Page 98 of To Free a Soul
He felt nothing for his potential sire. Just emptiness.
Not due to hate, indifference, or abandonment, but simply because... why should he care? Weldir was an adult and lacked any connections. He wouldn’t turn away from this bond, but it mattered little to a being who was imprisoned without an end.
“You seek something from me.”
Leyfr’s spiked brow cocked. “I was hoping to see how far you’d come in controlling your power.”
“Do you need it?” He regarded the reptilian Elven god once more. “Forestry and flora? Whatever it is you seek, it is out of the realm of your capabilities. It’s not life you wish to growin the dirt, but something else entirely, and my mother is still incapacitated and of no use.”
“I see,” Leyfr said with a hum. “It appears I was right. You may be ill-formed, but your mind is stable. The foundations of you aren’t inherently evil.”
“I’m not evil at all.”
His lips pulled into a grin. “Yes, I can see that. You must understand, our first meeting of you was during the destruction and carnage you wrought. Almethrandra had hoped you were benevolent, as you saved her by healing her of the Daekura venom she absorbed. But... we didn’t know ifyoudesired such things or if it was accidental.”
“I have little recollection of my birth.”
“You are a facet of death, which shouldn’t be possible when we already have abeingof death. Every living thing your shadows touched was eradicated from theinside.You consumed their spirit and destroyed the vessel that housed it. But there is more to you; I have been able to sense it from my vines. You can manifest your mana, touch what no one else but Yanyas, the god of the afterlife, can. Souls.” Then Leyfr lifted his arms and spun in a circle. “You are the Warden of Darkness, and your shadows can manifest and reach out in a swarm. They have completely blocked you inside this prism so that not even we can see you.”
“I am broken, and my power is insignificant,” Weldir admitted freely. He lifted his arms to show the tiny dots of solidness. “You can see me, but I can sense there is little of me.”
“Care to expand it?” Leyfr asked, making Weldir lift his gaze to his once more. “A strange child, part Demon and part Elysian, was born some years ago. He, too, was imprisoned for things he couldn’t control, and led a massacre upon gaining his freedom. During that freedom, he took a portal stone and has opened up another avenue.”
“A portal to another realm?” Weldir’s mist shifted in thought. “Do you wish for me to aid him? How will this benefit me?”
“Aid him? No. We are hoping more will follow behind him. We want you to stop Demons from returning through his portal, then consume the souls of the humans they’ve eaten.”
“How? I’m trapped here.”
“I can take a piece of your mist with me, a flicker of your mana. A link between you and that world.” Leyfr hummed as his eyes slipped to the side pensively. “Well,Iwouldn’t be able to do such a thing, but Rökul sure can.” The male tsked and scratched his pale claws through his dark-green hair. “It really is a shame that the first one you consumed was Taoveen. She was a creator and could have given you a body in which to house your scattered spirit.”
I know these names from Mother,Weldir thought.
She’d shared with him many of her own memories, which helped to puzzle out all the pieces of what Leyfr spoke of. He’d seen all of Nyl’theria through her perspective when she let her consciousness wander aimlessly.
Leyfr offered him a smile. “If you consume enough souls and grow your power, you may be able to stabilise your form and become complete.”
“No. I don’t have the capability to give myself a physical body. This manifestation is at the edge of my limitations.”
Leyfr’s hopeful expression fell. “You do not know that.”
But he did.
Weldir’s brokenness, his incompleteness, could never be fixed on his own terms. It would require assistance that he was unsure if even his mother could offer.
“I don’t need false hope. It is an emotion for those who can feel it,” Weldir answered coldly. “I’m willing to agree, simply because it will give me the freedom I lack now, althoughcruel. Thank you for not wrapping this request in a façade of liberation that is untrue to hide that cruelty.”
Leyfr’s head reared back, and his spiky, pointed ears shot back. “Cruel?” He waved his clawed hand to the side. “I earnestly think this would be beneficial for you. A way to grow your power, and one day give you true freedom.”
“Freedom you cannot guarantee,” Weldir rebutted. “A way to leave my prism through projection, as I have just learned the ability from you being here, but to a world I cannot touch, scent, or taste. To show me what I cannot have, and likely never will.”
His eyes crinkled when they bowed with sadness. “Weldir... Almethrandra might have such capabilities.”
“Once more, there is no guarantee that she does, or that she will upon her waking,ifshe ever awakens. I have agreed to your request. Is there anything else I should know, any rules I must abide by?”
“So long as you abide by our morals, and don’t feed upon living beings with an evilness, Almethrandra will always welcome you. You may not see it, but she cries for you in her sleep.”
“I know.”
