Chapter 25

Henry directed Damien forward. He grabbed Sylph's shoulders with Damien's hands. A cold wind swept through the room. His shadow stretched out and rose from the ground behind him.

Eyes and mouths formed all over it, hissing and dripping dark liquid that sizzled and melted the stone. It lurched forward, jerkily reaching over Damien's shoulder with a vague imitation of a hand.

The fingers elongated, sharpening into needlelike points that pierced into Sylph's chest. She gasped in pain, but her eyes still didn't open. The shadow pushed its hand slightly deeper. Sylph's face contorted in pain and the blood trickling down from her eye flowed faster.

Henry? What are you doing?

"I'm working! Be silent," Henry snapped using Damien's mouth to speak.

His fingers slowly moved through Sylph's flesh. Damien realized Henry was carving a rune circle into her upper chest as the razor-sharp shadows flickered in a mesmerizing dance.

Within seconds, Henry completed an intricate circle that would have taken Damien at least an hour, had he known the runes in it. They were so small and numerous he couldn't even read them.

Sylph's hair was soaked with sweat, and half her face was covered with blood. The shadow pulled its hand free, then flicked a dot of dark energy into the circle. It flared with dark light. Sylph crumpled to the ground.

Henry returned control of Damien's body to him.

"She's alive," he said before Damien could say anything.

"And she's in decent shape. That girl… Interesting. She almost has as many secrets to hide as we do."

So, she'll be okay?

"Physically, yes. In fact, her core even expanded a little.

Not by a huge amount, but she isn't completely crippled anymore. More like half-crippled."

Damien knelt beside Sylph. He gently tapped her on the shoulder, but she didn't budge.

"She's unconscious, you idiot," Henry said. "Leave her here or drag her into her bed."

He knelt beside Sylph, carefully looping his arms under hers and dragging her back through the tunnel. When he reached her bed, he lifted her onto it with a grunt. It would have been a lot easier if his legs hadn't been so worn out they barely worked.

It looks like I just murdered her.

Damien glanced over his shoulder, half-expecting Delph to be standing behind him. There was nothing but the afternoon sun. Damien grimaced and shifted the sheets around Sylph, covering her with them and turning the girl on her side so the blood was a little less visible on her face.

Yep, I'm definitely hiding a body.

He would have been convinced Sylph had died had she not been taking slow, shallow breaths. Damien stepped back, glancing out the cave again before hurrying into the bathroom. His hands were covered in blood.

He grimaced and rinsed his hands off in the sink before pulling the bathroom curtain shut behind him. His coat had somehow managed to remain completely clean, but his shirt and pants under it had gotten stained.

At least my coat is fine.

"Of course, it is. It's runed," Henry said. "It's got cleaning and self-repair runes on it."

That's good. I didn't want to have to throw this away.

Damien quickly stripped out of his clothes and tossed them to the side of the bathroom as he stepped under the shower. The moment water fell from the holes in the ceiling, he let out a sigh of relief.

His painful bruises and aching muscles relented instantly. The water poured over Damien's hair, matting it to his head. It was pleasantly warm and just felt…fresh.

He didn't scrub himself. He just sat there, staring blankly at the wall as his mind slowly caught up with the day. After several minutes, Damien picked up his soap and cleaned himself.

Once his shower was over, he stepped out and wiped himself dry with a small towel. He put his pants back on, but his shirt was a lost cause. He nudged it into the corner with his foot.

Damien stepped out from behind the curtain, scurried over to grab his travel bag, and then retreated into the bathroom. He pulled a new shirt and pair of pants out, donning them before putting his cloak back on.

As he was getting dressed, Damien noticed his bruises seemed to have faded. He peered closer at his arm. It was still a little tender, but the bluish circles from where Delph had hit him with the stick had already faded to a dull yellow.

Damien suddenly realized his legs were only slightly uncomfortable rather than unbearably sore. He took a careful step, his eyebrows raising.

Something healed me? The shower?

"The water has magic in it," Henry observed. "You would have noticed if you were keeping your Ether sight active all the time."

You could have told me. I've been suffering for no reason!

"If I tell you how to do everything, you won't react fast enough in a fight. Little things like this are your problem," Henry said.

Damien sighed, but his companion had a point. He dried his hair out as best as he could with the towel before heading back into the main room.

…should I try to get Sylph into the shower?

Henry just cackled.

She was still breathing, and her face didn't look like it was in pain anymore. Damien decided she would probably be fine. He was not going to get caught dragging Sylph's unconscious body into the bathroom.

It was still only late afternoon, but the weight of the world pressed down on Damien relentlessly. Now that his adrenaline faded, his mind grew foggy. He yawned.

Too much happened today. I'm going to bed.

Henry remained silent. Damien climbed into bed, rolling over so the small amount of light coming into the room from the cave entrance wouldn't bother him, and laid against his pillow without even taking his clothes off.

Within minutes, the embrace of sleep enveloped him.

Grass was in a multitude of spots it was not meant to be.

Damien blinked. His mind was hazy. A cool breeze rushed by, and he shivered. He didn't have clothes on. Again. The sea of darkness surrounding the hill he sat on seemed to stretch on into eternity.

Damien turned around just in time for a dot of darkness to touch his head. He drew a sharp breath as the fog vanished, and he became fully aware. He grimaced, and his clothes popped into being around him.

"Why do I always show up naked?" Damien asked.

"Don't ask me. It's your mind," Henry replied. The eldritch creature sat across from Damien, his many eyes all looking at him.

"You're going to be honest with me, then?" Damien asked, leaning forward.

It was hard to read Henry's expression, as each of his mouths seemed to be doing something different. In addition, Damien wasn't particularly sure how to tell if the dripping fangs were snarling or smiling.

"For some reason, I'm considering it," Henry said.

"However, I need to impress on you how dangerous this is.

You know what happened when you simply saw It Who— Ah, my true form. This knowledge might not tear you apart, but it can draw the attention of beings with equal amounts of power and no reason to keep you alive."

Damien noted Henry's slip up, but he didn't say anything. He frowned pensively. The memories of exactly what had happened when he'd seen the eldritch creature the first time were fuzzy, but he still had the distinct impression he did not want it to happen again.

Finally, Damien gave Henry a single nod.

"I want to know, Henry," Damien said. "I'm fed up with being in the dark. I've been feeling like my life is being taken away from me, and I'm going to take it back. If you really want us to become strong, you're going to need to treat me like a partner instead of a tool."

Henry's shadowy form flickered.

"How do you know I won't lie again?"

"That very question is exactly how I know," Damien replied.

They watched each other silently. Then, almost reluctantly, Henry gave him a single nod.

"Very well. If you are absolutely certain, then I will speak," Henry said. He held up a hand. "But not everything. There are two rules. First, I may omit anything I believe too dangerous to speak. I will not budge on this."

"So long as that isn't everything, fine," Damien said.

"What's number two?"

"I will not tell you anything you do not ask. If you have not considered it, it will not bother you. The less you know, the safer you are. Furthermore, I may choose to limit certain questions to nightly meetings like what we are doing now."

Damien's eyes narrowed. However, Henry's plain words showed the creature was actually considering his requests.

"Fine," Damien said. "I think that's about as fair as I can get. But what's the point of only speaking about some things at night? Are we somehow hidden?"

"In a way," Henry said. "We are completely isolated from the rest of the world when we speak like this. It ensures our conversations will not be overheard."

"Can't someone read my mind later?"

"Unlikely. Mind reading is incredibly difficult, even among my kind. The only reason I can read your mind so easily is that I am inside it."

"But they could overhear us speaking?" Damien asked, frowning. "How?"

"You are not as discrete as you think," Henry said, chuckling. "And if someone was to attempt to read your mind, it would be easier to overhear a conversation currently happening rather than a memory."

"Fair enough," Damien said.

"So, what do you want to know?" Henry asked, several of his eyes blinking.

"A lot. First, are there really other Void creatures on the Mortal Plane?"

"Yes," Henry said. "Five."

"Are they going to try to kill me?"

"Some of them would. Others might not. Our purposes are different," Henry said. "Either way, it would be very, very bad to meet them unprepared."

"And how close is the nearest one?"

"Still a few hundred miles, last I checked."

"Okay," Damien said, ignoring the cold sweat forming on his back. He'd suspected Henry had told the truth, but a small part of him clung onto the hope the companion was lying. "How and when did they get here?"

"I don't know when they got here," Henry said. "As for how, we were told our time was coming. Several of us were summoned by other humans, while others were able to find other pathways to the Mortal Plane that had previously been closed."

"Told? By whom?"

"Next question," Henry said without a moment of delay.

"Right," Damien said, disappointed. "Did you somehow interfere with the summoning?"

"No. We were as surprised as you when humans reached into the Void. It had never happened before."

"I see," Damien said. "So, you have no knowledge of what changed my rune circle before I summoned you?"

Henry shook his head. "None whatsoever. What happened?"

"When I got some of my memories back, I saw tendrils of dark energy wipe away several lines on my rune circle.

They're what directed the magic to the Void," Damien said.

"That means someone, maybe whoever spoke to you, was finding ways to get you to the Mortal Plane."

"That is…disturbing," Henry said. "We had no knowledge of this, and there is not much that happens on the Mortal Plane I did not witness before my four-thousand-year journey."

"Is it possible whoever spoke to you was the one who messed up my runes?" Damien asked.

"No. They are still within the Void," Henry said firmly.

"So, there's someone else who had an interest in getting you on the Mortal Plane," Damien said, pursing his lips.

"Wonderful."

Henry's many mouths frowned as well. After a few moments, Damien shrugged.

"We'll have to figure it out eventually, but I don't think we've got anything to work with other than they used some form of magic with dark tendrils," he said.

"Indeed. Anything else, then?"

Damien scratched his head. He'd had dozens of questions he wanted to ask Henry, but now that he actually had the opportunity to do so, he'd forgotten most of them.

"Are you really getting changed by the part of my soul in you?"

"Yes," Henry said. "I am."

"Thank you for being honest," Damien said. "I've got more, but my mind seems to have gone blank. I can't think of anything else at the moment."

"Good," Henry replied. "I wanted to wait until you were done before I mentioned this. Your friend doesn't have a companion."

"What?"

"She's got no companion. Not a living one, at least," Henry said, sounding interested. "She's using a manmade construct, but it doesn't seem to be whole. It's broken."

"Manmade?" Damien asked, squinting at Henry. "How is that possible? You can't use magic without a companion, and there's no way to summon something that isn't alive."

"I don't believe she used a summoning circle," Henry said with a small shrug. "She's got a magical item replacing her companion, and she's using it to channel magic. With her limited magical energy, it's possible she had no choice. Her call might have been too weak to even reach the Plane of Stars. Either way, I suspect she'll be telling us tomorrow. Then again, she had no companion to recognize me, so I'm unsure of how much she's going to remember or understand."

"I guess we'll see," Damien agreed. Some of his questions had been answered, but a whole new fleet of them had risen. "Until tomorrow."

"Until tomorrow," Henry agreed. He waved his hand, and the darkness surrounding them crashed forth, enveloping them and sending Damien back into a deep, dreamless sleep.