Page 33 of Incarnate

Oh… oh no. What if I left this Realm because of Judica? What if I tried to escape, and she’s who called me back? The one that marked me for the Seraphs?

I think it’s time that if I get a chance, I take that ring off and chuck it as far as I can so he can find me.

A figure at the far end of the cavern is speaking; tall, gaunt, with skin that seems to shift between colors like oil on water. A Godless leader, addressing the gathered with the fervor of a zealot.

"The passage grows wider," the figure says, their lighter voice carrying across the stone. "Each cycle, we push further. The old pantheons rot from within. Their gods scatter, their borders thin. We are not destroyers. We are inevitability. And this—” they gesture to the pit “—is our doorway to ensuring no one can fight us. Welcome, newcomers. To those who answer the call of Krim.”

My stomach turns, feeling the wrongness of what they’re doing. "We need to go."

"Not yet. I have made a deal with their Revenant. He is the one who can get us out of here.”

My stomach lurches, something in me screaming that I don’t want to leave. I concentrate as hard as I can, managing movement so I face her fully. Her eyes widen when she sees I have defied her magic. “What if I came back here for a reason? If I wanted to go to our Realm, why not reincarnate there?”

“It’s because of the bind.” She reaches for me, then looks behind me. “Oh, no.”

I jerk hard to the right, preparing to fight against Judica’s magic, only to nearly throw myself over… she clearly released me. Everyone is watching me with eyes that are completely onyx in color, the center of them a small glowing white.

They’re all staring at me.

“She is the mate of the Dominus,” the one at the front says, raising a long finger at me.

Judica grabs me and places me behind her, raising a hand as if she’s dragging something, only for nothing to appear. Pure terror takes her gaze as she faces me. “My magic doesn’t work down here,” she confesses, listless, as if walking into battle and realizing she has no weapons. “This is not good.”

“No shit!”

“Judica!” the one at the front says. “Is this an offering you brought us?”

“No, this one remains with me.” She quickly steadies herself. “This is the other that is to come with me, so your deity can have control over our island.”

“Oh,” he says, curling his fingers inwards to form a fist like he has just grabbed something delicate. “That was made on the assumption she was a normal deity… not the mate of the Dominus of Nethram. This is one of the strongest Realms, and if we could take the mate of the Dominus… oh, Krim would be pleased.”

All those terrifying eyes are still on me, and I don’t know if any of them are even breathing. “We should run,” I mutter.

“Yes,” she says, shocking me, adrenaline surging through me. “I didn’t think they’d see right through you… It’s that damn Void, I bet.” Judica very gently grabs my hand, as if trying to not make a scene, and pulls the ring off. “We won’t be able to run together, though. And I cannot die, or else we’re back to the original issue of missing one of us… I’ll be close, Naramere. Call for him. We have to go back with our original plan, the one made before you left. Hopefully, you’ll remember in time.”

The older woman shrinks inward, her cloak shifting into wings and transforming into a raven, flying away, back toward the door we came from.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I cry out.

“Where are you?”

My knees nearly buckle at hearing him, as if I met the sole source of my only safety in this Realm. The Godless followers slowly all turn to face me, a few stepping near as I back up.

“I’m really deep underground. The Godless are here? There’s a Void. We entered through the cellar of a blacksmith, somewhere near that bakery you were at. That’s where I’ve been⁠—”

Rage contorts through the tether, so much so that it scares me. “Do not put that ring back on,” he growls.

I have no desire to place it back on, slowly backing up, very cautious step by cautious step. “They’re going to sacrifice me, I think.”

“No they will not. I am coming.”

My back grazes against a wall, and I truly don’t know what to do. Do I run for it, back toward the door? When I slowly glance out of my peripheral, I can see there are people already there, chanting something near it as the seam between the doors seals over. I whine in desperation, having no idea how to access any of the powers I might have. Would they even work down here?

One of the Godless near me asks, “Who are you speaking with?”

“Judica,” I lie.

“Perhaps it’s the Dominus,” the Reverent says in the distance. “I don’t know why Judica would bring you here, however, unless she was desperate… this does feel suspicious.”