Page 112 of To Free a Soul
“So you have no idea? What if you don’t kill me?”
“That is a possibility, but are you sure you would want to risk that?”
Merikh tilted his head and grunted, cupping the end of his snout as his chest expanded and decompressed on measured breaths. “Would you be able to remove me if it appears you are about to consume me?”
“I can try, that is all.”Perhaps I can pull him from me if he’s at risk of completely transcending to the afterworld.
Merikh shrugged, then loosened his folded arms and rested his hands on his narrow hips. “I have very little fear of dying, and I want to see where my creator comes from. Where I am from, in the most abstract sense.”
“You’ve surprised me, Merikh,” Weldir freely admitted.
“One thing I’ve learned at Jabez’s side is that knowledge is power, as much as is fear.” His tail swished, and the tuft of black fur at the end fluttered through a sunbeam. “I want answers, and those answers may help my endeavours.”
“And what endeavours are those?”
Merikh’s orbs reddened at Weldir’s prying, and his silence told him he’d learn nothing of his offspring’s goal.
“If this is really what you request, then I’ll have to confer with Lindiwe before agreeing.”
Merikh parted his fangs and snapped at the air irritably. “What does she have to do with this?”
“I will return shortly.” Weldir retreated to his realm so he could speak privately with his mate. “Merikh has requested that he be brought to my realm.”
He conjured up her viewing disc as he spoke and found her kneeling next to the riverbed with small chunks of mud-covered gold. While she cleaned them in the water, her lips pulled tight. “If that’s what he wants. But can you do it?”
“Yes, however...” Weldir paused, hesitant about his next words. “It would require the use of a portal, or two.”
She stopped and lifted her head. “But that would mean...”
“Yes. It is likely I will have to sleep in order to regain what I have lost. I know I don’t have much power to spare, but this has the potential to open an avenue for you.”
She brought her hands together to fiddle with the nugget she’d been cleaning and looked down at it. With her hair tied back, it allowed him to watch anxiety cut across her features.
“What if you don’t come back for a long time again... or at all?” she murmured quietly.
“I can block Nathair from going beyond a border I set, and this would only be temporary. I’ll attempt to lessen the damage so as to not be absent for too long. Possibly a few months.”
“You said that last time.”
“I don’t have to do this,” he offered.
Her thumbnail picked at a particularly sharp ridge. “No. Do it. Thank you for asking me, but you’re right.”
He returned to Merikh and then tried something new.I know my mana and mist cannot pass through their wards...But couldhe? To test this, he floated forward and unexpectedlypassed through Merikh’s dome.So it’s only my mana?What he was now was a fragment and a projection of his soul.
“Lindiwe is now aware.”
Merikh grunted at his voice and how it had gone from in front of him to his side. He leaned forward, as if the proximity might help him see Weldir, which it wouldn’t.
Weldir opened his mouth and shoved his hand and then arm into it until he knew his fist was within Tenebris. He called a soul at random to his fingers and pulled until it passed through his fangs.
Merikh’s orbs morphed from red to dark yellow, and he tilted his head at it floating above Weldir’s hand.
Surprised, he asked, “You can see it?”
“Yes,” Merikh responded gruffly. “Why is it white?”
“All souls that are deceased are white. They lack their normal, healthy colouring, completely sapped of life.”
