Nether Feast - Chapter 10

I stepped through into another reception area. This one was surrounded by towering pillars that were square in shape and facing inward toward the income and outgoing portals node. I still hadn’t gotten used to how it worked, but before my time in the Netherplane, it had been a normal part of life for me. It would just take a little getting used to.

Walking out of the ring of pillars, I found this building was far larger than any I’d ever seen. The name of this place was Odysity. It was one of the largest cities in the kingdom. With more than a million people, it didn’t surprise me their reception area was so large. It was said that they had more than one.

As I headed for the two-story exit with a crown-shaped arch, I had to cross a tiled greeting hall that held dozens of people waiting for others to arrive. I searched my inventory for the map of the city the minister had given me when I heard someone call out to me.

I slid to a stop. I found who belonged to the voice. Our eyes met and that was all the confirmation she needed. I’d seen that same look before. A child doesn’t forget the face his mother makes right before getting punished. This woman had the same look.

She advanced toward me like a military captain marching for the field of battle. I half expected her to grab ahold of me and bend me over her knee when she reached me, but instead she slipped her arms around my waist and gently embraced me.

I couldn’t move. This woman wasn’t my mother, but there were many similarities. I knew the truth, but I let the illusion play out in my mind for a moment before it slipped away. Mother had died over thirty years ago, and I’d never see her again. I expected my sister Serena to be her own person. That undoubtedly she was, but I hadn’t anticipated her resembling mother so closely.

We stood there for more than a minute and I still hadn’t hugged her back. My first embrace in a century and I was doing a botched job of it.

I couldn’t get around the awkwardness I felt in trying to figure out the best place to put my arms. I wrapped them around her at shoulder level and was careful to just hold her in place without squeezing.

It was another minute before she pulled back and looked up at me. Her smile was full and warm.

I replied with my most natural smile yet and couldn’t help but to comment. “You have mother’s freckles.” And she did. They were speckled across her nose and high on her cheeks. There were a few more on the right side of her face than left.

She laughed in response and there was a little crack in her voice as she did. “Big brother. Welcome home.”

Home. The word hit me like barb of a dragon’s tail. I just hoped she’d grow to like me. Finding a home with her wasn’t something I’d even considered.

“Come. We will start out light and easy. You can meet some of your nieces and nephews. We’ll talk later.”

I opened my mouth to object, when she placed her index finger to my lips and stopped me. “Only my two oldest will know the truth of who you are. And your brother-in-law. Put a little trust in this old woman. While you’re here, you can set your worries aside and I insist you let me fatten you up a bit.”

“Old woman? You don’t look a day past twenty.” And I meant it. Reaching the fourth realm so young made her looked like a woman just starting to live her life.

Rolling her eyes, she tapped me on the chest. “I look young? Have you had a look in the mirror lately? If you weren’t built so solidly, I’d think you were a tender young man who needed some toughening.” She reached up and ran her hand down my arm. With a pat on my chest, she inclined her left brow. “You’re one fine slab of meat…”

The emotion fled from my face as my thoughts turned to the life and death struggle of the Netherplane.

She chuckled when seeing my reaction. Leaning forward, she rose up on her tiptoes and whispered. “Hey now. It’s a sister’s duty to admire her older brother. Knowing that you have the body of a celestial and the transcendent good looks to match will just make my job of playing matchmaker that much easier.” With a wink, she fell back to her heels.

My eyes widened and my throat tightened.

She laughed even harder and gave me a playful slap on the chest. Then she turned serious. “I’m teasing you, Ailen. I suppose I should give you ‘the talk’ now before bringing you home.”

She took me by the wrist and pulled me over to the side of the path so that we could have some privacy. “Now look here. Minister Leighton wrote of where you’ve been for the last hundred years, and briefly explained some of what you’ve been through. I won’t pretend to understand, but… I’m a mother of nine, and amongst my children’s children and their children, I have helped raise eighty-two grandbabies. I’ve had to deal with everything from bullying to rape, and the horrors of adventuring and war. I can’t fully understand what you’ve been through, but I’ve learned a thing or two about hardship. Here’s what you can expect. I won’t treat you any differently than I would if you hadn’t been through what you have unless there’s no other option. If an issue arises, I will not be shy and will deal with it immediately. You are my brother, and even if I deem it unsafe for you to stay in my home, that will not change. Now that you’ve returned, I’ll see to it that you find your place in this world whether you like it or not. Do you understand?”

The beginnings of a grin were forming on my face, but I wiped it away to give her an equally serious answer. “Yes, sister. I understand.”

The smile immediately returned to her face. “Then let’s go home.” Slipping her arm under my own, she led me toward the exit.

“You’re so much like mother that it’s scary,” I said, earning me a slap to the shoulder.

“Tell me about her. What do you remember?”

“I’ve always thought of her as youthful and feisty.”

She let out a shrill chuckle that pulled the attention from the surrounding crowd. Resting her head against my shoulder, she replied, “If that’s how you remember her, then you can keep thinking of me the same.”

“Do you remember her differently?” I asked while watching people stop and bow their head in greeting when they recognized who my sister was. It didn’t surprise me that a fourth realm mage would garner such a reaction. How could I not be proud of her? I just wished I hadn’t missed her ascension.

“She was quieter, I think, when I was growing up. I saw her feistiness on occasion, though. It just came in spurts. And dad was always working hard to bring it out of her. ‘Her light’, he called it. It wasn’t until they had grandchildren that I started to see it more often than not. I remember dad, father, as unwavering and strong. Even when they were reaching their later years, he would always find a way to give mother his life extending herbs I intended for him. Mother, of course, always knew and would hide them in his tea. They were happy at the end.”

I reached over and kissed her on top of the head.

She pulled back just enough to give me a sideways look. “What was that for?”

“Thank you, Serena, for taking care of them when I couldn’t.”

She just rolled her eyes and leaned her head against my shoulder once again. “They were my parents too. You’ll just have to find some way to make it up to me. Did you do much house cleaning while you were away? Maybe a few decades of keeping the house tidy would be a good form of repayment.”

“Don’t count on it,” I chuckled.

“Sometimes a girl just has to throw things at the wall to see what sticks.”

***

Less than an hour later, I found myself sitting at a long table with enough seating for more than forty people. Only half of them were full and more than a quarter of them held children. Their ages ranged from runny-nosed infants to brooding teens. The kids seemed less than impressed by me and did their own thing within the scope of what their parents allowed. Even the young ones were fairly respectful. There was one exception. One infant, the youngest of the lot, spent most of the dinner staring at me while nursing its bottle. However, that might’ve been because she hadn’t fully developed control of her eye movements yet and I save across from her.

The adults were respectfully disinterested, which suited me just fine. I think it was exactly what Serena had been going for. Their disinterest wasn’t the same as disrespect. The adults were obviously there to glean wisdom from Serena and her husband, Bren. They had issues from mundane to serious and were quick to accept me as a part of the family with no questions asked. Even a brooding young man took a break from his gloomy state to give me a grin as if to make sure I knew I wasn’t the cause of his grumpy state.

The one person that showed true interest was Bren, my brother-in-law. Serena had to tell him more than once that we’d get to talk later as she kept the conversation from certain topics.

Bren was a lengthy man without a warrior’s stature, but he seemed to exist in a state of perpetual curiosity. Serena had introduced him as one of the foremost scholars of magic in the entire kingdom. He’d introduced himself as a magic geek, and I soon learned what they meant.

“It’s the burn of ice,” Bren said with his sharp eyebrows wrinkled in concentration. “After the skin is completely frozen and goes through the thawing process, much of the upper tissue is destroyed much like with fire, but the burning sensation a person feels isn’t because the ice actually burns them. The process the skin goes through before it freezes is in many ways just the opposite of the burn of fire. Instead of consuming the flesh, it preserves it. It’s only because the body can’t handle this preservation process that the skin dies. But if a magical means can be found, possibly through nature or healing magic, to allow the tissue to survive the process, then ice could become the ultimate defensive magic.”

“Not at the dinner table, love,” Serena reminded him for the third time. Her unlimited patience was proof enough that she really didn’t mind. It’s just that not everyone enjoyed a discussion about dead tissue while they were eating.

I found myself swept away by his enthusiasm.

The man was a genius. Serena was one of the fastest advancing mages in modern history, and Bren was only behind her slightly in level, but he didn’t just practice a few schools of magic. He practiced all of them. I was sure he could put up a good fight if he was forced, but that didn’t seem to be where his interest lied. He was a researcher of the highest degree and very good at what he did. His ice defense research was only something he’d begun a few days ago and it was fascinating to see how his mind worked.

Serena noticed I was interested in the conversation. Nothing got past her. She patted my arm after stopping her husband from continuing as if to reassure me we would return to it later.

When she said she was going to try to fatten me up, she hadn’t been lying. If my appetite wasn’t that of an adult dragon in human form, then she probably would’ve succeeded. However, I just kept eating everything she threw at me, which seemed to please the both of us.

It was only after dinner and the young parents had taken their children to other parts of the house for lessons and play that I was officially introduced to Serena’s oldest son and daughter. It was hard not to think of them as children, since they were both over seventy years old. It made me realize that I needed to really get to know these people to understand who they were. A person’s image was just too deceiving in this world. If I just went by looks then this group more closely resembled a group of academy students having dinner together.

With the doors shut to the ballroom-sized dining room, my sister began from where she was seated at my side. “Brother, this is Theia, my oldest.”

We sat in the corner of the room reclining with full bellies in a semicircle of cushioned chairs.

She was named after our mother… I leaned forward and gave the woman a mostly natural grin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Theia.”

Her eyes were a bright hazel—different than her Serena’s brown. She also had the longer face of her father and was quite petite. “Welcome home, uncle. Mother hasn’t shut up about you since we received the letter.”

Serena was quick to comment. “Yes, well, Theia has always been the biggest thorn in my side, but she tries to help where she can.”

“Mother,” she replied, exasperated. “This is our first-time meeting. If you say such things then Uncle might believe you.”

“You’re right. What I said is mostly untrue.” Before Theia could interrupt, Serena moved on. “And this is my second oldest, Ailen. He was named after the big brother I never knew.”

As she spoke, I saw the slight wetness forming in the corners of her eyes.

There was a sudden movement, and I found my nephew Ailen coming to his feet. He was tall like his father but had grown a well-kept beard that gave his face a fuller look. He was also much stockier than Bren. It spoke of the hard physical training he had done over the years.

Coming to my feet, I took his outstretched hand with my own to shake it.

He pulled me into a firm embrace and whispered a sharp warning. “Hurt my mother, and you’ll regret it.”

With that, he pulled back and gave me a respectful bow of his head before turning to his mother. “I must be off mother. Have a wonderful evening.”

“Ailen,” she replied with a harsh tone, but I shot out my hand behind me to motion her to stop. When she spoke again, she wished him well.

My nephew left the room a few moments later, closing the door behind him.

“I’m sorry about that, brother. I’ll have him come back and apologize.”

I gave her a bemused look. “What for? He’s just taking care of his mother— my little sister—as he should. I like him.”

A snicker erupted from the other chair beside her as Bren slapped his knee. “Well said. You should rough him up a little if you get the chance to spar. We told him who you are, and you can trust him to keep it a secret, but we haven’t told him everything yet. He’s headstrong, but just like little Theia here, he takes good care of us.”

I saw my niece grin at being included, but she still gave me a questioning look. “What haven’t you told us?”

I felt Serena’s gaze and turned to see she had a matching expression.

Nodding her on, I knew it would soon be my turn to fill in the blanks that Minister Leighton’s letter didn’t cover.

“Do you remember me telling you that your uncle was lost in the Grayson Tower?”

“Yes, mother.”

“Well, what I didn’t tell you was that he was pulled through a portal by a lesser demon. He has been stuck in the Netherplane for the last century and just escaped a few days ago.”

The muscle in the side of Theia’s neck twitched. Her face scrunched up and she looked back and forth at the floor while trying to process what was just said. When she looked at me, her head twisted to the side and moaned in sympathy. “You—” She turned back to her mother. “What? I don’t understand. How?”

I could only manage to give Bren, and then Serena a sidelong glance. My sister nodded me on. This was it. The moment of truth. It was time for me to reveal to them what kind of monster I’d become. As with my explanation to Minster Leighton, I gave them an honest telling, and held even less back.

Reaching the part where about my inability to sleep because the Netherspawn just kept coming, they took the revelation that I had to feed on the demons that hunted me far better than I thought they would. Selena was teary eyed already but keeping it together. She pulled her chair over to mine and grabbed ahold of my arm, once again resting her head on my shoulder. Theia, however, was full on balling. I had to force myself to remember she wasn’t a teen and over seventy years old. Bren on the other hand wasn’t callous to what I’d been through, but his fascination won out and he asked clarifying questions.

We were there for hours, and they just let me keep going. I spoke of things that I hadn’t thought of for years. My time in the Nether Wilds was far more varied than it had been in the killing fields. There were times when I ate cooked meat, discovered natural treasures, and dwelled with creatures much more noble than the rabid, bestial demons. I fought some of them to the death and fought others to establish hierarchy. I wouldn’t consider the ones I spared friendly, but there was a measure of respect.

I told them of my run ins with the orc hordes. The only race more vicious than the demons of the Netherplane were those yellow skinned brutes. The beasts I found the most comradery with was the king of all beasts, the dragons. They didn’t fight just to eat and grow more powerful—though that was certainly a reality of their existence. They were highly intelligent and primarily fought because it was what they gloried in.

Then I told them of Demon Lord Kiafer. “Forgive me if my speech is a little rough. For the last few years, he’s the only being I’ve had to speak with, and he was constantly trying to kill me. Our conversations mostly consisted of taunts and threats.” There was much I left out so that things didn’t take an even darker tone. They didn’t seem to understand that all Demon Lords had surpassed level 900, and I didn’t mention Kiafer’s warning that other lords were coming to this realm.

“You’re very well spoken, Uncle,” Theia said sweetly. Her tears had mostly dried by then, but their trails still stained her face.

“And this Demon Lord just let you go home?” Serene asked.

Then I told her that it was his idea. After I’d finished my story, we all just sat there for a long while in silence. Bren asked me a few more questions, but minutes passed between each of them. Then Theia had a question.

“Are you using a technique to hide your level, uncle? Identify only registers you as level 36.”

“Minster Leighton helped me with that actually,” I replied, then started to remove my rings. Placing them on the end table, I then unfastened the chain around my neck.

With each piece of gear I removed Theia’s eyes grew larger. When I started undoing the buckles on my bracers, my sister started helping me undo the one on the arm closest to her.

Once everything was off, it wasn’t just my niece that cast Identify, but my sister and brother-in-law as well. I saw the two of them comparing results and the shake of the head that followed.

Theia commented mostly to herself, “I feel no aura at all.”

“Brother? Exactly what level are you?” Serena finally asked.

I hadn’t mentioned my end level and realm during the telling of my story because it felt too much like bragging. I gave her a shy smile, before pulling up my status screen and spinning it around for them all to see.

There was a squeal from Bren’s chair as he jumped in his seat, nearly falling out of it.

“Ninth realm…” Theia said, looking back and forth between her parents as if she didn’t believe it.

Serena came halfway to her feet before throwing her arms around my neck and squeezing me tight. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry you had to go through that alone. Big brother, you're home.” She pulled back while sitting on my lap like a too large child and insisted, “You’re home.”