37. Maeve

37

Maeve

I t took half an hour for everyone to get to the dining room, looking for the most part fairly refreshed, though with the way Thea was rubbing her temples, Maeve wondered if the priestess had experienced visions of her own. Cedric was rubbing her back in slow circles. Pike stood, instead of sitting, his gaze ever-watchful. Elias knocked back a drink, his own gaze distant. Nath and Corra sat next to one another, speaking quietly, while Jen and Troy did nothing to hide their conversation.

"You're insufferable," Jen complained. "I'm not returning to the Realms. The trip there and back would exhaust one of them, and we all must be at our strongest for this."

"Immortal you may be, but you're still human," they said, not for the first time. "You barely know how to fight."

"I've been training with Pike!"

"Aye," the scrapper said from his position against the wall. "She is a proficient student."

"A student," Troy snapped, emphasizing the second word. "This is battle."

Elias lifted a brow and opened his mouth to say something.

Jen cut him off. "Don't you dare start going in on how I should bond with you. It's not going to happen. I barely know you."

"Great matches have been made on far less," Elias countered, taking another swig of his drink. "I will not bring it up again for some time, my friend, but?—"

"He is relentless," Rodan cut in. "I would know."

That part of the table let out some laughs.

Ankou spoke, drawing the attention of the room. "You should know that while battle is possible, I am hoping it is not the likely outcome." His voice made everyone go quiet. The god chuckled. "No need for that. I am not here to reap souls today."

"You don't think there will be fighting?" Maeve asked, taking a seat at the head of the table.

Ankou spread his hands, stark against his shadowy robes. He was back in the apparel of his own realm, though his hood remained down. "I can only appeal to Danu that our victory be quick, without need of violence."

Maeve frowned, finding the thought unlikely, but did not say anything.

Rodan motioned, and food appeared upon the surface of their table in an instant. It was a breakfast spread to put those they had shared together in their travels to shame, made for the varied tastes of everyone there, and set in dishes of pure silver and crystal glass.

Drams of coffee, tea, and the juices of at least a half-dozen fruits. Cream, sugar, honey, stacks of hot cakes, a mountain of thick-cut perfectly crispy bacon, maple syrup, jams of various types in small bowls, thick links of sausage, mounds of eggs, trays of biscuits, muffins, and croissants. Fruits, whole and sliced, were arrayed between everything, and with another motion plates and utensils appeared as well.

"That is incredible," Lydia breathed. "It smells so good."

"You've barely eaten," Rodan said, the words gently chiding. He turned to the table as a whole. "While we talk, we may as well fill our stomachs. We do not know when we may next be able to."

Despite the sobering words, the spread was far too enticing for anyone to ignore long. Soon the room was filled with the rustle and clatter, the scrape of utensil on plate, and the gentle, appreciative murmur of people taking in a good meal.

The only one who declined to dine was Ankou, who watched the rest of them with his head tilted, a keen interest to his eyes. Even Pike had a plate, though he ate standing with a sideboard next to him that he used for his glass of pomegranate juice.

Maeve tore off a chunk of her croissant, the buttery flakes practically melting in her mouth. "You outdid yourself," she said between bites. "I do not know how you do it like this. I've made food, but none so good."

"You'll get the way of it, soon enough, I have no doubt," Rodan said back, though he smiled to himself. Through the bond she could sense his satisfaction, warm as standing by a crackling fire. "Ankou, nothing tempts you?"

"I do not eat mortal food," the god responded. "If I were to place any of this in my mouth, it would be as ash. However, I do enjoy the spectacle of watching you eat."

Maeve snorted, reaching for another slice of bacon. "Glad we can amuse."

What he did not say, was that he was here for Lydia now. He would not be leaving without her, until this was concluded. Instead he fixed his gaze on the other Fae male in the room. "Elias," he said, tone congenial. "You've mentioned bonding the human Jennifer Casper. What is it that draws you to her?"

Elias leaned back in his chair and considered Jen sitting near to him. "There is more to her than even you know, I believe."

Ankou smiled, and under that look Elias turned pale, staring at his plate. The room fell into another uneasy silence.

Maeve shredded the bacon, scattering it over the serving of scrambled eggs, but did it without seeing. She still turned over the problem in her mind like a worry stone. How to stop this from happening. To give Lydia a life beyond the twisted thing she had been given.

In the quiet that fell as everyone tucked in, Maeve regarded her father. He faced her as he seemed to feel the pull of her gaze, and she locked with those strange, hawk-like eyes. The pupils were like pinpricks of pure void, Maeve became dizzy and, for a moment, found herself falling?—

In a breath, she was looking at herself from across the table, and there was the sense, the weight of eons within the mind, body, the very bones of this being. Of intense responsibility and duty. But as she—he—looked at her, all of it fell away to… hope.

And the instant she identified that elusive emotion, she snapped back into her own mind, her own eyes. Ankou's lips quirked up in a half-smile, and he gave her a slow nod. Maeve's cheeks heated, and she stared at her plate.

In that moment, there had been nothing to indicate duplicity. Anything that she could grab onto that would mean Lydia could be free. Even though it had been only a breath, she had gained tremendous insight and—she swallowed hard, reaching for her honeyed tea and taking a long swallow—with it had come a crushing sense of hopelessness.

Ankou did not think there was anything to be done. There had to be a balance.

My love? Came Rodan's voice through the bond. I can sense your distress.

It's nothing, Maeve said back, too quick to be believed. And there could be no lies between them. I am frightened and anxious. I do not want her to go.

Rodan reached for her under the table, and she took his offered hand, thankful for the thousandth time that she could feel his bare fingers on hers. Losing the gloves had made such a difference. To be touched skin-to-skin, unmatched.

Taking a deep breath, Maeve addressed the table as the consumption started to slow, the clink of silverware on China less frequent. "Jen had another vision last night, and we wanted to assemble everyone to begin plans for what is to come. We must be as prepared as possible, for it appears time is running out." She released Rodan's hand somewhat reluctantly. "Father, would you like to start?"

Ankou nodded and flicked a finger. The blackout curtains over the tall, narrow windows snapped shut, and all lights guttered out, plunging the dining room into darkness.

It lasted a mere moment, however, before stars bloomed in their vision. A million, billion pinpricks of light, glowing dust between. Nebula, she assumed, or something similar. Rodan looked rapturous. She knew he had a great love of the heavens.

"This universe, Danu, is divided into four regions. Light," the vision shifted as he spoke, and the brightness before them grew, until it was as though they all were bathed in summer sun. "Darkness." The room was plunged into pitch, a great sucking void of a black hole gobbling up every fragment of light. "Life," he continued, and the shadows were vanquished, and rotating visions of planets teaming with plants, animals, flying, swimming, thriving. "And, of course, my domain. Death."

Everything before them turned to dust and decay, the creatures they saw lay or were struck down. The planets themselves crumbling to pieces at the strike of meteor or nova of their stars.

Maeve shivered, and saw Lydia had gone rigid, staring with her wide, dark eyes which reflected the visions before them so well. Like a pool of perfectly still midnight water.

"All of them are as a four-pointed scale." All four representations came back, floating above a model of brass scales. "If there is too much of one, more than another, than the scales tip, and all is at risk. Danu prefers balance. It pleases her."

"Has there ever been a misbalance before?" Rodan asked.

"Yes," Ankou said, the line of his mouth severe. "Many eons ago, before Earth or the Realms were born. Before most of the universe was in its current shape. Darkness began to eat away at the edges of things, back then, and Danu quickly ensured the activity ceased. Life, too, has attempted growth beyond its bounds, and was similarly struck down. I believe there was a species upon this planet that was wrapped up in that."

"Dude, the dinos," Jen theater whispered, leaning toward Maeve.

Lydia, seemingly despite herself, gave a small smile. Elias frowned and started to ask a question when he was hushed by Jen at his side.

"What we seem to have here," Ankou continued, fingers lifting as the images changed yet again. This time they whirled into the planet they now stood upon, and Maeve could see all the threads connecting it to all the worlds, at the center of a vast web. Not the only one, but a central piece of a whole. "Is that your Earth, as a Nexus, is being used to fuel some kind of push by Ninack to spread his darkness further and faster than ever before."

Spreading dark flowed from the central spinning planet, through all the connected worlds, until one at a time they winked out.

"Ninack has gathered the godheads of at least three demigods. Asher, Horus, and Maeve all gave of their own free will, and by the laws of Danu the godhead belongs to Ninack until bargained, or given. They can be stolen, but I do not know what protections my brother may have put upon them. I do not know how guarded they will be. He is in league with the remnants of the Nyx, and they have already shown their involvement in this."

The image was now Maeve's blue fire, arcing above them before settling into a glowing circle above the center of the table. It was flanked by two other glowing, neon-like orbs. One a pale, vibrant green, and one a golden yellow. Those must have been the representations of the other godheads , she thought.

"When it was taken from me, Ninack put it into his robes," she said softly. "So he may be carrying them on his person."

"If that's the case then this will prove even more difficult," Ankou sighed. He tapped his fingers on the table, then said, "There is another, as well. One I am reluctant to speak of, lest it draw any of his attention."

Maeve remembered a ‘he' her father and Ninack referred to when they were confronting one another the other night. She tilted her head, "Someone as strong as you?"

"Oh, no," Ankou snorted. "Far greater than I. Than all four of us combined."

Thea gasped, hand to her throat. "You jest. There is no text that speaks of another god. I know your word for the universe, Danu, is what we call Garna, but… there is another?"

The god of death smiled a saccharine smile, eyes brightening so they seemed to glow with their own luminescence. "He is not one who would appreciate being known. If I speak of him here, I must ask even you, little priestess, keep it to those at this table. And speak of it only if you have no other choice."

Everyone exchanged looks, cast in the ghostly glow of the three still-hovering godheads, and then they were nodding. "We can do that," echoed around the table.

Ankou gave everyone a level look, then released the illusionary magic, bringing light back into the room. "I will not show you his face, but know when all this began," he motioned to the room at large. "The entire universe, there was another massive entity already here. One that, if not the same nature as Danu, then from the same realm. How he got here, I do not know, only he is trapped. He has spoken of it often enough.

"But it was he, not Danu, who originally bade me and my brothers to be still. Who instilled with us a sense of purpose and provided us the knowledge of our new home, and what we were to do here.

"For I and my brothers were not from here to begin with, either, yet…" his brow furrowed. "Those memories still elude me. I only have the impression that once, a long time ago, there was more than what you see at present. That I am lesser."

Maeve's mouth went dry, beholding her father and imagining him being anything less than the powerhouse she knew him as. Or that this, and his incredible power, was only a sliver of what it used to be.

"I speak of him because he is our last resort. If all seems lost, if we fail at preventing whatever darkness my brother is intent on spreading, then you must pray for him." He took a deep breath, which trembled in a way Maeve had never known from Ankou.

Whatever being this was, it was not one to be called upon lightly.

"His preferred moniker is Eros, but you can also call for El, for Shiva." He pronounced Eros in a particular manner, enunciated clearly. Err-oos , the r a soft roll. "Do not do so unless we have no other choice."

"Any of us can call on him and he would come?" Maeve asked softly.

Ankou shook his head. "You he would certainly hear. Rodan, perhaps, due to his new boost in abilities. The priestess." He regarded the table. "Perhaps Nath, for his devoutness, or Jennifer Casper. There is something about you, my dear," he smiled, back to his usual self. "That is just a bit out of step, isn't there?"

Jen paled and stared at her plate, not responding. Ankou chuckled.

"What about me?" Lydia asked.

Gaze fixing on his granddaughter, he nodded. "Yes, he would hear you. But he also might not like what he feels from you from the offset, so I would caution you to do so only if the others are incapable. Sometimes he simply acts, leaves, and does not say a word. I am anxious he would do something to you."

"So what do we do?" Nath asked, "When Ninack's fortress comes to this world, how do we fight?"

"With wit, and with brute strength if we have to," Ankou responded. "It is my hope I will be able to neutralize this threat without any need for you all, but I must tread carefully. He cannot lose so much the scales are heavier in the other realms, for that would be just as terrible an outcome."

"We have to defeat him without killing him, you mean?" Maeve asked.

A nod. "If he were to be vanquished, the entire universe could be upended. This is a delicate balance we must walk."

"If we fail?" Troy asked.

Ankou shrugged. "The end of everything."