Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

SELESTE

S eleste caught up with everyone across the valley just before they disappeared through a massive door cut into yet another mountainside. Following silently behind them down a cave corridor, they entered a rather cramped meeting chamber to find Sorscha—unsurprisingly—arguing with Asa.

"Sister," Seleste interrupted them as everyone else found a seat to drop into until they were all full.

In the split second between Sorscha's acknowledgement of her interruption and her next words, Seleste noted far too much at once. Winnie was rubbing at her knee, something gnawing at her inwardly. Aggie was glowing with subtle pride as she watched Grimm vacate his seat for Arielle. Gaius angled himself toward the young woman, utterly smitten and apologetic he hadn't noticed she had no chair. And Asa snuck a look at Sorscha's arse while her attention was fixed on Seleste.

Gods, she was going to have one Hades of a migraine by the time she was finally alone, wholly overstimulated but with a full heart.

"You are ill at ease," Seleste finally finished, ignoring the information flooding her cunning.

"Of course I am!" Sorscha spat, slapping the journal meant for her onto the tabletop. "It's all fun and games searching through old junk in the bottom of a cave, but shite just got real again." She gestured wildly at the journal. "Am I the only one scared out of their damned mind right now?"

"No." Asa put a hand on the small of her back. "You're not alone, Sorscha."

She gave him a grateful smile, and Winnie added, "We're all scared, Sister."

Grimm cleared his throat. "Winnie is right. We're all terrified, Sorscha. Chresedia, or whatever in Hades we want to call her these days, has been sucking the magic out of witches and mages for goddess knows how long and collecting their bodies to reanimate them. And we're the rag-tag team that has to stop her." He laughed darkly. "It's fucking terrifying."

Seleste summoned her journal and laid it on the table next to Sorscha's. "All the more reason to get these figured out so we can do what needs to be done right now."

Winnie nodded, and her journal appeared to meet theirs. Aggie gently pulled hers out of an oversized pocket in her skirt and slid it in place.

Seleste moved to spell them all open, selecting a careful incantation that would sort through and find any similarities and open to them. But the journals shot open simultaneously with such force that the smack of their covers on the table cracked through the room. They all looked blankly at one another until Asa spoke, outing himself as the culprit.

"Can we get on with this? Sorscha clearly needs a rest." He looked at her, brow low and mouth in a grim line. "And probably food. Have you eaten today?"

Offence and annoyance contorted Sorscha's features into a dark scowl. "Um, now is not the time, general."

Gaius squirmed in his seat. "Sorscha, if you're not eating…"

"Oh, my fucking goddess !" She threw her hands in the air. "Can all the men leave this room? Gods !"

Grimm ran a hand through his hair and stood with a lopsided grin. "That idea isn't half bad. Gentlemen, shall we?"

The three of them stalked out, Asa cursing under his breath. When the door clicked shut behind them, Arielle put a hand on Aggie's arm. "Should I go, too? This seems like a Sister moment."

"No," Seleste decided for them all, which earned her three sets of raised brows. Aggie's in amused respect, Winnie's in shock at her interference, and Sorscha's in unadulterated amusement. And exhaustion. Asa was right. Sorscha needed a rest. "Arielle, I just witnessed your immense gift in the catacombs. We both know you could be of great help."

"Not to mention," Aggie interjected, "that you were there with Chresedia and Grimm in her compound." Seleste watched curiously as Aggie's cheeks coloured. "I also…have a favour to ask now that we are all together without interference."

"Of course. I'll do anything I can. "

"First things first, I agree with Seleste. You're our best hope of sorting these journals out."

Sorscha pinched the bridge of her nose. "But she can't even see?—"

"Gods-dammit, Sorscha!" Aggie shot to her feet. "Shut your mouth if you can't say something helpful."

"I wasn't trying to be an arse, Aggie!" Her magic shot out, and picked up her journal, slapping it back down on the table again. "But they're pictures ."

"Stop it," Winnie snarled. "The both of you."

Neither Aggie nor Winnie nor Sorscha noticed Arielle standing and making her way to the open journals, her fingers gingerly tracing the images on the pages.

GRIMM

The sandstone and rock temple that Gaius called the healing abbey was a thing of myths. An incomprehensible number of candles littered the cathedral-high walls, their flames never once threatening the copious amount of plant life making up one entire wall and most of the ceiling. As they walked through the halls, Asa spoke briefly with no less than seven people, three of which seemed to be healers and four of which seemed to be patients on the mend—all of which were wearing the plain, matching clothing Sorscha never stopped complaining about.

Veering off into another corridor, Grimm caught the familiar scent of alchemical experimentation. A wave of memory assaulted him: Gaius bent over his desk in the lighthouse, Gaius droning on about this compound mixed with the other, Ludwig quizzing them both late into the night as young men…

Gaius ushered them into a cluttered alchemy chamber, and Grimm slid his hands into his pockets, leaning on the edge of a table. "This is the place that stole you away, hm?"

Gaius grinned wide enough to crack Grimm's decrepit heart. He'd never seen his friend so happy.

"I'm not certain what it is exactly, but I feel I've known this way of life since before I was born. All through the Spring, travelling as a nomad and tinkering in a laboratory in Eldritch…" He shook his head, running a finger along a few of his beakers with a lover's touch. "I was so conflicted. I felt so lost because I wanted both things."

Asa grunted from the corner, nodding in what seemed like approval. "Quite the fit, then."

"And the way you look at Arielle?" Grimm goaded his friend despite already knowing precisely how Gaius felt about Arielle. It was written all over them both.

He turned away, busying his hands even more by organising his tools. "That's a peculiar pull as well."

"You never did strike me as a man given to much rashness."

Gaius nodded one too many times, fiddling with a crucible, and Grimm watched his throat bob. Was he making Gaius nervous? That was absurd…

"I assure you I have only the most proper intentions with your sister."

Grimm sputtered a laugh. "Is that what's gotten into you? You're worried I don't approve? "

Gaius gave a pained smile. "Partly." His fingers stilled their tinkering, and he looked at Grimm, then Asa, and then back. "There is one other thing… small thing, you should both know while we're alone, the three of us. Or I won't be able to sleep."

Asa lifted his chin, eying him suspiciously.

"This should be good," Grimm murmured, crossing his arms. If he wasn't mistaken, Gaius was even more nervous of Asa than he was of him… Oh, fuck . "You slept with Sorscha."

"Once!" Gaius jumped to respond, his attention darting between them. "One time."

Grimm slid his attention to Asa, bemused. Having quite literally just met the giant general, he had no idea how he would react, but Grimm was rather curious. To his surprise, and apparently Gaius' as well, Asa tipped his head back and laughed.

"Is this supposed to be shocking?" he boomed.

"I'm inclined to agree," Grimm agreed lazily. "You were alone together for the better part of a year, and she's…well, Sorscha ."

Asa nodded, tongue in cheek. "You're consenting adults and clearly close confidants." He shrugged. "It's in our natures to explore those things." Standing to his full, rather intimidating height—and bulk—he stepped forward, and Gaius paled. Grimm bit back a snicker. "Now, if you were to try that again, I'd gut you and feed your entrails to the crows. However, I see how you look at Arielle." He jutted a thumb in Grimm's direction. "So you're his problem now, as far as your lordly honour and all that."

Grimm came forward and elbowed Gaius in the ribs. "And I couldn't have selected anyone better for her had I done it myself." Mockingly, he waggled his eyebrows. "Which I did, of course. In a way."

A conservative smile crept across Gaius' face. "I just wanted to clear the air before we deal with more serious matters."

Asa grumbled his acknowledgement, then something about finding Sorscha some food, and left.

Grimm watched him go, chuckling. "Damn. He really does care about Sorscha, doesn't he?"

Turning back to his experiments, Gaius nodded. "And neither one of them realises how much. Idiots ."

"Idiots, indeed. Now, show me what you're working on here."

Gaius descended into an alchemical lecture that sounded vaguely like gibberish to Grimm. He reached out to touch one of the beakers, gurgling a liquid the colour of Agatha's eyes, but Gaius' hand shot out, grasping his wrist. "You can't touch it!"

His words slithered off into the air as another memory struck Grimm. They were coming so quickly now that he couldn't decipher what was present or past anymore. Different images assaulted him of Gaius, huddled over a different workbench, crucible in hand. Arielle reading a book with her hands, seated in the corner. But her hair was different. Her nose a bit smaller, skin a bit darker. It was just the way Agatha kept changing in all his visions. It was Arielle, though. It had to be. Gaius was showing him something, a tuning fork and stone in hand. Grimm, too, was the slightest bit different, though he could only see his hands. Sabrina , Gaius addressed the version of Arielle over his shoulder. Come feel this vibration .

"Grimm." Gaius was shaking him when the vision dissipated. "What in Hades? Are you all right?"

Grimm blinked, forcing a lazy smile. "Fine. I'm fine. Just thinking of last night with Agatha," he lied.

Gaius removed his hands from Grimm's shoulders as if he'd been burned. "Come on, man. Do that on your own time."

SELESTE

"This was all done by the quill I brought here to Araignée." Arielle's assessment instantly halted the bickering between Sisters. They turned in awe toward Arielle's hand hovering over the journals.

"You can tell that by touch?" In her defence, there was no malice or judgement in Sorscha's question—to which Areille nodded—only surprised curiosity.

"We suspected as much," Agatha said. "Queen Fleurina claimed mine was penned by a goddess quill, but it's nice to have it confirmed by another source—that they were all penned with the same one. The one Chresedia has had all this time. Can you decipher anything else?"

Arielle's face scrunched as she moved her hand from journal to journal. "These were all done by the same hand, too…"

"Our mother," Winnie said softly, and Arielle's face brightened.

"Ah, yes. There is something very maternal about this. A deep, selfless love." Arielle's head cocked to one side suddenly. "A misunderstood love."

Seleste watched Aggie begin to blink rapidly as Winnie sniffed and looked at the ceiling. Sorscha crossed her arms, a hip swaying against the table to lean there. "Are you some kind of oracle or something?"

"No." Arielle straightened, her head turning briefly in Seleste's direction. "I'm no oracle. I just sense things sometimes. Grimm says I'm a Death Seer, but I sense more than just those that have died. I can sometimes sense strong things they left behind—emotions, moments. Those things are often left behind in the ether, but Seleste and I just discovered in the catacombs that I can sense it in objects sometimes as well."

Seleste moved to place a hand on Arielle's shoulder gently. "What else can you sense here, Arielle?"

"Each journal is unique and very much like each of you, but there is something more to it. As if your mother wanted to capture your differences and how they relate to…" She trailed off, chewing on her bottom lip. "It almost feels like a collective group, maybe. A whole but…split into parts. That's the best way I can describe it."

Winnie's eyes locked with Seleste's. "The Order."

"Yes!" Arielle exclaimed. "That could be it. But it's divided."

"The four factions," Aggie confirmed what they were all thinking. "Can you tell more about the factions?"

Arielle shook her head, her pretty face turned down in a small frown. "Not really. There is much more, but it's all a vague idea. Wendolyn, your journal has an essence of what I can only describe as Elven magic. "

The four Sisters exchanged looks. The Druids.

"Seleste, yours is wholly mortal, the vague idea I can sense, that is. A feel of protection over mortals."

" Remarkable ," Seleste whispered as Arielle squeezed her eyes shut in thought.

"Sorscha, yours is harder to decipher. It feels wounded. Almost like it's…wounded witches? No, not quite witches…"

"Mages." Sorscha's voice was hardly above a whisper.

"Yes, that could be it!" She moved to the Autumnal journal. "And Agatha, yours is undoubtedly witches and warlocks."

Agatha looked to each of her Sisters, one by one. "The exact groups we have each found ourselves protecting, joining, loving."

"The Four Factions of The Order," Seleste breathed.

"This is riveting," Winnie said, failing to mask how riveting she did actually find it, "but I do need to get back to the troupe. Is there anything else we need to know?"

Arielle pulled her hands back. "I feel there is more, but it's not clear."

Winnie nodded, stepping to give each of her Sisters a peck on either cheek. "I need to be going, then."

"Before you do," Aggie stopped her, "I need you to be present for that favour from Arielle." The Sisters looked at her expectantly. "Chresedia syphoned a great deal of our magic when she attacked us at Winnie's manor in the Winter," she explained to Arielle. "Winnie is quite gifted in healing magic, but"—she looked between them—"I'm not certain we're completely restored, considering we continuously have to use our magic. Grimm said you were instrumental in healing him?—"

"Say no more." Arielle grinned. "I do not heal, as I have told that pig-headed husband of yours multiple times, but I can do what I call knit . I find the threads of health, in your case magic, and knit them together again, soothing them in the process."

"Sounds excellent to me." Sorscha laid herself out on the table. "What now?"

"None of your dramatics," Winnie sighed. "That's for certain."

"Actually, lying down might help," Arielle said.

They each took turns lying flat next to their mother's journals as Arielle set a hand on their abdomen in much the same way Winnie had to heal them. When it was Seleste's turn, she was pleasantly surprised to feel the warmth of her magic knitting back together, restored.

Arielle turned perplexed as Aggie lay there, the last of them to do so. "I've never sensed anything like your magic… These must be the pieces that you carry of Lady Magic. This—this is incredible. Toward the bottom of your well, there is almost a—a kernel. It matches your magic and all other magic I've sensed to some degree, but it's different. Other. More powerful and…aboriginal. That's the best way I can say it. It feels aboriginal."

"Primordial," Winnie said softly, and Seleste inwardly agreed.

When Arielle's hands left Aggie's abdomen, she sat up, a bit dazed and pale. "Thank you," she mumbled, mind ages away.

They said their goodbyes, claiming to meet again for supper before leaving on their separate missions. Before Arielle could leave, Seleste called her back. "Do you do this for the mages here in the healing abbey?"

Arielle's chin dropped, a rare timidity. "No."

"You should. There is clearly much more to being a Death Seer than the dark and dreary. Promise me you will speak to Asa and Lena about your gift."

The young Death Seer's lips curved up. "I promise."