“I don’t resent him,” Ty said. “But-”
He couldn’t seem to finish the sentence.
“You can’t resent someone for something that you don’t recall,” Tiff said. “Knowing Blake, admittedly not that well, I don’t think it was mean spirited.”
“It was selfish,” I said.
“And it happened,” Ty said. “Alexis is dead.”
All at once, I was back atop the ruined pillar. The Others were clawing their way up, the Barber’s minions, the fleshless bird, the lost souls, the broken crab-walking wretches…
I could see it all as though I were there again.
My focus was on the fight in front of me, trying to find an avenue I could use to attack. I was injured, my chest in ruins, and the group was at the corner of the pillar, Barber to one side, the mob to the other. The Timeless Knight was on the approach.
Then, as if someone else were taking control of a camera, moving it away from the scene, I could see Alexis, off to one side. Surrounded.
She screamed, and the noise was drowned out by a toll of the bell.
Others, including the feathers and talons that had been cut away from the skinned raven-man, were closing in, doing as much damage to each other as they were doing to her.
I saw the scene from Alexis’ perspective. Looking over at the others. Looking up at me.
She screamed something, the view distorting with each word.
Then, just before the Others could get her, she slipped beneath the railing, holding onto the edge, climbing down. Clearly intent on climbing across the underside, to get under the stairway that was so burdened with Others.
Except there were more Others beneath, climbing up.
My head turned, taking in the scene, but even though Alexis could see me between the slats of stairs, I couldn’t make her out through the jumble of bodies. All I might have seen, had I been given the time and perhaps a bit more light, were her fingers, clutching the slab of wood of the stairs.
She was scratched, and she made a call.
She dropped. One floor down, to the next set of stairs.
A bad landing, a tumble, taking several Others down with her, landing in a heap. Her limbs were bent in odd ways.
The image lingered on her, making sure I knew. Her eye was open, a glimmer visible from a distant candle. It didn’t blink, even as seconds passed.
The vision faded, clearing away.
But even though the vision faded, Alexis remained. Shrouded in the darkness at the edge of the little glade here, her eyes glittering as if from candles that weren’t here.
“I can’t make a call,” Rose said. “I’m biased on too many fronts.”
“I suppose the question,” Alister said, “Is whether one death and two lives cast into chaos is worth demanding this fate from him. That’s really for you two to decide.”
Alexis hunched over, and I saw another little flame join the lights that danced in her eyes. A lighter.
Cigarette lit, she straightened. She saw me looking, and raised one hand in a wave. Her arm was broken.
A ghost?
An Other?
“I invited them to this world, I’m responsible for them,” I said. I watched as Alexis moved through the shadows, a little further back from the rest.
“I’ll amend my statement,” Alister said. “It’s for you three to decide, between you.”
“If it spares them-” I started.
Green Eyes clutched my wrist tighter.
“No,” Ty said. “I can’t ask him to do that. I shouldn’t have even brought it up. I’m just-”
“Tired,” Rose said.
“Yeah,” Tiff said. “I don’t want to do this like this.”
They were too nice. Too good.
“Two out of three say nay,” Alister said. “Bringing us right back to square one.”
Alexis, continuing her circuit around the clearing, stopped by the throne.
She stayed behind it.
Taunting me? I wondered. Or is it offering something else in the bargain? A fresh Hyena, a locket, and now an Alexis?
“If you have any last wishes, things you want us to resolve on your behalf,” the High Priest said.
“I already promised that,” Rose said.
“Why does it feel like you’re more on his side than ours?” the other Behaim asked.
“Because I’m tired of taking sides,” Rose said. “So long as everyone takes sides, the scales will inevitably wind up tipping, and we suffer for it.”
“Rose,” the High Priest said, and his tone was grave. “What choice do you think we have? We need out, and I’m not hearing answers. You’re only working to convince yourselves that it’s too inhumane to make a fragment of a human being sacrifice himself.”
“We could choose to stay,” Rose said. “It’s not a very good choice, but it’s a choice.”
“You’re testing me,” he said.
“A little,” Rose said. “This is actually my first visit to the Abyss. I’m not sure my head is on straight, right now, and a part of me feels a little insecure about how everyone else is doing. I might be testing you a bit to see if you’re responding rationally.”
“Do you know who thinks they’re being rational?” Evan asked. “The Angel. You know, the dog that’s waiting for us out there.”
“Dog?” Green Eyes looked at us. She flipped over, so her chin was on the armrest. “I didn’t see it.”
It’s gone?
“That gives us hope that getting past this means we won’t get blocked by the angel,” Alister said. He managed a smile. “We only have to figure this out. Does Blake take a seat, or do we stay here forever?”
The noise in my head was unbearable, but looking at Alexis gave me some relief on that front.
On the other hand, it made me feel so guilty I felt like I might go to pieces over it. Whether I turned to the monster or the human, I was being assaulted, pushed into a corner.
“We trick the Abyss,” Rose suggested. “Abandon the question, take a third path.”
“I’ll remind you,” I said. “It’s here, it’s watching, it’s listening, and it isn’t stupid.”
“Mmm,” she said. “Then… can we make a deal?”
“Saying that so soon after saying you want to mislead it,” Green Eyes commented. She was looking at Rose, and her eyes were narrow. Slits in the gloom.
“Not helping,” I said.
“I swear I’ll approach this deal with honest intentions,” Rose declared. “Blake received the passion to strive for a future, I received the ability, but no passion, no drive, and no goal. I have only an arranged marriage while you have my fiancé‘s engagement ring, and a future rife with conflict and chaos, due to me by my bloodline’s karma. Now… I’m staking the open nature of my future on this deal. If I’m dishonest in this bargain, I give the Abyss the right to claim my future, in addition to any and all other costs I pay.”
“I’m not sure I agree with this,” Alister said.
“Would you rather we get married and live out our lives here?” Rose asked. “Or are you going to say that Blake should give up his existence because he’s only a fragment of a person?”
“Wouldn’t dare,” Alister said. “I know you’re a fragment too, if a more substantial, prettier one. But while I’m commenting one way or another, I have to wonder if the pair of you being in agreement isn’t just as disastrous as the two of you at odds.”