To Hell Itself
“What have you done?” Seraphina’s voice seemed to echo through the dark. Zara’s eyes blinked open, and she was shocked to look up and see a dozen of black candles floating above them. “Don’t touch them!” Seraphina shouted suddenly.
“Unless you wish for a gruesome death.” Tariq’s solemn voice seemed to ring in the eerie silence.
“Zara?” Nasir asked quietly above her.
She hummed as she looked up at where Nasir looked down at her in concern. She clasped his hand, using his help to stand on shaky feet. She walked out to the railing avoiding the candles swimming around the air around them. She leaned against the rail looking down at the pitch-black water the candles alighting spectral figures swimming just underneath those waters.
“Why do I get the feeling that we are no longer where we are meant to be?” Zara asked dryly.
“You are an observant sort.” Tariq muttered.
“We have sought the avenues into the darker recesses of the world in search for Dragon hordes and have found ourselves at hells gate.” Seraphina mused.
“Hellsgate?” Zara asked her eyebrows raised. “Are we dead?”
“Nope.” Nasir mused as he joined her at the railing, he pointed down to where the spectral forms shone through the black waters. “They are very much dead; we have just stumbled into their domain.”
“Their domain?” Zara scowled.
“One of them at least.” Tariq muttered looking disturbed.
“How many of them are there?!” Zara asked her voice raising as her frustration mounted.
“Much more than you would think,” Seraphina replied.
Tariq banged a fist on the rail the ship shaking slightly. “I don’t understand how we found ourselves here of all places. The stones take you where your need is.” He mourned in a near wail, obviously ignoring Aariz’s shout of – “You break it you replace it!”
“Need?” Seraphina mused. “When you used the stones were you thinking of the treasures or of your wife?”
Tariq scowled, “When am I not thinking of her?”
“Then you know where we are.” Seraphina pointed out.
Tariq froze his face paling. “That’s impossible.”
“Is it?” Seraphina pressed.
“What are you guys going on about?” Nasir demanded. “Where do you think we are?”
“I think we are in one of the nine realms of Naraka. Yama’s domain.”
“Yama?” Zara asked with a frown. “You can’t mean the Hindu god of death? The judge of all the souls of the underworld?”
“Say what now?” Nasir asked.
“That’s exactly where we are.”
“But why? Why would Yama have anything to do with Tariq’s wife?” Zara asked.
“Because once upon a time, I was one of the souls that Yama used to dealt punishment to wayward souls. Until I left.” Tariq stated.
“You mean until you ran.” Seraphina muttered.
“Is that really the point here?” Tariq scowled.
“I think it might be.” A girlish voice rang out in the darkness.
Tariq turned slowly to the voice a spark of true fear glinting in his eyes. Near where Aariz stood gaping at the long lithe creature that appeared suddenly on the rail where the wheel stood, sat one of the many other punishers of Yama.
“Agni.” Tariq gulped.
Agni smiled warmly. “Hello, dear brother.” She exclaimed before raising her hand and snapped her fingers, the crew watching helplessly as Tariq and the people around him vanished.
The crew looked around wildly before looking back at where the Captain had stood.
“OH CIRCE, WE LOST THE CAPTAIN AGAIN!”
Since the day Shazir vanished from Zaya’s life she had known that she would see him once more. Never in any of her nightmares or daydreams did she ever imagine him appearing in rags in her throne room on his knees.
Asking for her help.
Kailani and the other Nine surrounded him, in a tight circle their faces devoid of emotion. Njall stood at a distance watching Shazir with a frown.
“I’m sorry. Did you actually come here asking for my help?” Zaya asked in shock.
She was thankful he had surrendered himself at the gate, giving her the time to pull her court from his presence. Njall had sworn he could feel immense power radiating from Shazir. He was somehow much more dangerous than he ever had been. The fear that Njall had when he entered her study begging her not to face him was because he knew magic, and he knew when he was outmatched.
“I know that you have no right to help me, that you have every right to strike me down here, to throw me in the deepest pit you can find, but Seraphina is gone, and I fear she will never be able to return to that place. I just, I need to find her.” Shazir pleaded.
“Seraphina is with my sister.” Zaya confessed, her eyes darting to the girl at Shazir’s side.
The girl wore robes clearly made for someone not her size, and in her hand, she held a wizard’s staff. She sighed as she looked at Zaya. “Then your sister is in grave danger. I fear everyone that is with Seraphina is.”
“What makes you say so?” Zaya asked.
“And who are you?” Njall murmured as he came closer.
“My name is Vanna, and my sister Violet has been Kagan’s wife for decades. Years and years we have given a choice to his new collections. A choice to fight him rather than take his deal of revenge sated. Never has one taken our deal, revenge and then imprisonment by Kagan has always been their choice.”
“Your revenge.” Njall murmured. “Against Zaya. Against this Kingdom.”
“Kagan assumed this would be my choice,” Shazir rasped, still on bended knee. “My only choice was to warn you of the danger and hope that when Kagan calls me, I will have the strength to do what no one has.”
“You mean to kill him.” Njall asked. “Perhaps to take his Kingdom for your own.”
“His castle is a fiction. His Kingdom rats and children having no choice but to follow his song.” Shazir murmured. “I mean to raze his entire world to the ground, but first I need to know that Seraphina is alright,”
“She isn’t. I fear that this journey has led the entire ship to its doom.” The Nine whipped around swords drawn, to face a single child with stars and crescent moons drawn on their face in silvery lines.