Page 62 of Of Blooming Embers
She’d sent the missive guiding us to her in Ceto.
Before that realization could register, her contours transformed into that of a young girl with the same stunning eyes. My mouth fell agape, my right fingers gripping the obsidian wrapped around my left pointer finger. The stone warmed and tingled against my fingertips. It was the girl from the Reverie Wield who’d gifted me the ring during the last Dormancy.
Breathlessly, I stepped forward, but paused as her brilliance flashed and twirled around her. My aura hummed through my muscles and sinew, yearning to connect with hers. Multihued flashes sparked at my sides. Everyone’s powers were flaring.
The female’s visage didn’t stop shifting, features melting into one another as if they couldn’t decide which shape to settle in. She lifted her arms above her head, and her body rose a few more inches above the platform.
She wasallof these beings.
Young to timeworn.
She was none of them.
Made of mist and wild energy and messages from the Fates.
She’d helped me along the way, more times than I could count.
She roamed the wilds of the realms.
Spoke in riddles.
She was the definition of surreality.
The drawing from the book in Morpheus’ library wavered in the back of my mind.Ancient History: An Unabridged Bridge into Divine Yesterdays.
The Oneiroi.
The celestial sister with the obscured face.
The aureate aura of an Ancient.
She … was … Was it possible?
My ember burst from me, reaching for hers, not to harm, but to revere. “Phantasos?” Her vibrant energy enveloped my faint, broken words. All at once, a collective gasp rent the air, everyone choking or sucking in shocked breaths.
Her ever-changing mouth curled. “Recollect … the dawn does not fear the night. Protect the balance. Persevere.” Her words were wind chimes tolling through my ears. Words she’d left me with in Surrelia. “We’ll meet again.”
The entirety of her burst into golden sparks and condensed into a beautiful black raven. It spread massive wings, immediately fading into the fog in a frenzy of gilded flecks.
“Wait!” I called out, activating my ring. My body was transported to the space she had occupied, but my fingers slipped through the scattering embers.
The Ancient of Illusions had left us again like the dream she’d always been.
25
MINE
GAVREL
Bewildered, we abandoned Hallowed End as the last of Phantasos’ twinkling embers faded. We were apparitions in the night, depleted of words and lost to one another in revelations.
We exchanged somber goodbyes and plans to meet the next day before everyone went their separate ways. With dazed eyes and rigid shoulders, Seryn shuffled over the planks, and I shadowed her, ready to catch her if she fell.
But she didn’t.
She never crumbled.
Just kept taking each step until we arrived at our lodging.
