Page 71 of Sanctuary of the Shadow
“And”—the Water Queen smiled triumphantly—“I was successful.”
“How? What did you do?” Harrow sat up straighter in her chair. She was not a violent person, but one whose entire lineage had been eradicated could not live without desiring some kind of justice. It was the only way to stay sane after such a tragedy. She’d always longed to strike back but had dismissed the idea as impossible.
But this changed everything.
Except Darya’s smile twisted. “Well, I was successful…to a point.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, let’s discuss wraith physiology. A wraith is a specter. Incorporeal. A spirit cannot meet a physical death, for it is not of the physical world to begin with. But wraiths can form a corporeal body for several hours at a time. When a wraith settles into a physical body, he becomes as vulnerable as any other Elemental species.”
“Are wraiths Elementals, then? I’d heard they were evil spirits from the Shades that Furie found a way to capture.”
“No, they are her creation. But, since Furie’s magic was twisted and depraved by her grief, her Elementals were formed twisted and depraved like her. Her sorrow warped her mind, and it made her creatures abominations.”
“So you found a way to kill them? Did you force them to take a physical form?”
Darya shook her head. “There is no way to force them without Fire magic. Furie can make them do whatever she wants, for their very essence is Fire, and she controls that Element. My Water magic is the antithesis of that and was therefore almost useless against them. That was why it took me half a century to have any results with my test subject.”
“Test subject? What test subject?”
Darya folded her hands neatly in her lap and gave Harrow a long look. “Wraiths were created to be enslaved to Furie’s will. Their very word, once given, binds them.”
A trickle of foreboding ran down Harrow’s spine, but she suppressed it.
“Since she created them, Furie was able to control their speech and force them to vow to do her bidding. Her wraiths were bound by her to kill the Seers. One wraith in particular was sent to eliminate your family.”
“But it left me alive.” Harrow knew this. “How?”
“Because it disobeyed her.”
“But I thought they were bound and couldn’t disobey?”
“They couldn’t,” Darya agreed. “It should have been impossible. But for this one wraith, it wasn’t. To this day I don’t know why, and I don’t think Furie does, either. The wraith spared you for whatever reason. Perhaps it didn’t deem you a worthy opponent. I doubt it was from any place of compassion. They are heinous things, formed by a heinous being, and aren’t capable of it. But whatever the reason, Furie was livid. She punished the wraith responsible for the failure severely.”
“How do you punish a ghost?”
“She can manipulate them with Fire magic, do whatever she wants to them. They are like golems, molded from the clay of her evil nature into powerful, unstoppable beings that obey only her. When displeased with this one, she dispatched a foul punishment. Agonizing torture lasting for months.”
“Dear Goddess.”
Darya wagged a finger. “Don’t make the mistake of feeling sympathy for those creatures. Excruciating pain is the only experience such a beast deserves to have. Its existence is a stain that taints the very fabric of our reality. They are abominations.”
Harrow smothered her disquiet. “So why does it matter if Furie tortured the wraith that left me alive, then?”
“Because, child, Furie made a mistake. Torturing her wraith weakened it to a mere wisp, rendering it powerless for a time. To begin experimenting on how to kill these creatures, I first needed to trap one. But they were far too powerful, and my Water magic didn’t work against them the way I needed it to. After several years of attempting in vain, I was presented with the perfect target by Furie herself. Weakened by the torture, the creature stood no chance against me. I captured it easily.
“From there, it was a simple matter of changing how I wielded my magic so I could find a way to trap it permanently by myself. Studying how Water magic had almost the opposite effect of what I intended, I soon found ways for my power to work and devised a prison for it. The wraith eventually healed and regained his strength, but by then, the cage I’d fashioned was inescapable. I spent the next fifty years trying to find a way to kill it.”
“Fifty years,” Harrow echoed.
“Yes, well, did I not just say they were considered unkillable?”
“What did you do?”
“First, I tried convincing it to assume a physical form so I could kill it that way. But, as it was a creature of hatred that had endured years of torture, nothing I did could break its will. It resisted my efforts with remarkable tenacity. So I changed my tactic. If I couldn’t persuade it to change by itself, I decided there had to be a way to force the change.”
“Was there?”
