Asylum (Causal Enchantment #2)(26)
A derisive snort escaped me but I followed it with a nod. It was one hundred percent my fault. I had toyed with the Fates in my attempt to join Nathan in eternity. I was the one who had fried everyone’s venom. I was the one who had killed my love. Never had I tried to shirk blame.
She smirked. “Well, you single-handedly changed the fate of your world. But by how much? Really, who can say. Was it enough?”
Enough for what? I wondered.
“We had no issues with our venom. So that’s one difference between the two worlds. And from what I gather, Ratheus is running on a different clock, as well; it’s approximately seven hundred years ahead, based on the technology I’ve seen here,” Mage waggled a finger at the digital clock and the built-in stereo system beside the fireplace, “and what I recall of our world before the war.”
“Seven hundred years,” I repeated, my stomach plummeting, the significance of the number unmistakable. “Didn’t the war on Ratheus begin seven hundred years ago?”
“Yes, that’s right. Around the same year as the one Earth is in now.” Mage began pacing, her arms crossed over her chest. “So really, other than the time difference and your venom issue, the worlds are identical.”
“Well, still. The worlds are not the same. There are the geographical names,” I reminded her. “That’s a big difference. Ratheus instead of Earth. And this New Shore; we never had a city named that.”
Mage pursed her lips, then relaxed them to heave a loud sigh. “Have you ever heard of a seer?”
Changing topics again . . . where is this going? Aloud, I answered, “Cousin to the witch. Yes, I’ve heard of them, though I can’t say I’ve ever met one.”
“They’re incredibly rare,” Mage confirmed. “I had one at my disposal for a short while. A servant seer.” Mage opened the door to Evangeline’s closet, scanned the racks upon racks of brand new designer clothes, and arched her eyebrows. Finally she closed the door and turned back to me. “When the human world ended, she prophesized that someone of a parallel world in a parallel universe would come to us. She couldn’t tell me why or when, but she felt the strong urge to hide the identity of our world.”
“But . . . no.” I frowned. “You’re from Ratheus! That’s not parallel!”
Mage paused for only a second. “Have you ever looked at the letters in the name ‘Ratheus’?”
No. I closed my eyes. R-A-T-H-E-U-S. “Oh God . . . ” I murmured.
Mage had lifted a figurine from the mantel and studied it as she continued, her tone conversational. “I played around with the words ‘our Earth,’ but couldn’t find a name I liked with those letters. So I eventually came up with ‘Ratheus,’ using ‘Earth’ and ‘us’ as a base. And ‘New Shore’ was so named because it was the shore we landed on in our new world.” Placing the figurine back on the mantel, she smiled sadly at me. “Ratheus is Earth, Sofie. Our worlds are parallel . . . as the fates of each may be.”
Mage may as well have punched me in the stomach. The Fates had left the part about the planet being parallel out of their details. Deep down, I had toyed with the idea, wondering if it were possible. Then, when Evangeline told me it was called Ratheus, I’d relaxed, assuming they were only eerily similar. Mage had just crushed that with her admission. But something still didn’t add up. “How is this possible?”
“What, parallel planets?” Mage shrugged, holding her hand up dismissively. “How do vampires exist? How do witches and magic exist? I learned long ago that there’s no logical thought to all of this. You can’t rationalize that which defies all logic. Don’t even attempt it. You’ll only leave with more questions.”
“Do all the . . . Ratheus vampires know this? Does Caden know?” I frowned as I wracked my memory of what I had seen with my invasive spell.
Mage denied it with a small shake of her head. “My seer was adamant that it be hidden from everyone. It makes sense—had Evangeline known the real risk, would she still have agreed to it? Would you?” She paused. “So I had every single one of them compelled. I wiped it clean from their memory. All they know is Ratheus.”
I felt my eyes bulge. Vampires compelled? And so powerfully? Impossible! Only humans could be compelled. “How . . . ” I sputtered but Mage was already walking toward the door, straight for the sound barrier. Walking through that would break the bubble and end our conversation when I needed so much more info.
“It doesn’t matter. I suggest you not mention any of this to the others yet.”
“Mage, please!” One burning question needed to be asked. “What started the war?”
She stopped just before she reached the magical barrier and turned. “Well, for one thing, a group of fanatical humans who made it their mission to kill vampires and witches.” The Sentinel. Further proof of our worlds’ similarities. Nausea again churned my stomach. “They hid underground for years, until we were sure time and common sense had eradicated them. We became complacent, and they suddenly appeared, allied with the witches and stronger than ever, with their sole goal, outing us.”
I frowned doubtfully. The Sentinel despised the witches as much as they did vampires. So many of my previous kind had been burned at the stake by the zealous Sentinel that an alliance seemed impossible. Sure, Ursula had used several Sentinel members in her plot, but that was the work of an insane woman offering her wiles in exchange for brute force, I was sure of it. “And then what?” I pressed. “The Sentinel and the witches attacked and started the war? Just like that?”