No way in Heaven or Hell - Afterlife Series Book 1

Chapter 4 - Darkness this way comes - part 1

Eliana and Laera returned home tired and worried. Something strange was going on, and it seemed like it was clearly spreading to more than one person.

"I'll make us some tea." Laera said.

That was Laera. When you were in trouble, tea was the answer. They sat in silence, their cups in their hands. Eliana also couldn't get Healer Thalios's words out of her head.

"What about the other areas?" Laera had asked. "Have they had any people getting sick?"

Eliana sighed heavily.

"That's the bad news. They have. Not many yet, about three or four, but... if it's spread that far out... I think it's more than likely that more will come..."

She felt useless and frustrated. Not a very pleasant sensation.

"What are we going to do? Healer Thalios can't deal with this all alone..." Laera asked.

"I know... and I have no idea, to be honest... if we at least knew where it came from..." Eliana said.

She sighed in frustration.

"How is this happening? Cethielites don't get sick!"

"Maybe Healer Thalios is right... something changed somewhere that's affecting Cethiel negatively... but what?"

Laera suddenly turned worried.

"The barrier? To Thendaria?"

Eliana shook her head.

"You really think they'd wait this long to swarm in? Even if they'd tried to hide, someone would have seen them."

"Hmm... yeah, I guess so..." Laera said. "It's kind of scary, isn't it?"

"It's definitely strange..." Eliana said. "I'm going to try and look it up tomorrow."

"I'd help, but I have some things to do..." Laera said apologetically.

"That's okay." Eliana said. "I'm turning in, or my brain will fry," she added with a small smile.

"Okay. Night, Eliana."

"Night," Eliana said, and headed upstairs to her room.

*********

Khyros looked up from his mannequin. He'd been thinking about the king's offer. But try as he might, he couldn't help thinking there was something off about him. He was far too obsequious. And he found strange that the king would want an army when there was no real reason for one. And he didn't think it was a good thing that he was talking about training an army with no obvious reason for battle. It sounded like he was going to be the one causing the battle. And he wanted no part of that. He was maybe a Thendarian now, but he wouldn't be an war instrument. Just then, something made him pause as he flew back to his lair, his long black wings moving soundlessly through the air. He had caught sight of something strange. A Thendarian with deep red skin, jet black hair and eyes and a huge build was...

Is he... flexing his muscles...? Why would he do that?

It was like his movements were rigid, uncomfortable, like... like arthritis or something. But that was just not possible! He hadn't been dead very long, just a little under eleven months, but he was pretty sure that all the physical discomforts vanished when you died. He didn't usually pay much attention to the other Thendarians, but he had to admit this was odd. And for the next few days, he kept glancing around surreptitiously for any other signs of muscular pains. And it soon became clear that something was wrong. He noticed several other cases. He thought about asking them whether they had any idea what it was coming from, but he had a feeling they would just deny everything out of pride or something like that. So after a while he decided it wasn't his problem. Khyros himself was fine, no aches or anything of the sort. It was probably being on Thendaria so long. He'd noticed it was always "older" Thendarians who seemed affected, with very red skin. He glanced at his own. It was still the same faint red it had been for the past few months. He doubted it would affect him for a while yet. He was hoping to find a way out of Thendaria before then. He'd eventually began to get a bit weary of the repetitive life - or afterlife - he had since he'd ended up here. He accepted it, but would have been lying if he'd said he wouldn't consider any alternatives. He had read up on other worlds, but none had been very helpful about how to get to them. He'd also tried to see if anyone had ever gone through the barrier in either Cethielite or Thendarian history, but had found nothing. But things didn't improve over the next few days after the first time he'd witnessed people experiencing pains. More and more people seemed to be affected. But still, Khyros was fine. He had to admit he was extremely puzzled. Well, a tiny part of him. Most of him didn't want to care. But it eventually became worse still. He was flying towards the training ground because he had nothing else to do, when something odd made him pause. In the middle of an empty street, he could see a statue.