They weren't going to get it.
Tor knew that with a certainty he hadn't felt about anything in a long time.
“In two days we head to Austra.”
From there on to the summit of the Ancients. Because, no doubt, that was going to be fun. Tor didn't shake his head. Really he couldn't. It was too heavy at the moment and Daria Serge whispered in his ear, distracting him from his own thoughts. He could feel the hot, fetid breath against the side of his face. It stank of rot already, even though the girls head was supposed to be frozen, waiting for them to come and check on.
“Ask yourself this Tor, who do you think is trying to kill you? Someone clearly is. It isn’t me or daddy either…” She intoned, a sound that was heard by the ear, but not a real sound at all. Just a projection of his own mind.
He didn't know. Who'd bother?
That got a laugh when he thought it. Several. Box added his voice to the noise as well. It was an odd thing, considering and almost friendly. Then the man didn’t have a lot of reason to be mad at him for the killing. Not like the others.
“Who? Have you looked around lately Tor? Half your “friends” would probably sell you out for a box of gold, or even just the knowledge that you won't be bothering them come next Noram day. Every Ancient might be against you for reasons you can’t begin to imagine, and even your own family might just do it, just to keep you out of the way. You tend to meddle you know. It's annoying. Thanks for killing me and not letting them force Debbie though. That was good, but it proves the point, doesn’t it? You poke into things you shouldn’t. Oh, you have good reasons, sure, but it still makes people angry. More than you know. To a lot of people you just go from place to place pushing everyone else around and showing off. Magic castles and giving out magic and golds as if they were free. There is such a thing as being too nice you know. People are selfish and petty and when you don’t show them you are too, they’ll change the meaning behind what you do to make it seem like that. They can’t live with themselves otherwise.”
Tor blinked.
Not because the voices were being mean, that was kind of expected and he got the idea. Really, they were being nicer than he’d thought they would, Except Baron Rochester, who he just ignored. Even dead the man was an ass, just standing in the background and making threats, calling names and generally spewing hate.
It was just that he wasn't totally sure they were wrong.
That… wasn't a good thing.
Not at all.
Because in less than ten days, Tor was going to be standing with all the Ancients in the world, and really, if anyone was plotting against him in secret like he suspected, if he hadn’t just gone insane from all the death he’d created, he’d probably find the answer there.
The sad thing though, he knew without having to really consider it, was that he very well might have actually gone insane.
Daria laughed in his ear again.
“Might have?” She said, her voice fading away. Then, one by one all the other ghosts did too.
The stench of death didn’t though. This wasn’t really over, he knew. In fact, he wasn’t sure, but it wouldn’t surprise him to find out it had only just begun.