Fifty-two

The sulfur is not the only thing that pollutes the air in the underground cavern there is something else, more insidious than that, something old, primordial.

" How many cycles?" Mason asks disturbing the fragile silence. Balthasar's eyes drift ever so slightly to Mason, but they don't linger long enough to get a good read on the man.

" One hundred thousand cycles. Our life cycles are short. Thirty human years, but we don't age like them. We simply go to sleep," That explains what happened to Shay in Helej Norun. He'd reached the end of a cycle.

" When we wake. We are free to choose whether we serve a new master or remain free. Those we come into contact with, are meant to have an impact on our journey through our cycles. We become stronger with each cycle and our abilities grow stronger, but in order for that to happen we need practice, and we use humans to challenge us in ways that we couldn't possibly do it ourselves. Nature wouldn't be where it is today without the challenges of outside factors. Although," He smirks for the first time, and it's something so vicious, in comparison with his childlike features it is almost frightening, " Humans in their hubris think that we are here to be of their service. Despicable creatures. It is why I chose to stay away from them," His gaze drifts to Shay," Unlike you, little Daiō. You chose a thief as your master," He heaves a heavy sigh as if disappointed in Shay for choosing Graham, and leans against the wall.

He doesn't seem reluctant to offer his knowledge to us, so I dare to let the questions flow.

" You need to finish the story about-" Another clicking sound echoes in the distance, followed by a hissing sound. I don't like it, not one tiny bit. Kush is known for its oversized critters, and I'm not their biggest fan.

" -my mother/sister?" All of it is very confusing. But for some reason, Balthasar seems sincere, and out of all things, he has no reason to lie to us.

He nods in assent and leans against the wall joining his hands in front of him, " After your father died, the Kallah used the secrets she revealed to them against her. The seals of Yaruun were a shield and a weapon of subjugation. Ten were made for each and every one of you. You may not remember, because your mother in her desperation to save as many of you as possible from a fate that promised nothing but suffering. Did the only merciful thing she could, and began killing your sisters one by one, storing their powers in the only place, the Kallah wouldn't think to look. A newborn baby. You. Anika was the only one who survived before your mother took her own life, and she did the only thing she could. She hid you in plain sight, and waited, until the time was right to wake you from the deep slumber she had placed you in," He pauses for a moment, and licks his lips. This is awfully detailed. Certainly, one doesn't just stumble on this kind of information by accident.

" You were there," I conclude, without a shadow of a doubt. He nods.

" Your mother was one of us. A daiō, and foolish enough to fall for a man like Ifidrim," He takes a deep breath, his gaze once again drifts to Mason, " Before you ask, I know nothing of your mother. After she handed you over to me to take you to safety, she made me promise not to ever return within the temple walls," For the nth time since all of this began I'm speechless. Mason is awfully quiet, he often is, when we encounter unexpected situations, and I struggle to wrap my head around this entire situation.

Mason nods, but he seems to be preparing to ask a question, and somehow I know what that is.

" Do you know who my father is?" Mason asks quietly, as if he doesn't want to ask the question but he needs to know, and I can understand that feeling better than anyone. The desire to know your origins sometimes overrides logic and common sense.

But here is the thing, it doesn't matter who brought you into this world, it doesn't matter whose genes you carry. It doesn't define who you are. That is up to you to decide who you become.

They say, ' Blood is thicker than water', but sometimes, this holds no validity. Just because we come from a similar gene pool doesn't automatically make us family. It takes a little bit more than that, and in Mason's case, it holds true.

" Yes," Balthasar whispers into the darkness, Mason gulps at my side, and for the first time since I've known him, I feel his hand shake as it wraps around mine. I bring our joined hands to my lips and kiss the back of his hand, silently offering comfort in a moment of emotional duress. His jaw ticks, the only muscle that moves, the rest of his face seems to be set in stone. My gaze drifts to his chest, and I notice he is not breathing, as he waits for Balthasar to provide him the answer to a question he doesn't even want to know the answer to. The fact that Balthasar is dragging this, is enough to know that neither of us wants to know the truth.

" Micah," Mason's hand clamps around mine like a vice, squeezing with bruising force, enough to crack bones, and mine are not far from it.

Releasing the pent-up breath, his shoulders slack, as his hand slowly eases the death grip on mine.

" Fuck," He breathes defeated, " All this time, my own father has been hunting you. He hired me to hunt you," Some father in law. I guess we won't be having family diners anytime soon.

Panic laces his voice, and I see it on his face as it slowly wraps its tendrils, shrouding his whole being, ripping him away from me. An endless chasm yawns between us, invisible to the naked eye, but his existence presses down on me, undeniable, irrefutable.

He drops my hand as if it's made of scalding iron, and looks at me frantic, his eyes unfocused, " I will become like him. I know I will. It's already begun. I almost killed you once," He takes a step back in his frenzy, the gesture itself is akin to a physical blow. Its a gut punch that reverberates through me leaving behind long-lasting echoes of dull pain, and agony.

" Mase," I say pleadingly, but he shakes his head, " Trust us. Trust what we have. You are nothing like him," He blinks, once, twice and drops to his knees next to Shay.

" Home, Shay," They both vanish in the time I take to put my thoughts together. Everything is a mass of scattered thoughts, an amorphous ball of dread, despair, and desolation settles in my stomach like a boulder of granite. Heavy, and unmoving. It stays there festering, while my mind tries to process what just happened.

" Do not unite the seals. It will be your damnation. Your only chance is to destroy them," Balthasar says, as I turn my head to look at him, he dissipates like mist, drifting on the light breeze that sweeps through the cavern. He dissolves, without a trace of his existence. I track his movements with my eyes, as the last remnants of his presence gets swept up along the wall, right at the edge of the light. An in-between, living in the space between light and dark. And just like that he is gone.