Page 41 of The Dark Mage
“Speak,” Ren’wyn commanded.
The shades shuddered, dragging their clawed hands down their shadowed faces.The smallest one finally answered.
“Why would you call us?Leave us in peace.”The words were harsh, consumed with agony.The other three ghosts twisted behindhim.
Another presence manifested behind Ren’wyn, soft compared to those in the house.She drew it in, like a beacon in the night of the Void.When she looked past Fael, a young man stood—tall and fair—in the overgrown front yard.Only a dark stain in the center of his tunic gave away that he wasdead.
“Come,” she said tohim.
Ren’wyn returned her focus to the angry shades in front of her.The young man approached tentatively, his profound grief a weight in theair.
When he drew level with Ren’wyn, he stopped.As though he, too, saw the state of his family’s shades, he collapsed to his knees and reached weakly towardthem.
“Tell your story,” Ren’wyn’s voice rang through themist.
“I died trying to save you,” he rasped, his voice sounding long unused.“I died watching you burn.You made me leave you, and then you sacrificed yourselves for me.I could only do the same foryou.”
Ren’wyn gestured to the tortured forms before her, commanding them.“Speak.”
The youngest one flickered intensely.
“Speak.”Dark power crawled from her throat with the order, and Fael’s magic heated her blood.
“We died for you to be free,” the small shade whispered.“We died invain.”
Ren’wyn reached one hand toward the family and one hand toward the young man, shadows eddying outward from her to the shades.
“Be at peace,” she said gently.“You died filled with love and purpose.You died to free one another.No one died in vain.Be at peace, and be united at last.”She brought her hands together, an invitation for what might be.
“Be at peace, and win at last with love,” she whispered.
Tears started again, the family’s sacrifice a painful reminder of her own mother’s death.Fael’s empty hand curved over her hip, and she channeled his strength to settle deeper into theVoid.
The young man stepped toward his family.The three larger shades turned to the smallest, who hesitated only a moment.His shadowed hand reached for the older brother.
Light burst forth.Fael roared, his hands snatching Ren’wyn’s shoulders, turning her bodily into his chest.Dropping like a stone, he curled protectively over her as she threw her arms around his neck.They held each other until the light dissipated, taking the shadows and mist with it to reveal thesun.
Ren’wyn was sweating and breathing heavily, but her heart was light.The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a wash of green and gold stars in hazel eyes so warm they invited her to drown.
Fael pulled her against him.“Welcome back,” he whispered.
Fael asked so many questions on their ridehome.
“Where did they go?”An understandable first question.
“I don’t know,” she answered.“Some of my Masters believed there’s another realm after the Void; others thought they perhaps ceased to exist altogether and returned to the energy of the world.”
“What do you believe?”he asked.
“I hope they go somewhere they find happiness,” she said, feeling wistful.“I like to believe they find contentment somewheresafe.”
“I like that,” he agreed, pausing to reflect.“Do they always appear so different in nature?Some shadowed and others almost alive?”
“Yes, they always have—for me, at least.Sometimes a shade will lose character with time.Sometimes a violent death or violent nature will change their appearance.Other times, it seems determined by how their spirits were claimed by theVoid.”
“The gestures?”he asked.
“I learned the simplest commands, breathing, and focusing techniques from my mother and grandfather; they knew to teach me enough to keep me from being overwhelmed by the Void.At the Academy, my Masters expanded on everything, teaching me how to access my magic through breath and thought, to call it up with my will.They taught me complex gestures that allow me to work the separate forces within the Void: shadows, shades, death, andwind.”
