Seven to Eternity #10-#13: "Rise to Fall" (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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.

Seven to Eternity #5-#9: "Ballad of Betrayal" (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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.

Seven to Eternity #1-#4: "The God of Whispers" (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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?