Page 94 of A Soul to Guide

Explaining that to Merikh had proven pointless, and before long, they were at the very edge of the Veil.

When they arrived, he put her down close to the canyon and reshuffled his bags in preparation to climb down. After placing their bags on the ground to double check everything was secured, he removed his cloak, already informing her it would just get in the way.

Raewyn, on the other hand, covered her nose with her sleeve.

“Holy maiden, that smells awful,” she commented with a nasally hint to her voice. “It doesn’t smell like this back in Nyl’theria.”

“It’s Weldir’s magic,” Merikh stated, as items clanked and clinked together. “There are two types of mists that move through the Veil: a recurrent white one, and a black one.”

“And the black one is Weldir?” Raewyn grimaced. “Please tell me it doesn’t smell like this down there. I don’t think I could bear it for longer than an hour.”

It smelt like animal rot, and decay, both sickly sweet and sour. It almost had a fruity scent to it, which only ever emitted from a corpse because of bacteria.

“It doesn’t. It’s Weldir purifying the souls he’s captured, the ones Demons are ferrying into the Veil every time they eat a human. They don’t know they’re carrying it, but they warp and infect the soul, which he then needs to purify before he can take them toTenebris for safe keeping. The black mist is both his reach and the physical manifestation of those toxins. The smell is part of that process, and it lifts upwards and fades. It’s actually a good thing.”

Raewyn tilted her head in his direction. “How do you know all that? Not even I do.”

“There’s a lot I know that most don’t,” he answered plainly. “When you’ve immersed yourself with every side of people, you become privy to shit you wish you didn’t learn.”

“I couldn’t disagree more. Even if it isn’t good or feels burdensome to discover, the more knowledge you have, the better.”

His growl was quiet, but no less menacing. “That’s because you’ve never learned something you wish you could forget.”

Raewyn opened her mouth to disagree and then shut it.I guess that’s true.She’d never been faced with something so terrible, it weighed heavily on her conscience.

Sure, there was her brother, but she wouldn’t forget Jabez no matter what the world threw at her. Even if he had been absent, he was always in her thoughts. A lot of what her scientific experiments were about was bringing him home – preferably not to be buried.

She’d even taken over some of her mother’s work on how to splice genomes of her people with Demons, hoping an injection could give them a proper physical form. All tests had come back inconclusive so far.

Letting the conversation go, she turned back to the canyon just beyond her feet. She noticed a red glowing ball in her vision, like there was a spell being used or cast nearby in the direction of rushing water.

There must be a waterfall nearby.

“We know of the Veil,” she mumbled as a soft breeze blew around her, threatening to make her gag. “But I don’t actually know what it looks like.”

“It’s nothing but a canyon with thousands of trees. It’s not special.”

A sigh flittered past her lips. “I wish I could see it.”

The silence that bled between them was heavy. Saying things like this often weighed on the person next to her, but she didn’t want to hide how she was feeling to protect them.

She wanted to know what the Veil was like. She wanted to know where her brother was living, if it was bright or dreary.

Then, in true Merikh fashion, his big warm hand patted the top of her head. “If I could lend you my sight, I would.”

His pat and then slow stroke wasn’t condescending. Rather, it was like the awkward attempt of someone who had no idea how to comfort another, but who was at least trying to, like someone saying ‘there, there’ while internally freaking out.

He would have no idea just how soothing she found his attempt, how much she appreciated it, and that it softened her towards him.

She considered telling him he could from his perspective, like he’d done in the cave, but decided against it.

I saw something when we’d been sitting on the steps of Ashpine City.For just a second, when she’d first leaned against him, she’d seen the city in a blur of colour.

A small smile curled her lips.I guess he wanted to share his sight with me then, too.It was like having a secret peek into his thoughts.

Raewyn turned her head to give a half-hearted thanks, only to jump sideways with a gasp when red flickered in her vision.

It was the strangest sensation, like something cold pierced her eyes. A red light sparked, as though it was right in the centre, before it burst in a circular wave until flames danced on the outside of her vision.

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