Page 61 of A Soul to Steal

Rather than feeling sympathetic to Aleron, pride puffed Gideon’s chest. Aleron was honest, whereas most would rather not share their shame regarding the places they thought they were lacking. He knew Aleron’s intelligence to be low, yet he hadall the internal strength to bravely admit that, even when his orbs turned a reddish pink in either shame or embarrassment.

“I want to be you when I grow up,” Gideon stated with a chuckle, hoping to ease him.

Gideon knew he’d only confused him when Aleron tilted his head. “But you are already grown.”

His lips parted in a wide grin. “I’m saying I admire you for saying that. It takes a courageous person to admit their flaws. Not even I can do that, but I wish I could. I wish I could be transparent about who I am, without fear of being judged.”

“But I would not judge you,” Aleron stated. “And I trust that you will not blame me either.”

His grin softened into a warm smile.At this rate, he’s going to scoop my heart right out of my chest.Well, if he had a heart.

To fill in the passage of time as they waited, Gideon attempted small talk with Aleron to distract him from his nervousness. He pointed to the sky, the three suns, and then what they could see further inside the city.

Aleron’s shoulders eventually loosened, and he stopped crushing Gideon’s knuckles together.

That was, until a daunting creature, as wide as he was tall, made his way down the long hallway of the fortress walls.

Gideon hissed when he thought his fingers would pulverise.Jeez, Aleron.He didn’t complain, knowing the pain radiating up his finger joints would fade the moment he let go again.

Behind the stomping massive form, a trail of soldiers gallantly followed, all wearing the same armour as the two who appeared earlier.

To his left were two men also dressed in armour, yet one had a dark-blue tunic robe covering his torso with a silver tree stitched into it. The other wore a similar one, although green. Neither wore a helmet, and he only just noticed that their boots were so malleable that they were like a second skin.

To his right, a willowy woman wearing a pale-lavender dress that revealed as much as it hid, gracefully sauntered by his side.

Her cleavage was modest, with most of it hidden in the crossing vee, but her arms were free. Wide, flowing cloth ribbons hung from the backs of her shoulders and danced with the skirt as all the gauzy material skimmed over the ground. Through the tasteful yet daring cut of her dress, her legs became visible all the way to the hip on each step, revealing strange, soleless shoes.

Bronze and golden bangles clinked and chimed together as she moved. Three on her right ankle, and one on her left, while many more adorned her wrists. Golden leaves had been woven into the long fringe of her snow-white hair, which had been intricately braided six times over the crown of her head before falling loose. Half up and half down, tight coils fluttered with each of her steps.

One thing Gideon noticed was the possible Elven quality between all these people. Their ears truly were long and pointed. They all had white hair, and despite the differences in darkness of their brown skin, they all had the strange inhuman grey undertone to it. Yet, their other features were so distinct that it was easy to tell them apart – like the shape of their noses, lips, chins, brows, and eye shape and colour.

Their heights and weights varied, although they mostly appeared willowy except for the man in green.

The woman even had dark freckles cutely scattered across the bridge of her nose and cheeks, with a little beauty mark under her right eye. Other than the approaching Duskwalker in the middle, she was the tallest, and the only one holding some kind of cane.

Her pupils glowed with a white starburst, and were encased by rich, molten-brown irises.

So this is Merikh,Gideon thought, remembering his features from the statue within Weldir’s private cave.

He couldn’t figure out if he should be disturbed or in awe of him.

His white bear skull looked even more ferocious than Aleron’s, with the claw marks going down his right eye hole. His tall bull horns were a sandy brown, but arched over his head like a menacing crown. A bright-red silk tunic rested over his plump torso, but looked perfectly fitted for his rounded stomach and chest. It was sleeveless, and below it he wore black trousers tied just below his knees, revealing bare, humanoid feet tipped with claws.

Short black fur covered all of his body, and unlike Aleron or Ingram, the only bone visible on him was his skull.

Strapped across his forearms, calves, and back were guards like the flexible white metal the Elven soldiers wore.

Surprisingly, he appeared to be half a foot shorter than Aleron, but that didn’t stop him from looking any less menacing.

When they all halted just beyond the barrier, a bull tail flicked behind him and he peered at them with bright-red orbs. He folded his meaty arms across his massive chest, assuming a posture that came across as standoffish.

Silence bled between them, heavy and uncomfortable. Everyone waited with bated breath for the other to speak.

Aleron grew the courage to step forward. “Merikh–”

Merikh’s orbs brightened in their crimson hue.

“What thefuckhappened?” he snapped out, his voice even more booming and deeper than Aleron’s. He half-unfurled an arm to point a claw at Aleron as his chest rapidly heaved with agitated breaths. “You’re pink, like a spectre, like how I started to turn when I visited Weldir’s realm. How did it happen? How did you die?”

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