Chapter Eight

Storm

“A re you okay, mate?” Zev asks from the other side of the room.

“Yeah, I’m good. She broke a couple of ribs; they’re healing,” I reply.

Rival helps me stand, “Is she stronger than the last time?”

I nod my head and wince slightly as I feel the bones knot back together, “Definitely, it might take all of us to help her this time.”

We make our way back over to the others just as Killian ducks away from a particularly vicious strike, and Reaper strides in, giving him an out which he gladly takes.

“You okay?” I ask Kill as he walks over to us, a slight limp in his step.

“Yeah, I haven’t had a fight like that for far too long. It’s fucking hard to fight her. I hate it; I don’t want to hurt her.” He replies, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning heavily as he watches Reaper and Loki fight her.

“I know. It goes against everything I am,” Mayhem replies.

I clench my fist, “My shadows want out, but they want to help her; I’m not sure my magic understands that we are helping her.”

“This is hard to watch,” Grey adds, wincing.

“It is, but really watch them. They aren’t hurting her; surely you’ve seen Farren fight?” Rival asks.

“Yes,” Grey replies.

“She can handle this, and she isn’t hurting them either, not really. We’re just trying to wear her out.” I try to assure him, and he nods.

What he says next has me even more curious than I was before.

“I’m not used to actually caring,” he mutters, his eyes meeting mine.

I smile, “Trust me man, I know. Farren has that effect on people.” I see that Loki is starting to tire, and Ryu is looking like he wants to make an appearance, so I put Mayhem and Rival in.

We watch as they do something I haven’t seen before, and something I don’t think they knew they could do, as their magic combines and strikes near Farren, making her jump and leap around, trying to escape and using her magic to do so. Her glow is starting to dim, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Grey’s eyes suddenly widen, and he says, “I think I know a spell that we could perform that would drain her magic, not completely, but enough that she doesn’t need to fight it out any more.”

“That’s a great idea. Let's do it.” Zev replies, and from the tension in his tone, I can tell that he’s finding this as hard as we are.

“Do you need any ingredients for it?” Rival asks.

“No, but there is a problem. With the amount of power that she’s kicking off, we’re going to need to be touching her at the same time.” Grey explains.

“She managed to stop herself and reply to me when she first came out, and she’s fought off enough that the glow she’s got going on is dimming. She might be able to stop long enough for us to get our hands on her.” Kill replies thoughtfully.

I shrug, “It’s worth a try.”

“Well, you’re more likely to get a response from her and make her listen than we are,” Rival smirks.

I sigh. I highly doubt that she’s going to listen to me, “Farren! Stop for a second; we’ve got a solution.”

Shockingly she freezes rigidly to the spot, her whole body tense and her eyes flashing with fire, “Hurry up, I’m not going to be able to stop for long.”

We all rush forward and cautiously lay a hand on her anywhere we can. Fortunately, Rival and Mayhem quickly catch on to what we’re doing and follow our lead, although they look seriously confused.

“Okay, repeat after me,” Grey orders urgently and then in a language that I have never heard before and we try our best to repeat what he’s saying.

It’s a pretty big show of trust that we’re putting in him right now, considering that Farren is special to all of us.

A massive rush of power suddenly overcomes me, and we all fall to our knees as the others feel the same effects. It takes me a minute to feel moderately back to normal, and I realise that at some point, I closed my eyes. That was one hell of a rush.

“Shit, are you guys okay?” Farren asks, chewing on her lip as she looks at us worriedly.

“Erm, yeah, shit, that was one hell of a rush,” Loki grins up at her.

She breathes out a sigh of relief as she starts to smile, “Thank fuck for that. That was nuts.”

“That was Grey’s idea,” I tell her as we all start to stand up.

“Well, at least we know how to help you better now,” Mayhem points out.

Farren frowns, “I guess I just don’t know what my extra boost of power will do to you guys. I don’t want it messing with your magic.”

“It shouldn’t. The spell is designed just to disperse the power, nothing more,” Grey replies. “Dinner?”

“Oh fuck yes, I’m starving,” Reaper replies.

“Let’s go get something to eat then, and we can try to figure out what’s going on with Farren’s magic,” Grey replies, and we follow him through the castle and back to the kitchen where we had dinner last night.

Farren

“I ’m back to normal now,” I reply and then look at Rival, “I think you were right, the wound in my side was stopping my magic from going back to normal, but my magic was slowing my healing, so my only choice was going into the Void.”

Once we’re all sat down at the table with some sandwiches that we quickly rustled up, their eyes all turn to me again.

“I have to say I’ve never heard of gifts developing this late,” Mayhem frowns.

I raise my eyebrow and smirk, “Are you calling me old?”

His eyes widen, “No, that’s not what I meant at all. I,”

“Dude, she’s messing with you,” Loki chuckles.

Relief fills his features before he gives me the finger, “Very funny, Farren.”

I grin as I take another bite of my sandwich, and my gaze catches on Rival, who’s frowning I tilt my head slightly in curiosity as I say, “You’ve got your thinking face on.”

“I’ve never heard of a gift like the one that you described,” Rival frowns.

“No, me neither,” Reaper replies and then adds, “when we pass the games, we get extra gifts from the gods, right?”

“Yeah, supposedly,” Loki replies.

“Could Farren have been granted one of the gifts early?” Rival asks, extending on Reaper's thought process.

“Is there any record of what kinds of gifts they got given in the past?” Zev asks.

Rival immediately shakes his head, “No, there’s no record of it anywhere, not that I’ve found anyway, and I was curious enough to do extensive research on the subject before we even found out that the Warrior Games were coming back. It interested me.”

“Is there even a list of people who have won in the past?” Reaper asks.

“Not that I know of,” Rival replies with a frown.

“So the only reason why we know for sure that there were winners of the Warrior Games in the past is that soon after the Warrior Games, the world has always gone to hell in a handbasket, and they’ve fought in wars or against some crazy supernatural that decided they wanted to rule over all the realms.” Storm points out.

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” Kill replies.

“So where are they? And why isn’t there some sort of plaque or commemorative statue or something that has their names on it? I mean, they were heroes.” Loki asks.

“It’s definitely odd. There are so many other statues, orbs, plaques and all manner of other shit commemorating kings and important figures and shit.” Mayhem replies.

“There’s a reason for that,” Grey says knowingly, and when we all look at him with curiosity, he continues, “It’s to reduce the threat to them.”

My lip pulls up in confusion, “What?”

“Well, in every Realm, there are assholes who want to challenge the winners, to prove their own strength, to discredit the winners of the games, even though they have been through so much shit in order to save one or many realms. When the games first started thousands of years ago, they had a lot of problems with that, and the winners never got to live in peace, so they put it in place so that there was no record of them anywhere.” Grey explains, “It meant that they could live somewhat inconspicuously.”

“That actually makes a lot of sense. So do they retire and just live life peacefully after they’ve done their duty to protect the realm, or do they carry on working?” Rival asks Grey, assuming that he’ll know.

Grey shrugs, “I don’t know. I guess that they can do whatever they want.”

“I can see how it would get tedious. I mean, they’d be called on for every little thing that went wrong. They’d never get a moment's peace.” I muse quietly, trying to stop a yawn.

“Exactly,” Grey replies.

“I’m glad that they get some peace,” Loki mutters.

“There’s no way of knowing whether this is a gift from one of the gods, even though we haven’t won the games,” Storm replies.

“Yet.” Killian smirks, full of confidence.

“So I guess that leaves us at a dead end then,” I reply.

Rival shrugs, “Yeah, but we could do some research and see if we can find anything.”

“Mate, you just love research.” Loki teases.

Rival grins, “Yeah. Speaking of, I’m guessing that the plan for tomorrow is to go to Farren’s house?”

“Yeah, that’s where Monty said the key was, although both Grey and I searched that place from top to bottom, and if there’s a secret room there, I will be truly shocked to find it,” I reply.

Grey’s smile is full of knowledge as he replies, “You know Monty if he says it’s there, then it is. It just might not have been the right time for us to find it before.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I reply.

“Those Wraiths weren’t like any that we’ve seen on the other side of the border. Are they normally like that?” Reaper asks, his eyes briefly flashing to Ryu’s.

Grey becomes serious as he shakes his head, “They weren’t always like that; they used to be just the supes that you could find in the Fae realm, now though, they’re being turned into creatures from the Underworld, and I don’t know how they’re coming across. Not only that, but Underworld creatures don’t turn into Wraiths.”

“Really?” Rival asks, sounding interested.

“Yes, they can’t have the creatures and supernaturals there turning when they are in charge of the worst of the worst and policing the dead. You’d be surprised how much trouble the dead can cause.”

He’s got that look again, the one that is almost ancient and full of knowledge, the look that makes me curious as hell.

Mayhem’s eyes narrow slightly, “You know an awful lot about the Underworld, things that we aren’t taught and things that are not common knowledge.”

Grey smiles, “I sense a question in there somewhere. I have been alive for a very long time, and you learn some things when you’ve been alive for as long as I have.”

“Okay,” I interrupt, seeing that this conversation isn’t going to go anywhere and could possibly even devolve further, “from what you’ve said then I think that it would be safe to assume that the princes are getting the creatures out somehow or they wouldn’t be able to turn into Wraiths , and they wouldn’t be here.”

“Unless they were somehow managing to change them into Wraiths in the Underworld and then send them through,” Zev suggests thoughtfully.

Killian leans forward in his chair slightly, “Like a first wave, they send the Wraiths through to distract everyone, have everyone fighting off the extra threat and too busy concerned with that to look at anything else. That’s what I’d do.”

“That’s a really good point,” Grey replies, looking somewhat impressed at Killian’s conclusion, “we need to figure out how they’re getting in.”

Storm rubs his hand on the back of his neck, “So we need to find the key’s before they do to stop them from opening the gates properly and letting out everyone in the Underworld, and we need to figure out how they’re getting the Wraiths in now. We also need to figure out which factions are being influenced by black magic. We also need to find out if there are any more artefacts from the vault in the Underworld being used as well. Even though that’s impossible as far as we know, does that sound about right?”

“Yep,” Loki replies and then adds, “I don’t think we’re going to be here for a couple of days like the last trial.”

I shake my head, “No, there’s too much to do.”

“We didn’t technically get here through the right portal, though did we?” Reaper asks.

“That’s not strictly true, the portals to the different stages of the Warrior games are different colours, so if you are thinking that this may not be an actual stage, then that’s not the case. Plus, we’ve got the scroll.” Rival replies.

“Okay, well at least that’s one certainty that we have in the whole heap of uncertainties,” Zev replies.

“We’ll sort it out. We know that this place is important to the Fae realm; otherwise, we wouldn’t be tasked with protecting it and sorting it out.” I point out.

“We either sort it out, or we fail and end up back at the academy and having to go into the temple and be judged by the gods,” Loki replies with a slight bite.

Rival adds, “The same gods that have denied us their presence for centuries. Are we even sure that they’re going to show up in the temple anyway?”

“Fuck knows,” Mayhem replies, “we won’t know for sure until we go in.”

“I think they’ve just been a lot more subtle about their presence. They’re still around,” I feel almost compelled to say.

Grey’s gaze becomes penetrating, but he doesn’t say anything.

Zev clears his throat slightly, “I agree with that theory. I mean, look at what happened in Monty’s shop? Monty is an incredibly powerful supernatural; we could all feel that. So who could so easily control him while keeping their identity secret?”

“You’re right. It had to have been a God or Goddess,” Reaper replies.

Loki’s eyebrows raise, “But that would mean that they are invested in what we’re doing.”

“Well, if there’s a threat of the gates to the Underworld opening and letting the good, the bad and the ugly free on all of the realms, then I’d say that all of the various gods are going to have something to say. The Earth gods, Fae world gods, ancient gods, Dragon Realm gods . . .” I start to list.

Grey interrupts me listing the various categories of gods, some of which overlap between the realms, “We get the message, Farren. I see your point and it’s slightly intimidating that we’re the only line of defence against the potential downfall of all of the fucking realms.”

“Fuck, it sounds impossible when you put it like that,” I reply, and although I feel slightly nervous, a bubble of excitement mixes with the nerves. I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge, and this is one hell of a challenge.

“One day at a time,” Reaper mutters, “we take this all one day at a time. The first thing we need to do is to get the first part of the key from Farren’s house.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m all for taking one problem at a time,” Mayhem replies.

“Are we going to talk about how odd it was for the Wraiths to attack in a group?” I ask them all since we got distracted by everything that happened after.

Grey’s eyes widen, “Oh shit, yes, I’m glad you reminded me. I recognised a couple of the Wraiths, they weren’t all from the Underworld, and the three I recognised were from the three main factions, or at least they were before they became Wraiths.”

“So it definitely has something to do with the factions, then. We just need to figure out what,” Reaper replies.

Storm sighs and then stands up, “Alright, why don’t we all call it a night? It’s getting late; we’ve got to find the key tomorrow, which I imagine won’t be easy because nothing has been so far.”

Killian nods, “Yeah, to be honest, I think I preferred the other task. We didn’t really stop, and then we fought. I don’t like this planning and research stuff.”

“Me neither.” I reply, getting up as everyone starts to make their way out of the room.

“Farren, could I talk to you for a second?” Grey asks as he makes his way into the kitchen side of the room instead of out the door like the others.

“Yeah, of course.” I reply, waving to the guys, “Night, guys.”

“Night, Love,” Loki replies as the others all just wave. He comes over and pulls me into his arms briefly, kissing me on the top of the head and then leaving after the others.

I’m starting to really like it when they show me affection.

“I’m glad you found them, Farren,” Grey says, and I turn around to find him holding a mug of what they call hot chocolate in the Earth Realm. I’m ridiculously happy that they brought it over here, and although it’s not that easy to get hold of, it’s one of my favourites, and Grey always has some.

“Oh, it’s been so damn long since I had hot chocolate, thank you.” I reply, taking a sip and noting that he’s served it with cream and sprinkles as they do as well. “Do you want to talk in the snug?”

It’s where we always used to have our chats, and we’d end up talking in there for hours about everything and nothing.

He smiles, some of the tension leaving him now that the guys aren’t here, “Yes, I’d like that.”

We walk in companionable silence, sipping our drinks as we head down the wide hallway, passing paintings and weapons, as well as the occasional lit fire that’s there to keep the hallways warm since they’re so vast. The castle's interior décor has always fascinated me, it’s a mixture of traditional and modern but it’s so well balanced that it somehow works.