The cord sundered in a sparkling wash of gold light.The fissure cracked through Lucifer’s control—white hot as the fire a breath from igniting him from the inside out.
It was enough.
A frenetic scream ripped through Saer’s stomach, past his chest, out his throat—a scream he made himself, and not by Lucifer’s command.“OUT!”His arms moved by his whim, shuddering with colossal effort as his hands clasped the sides of his head.“GET OUT!”Saer’s palms clamped against his temples so he couldn’t tell where the torture of Lucifer’s voice ended and the sensation of him crushing his own skull began.
Saerkhanumsherrinikakore.Pride’s true name sighed in his mind, a frigid threat, but…weaker.Do not push me, do not forget.I can take you back when I see fit.
Liar.
All at once, it left.And It left.
Saer gasped and rolled over, coughing and retching on the ground.He shook from head to toe, smoke rising out of his pores, the aftermath of divine torture to the body and mind.
Heaving, he let himself collapse.“Not...yours.”
47
Hourspassed.
Saer lay unmoving, save the shaking of his breaths.
He waited for the deceiving peace to break, for the fallen angel to return and invade his mind again.
Any moment, now.
The pain would start again.The flames would take him.He’d lost everything already.His Neyu.His quest.His kin.
Lucifer never came.
Was it all a lie?
Was he dead in truth?
Eyes fluttering shut, Saer floated backwards, inwards, but without the panic of self-preservation this time.His breathing evened, his consciousness slipping into a half-wakened state.
The tethers came into focus—his inborn ties to Lucifer.He knew that now.
Why were there two?He remembered having the thought, but was unable to answer at that moment.
How had he succeeded in sundering one while he could barely stand to touch the other?
The cord he’d broken lay frayed, its ends drenched in a poisonous, black ichor.Saer extended his consciousness towards it and touched one of the pieces.Sickness rolled through him, but also a sense of possession.
Mine.
He pivoted his attention to the other radiant and intact tether.While unbroken, it strained and hummed, as though carrying the weight of both—and the difference between the two clarified.
Not mine.
The connection he’d cleaved represented his allegiance to Lucifer, the vow he’d spoken to the fallen angel.Hisdedication toIt.
The one still attached symbolized Lucifer’s proclamation of Saer—Its declaration of ownership.An undeniable tension pulled on his maker’s tether, attempting to uphold the two-way bond on its own.
But the fallen angel’s possession of Saer’s mind had weakened and disappeared without both.Breaking one tether forced Lucifer out.
It couldn’t possess him any longer.
Saer blinked, and the real world came back in a rush.
