(complete) Sex, intrigues, lies - the Game is like normal politics, just that now people lose their brain over it. Macbeth meets House of Cards and Game of Thrones in a fantastic ride to the Brexit referendum battled out in the reality TV show envir...
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When all was said and a last meal shared, Flo had been the one to lock the apartment at Bellsize Park. He didn't shut it down in a way that would suggest that he planned on a longer absence. The fridge stayed filled and plugged in. The dirty dishes remained in the dishwasher. There was even a load tumbling in the dryer as if he planned to take it out upon return. Just like leaving as a group, it was all a precaution in case that they were watched.
It was unlikely. The Duch-pack was arrogant enough to rely on the bait that they had lied out, especially after their predictions on the behavior of Hel, Matis, Justin, and Flo had been right so far. But unlikely didn't mean it was impossible. And so, the impression they meant to give was that of a group leaving for a mission together that they were sure to succeed at, and fast.
At the outskirts of the Great Hunt's camp their good byes were short. A kiss, an embrace, a clasp of hands to elbows and a long look, then Matis and Flo rode off on Slepnir. They took a detour, something Flo described as rounding the Tree's trunk, so that their approach would in the end mirror that of the person that Slepnir and Garmr had followed. At one point, Flo stopped his son, and Matis and he jumped down.
"Is that the root?" Matis asked and pointed at a steeply declining cliff in front of them. He had to asked because what Flo called the Tree version of the world looked for him like the inside of a cubistic dream, if the one dreaming it up had been Escher and the one erecting it had been a steel and glass enthusiast.
Matis had learned that when he passed through the surfaces surrounding him he would end up at some place in the world the humans knew, in Hel's realm or somewhere else entirely (the last he knew in theory only; navigation happened by concentration on where you want to go, he had relied so far heavily on the goats of his carriage to know where to take him, and they hadn't strayed). He had been told that with practice he would be able to fold and turn his surrounding at will to create shortcuts and easier passages. Looking down the cliff, he wished he had been a faster study.
Flo joined him at the top of the decline after sending Slepnir off with a last nudge to his forehead and nodded. "Yes. It ends directly in front of Nott's gate. Are you ready?"
Matis looked up, though up was relative in this all-around hall of mirrors. After a deep breath, he said, "As ready as one can be."
"And you are sure?"
The look Matis gave Flo was leveled as if he had insulted him with the question. "Let's move."
Flo put his hand on Matis shoulder and squeezed. "Thanks, brother."
Covering the other man's hand with his, Matis replied, "Did you think for one moment that I would have allowed you to walk in there to die alone, brother? My father and the rest of the Duch-pack might think it's compassion that makes me weak and unmanly, but I would die a thousand times and then again before I'd ever extinguished that flame in me."
"Let's go and burn them!" Flo rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. While Matis had his Hammer slung to his belt and wore leather wrist guards with hidden blades, Flo was dressed in his usual, casual attire. "We proceed as planned, then, if there is any chance, I fly us back up here." He stressed the us.
Matis couldn't help himself. He rolled with his eyes. "This is the moment you better stop worrying about me and concentrate."
They faced and looked at each other, a nod and Flo started the descent. Not long after he jumped down at a small plateau. Matis followed, relieved to have more than a toe-sized foothold under his feet again. When he got his bearings, he found that he stood in front of the blackest glass panel he'd seen so far. Even when it had been night at the place he had exited to, he had seen some glimmer of light through the wall. Sometimes these lights had only been pinpoints, but they had been there.
Through the panel he was facing now, he saw nothing. It was so black that the surface, while shiny, even ate their reflection. And the feeling that crept through the panel and into Matis' bones was such of complete emptiness that he shivered and feared to collapse on a hollow skeleton.
He didn't want to think about what they would find behind the wall. With his hammer at the ready at his side he raised three fingers of his right hand in a silent countdown. Assured by Flo's nod that he had seen it, Matis lowered first one finger. Then the second.
When it was time to fold in the thumb, Matis took a dive roll through the panel. Still turning in the air, he threw bolts up into all directions. The sky over an ocean of grey sand flashed to life. Matis' lightning bolts deliquesced as he landed on his feet. Flo was right behind him.
