Page 109 of Darkness

“Some choose to stay. This is their home. They live and die here. Others gave up their opportunities so others might live.”

“What about you?”

Krista’s aura of bright light momentarily faltered. “Until the last moment, those with the necessary talents are working tirelessly to prolong the inevitable, helping others get away, and upholding the peace.” Krista strode down a hallway to a tall, open space. Terraces appeared overhead. Twelve stories? Maybe more.

“You’ll leave last?”

Krista shook her head, a bittersweet curve to her lips. “No, I won’t leave at all. My place is here. As long as there’s a single soul who wishes to leave, I’ll continue to build portals and hope they’ll thrive on the other side.”

Hope they’ll find a body, Morrisey thought.

Krista scrutinized Morrisey’s form. "If someone had properly trained you, you might have saved us. I fear we’re too far gone now. Serves us right for our indiscriminate killing.”

Killing? “I thought travelers were summoned to other realms.”

“Some are. We send many more. Even then, it’s not guaranteed they’ll survive in their new home. Some balk in the human realm, unwilling to kill to take a host, though they’re instructed to only take the dead or dying. Others can’t find a host in time.”

“You said there were other realms. What about them?”

“They’re far more alien to us. Few go there. Now come.” Krista extended her hand again, wriggling her fingers. Morrisey didn’t remember having let go. “If I had more time, I’d teach you what I’m about to do.”

He clasped her slender fingers. They floated upward, past three terraces, then touched down on the fourth. Once more, Krista led him down a hallway. On either side, what might have been paintings added splashes of ever-changing color to the purple gloom.

Krista led him to an open door. “Welcome home, Tenebris, the last of your kind.”

Though Morrisey somehow knew the room adjoined others, the windows covering all four walls opened onto nature. Nothing to see but trees. Where were the buildings?

Seven people, or entities, rather, sat at the three-sided table, one side with two empty floating cushions. Several flinched upon seeing Morrisey. One hissed to a neighbor behind a shielding hand.

Krista led him to one of the empty seats. He waited for her to sit, watching how she simply grasped the cushion and placed it under her rear, like a child climbing onto a swing. It took Morrisey three tries, but no one laughed.

The glowing beings lost some of their shine, taking on more human forms.

“Why am I here?” Being hijacked to another universe hadn’t been on Morrisey’s bucket list.

One entity taking the form of a woman appeared far older than the others, her aura a dull bronze gleam. “Because there are things you should know about both this realm and the human realm.” Morrisey waited for the face-on-a-face illusion, but it didn’t come.

Another entity explained from there. “We only recently discovered your existence. Many of our citizens have crossed over into the human realm from our dying one without leadership or guidance.”

“I take it you’re leaders?” They had to be. Each one radiated power.

"We are the sole survivors of the Princeps," the older woman said, "driven by our very nature to conquer and rule, which will only pit us against human authorities. If they deem us the enemy, none of our people will survive, especially if they believe we are killing humans to inhabit their bodies or for food. We cannot allow for our culture, our history, to disappear forever. However, you were born a Tenebris. In the past, your kind has proven too dangerous to allow to live. We learned too late that by eliminating darkness, we also eliminated light, though I’m given to understand at least one Lux survives in the realm you’ve made your home.”

Fuck. “You brought me here to kill me?”

“No,” the woman said, inflection flat. “Although you were born into a Princeps family, being raised human, you better understand their values and how to exist in their world. However, your humanness, being raised without your own kind for guidance, only deepened the darkness in your soul. You must conquer darkness, or it will conquer you.”

Sounded like a motivational poster Leary needed to hang on the dull gray walls of his office. “How?” The answers weren’t found in a bottle. Morrisey’d looked there for years.

Krista picked up the telling. “You are Tenebris. Historically, we’ve feared the power of those born into darkness and didn’t allow them to live. As our council member said, we realized too late that in order to have light, you need darkness. Our world grew unbalanced until it failed. However, now you have help in the form of light. We hope you and the light can minimize the damage.”

“What the hell do you mean, light?” Hadn’t Farren mentioned light and darkness?

The gathered bit off fevered whispers at a stern glare from the woman Morrisey deemed the eldest. “He enforced our laws. Like you, he is the last of his kind. In fact, we didn’t know his true nature until he left. We’ve spent years poring over old records, trying to keep our world alive. That’s how we found reference to the light and dark balance. Together, you can keep what happened here from happening in your own world.”

“Farren.”

The older woman answered. “His name was Aluxi here in Domus.”

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