving my hand a squeeze before letting it go to open up the folded paper. His eyes roamed over it for a moment before he took a deep breath. His fingers gripped the map harder, wrinkling the edges.

I wanted to reassure him that it would be alright and this was the breakthrough we needed. More than that, I wanted to promise we would survive. As someone who did not quite enjoy being lied to, though, I decided against it.

Instead, I took deep breaths as well, focusing my mind for the task ahead. It was imperative that I steeled my heart and mind. No longer could I wallow and suffer in sadness. It was my duty to save this world. I could feel it in my bones. I had to take my despair and morph it into the flint that would light a fire within my soul.

Being a savior did not mean living a life of joy and love. No, it was a path paved with blood and death and loss. And it was not until this precise moment that I realized just how much more I would sacrifice to make sure Alemthian survived the coming war in one piece. I would maim and burn and kill for that future.

Henry took my hand once more, a hopeful smile lifting his lips one last time before we portaled.

The ground was uncomfortably hard in comparison to the grass we had once stood upon. When Henry called the range small, he had been grossly under exaggerating. The gray stone before us loomed above, two of the mountains reaching up to kiss the clouds like a lost lover. The air here was cooler, an unsettling stillness to it that made goosebumps coat my skin.

The man had been right. We had found what we were searching for.

Henry and I were tasked with securing allies in not only the mortals but also the magical creatures that had sought refuge in the Mortal Realm. Over the course of the last few days, we had been searching for one creature in particular, the dalistori.

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