Erec’s heart sank. There went his last chance to ever see the light of day again. But, then again, this was excellent news. The Furies were not going to help Baskania. Erec waited, still trying to gauge how angry they were.
“You were a stupid boy.” Tisiphone shook her giant head. “But we were stupid as well.”
“Now, now, Tisi,” Megaera said. “Don’t be so hard on us. Or him. He’s just a boy.”
Erec felt even worse. He had put them in a horrible situation . . . and the Furies were being so
nice
about it
.
Erec deserved to be demolished after this disaster he caused.
“Listen to him,” Megaera said. “He thought it would be different. He actually thought this place would be blown open so we wouldn’t be trapped.”
They all began to laugh, which really shocked Erec. For a moment, they almost sounded like their sisters, the three Fates.
Tisiphone giggled. “As if some human spell could break though bonds that
we
couldn’t escape from.”
When she said that, Erec realized how stupid he had been. What was he thinking?
“The kid wasn’t against us,” Alecto said.
“Not much good that does us,” Tisiphone commented.
Erec had the unnerving feeling that he was eavesdropping on a private conversation, but there was nowhere he could go. This was the way it would be forever—Erec listening in on the Furies’ conversations until they finally happened on another soul for their release. He thought about trying to morph himself back, but he realized that wouldn’t really change anything.
No, he would never be free. He would remain a prisoner of theirs for eternity, keeping them from returning back to Tartarus the next time.
Erec thought of the last time he had been in this cave. At least he had done the right thing then. By just using the correct Awen on his Twrch Trwyth chain he had been able to show them what peace and harmony were like. The Twrch Trwyth was powerful enough to even help the Furies. . . .
And it was still hanging around his neck! What Awen balls were left there? Erec tried to remember. He felt for the boar-shaped glass vial and the three crystal balls that were remaining on it: the Awen of Knowledge, Beauty, and Creation.
Maybe one would work now in some way? The Awen of Knowledge would let Erec know exactly what he should do right now. And it also would tell the Furies what they needed to know. It might be the perfect thing. . . .
“Are you insulting us?” Tisiphone asked him.
“Huh?” Erec was confused.
“You think that we don’t know what to do? That your Awen of Knowledge is something that will tell us something that we haven’t thought of already?”
Erec realized it sounded ridiculous. “Sorry.”
“Our heads are not clouded by anger now, so we can think clearly. We are able to look at all sides of this—which is why we are not going to leave here as soon as we could. Because we don’t want to owe Baskania. Your Awen of Knowledge would add nothing for us, or for you. You have nothing else to do.”
It would be a long eternity of the Furies reading his every thought and putting them all down. Why would Erec try to change things if they already knew it was impossible? He tried to imagine settling in here, floating in the air forever, lonely without his spirit. Right now it wasn’t so bad, but given time he would soon be grieving his lost parts. The other souls here were miserable. Which reminded him—
“Could you please take the Substance Net off of the souls? They’re feeling worse all bound up.”
Alecto nodded. “He is right. There is no need for these poor beings to suffer even more.” She paused. “It’s funny, when we were collecting souls the last time we were here, I don’t remember noticing they were upset.”
Megaera nodded. “How could we? We were much too upset ourselves to see it.”
There was silence for a moment. Then the Substance Web was broken. The souls drifted apart with relief. Now the colors inside each one shimmered even more. They were truly beautiful.
The Furies were watching them too. “I’m not sure it’s right,” Tisiphone said.
“I know.” Alecto’s curls waved around her face with a life of their own. “They will be sad forever with us.”
Erec wondered what they were considering. Surely the Furies would not volunteer to stay in this prison forever just to free this group of souls. Would they?
“You know,” Tisiphone said. “We never finished that discussion from the other day.”
Megaera nodded.
Alecto said, “I wonder if we ever would have. It wasn’t bad there, in Alsatia. We might have gone on forever that way.”
Megaera looked wistful. “Now we may have to go on forever this way.”
Hearing that made Erec feel worse. He had ruined everything.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter now.” Alecto had a strange look on her face. “But for completeness, I want to decide what to do. No more putting it off, sisters. It’s time to make a choice.”
Megaera yawned. “Already? It seems so early for all of that.”
But Tisiphone agreed. “We should have done it right away when we got to Alsatia. We had freedom there, and privacy.”
“But what good was the freedom?” Alecto said. “What did we do with it? What were we going to do?”
Tisiphone nodded. “Exactly.”
Erec wished that he understood. It was like the Furies were having a conversation that made sense to everyone except for him.
Alecto sighed. “Must you think so loud, Erec Rex? We are talking about what our plans will be once we are free again.
If
we are ever free again.”
“Do you mean when you get the extra soul and you can leave here?”
“
If
we leave here. Now that we’re all calm—again thanks to your first visit—we feel that there would need to be a good reason for us to leave. Otherwise it would not be worth causing these souls to suffer forever. Looking at them with fresh eyes, I feel rather bad for them.”
Erec could not believe his ears. They were valuing the lives of the souls more than their own?
“Not more than our own,” Tisiphone explained. “But valuing them nonetheless. What were we doing with our freedom, anyway? Not much more than we are doing here. Yes, it’s a bit claustrophobic.” She looked around. “But at the same time, it’s home.”
“It would be nice to fly in and out, though,” Megaera said.
“It would,” Alecto agreed. “But at the price of these beings?” She gestured to the souls.
“Is that what you are trying to decide, then?” Erec was trying to fit the pieces of their conversation together.
“No,” Tisiphone smiled. “That is something that we all agree on. We will only keep the souls and try to leave if there is a good reason. There is something else, though, that we have put off discussing. It is important, even if we stay here forever. It’s . . . our plan.”
“Your plan for what?” Erec was confused.
“What to do when we get out,” Alecto said. “
If
we get out.”
Erec had no idea what they were talking about. “Didn’t you say that you weren’t doing much when you were free in Alsatia?”
“We hadn’t decided yet,” Megaera said.
It seemed that the conversation was going in circles. Doing what? Planning what?
Tisiphone looked at Erec sternly. “It has to do with our sisters. The Fates. We had not yet decided if we should forgive them.”
“I still think that there is no rush,” Megaera said.
“But there is a rush,” Alecto disagreed. “It is not as easy living here as it was in Alsatia. Now that we are here, it won’t feel right to be in limbo like we’ve been. Our minds won’t be right until we answer this question. And our minds are all we have here. I’m tired of waiting. The choice is simple—do we take revenge against the Fates for imprisoning us? In this case we will keep the souls until we
find one more, let our anger build, then fight until victory is ours. Or should we forgive our sisters and move on with life? Then we will set these poor souls free and resign ourselves to an eternity in Tartarus.”
It seemed a terrible choice either way. Who would commit themselves to an eternal life sentence in jail? But then again, the other option of fighting the Fates sounded just as awful. Violence, death . . . but what was worse, that or eternal captivity?
Alecto laughed. “Erec here has a keen grasp of our situation. But there is one thing you are missing, Erec.”
“What’s that?”
“Happiness. You showed that to us, remember? It may have been brief, but you gave us a taste of the way things should be when you used the Awen of Harmony in this very cave. You may not realize it, but that little glimpse of contentment changed everything for me—for us. It has become our goal now. Why choose strife and anger if it will only take us further from our purpose? Happiness can be attained anywhere, not just in a place of beauty or freedom.”
“And unhappiness can be attained anywhere too,” Megaera added. “We had unhappiness when we were free, long before the Fates locked us here.”
“What would you do, Erec?” Alecto asked.
Erec could not believe his ears. The three Furies—these intensely powerful creatures—were asking his opinion? He thought hard for a minute. What would he do? He knew how bad it felt to be wronged, and how hard that was to let go. Also he could not begin to imagine signing up to be locked away forever. But he kept coming back to one thing. “It’s terrible to think about. I would hate being in your shoes, and I’m sure I wouldn’t handle it as well as you. But I wouldn’t have a choice. I would be stuck here, miserable, forever. There’s no way I could choose freedom at the expense of three thousand others, so I would free the souls. And I wouldn’t even want to hurt sisters that
I was so angry at. I’d forgive them, or just avoid them, maybe. But that’s just me.”
The Furies looked at each other silently. Finally, Alecto said, “I think Erec spoke for all of us.”
One of Megaera’s eyebrows shot up. “Wouldn’t it be odd, and funny, if the Fates locked us here for that reason—so that we would eventually figure this out?”
“That sounds like them, you know,” Alecto said.
Tisiphone giggled. “You know, this decision has made me feel better already, like I’m a million years younger.”
Suddenly, the three started laughing. Their glee was so contagious that Erec and many of the other souls floating around the room found themselves chuckling along.
Their laughter grew and grew until the entire cave began to shake. The Furies were growing, enlarging in size until they took up most of the cave.
“So, we’ve decided then, sisters?” Alecto asked.
The other two nodded.
“It’s a deal, then. Erec, thank you for everything. We are letting you go, along with the rest of the souls here. We Furies have learned our lesson—and from a little boy, no less.”
A ray of sunlight fell on Erec. It looked like a spotlight, as if Erec had just taken center stage and was about to burst into song. But there was no stage . . . so where was the light coming from?
They all looked up. A large crack was forming in the ceiling of Tartarus. It grew larger until chunks of rock began to clatter all around them. The sun shone heavily all around them now, causing the Furies to sparkle with radiance.
Nobody spoke, but all eyes were glued to the roof of the cave. It was as though they were witnessing a miracle. Tartarus was breaking open. And none of them had done a thing to make it happen. Erec
had just talked to the Furies, giving his opinion. They had just agreed with him and made a decision. . . .
So, that was it, then? Their decision had broken Tartarus open?
The three Furies gazed at one another in wonderment. The Fates were letting them go. Erec wondered if this place was programmed to cave in once the Furies decided to live in peace. Or maybe the Fates were listening as they spoke, and chose to give the Furies their freedom. Erec had no idea, but he was sure they had a hand in what was going on.
Chunks of rock dropped in larger pieces, shattering as they fell and filling in the cave with boulders and soot. The souls were taking last looks at the Furies before darting through the opening in search of their long-lost spirits. Erec hoped they all found them. Watching them leave, he felt a hot burst of longing for his own spirit and body. He thought the word
Nee-way
and tried to morph back, but nothing happened.
Maybe he had to return through Mercy’s Spike in Alsatia before he could return to his normal form. But instead of going now, he remained with the Furies a little longer. Even though the roof of their former prison was completely open now, they still stayed as if glued to the spot.
Alecto looked up at the blue sky overhead. “We have it all now, sisters. Freedom
and
happiness. And that is thanks to the Fates, and to Erec Rex. We would never have seen what we needed to if it wasn’t for you. And we would never have listened to you if our sisters had not locked us away for a while.”
Tisiphone’s mouth was open in awe. “This is the greatest gift of all.”
Megaera just laughed, and her laughter caught on with her sisters and then Erec, until all of them were lost in a sea of merriment. If Erec had his human body he would have been gasping, his sides hurting from laughing so hard.
When they finally calmed down, Alecto said, “Erec, thank you again. You have freed the souls here, and you have freed us forever. You will always be special to us.”
“Look, he is missing his body and spirit,” Tisiphone said.
“I’ll take care of that. It’s my pleasure,” Alecto said.
In a blink, Erec was whole again—body, spirit, and soul. It felt so good. He had almost forgotten what it was like to be covered by a solid frame, not drifting, missing his other parts. The only problem was that since he was no longer a floating soul, the big chunks of rock rolling down the cave walls and smashing around him were now dangerous and scary.
“We’ll get you out of here,” Tisiphone said. “You might not be seeing us again. But we’ll always remember you, Erec. Wish us goodbye, and then I think it’s time for you to have a rest with your family.”
Before Erec could say good-bye, the cave was gone in a blink. He was in a room inside . . . somewhere. It was deathly quiet compared to the loud avalanche he had just been in. Things around him seemed soft and comfortable. The bed he was on was covered with pillows. But even though he was safe, Erec felt empty.