Eclipse - Act 4 - Cycle's End

Chapter 16 - The Cost

Pyrrha

The Safehouse was admittedly nicer than they were expecting; it wasn't a mess, and it was larger too. Oriana and misty were sitting close to Pyrrha, and the room was silent. She had her arm around Ori, keeping her close, then looking ahead to see Oscar and Penny watching the windows, keeping an eye out for any sign of the Deacon and his allies. Winter was walking around in one of the rooms on her scroll, speaking with Dutch.

Whilst Winter was filling him in on what happened, Oriana looked up at her mother with concern in her eyes. "Mom?" she asked softly.

"Yeah honey?" Pyrrha responded softly, trying to keep a brave face amidst such an unexpected and frightening situation.

"Who is the Deacon?" Oriana asked with worry. Misty looked up at Pyrrha, too. It was obvious to Pyrrha that this question would come up eventually.

"I don't know..." Pyrrha answered. "I always knew he was a mysterious guy, but... this? I never expected this."

"But he seemed to know you? And dad? He really didn't like Dad." Oriana stated.

"There are things, adult things, that I haven't told you." Pyrrha explained.

"I'm seventeen, mom... I'm sure I can handle it." Oriana stated.

"Doesn't mean that I am... the things that happened when Salem was in charge... a lot of bad happened. And I did a lot of things I wish I hadn't, just to survive. We all did..." Pyrrha explained, and as she thought back on those memories, she could see them flashing before her eyes. The lives they took, the Atlesian Wildlands, making the deal with the Brother of Darkness. How could she even begin to explain such things to Oriana, such a sweet and innocent soul?

Revealing that the Gods actually exist? That they are fallible beings? That they were responsible for Salem's existence in the first place, and if they died, they would have suffered an eternal form of hell they couldn't ever describe?

It was so much...

... and there was so much pain laced into those times.

"Was the Deacon one of those things?" Oriana asked, making Pyrrha sigh, so she decided to give her something to chew on.

"Before the big battle against Salem, we were captured. Me, your auntie Ruby and auntie Penny and... Cinder." She explained, pausing as she remembered Cinder's face, feeling a sharp pain of grief even now. "We were held hostage in one of their cells, and there were seven people in the cell with us. Friends of ours who we thought were killed six years ago, but they were prisoners... and put through so much horrible torture that whole time. We almost didn't recognise them... and one of them was Blake's old lover, Sun Wukong. A very dear friend of ours, and the other was Neptune Vasillias, Weiss' old lover, and Eryka's little brother. And three of them were that man, Cardin Winchester's, team, and he was also one of the people captured, but he escaped first." Pyrrha explained to her, Oriana and Misty listening intently. "The other two were the members of Sun and Neptune's team, Scarlet David and Sage Ayana. We promised to save them all... but when the battle started... one of Salem's most devout followers..."

"... Tyrian Callows?" She asked with fear in her eyes.

He was like the new Jackdaw Branwen to the world, the Serial Killer everyone knew the name of. If anything, he had become more feared than Jackdaw ever was.

"Yes... how did you know?" Oriana asked.

"School. We've had a few lessons over the years about Salem and her Children. He was always described as the most loyal, and the craziest of them all." Misty answered, nodding her head in agreement.