Page 32 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

She spoke and I drew back, glancing back up at her face. “You—” Her voice broke and then it was as if her entire being faltered. Her body swayed, her face crumbling in pain, and I instinctively leaned forward, wrapping my arms around her waist. She was a head taller than me, but she rested her head on my shoulder, her body shivering.

And that’s when I learned that this creature doesn’t cry; they release their sorrow in wave after wave of sound. A heart-rending, undulating cry. I’d never realized a person breaking could be a sound. In this harmony that would forever haunt my dreams, I realized this sound expressed what words never could.

I held her. I don’t know what she took the blame for, or who she had lost.

But I knew the guilt one takes of a death they feel they should have been able to prevent, as if we were in control of the outcome of life and death.

But that’s merely a faux form of control.

We don’t control who lives and dies.

We only control how we live.

Shen

The song broughtme to my knees. Emotions erupted from corrupt and long-buried places deep in my soul.

The pup whimpered in his dreams, curling his tail around his body. I set my hand on his back as my forehead dropped to the sandy loam, my mouth opening in a voiceless cry. I glanced up through blurry vision to find the adult nymph enclosed in a human’s fierce embrace, as if the human herself through sheer force could cause the nymph’s pain to leave.

The nymph curled round the human, her entire body shivering with the force of the lament. Her face was lined with pain, the sorrow running deep.

The little human just held her. Let her pour out her pain.

A nymph was hugging a human. Until this time, I had not known the nymph had a physical form. It was noted they were possibly of the water and so were water personified. But with how Alia was hanging onto the nymph, the creature was not merely water personified but a physical being.

Slowly, the song softened until it was a mere hum, then it cut off. The song was a mere memory, but the emotions it summoned burned through the walls I had in place. Those emotions were going to be much harder to reel back into their prisons.

The nymph released Alia, stepping back. She gazed down at the human.

“You need to release what was to cradle what is. As the sea flows and the tides change, be yourself as flexible as water, as strong as a typhoon, and as unyielding as ice.”

“Sage words for one so young. Do not think I know not what you are, Red of the Decimators who were once of us.”

Alia did not cringe nor step back from the fierce words said with a hint of threat. I stepped forward, hands on my blades as Alia swayed. Her exhaustion was nearly pungent, and her breaths came in sharper gasps than I would like.

“My people have not been a friend of magic. I wish to change that.”

I narrowed my eyes. Why had she kidnapped me if not to further the Red’s agenda? Was she speaking a lie, or was she merely caught between her training and reality?

A few Reds had been excommunicated over the years, but I had not known of a Red to turn while still within the ranks of their brainwashed origins. Still, I smelled no lie.

And yet, that was unsurprising. This Red before me rode unicorns, kidnapped werewolves (and let them go), saved said werewolf at the cost of herself, rescued wolf pups, and comforted nymphs in the throes of sorrow.

“Your daughter will need this,” Alia said, pulling something from a pocket of her tunic near her heart. Her hand shook as she held it out.

The nymph slowly reached forward. She grasped the stone in Alia’s hand. Was that a mage stone? It had gentle gold swirls on its face. Alia took a moment, but then released the stone. “I will not forget you, Alia. In my time of great need, you were sent to provide comfort. But you yourself have not yet been provided such a boon, have you, child?”

Alia flinched, but tried to cover it with a light laugh that sounded broken. “I am happy to have been able to help you,honored one. Think no more of me. Should you live well and full, that is thanks enough.”

The nymph reached out, placing a hand on Alia’s head. “Such pain. In both of you.” Her eyes flicked up to me. In those eyes, I felt seen. And I did not like the feel of being laid bare before her. I looked away.

“There will come a time of need for you, and the boon you yet need will be granted.”

My eyes flicked back to her, just in time to see the two young nymphs leap from shore to collide with the full-grown nymph. They plastered themselves to her side, and she wrapped her arms around them, her thin lips spreading in a tender smile. She placed a kiss upon each head of hair before placing a final kiss upon Alia’s brow. Then they sunk into the glassy surface of the lake without a single ripple.

Alia swayed, and I jumped forward in time to catch her as she fell. Her lips were blue and her teeth were chattering, but her skin was burning.

I slid a hand behind her legs and scooped her up to my chest.

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