Page 189 of To Free a Soul
This was a solution to that. A way to move on and finally be... free.
It hurt more than she could bear.
For over three hundred years, she’d been tied to this person. This strange, mesmerising, beautiful being, and she didn’t know how to live her life without him anymore.
Now that she had this option, she didn’t actually know if she truly wanted it.But I can’t keep living like this.Both options seemed impossible for her to accept, and she wondered if perhaps death was preferable.
She didn’t think her love for Weldir would simply end. Even if she found someone else, they wouldn’t be him, and she would always remember the person who owned her heart as much as her soul.
He said he doesn’t need me anymore.Why did that make her feel so insignificant? That all the tenderness she felt for him meant nothing, and that she, all this time, had just been a tool. A servant. Someone to be used rather than truly cared for.
She only realised she’d actually started crying when she licked her lips before parting them to speak and tasted the salt of tears. “Is that what you want?” she asked, her voice cracking as she tried, with all her might, to stop her lips and hands from trembling.
“No. Not particularly.” Weldir looked down at the glowing gold fragment once more. “But I wanted to present you with the options clearly so you could make the most informed decision. What I truly want... is you. The added bonus is that I will also get something else I’ve sought from the moment I was born. But... I want you to be happy more, even if that means I cannot have either. That is my gift to you. Your happiness, freely given and well earned, even if it is to my detriment.”
“I-I don’t understand.”
“As I said, I can manipulate this mana, and I can create with it.” He lifted it higher so it was between them. “I will gain no power in doing so, but I can give myself a physical form. Not just temporarily, but one that will have life, where I can leave my realm... and live in yours.”
“You’ll have a real body?” she asked, her voice filling with hope. Her heart fluttered at the idea, and her trembling lips curled into a broken smile. “Y-you’ll be able to feel?”
“Yes.But... I have no idea what it will look like, or to what extent.” He tilted his head from side to side. “I’m certain it would be Elven formed, as that’s what my soul is like, but other than that, I’m unsure. As you know, much of what I do is a guess.”
“Why didn’t you just start with that?!” Lindiwe shouted, wishing she could bash his stupid chalky shoulders because the intense stress and hurt he’d just put her under was near cruel! “The decision is easy, Weldir. I would rather you have a physical form.”
“Really?” he asked, his head rearing back, mirroring the surprise in his voice. “But you would continue to be tied to me.”
“All I’ve wanted for the longest time was for you to join me on Earth, tofeelit with me. To be real, and not some half-tangible being shrouded in shadows and trapped in a world of dark void.” Lindiwe looked down at her arms full of two Duskwalkers, and even in her Phantom form, she could feel their heat. Bashfulness lifted her shoulders at her next words, and she’d been waiting so long to utter them that subtle shyness made her cheeks warm. “I love you, Weldir. I have for a long time, but it hurt too much to be near you, knowing that any future with you was just... empty. That’s why I had to pull away from you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
She clenched her eyes shut. “What would it have mattered? It would have changed nothing.” She opened her eyes to stareat their babies before lifting her gaze to him. “So, of course I’d rather be with you. I want that more than anything.”
“You understand I will never let you go if I do this?” he asked, just as part of a large grin began to pull at his face. When Lindiwe nodded in answer with her own smile, he said, “As you wish, then.”
He pulled back to give himself space, and she was thankful that she wouldn’t have to be kept in suspense for too long.
The golden crown fragment hovered between his hands as he started to manipulate it. Shadowy essence swirled around it like chalky clouds of a tornado. A tendril pierced the middle, and it pushed inside and widened it until it became a cylindrical pole. Once it was in that hollow shape, he moulded it further until he made what she could only describe as a stick figure.
Honestly, she was surprised at how far such a tiny piece could be spread out.
Then Weldir grabbed it by its stick arms and shoved it into his torso. The limbs began to separate until they made arm and leg bones, while hands and feet bones morphed into shape. The torso changed, spiking apart to make a ribcage, pelvis, and spine. Then, finally, a skull began to form that looked an awful lot like the Demon skull of the baby in her arms.
Lastly, tapered horns formed at the edge of his hairline, tucking closely to the top of his head, before the narrow ends pointed up at the back.
When it was done, Weldir was essentially just a skeleton with mist surrounding him, and the world around her began to wobble and vibrate. She perceived a change in the air, like pressure spiralling around and around, as it pulled towards a centre – him.
The darkness surrounding her sucked away like water, and brightness crawled closer as seconds passed. Within only ahandful of moments, it all retreated into his form, and light ate at the utter darkness in a flash.
A world beyond came into view.
Upwards and around her was a room that was so large she felt like a tiny ant. The clear crystal container they were in had too many surfaces for her to count accurately to gauge its true shape, but it appeared to be sitting on a purple cushion on a table of some kind, which was situated up against an obsidian wall.
Weldir lifted his hand above his brow to shield himself from the light.
“Too bright,” he hissed.
Mist expanded from him, and it shoved them back into a strange, grainy darkness. It wasn’t as solid as before, making everything look dark grey.
