Page 100 of To Free a Soul
That is also how a god permanently lost an arm, an eye, or worse, extinguished themselves forever.
For Weldir, the second consumption of a soul feasted on his aura like a plague until he ceased using it. He considered it a penance, a punishment for violating another’s soul in immoral and unimaginable ways.
When Nathair consumed souls, the initial shatter of it left behind the human’s memory fragments – little shards of glass that refracted pieces of their life.
Once a soul shattered, it didn’t feast upon his offspring, but the power surrounding it: Weldir. Nathair had no mana here in Tenebris to offer the souls. They festered and fizzled with gigantic, yawning mouths, like a whale eating krill. And ashattered soul gulped and gulped as it tried to put itself back together before slowly evaporating when it couldn’t stabilise itself.
Considering how deep these are, it’s evident it’s been an exceptionally long time...Nathair roared and twisted as the shards began to dislodge.He almost destroyed me.
My mist has receded. I can feel my reach on Earth is minimal.He looked up at his poor realm.Tenebris was close to dissolving.He was surprised he hadn’t woken to screaming.
Some of Rökul’s portals... don’t have my barriers on them.He checked to make sure Jabez’s did, and it was thankfully still in place, but half of the others had disappeared.
His power just hadn’t been able to maintain them.
Lindiwe will have to help me.She would need to fly to all those that were preventing Demons from returning to Nyl’theria, so he could lay down new mist. Once she showed him those locations and he could transport to his mana there, he could conjure new barriers.I must do so in person.
When Nathair gouged into his own neck, shredding his flesh and gills – and coincidentally his soul – apart, Weldir made tendrils form across his huge body. Nathair’s orbs, still shifting between colours, shattered as ethereal tears began to float around his serpent skull.
Weldir placed a hand over the side of Nathair’s brow bone and stroked it comfortingly. “I know it hurts, but I must get them out.”
The more the shards ripped through his soul on their exit, the more Nathair squirmed and fought. He wriggled on the ground, trying everything in his might to escape. He let out a scream that made Weldir pity him, but he couldn’t stop.
At the same time, he tried to heal Nathair’s soul of the damage he’d done to it. His wounds were deep, like skin had grown over splinters of glass that’d burrowed into muscle.
When the largest shards were gone, the flickering rainbow in his orbs slowed, but did not cease.
There must be more.Weldir started over, pulling out smaller shards; those were difficult even for him to see. He repeated the process, removing fragments while healing him at the same time – even at the cost of his low, dwindling mana.
When Nathair stopped quaking, but didn’t wake up, Weldir stopped and pulled his serpent skull to the side by one of his dark, hooked ram horns. He peered into white orbs.
I cannot see them,he thought hopelessly, as he waved his hands over his offspring’s unconscious form.
Deep within Nathair’s body, shards glittered in answer, but they were so tiny that Weldir couldn’t see them properly. He couldn’t even perceive them with his mana. It was like looking for a crystal of sugar in a sea of salt, no matter how much he tried to call them out of Nathair’s body.
“I’m sorry, but this is all I can do,” Weldir told him, placing his fingertips gently on the centre of his bony forehead. “Sleep. You have been awake for long enough.”
Nathair’s orbs blackened, and he went limp.
“I have failed you.” He’d let his offspring be harmed under his care.
Had he not already been deep in slumber when Nathair did this, Weldir may have been able to stop him. Regardless, he wore the blame.
He tipped his head back to look at the fracturing sky.Will Lindiwe be angry?
How many of her years had he missed? How many of their offspring had evolved?
I didn’t see what skull and horns she gave our last offspring.
And he didn’t have enough power – between keeping Tenebris in its current state, but stable, and saving Nathair – to remain awake any longer.
She will have to wait a little longer.
A time unknown, but of strange fondness
Weldir’s mind twitched as he gradually returned to consciousness. In the weightless nothing, he spanned his sight over his body.
The inky spots that usually made up his physical form were minuscule. He’d barely gained a fraction of what he’d lost. At most, his fingertips would be visible, which was nothing in comparison to the third of him that had been available before Nathair’s carnage.
