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It took a while for him to understand what was happening. Even after the reaper explained it twice, he still wasn’t sure he got it all.

But he could keep living. And he could be strong. Those things, he understood. There wasn’t much more to think about besides that.

Aside from one thing.

“...What about my friends?” he asked.

“Little Damian and Germal? Don’t worry. I’ve got friends, too. Their names are Feromas and Nerovoy. They’re talking to them as we speak.”

“So we’ll all get to come back?”

“That’s right,” she said.

“You’re... not lying, are you?”

“Oh, you dear boy. That’s not a very good method of testing someone’s honesty. But don’t worry. I’ll teach you. All in good time.” She paused. “Oh, but yes, I am telling the truth. Worry not.”

That hadn’t done much to curb Parson’s suspicion, but he didn’t know what else to say.

“Hmm,” said Overra. “Very well. If you would like the complete truth of it--and I assume you do--then I must admit that the three of us were originally only going to revive Damian and his family. Feromas is Damian’s great grandfather, you see. That was why we returned to fair little Trintol in the first place. But sadly, we arrived too late. And when we saw that Damian was not among the dead there, we decided to search for him--and good thing we did. We nearly arrived here too late, as well.”

And again, Parson wasn’t sure he understood. How much time had passed? He had no idea.

“You should be glad,” said Overra. “You’re lucky boys. The three of you are going to help us change the world.”


Chapter One Hundred Eighty-One: ‘Those who await...’
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It took quite some time to locate the captive Rainlords. Even with Roman’s instructions and all the reapers around to guide them, Capaporo was not the easiest city to navigate. The walls along the pit stretched far and wide, and there were no bridges to use as shortcuts--something Hector considered to be a huge architectural oversight. Why, if he’d been the one in charge of building this city, there definitely would’ve been bridges galore. Maybe there would’ve even been some like the Rainlords had back in Sair--ones that were so big they could hold up entire buildings with ease.

Maybe that would’ve been expensive, but whatever. It didn’t seem like Capaporo was dirt poor, what with all these climate-controlled areas near the bottom of the pit. They could probably afford it. Maybe.

At length, they finally arrived at a cluster of warehouses. The buildings were squirreled away in the back of a temperature-controlled cave, which turned out to be below even what the group previously thought was the lowest level of the city. Finding the narrow path down there had caused them considerable grief, because apparently, Voreese couldn’t guide them to it very well, having not actually visited this place yet. Roman had wanted her to keep her distance for her own safety, she explained.