Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Five: ‘O, disgruntled lord...’

The Hun’Sho didn’t seem to appreciate him stomping through Himmekel, but Zeff was far beyond the point of catering to their sensitivities.

When Axiolis had told him that everyone else’s souls had simply vanished into thin air, the Lord Elroy had not been pleased. His time spent trying to get Carver’s damn EWE to work had been frustrating enough, but now this?

He honestly wasn’t sure what he would do if he discovered that these molten bastards had done something to Hector and the others.

Zeff and Axiolis visited the last place where Axiolis had sensed them, which turned out to be some kind of empty moat around a stone monument. But without any idea of what to look for or visible traces of where they might have gone, Zeff soon started consulting the Hun’Sho for information.

At first, he’d been polite. Then he’d gotten steadily more assertive.

Now he was angry and looking for Torveis, the Hun’Sho who had spoken to the group the most during their first day in Himmekel.

A different Hun’Sho approached him first, however. It was a physically brighter and larger man, hands held out in front of him as an apparent sign of peaceable intention.

“Please,” the molten man said, “you are scaring my people, Kare’Hyomen.”

Zeff’s expression twitched. ‘What did he just call me?’

‘It’s not an insult,’ said Ax. ‘It’s their name for those from the surface. The same way that Hun’Sho is our name for them.’

And it took concentrated effort, but Zeff tried to steady himself. He had no proof of their guilt. And he knew that treating them like criminals would not aid him in acquiring their assistance.

Willingly, anyway.

“I apologize if I have been causing you alarm,” said Zeff with a stiff jaw, noticing that more Hun’Sho were gathering around them. “But my kin are missing, and I must find them as soon as possible. Can you help me?”

“I will do all I can. My name is Lemoros. Might I ask yours?”

“Zeff.”

“Then, Zeff, let us go somewhere more private and speak there.”

“Let us not. Let us speak right here, right now.”

That was obviously not what Lemoros wanted to hear, and the Hun’Sho man looked around at the open street and increasing amount of onlookers.

Zeff just tried not to feel like they were gathering around to lynch him. “If you have any idea where they might have gone, please stop wasting my time and tell me.” Then, more loudly, he addressed the crowd “That goes for all of you. If you have anything to tell me, anything that might help me find my kin, then do so now, and I will leave you alone.”

‘Please,’ Ax added, ‘we are very worried about them. They are as precious to us as I am sure all of you are to one another.’

Someone laughed.

Zeff’s attention was drawn instantly. “Who was that?” he said. The voice had come from his left. He knew that much and took a step toward it. “Who laughed just now?”

Dead silence.

“Who laughed?!” he growled, no longer in control of his anger.

“Please, Mr. Zeff--” tried Lemoros.

“Step forward now or be hunted down!” said Zeff, taking another step.

The crowd was perfectly still now. Beings of magma, frozen. Not even daring to look at one another, apparently. And why weren’t they? Weren’t they confused? He couldn’t read Hun’Sho expressions and so didn’t know if they were frightened, but surely, they should have looking around at one another in confusion, no?

Was it because none of them were confused? Was it because they all knew exactly what was happening here?

One of the Hun’Sho to Zeff’s right stepped forward. “Please calm yourself, Mr. Zeff.”

Zeff recognized the voice but not the face, as they all looked more or less the same to him. “Torveis?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me what is happening here,” said Zeff, able to steady his voice somewhat. “Where are my people, Torveis?”

“Mr. Zeff, you ask more than you realize...”

Zeff didn’t know what that meant, and he didn’t care, either. “I ask only what is necessary. If you cannot help me, then stand aside.”

Torveis stepped closer and reached out to him.

A wall of soul-strengthened ice shot up between them. “BACK. AWAY.”

Torveis did. A chorus of mumbles and whispers rose from the onlookers.

Zeff refocused on the direction that the laugh had originated from. “One of you will answer my questions.”

And again, there was silence.

Fine, then.

‘Hold on, Ax,” said Zeff.

The reaper latched onto his back without hesitating.

Zeff picked the first Hun’Sho in front of him and walked forward. He coated his own hand in a gauntlet of ice and grabbed the man by the molten neck. “Allow me to ask again. Where are my--?”

Someone in the back row started running away.

Zeff released his chosen Hun’Sho and launched himself over the crowd on a platform of hissing ice. The runner didn’t get far. Zeff landed on him and pinned him to the ground with both bare hands and ice alike.

“Where were you going?” he said, much calmer now that he had his target within his grasp.

The other Hun’Sho were yelling something now, but Zeff wasn’t listening. He materialized a dome around himself and his captive.

“S-stop!” the Hun’Sho man said. “I know nothing!”

“Tell me what you do know, then. Why did you laugh at us?”

“I--! I wasn’t--! I know nothing!”

Zeff tightened his grip on the back of the man’s neck.

‘You should dig into his chest and go for his core,’ advised Ax privately. ‘His heart, in other words.’

Zeff paused at that. ‘He won’t be useful if he is dead, Ax.’

‘He will not die unless you destroy his core. These people are very durable.’

That was good enough for Zeff. He ripped into the Hun’Sho man’s back with a blade of ice and started rifling around.

“Ah! Stop! Don’t do that! I know nothing that you--!”

Zeff’s hand found a very warm sphere, and he knew it was what was he looking for when the Hun’Sho man released an inhuman scream as soon as Zeff had touched it.

“Answer my questions.”

“The elders! They have been lying to the rest of us! That is all I know!”

Well, that was new, at least. “Who are these elders?”

“Ah--oh! Lemoros and Torveis are elders! And Arsok! And Meigast! Hermeios! And--!”

“That is good enough.” Zeff stood and released him.

The Hun’Sho outside the dome were just standing there, watching. Not trying to break in and rescue their friend, as Zeff might have assumed. They started backing away when they saw Zeff looking over them again.

He annihilated the dome and watched the majority of them scatter.

‘Which one’s Torveis?’ he asked.

‘Straight ahead of you, not moving,’ said Ax privately.

Zeff saw him. He appreciated that the man wasn’t making him chase him down, at least. “Explain yourself, ‘Elder’ Torveis.”

Torveis sighed but stood his ground as Zeff approached. “We are a peaceful people. Why must you resort to violence?”

“Why must you lie to my face?”

“You do not understand.”

“I know. That is what I am trying to correct.”

Torveis shut his eyes, though the glow still shown through a little. “We would have been happy to explain, if you had simply allowed us privacy, first. This is a sensitive matter, one we wish the children not to overhear.”

And in spite of his bristling emotions, Zeff could understand that much, at least. “You have my apologies, then.” He could only manage to sound half-sincere, though.

Torveis sighed again. “We are prisoners in this place. And our keeper, Seyos, is ever watchful. Even now, he may be listening. However, as I am still standing here, perhaps he is not.”

Zeff just kept listening.

“Seyos wields tremendous power, and we are at his mercy. But that is not enough for him. He often gives us tasks to complete for him. He transports us to distant locations--sometimes with him, sometimes not--and forces us to aid him in collecting valuables. By now, it must be an absurd volume, but I do not know where he keeps it all or to what end he means to utilize it. I imagine, however, that wherever it is, you will find your kin there.”

Zeff was silent as he processed all of this information.

‘You have no idea how we can get there?’ said Ax, still attached to Zeff’s back.

“I know that Seyos can see and travel through every mirror in Himmekel, but I do not think he is limited to that. I think it is merely the most convenient for him.”

“None of this explains why that Hun’Sho man laughed at us,” said Zeff.

Torveis hesitated and looked around. The black street had emptied, and only the tall Lemoros had remained by Torveis’ side. The two elder Hun’Sho exchanged nods.

“The children do not know of Seyos,” said Torveis. “And in recent years... Seyos has stopped giving tasks to the elders. He has been giving them to the children. And... they have not been returning.”

Zeff’s eyes widened.

‘Your children have been disappearing?’ said Ax.

Lemoros interjected. “We do not truly know that he has been giving them the same manner of tasks that he had been giving us. We have only been assuming that, as it seemed the most obvious explanation. But... as not even one of them has returned, I have begun to suspect that Seyos is doing something else with them.”