Prince of The Abyss

Returning to the group, there were many eyes on him, but it was to be expected; the mantle he was wearing was missing a big part of itself. The whole bottom part was gone, and the thing was that most understood what had happened; there had been a battle.

What else could have happened?

But again this was very important; there was a battle... which made no sense to the others, since Keres, Sofia, and all the stronger people in the group had gone to search if there was a monster to specifically avoid a battle.

There were a lot of questions, and most were directed towards Keres, luckily... but bad enough, a lot of them mentioned him, which wasn’t great.

Sofia seemed the most confused by what had happened, not wasting a second before dragging Keres with her to ask questions. She must have already been surprised to see him drag the new mysterious guy with him. Even more now.

Aether went back to the place he rested before, sensing the many gazes directed towards him... but that is what happens when you make yourself the center of attention. ’Damn it, I’m never helping that guy again.’

He could hear them whisper, talking among themselves, asking just who he was. What he didn’t expect was for someone to actually approach him, but before the man could ask him anything, Keres spoke out, announcing the results of this whole exploration.

"Everyone, listen up." He said, clapping his hands while smiling. He waited as people turned their heads towards him, giving him their full attention.

"I know just how much hope all of you had in this lighthouse." He put his hand on his heart. "And truly, me too; I am one of you; we all miss our families back home and desperately want to find a way out."

He sighed. "But this place has nothing to do with our salvation." The moment he said those words, it felt as if everyone died inside; with just one look at their faces, you could see just how much it had affected them.

Pale faces, eyes almost hollow, clenched fists.

How hard it must be for them to believe, if even for him, someone who has already been through a lot, it was starting to become impossible to continue hopping. Even more, he didn’t have a family waiting outside for him; well... he had, but at the same time, not in the same way they had.

Seeing the atmosphere, Keres smirked. "Sucks, huh? I know... but um... let me ask you all, how is making this face going to help?" He said, making an overly exaggerated sad face, his bottom lip fully exposed and his eyebrows arched.

"I’ve always wondered, since I see it a lot. Do you think the Gods will be merciful and help you?" He said, more serious this time. Aether hadn’t expected him to say that; after all, for someone who was the Prince of a Kingdom that was very religiously oriented, and whose sister was the Vessel of the same god they worshiped, it was weird to hear.

"You can pray all you want, and maybe it can help you mentally, but in this place, the Gods can’t reach us; the only ones that can help us..."

He smirked widely. "Is ourselves."

Aether watched as the mood seemed to shift; it wasn’t something that happened suddenly; it was more like a flame burning. Nothing happened at first, but then one person started cheering; another looked at him and got inspired, until the whole group was cheering as if they had gotten the best news of their lives.

Aether’s eyes widened as he observed this unfold... he didn’t get it, how... how could such a speech make them believe so fast, and with such fire.

’Is there... something wrong with me?’

...

After getting his party’s morale back up, Keres commanded that they make camp here. They had no plans for where to go next, so there was no reason for them to wonder; they were going to rest and make something up for tomorrow.

Aether waited until everyone had finished setting up before heading towards Keres’s tent.

The Harbinger was surprised to see him; their relationship wasn’t the best, so he hadn’t expected a late-night visit.

Sitting in his chair, drawing something on a map, he gestured for Aether to take a seat. Which he did, taking a quick glance at what Keres was doing...

There were a lot of hand-drawn maps on his desk, all having their unique part of the Wonderland, and all connected to each other. He watched as Keres crossed the lighthouse on the map...

Which probably meant that the X’s were places they had been and were useless... This was important, since if you were to look at the many maps, you would see that they were filled with these X’s.

’And I had thought I was making progress, but damn...’

Before, he wondered how the people could still believe after their hope had been crushed once, but now he was wondering how Keres was this happy with all the times he had failed. It felt unreal that after so many attempts he kept going.

"So, what do you want?" The Honored Bastard said, tracing a new route on his map, one that passed through some mountains, which he circled, writing something next to it. ’Dangerous, well then, should I be worried knowing that’s the next destination?’ Taking a better look, Aether noticed something: if they went around the mountains, which was a big detour, it would also be a lot safer.

Aether put his finger on the map, pointing at the place where the detour took place. "What if we go on this path instead? It’s much safer."

Keres chuckled, looking up at Aether. "True, it is safer. But it’s also just a lot longer, and if you take a closer look, after a while it turns into a tundra; there is no place for us to get food or water from. We’ll all die if we go on that path."

’I... didn’t consider that.’ Aether bit his finger, trying to see if there was another path. Seeing this, Keres tilted his head. "You seem to be against going through the mountains. Is there a reason why? Have you been there before?"

Aether quickly shook his head. "No, I haven’t. It’s just that I saw you wrote dangerous next to it, and I..."

"You think that your curse will take effect," Keres said, chuckling, which made Aether’s eyes widen, not expecting the man to complete his sentence.

The Harbinger leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "I really don’t know what you have been through that made you so delusional, but I have to say, I’m truly sorry; it must have been something horrible."

Keres sighed, looking back at Aether, as he rested his head in his hand, tapping a finger on the table with his other hand.

"And if you believe that much that you are cursed, then so be it, but I want you to trust me."

...

"No one will die, mark my words. Not on my hand."

...

Aether didn’t respond instantly; instead, he looked the Harbinger in the eyes... and weirdly enough, he felt relieved. He wasn’t sure how to feel about this feeling; a part of him was scared it might come and bite him, but at the same time, what if... Keres was telling the truth?

He sighed, nodding. "I... will." He smiled.

"But I still have to ask the question I came here for in the first place."

Keres shrugged his shoulders. "Go ahead; the faster you get done, the faster I can finish my work."

...

"As time passed, I started to find myself starting to question if there is even a way out, and it has become harder for me to believe that we will ever get back... and yet, you seem to be certain that we will make it back... How?"

Keres stopped in his place, his finger hovering in the air, as he stared at Aether, surprised at first, before smiling. "Who says that I’m certain there is a way out? I have no idea if there is, and truly, if we look at our situation, it does feel like there isn’t one.

So I’m not different from you."

...

"It’s just that I see no point in being sad or just crying about it. If there isn’t a way, I will continue to try, even if it’s impossible, and if I have to, I’ll make one myself; it’s way better than doing nothing. It’s not like I have a secret technique or anything, or that I can only see the good in every situation, since I don’t.

But I also just don’t see a reason not to keep trying." Keres looked at Aether, whose expression didn’t seem to have changed. "Did that help?"

...

"Yeah... it did. Thanks." He said, with a weak smile on his face. He got up from his seat, waved goodbye to Keres, and left.