Page 85 of Light Locked
Death is not really what his soul wants. He simply needed inspiration. A muse.
Ryson couldn’t explain what about the words settled strangely on him. He attacked Alina again, his body colliding with hers just as the realization struck him. They rolled once, but he did not kill her, his mind halting in place as he kept his knife poised over her throat.
Alina seemed to sense his hesitation and did not vacate the body. Instead, she stared up at him, bored and then puzzled as she seemed to sense the change in Ryson’s expression. He felt the lightness in his chest differently, interpreted its signs differently than he had before.
Prince had witnessed everything, and spoke now with a truth he hadn’t shared before. His intentions became clear.
Alina glimpsed between Ryson’s changing expression and Prince’s vacant bodies.
“No,” she said in disbelief, and then laughed, throwing her hands to Ryson’s chest. “No! You’re serious? You? You gave your heart to that princess!” She exclaimed as she shook him.
I really quite like her. She saved his life twice. She even healed him, healed decades of wounds. No one has ever healed the Warlord of Shambelin. I suffer greatly that I wasn’t the Insednian to witness such a profound act of devotion, but I will say I was the first to hear of it happening.
“Be quiet, Prince!” Alina and Ryson both shouted again.
“That’s not possible,” Ryson whispered, lifting himself from the body Alina now inhabited.
She sat up from the dirt and howled at the dread on his expression, “Oh, I knew you saw something in her! When you brought her to me, it was so–so,” Alina threw her hands into the air. “And the fact that she had the medallion draped around her neck. Oh, the scheming of it all! The poor girl never had a chance. You’re going to eather alive!” Alina leapt to her feet, throwing her arms in the air in celebration. “Thank cien! By the saints! He never left us after all, Prince! He just needed a muse!” Alina shouted and laughed. “I should have known that the Venennin of illusions would fool us one last time. I’m in awe. Honestly. Honestly.” She kept pounding her heart and threw her hands back into the air. “I’m in awe!”
Ryson withdrew at her celebration, trying to understand the complexity of Alina’s reaction.
Alina ran to him, shaking him again. “You see. This is why we followed you in the end. Even despite yourself, you still manage to succeed.”
Ryson shook his head, shoving her back. “What are you talking about?”
Alina, in her male form, skipped back and threw an arm around one of Prince’s corpses and kissed it on the temple. “Aww, look at him. Little puppet. I can’t tell if I’m proud of him or pity him. Should I tell him?” Alina asked. “Or should you? You see it now, don’t you? I was always annoyed when Alkerrai revealed one of his schemes to me, but to reveal one of his own schemes to himself, this is quite the opportunity! You see it, don’t you Prince? You see?” Alina asked as she continued to jostle him.
I see.
“You say I am insane, Ryson, but look at Prince and I. Try and imagine the type of leader we might follow. If insanity is having no sense of the reality of things, I’d say of the three of us, you’ve been the most insane from the start. You not onlymanaged to fool us,” Alina said pointing the fingers of both hands to her chest, “but you fooled yourself! You know, I do feel bad for you. I feel bad for your human heart which you so cleverly manipulated. I feel bad for your body which you so easily puppeted. I feel bad for your mind, trying to put all the pieces together, but oh my, am I so impressed by your soul. The sheer essence of you.” She kissed her fingers, and then inspected her hands. “Is this why you cut off my fingers? Did you somehow know I’d steal your soul?” She looked over at Prince excitedly, “Did he? You think?”
I don’t know. When his soul returns, you can ask him.
“You think he really knows me so well? Knows me well enough to manipulate me so thoroughly.” She pulled on the corpse’s shirt beside her longingly and stroked his chest, “Oh, Prince. Tell me please. I would so love for someone to know me like that.”
“What are you talking about?” Ryson shouted, frustrated by her antics.
“You never came to Loda in order to kill me!” she shouted back, laughing still. “You showed up because you foundher.”
“I found,” he started and then paused, fighting the assembly of an ugly picture.
You weren’t called to Loda from your slumber because of Alina. You were called to Loda by the medallion. The medallion hasn’t been exerting its influence over the princess. It’s been exerting its influence over you. The rest of it has been collateral damage.
“Can you put the pieces together yourself, or do you need me to?” Alina said.
“The Deadlock Medallion doesn’t exist,” Ryson whispered, withdrawing inwardly as his arms sunk down by his sides. “Then we’ve done something terrible, haven’t we?” Ryson whispered to himself, to the pieces of himself, his wayward heart, mind and body, oblivious to the conspiracies of the soul that sat at his very core. He never should have helped the medallion reach Loda. He never should have helped Clea.
Was it true?
All this time, had he been orchestrating the circumstances of his own revival?
He jolted from his thoughts, drawing up a hand with a curse and pulling rows of stone from the ground to cage Alina before hurling a dagger toward her. It struck hard, the host dying instantly.
He yanked the weapon from the corpse before climbing the stone wall that guided him up to another wall and then another until he had a clear view of the city.
You don’t believe us? Your cien has been silent in your head. You must know that it no longer challenges you as you’ve been acting in accordance with its will. It only challenged you when you separated yourself from the princess.
“I think you’re both playing games,” Ryson said, sliding down another roof and jumping into an alleyway. “To think my soul orchestrated all this, to think I manipulated myself–”
