It's a Long Way Down

Chapter Forty-Five: Old Friends

Random little update. Enjoy!

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"Did you ever hear about Ifrit?" Mountain asked Lilith. She could feel her heart flutter at his name. It had been so long since she heard it. She simply nodded, "Yeah, it's been a while. I thought he was dead."

"No, Sodo said he's been roaming around the outskirts of the church. Look, he was framed for something he didn't do, and he was outcast. I think it might benefit Sodo when he comes back to have an old friend here to help support him," Mountain told her. Lilith had to hold back her smile at his suggestion. Instead, she nodded and said, "Yes, I agree. I know he wasn't guilty. Plus, having him around may help Sodo, as you said. I will send some people to look for him and tell him he is invited to come back."

Mountain nodded, a small smile on his face, "Sounds good. I'm sure Aether would be happy to see him as well."

Lilith nodded, turning around and walking away. She couldn't help but smile now that no one was looking at her. She and Ifrit were close when he was in the church. Her sister wasn't very happy about it. But now that she was gone, Lilith had the ability to bring him back. She was a little upset with herself for not coming up with the idea herself, but she still wrote up a small letter for him, sending out a few of her people to go find him.

Mountain went to go find Aether, who was in the practice room. He walked inside saying, "Hey, Aeth, I might have had the best idea ever."

"You have ideas?" Aether teased. Mountain scoffed and told him, "I told Lilith to bring Ifrit back."

"What?" Aether exclaimed, his eyes filled with excitement. Mountain chuckled, "Yeah, since we all know he wasn't guilty of killing that ghoul, and Sister Imperator isn't here anymore, we might as well ask for him back. Sodo probably misses him as well."

"You think he knows about Sodo's drinking?" Aether asked. Mountain shook his head, "No. Probably not. We're gonna have to tell him though. Say we're gonna need his help. I know you've said Sodo looks better, but we don't know what might trigger him to drink again. We need to prevent it at all costs until he no longer finds the need to drink to solve his problems."

Aether nodded, "Yeah. You're right. Do we know when he's coming back?"

"It's still an if," Mountain told him, "Lilith said she'd send some people to find him, but we don't know if he even wants to come back."

Aether put down his guitar saying, "I hope he wants to. Everything's been different since he was banished. It's like everything got darker. He disappeared, Zephyr was killed, and nothing was going right. I'm still surprised the three of us made it out."

"I heard we weren't killed or banished because it's too expensive to summon new earth and quintessence ghouls," Mountain said, "It's expensive to summon a fire ghoul too, but Sodo was turned into one. It's like Ifrit knew something was going to go wrong. So he prepared. Why he chose Sodo, I don't know, but fuck. Something went wrong and they paid the price."

"I don't even understand why they got rid of Zephyr. He had done nothing wrong. He wasn't framed, he was just killed. No explanation," Aether said. Mountain shrugged, "I don't know. But there's nothing we can do now."

Aether nodded, "Yeah, I know."

Mountain soon told Aether that it was about dinner time so the two of them went down to the dining area, sitting next to their prospective mates as they started eating. The seat to the right of Ember was empty, as it had been for the past few months. She always looked upset when they ate dinner since everyone had their mates. Hell, even Cumulus and Cirrus were inseparable since they marked each other a few days ago. Ember just felt lonely. No matter how much fun she had with the others during the day, it was always dinner time that she realized she was still alone.