This was something else. Something ancient and mostly forgotten except by a very few.
Secrets whispered along the currents, long denied someone who was willing to listen. Someone who would care for them.
They heard me too, their voices becoming focused, their dry rasp blending together as they spoke all at once.
I struggled not to listen, knowing if I did, the Aileen of before would cease to exist.
But the secrets ached to be revealed.
They would make me a goddess. Place power most could only dream about at my fingertips.
Forget escaping my prison. I could obliterate anything and everything.
Nothing and no one would ever threaten me again.
A discordant note entered the harmony. With it came knowledge.
If I accepted the secrets, I'd never step foot beyond this realm's boundaries. This would be my home. My life and magic would forevermore fuel the realm, even as the realm fed me. I'd become its keeper and guardian.
I'd be like the librarian. Never to step foot outside. Never to see my home again. My friends.
Some hidden strength inside me rejected what the voices were offering.
No, thank you.
I wasn't all powerful, but I was happy. Finally. For the first time in what felt like my entire life, I was satisfied with who I was and who I was becoming.
They could keep their power. I'd find another way.
As if sensing my decision, the whispers were silenced. The feeling of being watched by a million eyes replaced the rustle of indistinguishable voices.
Within the play of colors, a patch of darkness beckoned. As deep and vast as space, it was a void amid the rest.
Fascinated, I drifted closer, something in it calling to me. I couldn't ignore the siren's call even with the knowledge that I needed to keep moving. The captain and the rest of the Scattered weren't going to wait forever.
The sense of being watched came back, stronger than before. An ancient existence pressed down on me. Whatever this was, it was older than mankind. Birthed somewhere in the miasma of the beginning.
Primordial.
That should have been a hint. A warning to flee.
Instead, I pressed closer, something familiar beckoning me.
Like a toddler to a hot fire, not yet having the sense of self-preservation to know when to leave things that could hurt me alone, I reached out to the void.
My mind brushed against its edge.
Pain screeched through me. Lava poured through my mind, stripping back every barrier until there was nothing left. Until I exploded into a thousand pieces.
EIGHTEEN
I CAME BACK to myself slowly, barely aware of the world around me and the passage of time. Next to me a shadow morphed and coalesced, settling by my side as if to keep watch.
I felt no sense of danger, despite some unspoken knowledge that if the shadow wanted it could rip my newly formed self into so many pieces there would be no putting me back together.
It wrapped around me, stroking, comforting.
The person I was drifted out of reach. Every time I grasped for it, the memories and knowledge shredded.
