The Haunting of Guaritori Diolco, Part 36
A Gigantic Surprise
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I knew there were many possible ways for Erebus to react to us. I wasn’t expecting to be condemned by him, but I supposed I should have been, given how many times in the past few months someone had decided that I was destined to destroy the world.
Erebus had surrounded us completely. I knew the feeling of being unable to breathe was just my imagination. Shadows couldn’t smother a person—at least, I hoped they couldn’t.
“None of this is his fault,” said Medea, though that wasn’t completely true, either.
“There is no need for accusations,” said Zeus, though his words sounded more sinister than commanding when filtered through his borrowed Telchine vocal cords. “Many factors led to the current crisis. If you help us contact Tartarus, we may still be able to avert the collapse of this plane.”
“First, the bringer of disaster must be destroyed,” said Erebus. “Only then can we be safe.”
“Despite appearances, I am your king, and I order you not to take action against any of us.”
“Your magic seems somewhat like that of Zeus, but you tried to invoke me by naming yourself the son of Tartarus,” said Erebus. “If you were not telling the truth then, why should I believe that you are telling the truth now?”
“Tartarus’s son is here…and I am here, as well,” said Zeus.
“Even if that were true, have you forgotten that those who rule from Olympus have never really commanded elder powers like me. You may ask, but you may not command. I may refuse—or I may not even answer. That is how it has always been. That is how it will always be.”
I felt pressure building all around me, as if I were in the ocean rather than in darkness, sinking deeper and deeper.
“It is true that my predecessors and I have not commanded you,” said Zeus. “But there was no need to do so. Now, we all face an emergency, as you yourself have said.”
“Your request is denied,” replied Erebus in a tone that sounded more like solid stone than like shadow.
I felt the pressure increasing again and knew that Erebus intended to crush me. But instead of reacting, I froze at first. After all, he surrounded everyone, including Zeus, who had to be preserved—and my son. If I resisted, would he end up crushing them as well?
The others had no such qualms. Zeus flashed lightning, though the light from it had more of an impact than the devastating electricity. Medea surrounded us with sunlight. Iskios, with more determination than sense, tried to wrestle control of the surrounding darkness away from Erebus. The glow around Mateo became actual light.
The surrounding darkness twisted in the face of such opposition—but it didn’t dissipate. Instead, Erebus redoubled his efforts. I struggled for air as the light Zeus and Medea had generated was pushed back toward them. Iskios screamed as Erebus roughly reclaimed his darkness from my impulsive son. The sound of that scream pained me more than my inability to breathe, but I could do nothing to help him. I couldn’t even move.
Then I realized what an idiot I’d been. The Philosopher’s Stone exerted itself to keep me from being crushed, but what I should have done was invoke the lumen naturae from it. After all, Mateo’s light hadn’t receded when faced with Erebus’s pressure. There was every chance that the lumen naturae would be even more resistant.
Pure white light poured out of me, more than enough to cover the others, and Erebus’s darkness twisted away. Against such a gift of the Holy Spirit, it had no way to fight.
Unfortunately, the Philosopher’s Stone, powerful as it was, had only so much energy to give me. It generated nowhere near enough light to banish Erebus from his own realm, and if I had to maintain the lumen naturae for a long period against so much external pressure, the stone would need time to recharge.
As if sensing the stone’s limitations, Erebus laughed, a sound like wind thrashing through tree branches at midnight. “If you insist on resisting me, so be it. I can play such games far longer than you can. Meanwhile, you will be my prisoners.”
“I cannot open a portal,” said Medea. “We are trapped.”
“Perhaps not,” said Iskios. “Father, is there a way you can shape the light, drive Erebus back in a way that would allow us to reach the pathway up into the Underworld.”
“I’ve never really tried that,” I said, simultaneously wanting to help but fearing I’d fail.
“I can help,” said Mateo. “The stone is sensitive to prayer.”
“I can tell you which direction to move,” said Zeus, pointing with a scaly finger at the way we needed to go.
I wasn’t sure if it was Mateo’s prayers, my own willpower, or more likely, a combination of both, but we managed to start moving in the direction we needed to go, constantly shifting positions to keep ourselves within the slowly rolling ball of lumen naturae. I could sense Erebus watching us, but he didn’t say anything. Had he already changed his mind about trying to kill me?
That question was answered when we reached the spot where the pathway to the Underworld had been. It was gone.
“Impossible!” said Zeus.
“Perhaps before,” said Medea. “But so much is fluid now that was once fixed. Maybe nothing is now truly impossible here.”
“When Hades created the Underworld, he did so with the help of Tartarus and Erebus,” said Zeus. “That may be why Erebus can seal the pathway. Hades should be able to reopen it, but we have no easy way to contact him.”
“We failed to invoke Tartarus, but what about Nyx?” asked Iskios. “She is Erebus’s wife, isn’t she? Perhaps she could help.”
Zeus nodded his head slowly. “Their relationship is more complicated than a marriage, but yes, they have a connection. After all, they are Night and Darkness. Even if we can’t contact Nyx right now, I think I know a way out of here. The Cave of Night, in which Nyx lives, must have included a path through which she could visit Erebus or vice versa. I doubt Erebus would close that. The only problem is that I don’t know where it is.”
“I may,” said Iskios. “After I was old enough, Eriopis taught me the geography of all the realms beneath Gaia’s domain. We did not enter the Cave of Night itself nor Hades’s palace. I now know the reason was that she would have brought unwanted attention upon herself—and me. But we did tour the other Underworld regions, my first father’s domain, and Erebus. While here, I’m positive she showed me an entrance she said went up to the Underworld and into the Cave of Night. I still remember where it was.”
I couldn’t imagine how Iskios could find his way through such a vast realm with absolutely no landmarks, but I didn’t doubt him. As a son of Tartarus, he might have an affinity for the darker regions of the plane that I couldn’t begin to understand.
“Lead on,” I said. “But hurry. The stone is not yet drained—but it may be close.”
Iskios might have been too impulsive when he tried to wrest control of the darkness from Erebus, but he performed this particular task with tight focus and patience.
“We are almost there,” he said after a long time of seemingly random wandering through Erebus. “It should be right above us.”
“That pathway is forbidden!” said Erebus in a tone cold enough to freeze the sun itself.
“That is not for you to say,” replied a much softer and warmer voice. I knew it must have been Eros who spoke. “These wanderers are under my protection—and that of Nyx. You may not hold them prisoner any longer.”
“But one of them is causing this plane to collapse!”
“What he did was not his fault,” said a voice that made me think of warm summer nights—Nyx, no doubt. “He never acted in malice, but those who opposed him did. Accept my word, for it is backed by my prophetic insight.”
“And mine,” Eros added.
“Rather than harassing these unfortunates, who came into your realm on a desperate mission to undo the very damage that concerns you, why not join with Eros and me in an effort to summon Tartarus, whose help is needed to rebuild this plane’s foundation?” asked Nyx.
Erebus took a painfully long time to think before saying, “I will accept your word, and I will lend what aid I can.” His words were far calmer than his previous ones, bordering on the emotionless state more typical of powers so far removed from humanity.
“Then let us begin,” said Eros.
The combined voices of Darkness, Night, and Love were hard for a limited human mind like mine to comprehend. But collectively, they could create an appeal more powerful than what Zeus and Iskios had been able to achieve, an appeal capable of reaching over far greater distances with much more demanding urgency. It could not compel Tartarus to answer—but he would hear it, whether he wanted to or not.
After a while, Tartarus did respond in an echoing whisper. “What is it you want of me? My realm is gone, and the world is fast descending into confusion.”
“You can take the first step in reversing this decay,” said Eros. “You can repeat the process whereby you created your realm originally. Nyx, Erebus, and I will help you.”
“If you have help to offer, why not create a new foundation?” asked Tartarus. “Would that not serve your purposes just as well?”
“On such a large project, I can work only through you,” replied Eros. “Doing otherwise might trigger a complete recreation, with consequences none of us can predict with certainty.”
“Why should I care?” asked Tartarus.
“You used to care about me,” said Iskios, his voice confident but just a little sad. “After all, you are my first father.”
The part of the darkness around us that was Tartarus twisted in response to those words. “I do not understand. You are my son—and yet, you are not.”
“As the Telchines were reborn through Thalassa to gain additional magic, so I was reborn through Medea and Garth to gain a body that worked better. I also received additional magic, but I didn’t expect it. However, I still recall my first mother and father.
“Surely, you can not abandon your son to face an uncertain fate.”
“Perhaps not—if you were still fully my son. But you are not.”
Iskios couldn’t stop a disappointed expression from flaring across his face. I put my arm around him, and he didn’t try to pull away.
“What of me?” asked Erebus. “If you acted swiftly, you could save my realm, which is even now falling apart as it drifts into the empty space the demise of yours has created.”
“That will be mended when this plane is recreated,” said Tartarus.
“Or perhaps none of us will exist at all,” said Nyx. “It is possible the new world will be nothing like the old. If you will not save your own son or your elder colleagues, will you at least save yourself?”
“If I do not exist, I will not feel pain over my nonexistence. I will not grieve for a loss I have no mind to contemplate.”
“No!” yelled Iskios. “You are more than just a heartless, soulless void! You might fool these others, but you will not fool me. If not love, I felt some kind of affection from you. I know I did!”
“Your words mean no more to me than a single speck of dust left from the decay of my former realm.”
I wasn’t a mind reader, but Iskios’s despair radiated so strongly from him that it made me want to slit my own wrists. I gripped him tighter, but this time, he did pull away.
“I reject your answer. If you despise me, so be it. But you will not let this world die. I will not allow it.”
Tartarus responded with one of his barely recognizable chuckles. “Who are you to allow or not allow anything. I am an elder power, and you are—what exactly? You do not even know yourself.”
Iskios was smiling, but it wasn’t a happy smile.
“You want to know what I am? Let’s find out!”
I felt his power level soaring beyond what I thought he was capable of generating. Light and shadow danced around him, each blinding in its own way. His physical form expanded rapidly, a shape change worthy of a true Olympian. In seconds, he towered over us.
“Don’t fight him!” I yelled. Even now, showing off power I didn’t know he had, Iskios surely couldn’t defeat Tartarus. What he could do was disrupt the stability of Erebus’s realm and maybe even the Underworld.
“I didn’t start this,” said Iskios, his voice crackling with raw energy. “But I will finish it!”
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