Page 133 of Soul Forge

Lillian was gone for the rest of the evening, so the others carried on drinking until the sun had vanished and the moon was high in the air. The fire pit continued to burn despite having no obvious fuel source, heating their small seating area in the cool night.

“Whoosh!” Julian yelled dramatically. “And then I cut off its head! I was the night, a phantom!” His words slurred together into a giggle that set Elda off laughing as well. The vampire had spent the night regaling them with tales of his adventures across Valerus, trying valiantly to keep the attention away from Sypher and their journey to the Weeping Mountain.

The others obliged despite their obvious curiosity, and eventually, Julian was weaving stories so grand that Elda couldn’t help but be pulled into them, imagining him and Nox taking on harsh terrains and fighting off demons as a pair. Each story was interspersed with joyful reunions with his family.

Elda learned Julian had stayed away from Yani for so long because he was being tailed by Harbingers, a type of demoninfamous for their keen intelligence. The only time they didn’t stalk him was when he had Sypher close by.

“But why are they chasing you?” Reiner asked.

“He pissed Cynthia off around the time she switched sides,” Sypher answered.

“I threw a firebomb at her,” Julian boasted.

Yani sighed sadly. “And so began four hundred years of intermittent separation.”

“I always come back to you,” his husband argued, nudging him.

Yani grinned. “And seeing the joy on your face when you remember how much it annoyed her is worth it.”

“Shewaspretty mad,” Sypher agreed.

“Almost as mad as when she realised your bond was broken. The second she had you level Nova, she was done for,” Julian chortled.

Sypher froze. Elda stared at him, Julian’s words echoing in her mind. Nova had been the city that existed before the desert became a wasteland. It was wiped out when Cynthia switched sides, but how it fell was different from legend to legend. Elda had heard two different versions from her mother and read a third version in her father’s books.

The ex-captain turned to fix Elda with a stare, and then they both shifted to look at Sypher. The happy atmosphere had shattered, replaced by an uncomfortable tension that made Elda shift to the edge of her seat.

“Cynthia had you dowhat?” Reiner asked when she found her voice, breaking the heavy silence.

“Julian, you moron!” Yani hissed, getting up and dragging him away. Clover excused himself, quickly followed by Gira, leaving the princess and the ex-captain staring at the Soul Forge with their jaws hanging at the hinge.

Sypher’s mirth faded, a deep sigh escaping him. He sat forwards, resting his elbows on his knees, the firelight reflecting in his irises.

“I was bonded to Cynthia four-hundred-and-eighty-eight years ago. A lot happened in her childhood, and she was chosen by her Spirit far too young. There wasn’t much hope in me that she’d stay on the right path, even before she started to abuse the Compulsion.” His eyes were haunted. “We were living in Nova, back before it became a desert. Julian and his family lived there, too, though I didn’t meet him until… after.

“I met Selena, Gira’s cousin, while I lived there. We saw each other for three years, and she patched up my scars a thousand times. Whenever I could get away, I went to her.” He set his ale aside, looking down at the fire. “When Cynthia found out, she was angry. Sheownedme, after all. Something in her was broken, but when she found out I’d deceived her, she imploded. I was Compelled to kill Selena. When her blood wasn’t enough, Cynthia turned me on the rest of the city.

“I caused so much damage that the city actuallycollapsed. The desert opened up and swallowed it. Those that escaped fled for the border, but most of them were lost in the mountains that separate the desert from Eden before they could cross.”

“Stars above,” Reiner murmured, sitting back and blowing out a breath. Elda was frozen, her eyes so wide they were starting to sting. He’d been forced to kill an entire race because Cynthia didn’t like that he’d found someone to trust. She’d torn that person from him in the worst way possible.

“Didn’t the Spirits try to step in?” she croaked.

“No. They don’t intervene until Malakai is involved. They only stopped her hold over me when she decided to find him.”

Elda understood why he punished himself by refusing the thrall when the vampires needed to feed. She understood why everyone was so deathly afraid of Vel. She saw in Sypher’s eyesthat killing Selena had crippled him. She was confident that, after that, Vel would have stepped in before his counterpart could crumble. Which meant Vel was the one who had levelled Nova and destroyed Julian’s life.

“You owe Julian a life debt because you killed his family,” Elda murmured, tears thickening her voice. “You blame yourself.”

“You can’t,” Reiner frowned. “The Compulsion is beyond your control, Sypher.”

“When you’ve had someonebegyou not to hurt them, and then you’ve killed them anyway, come back and tell me who you blame.” He got to his feet and started to walk away, stopping when Elda stumbled after him and caught his hand.

“Wait,” she blurted, frowning up at him. “You weren’t just going to leave me behind, were you?”

He cocked his head. “You just learned I destroyed an entire kingdom, and you still want to come with me?”

“Yup.”

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