“You didn’t invite your own father to the Yule Ball. I’m disappointed.”
“What do you want?” Because, for sure, he wanted something.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, mockingly. Then he turned toward the students, parents, and professors at the tables. “Your world will perish soon,” he started in a low, mysterious voice. “The reign of Life and Death is nearing its end. There are worlds out there that know no Life, nor Death, and they are free. You all are living in a cage, trapped in an endless circle of birth, growth, and decay. No more. I will set you free, if it’s the last thing I do. This world is too precious to me to abandon it. So, I’ve come to tell you: set your affairs in order and prepare to be saved, released into eternity. Soon. I will come back soon.”
His words fell like bricks in the silence of the ball room. What the fuck was he talking about? I couldn’t even imagine what was going on in his head. Was he trying to scare us, or confuse us? To what end? Maybe he thought we’d all forgotten about him, and this was just to remind us he was still here, hiding in the shadows, still posing a threat.
The movement of his cloak told me he was going to teleport. Not so fast! I swung forward, and the blade of my scythe went through a disappearing edge of his cloak, like a hook, just as he vanished. I teleported with him. My feet firm on the frozen ground, the wind blowing my veil away… I looked around me and saw we’d landed in the middle of a frozen lake.
“Good. You’re here.”
“You wanted me to follow you?”
“I made quite an entrance back there. Did you like it?”
I scowled at him. “Didn’t impress me.”
The wind was howling, raising flakes of fresh snow around my ankles. I squeezed my scythe, and the handle and blade grew warm, hungry for blood if I chose to fight. But I knew this wasn’t going to be a confrontation. He knew I couldn’t hurt him, just as he couldn’t hurt me.
“What did you mean? The reign of Life and Death is nearing its end… What are you planning to do?”
“Free you. Free all of you…”
“That’s just nonsense. A story you tell yourself to justify your taste for power. You talk about Life and Death as if they’re… people.” He still looked like a glowing skeleton, which meant he didn’t do it to impress. He was actually stuck with it. Someone told me long ago… I couldn’t remember who. There’s only one other creature that looks like him. Death herself. If Death was a creature, then Life had to be a creature, too. I’d posed this question a few times to different people, but no one was able to answer me.
“And if they are,” he said, “do you know what that means? It means they’re the real gods or goddesses of this world. Ruling from the shadows, holding Time captive, laughing as we all dance the same dance over and over again… There’s no end to our suffering. There’s no end when we’re born and we die, we’re born and we die…”
It was the discourse of a madman, but there were details I couldn’t help noticing. What he was describing… If this was our world, and there were worlds were no one was born and no one died… What he was describing was the universe of the Great Old Ones. No Life, no Death, Time running free. But what about the people? There were no people. There couldn’t be. Only monsters.
“What are you trying to do?” I asked in a weak whisper. I was afraid of his answer. No, wait. He’s just going to say he wants to set us free. “Do you even understand what you’re trying to do?”
“Come with me, Mila. You’re not like the rest of them. You’re my daughter. Let’s do this together. You and me
, breaking the Wheel of Time, saving everyone…”
I shook my head. “Come where? You found a place, haven’t you? A parallel universe where this has already happened.”
His eyes shined brighter, and that was the only answer I needed. I took a step back.
“I can’t dream jump anymore. Have you forgotten? You killed me, and now I’m no longer human.”
He let his free hand fall at his side. He was holding his scythe in the other, and the blade started glowing read. A call to reaping that he ignored.
“Human,” he said. “Humans and hybrids can dream jump. It’s a gift like no other. People travel the world to see how others live, see what others have that they don’t. They learn, they steal, they go back home and share with their own people. Jumping through universes is the same thing, but on a greater scale.”
And that was when it dawned on me.
“You wanted to convince the Council to pass a law against relationships between humans and supernaturals. Because humans and supernaturals create hybrids, and hybrids dream.”
He smiled. “Close. Few hybrids can dream travel.” He made a bored gesture to wave them off. “Humans finding out about the supernatural world, and that they are, in a sense, supernatural themselves… Now, that’s the real threat. They outnumber us. Always have. Imagine a world of people who can cross to other dimensions the moment they shut their eyes. Imagine a world of dream jumpers who can switch places with their doppelgangers. Humans are stupid, you know that. Reckless and unpredictable. What would they do with such powers?”
I shrugged. “You don’t know. Maybe you’re underestimating us. Them.”
“One doesn’t just give powers like that to the uneducated masses…”
“Who are you to decide?”
“You know who I am.”