Seven to Eternity #1 (TPB): I had to read this issue several times to understand exactly what Remender had thrown at us here. It all happens quickly.
Unlike his fellow Mosak, Zebadiah (Zeb) Osidis - the father of our protagonist, Adam - refused to accept Garlis Sulm's "offer." It isn't clear at the start what Garlis offers people, though it is clear that it's the sort of deal that sounds good at the start. Garlis eventually gets all the Mosak to accept his offers and in so doing becomes the God of Whispers - or the Mud King, as the Osidises call him. Due to his refusal to accept the offer, Zeb is forced into exile.
In the present, the Osidises have heard hints that a war brews in the nearby city, but Zeb and his family are isolated from it...until they're not. Garlis' messenger arrives and destroys the farm where the Osidises live. Zeb attempts to fight him, but the messenger is too powerful. He forces Zeb to impale himself on his sword, and Zeb allows himself to die rather than hear the Garlis' offer. Adam arrives to help his father, having retrieved his "hammer and nails" (a gun and special bullets) from the burning house. The messenger tells Adam that he needs to travel to Fengow (the city) to hear Garlis' offer or he'll return and kill Adam's wife and children.
After the family buries Zeb, Adam plans to travel to Fengow though insists that he won't hear Garlis' offer. His wife, Nival, doesn't want him to go, not only because Zeb forbade him from hearing Garlis' offer but also because the family's situation is dire with the farm destroyed. Adam tells her that the bunker has a couple months' worth of food and that their eldest daughter, Katie, can hunt. (Remender starts the issue with Adam teaching Katie how to hunt. She possesses a bow that responds to her powers, though it isn't clear to me yet if all Mosak have powers.) Katie is furious that she can't come with Adam. Importantly, she exposits that Adam will kill everyone who ever took Garlis' offer if he kills him. Adam is unconcerned, since they made their choice.
As Adam travels to Fengow, he confirms that he's dying; we've seen him frequently coughing up blood at this point. He also exposits that Fengow is where the Emperor and his Mosak reside and that they're the last people standing against Garlis. Adam lets us know that Garlis calling him to Fengow is rubbing in the fact that he anticipates winning the war against the Mozak soon. Adam realizes that he has few options: he can either try (and likely fail) to kill Garlis (dooming his family to death if he fails and killing everyone connected to Garlis) or listen to the offer (itself an unpalatable proposition).
Adam arrives in Fengow to discover that the Mosak have turned on each other due to Garlis' whispers. (Opeña produces a spectacular splash page to show how utterly devastating the loss of such a beautiful place is.) A Mosak hounds Adam as he rides through the city, accusing the Osidises of abandoning them to fight Garlis on their own. Adam reminds the Mosak that they exiled the Osidises, but it does little to assuage the Mosak's anger. Adam arrives at Garlis' throne room, encountering a pink-skinned woman whom he knew as a boy. She allows him to enter, and we meet the God of Whispers, who asks Adam if he'll hear his offer.
Seven to Eternity #2 (TPB): In this issue, Remender gives us all the background we need to understand why Adam's interaction with Garlis is so fraught.
In the past, Adam's mother forces Zeb to take Adam with him to a trading post so that he can start learning the world's ways. As Zeb tries to get a reasonable price for medicine for Adam's brother, Peter, a younger version of the pink-skinned woman whom we saw last issue approaches Adam. She keeps pestering Adam for his name, and he eventually tells her his first name. Zeb uses his Mozak gift to learn that the merchant is "uninhabited" but discovers that the girl is. He grabs Adam and flees without the medicine. Adam eventually forces him to stop, and an irate Zeb smacks him for talking with the girl after Zeb told him to talk to no one. But, Zeb also realizes that Adam's mother was right, that he waited too long to tell Adam the way of things.
In a flashback, we learn that Zeb and Garlis served in the Mosak Warden Temple together. Garlis' Mojak gift was to bond with other spirits if they invited him to do so. To convince a person to accept the bond, Garlis offers him his heart's desire. Once bonded, Garlis is able to hear and see what this person does forever. Zeb observes that Garlis also seems able to see what a person's desire is, since he's then able to convince the man that he needs what he wants. Zeb tried to get Garlis tried for misusing his gift, but Garlis murdered the Arbiter and used his whispers to convince the Mosaks that Zeb did it, resulting in the Osidis' clan's exile. As Garlis took over Zhal, he blamed each terrible event on the Osidis clan, pushing them further into exile. Zeb begs Adam never to hear Garlis' offer...
...setting up the scene in the present, as Adam stands before Garlis. He observes that Adam has seven children, making it clear that he's willing to act against them. The Mosak Emperor is also present; he obeys Garlis, who informs us that he precipitated the uprising to force the Emperor to hear his offer. Garlis reveals that it's actually the pink-skinned woman, Jevalia, who sees men's hearts' desires. (At this point, I understand that Garlis' gift is to take control of people once they hear his offer and that Jevalia's gift lets him know what he should offer. But, I don't yet understand how Garlis upholds his part of the bargain, giving the person what they desire.) Adam says that he's willing to hear the offer if Garlis protects his family and clears his father's name, but Garlis reveals that he knows that Adam only has a few months left to live. As such, Garlis makes his offer: he will cure Adam's disease.
Before Adam can decide, a white owl enters the throne room, and Garlis suddenly realizes that he can't hear his subjects. A great green beast then breaks through the throne room's wall. Garlis hilariously asks the beast, whose name we learn is Drawbridge, if he has an appointment. Drawbridge's gift appears to be to create a portal with his mouth: four humanoids exit from it, calling for Garlis' blood. Garlis' messenger, who we learn is named the Piper, calls forth the mud creatures that he used against Zeb. However, the White Lady (one of the four humanoids, who "walks between flesh and spirit") tells the creatures that she rejects the proposition that we all have one desire so strong that we will sell out our loved ones. She convinces them to attack the Piper instead.
Meanwhile, another humanoid, Patchwork (who can lose a limb and replace it with someone else's) is making quick work of Garlis' guards. Jevalia - who was, we saw earlier, the Emperor's desire - leads the Emperor from the battle. He tells her that he made a terrible mistake and asks whether they can defeat Garlis. Jevalia escorts the Emperor around a corner to where the actual Jevalia - who curses the Emperor as a coward in whom they had all put so much trust - is hiding with Adam. The other Jevalia reveals himself as a shapeshifter, and he slits the Emperor's throat before asking Adam if he chose to hear the offer.
Seven to Eternity #3 (TPB): This issue opens in the past, as Zeb and his family travel to "the Sage" who I believe the merchant mention last issue. Peter is dying, and Zeb plans on offering anything - including his life - for the Sage to heal Peter. But, the Sage refuses. Adam swears vengeance when he's older, but Zeb tells him that the Mosak won't exist when he's older. At his gravesite, Peter's mother offers the funeral prayer, and we learn that the dead join "the Well." Adam blames Zeb for Peter's death, but his mother cautions him that the Mosak hate Zeb because he reminds them who they once were. She then hands Adam a nail made from Peter's blood.
In the present, Adam lies to the shapeshifter - a purple-skinned man the humanoids call Goblin - and tells him that he didn't hear an offer. Adam refuses Goblin's call to join their fight since, thanks to the Mosak, the time to fight is past. Goblin tells him that the plan is to take Garlis to the wizard Torgga in the Poison Isles, where she'll disconnect him from the people and then they'll kill him.
Garlis continues to his bitchy hilariousness here ("Will someone please exterminate this damned pest so I can contact some assistance!") as Patchwork engages him. He offers to return her family, and she declines, having figured as much that he'd offer her that. The Piper manages to stop her before she strikes Garlis, and Goblin presses the attack. Goblin wryly notes here that the rumor that no one has ever refused one of Garlis' offers apparently exists because he kills anyone who does. Meanwhile, the humanoid that the others call "Healer Monkey" heals where the Piper stabbed Patchwork.
Adam is surprised that Garlis' offer has paralyzed him, and Jevalia is panicked of Garlis' wrath once he learns that she led the team here. Meanwhile, Drawbridge, Goblin, and Patchwork frantically try to take down the Piper. Healer Monkey is distracted while trying to heal Goblin, allowing one of the Garlis' men to kill him. Garlis has had enough and demands the Piper open the Well's curtain. The White Lady demands that Goblin stop him, but he's too late, and a Celestial-like figure emerges.
The figure is angry that he was disturbed, telling Garlis that he won't lend out a "spiritome." Garlis promises to add to it, and the Celestial-like figure exults at the "last among the spiritomes needed for chronicling:" "she who cheats the Well to command tomes on Zhal" (White Lady), "he who walks in my realm as means of travel" (Drawbridge), "she who steals the shell meats of other" (Patchwork), and "the last of thieves, master of shadows and guise" (Goblin). Before the Celestial-like figure collects them, Adam fires Peter's bullet. It isn't just Adam's "final communion" with Peter; Peter's charm and grace overwhelms Garlis and the Piper. The team takes its shot: Drawbridge grabs the Piper, and Jevalia bashes in Garlis' head with a hammer.
In the aftermath of the win, the team mourns Healer Monkey. The White Lady is ruthlessly cruel with Jevalia, who she treats as a whore, and Adam, who she treats as a traitor. Drawbridge reports that he only managed to send the Piper a few miles, and the team then teleports through him. As Katie watches in the shadows, Garlis' army panics when it can no longer hear his whispers. The soldiers follow Drawbridge, believing that he has Garlis, but it's just a diversion. Spiritbox, a hooded figure who speaks in a robotic font, joins the team, which hopes to get as much distance as possible between them and the soldiers before they realize that Drawbridge doesn't have Garlis. Adam agrees to join the team so long as they swear to clear his family name and keep his family safe. We learn that the journey is three months' long, and the titular seven begin it here.
Seven to Eternity #4 (TPB): As the team travels, they get to know one another, and it isn't pretty. Goblin reveals that he's the last of his kind, and Adam explains that communing with the dead is his gift. His nails allow him to use the dead's gifts. As Adam descends into coughs, Goblin suggests that he get some rest, and the White Lady posits that his blood is weak due to his tainted bloodline. Adam and Jevalia ask how she manages to be so pompous when she did nothing to prevent the Mosak slaughter. She starts to claim that the Mosak fought bravely while the Osidises hid, but Spiritbox calls bullshit, revealing that Torgga had Spiritbox kill Mosak who heard the offer. (It raises interesting questions about whether Spiritbox knows Adam heard the offer.)
Adam is appalled that they're traveling with a murderer. When he mentions that his family suffered more than "any" at Garlis' hands, Patchwork interjects. She tells the story about how her city of Rosill accepted refugees and refused Garlis' men entry. Eventually, Garlis isolated and starved the city, rewarding men who said the refugees were the cause of the city's problem. When the riots started, Patchwork's parents tried to save their neighbors, and the rioters murdered her whole family. Patchwork only survived because the soldiers sliced her to pieces and her gift revealing itself, binding her to the limbs of her family. (Oof. Talk about grim, Rick.) When Patchwork suggests the Osidis clan was lucky for its exile, Goblin calms down everyone, noting that nobody can understand someone else's suffering. The team then faces the reality that they have to feed Garlis, who they've left in the cabin for days.
When they open the cart's door, Garlis is his charismatic best. In his commentary, we learn that Goblin's assassins murdered Garlis' wife and that the Piper is his son. He expresses surprise that Zeb didn't do more to save Peter, prompting Adam almost to kill him with a nail. The White Lady prevents the spirit from killing Garlis, but Pathwork also loses her shit, telling him that she's read the tomes and knows that he's a goblin prostitute's son. (For all her earlier claims of embracing Rosill's racial harmony, she uses some pretty disgusting words describing goblins.) The White Lady manages to keep Patchwork from killing him, and Adam apologizes for letting him under his skin. Garlis laughs, saying that he's only begun getting under his skin. Meanwhile, the Piper manages to catch Drawbridge and uses his gift to get Drawbridge to reveal the team's location and plan.
Later, Adam then narrates his dream to us, of Garlis' assassins killing his family. He flees into his father's den, where he asks his father if he really let Peter die by not hearing the offer. His father tells him that he'll never get what he wants - quiet moments with his family during a simpler time. But, he didn't hear an offer, so it's on Adam to decide what to do next. Adam is startled awake to Garlis murdering Patchwork. Goblin asks if Adam freed Garlis after hearing his offer, but the White Lady defends him, saying that he hadn't. (Maybe Adam hasn't heard Garlis' real offer.) It turns out Garlis palmed the key from Patchwork when she attacked him, and he killed her for besmirching his mother. (We learn he's leveled cities over such allegations.) Spiritbox returns Garlis to the cart but then asks the question that sent a chill down my spine: why didn't Garlis escape when he had the chance?
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