At the shop’s attic room she slept alone on a loft bed that was propped next to a large floor-to-ceiling glass window. From it spilled beams of bluish-white light that came from thousands of glowing crystals ensconced on the cave walls outside.

Before retiring to bed, she asked Na’reem to see where her husband had gone.

Husband. It was still odd to think about. Like it didn’t fit.

Apparently, he was at a far-off lake deeper underground where he was meditating, restoring power. She remembered how adamant he was in returning back. For someone like her who is used to being treated like an outsider, she failed to consider what it must be like for Maksim who isn’t anything like her. Right now more than else, she wished she could go to him, sit with him to talk without getting affected by his otherworldly presence. This was new alien territory, and they both needed to be careful.

Even now, sleep eluded her. Fears and insecurities rising up from the fore, left alone to stew on her actions and what it could mean going from here.

The men and women gambling at the basement had left for their homes. And not surprisingly, the whole box crate of peppers weren’t doing so well in her stomach.

Once she rose up to her elbow and pulled her blankets off, her heart missed a beat. Then two beats then it skipped three beats.

She released a shaky breath. A sliver of cold tendrils snaked up her spine, the chill of the night deepening.

She began wracking in shivers, goosebumps flaring up like raised hackles. In a release of tension, she fell back to her bed with a thud followed by an immediate fall of consciousness. Behind closed lids, her head felt like it was a swirling mass of rotation after rotation. There was a rush of whistling wind pressing against her ears and her body felt light as air.

Then suddenly, the feeling was gone. Gravity centered in her the moment she fell headfirst on a marble floor, its surface cold to the touch.

Trying to get her bearings off the floor, she rose up to her knees and found the familiar sight of an empty throne room wrapped in blue shadows under moonlight greeted her. The towering pillars lining down the path looked cracked, on the verge of breaking apart.

“Holden?” She called hesitantly in a quiet murmur.

“Quiet.” A disembodied voice hushed under his breath as shadows encasing the towering throne room began flickering like it had a life on its own. “You will agitate them. Less noise.”

She swallowed as she pushed to her feet and followed the direction of his voice. Carefully, she made her way upstairs to the top of the dais.

There he was.

Holden in his garish outfit with puffy sweater sleeves and jeweled rings. He gestured to her to come sit on his lap, and upon stepping closer she stopped short. His features had grown sunken with fine sharpening cheekbones and hollowed bruises under his eyes.

“They say the dark majesty holds three curses.” She said, noting the changed details of his appearance.

“That isn’t me.” he rasped. Even his voice sounded worn-out and weary.

“Changed your mind about it, then?” Perching atop his lap with no discernible grace.

His arms wounded around her, the fabric of his peach sweater rustling in the movement.

“Sorry, am I too heavy?” She asked in alarm, the guy was two sizes smaller than the last time they met with more protruding bones than muscle.

“No.” He clipped, the rasp of his voice a surprising boom that created echoes through the halls. He wrapped around at the waist, pulling her closer to a tighter embrace. His nose skimming along her jawline, pressing his face against her neck he inhaled deeply and sighed. “Bring me home, River. You took my curse. Now bring me home.”

Shadows came flickering alive, dancing on the walls with predatory grace. At the end of the halls, she spied a grand entrance door consumed with inky black darkness that seemed to swell from the other side. Fat tendrils of its shadows wriggled on the cracks, bulging with a slow heartbeat as if it had a life on its own.

Fuck.

Dr. Malia mentioned something like this happening in dreams. A big terrifying abyss seeking out to consume a soul.

Waves of discomfort pooled beneath her stomach. It felt like standing on a precipice before a high jump. She reminded herself that she can be foolish and dive straight in, but she was getting the wild idea that this wasn’t her dream. Nightmares in terrible darkness were trials she had long overcome from a young age but a heartrending shaking sob vibrated across the skin of her neck, his face buried there.

She twisted to fully face Holden, cupping his cheek with a palm and said softly “That’s right. I took your curse away.” Tracing her thumb over his cheekbone, “What has gotten into you?”

He leaned into her touch, resting his cheek over her palm. Flitting glance to the door then back to hers, he muttered in a rugged whisper “The three curses. Three curses are coming for me. I’ve been staying in here, keeping them out but they’re breaking in, River. Help me. Venemundo.”

She took a moment to take in the throne room with bigger jagged cracks, and crumbling pillars. “Are you sure it’s the three curses?”

He nodded in a rush, raising a jeweled finger after jeweled finger. Opal. Diamond. Amethyst. “Excruciating curse from sun tribe. Their corruption brings immense pain at all hours with no limits. Even here I can feel the pain reaching for me, and it’s indescribable at this point. I can’t imagine how it would be if it’s inside me. How a sun prince could sleep with a pain like this I don’t want to know. Then there’s the Rusiota curse,” his breathing coming in at a shallow rate. “From the god tribe. Whispers of madness beyond that door. It speaks billions of untold, unkempt ideas and I can almost feel it stealing my willpower, River. I can’t have compulsions. It weakens my strength. I’m dark tribe, we hold up the earth, not break it. They’re telling me to break it. By Brumcia, they’re telling me to break it.”

“Look at me, Holden.” She cupped both his cheeks. “I’m here with you. What’s the god tribe curse like?”

He swallowed hard. “Unnameable. It can’t be.. read. I can’t get a feel on it but it’s there I know it’s there!”

“Damn, that’s fucked up. Do you have any idea how to stop it?”

He shook his head. “Back in my universe, mentions of god tribe is forbidden. It mustn’t be brought up since it’d be in poor taste. I barely know anything substantial about them.”

“There are god tribespeople in the wildlands at the united settlement. I can ask them for you, they seem to know everything.”

He grabbed for her wrists, “United settlement at the wildlands? River leave there right now the place is crawling with eternal beasts and you can’t ever trust god tribespeople. They make life-altering decisions on whims alone. Whims!”

“It can’t be that bad. I made a deal with them. Both god tribespeople and dark tribespeople alike. They’re eager to help, I’ve just acquired their services. Makes it easier for me too. Lei’la and I were planning to head for the museum library but what better source of information is there than an oracle for the past disguising himself as a former dark tribe gatekeeper turned business owner? It certainly cuts our trip short.”

“You can’t trust god tribespeople.” He gritted. “They’re known to change their minds with no regards to anyone but themselves.”

She narrowed her eyes, “That sounds a lot like racial profiling.”

A pained laugh rumbled from his throat, the sound dripping in irony. “One of the most insane tales I heard ever since coming here is how they corralled Brumcia’s most powerful corruptions to a single lone island surrounded by the ocean bays. It took dark tribespeople to strong arm the goddamned beasts, sun tribespeople to fire up boosts of energy to those hardworkers who had to keep going at it for 24-hours straight. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the scrolls and painting recreations. Tribespeople united and working together. Those from the sun tribe draining out their own spirits to give boosts for dark tribe fighters and snow tribe shepherds without rest. While those from snow tribe parted the ocean waters in suspension for eternal beasts to march through, guess what those from the god tribe did?”

“They guided the beasts to the island?”

“No,” his nose crinkled at her. “That was the work of dark tribe fighters who had to personally wrangle them to that island. Pay attention and listen close. Those from god tribe have powers equal to our gods and goddesses.”

“More than one divinity? More than Brumcia?”

“Yes!” He hissed, holding her hand and interlocking their fingers firmly as he leaned in. “Those fuckers certainly act like one too. Won’t even care what happens to the lives of those who aren’t from god tribe like them. Heck, they don’t even care if one of theirs is weak, they just toss them off.”

“Toss them off to where?”

He swore under his breath, “Nobody really told you about this?”

“What is it?”

“Eternal beasts are gargantuan in sizes. Like the dinosaurs back in your universe. They had to be turned into a manageable size so they can be guided by our dark tribe to that island. Guess whose brilliant idea was it to shorten them up into tiny sizes?”

“My strong guess is the god tribe.”

He nodded. “These beasts are older than our tribal corruption combined. No prince can ever withhold its taint without becoming like them.”

She clutched to his arm, nudging it lightly “What did they do?”

He looked away, shaking his head. “They had to bring it to someone whose soul is near empty, fresh and new so the taint of their corruption will last long enough to march them through their destination.”

“Please don’t mean what I think you mean.”

A dark shroud of gloom swept over his expression. “Newborn children from across all united tribes, those who were too weak, deformed and lacking to survive in this world, they were selected to take in the beasts’ corruption. That’s how they fenced those beasts in the island. Sacrificing their own children.”

River couldn’t help compare it to what she heard back in her own universe. The cost of plague and corruption was innocence. People had to grow up fast and hard. “Is it too much to hope for that this story is metaphorical and not really about little children dying to save millions?”

He remained quiet, gaze lost in his own thoughts. Finally, he murmured. “Bring me home, River. Venemundo.”

“You and Lei’la keep saying that to me, I don’t know what it means.”

“In our first language, it means ‘help’ or ‘sanctuary’. It’s an ancient word to incite the mercy of divinity.”

“I’m no divinity but I always do my best to help with someone who asks.”

“Then bring us home this instant.”

“I’ll help you. But I can’t bring you home just yet. Lei’la asked me to help her, too, and I’m not letting her down.”

The inky tendrils distended from the cracks even further, growing bigger. The entrance doors groaning under immense pressure.

“I don’t have much time, River. I can barely hold them back. We have to do it now. Sing for me.” Roughened hands grabbed her by the throat. “Don’t think I won’t hurt you for it, if you don’t.”

“Hush.” She placed back her palms over his cheeks, cupping them. And he melted into the touch. “This place is too cold. You’ve been staying here for far too long. It’s time to leave. Do you think you can trust me?”

“How can I trust you? You’re weak. Mortal. Just do what I say.”

“The three curses,” he flinched at the mention. Softly, she continued. “Sun tribe curse, god tribe curse, and dark tribe curse, aren’t they?”

“Correct.”

“I’ve banished them all before. And I can do it again.”

“At the same time? Now who’s insane?”

“Hey. I happened to have banished two curses at the same time and brought two princes back from the brink of death, I’ll have you know.”

After a moment, he leaned into her. “What do you suppose I should do then?”

“You’re gonna open them doors and let the curses in.”

He sputtered in disbelief.

“Right after you tell me what your favorite song is back from my universe.”