Page 82 of To Free a Soul
Instead, he just focused on their light breathing, and how he could hear their heart beating within his realm, filling it alongside hers. He pressed his foreknuckle under their rounded jaw to caress them, which accidentally rolled their head into an unnatural position while they lay limply on their side.
“I have them for now,” he told her. “I can send you back to rest comfortably.”
“Actually, could I stay here?” Lindiwe asked, and he caught her pushing a curl behind her ear.
It was only then that he noticed her satchel in her hand, and he must have missed her seizing it between the seconds he left her side and then brought her here. He’d noticed it on the ground next to her earlier and hadn’t thought this was why.
“Of course. Do you plan to return to that establishment at all?”
She shook her head as her eyelids drooped. “No. I have everything. I only paid for the night to give birth. I’m happy to return to the forest where they belong when I leave.”
A sense of tranquillity shimmered through his mist that she was choosing to remain, and found his realm a safe and comforting place to sleep. Especially after all these years where she’d rejected his offer.
“I will hold on to them so you may rest.”
She perked up with a smile and dug into her satchel to retrieve her dress. “That’s okay, I’m not feeling all that tired since you healed me. They also didn’t take as long to come as usual.”
“I see.” He tried not to make it obvious that he wanted time alone with them before she would forever have them inher world. “In that case, I’d like to speak with you regarding something.”
In the middle of getting changed, uncaring that she was naked momentarily before him, she cocked a single brow at him. “Should I be worried?”
“Depends. I’m always unsure with you.” Humour vibrated through him at the unamused look she gave him, then he glanced down at their offspring and patted their back. “Will you be alright on your own for a short time?”
“Sure, but why? There’s more of you than usual. Your power has grown.” Her lips pouted, as if she was a little disappointed by the potential solitude she had once so fervently wanted.
“That is because I haven’t been completing my duties.”
He’d been putting off consuming a large portion of souls and placing them in Tenebris. It was for her, even if he’d never tell her that. He’d justified the wait because a few months was a blip in time comparatively, but the souls were beginning to pile up, and he needed to tend to them.
He was finding everything... tiresome. Tedious, even.
Between consuming souls and giving them a home, keeping Tenebris bright and playful, spreading his mist, and barricading Demons from returning through the portals to Nyl’theria, his power and mana were constantly being drained. And there was also the mana she used, as well as Weldir frequently having many viewing discs summoned.
He was strong now, but it was only because he hadn’t been doing half his duties. Now that they’d resolved the foundation-breaking issue, it was time he returned to them.
And it came with sacrifices.
“I have perfected how to consume a large number of souls while their fate tethers give them their homes and places within Tenebris with little effort and thought.”
He’d made it automatic, a spell that had taken him since meeting her to perfect. That, too, cost him mana.
Lindiwe came closer to pet their offspring, and he was very tempted to run away with them so she couldn’t take them before he was ready to relinquish them.
She used the pad of her index finger to pat between where the baby Mavka’s eye holesshouldhave been. “How long?”
“A few months.”
Her eyes drifted up, and he made his face form so their gazes could meet confidently. It was... odd, having her this close of her own volition if it wasn’t sexual. They were almost face to face, and he rather liked this innocent nearness.
Her eyes flicked back and forth over his horned features. “Do you want me to wait to give them their skull and horns so you can witness it?”
His mist tightened against him, and Weldir was surprised by the offer, and... appreciative of it. “Yes. I would like that.”
She gifted him a rather large smile, and if he wasn’t mistaken, it was soft and tender in a humoured way.
“As you wish,” she said, repeating the words he so often said to her.
July 11th, 1838
