Seven to Eternity #10: This issue is interesting because we encounter people who are at least as strong as Garlis if not stronger. That said, it isn't the easiest issue to follow, which is already a high bar for a series that seems to pride itself at times on its obtuseness.
Adam's opening letter describes he and Garlis enduring a month-long journey through a "treacherous, subterranean labyrinth" called the Great Hollow. Unlike the swamp, which expels its poison onto you, the Moss Weavers who live in the Hollow "draw from the mind all evil, a cleansing that might sound pleasant but is, in fact, a vile madness."
The issue begins with a giant fish-like humanoid (almost like a Sleestak from "Land of the Lost") called an Elemntak emerging from a well in a lake. He's holding in his hand a bubble containing Adam, Garlis, and the White Lady's owl and they're all sitting atop a whale-like creature. (It's kind of hard to explain.) Adam notes that he and Garlis both clearly feel lighter after the Moss Weavers' cleansing. Garlis promises to fulfill his promise to the Elementak once he's seen to Adam's offer while Adam is forced to admit to himself that he's seeing Garlis in a new light. Although he knows how brutal Garlis can be, Adam realizes that, like him, Garlis faced a dilemma and "made the best compromises he could."
Given this issue was written over four years ago, it's unbelievable how well Garlis' subsequent treatise on "high-mindedness and intellectualism" fits our current political discussion. He observes that "progressive ideas" start in elite circles but never make it to the layman because he (the layman) finds them difficult to understand. The laymen dismiss these ideas as dishonest because they're confusing and instead embrace simple ideas because they're easy to understand. Garlis justifies his actions because he saved Zhal from "falling to the control of frightened, confused dolts." It's the sort of speech an authoritarian progressive leader would deliver to justify her regime as preventing the MAGAs from taking power.
Lest we get lost in ideas too long, though, Adam and Garlis leave behind the Hollow and come upon dead bodies surrounding a destroyed coach. When Adam observes that the perpetrators left no tracks, Garlis looks at the corpse of one of the perpetrators and announces that he was a "balloon man" or Sky Bandit of Volmer, the God of Thieves. (They came from the sky, hence no tracks.)
Telling Adam that Volmer kills anyone who gets in his way, Garlis asks him how many nails he has remaining. Adam responds that he only has one but can use the White Lady's lantern to pull more souls from the Well. Garlis frantically tells Adam not even to think about doing so, because he wouldn't be able to control what he grabbed. (Adam is clearly going to do so at some point.)
Suddenly, a four-armed warrior and her companion, Juk, arrive to kidnap Garlis. Adam uses his grandmother's nail and her power to "strip away masks and illuminate reality," but Juk can turn energy forms into physical forms and Four-Arms (as I'm calling her) destroys his grandmother's now-solid spirit. Four-Arms then hurls Adam into a tree, and Garlis takes the chance to kill the White Lady's owl, freeing him to make offers again. Before he can, Four-Arms knocks him unconscious. Leaving Adam on the ground, she and Juk take Garlis into the skies to the floating city of Skod and bring him to Volmer.
In Volmer's fortress, we learn that Volmer's wife, Ama, made a deal with Garlis at some point. Garlis cryptically makes an offer to Volmer (I think) telling them that he'll "stop your [Volmer's, I think] captains from hovering around your lovely Ama's valley." It isn't really clear what the deal here is, to be honest. Based on a subsequent ribald conversation between two Sky Bandits, I think Ama is having sex with Volmer's captains. But I don't see what it has to do with Ama's deal. Also, Volmer claims Ama made her deal for "Solm" but we're never told what or who Solm is. At any rate, Volmer threatens to kill Garlis but knows that he can't kill him without killing his wife, so he tortures him instead.
As the rest of the party comes across the destroyed coach, Adam makes his way to Skol. With the White Lady's owl dead, he can now feel Garlis' seeing through his eyes and knows that he did, in fact, sell his soul to him. Adam realizes that he's making his way to Skol to save Garlis in and of himself and not because Garlis can save him, a situation that surprises him. Upon arriving at Skol, Adam encounters Four-Arms and her crew. Poor Adam. It's never easy.
Seven to Eternity #11: This issue is unusually straight to the point.
At the Osidis farm, Adam's wife, Nival, tries to keep up appearances as the kids' realize that the roots are dying and their food is disappearing. Nival tries to get the kids to focus on the positive, particularly since Rosie's (their infant sister's) fever has broken. When one of the children sees through the window that the Mud King's servants are arriving, Nival hides the kids in a closet or the basement and rushes to the front door with a sword. But she's startled to see that Garlis' servants are there bearing gifts, since, as one says, "the Mud King cares for his servants."
In one of Volmer's prison cells, Garlis explains to Adam that Volmer was a "soft coward who lost his bid for power and fled to hide in the clouds...blaming his fate on his father, as so many failures do." Garlis also informs Adam that he's used his restored sight to send his people to provide supplies to Adam's family. As Garlis reminds Adam that Volmer isn't his only son (i.e., he's arranged for their rescue via the Piper), Volmer enters with Ama.
Fearing Volmer will kill Garlis and everyone connected to him (himself included), Adam tells Volmer that he and his party are trying to get Garlis to Torgga to separate him from his "servants." Volmer tells Adam that he knows that he was with a party of seven, and Adam claims that he took Garlis via the Great Hollow to prevent Garlis' "loyalists" from finding him. Ama responds by outlining the events that we know are true, of Adam betraying his party and agreeing to go to the springs of Zhal after hearing Garlis' offer. Adam interestingly insists that he never heard an offer, though Ama points out he has the White Lady's lantern, which she was unlikely just to hand to Adam. Adam counters by telling Ama that the White Lady was a servant of the Black Well and promises to bring Garlis to Torgga once he's healed, which he needs to be for his family's sake.
Volmer has sympathy for Adam, telling him that he believes that Adam believes that, having rationalized his decision. But Volmer says that he wants to spend more time with his father, cryptically saying that he won't spend the rest of his life in the sky. He then rips out Garlis' remaining eye so that he can hear Garlis' offer without Garlis looking at him. It's a lot.
Elsewhere, the rest of the party struggles with the fact that they don't know how to get into Skod without alerting either Garlis or Volmer. Jevalia asks Katie why she's upset; when Katie says that she's worried about her father, Jevalia tells her that she knows Katie is also worried that Adam is a traitor. Weirdly, Jevalia provides assurances that he's a good man "facing impossible odds," a more favorable view of him than we saw in issue #8, when she pays Dragan to kill Adam. Before we can learn more, the Torgga witch appears in a vision and tells the party that the White Lady's owl is dead and Garlis has regained his "throngs." Meanwhile, we see the Piper assembling a race of flying humanoids, who look a lot like Beak from the X-Men.
Seven to Eternity #12: We get another surprisingly direct issue here as Volmer believes himself to have the upper hand only to realize that he never had a hand at all.
Volmer's guards bring Adam to Volmer due to Adam's deteriorating condition. Instead of helping Adam, Volmer brings him on a walk so that he can lecture him. (Volmer claims the sea air that Adam can breathe while they walk on the outside promenade will help his condition.)
During the War of Whispers, Skod's residents apparently managed to refuse hearing Garlis' offers though soon found Garlis-controlled territories surrounding them. As Garlis cut off Skod from the rest of the world, Ama approached him. She accepted his offer to isolate Skod permanently from the war, not realizing that the catch was that any Skodian who set foot on Zhal's soil would die immediately. As such, Volmer was forced to raise his city into the clouds.
Volmer tells Adam that his men had to attack the coach that we saw in issue #10 so they could steal water. Adam isn't buying Volmer's excuses for his men's cruelty, noting that "rationalizing murders seems to be a family trait." Volmer tells Adam that he can't take Garlis to Torgga until Volmer accepts Garlis' offer to free his kingdom. (I don't really get this part since Garlis didn't make that offer.) He's enraged when Adam refuses because he'll be dead in days, since he believes that Adam will free Garlis once he brings him to the springs of Zhal. (Again, I don't get the problem. Can't Volmer just demand Garlis offer to free his kingdom and then send Adam on his way? Is he afraid it'll take more time than Adam has to wear down Garlis?)
Before Four-Arms and Huk can force Adam to walk the plank, the Beak-like humanoids from last issue (called Jolspians) start to impale themselves onto Skod in suicide attacks. (Remender suddenly starts calling Four-Arms "Juk" in this issue and Juk "Huk." I thought it was me, but I checked issue #10 and Four-Arms addresses "Huk" as Juk several times. But, from this point forward, I'll use their new names.) Volmer realizes the Piper is behind their attacks and orders Juk (Four-Arms) and Huk to guard Garlis. Adam arrives at Garlis first, outraged that the Piper is killing the Skodians with the controlled Jospians. He threatens to kill the Piper, which outrages Garlis. Regardless, Adam frees Garlis and grabs the White Lady's lantern, and they make their way across Skod to flee.
The next part is unclear. A pink energy aura seems to protect Garlis, and I think it comes from the Piper. At any rate, something makes Adam flee into a building and activate the lantern, connecting him directly to the Well. Given that he calls this decision in an aside to us his greatest mistake, next issue should be a doozy.
Seven to Eternity #13: This issue is wonderful and terrible all at the same time.
Adam's journal tells us that his actions on this day set the stage for Zhal's freedom, the "liberation of [Zhal's] children from the whispers." As such, the bar is pretty high for the tale that follows, given it's the turning point in the war against Garlis.
The action begins with Garlis hiding from the Piper, a curious act that Ama hypothesizes is because he knows "there is bartering yet to be done." Garlis tells Ama that he knows what Volmer wants (presumably freeing Skod), but his answer is no.
Meanwhile, Adam travels into the Well. If I'm reading between the lines correctly (an increasingly acute problem with this series), Garlis' spirit - which appears as a sword-wielding archdemon - informs us that the Mosak believe that mortals are seeds planted in soil to grow spirits that inhabit the "true world" in the Well. The figure says that he believes that it is "the other," which I'm guessing means that the Well grows spirits to inhabit the true world in Zhal. But we don't really get explore these cryptic comments enough to make them coherent (surprise, surprise) because Adam comes upon the Excellent Librarian, who tells him that the figure will "hear no more offers" (hence why I think it's Garlis).
The Librarian reveals that the swamp has infested the Well, though I don't know if we know how it happened. Adam says that it isn't his fault, though I also don't know why Adam would think it was. The Librarian then seemingly empties the Well into Adam's gun and returns him to Zhal. (He asks Adam if he'll serve himself or Zhal, and Adam replies, "I am Zhal." OK then.)
On Skod, Garlis seemingly kills Ama and then faces Volmer who stabs him. Adam returns to Skod with Garlls calling for him. Seeing Volmer ready to kill Garlis, Adam chooses "the path of mercy" and releases the Well's souls to destroy Skod. Adam says he does it for "them," but I'm still not clear on who "them" are. The people of Skod? Given they all die, the only benefit that they gained from Adam destroying their home is the fact that they now won't die if they set foot on Zhal because, you know, they're already dead. If it isn't "the people of Skod," I have no idea who "them" are.
On the ground, Katie and the rest of the party are going through Skod's ruins, and Katie wonders where the bodies are. (Maybe Adam wasn't as brutal as we thought? Did he somehow evacuate everyone?) Dagan and Spiritbox find Volmer's body, though. Katie asks Goblin to help her bring Volmer to the water to wash his wounds, and Volmer revives long enough to tell Katie that Adam killed them all before he dies.
Final Thoughts: Oof. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel at this point. This arc is stunning visually. Opeña is just a fucking marvel throughout this arc. If the Gliff Lands were a fallen Utopia, the Skylands are all colorful wonder. It's hard to get your arms around its destruction, no matter how good of a job Opeña does showing it.
But the story itself feels like it's buckling under the weight of this majesty. Remender does an excellent job of keeping us focused on Adam's overriding need to get Garlis to the springs to heal him. Amidst all the chaos, it remains our true north. But Remender is therefore reduced to giving us little more than hints when it comes to other parts of Zhal's history, mythology, and people. From the Librarian's cryptic words in issue #13 to the exact nature of what Volmer wanted from Garlis, important parts of this story feel like they're missing and won't get addressed.
It feels like Remender can't decide if he wants to provide us a spectacular world-building experience or a deep dive into human frailty. It's increasingly feeling like his desire to split that baby is weighing down the story, which isn't how I want to feel about this epic. It also seems impossible that he'll have it done in just four more issues, but I guess we'll see.
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