Page 140 of Flame and Sparrow

Dravyn said little. The passionate, almost playful god I’d spent the night with had been replaced by the stoic and powerful version I was more used to. He was clearly troubled but on a mission, determined to show me what I’d asked for at whatever the cost.

Finally, we came to it: A place where the rolling fields of silver grass and black earth ended in a steep drop down to a dark ocean—the same ocean of thick, purplish water I’d first seen in the Death Marr’s territory.

To our left, several hundred yards away, was the Tower of Ascension. To our right, far in the distance, I saw high cliffs; I wondered if they were the same ones I’d stood on the day I’d first encountered the Death Marr. This place felt familiar, yet altogether new, and I was more turned around than I cared to be.

We dismounted. I walked the edge of the steep drop-off, trying to orient myself, peering at the shoreline of white sand down below. I didn’t see any of the Death Marr’s veilhounds pacing today, and I said a silent prayer of thanks for that.

I gestured to the expansive shore in both directions. “So all of this is what you refer to as the Edgelands?”

He nodded.

“And that tower over there is the Tower of Ascension.”

“Yes. Amalith,” he said, reminding me of its proper name. “So this point is where ascension happens, but the area holds more significance than that.” He picked up a broken tree branch and smoothed a patch of sandy ground with his boot.

He had apparently realized my love of maps and diagrams, because he took the time to sketch out a proper map of the realms in the sand—the upper-heavens, the middle-heavens, and the mortal world they sat above. He drew a line separating the upper-heavens from the middle-heavens, and then he divided the middle into three separate sections.

These three sections, I noticed, all converged toward a single point at the bottom.

“Where we stand is the point where the three courts’ territories meet. A spot none of us fully claim.” He circled the spot where the lines converged. “It’s also the thinnest point between our realm of Nerithyl and the mortal realm of Avalinth. The only thing separating us from the mortals here is Eligas and its various pathways.” He lifted his drawing stick and pointed it across the strange purple ocean.

“The Shade Court doesn’t claim this point,” he continued, “or the relatively narrow strip reaching out from it—that which we call the Edgelands—but the Death Marr has been keeping all these edges secure for some time now. A task appointed to him by all three of the upper-gods, for the benefit of all three courts.”

“Right…I remember him mentioning he had a job to do. He claimed I was distracting him from his duties.”

And then threatened to feed me to the veilhounds for it.

I shuddered at the memory.

“This ocean before us was not here in the beginning of this realm—it is a much more recent addition. The ‘water’ you see is actually a churning mass of the Death God’s draining magic. An extra layer of protection preventing anything in the mortal realm from crossing over.”

“Crossing over?” The idea was completely foreign and fascinating. “They can do that?”

“They shouldn’t be able to. The magic of Eligas prevents it—redirects them. Mortal souls can rise to the middle-heavens after the death of their physical body, of course, but only into the designated Afterlands that run alongside the actual Marr territories. For a living being to cross into our personal territories, it requires a very specific kind of magic—which is what I gave to you when I placed my mark on your wrist. But something other than our magic is at work here.”

I was still mostly confused, yet as he spoke, an uneasiness was building in my bones, shaking them, making me feel unsteady on my feet.

“Look harder, into the distance there,” he said. “Do you see what’s happening on the other side of this ocean?”

Breathless and buzzing with curiosity, I watched.

Several minutes passed before it happened, but when it did it was unmistakable what he meant: a flash of jagged energy, like a bolt of lightning splitting a night sky.

I took an involuntary step back. I still didn’t understand what I was seeing, but even I could tell it was unnatural.

Another flash quickly followed the first, but this time I held my ground. Narrowed my gaze for a closer look. Everything in the distance seemed to waver, to shake as though something was rattling the very gates of the heavens themselves.

Quietly, I said, “It’s almost as if…as if something is trying to break in as we speak.”

He nodded, his expression grim. “Something that threatens the very structure of our world and magic.”

“What is it?”

“We aren’t sure. We’ve tried to trace the source on the other side several times without success. But every day here lately, the strikes against the barrier grow more numerous. More violent. This past week has been particularly bad, which is part of what triggered that meeting of the courts last night.”

The unease in my bones continued to deepen.

Moth swept down from the bright sky and made several clumsy loops in the air before dropping onto my shoulder. I absently stroked his wings as I considered all the things Dravyn had told me.

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