Inferno Ascended

Thersos's problems were not limited to being forced to move with Megas to the north. Now, he had a problem with being a bigamist! Glax saw the gunsmith literally sweat in panic.

Glax told him in particular how Uniq and Aryn were working hard to find out where he was taken to. He had no idea how Thersos was going to solve this, but the valosian saw him wobbling when he learned that his first wife was next to his mother, and really hoped to see him again.

"Good luck buddy. Uniq has managed to impress my late wife, and that really is an achievement. Chriseis wasn't easily impressed, and promised to help your little sis. Uniq was there to help defeat Medon's men."

"My little sister has always been a warrior. Much more courageous than me!" Thersos had tears in his eyes. "Lord Glax, I didn't believe the gods could look at someone like me, no matter how much I asked for their mercy. But your arrival changed everything for us! How can I be thankful? Please, ask me anything! I'll make it with all the might of my heart!"

'Give me your rifle!' he thought. But he couldn't ask that. He still had some ethics left.

"Well, since you want to do something for me so much… Can you teach me how to use equipment to make weapons? As a hobbyist, I mean. Besides... Man, this little town has no future. Without the factory and the mines, this place is over for a while, at least for a man like you. Take your family to Marbium for now. You can no longer make weapons to sell, as this is illegal at the moment ... But perhaps you can find some use for the Echelians. And in the future, when I return to the capital, I can get you something there." Glax was envisioning a plan and to think about how to use his resources and networks.

Thersos's face lit up. "YES! Looks good! Of course, I can teach everything I know, Lord Glax! Before I knew about how my family survived in Stapolis, I already thought we couldn't stay here. Going to Echelion with a patron will be great, if that is possible! "

Glax supposed that Thersos would have many dilemmas about his old and new families, but in that regard, the Valosian couldn't really help.

They only had a few hours to rest before dawn, and Glax intended to use that.

::::::::::::::::::::

The Valosian got up in the middle of the night, and realized the storm had stopped. He was thirsty, so he went down the stairs where he slept next to his companions, to go to where the water pitcher was.

Every step he took on the stairs produced a loud creak he hadn't noticed before. In addition, a cold vapor seemed to rise from the ground, freezing the soles of his feet. Glax regretted not wearing his sandals.

He lifted the lid of the large pot and carried the ladle down to the water when a door cracking in the wind caught his eye. He was sure they had left everything locked up. Why would they leave any hiding door open? 

He didn't have his dagger, and he found nothing better than a broom to defend himself. Grabbing the object, he went out into the hall on the ground floor.

Mist came in through the door wide open, and Glax understood for the first time that it could only be a dream. Attracted by what was out there, the Valosian decided to explore the possibilities.

The street was there, but it had arches that covered the sky. He realized that all the doors to the houses were open, and he could see people sleeping on them.

'Strange dream,' he thought, as he walked and looked at everything with curiosity.

Then the Valosian arrived at a square, which Stimhena didn't actually have. 

There was a fair going on. People strolled around, buying, selling, or just passing time, it seemed. Glax just had the impression that they were all dead for a long time.

The tents showcased rare items. Magnificent armor, scrolls with forgotten knowledge, potions with fantastic effects, shining jewels... The greed of the Valosian was stoked. He wasn't seeing ordinary things! He just had to choose. It was incredible!

All objects were the infernal versions of real objects. Some were gone, corroded by time, or destroyed by other circumstances. But there, in the Hell's Market, they still existed, perfectly preserved, according to the memory that their possessors brought with them to the Realm of the Dead.

Even though he was entertained by the dozens of tempting possibilities, he decided on a scroll. It was the Argos II Expedition Report. It was there, easily accessible.

And it only cost five obols!

"Oh, my young Lord Kroton!" said the seller, with a sad, rehearsed smile. "It costs not ordinary obols, but real ones! If you don't have real ones, I can't sell it to you!"

"Why are my obols not real?" Glax asked, even looking at the coins he had etched to dispatch souls.

"Why, my esteemed customer! These instruments are fiat obols*! But it must be some problem easily solved," the merchant said, still with a purely commercial smile. And he pointed to a gazebo in the middle of the square. "Talk to them, maybe they can work this out for you."

Glax was in a hurry. Knowing that the scroll with the information he was looking for with such effort was there, in its most faithful version. 

He needed to get the item, at any cost. The faster the better. Even if it was a dream, he sensed that the information was true. He NEEDED to read the parchment with his mother's report on Valya.

Marching into the gazebo, he saw beautiful nymphs wearing funny hats, which looked like lit abajours. They smiled seductively at him, but they let him through without a hitch.

Removing the veil that separated the gazebo from what happened on the street, he saw a rich environment, with comfortable cushions and seats, soft fur carpets, and an aroma of narcotic incense.

COFF COFF. He fanned the smoke before his eyes.

He saw a young man with long blue hair lying languidly on one of the divans, wearing long, luxurious black clothes. His familiar silver eyes followed his arrival with curiosity. The young man played with a beautifully sculpted hourglass, where shiny powder dripped. Not too fast, not too slow.

"You, Mors?" Glax asked, incredulous.

"That's obviously not me," said the real Mors, coming out from behind a curtain. "But my twin brother Morpheus."

"Wow."

"If you say ..." Death sat on a chair. "Did you find anything you liked out there?"

"Hm, indeed. But the merchants don't want to sell me. Apparently, they only accept validated currencies. Which is unfair. Have you ever thought about how much it bureaucratized the whole process? Besides putting all the power in the hands of priests? We do not always have a validated obol in hand to carry out an honorable dispatch. If you are responsible, why not think of some flexibility in the process?"

"Some rules are immutable, Glax of Valosia," Mors' eyes shone. "But what counts is validated obols.

"Hm, yes?"

"I knew you would understand. You have the obols, and you have the souls... They just aren't linked as of yet. But it's a simple process."

"Ah, got it." While talking to Mors, Glax's eyes followed Morpheus, looking at the hourglass, and Glax understood the time that was running was the time he needed to wake up from that dream. "Well. I really have souls with me. I didn't want to, but they just jumped at me. Ouch."

"Hand out the souls and keep the scroll."

"Sure. They're all yours."

"Great. It was good to do business with you." Mors snapped his fingers, and the merchant entered the gazebo, bringing the parchment into a luxuriously decorated box. 

Glax sighed in anticipation. He was finally going to find out what had happened in Valya. And why he was born there.

"THE REPORT OF THE SHIP OF ARGOS II TO THE KINGDOM OF VALYA, as narrated by Captain Kalanthe of Valosia to the Historian Juveno."

'_ I, Kalanthe of Valosia, had the honor of being invited as a representative of the Echelian Clans to join the expedition that would fare the Sea of ​​Mists, towards the lands of Valya. The Exalted Second Prince Achmeron appointed this subject to accompany him and be part of your personal guard. '

Glax was in a hurry, and tried to skip some parts. He wasn't interested in how they got to Valya, but in what they found there. And more than that, how the clock was presented to her. Even if they did not clearly report it in the document, there would be clues.

'_The next day, our entourage started the journey to the capital of Valya. To our surprise, the capital was far from the sea, and the way by land ...'

'_The city of Arkalos, the capital of Valya, was dedicated to the Night Goddess Nix. We had noticed that, since we arrived, they had not seen the sunlight. There was a big clock, as the time meters call it, much more sophisticated than any I had ever seen. It was impressive. This majestic object had orbs that revolved around a center. And they revolved around themselves. Our guide explained, faced with the questions of the Second Prince, that each of the kings of Valya had an obligation to build a clock that would measure the time even better than that of its predecessor. And the current king of Valya, Kaine, had evolved in his studies of time in such a way that he could know everything, about the future and the past, only with his measuring mechanisms.'

Glax blinked, stunned by what he had just read. And at the same time, he felt his eyes sting, while Morpheus blew sleep out of his eyes...

"NO!" He opened his eyes on Stygia, with immense frustration at not being able to finish reading the report.

He didn't have the scroll. And it filled his heart with anger when he realized he had been deceived.

By groping his body and his bag, he made sure of the fact he suspected.

The souls, and Valya's clock that contained them, were no longer with him.

"MORSSSSSSSSSSS!!!"