Page 203 of To Free a Soul
“Because today isn’t about me, or my wants. As much as I would like to congratulate them, I don’t know how Nathair would feel about it.” She met his stare, and the joy that had been in her eyes just seconds before was obscured by lingering pain and loneliness. “None of them ever react well to me. I just... I don’t want to ruin their day. I can meet her another time. I’m just happy I get to watch, and I’m glad we didn’t miss it.”
He didn’t know how to respond, or what words he could use to comfort her.Now that I have a physical form, perhaps I can discipline my offspring to stop being so insolent regarding her.He’d like to see them try to snap and snarl at him, when he had power he could now expend in the real, living world.
Since he had a physical form, his mana, too, was tangible.
He offered a distraction. “Is this something you once wanted? To be wed?”
“Once, but that was a very long time ago.” Her smile returned, and it made her eyes crinkle. “I’m content with how things happened, as they were the beginning ripples to where we are now.”
That was good – Weldir wasn’t interested in partaking in such an event that was beneath him.
She seems... happy.He’d never seen his female this uplifted. Now that there was an absence of anxiety, he realised she’d been utterly strangled with it for centuries. She no longer felt as though she had to do it alone, now that he was present, and he could see how much that eased her.
It softened the way she spoke, the way she held herself, and even her gaze. She came across as more human, freer, but in a way that was a mystery for him to uncover. It was like she’d finally lowered her guard, or rather, had invited him to join her on her side of that invisible, hard barrier, while she kept it up against the rest of the world.
He liked it. He liked that there was little separating them.
Her white owl feathers swayed against her jaw and neck as a light gust of wind pushed from behind them in the alley. A handful of her cloak feathers were brown now. Austrális didn’t have snowy owls, and there hadn’t been any left within his prism realm. But it’d needed repairing, so they’d hunted for a masked owl local to these lands. Its plumage had brown and white in it.
She’d expressed that she didn’t mind the change of colour and was thankful she could keep her preferred avian shape.
“Oh, curses!” Lindiwe bit out, gripping his wrist tighter. “We’ve been spotted. Let’s go before we get into trouble.”
His gaze snapped away from peering at his beautiful mate, lost in her as always, to look upon his serpent offspring. When his gaze met Linh’s, a strange discomfort sliced through him. His first reaction was to shield his face, hiding its oddity from herand the world. He realised then that he wasn’t used to having the eyes of others on him that weren’t his mate or his offspring.
It was odd that the human had turned around to find them at all, since her back had been towards them during the wedding ceremony.
At his mate’s request, he teleported them away from their location before the newest Phantom, or Nathair, could spot them again.
Until I’m used to this world, I think it’s best if I keep my appearance hidden from all.At least, until he was used to existing in it and could bear the weight of their judgement or inquisitive curiosity.
A time unknown, but of woven threads
Curled up on a large enough bed to fit his height, with a soft and warm Lindiwe in his arms, Weldir had been sleeping peacefully. The magical barrier he’d placed against every wall of this human hotel, in some random Austrális city he cared little to remember the name of, kept out all noise and danger.
She’d paid for their stay with the gold she’d collected, which he’d manipulated into coins in the past at her request.
Admittedly, it was nicer than her tiny hut with a bed that could barely fit her, let alone him. He also didn’t want to return to his prism realm; the longer he stayed away from it, the more hellish it felt. He’d never uttered this to Lindiwe, but he was now terrified of becoming trapped within it again.
Or of losing this form somehow.
Which was why he struggled to sleep soundly, even after five months of existing as he was. Having Lindiwe’s sweet, feminine scent and warm, luscious body against him eased him. He often woke up, buried his face into her curls, let out a contented chuff, and was able to drift off again.
Except in this instance, a loud and spiteful offspring roared his name so loud, he was surprised she didn’t wake up from the bellow that radiated within his mind. Not wishing to alert or worry her, he placed her under a minor sleep spell and pulled up a viewing disc.
Once he noted the surroundings of the violent male, he teleported.
I’ll tell her afterwards.Or... maybe not at all. It really depended on what happened.
“You called, little one?” he asked, materialising on top of the ruined metal cage that surrounded Jabez’s portal – something used to keep whatever came through confined until properly guided.
He was seated with his legs crossed, a position he favoured, and peered down at the five people below him.
Merikh lifted his bear skull topped with bull horns up at Weldir, his chest clad in a red singlet. At his side was a tall brown Elven female with long, white, coily hair, who wore a pale-pink dress with a black skintight bodysuit underneath. She carried a full-blooded demonling in an orange dress, whose hair had been tied back to show her little pointed ears. Zylah, the rabbit-skulled Mavka with antlers that had shrunk since her growth into adulthood, lifted her bony snout towards him as well. Her short and revealing teal dress swayed in the wind.
Lastly, and the most surprising, was Jabez. His outfit was different to what it’d once been, since he donned a dark-blue robe shirt similar to Merikh’s and light-purple loose pants. Like the females, he also wore a black skintight suit.
Weldir couldn’t take his gaze off Jabez, and more importantly, his green-and-blue swirling soul floating between Zylah’s antlers.I see... that’s quite unexpected.
