Thea

We gave Lilith a bit of a head start to the keep so that she could get into position before we got there. Which was fine, because there was something pretty important that I had been putting off talking to Bryce about. Mostly because I was weirdly embarrassed by it, but if I didn’t do it soon, then it could potentially be just a little bit, incredibly life-threatening.

“Hey, babe, I’ve been meaning to ask you something…” I trailed off, not quite sure how to phrase the question. That seemed to confuse Bryce, which was fair, since we were both usually pretty good at just asking questions when we weren’t sure about stuff. Especially after the whole ‘marriage incident’ back on Drassun.

“Sure, what’s going on?” she sounded hesitant, and that made me feel a little guilty. Because it really wasn’t as big of a deal as I was making it out to be.

“It’s nothing really, just now that you’ve rebuilt my everything. How much of your mana can I use without, like, dying?”

Bryce blinked at me a few times and started to answer, but then frowned. “I don’t actually know. How are you feeling right now?”

“Fine. More than fine, actually, which is kind of what I’m worried about. I can’t even feel your mana anymore.” After Bryce fixed my mana core or replaced it? I still wasn’t exactly sure what she had done, but after she did it, we agreed to keep the pact at twenty percent just to be safe. The problem was that I didn’t think twenty percent was going to cut it against Aris, and I didn’t exactly want a repeat of the battle with Orrid. Well, actually, I wouldn’t mind stabbing Orrid again, but the nearly dying part wasn’t exactly fun.

“That’s either a really big problem or a very good sign. You’re still getting empowered by it right?” I nodded and Bryce stayed lost in thought for a moment before she explained. “Either rebuilding your meridians with my own mana has caused you to become numb, or inoculated to it. If you’re just numb to it, then that’s a problem because now you don’t even have a core to act as buffer, which means any damage caused by excess mana will happen directly to your soul.”

“Okay, so that’s bad, but what about the other thing?”

“You have to understand that the position we’re in is entirely unprecedented. We don’t know anything for sure, and the downside here is permanent damage to your soul.” Bryce seemed hesitant to continue, but eventually did. “With that being said, it’s possible that since I rebuilt your mana network using my own mana, there’s no upper limit to the amount you can accept.”

My jaw dropped. “Wait, seriously? Babe, that’s huge.”

“Thea, listen to me.” Bryce got deadly serious, and I straightened up to listen to her. “It’s only a theory. If it’s wrong, you’ll die and I won’t be able to do anything about it this time.”

“Okay, so don’t go that high unless it’s an emergency, but that brings me back to my original question. How much can I actually use?”

“For my sake, only go all out if it seems like you’re going to die anyway. If you end up killing yourself to save me, I’ll never forgive myself.” Bryce gave me a pleading look, and I reluctantly nodded. I couldn’t imagine what she had gone through when she thought her mana had killed me, but at the same time I had no intention of letting her die if I could stop it, even if it would cost me my life. “Let’s go to thirty-five percent for now. It was pushing your limits the last time you were at that amount, and it should work for a good baseline comparison until we can see if there’s any damage happening.”

I mentally requested to go up to thirty-five percent and Bryce accepted it. The obvious boost in power came, but the nausea that usually accompanied it was nowhere to be found. I stretched each of my muscles before turning back with a smile. “I think we’ve probably given Lilith enough of a head start by now. If there are any fancy spells you want to cast before we meet Aris, now is probably the time to do it.”

“Right, here goes nothing.” Bryce nodded and started casting.

~~~~~

We were still about a half-hour walk from the massive castle, which we made longer so that we didn’t accidentally overtake Lilith. Which turned out to be entirely pointless, because she was standing in the open near the gate by the time we arrived.

“So much for stealth, I guess,” I half-joked as we approached, but the look on Lilith’s face had me concerned. “Is everything okay?”

“Aris is in the central courtyard with Persephone, and as best I can tell she’s still alive, but Thea…” The way she trailed off caused a chill to run down my spine.

“What is it?” My voice felt small as I asked, and Lilith continued reluctantly.

“Aris wasn’t performing the ritual alone. I didn’t recognize the other three, but they’re clearly your siblings.”

“That’s not exactly unexpected. It just gives us more of a reason to talk things out instead of fighting, right?” I looked to Bryce, and she just nodded slowly. It was obvious that neither of them thought talking was going to be an option. “It’s the same plan, okay? Just let me talk to them and I’ll convince them to stop.”

“Alright, same plan,” Bryce agreed before turning to Lilith. “Stick to the shadows, but be ready to intervene if it looks like things are going to get violent. If it does come to a fight, then Thea and I will handle the other three while you focus on Aris. Subdue him if you can, but don’t hold back.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go.” I walked past Lilith before she could object. She said something to Bryce, but I ignored her as I continued to walk through the gate. I didn’t exactly know how to get to the central courtyard, but I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to find if I just looked for the middle of everything.

“Thea, it’s this way.” Bryce called from the door opposite the one I chose.

“Right, I knew that.” I followed her the rest of the way through the winding black-stone corridors in silence, and after a few minutes, we could hear chanting coming from the other side of an oversized door.

“Are you ready?”

“I think so.” I nodded before adding. “If I start sounding like an idiot, you’ll step in, right?”

“Of course, but you’ve got this. If you can’t convince them, then nobody can.” Bryce gave me a smile and a thumbs up, which made me laugh.

“Alright, here goes nothing.” I stood on my tip-toes to kiss her before pushing my way through the door. The courtyard was actually surprisingly nice, or probably had been like a million years ago. Now, there were a pair of bricked paths that were lined with dead shrubs and intersected in the center of the courtyard along with elaborate flowerbeds sitting empty in the four corners. Then in the center of it all stood four familiar people with pitch black eyes, all wearing worn white robes, and all chanting around a still-unconscious Stephy.

Suriel was standing on the far side. He looked a bit worse for wear, and his blond hair had grown down past his ears, but I’d recognize his boyish face anywhere. To his right, my left, was Leila, as immaculate as ever.

Then, standing across from Leila, was her twin, Aurora. As inseparable as the two always were, they couldn’t have been more different. While Leila’s hair was long enough to touch her ass, Aurora had cut hers even shorter than mine and styled it to look like she had just gotten out of bed. It was a look I knew she went out of her way to maintain.

Finally, standing with his back towards me and the door, was Aris. He was the oldest of all of us, and the picture perfect good-boy type. His hair was always kept perfectly trimmed, with never a strand out of place, no matter how hard I tried to mess it up.

Suriel was the first to notice me approach, and Aurora noticed him notice, which meant she was the second to see me. Neither of them stopped chanting, even as I waved. “Hey guys! It’s been a bit.”

They didn’t even stop after I walked into the middle of everything. Aris even started to glare at me, which brought back plenty of wonderful memories. “Do you think you could take a quick break for a second? I was hoping to talk to you about this whole summoning dad thing, and how it’s actually a really terrible idea that will get us all killed.”

There were a few shared looks of concern at that, but again, nobody stopped. I was starting to get annoyed, so I walked up to Aris and poked him in his stupid rock solid abs. “Seriously, stop. This is a super bad idea, and you’ve already made a bunch of really important people angry.”

The chanting continued, and I moved past the point of being annoyed. “Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

I started channelling mana to my hand to create a condensed ball of fire. Aris just raised an eyebrow at me as I continued to pack more and more mana into it. I kept going until it started to feel like the ball was going to explode in my hand. Then I walked over by Suriel and tapped him on the shoulder. “Here, watch this.”

I pitched the ball of fire right at Aris’s stupid face and it exploded squarely on his overly square jaw. The force of the explosion knocked him back past where Bryce was standing, through the door, and into the castle proper. I doubled over in laughter and the chanting finally stopped as my three other siblings just stared at me, dumbstruck.

“Thea, what in the nine hells? Why are you even here?” Aurora asked, and Leila scoffed.

“She’s here to ruin everything, just like she always does. You can’t honestly tell me that you’re surprised by any of this.”

“It’s good to see you too, Leila.” I rolled my eyes at her before turning back towards Aurora. “I’m here to stop you guys from making a huge mistake. Malvoch has been manipulating Aris since the beginning in order to… start a war, or something. I’m not actually sure about that part, but I do know that if you bring dad back, he won’t be the same. He’s been corrupted by whatever killed him, and he’ll kill all of us just to spread that corruption.”

“Are you sure, Thea?” Suriel asked.

“I’m sure. We talked to Malvoch and forced him to explain his plan using his true name. He’s just trying to use all of us because he doesn’t like how Orrid is running things.”

There were a few exchanged glances at my explanation, and it seemed like they were listening until a literal growl came from behind me.

“Salinthea, you’ve gone too far this time,” Aris said his signature catchphrase as he stomped towards me. He was clearly more angry than usual, and I tried to explain myself, but he charged the last half of the distance to lift me into the air with his hand around my throat.

“A-Aris, it’s good to see you, too.” I struggled to speak as I felt his nails turn to talons and push against sides of my neck. He was seriously trying to kill me.

“Aris, wait, the ritual is already ruined. We should at least hear her out.” Suriel stepped forward and tried to push down the arm that was holding me into the air, but it didn’t budge.

“No, not this time.” Aris spat out his refusal and his grip tightened. “I’m tired of little Salinthea always getting a pass just because she’s the favorite. Well, guess what? Dad isn’t here to protect you anymore.”

I gasped for air as I was dropped to the ground, holding Aris’s disembodied wrist. The look of surprise on his face as Lilith appeared almost made the whole ordeal worth it.

“I’m sorry, Thea, but it felt like it was time for me to step in.” I nodded dumbly as Lilith jumped back to dodge a wave of fire that was shot from Aurora’s open palm, while Aris continued to stare at his missing hand.

“Who was that? Why isn’t Aris healing?” Leila asked in a panic.

“That was Lilith, the head of Thea’s household in Hel.” Suriel took a step back from the fight as he looked around frantically. “Please, everybody, just calm down. We don’t don’t need to fight.”

“Lilith, huh?” Aris extended the talons in his left hand to slash through his own arm just above the missing wrist. Moments later, there was a brilliant flash of golden flames and his arm was whole again. “You three restrain Thea. I’ll deal with her when I’m done with the demon. And Suriel, if you don’t help, then you’ll be next.”

Aurora and Leila immediately turned in my direction as Aris walked away, but Suriel was obviously hesitating.

“Please, Aris is going to kill me if you let him.” I scrambled to my feet as the twins dropped into a fighting stance and Suriel backed away. “You have to know something is wrong with him.”

Aurora looked genuinely apologetic. “Sorry Thea. Even if there is something wrong with him, he’s the only link we have to getting dad back. Besides, if Aris does kill you, then dad can just resurrect you. So, it’ll be fine.”

I was about to argue with Aurora when Leila charged forward with her talons extended. It was surprisingly easy to dodge out of the way, and I even managed to trip her as she went past.

“Get Stephy and get out of here. I can handle them on my own.” I looked towards the back of the courtyard, where Bryce had just started casting a spell to see her stop and nod.

“Alright, just please be careful.” She darted forward to grab Stephy, and I stepped in between her and Aurora.

“It’s not going to make any difference.” Aurora shook her head and gave me a pitying look. “You can’t take both of us, and Aris is going to kill Lilith. Then we’ll just hunt down the elf to get her back. She won’t make it far.”

“She only needs to make it far enough that she won’t get caught up in the fighting.” I watched Aurora as she circled me to meet up with Leila. “Are you sure you won’t listen to reason? Ash said she found a way to make things work without dad. We can all just go to the mortal plane and be one big, happy family.”

“Ashaiya? She left us all to rot down here. She doesn’t care about us.” Leila scoffed as she straightened out her robes. “No. The only way we could be together again, the only way we can be happy again, is with dad back, and you’re the only thing standing in the way of that.”

She punctuated her point by darting forward, this time with Aurora attacking at the same time from a slightly different direction. I created two of my illusion clones standing right on top of where I was and dodged out of the way of both attacks. Meanwhile, my clones grabbed each of the twins by their wrist and wrestled them to the ground.

My sisters were left struggling and cursing on the ground as I turned to Suriel with a sigh. “Are you going to fight me too, or can I go help Lilith now?”

“I, uh… did you mean what you said about Ashaiya? Did she really find a way to make things work without dad?”

I nodded and smiled. “Some of the details are a bit fishy, and she could definitely use some help right now, but she seemed to have things mostly together.”

“Yeah, alright, what do you want me to do?” Suriel ignored the curses and cries of betrayal coming from the twins as he took a step towards me.

“Go find Bryce and keep her safe.” He nodded and started to jog after Bryce when I thought of one last thing. “Oh! Make sure you don’t let her kill you. She’s probably a bit on edge right now.” Suriel paused to give me a worried look. “Actually, I’ll just send her a message. It’ll be fine. Probably.”

“It’s good to know some things never change.” He muttered under his breath as he started carefully walking towards the same door. I shrugged before sending Bryce a message to let her know Suriel was coming and that she’d probably need to babysit him.

She sent a confirmation along with another request for me to be careful. So, I of course, sent a picture of me lying naked on our bed with the caption ‘I always use protection’ before closing out of the feed and turning back to deal with the twins.