Chapter 128: Chapter 128

There was snow on the ground and trees all around and rocks and a blue sky above. It looked different, vastly different, but I still recognised the place, even with the different season - it was where Choco was or at least had been two years ago. How had Morgan brought me here? Or better, why had he done that?

"Where is this place?" I asked Morgan, standing and brushing snow from my trousers. I decided that pretending to know less than I did was probably the smarter way to go. Let the other guy do all the explaining.

"Isn’t this where you’ve been trying to get to this whole time?" was Morgan’s response, leaving me more confused than before. He was wearing the same coat as he had in the memory which made me wonder for a moment if I was still in a Coil, which also didn’t help.

"And where have I been trying to get to?" I asked in return.

Morgan gave a tired chuckle then sighed and took a seat on a large rock. He pulled out his phone and checked his messages.

"Choco," he called out as he scrolled. "It looks like you’ll have to be the mediator."

I stared in shock at the man. "You... know Choco?" And not just that, he knew her nickname, the one I’d given her.

"You mean, Ch’lokoloccath, strider of stars and holder of Maloneer’s Dominion? Sure," said Morgan as he put his phone away and crossed his legs. "We’re distant relations."

Distant relations? What the hell did that mean? I took a step back to create some space between us in case there was a scuffle. I also tried reaching for my magic but found it was still largely dampened. I was right earlier. This was outside of the Coil.

"Stop teasing the boy," came a melodic voice and from between the trees finally emerged Choco.

"Choco," my feet went automatically to her. I’d only met her the one time, and then only briefly, but I still felt a swell of emotion on seeing her again. I guess blood really is thicker than water. "I’m here to rescue you."

Choco smiled at me and then pinched my cheeks. "You look like you’re doing well, my little one, though a little thin. Is Bran not feeding you enough?"

I glanced at Morgan with flaming cheeks and pulled out of reach of Choco’s pincers. "He does, I’ve just been really busy..."

Morgan smothered a laugh and suddenly I felt like a kid at a family reunion. "Will you explain to him, or should I?" he asked.

Choco turned and gave him a solid glare. "I think you’d better first explain yourself. You made this mess yourself, you should be the one to clean it up."

Morgan raised both hands in submission. "Alright, okay. Where should I start...? Okay, Misha," he said, "I’m not actually your enemy."

"Could have fooled me," I shot back.

"I deserved that," said Morgan.

"You certainly do," added Choco.

Morgan gave a patient smile. "Yes, we were on opposing sides before, and yes, I did go against you and against Bran."

"But what, it was all for a good cause?"

I caught a look of surprise and sadness flickered in Morgan’s eyes before he bowed his head. "Yes, or, I thought it was." He looked to the side where a cluster of out of season mushrooms grew at the base of a frozen tree. "I thought... He had good ideas, you see. No, he had interesting ideas, one that seemed good at the time but turned out to not be in the long run."

"Ideas to rule the world through controlling the means to make the world tick? Monopoly on power?"

"I give you that it seems so obvious now that a plan like that would end up driving the Earth into this sorry state, but you have to understand that it didn’t seem like that at the time. Arthur argued he’d become the great unifier, but of course, that’s not what happened and I’ve been trying to work against him every since."

"Since..." Morgan took a moment to think. "Honestly, I don’t even recall when. It was a long time ago."

So before you and I met and all this happened. Which meant Morgan had been a double agent for... a while? It was a hard thought to swallow given everything that had happened like with you or with Coral and that purple crystal stuff, but then I remembered something else.

Morgan smiled. "The Baize Tu," he agreed. "I’ve been trying to... subdue Arthur for quite some time now, but none have been successful. In more recent times, I’ve gotten more desperate."

Desperate was one way to look at the situation he’d put Coral in with that scary crystal stuff growing inside her psyche.

"What... exactly is your connection to Arthur?" I asked.

"Arthur is..." Morgan’s voice trailed off. "No, he’s not exactly my creation. I brought him into this world, but he existed before that. I just gave him a body which is also why I had to keep my subterfuge secret. I could only start to act openly when you lot caught him in that Coil."

I’d been expecting a response like ’he’s an old friend’ or something, not this ’creator’ business. "I don’t..."

"There are two world," said Choco, coming to the explanatory rescue. "Or rather, at least two worlds. One physical, that’s the one we are all in now, and then there’s the Aetheric, the Spirit World essentially. All souls come from the Spirit World and that is also where all souls return once their physical form can no longer keep them anchored. Normally a soul will not remember or even be the same one from life to life. They’re a little like water - scoop up a cup then drop it back into a bucket. But with Arthur-"

I jumped at Morgan’s sudden interjection. He’d been so calm up to this point that him suddenly jumping to his feet scared me.

But instead of looking angry or something at Choco, he instead looked worried, scared even as he looked around the clearing.

"What is it?" I asked and I saw Choco’s eyes also widen.

She glanced to the side, searching for something, then grabbed my hand, pulling me behind her. "We have to-"

Morgan took a position behind me, facing outward, almost like he was protecting me. Like they were both protecting me.

There came a whistling through the trees, and a strong wind pulled the fallen snow back into the air again, swirling around our little clearing. Both the sound and the wind grew stronger and stronger, tugging and tearing at the trees and making them wail.

"I invoke a convening of the Board!" shouted Choco.

The howling wind stopped.

The whistling stopped.

Even the snow spinning through the air stopped, frozen in space as if time had suddenly stopped...

I looked around carefully and saw that even the small blades of half-alive grass had stopped moving. Had time really stopped? But we weren’t inside a Coil anymore, so how was that possible? Or was this all just an illusion? You’d explained to me before that they don’t need to necessarily exist inside of a Coil, so perhaps...

Then out from the trees hopped a frog. Its feet didn’t indent the snow and it came to a stop before Choco in no time. When it had stopped and stood up on its hindlegs I noticed it was wearing a waistcoat.

"Your request has been accepted. Please," the small creature squeaked and made a polite gesture with an outheld paw and a little bow. To the side of the frog, a door suddenly puffed into existence and opened, revealing a set of stairs going off into darkness.

"Thank you," said Choco. She took my hand. "Come."

And so she led me through the door, with Morgan following behind. The frog entered last, somehow closing the door behind us, then threaded between our legs to take the lead.

"Where are we going?" I asked quietly to Choco as we climbed the stairs. All around us was black while the stairs were white and glowed faintly.

"Choco’s just called an emergency meeting of the Board," Morgan answered from behind me.

I glanced back. "Board?"

Morgan shook his head and put a finger to his lips. "Wait till we get there first. Otherwise..." He gave an ambiguous shrug, but I understood.

That blowing wind earlier hadn’t been some random weather. It was something that was triggered by the conversation we’d been having that, if my thinking was correct, and needed to make sure certain things went unsaid. Perhaps it was similar to the guardian of a Coil trying to maintain the integrity of its domain.

And so we all walked in silence along those steps going up and down and seemingly sideways as the platforms marked out a scattered line in that dark void. The rightful source is novᴇlfire.net

Finally, our frog guide pointed. "We approach! Ready yourselves."

They scampered up the last few steps and opened the door.

"Don’t worry," said Choco, squeezing my hand.

I stepped through the door with her and into a glowing sea of stars.