Page 169 of To Free a Soul
Whenever she saw Magnar’s tail wag at his bride, or any of their orbs turning bright pink for their females, Lindiwe couldn’t help the adoration that swelled in her chest like liquid fire. The burn hurt, but it felt nice at the same time.
It was a welcome change.
Which only made her more anxious for if, or when, things went horribly wrong. Luck had never been on her side, and she worried about how all this would come crashing down.
Please.
She didn’t know what she was pleading for anymore.
She just needed some...hope.
March 4th, 2024
“He’s really gone,” Lindiwe said as she entered Merikh’s empty cave.
Then again, she’d known that by the murkiness she’d seen when she scried for him earlier that morning. He was under some kind of ward, and she figured it was the protection bubble that surrounded the Elven city. She’d seen it herself once, as she’d gone through one of the portals and flown over Nyl’theria in curiosity.
When she’d no longer been able to see him, she hadn’t been able to help herself. She flew over the Veil westward to see for herself that his cave was vacant. There was no trace of him other than the lingering of his citrusy scent and all the things he’d left behind. It didn’t look like anything had been packed, as if none of it mattered to him and he’d left it all behind.
His bed was unmade, his shelves the way he left them.
“I’ve been inside here so many times,” she murmured aloud as she brushed her fingertips over his stone workbench. “It always feels lonely here.”
Not once had it been filled with a warmth that was left behind in a loving home. Just once, she would have loved to sit inside it with him and have a pleasant conversation.
That was now entirely impossible.
He was gone, and any hope of mending their relationship was gone as well.
A part of Lindiwe grieved his absence – she always had – but it was different now. He was completely out of reach, and to her, that was the same as being dead. Like Nathair, he was in another realm, one she couldn’t go to, or be a part of.
She came here to absorb that, as she likely wouldn’t ever return.This cave and lake is where I lay the worst of my sorrows and regrets.She needed to leave them behind or forever grieve those emotions with festering, worsening wounds.
Just as she turned to leave, something pulsed with a yellow glow in her periphery, dim against the shrouding shadows. She reached across the stone workbench and tentatively retrieved the blue mana stone she’d once given him. Except unlike before, yellow pulsed from within intermittently.
He’s left behind his glamour?No, it was more than that; he’d... changed it somehow. Even she could tell the spell was different.
She curled her fingers around it, wincing at the pain from the cracks of lava forking across her skin and knuckles – the wounds from healing Raewyn yet to be healed even after months.
I’ll give it to Weldir.
When he woke up, whenever that may be, he’d likely have an answer.
If Merikh has left Earth, then there’s no problem with me taking it.If he left it behind, he wasn’t coming back for it.
“I’m sorry for all we’ve done to hurt you,” she said to Merikh’s empty cave. “I hope you find the happiness you’ve been searching for, and a place to fit in and be welcomed.”
She’d just prepare in case this brought ill winds for her other children. And for her and Weldir.
I hope... you found love and it heals you, Merikh, my little bear cub.She looked up at the ceiling of his cave.I think you deserve it more than anyone.
A time unknown, but of disconnection between ideals
When Weldir felt a tug, he was drawn from slumber.
He knew what it meant; he’d felt its familiar pull only recently.
He opened his consciousness so the blackness of nothing met the blackness of his empty realm. The darknesses were different – one without thought, the other with it. One motionless and uneventful, the other controlled by the push and pull of his will.
