Seven to Eternity #5: Every issue of this series requires two or three readings just to have a hope of understanding the nuances of the story that Remender and Opeña are telling.
This issue begins with Adam informing us, via his journal, that Patchwork died. Adam's guilt is clear; the entry begins with, "Knowing what you know now, I appreciate you likely don't care, but this is what it was like for me and I aim to tell my part." Adam's guilt is all the worse given his ability to feel the despair and frustration Patchwork felt at the inglorious end to her life. He notes they assume Drawbridge is also dead, though at least his sacrifice meant they got a head start on the Piper. Adam observes that mistrust is building within the team as they all wonder why the God of Whispers didn't leave when he had the chance.
We join the team as they're making their way along a mountain pass, and the mistrust that Adam mentioned is evident. Adam stews over the injustice that his family faced, and the White Lady is her usual self in dismissing him as untrustworthy. Adam notes that the White Lady's "cold, pragmatic gaze" doesn't seem to apply to everyone on the team equally. He observes that Spiritbox's story mirrors the story about Vellor, a corrupted Mosak general who was the first to hear Garlis' offer and began the Campaign of Whispers, killing any Mosak who wouldn't hear an offer. Adam gets in another dig when he notes the ranks of uncorrupted Mosaks was relatively small. (The White Lady has consistently tried to paper over this fact, portraying all the Mosak as fighting heroically agains the Mud King.) The White Lady guesses Adam heard an offer - since only people who hear an offer fear Spiritbox - but Adam wonders aloud what Garlis could offer him that would compensate for his family's suffering.
As Adam descends into a bloody cough, Jevalia encourages Adam to stop listening to the White Lady for his health. He admits that he knows that he's on a one-way trip. Adam wonders if he's really campaigning for his family's name or something more selfish. Jevalia recalls when she met him as a child, when his heart was all pure and simple; she had lost that childhood innocence by then. Although he felt like he was living in a jail due to his family's exile, his life sounded like freedom to her: he had a father who gave up everything to keep him unbound and a mother who loved him and made him toys. As she hands him the toy that he gave her all those years ago, she tells him that he was the furthest from selfish. She admits that she knows what Garlis offered him, the one road back to his family. She encourages him to hold on a little longer and the temptation will fade. They almost share a kiss when a purple-gowned woman appears.
We learn that she's Penelope, Garlis' daughter. She rings a bell that does something to Jevalia, who now appears lost in a dream of her past, where she fled her family for the Temple. The White Lady tries to repel Penelope, but something happens as a cloud of darkness turns her into a baby suckling on its horror. Penelope opens the cabin to free Garlis as Jevalia remains lost in her dreams. Penelope corrupts and dispels the spirt in the nail that Adam fires at her, but Adam manages to knock the cart over the side of the mountain, taking Penelope with him. Adam tells Goblin to cut them loose, but he climbs down the rope to save Adam. Spiritbox gets Garlis from the cabin, and Adam cuts the cord when he makes his way onto the cliff, sending Penelope (and, to Goblin's chagrin, one of their horses) to her death.
Remender really ups the ante now. Goblin didn't just jump to save Adam; he pulled off the horse a pack, which he then hands to Adam, containing Zeb's Mosak armor. Goblin tells Adam that plenty of people understood the sacrifice the Osidises made, as his father was the first Mosak to stand against the Mud King. Goblin grabbed the armor - "the suit that withstood the whispers" - as they left the burning Temple. It's his way of encouraging Adam to return to the group and not get lost in stewing about the injustice that his family endured.
As they continue on the road, Adam realizes that he only ever really wanted that acceptance. He's angry at himself over it, that he could so easily forget a lifetime of disgust with the Mosaks over their treatment of his family. The team then approaches an unmapped fork, and Goblin insists they take the path leading through the mountains due to memories associated with the swamp on the other path. Adam agrees with the White Lady that they need to take the shorter route (i.e., through the swamp) given the state of their supplies. Garlis tries to stir up trouble, informing Adam that the White Lady was the one who refused to open the Temple's doors for his brother. The argument stops when Spiritbox spots the Piper on his way.
Spiritbox agrees with Goblin, saying they have a better chance of surviving a three-day hike through the mountains than the swamp. Jevalia argues that they need to go through the swamp, since it hates Garlis and the Piper so they have a fighting chance. Adam tells Goblin that they have to go through the swamp since they need his three remaining nails and he won't survive the trip through the mountain. Garlis notes the swamp is a physical link to the Black Well itself and suggests that they go through the mountains if their goal is to keep him alive. Adam and Jevalia then hilariously agree that they're going through the swamp since Garlis suggested they don't.
I'm curious to learn more about the Wells. I wonder if the Golden Well became the Black Well due to Garlis' corruption. If so, does it hate him for corrupting it?
Seven to Eternity #6: As usual, this issue took me two or three readings to understand. I'm not complaining, but this series is work.
We begin with Garlis recounting how his grandfather drowned his mother in the swamp when he realized that she had borne a human's child, a crime made all the worse his knowledge that people who die in the swamp cannot enter the Well. Garlis' revenge was to use the Piper to march all the goblins into the swamp to die, drowning each other until they were extinct. Of course, they didn't die: they swarm the party in the form of swamp monsters ready for revenge.
In the chaos, Garlis breaks his bonds and asks Adam to help him escape. The goblins - speaking with Adam through is communion with the dead - remind Adam that Garlis can't die in the swamp, since everyone who heard his offer won't also die. Garlis promises to heal Adam at the healing springs of Zhal if he helps him escape. The swamp monsters eventually pull Garlis and Jevalia over a cliff, and Adam follows.
Meanwhile, Spiritbox is brought under the water as the swamp monsters accuse him of betrayal, making me wonder if he is a goblin? He manages to escape and save Goblin and the White Lady by beseeching the Wizard Torgga to help. (We know that he has some connection with her, though it's still unclear what it exactly is.) She helps by sending him a sword called K'luvrunda the Adjudicator, which Spiritbox uses to turn the tide. Katie chooses that moment to reveal herself, helping Spiritbox beat back the swamp monsters.
Elsewhere, Adam saves Garlis but cannot save Jevalia before the swamp monsters pull her into the water. Garlis beseeches Adam to follow him, since the Mosak still don't care about him. Adam tries to ignore him, but Garlis argues that his father was always wrong: justice doesn't exist in a world where fathers drown their daughters for loving the wrong man. (Am I Team Garlis at this point? A little.) Dismissing his father for letting his brother die not because of ideology but pride, Adam follows Garlis to the springs.
Seven to Eternity #7: Just when you thought this series couldn't get more depressing...
The remainder of the team -- Goblin, Katie, Spiritbox, and the White Lady -- pull Jevalia's body from the swamp. As the swamp continues to consume her, Goblin suggests they return her home to the Gliff Lands so the Glifftings can use their connection to the Great Well to heal her. The White Lady opposes the plan, wanting instead to follow Adam and Garlis whom she knows (somehow) are going north (and not east to Lady Torgga). She's overruled.
The team is appalled to find Gliff Village - the fey's home - turned into an Industrial Revolution nightmare. They find an inn where they can get Jevalia some rest. She briefly awakens and tells them to find her brother, Lovro. Goblin disguises himself and goes to a pub, trying to get information on Lovro's whereabouts. When Goblin mentions Lovro's name, though, the barkeep and the patron next to him silently leave. A patron named Dragan sees through Goblin's illusion and, in exchange for gold, tells him that Lovro is the Regent Chancellor living in the Tower.
Goblin makes his way into Lovro's private chambers. Upon telling him that Jevalia needs his help, Lovro confirms that he has a potion to purge her of the swamp's corruption. He tells Goblin that they have to hurry to save her...so they can return her to "our good king Garlis." D'oh! I have to say that I was surprised here; Remender had deftly led us to believe that Lovro was isolated from the darkness surrounding him in his tower.
Meanwhile, Katie follows a caravan into the a forge where she learns that a Mosak (I assume) uses her power to suck out people's souls and then install them into armored suits, making them sentient Stormtroopers. She does so with the barkeep, and Katie is shocked when Goblin is next on her list. Before she can intervene, Dragan stops her.
I'm increasingly convinced we're not going to get anything like a happy ending here. I mean, we'll probably get to Lady Torgga, but I'm pretty sure that Adam isn't going to realize his dying wish of living to see Zhal purged of Garlis forever.
Seven to Eternity #8: As usual, this issue isn't particularly easy to follow. I'll do my best to impose a linear narrative in the retelling.
The issue opens in the past with Lady Torgga telling Spiritbox that he must earn mercy as he acknowledges that his actions mean that he can't enter the Great Well. She takes his sword (K'Luvrunda the Adjudicator!) from him and sends him to meet the now-familiar team assembling in Fengow to take on Garlis. In the present, Spiritbox keeps watch over Jevalia as the Excellent Librarian prepares to file her soul. However, Lovro arrives and purges most of the swamp from her as Spiritbox flees.
In the factory, Dragan captures Katie and brings her to the Spitwitch (the spirit-transferring Mosak from last issue), who plans to execute her with Goblin. (Dragan's sword apparently directs him to the most profitable endeavor, and he informs Katie that she and her father's quest isn't it.) However, Goblin tricks the Spitwitch by summoning an illusion of Garlis screaming at her to bring all Mosak to him. "Garlis" orders the Spitwitch to release Goblin and Katie. She eventually realizes Goblin's deception and sends guards after them. As they battle the guards, Spiritbox arrives. The Spitwitch offers to free him, and he seems tempted but ultimately kills her. After using an illusion to send the Spitwitch's soldiers over the ledge into lava, Goblin and Katie reunite with him.
In his castle, Lovro tells an awakened Jevalia that he had no choice but to vote to accept Garlis' offer as the God of Whispers had a servant in every family on the council. Later, as Lovro pays Dragan for turning in Katie, Jevalia gets the drop on him. She ties him to a chair and threatens to infect him with the swamp water that he purged from her. Lovro admits that the family (not just him) sold her to Garlis due to her powers and believes that the money was worth it. Lovro tells an outraged Jevalia that they were better without her. Most damning, he informs her that her parents were the ones who heard Garlis' offer and were happy to get rid of her since she had seen her father's "lust." (I'm still not entirely sure what offer Lovro heard other than the one seemingly offered the entire council.). Having heard enough, Jevalia injects the swamp into him, damning him to eternal torment. Surprisingly, Dragan then saves her from Lovro's guards because his sword told him that she was his most fruitful option. She pays him some gold now and pledges the rest (of Lovro's gold) when he kills Adam.
The issue ends with the team regrouping and preparing to leave Gliff Village. It's a particularly dark ending as the swamp is still clearly corrupting Jevalia to some extent, and Katie has no idea that she's traveling with the man whom Jevalia hired to kill her father.
Seven to Eternity #9: Oof, this issue.
Adam and Garlis arrive in the Skylands, a series of floating islands that "castaways and refugees" of Garlis' wars populate. That said, his eldest son Volmer also happens to run it. It seems like they aren't on the best of terms, though; when Adam's coughing attracts attention, Garlis warns him that he wants to cross the Skylands undetected. As they walk, Garlis attempts to convince Adam that he engages in good works, but people have decided that he's a villain so he can't persuade them otherwise. As someone who can read thoughts, he tells Adam that "people hate complicated."
Garlis tells Adam that the first time he heard someone's thoughts was when he saw into his teacher Dacrous' mind and was surprised that Dacrous viewed him as "half-breed rabble;" Dacrous only helped him to appear charitable. Garlis' conclusion from that experience is that no one is a good person. When Adam argues, Garlis tells him that "striving for freedom and helping other folks," as Adam says, is about making yourself feel like a hero. In fact, Garlis has manipulated that, since convincing a man that he's a hero means that he'll march into any war "with fervor." It's how he's managed to keep conflict low: "I simply ensure that they all know they're right and everyone else is wrong. This keeps each tribe in their village." (I don't know if I entirely buy that, since wouldn't they try to convince the other tribes by force that they're right?)
Then, shit gets real. As Adam realizes that Garlis has a point - he isn't going to the springs for his family, but for himself - the White Lady arrives on the scene. She informs Adam that she gave his brother the parasitic consumption that killed him because she saw that the Osidis line rules tomorrow. But, when her visions persisted, she gave Adam the same disease. Adam manages to knock off her helmet, revealing that she's actually connected to the Black, not Golden, Well. We learn that her power is to see the "bleak horrors that await," including "the Red God who will burn Zhal to embers" who "bears the crest of Osidis." She claims that Garlis just wanted to control whereas "the Osidis seek only to destroy."
To save Adam, Garlis fires his gun with Zeb's nail, and Zeb cuts off the White Lady's arm. When Adam warns Zeb not to let the White Lady get her lamp, he cuts off her other arm. But, she tells him that Adam heard Garlis' offer. Zeb is confused but kills the White Lady so that she can't kill another one of his kids. Zeb then uses his powers to confirm that Adam is "inhabited" and leaves without a word. Adam begs him to listen that he had no choice because someone has to care for the kids, even as he knows that he's telling a lie. We're left with Garlis standing quietly behind a weeping Adam.
In other words, this issue is devastating. Moving to the next arc, I think my only real question is how the White Lady could be right about the Osidis line. It's hard to reconcile the Adam we see here with a brutal destroyer. Is it one of his children instead? If so, why couldn't the White Lady have prevented Garlis' rise? She seems to see him more favorably here - control not destruction - but it isn't like the control is good given where it led.
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