~~

Trinity

~~

Now that I was doing my best to keep my emotions in check, I was able to move us through the Hall of Damnation at a rapid pace. Albeit one that didn’t scare the boys or the men with me.

If I didn’t know for a fact that I was moving way too fast, I would have just called them all a bunch of babies. But that wasn’t fair, especially to the boys. They were unborn babies. They didn’t have any experience in life at all and yet they were following me through the depths of hell. They were braver than more people in the world, simply because they had been trying to help me out from the beginning. I would never insult them like that, ever.

The cells were flying past us on either side now. They were moving by us so quickly that we couldn’t see who was in them, nor what was happening in them. That was actually the best way that these things could be. It was better for the others not to know what was going on in this place. Rudy and Alexio may be demons, but they don’t belong in this part of the underworld. And the boys didn’t need to see that at all. I needed to protect them as much as I could. Now and forever.

There was one thing that I noticed the further back that I went into the Hall of Damnation. It got quieter. The deeper in, the less the souls that were being tortured screamed. It most likely had to do with them accepting their fate or just losing all touch with their reality. Whatever it was though, they didn’t make a single noise as the shadow reapers worked on them.

I had seen more than one of those reapers out of the corner of my eye, but I never looked close enough to make it so that I could see them clearly. That would have made me slow down and actually see the tortures. I didn’t want that either. No one, not even me, needed to see the tortures.

It was also getting darker. There was less light. And there weren’t any brightly glowing souls to light up the hall either. It seems that, out of everyone we had passed so far, only my father had repented for his sins. Only my father seemed to regret what he had done. That was pretty awful to think about. How much hatred were the others harboring? How much was still weighing down their souls?

I didn’t really have a lot of time to think about that. The moment that the thought slipped into my mind, I could see the end of the hall looming before us. In the distance, I could see what was essentially an enormous and ornately carved cell door.

The door seemed to be shaped like an Ankh. That right there told me that it had to do with Thoth. That was his symbol after all, and on top of that, the cell beyond it was a lot larger than what the others appeared to be like. And there was light coming from within that cell as well.

It was like everything about Hekate’s cell was completely different from the other cells around her. This evil goddess may be a prisoner, but she didn’t seem to be getting treated the same way. She didn’t seem to be getting punished and she had a lot of creature comforts that the others didn’t have for themselves.

In the cell that housed that evil goddess, I saw a large bed that was made out of white marble. On top of that marble bed, there was a mattress that looked luxurious and soft. It was definitely not the bed of someone who was in prison. It looked like the bed of someone who was being pampered.

I guess even when he was locking his wife away from the evil deeds that she had been committing, Thoth couldn’t bring himself to be harsh and cruel to her. He loved her, no matter what she had done. He loved her enough to make sure that she was comfortable in her banishment and punishment.

Aside from that bed, I saw a beautiful fountain with fresh water inside of it. There was a grove of trees from which she could collect various fruits. And everything was just bright and clean, and in no way at all a punishment.

I think what struck me as the most odd of it all, was the fact that there was a giant screen in that prison cell. It was a screen that looked much like a television screen. And on that screen I could see myself.

I was literally watching me and the others zoom closer to that cell as I looked into that screen. This was some sort of viewing magic that I had never heard of. It was magic that was letting her watch me the entire time that I had been here in the underworld. That was how she knew where to send the beasts. That was how she knew when to make people attack me. She had been watching me, and listening to me, this entire time. She was able to do all of those things because she was watching me.

“HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!” She was laughing hysterically in the distance. She was most likely looking into the screen and seeing my face the way that it was frozen in shock and awe. And that look on my face was probably what had made her laugh like that. That **ing hag. I would get her for this. I would make her pay. I swear I would make her pay.

This had to be the reason why I felt like someone was watching me ever since I got to the Hall of Damnation. This had to be why I felt like someone had been keeping tabs on me. This had to be it.

~~

Reece

~~

“What in the **ing hell!?” I bellowed at the screen that I was looking at. “That looks just like this magic here. Talia used magic that has been in the underworld for centuries. No, for millennia. How in the hell did she do that? How did she know what to do?”

I hadn’t taken my eyes off of the screen as I asked the other men those questions.

“I don’t know, but I think that this means Talia is going to be a lot stronger than any of us ever expected.” Valerian sounded serious as he answered me. Not that his response did anything to alleviate my worries.

“I think that my niece is going to be giving her mother a run for her money.” Noah did laugh at that, even though it sounded like it should have been a joke.

“Yeah, I think we have all been underestimating little Tally.” Trevor shook his head, just as worried as I was.

“Yeah well, I think we all need to learn to stop underestimating my children.” I actually did laugh then. It was the truth though, we had all been forgetting from the beginning, that Trinity is powerful, and she’s unlocked a lot of new magic. And that magic is flowing inside of my children too. It only stands to reason that they would take after her. And thank the goddess that they did. Talia had made such an amazing magic screen for us to see what was happening to my Little Bunny.. Now, though, it was time to see what was happening on the other one of those screens, and inside that cell specifically.