Again, Corinne shakes her head. “She isn’t being held captive or being tortured. So far as we can tell, she is being treated well enough and the lockdown of the Realm is for her safety and the safety of the child.”
“So, she is pregnant then,” Cole whispers. Everyone hears him and goes still. This is the first real confirmation they have had and even though they all knew it was true, it hits the four men hard and they all seem to crumple as one.
Corinne nods gently and whispers back, “I’m sorry.”
“I say we give my plan a shot,” Devon says, taking charge. “We have nothing else in our bag of tricks.”
“What plan?” Corinne asks warily.
Devon fills her in, and her eyes widen in surprise.
“It won’t work,” Constantine says stubbornly.
“She is Empress. It will if we can just get her here,” Devon replies just as stubbornly.
“Empress?” Corinne asks with a frown. “Empress?”
“Yes, her Tiamat is dead,” Devon says. “She is Empress over there.”
“Dead?” she asks incredulously. “No, how can that be?”
Everyone looks to Devon for an explanation, which is not to his liking. “How the fuck should I know?” he grouses.
“You are the one who has spent time with her,” Constantine points out nastily.
“Not talking,” Devon replies with an angry flush.
“Just fucking then,” Xane says. “Not exactly helpful.”
“If I knew it would come to this, I would have asked,” Devon says, but then makes an irritated noise as he hears his own words.
“Uhm,” Corinne says. “Tiamat is a true immortal. She cannot die.” She looks and sounds apologetic and they all look back at her in concern.
“I was there when Other Lincoln and Other Xane said She was dead and that Liv was to become Empress,” Constantine says.
It gets up Cole’s nose that he calls Other Liv, just ‘Liv.’ He knows it is because he regards Liv as Aefre and nothing else.
Corinne shakes her head again. “I don’t know what to say,” she says.
“Are you saying that She isn’t dead in the Other Worlds?” Constantine asks.
“Worlds, plural?” Corinne asks in return.
“Ah, yes. We have come across another,” Constantine says. Xane looks away and fiddles with his cigarettes. Cole finds that suspicious and is about to ask what is he hiding, when Corinne says, “Another? Where Tiamat is dead?”
“Yes. Other Aefre is also Empress over there,” Constantine says.
Oh, now she is “Other,” Cole thinks.
“Oh my,” Corinne says, fanning herself with her hand. “But how? It’s impossible. Or at least we certainly do not know of anything that can kill Her.”
“Hm, curious. But not exactly high on my list of things to figure out,” Constantine says, getting back to the matter at hand. “Aefre is my only concern.”
“I wish I could help,” she says. “I will see if there is anything else we can do.”
Constantine nods at her as she Teleports off, and they are all left to ponder the news she brought.
“Well, that wasn’t exactly helpful,” Xane finally states.