Promises to the damned, p.31
Promises to the Damned, page 31
She reached into his energy, grabbed a hold of it, and paralyzed it.
The spear above Nasna stopped. The spears in her ceased digging.
Con-Ebru froze.
Nasna blinked. Her heartbeat echoed in her ears and she let out her breath.
It worked.
With his energy paralyzed, Nasna sent a pulsing energy through the tendrils into the Lightless and exorcised him from the shadow. The tendrils disappeared from her body and she dropped to the ground. Blood splattered onto the ground from the various cuts in her body.
She looked up at Con-Ebru. It was strange. She’d expected his energy to be much stronger than what it was. Strong enough to resist an ordîn. But his seemed rather normal. In fact, the girl’s energy was stronger than his.
She let out a sigh and placed a hand on the worst cut near her shoulder. Thoughts to consider later. For now, it was time to get back to Tsuran.
The whole side of his face felt wet, as did the several places the Warden had stabbed him. He grabbed onto the wall to stand up, but both became airborne again. Tsuran crashed hard on the floor only for the beast to throw him back into the air.
The beast broke through all of its shackles and thrashed around even more than before. It threw Tsuran and the Warden around the cabin, smashing into all the walls and flooring. Tsuran tried to protect himself by covering his head, but the splintering wood lacerated his body. He couldn’t even focus enough to possess.
And then it stopped. The beast stopped thrashing and became still.
Tsuran pulled himself up, grabbing his aching head and looked out of the doorway. The other Wranglers were rushing toward the cabin. He groaned. One of them had possessed the beast, and the rest were coming onto the transport. Just like idiots.
“No!” the Warden said. Tsuran turned to see him raising a fist to slam down into the backside of the beast to exorcise the Wrangler.
Tsuran possessed his statue and jumped at the Warden, crashing into his side. He reached up and grabbed onto the Warden’s wings and yanked hard. The Warden let out a loud cry. Tsuran took the opportunity and sliced through one wing and tore it off, blood splattering across the wood and statue. The Warden backed away screaming, grabbing at his back, at where his wing once was.
The other Wranglers rushed into the cabin and before Tsuran shouted out, the Warden charged toward them. Two fell within a blink of an eye. A third died just as the other two were dropping to the ground. There were only a few left, not counting the one possessing the beast.
Tsuran poured all of his power into empowering his speed and dashed in front of the Wranglers in an instant, taking all the blows from the Warden. Tsuran struck back, crying out,
“Get out of here!”
The Wranglers ran past him as he struggled with the Warden. Then the beast moved. The movement threw him and the Warden off balance and they pulled apart. They both looked out at the same time. Tsuran’s heart stopped.
The beast was leaving the prison. The Wranglers were not waiting for Nasna.
The Warden yelled and ran at Tsuran. Both of the Warden’s fists slammed into the statue and the exorcism wrenched his body out. But if the Warden exorcised him now, he’d be powerless to stop him from killing the other Wranglers. If he exorcised him now, there was no way Nasna would make it.
That wasn’t an option.
As the Warden exorcised him, Tsuran repossessed the statue. White flashed across his eyes as the exorcism pulled him out and his possession pushed him back in. It was like being squeezed in two different directions. But he remained in the statue.
The Warden growled and tried to exorcise him again. Tsuran repossessed the statue, again and again, fighting against the Warden’s relentless attacks.
The two forces clashed against each other. Exorcism and possession. Tsuran’s body seemed to fracture from within the statue. Worse than every stab wound, every broken bone, and even worse than total-control, these two colliding forces tore away at him like two beasts over a meal.
Ringing flooded his ears, drowning out all else. His eyes clouded over, seeing only white. He empowered the crystal, hardened it. He took his arm and sliced up as the ordîn exorcised him from the statue.
Tsuran gasped for air as he fell to the floor, the cold air bringing sudden clarity to his eyes. He coughed blood and looked back at the Warden and his statue, which had broken through all the armor, all the protective crystal, and pierced through the Warden’s chest.
Tsuran let out a weak laugh.
But the beast was still moving and was even picking up speed. Tsuran had to do something, had to stop them. But he couldn’t move. His body had had enough and refused to obey his commands. He tried to speak but nothing came out.
Nasna wouldn’t make it. And he couldn’t do anything.
The fighting between the prisoners and guards still raged, the bodies piling in the prisoners’ favor. The ordîns would lose soon.
Nasna looked toward the lightstone hallway and rushed forward, making her way past ordîn and tatzon alike. It appeared as though the guards had been trying to prevent prisoners from making their way into the lightstone hallway, to prevent them from going to the transport. But that line of defense had broken. Nasna moved past them into the hallway but the doors on the far end had opened and beyond them was the clear sight of the beast. Of it leaving. Tsuran was leaving without her.
No, Tsuran wouldn’t leave without her. Something had happened.
She dared not think of him dead, not yet. She had a more immediate problem. Even if she ran down the hall with all her energy-infused speed, she wouldn’t make it before the beast left the mountain exit. She would have no way of getting to it. The mountain would have her and the girl trapped.
She looked at the long hallway made of lightstone. It extended from where she stood down to the iron doors. She closed her eyes and placed a hand on the girl and gave her a gentle squeeze. No matter the risk, she would save her life. Even if Nasna died, this girl would not.
With the lightstone at her feet, she felt the energy coursing beneath her connecting to the lightstone in the walls and ceiling. She had access to the energy of the entire hallway, more than the giant crystal in the pits had. And she drew it all into her.
It was less like drawing in a river and more like flooding herself with a raging ocean of every heaven. Her body cracked and split, and she pressed on, releasing the energy beneath her feet. The energy threw her through the air faster than she had ever gone before. The hallway darkened as all the energy stormed into her, and each step released a force that demolished everything around her. In only two strides, she’d made it halfway down the hall. But the beast began running.
Nasna pressed harder.
The air rushed past her as she passed the iron doors and channeled all the energy into her feet, releasing most of it in a single eruption. The force obliterated the entire cavern around her and sent her shooting like an arrow into the air after the beast.
Spirits screeched, tatzons yelled, the mountain crumbled. A loud wind whistled in her ears, yet she still heard the rumbling and collapsing of the prison behind her.
The beast ran, but Nasna gained on it. She released the last bits of energy in her, pushing her along and guiding her flight. She flew above the cabin, her momentum slowing until she matched the beast’s speed and dropped through a broken part of the roof and into the cabin’s interior.
Wood fell around her and on top of her, but she couldn’t move her broken body. If her ordîn bones had been any weaker, she would have died. But she wasn’t a fool. Death was next to her, ready to bring her to the Abyss.
But that was alright.
She listened to the slow breathing of the girl on her back. Nasna closed her eyes.
“You’re safe, little one. I promise you’ll be safe.”
33
The Forming
To the Daughter I will never know: I am forever sorry.
If there are gods, I hope they are kind to you.
If there are gods, I hope they punish me eternally.
- Yava, the one who Forsook you
The cabin shook as the Wrangler adjusted to the possession. The other escapees cheered and patted each other on the back, but Tsuran crawled over to Nasna.
Exhaustion filled every part of him, but he forced his arms to pull his bleeding body across the floor. She lay face down with a tatzon girl on her back. He reached out and touched Nasna. Deep gashes ran along her body, blood flowed everywhere. The idiot must have drawn in a huge amount of energy.
Explained why the whole mountainside had just exploded.
“You!” Tsuran said to one Wrangler. “Bring me the box Dalvinder gave you.” The tatzon rolled his eyes but then looked at the statue bursting through the dead Warden. He handed the box over.
Tsuran forced himself upright and bent down to peel the girl off of Nasna. His fatigue, coupled with her grip made this more difficult than it should have been, but after a little work, he removed her and lay her beside Nasna. The girl was such a small thing, yet very much alive.
He grabbed hold of Nasna’s shoulder and turned her over. He winced. Her clothes, tattered and loose, revealed long gashes and precise cuts. Not a part of her hadn’t opened up, blood draining from her.
Tsuran stopped gaping and wrenched the box open. He didn’t have time to waste. He pulled out the spirit vessel, ignoring the stares and gasps from the other prisoners. The vessel illuminated the cabin in green light as he placed it onto Nasna’s chest and prayed.
Without being a Soulborn he couldn’t access the spirit’s powers. But he could coax and entreat the spirit.
Tsuran sang. This song, though, differed from the one he sung in the mines. This song did not calm spirits, but beckoned their power. The rhythm faster, the song forceful. He would not lose her here.
As he sang, the vessel pulsed with light, and it grew in intensity with every pulse. He continued the song amid the mumbling and whispering of the prisoners. The light condensed, drawing away from the rest of the cabin and cloaking only the two of them. It was less like light and more like a shining current of water, washing around them. Shimmering green waves swirled around his body and hers, seeping into his cuts, his blood, his voice. Strength ebbed back inside him. The pain diminished but did not disappear.
He raised his voice, and the light intensified even more so he had to shut his eyes. The light lapped against him, moving his body back and forth in its warm glow. He came to the end of the song and finished. But the light stayed bright. Its warmth swirled around him, seeped into him. It didn’t stop.
And there was a still a song in the air.
He opened his eyes. From the crystal, some light condensed even more into an arm. A spirit’s arm. The spirit sang and sang.
Tsuran tried to drop the vessel, but part of the spirit’s arm folded around his hand, holding it there. The arm reached out, and the Wranglers cursed and stumbled over each other. Tsuran couldn’t move. The light held him where he was.
But the arm reached over to the little girl and green light shone around her. The song quickened, and the light blared. The girl squirmed underneath it.
Tsuran tried to sing back, to sing his calming song. But his lips stuck together and the spirit’s light filled his voice. There was no struggle. He could only watch.
Something like a black mist rose out of the girl, a dark mass amid all that light. The light left the girl and surrounded the mist, pressing it into a tight ball, and the spirit pulled this back into the vessel. The song ended and light flooded the entire cabin again before returning to a gentle glow. And Tsuran breathed.
The vessel was cold to touch again, and he stared at it a moment. He shoved it back into its box and shut the lid tight. The girl lay still again but looked alive. That black mist… had it been….
He rubbed his face and shook himself. The mist could wait. He examined Nasna again. Her wounds had stopped bleeding and had all sealed. They hadn’t disappeared as when Dalvinder did it, but she’d live. And he felt great.
He toppled over beside her, clutching the black box to his chest. Sleep took him, and though no dreams greeted him, rest did. When he awoke, a tattered cloak covered him. He must have slept a few hours since the sun had set and darkness had settled around him.
One Wrangler had brought a lightstone with her and his statue gave off its red glow, so the cabin had some light. But the beast kept moving, and it seemed likely the Wranglers wouldn’t stop until they’d found a tree to lodge in. Which was fine by him as long as they didn’t kill the beast.
Tsuran glanced around in the dim light. His statue stood in the far corner, though it looked like the others had tossed the Warden’s dead body out of the cabin. The other Wranglers sat together opposite of him, some asleep, others whispering to each other. The girl still slept next to him. Sitting beside her, awake and smiling, was Nasna.
“You’re awake,” she said. Tsuran grinned.
“And you’re alive. Both good things.” He sat up and pulled the cloak tight in the frigid cold. “How are your wounds?”
She showed him her arms but he noticed her clothes, ripped open in several places, her red skin showing through. He threw off his cloak and tossed it to her.
“Nas, take this, you’ll die of cold.” His gaze darted to the Wranglers on the other side and caught a few who’d been staring.
“I’ll be fine, Tsuran,” Nasna said. “I’ve been through worse.” Instead of throwing it back at him, she wrapped it around her body, covering what nakedness there had been. “But thank you. And as for my wounds, it looks like they’ve healed.”
Tsuran looked at her closer, but it all looked the same as before. Everything had sealed, but nasty scars, including one big slash across her face, covered her. Besides this, she also looked paler than usual, even in the minimal light. She’d lost a lot of blood. A lot of it still covered her and the floor beneath them.
“The others told me you sang over me,” she said with a smile. “Said you summoned a spirit to heal me. Thank you.”
“Well, I think it was the elegance of my voice that kept you alive, but the spirit helped.”
Nasna rolled her eyes, keeping her smile.
“Of course.” She shivered and pulled the cloak tighter around her, her gaze going to his statue. “Tsuran… while you slept, I checked your wounds… your growth has worsened.”
He reached inside his clothes and his heart fell. She was right. The crystal had spread so it covered the whole left side of his chest and crept around his ribs to his back.
“Had to fight the Warden,” Tsuran said. “It was... I had to push myself—oh, hey. What’s wrong?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks, her body shivering in the cold. Tsuran pulled himself to her and held her with two arms.
“Never do that again,” she said looking into his eyes. “You can’t keep pushing yourself like that. You’ll die.”
“I know Nas, I know.”
“Then stop being an idiot. Don’t let the growth spread anymore. Ever.”
“You don’t have to—“
“Tsuran.”
He took in a deep breath. “I won’t. I promise this is as close to being a Remnant as I’ll ever be. But”—he raised a finger at her—“you also have to promise to never take in energy like that again. Deal?”
She held his gaze for a moment longer and nodded. The two sat in silence together, enduring the bumps and movements of the beast.
The howling winds of the mountain blew cold air through the splintered wood and Tsuran now wished he and the Warden had been more gentle with the cabin. Nasna stirred next to him and she moved closer to the girl and stroked her hair. A small tatzon, weak and malnourished, but alive. He smiled and looked at Nasna. There was a difference in her. Even though she looked close to death, there was a peace about her he hadn’t seen before. Her voice even sounded different. Nothing forced, nothing faked.
“You made a different choice.”
Nasna nodded. “I did. I’m on a different Path now.”
Warmth expanded in his chest. This meant he didn’t have to keep his promise to her. If it had come to killing her, he wasn’t sure what he would’ve done. But he wouldn’t have to find out now.
“Tsuran?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you lie on the other side of her? I want to drape this cloak over all of us and keep her warm.”
Tsuran smiled and moved to the other side, laying beside the little girl. It was warmer with all three of them laying together but neither smiled. Hard to say what her thoughts were, but they couldn’t have been too far from his own.
They’d taken this girl’s mother away from her. And now they took her away from the only world she ever knew into a much bigger place, full of danger. It was right to take her from prison. But all of this was also so very wrong.
“We need to keep her safe,” Nasna said. “Bring her somewhere with a loving family.”
“Don’t worry, we will. Plenty of tree villages on the borders of Rajalend and I’m sure we can find a family wanting to help her.”
Except, if he was right about the black mist, then it wouldn’t be that simple.
Nasna nodded, but her lips quivered.
“Hey, what is it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I just... it’s hard to try saving this girl when I’m the reason she needs saving. How... can I help her when I... I....”
Tsuran reached over and grabbed her hand. “I’m here too, Nas. You’re not doing this alone. We can carry this together.”
Nasna squeezed his hand. They allowed more silence between them as the beast descended and they slid along the floor. Twice the beast had to jump, which shuffled everyone around. The other Wranglers complained, trying to be loud enough for the possessing Wrangler to hear. But Nasna and Tsuran held close to the girl.
He didn’t have any right to protect this girl or to keep her safe and warm. He had no right to be this close to her. Another child whose life he had a hand in ripping apart. And he was just an accomplice in her mother’s death. Poor Nasna. She was experiencing her own Abyss. Yet for the time being, they would have to take the role of protector. Perhaps one day they would make it up to her. Though, he wasn’t sure how they ever could.
