Chapter 34 - The River Styx

Aven’s twin axes sank down to their pommels in his hands as the grips squeezed beneath calloused fingers. A chestnut gaze burned against the devil as its boney feet cracked against the earth and it approached with a tail as long as its body whipping behind. “I’ll do my best. You know how good I am with distractions.”

“…Please be careful, Aven,” Lucian’s voice returned. It held a semblance of worry.

As Marcello fell to a knee in focus with his fingers to his temples, the flux of magic ripped behind. From Lucian’s fingertips droplets of water rose forth, amassing into a great wall that separated the devil and Aven from them.

“How noble, mortal.”

The bone devil carried itself forth with wicked interest. It’s claws flexed at its sides while pits of burning red lifted over Aven. A malicious glint of sharp fangs materialized over its gaping mouth. “I have not tasted the flesh of the living in so long. How kind of you to throw yourself upon me.”

It’s presence rooted a cold chill in Aven’s chest. All his hair stood on end and his heart kicked up like a drum. “It’s no favor to you,” he lashed back. Aven dug his foot into the coarse earth, his boot knocking up rubble, and with grated teeth, he sailed forward to meet the devil in combat.

The steel of an axe rang out against bone as the first swipe of a blade met the raised arm of the devil. Entirely unharmed, Aven felt its unliving breath wash cold across his skin. His muscles wavered against its matched strength. The devil’s tongue rolled out, lashing across Aven’s cheek curiously before a single shove sent the man staggering a few paces back.

“How delicious. So we have a hero, do we?” It’s laugh scraped like nails. “Then I shall start with your friends.”

No.

Aven’s stomach twisted and with a burn of determination, he lunged out again. Several powerful swings of both axes crashed against the boney creature. Each hit left a vibration crawling down to the pommels and up into his arms with a dull ache. He could scarcely break its armored exterior, until finally one sank true, leaving a deep indent on a skeletal arm.

Its irritation lashed and its whip-like tail swung. The speared tip caught Aven by the shoulder and knocked an axe to the side as the man gasped out. A clawed hand followed and raked across his abdomen. Then in seconds, the devil leaped back.

Blood trickled down from an open wound where Aven pressed his palm over. He felt a heavy sensation rip through his body, threatening to seize up his muscles before he shook it and heaved a pant. It was damn near impossible to fight. The way it flicked him away like a bug. His hand fumbled out to swipe his axe back into his hand as it leisurely approached Lucian and Marcello.

“Stay away from them!” Aven roared. His footsteps pounded to cover the growing distance when the devil’s hand lifted in a wave. To match Lucian’s wall of water, a great thick barrier of ice shot up to hedge Aven aside. He crashed against it and the wall shuddered. “No!”

Aven leveled his fist at the wall and stepped back. The ring on his left middle finger in the shape of a ram ignited red hot and the ghostly visage of a ram’s head shot out. It’s horns slammed against the wall and chipped away at the solid ice wall. It burrowed partway through, then faded and Aven snarled in frustration.

On the other side, the devil suddenly launched forward. It leaped through Lucian’s wall of water as if it were nothing, a clawed hand grasping around his throat and sending him up against the nearest rocky spire.

Lucian’s eyes widened in horror, a choked breath forced from him. His fingernails scraped against a bony arm. Helplessly, magic hummed down his arm and seized up by its typical wild nature. It’s effect shattered and the devil grinned wider.

“Poor little mage, whatever will you do?”

It lashed it’s tail out again and its stinger sank into Lucian’s stomach. Immediately his body seized up and, with a whimper, fell limp at the devil’s mercy.

“Lucian!”

Panic gripped at Aven and he wildly tore into the wall of ice. Piece by piece as chips of it flew past his face and his muscles screamed for relief, a final blow sent a crack all the way up the expanse of the giant block. Several smaller cracks shot out in all other directions and with a scream of instability, it crumbled.

Aven shoved past, the sting of cold shards burning upon his skin. In seconds his axes were gone, bouncing and sliding across the earth. Freed up arms roped around the devil from behind. One arm secured around its neck, the other past its abdomen as he brandished its weight back against him with a yank. “Get off of him,” he snarled.

Large. Larger than him. It took everything Aven had to swing the fiend off of Lucian and the two of them crashed against the ground. Both rolled and fought, the devil roaring out in fury. Claws raked at Aven’s cheek, its tail narrowly missing his head.

Lucian slumped down against the spire with a sputtering gasp, his hand over his throat. “Aven!” he screamed hoarsely. He pointed out a finger towards the devil and Aven, trying to lock on to a single target as another spell hummed at its tip. They were too close. He couldn’t cast without possibly hitting Aven…

“I will rip the flesh from your bones and paint the ground red with your blood!” The fiend’s fury seemed to grow as Aven battled to hold it. A fist smashed hopelessly into its jaw and blood sprayed across Aven’s knuckles.

His strength seemed to waver, dwindling with exhaustion. A tremble held his arms as the devil grasped one and wrenched it to the side. Aven cried as his shoulder rolled in its socket.

Finally, Marcello’s trance broke.

The Netyarch’s gaze shot up wildly with an inhaled breath and before his gaze could roll over the battle, a hellish glow burned like pits in his eyes. Marcello wrenched forward on his hands and knees. His back arched into an odd curve. Fingers that clawed at the earth began to fuse and shape into large hooves. Black, ebony fur crawled and extended up arms that broadened and lengthened. In seconds, he stood as a looming figure of hell. Flames ripped down his neck and backside like a mane and tail. He reared up with a threatening scream, the Nightmare horse tossing his head.

“Aven, now!”

Lucian tore up from the ground and raced for Marcello. He swung up onto his back hurriedly and readied a spell. A cold blue gaze burned like ice chips on the devil in wait.

The second Aven ripped away from the devil and rolled to his side, a spell of ice shot out in a lance. It crashed to the bone devil and pinned it to the ground by its shoulder, granting Aven enough time to stagger onto his feet and race over.

His breaths were ragged. Aven swung his axes onto his back and with a bloodied hand, grasped Lucian’s own outstretched one to pull himself behind on Marcello. “Go! Go now,” he hissed out.

“Don’t rush me, fatasses!” Marcello retorted back in a haunting tone. His hooves dug into the ground and he surged forth. Faster and faster. They whipped past the bone devil who freed itself and stood.

The ground split open at the devil’s side, leading into darkness and rippling flame of another dimension as another boney figure began to pull itself free.

Before they could even see the other bone devil emerge from its summon, the click of hooves ceased. Rather than running upon the ground, smoke and flames charged beneath the Nightmare’s hooves that carried them into the air and out of reach.

Soon the devil below disappeared from their sight and Aven slumped against Lucian from behind with a shuddered breath. Exhausted and aching, his face burrowed into a shoulder. “Are you okay..?”

Lucian flicked a bewildered gaze back. “You’re asking me if I’m okay?” It suddenly turned to a scowl. “You idiot. Don’t you dare ask me that.”

“…Why not?”

“Look at you! Why on Toril would you do something as stupid as pinning that thing?!”

Aven winced and reached forward to tangle his fingers with Lucian’s where they gripped into Marcello’s back. “Because it was hurting you.”

“Ew. Please save this for when you’re not on me,” Marcello snorted.

On the back of Marcello’s nightmarish equine form, they were at last able to get a good look at their surroundings as they peered through the chaos of Carceri. It was a purgatory of evil. Swarms of demons flew overhead, and down in the craggy mountains below they watched as devils ripped each other to pieces. The air smelled foul, like chemicals that burned in their mouths, in their lungs.

Lucian felt Aven grip him tighter from behind, and Lucian placed a hand soothingly over his, fingers twisting into Marcello’s black fur.

Beneath the clashing of titans, they managed to fly without a stir in the wind. Hours passed by. And yet… it was as though they’d made no progress. Endless mountains spanned the distance. No sense of time or direction.

At last, Lucian snarled and bowed over. “Damn it!” He hissed. “It just goes on forever."

"Perhaps we should land for a bit,” Aven murmured. “And try to figure out what’s going on-"

"Land WHERE, Aven?!” He waved his hand to the sheer cliffs that ran along the mountain faces.

“Quiet!” Marcello snapped, looking back towards them. “Do you want every fiend in Carceri to-”

Lucian saw it. The immediate panic in the nightmare’s gaze as Marcello looked back. Lucian’s fingers moved in complete instinct, fingertips glowing as he etched a lightning fast symbol into the air and behind them - great claws shattered against the shield he’d conjured.

A roar threatened to shatter their skulls.

Powerful jaws snapped and the slightest twist of Marcello’s body kept them from being bitten in half. Lucian spared a look backwards, and his blood went cold. The creature was massive and emaciated, with drooping flesh and tattered, mottled wings. It was a sickly green with bands of black stretching down its body with black eyes that glowed a rancid veridian.

Its fangs and claws were stained black and as one of them struck out, tearing across Marcello’s flank drawing a cry from him, Lucian could see its features twist into sadistic glee.

A Tarterian dragon. Lucian grit his teeth, fingers twisting into Marcello’s mane. “Fly!” He roared as he hurled a javelin of ice towards the dragon.

Tattered wings tucked in and it dove past the icy spear, talons out to grab them. They snatched at air as Marcello made a sharp turn, flaming hooves kicking at the side of a mountain and pushed off into the darkness with the dragon seconds on their tail.

Marcello was fast. But the dragon was faster. As he flew around needle like mountains in a desperate attempt to shake it, the dragon was drawing closer and closer. Lucian’s eyes tore around desperately. They needed another cave to hide in, something to get away!

“Lucian!”

He looked back as he felt Aven’s arms rope around him protectively.

The dragon’s jaw unhinged, opening wide like a snake about to devour its food. But no fire nor acid erupted from its mouth. Instead - it was a fog. A wretched, black mist coiled around them like smoke and Lucian felt the life seep out of him. The light. The joy. The hope. Everything that had burned inside the prince had suddenly gone out like an ember being smothered, leaving nothing but crippling, suffocating darkness and despair.

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. The nightmare collapsed against the mountainside, sending Aven and Lucian sprawling off, barely able to catch themselves on its sharp surface. On their hands and knees, they clung to the edge of the cliff and could only sob as the crushing dark closed in around them.

Marcello’s polymorph had sputtered out as he leaned to the mountain’s edge, face bloodied from their crash landing. The dragon’s claws tore down the cliff, securing itself in place to leer down at them in glee.

Glee… until it’s glowing green gaze focused on Marcello’s face.

Tears poured down his face. His eyes were stained red. Yet they were not hollow. They were not empty. They burned with anger and with a sound of disgust, wiped his thumb along the conjured tears. “Please,” he snarled, throwing a hand out. “I’ve felt worse.” Lightning generated between his fingertips, reflecting in his blue eye pooled with tears and with a roar, sent it hurling forwards.

The lightning connected with the dragon’s chest, spreading out through its body with cracks and snaps. Its roar shook the mountain, claws burrowing deeper and deeper into the cliffside until it let go, wings snapping outwards and disappeared into the hazy green clouds.

The cloud of black lifted. Lucian swayed, caught by Aven who rubbed his red tinted eyes. “What the hell was that…?” He hissed out and Marcello gathered himself, flicking away tears.

“A Tarterian Dragon,” he murmured. “While they possess no breath weapon of flame or ice or acid, they can swallow you up in crushing despair. Bastards.” He looked out over the expanse of Carceri…and his eye widened. “…Lucian,” he murmured. “Look.”

Lucian tore up his tired eyes and a gasp tumbled from his lips. “…that’s it,” he said. “The River Styx."

A great river of rushing, black water flowed through the mountains like a floating, twisting snake. Rushing water pushed through and around the cliffs in an eternal stream of black sludge.

Aven’s fingers tightened into Lucian’s shoulder. ”…that’s…what we have to navigate?“

"Yes,” Lucian murmured. “But… not alone. They can only be navigated by the Marraenoloth’s. Servants of Charon. They ask for a price, but once that price is paid, they guide you along the river to your destination…even the prime material plane. Marcello… do you think you can fly us to the river?”

Marcello sank against the cliffside. “I can barely stand right now, Lucian,” he murmured, looking back to where the dragon’s claws had raked across his back.

“That’s all right. Just wait a moment.” Lucian focused. He etched a conjuration circle into the air with his fingers and with a bright glow - two hippogriffs were summoned from the dark. He swung up onto one, Aven behind him and Marcello mounted the other. “It looks like there’s a mountain overhang just by the river’s edge. We can wait there for one of the marraenoloth’s.”

The idea of simply waiting was something neither Aven nor Marcello argued. The hippogriffs carried them the short distance to the overhang and were dispelled as they touched down.

While Aven watched out for enemies, Lucian stepped near the water’s edge. "Be careful not to touch it,” he called back to his companions. “You’ll lose your memory.” They didn’t answer. He looked back. “Resting? Right now?"

Marcello glared up at him. "Carrying your ass isn’t as easy as it looks."

"I’m not fat."

"No, but you are bony. It was like I was being stabbed the whole way."

Aven cleared his throat and glanced over. "So… finding one of these demons,” he said. “How do we go about it?”

Lucian stared into the inky water. “I don’t know.”

“…You don’t know,” Marcello snorted. “We came all this way to the River Styx and you don’t even know what to do.”

“It was the best option we had, after you sent us into Tartarus.”

Marcello scoffed and threw his fingers through his hair. “Brilliant,” he muttered, sitting down on the stone. “Just… great.”

Silence swept over the three as they sank to the ground. They could hear shrieks and howls in the distance, and somewhere, that dragon would be looking for them. It could be behind the clouds that gathered around them, or crawling up the cliffside.

Aven looked to Lucian, standing at the edge of the cliff face and peering down into the empty darkness. He looked to Marcello, leaned to the mountain with his knees pulled into his chest. His fists curled and he stepped towards the river, peering down its length. A red mist lifted up from the water. Peering down…he could see shapes in its depths. Swords broken in half. Discarded rings. Bodies that floated, unseeing, staring up into nothing.

“They’re dreams,” Lucian murmured from his side. “Lost, forgotten. I suppose we’ll be the next faces in the water.”

Aven’s stomach coiled as he watched a ratty doll drift down the river. “No,” he murmured. “We won’t be.”

Movement caught Aven’s attention. He lifted his gaze and peered through the red fog that lifted up from the water. His eyes widened. “Lucian! Marcello!” He said. He pointed.

A paddle crafted of woven bone dipped through the water as a longboat of black obsidian dragged itself through the tar. A figure stood upon its deck. Its face was hidden by the deep cowl of its black cloak, but from the shadows under the hood, red eyes burned malevolently at them as the skiff came to a slow stop beside them.

The boat drew towards the edge of the river of taint and Marcello staggered to his feet to place his boots upon the very edge. He stood tall, without fear of the looming liquid bubbling down in a lazy current of lost memories. A single blue eye swept the demonic guide as it silently floated nearer.

“You are a marraenoloth?” He spoke out questioningly. “You act as a guide of these waters?”

We are the river.

The voice vibrates like the hiss of a snake lingering at the back of his skull and the demon guide sinks its paddle into the water, halting the long ebon boat.

Marcello holds his ground. “We seek passage through.”

A twisted smile gleamed from beneath the cowled hood. A toll must be paid for passage. Without, the River will take you. It motioned down to the waters where the husk of a woman in a soggy, stained dress floated beyond the boat with black pools for eyes and empty features.

“What sort of toll, then?” Marcello could feel his heart begin to pick up pace, a sense of dread akin to the dragon’s ghastly breath settling in his bones.

A life.

It was as if the breath had been knocked from him. Knocked from all of them. Marcello opened his mouth to speak when Lucian lurched forwards with a snarl. His fingers curled into the man’s robes, yanking him from the edge as an icy cold gaze locked with the demon. “No. I am sick of trading our lives around like it’s some game!”

Aven quickly sailed to grasp Lucian by the arm. “Lucian.. Just wait a minute,” he pleaded. He turned brown eyes onto the marraenoloth. “A life. You said a life, can it be any life? Maybe we could simply capture one of the creatures here. We could go back if you just gave us a few minutes.”

Marcello had wisely stepped aside, silent as he watched the water.

The marraenoloth simply shook its head. Any human life.

“Then no deal,” Lucian bit out. He wrenched his arm from Aven’s grasp. Somewhere in the clouds of red, the roar of a dragon vibrated. “We aren’t taking the river. We’ll find another way. There has to be something…”

Even as he spoke, it was evident their only viable way out was through the river. His tone was laced with uncertainty, and the marraenoloth quickly turned its focus back on Marcello.

Still so silent.

Marcello’s fingers twisted into fists at his sides as he dared drag his gaze up to meet the demon’s. “No, Lucian. This is the only way out of here, you know it.” He swallowed the lump rising in his throat and once again stepped up to the edge of the River Styx. “All of this is my fault. My mistakes. Thinking I could head a mission on my own. Thinking I could protect my sister and the two of you. Thinking I could save us from that fucking dragon. This is my toll to pay.”

Shock rippled over Lucian’s features as the words turned over in his head. “What? Marcello you can’t be serious, none of this is your fault! There’s no way in hell I’m letting you do that. We’re all getting out of here together, Halruaa needs you too.”

“I don’t care. Here or back on the material plane, it’s all the same hell to me.” Marcello leveled Lucian with a firm look. “You will take over Halruaa in my stead. They’ll help you with your war and you will take care of them and help them with theirs. Just as was promised.” He moved to reach out a hand to the marraenoloth.

“No.” Lucian caught the hand and tore Marcello away, fury and desperation burning in his gaze. His other hand smashed against the man’s shoulder. “You will not do this to me, Marcello Silvercrest. You promised to help me.”

Marcello grimaced and took Lucian’s face in his palm delicately. “I am helping you in the only way left for me to help you right now. If I don’t do this, we will all die here and both our nations will fall to evil.”

Tears surfaced in the prince’s eyes as he searched Marcello. All sense of reason had left him, his legs trembling where he stood. “We’ll find another way. I don’t care, I won’t let you.”

“You have no choice.” Marcello’s lips touched down to Lucian’s hair before twisting into a sad smile. “Aven, you know I’m right. I know you’ll do what it takes to protect him, so I need you to hold him back.”

“What!?” Lucian jerked back to send a warning look towards Aven. “Don’t you dare.”

Aven looked helplessly between them, his gut twisting into knots. And silently he stepped forward. His fingers curled at Lucian’s arms and he began to drag him back from Marcello. “Please forgive me,” he whispered. “He’s right…”

It didn’t matter.

Lucian’s fist sailed into Aven’s face and collided with his nose as a gasp tore from his lungs. He squirmed and fought and kicked with everything he had, but Aven’s arms held firm around his body. “No! No don’t do this! Let me go, Aven! Marcello, please!” Tears tore down his cheeks and his voice twisted with strain.

Marcello didn’t meet his gaze. He turned from the pleas with his heart lodged in his throat, a single tear clinging to his cheek. Each step towards the marraenoloth sapped the strength from his body where it stood with an outstretched hand. He carried himself before it and stopped just short.

“Marcello, don’t leave me!”

The cry forced Marcello’s teeth down on the inside of his cheek and the taste of metal exploded across his tongue. “I’m sorry,” he whispered breathlessly. His hand found the demon’s and a ripple of necrotic energy shot through him. A gasp replaced the breath in his lung as tendrils of black crawled up his arm and neck. It painted his veins black and in seconds he fell to his knees.

Pain.

The inevitable burning sensation that turned to a frigid cold. It drowned out Lucian’s screams as Marcello’s eye fell shut in acceptance, but what he thought to be the creep of death never took him.

It’s done.

Done?

A hazy gaze blinked open to watch his hand fall from the marraenoloth’s grasp in a blur. A blotchy black symbol of Carcerai was branded into the flesh of his hand, as if carved deep by a knife. Marcello yanked his hand back to his chest in suspended dread. “What… what do you mean done? I’m… I don’t understand,” he croaked out.

You will. The demon motioned a hand for the three to board onto the boat and stepped aside.

Lucian finally tore himself from Aven’s grasp and staggered a few steps forward. He let his icy gaze sweep over Marcello and Aven behind a teary glaze of betrayal before a hand pushed over his cheek. It felt like a slap to the face as he wordlessly moved to board the boat, the inky water sloshing against its sides.

Aven didn’t move for a long while. Held in place by stunned confusion, he nursed the burn of his nose where a fist had crashed. “I don’t understand. What just happened, Marcello?”

No answer.

The raven haired man stared down at the ground in horror, tears more fervently leaking down his cheek. They dripped soundlessly from his chin. He looked exhausted. Sunken. The hopelessness of readily accepting a death that never came hanging over him in a shadow. Marcello swallowed and sucked up a ragged breath before he slowly made it onto his feet. He swayed where he stood. “Get in the fucking boat, Aven.”

Aven winced. The tension that crawled between the three left him in silence and a ball of anxiety and despair radiating from Lucian suffocated his chest. His feet shuffled against the ground until he met the edge of the river and swung himself inside the boat, falling beside Lucian.

Soon after, Marcello followed. The boat dipped a final time beneath his weight as he chose the other end of seats, his back to the longways edge. Once inside, the marraenoloth brandished its paddle, raking it across the surface of the water to carry them out.

Marcello couldn’t help the turmoil of his mind.

If death did not find him now, it meant it would soon. More torment, more pain. An uncertainty of death lurking in wait.

He was a fool to have hoped a swift death.

————————————–

Space and time faded away as the boat sailed forth. Carceri fell behind them, and the world moved impossibly fast until they were sucked into a vortex of stars. Muggy heat swallowed them as the river flowed through planes and realms, weaving through the lower planes of the astral realm.

The silence was just as crushing. No words. Barely even a breath.

The three men were silent in their grief, tension and exhaustion as they sat on the boat, peering numb into the darkness of the astral realm.

Finally, Lucian stood. Every motion was stiff, fists curled at his side as he moved to Marcello. He glowered down at him with furious, red tinted eyes. “Why.”

Marcello flinched. His eyes swept over the water. “To save you."

"To save me?” Lucian hissed. He forced himself into Marcello’s gaze. “I didn’t ask you to do that."

"You didn’t have to. I couldn’t protect anyone up until that moment but… I knew I could protect-"

"Bullshit,” Lucian snarled. “I’m sick of it. I’m sick of people dying for me. Getting hurt for me. I don’t- I can’t-” he stumbled over his words. He grit his teeth, the residue of Lucian’s emotions spilling onto his devastated features. “I just can’t. Not you. Not Aven.”

Marcello’s shoulders sank. He said nothing. Not for a long while. He drew his eyepatch off his face tiredly and his multi-coloured gaze swept over the lost things floating in the water. A shattered locket. A broken crib. “…Listen to me, Lucian,” he murmured. “People will always die for you. It’s the hardest thing to accept as royalty. I… can’t even…"

“What are you trying to say, Marcello?”

He gnawed at his lower lip and his hand snatched Lucian’s to pull him down beside him. "I’ve lost my whole family. Or… I thought so, until we started talking.”

Lucian’s brows bumped together. “What do you mean…”

The edge of Marcello’s lip twisted upwards in a thin smile. “I feel like I gained another brother. And I couldn’t lose you to the place I put us in."

“So what, you were just going to lay down and die?”

“It was the only way.”

“No.” Lucian’s hand tightened around Marcello’s. "I will never accept that. I will never just lie down and let the people I love keep trying to die for me, I’ve already been through that shit once!”

Lucian suddenly stopped himself.

A single word reverberated through his skull. Love. His head snapped around to Aven, who was draped over the side of the boat asleep. Lucian hung his head. Pale hair framed his face, as though in defeat and he rubbed his eyes. “…I don’t want to be the kind of ruler that sits upon a throne made up of the bones of his friends.”

Marcello didn’t wait for permission. He tugged Lucian into his arms. “I’m sorry, Lucian,” he whispered. “Let’s just…get home. Finish what we were doing.."

Lucian didn’t complain. Didn’t try to pull away. He ducked his head into Marcello’s shoulder as they went quiet to the rocks of the boat sailing down the River Styx. They were exhausted. Exhausted enough to fall asleep upon a river leading from purgatory.

At last - they were stirred by the stopping of the boat and Marcello blinked his eyes open tiredly. Lucian had fallen asleep in his lap, Aven still slumped against the side of the boat.

Before them was a tear in the realmspace filled with black mist. A tear leading to another world… a portal. They were in a void of utter darkness, with only the flickering of the marraenoloth’s lantern to give light.

Marcello stirred Lucian awake. "Lucian, Aven,” he said. “Look."

Lucian blinked away his exhaustion and sat up. His icy gaze swept over the portal in skepticism. "So we just… jump in?” He asked their guide. The fiend remained silent. Beady red eyes were locked on them.

“I’ll assume that’s a yes,” Marcello muttered, pushing up. For a moment, it seemed as though he was about to offer himself up first… then thought better of it. He glanced to Lucian. “…after you."

“No.” Lucian grabbed Marcello’s hand, then Aven’s. “All of us…together.”

Marcello’s eyes softened. His hand squeezed back. “Together.”

The three men turned to the tear in the realmspace - and leapt into darkness.