… Tock
Tick… Tock.
Tick. Tock.
Tick-tock.
Something ticked softly in the distance. A sound she shouldn’t be able to hear—because she shouldn’t have ears, at least not working ones.
She was dead. She’d died.
Hadn’t she?
Who was she, anyway?
“Vi Solaris.”
Ah,yes, that was her name. Or rather, it had been one of her names. She’d had so many of them.Vi Solaris—it was a good name. She’d thought that before, hadn’t she? Yes, certainly. That name had meant something to her… something important.
“Vi Solaris, it is time to wake up.”
It wasn’t so muchwakingin the way Vi had once understood it. More like going from a state of stasis to a state of awareness. The light around her was blinding. She could see every color blending together into a brilliance far greater than what mortal eyes were meant to see.
She was a spirit—an idea of life. She was a slice of consciousness in the primordial void, drifting for who knew how long.
I know this place.
“Yes,” a familiar voice said. Every man, woman, and child in the world was speaking all at once through the voice.
I shouldn’t be here.
“No, this is not a place for you.”
Her back settled on something solid. She had been drifting like a leaf through space and had finally settled somewhere soft. Vi blinked, which was odd, because she didn’t really have eyelids in this state. Or maybe she did have eyelids? She blinked again. Yes, there were definitely eyelids of some kind.
Around her, a room came into focus. Marble columns supported a ceiling so high she couldn’t see it. A bed of plush feathers and clouds surrounded her. A woman with long, black hair stood by a wide window that overlooked the whole world. Vi found herself inhabiting the vision she’d seen after absorbing the crown, but this time from a different vantage.
A familiar face of angular cheeks and sharp eyes regarded her. A silver necklace hung around the woman’s neck. The chain was weighted down by a vaguely familiar silver pocket watch that had a sun and wing on its surface.
Ah, that was where the ticking was coming from.
“You look like Fiera this time.” Vi smiled, though the expression felt weak and tired.
“Do I?”
Vi remembered the last time that she had been in a similar space with the goddess, a place where eternity stretched on forever. How painful it had been before, to lay eyes on Yargen’s raw form. She was grateful now that Yargen took the shape of something—someone—easier to comprehend.
Before.
What had happened before?
“The battle with Raspian,” Yargen reminded her gently.
Yes, that was it. The pieces clarified and slotted back into place, one after the other.
“I died,” Vi whispered. She sat up. A body was attached to her essence now, though Vi had the distinct feeling that what she perceived as a body was merely another aspect of Yargen’s magic. It was another way her mind tried to comprehend an impossible place and situation.
“In a way.”
