Page 142 of To Free a Soul
Just before she was almost past the side of the house and near the garden, feeling the call of magic that tingled in each raindrop, she turned her head to Reia. Their gazes met momentarily.
“Orpheus!” Reia screamed, backing away towards the safety of the doorway.
It only took a moment for him to rush to her, and his gaze followed the direction she was pointing.
“It’s the Witch Owl,” he explained, as Lindiwe hopped away and continued her dance.
The Witch Owl.That was all she was to him. All she was to any of them. Even those far away in distant lands called her something similar, although never those exact words. Justowl, in some form.
It was like they saw her as some strange entity. Not their mother. Not their friend. Not someone they could trust.
Orpheus went on to explain what she was, much of it incorrect. She only ever approached him in her owl form, and he was quick to vent what had triggered his temper or agony at a silent bird.
Once she was in the middle of the garden, she threw her wings up and bounced in a circle. The turned soil began to glowaround stalks and hidden seeds, and little sprouts flourished in the embrace of her and the rain.
“I believe she is the one who gave me the amulet circlet, but I am not sure. She has only spoken to me once when human.”
Lindiwe faltered a step.Once?I have spoken to you hundreds of times, Orpheus.Realising she’d stopped dancing, she picked up her pace to make up for the lag. Maybe he saw all those moments as a collection of one time, or his memory was partially broken from the years of mental and emotional pain.
Perhaps he’d tried to forget all those moments with Katerina that involved Lindiwe to escape the hurt. He didn’t understand how the passage of time worked, and perhaps his suffering made him feel that forever had passed, as if it had all dragged out slowly.
His humanity was low back then.His obsession with a cruel woman could easily dismiss Lindiwe’s presence while under the thumb of emotional manipulation and torture.He remembers his name because it was called out to him a hundred times. Remembers her face, as it was there for thousands of days.
She finally stopped dancing when the earth glowed bright green on its own. Orpheus came past the fence of the garden and paused mid-stride to stare at her. He was quick to snort out a huff and continue patrolling.
There was no greeting. Just nothing.
This hurts.Doing this hurt. Being forgotten hurt. Being considered untrustworthy, when she’d poured all of herself into her children, hurt.Why does everything have to hurt?
All her love was ignored. Her love was never returned.
She found herself growing emptier, especially in the wake of her choice to put space between her and Weldir.
I tire of always hurting.It was slowly breaking her beyond repair. It was eating her from the inside out. It was ruining her, desensitising her, twisting her.
Lindiwe pulled back her hood, then transformed into a human and lifted her face to the cool rain. It’d been a long time since she’d cried; after beheading Leonidas eight and a half years ago, in fact.
I feel like I’m all out of tears.How many had she shed? Enough to fill an ocean and drown in it?
Despite it all, Lindiwe reached into her cloak as if nothing was the matter and began planting seeds.I wonder if this human would like a lemon tree.Something sweet and bitter.
She picked an empty spot in the garden while it was still infused with magic and used her bare hands to make a hole. Then she planted the seed and waited for a lemon tree to grow. Lindiwe stayed there for a little while, watching it grow, while raindrops splattered against her head, her nose, her shoulders, and her sorrow-filled chest.
I miss you like an ache, Weldir.
And she wished that didn’t hurt either.
October 13th, 2022
Sharp talons dug into the bark of a massive tree branch as Lindiwe stared at Spiral Haven from above in her owl form. She’d removed most of the spirits of humans from it when she first got here, ensuring that the likelihood of one popping up was low.
It was all in preparation for the people who had just entered the village. All three were shrouded in black cloaks, and it did much to hide their wolf, fox, and deer skulls from being noticed. Although two beings were over seven-foot-tall Duskwalkers, the little one, who barely came to their chests, was a brave human in disguise.
Reia constantly adjusted her deer skull so she could see through its eyeholes and stuck to the shield of Orpheus’ cloak. A scent-masking spell stopped her human smell from being detected. If she strayed too far from him and got lost on her own, she’d likely be discovered.
Lindiwe intended to intervene if that happened, but she also had other motives for being here.
It’s nearly been a month since she was brought to the Veil.Reia had somehow managed to survive longer than any other offering.
