Page 208 of A Soul to Guide

That’d help no one.

Once she was safely back home, she let her legs give out and fell to her backside against the door. She wrapped her arms around her legs as she buried her face against her knees. Her ears were so drooped, she didn’t know if they would straighten up ever again.

I’m really sorry, Merikh.She hugged herself tightly, wishing she could disappear from the misery drowning her.I don’t know how to get to you.

Her field of expertise would do nothing to assist her. She’d feel like a toddler trying to push a square block into a round hole. She might eventually get it right, but there were too many dangerous consequences for her to play foolishly.

It’s probably been a whole Earth day,she thought, remembering he’d said he’d heal within that time.Are you angry with me? I don’t want you to think I abandoned you on purpose.

If only she could acquire a new stone. Unfortunately, in order to do that, she would need to go outside the safety of the city barrier. All the mines were deep within Demon territories, which is why none of her people could obtain new ones.

Powering the city, the ward, everything, took all their combined strength. One day, in many years, the stones just wouldn’t be able to keep working, and they’d burn out.

Then they would be faced with the burden of protecting the city themselves, with only their individual magic to save them – and she’d already proven just how weak that was on Earth. Her grass vine barrier would only protect her for so long before a barrage of claws and fangs ripped it apart.

Her people, those much stronger and faster than her, had never returned from trying to get more stones. How would she be able to do that on her own?

I promised to bring you here. I promised to fight for you.She’d promised herself she’d gain the courage to be with him properly once she was home, and yet now she was here alone.

Why did it have to feel so cold and empty? It lacked his warmth, his scent, his imposing presence taking up every corner.

I want to go back to you...

Soft tapping on the door startled her awake, and she flinched. Eventually passing out while crying, she’d fallen to the side to lie on the floor in a ball.

Tree branches had sprouted from the ground and were wrapping around her protectively. She figured she’d subconsciously, in her sleep, sought comfort by being held and had called them to her.

The starfir central tree was naturally imbued with magic, due to the cluster of mana stones that had once been beneath its roots. The Elysians used them to force it to grow. As a result, it was highly receptive to their inner desires.

A few red and purple flowers had sprouted as well, cushioning her from the ground.

When she sat up, the roots and flowers retracted, fading completely as though they’d never been conjured, except for one. A singular red flower remained, and she plucked it from the ground to play with its petals, sadness radiating in her core.

Why did it have to match the fires dancing at the edges of her borrowed sight? Why did it have to remind her of him?

She felt cold, like her very soul had frozen.

Tapping, more incessant and louder, forced her attention to the door. There was a pattern to it, a tap, tap, taptaptap, then tap. She ignored it to look around her brightly lit home with swollen eyes.

My face hurts.With how much she’d cried yesterday, she figured she would have started crying blood. She smeared the dry tracks of salt from her cheeks.I can’t believe I fell asleep on the floor.

“Oh, come on, Rae,” Cykran shouted through the thickness of the door. “I know you’re awake. You’re usually the first weirdo up before everyone else.”

“Go away,” she grumbled back.

He opened the door and nearly sent her flying. With a shocked expression causing her jaw to fall, she turned back to look up at him. He’d winced apologetically.

He said nothing about her being on the floor.

“Come on. I brought your favourite: hufflepumpkin and nutberry soup. Can’t you smell it?” He waved the shallow bowl around.

Raewyn turned and booted the door with the bottom of her foot. The plate was nearly lost to the ground when his body, which had been half in and half out, was jammed between the door and its frame.

“What in theEvergreen Servanthappened to you?” he grouched, referencing one of the male deities of her people – the only one left. “First you punch me, then you try to crush me to death with a door. I’m just trying to do my job here.”

“You’re fired,” she half-heartedly stated, turning her head away.

His expression turned to one of hurt. “You don’t mean that.”

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