Chapter 196: First Table

But the echo knew where to take them. Where all hunger learned to be hunger.

The First Table trunk route opened under the Stonewake Basin.

There was no stairs or tunnels or path. Just a walk through all of the sources overlapped on top of each other. The team felt the walls transition as they walked down it. Black stone from the quarry. White ice from the Ice Crown. Wet bone from the Marrow vault. Pages of the old Glasswake ledgers made into clay. Each change brought a different air temperature and smell to Austin Veyrons body until he couldn’t remember what he should be feeling.

Every wall told him something different.

THE ROUTE NEEDS A KEEPER.

THE BODY NEEDS A SOURCE.

THE DEAD NEED A COMMAND.

THE HUNGRY NEED A THRONE.

His mark burned each time one spoke to him. Feeling as though it was resting its hand on his shoulder to let him know it was there.

The Trunk route had all the pieces from every source they had broke through. It knew about the Hunger Emperors route and the Caldera and the Ice Crown and the Glasswake ledger and the Marrow Vault and the quarry. It gave Austin Veyron the chance to learn how all the hunger was connected.

DEVOUR wanted to learn about all of them. Not power this time. Knowledge was what DEVOUR wanted and that didn’t feel as dangerous to give in to.

Veyra stayed near Austin Veyron. Close enough that her good shoulder could rub up against him.

"Name it."

"I want to know all of the routes."

"What would that create?"

"The one who chooses what hunger is important."

Sables piece of the crown glowed a soft white light. "We can learn all the routes but compare the maps."

Each member of the team had one of the Deep Table maps. When they were in the Trunk route each map started to change. Only when all three of the maps were placed together did the team see the next path to walk through safely.

"My map has the left path." Ceryn said.

"Right path is on my map." Veyra said.

Calder put his map over top of both. "Straight forward is safe. The others will lead you in loops."

They took the straight path forward. Nobody chose it for themselves and they all knew they were making the right decision.

Behind them the left path was filled with fire from the Caldera. And the right path was filled with pale debt ink. The trunk route didn’t kill you when you took the wrong path. It just made you feel like it was the only right choice.

Nyra had the heart shard in between the pale splinter and the debt chime. All still encased in there blue black color.

"They’re changing because of the Trunk." Nyra said. "It wants all the pieces to be as one."

"Do you want to keep them?" Austin Veyron asked her.

"Yes." Nyra answered. "I will need someone to tell me when I’m taking instead of keeping."

"I will." Veyra said.

"I will as well." Sable said.

There was a source echo ahead of them on the path.

It looked like the crown from the Hunger Emperor but was made of many things. Water and ice and bone and stone. No real face to look at and it had a bowl in its hands.

TAKE THE SEAT. It whispered.

It leaned the bowl towards Austin Veyron.

Grand Meridian appeared inside of the bowl. He could see the Freehold lobby being attacked. Food from the Frostmarket frozen. People from Glasswake dying under their debt. It showed him a place at the First Table and told him if he sat there he would be able to see all the routes.

It looked so believable. The cracks forming on the outside of the Freehold building. All the people trapped inside scared and him unable to get to them. Austin Veyron wanted to run to them and this seat was the fastest way there.

He took a step forward.

Veyra grabbed the back of his jacket.

"Name it."

"I want the seat opposite hunger."

"What would that create?"

"Someone who believes by fighting hunger I have control over it."

Sable pushed her crown shard towards the bowl. "Then it is still a throne."

The bowl from the source echo opened. Black vines came out and started to create the look of source guardians from the Ashen Stair.

THE CONVERGENCE BELONGS TO ONE HAND.

Rin shot at the vines and cut one but two more took its place from the ground. Orena stabbed her spear into the bowl and shattered the vision of Grand Meridian being taken over. Veyra cut the vines from Nyra’s field.

Austin Veyron was able to see what the echo was telling them.

The trunk route wasn’t making the sources become one it was telling them the convergence had to belong to one.

"Target the convergence belonging to one hand. Not the trunk route or sources or map." Austin Veyron said.

"Witnessed." Veyra answered.

"Witnessed." Sable said.

Austin Veyron used his chain of white roots to hit the bowl.

DEVOUR was open to him and he tasted what it meant to belong to one hand.

THE CONVERGENCE BELONGS TO ONE HAND.

He devoured belongs.

The bowl shattered.

The source echo was not destroyed. It created more source echoes of itself that traveled down different paths of the trunk route. The hunger route, debt chime, pale splinter, marrow and the quarry stone.

"The echo is trying to make us separate." Ceryn said looking at his map.

"If we combine our maps we can see where to go next." Calder said looking at all three maps.

They continued on following the path the maps created for them.

Before they reached the end of the trunk route Ceryn stopped them and pointed to a wall that had all seven sources on it.

"The Trunk will be showing us more of it self here. If it gives us one map we need to separate them again and not read it by ourselves."

"Ok." Tessa agreed.

"What if the source echo sits down at the First Table before we can stop it?" Calder asked looking at the bottom of the platform they were standing on.

"We don’t sit in the other chair as our target." Sable said. "We’ve done that at every source we’ve broke through. Just because its bigger doesn’t mean we take it."

Austin Veyron felt his dark mark fighting against what Sable said. He wanted there to be an exception to this. That this would be the one time they could let DEVOUR do what it wanted.

"I will tell you to stop me if I try to sit down." Austin Veyron said.

"We will remind you that you have the option to stand." Veyra said looking at him.

The Trunk route got quieter as they descended further.

When they saw the First Table it was massive. There was seven chairs around the edge of a platform that hovered over nothingness. Each chair was made from one of the source materials they had learned about. Black roots, pale ice, red embers, bone, ledgers, graves and living dirt.

In the middle of the platform was a table that was big enough to fit the map from the Hollow Crown on. It had many lines running through it that looked like the routes on the map.

The source echo was sitting on the other side of the table waiting for them.

All five source fragments it collected were now attached to its body. Roots from the hunger route, white from the Ice crown, ink from the Glasswake ledgers, grey from the Marrow vault and dirt from the quarry stone.

Its body was constantly changing shape as all the different source pieces didn’t fit together correctly.

It wasn’t done becoming an echo of the source but it had more of a body now.

"You made it." The source echo said.

The First Table spoke from all seven chairs at once.

ONE CHAIR WILL BELONG TO HUNGER AND ONE WILL BE OPPOSITE HUNGER.

Austin Veyron saw one chair that was black and another that was opposite of it that was carved from the route stone.

The offer from the First Table didn’t seem to have any tricks to it. There was no hidden cost or anything they could use against it. Which was scary in itself.

If the source echo took the hunger seat and Austin Veyron took the seat opposite of it the First Table would give them both power over hunger.

It would also trap Austin Veyron at the table.

Everyone was silent as they stood on the edge of the platform. Even the bottom of it felt as if it was listening to them.

"Name it." Veyra said.

"I want the chair opposite hunger."

"What would that make you?"

"Someone who thinks because they are opposite a throne they aren’t a part of it."

Sable put the crown shard in between both chairs.

"Neither chair will have someone sitting in it."

The source echo smiled at them with no mouth.

"Then I will sit in my chair alone."

It walked towards the black source chair.

As the five source pieces began to become one