I started running, faster and faster with each step, not caring how my body ached in response. After months of barely moving at all, I had gotten weak.
Veridus’ face lit up and he started running too, opening his arms up as I crashed into him.
“Fates be damned, it worked!” He laughed.
I drew back and couldn’t hold back my happy tears.
“I don’t even care if this is just another dream. I am so happy to see you!” And to emphasize my happiness, I gave him another squeeze.
“I don’t know how much time we have, Maelis, so let’s make the most of it. I saw you in one of your dreams a while back, you were just a child. I went to Theo to tell him about my dream, and we decided to try and find you again.”
“Theo knows that you are here? He sent you?” I managed to say between sobs.
The God of Lies smiled gently. “Theo has not given up on you. He has been working tirelessly to find you and he will be so relieved to hear that I did.”
We sat down on the steps of the temple ruins and I triedto sum up where I had been all this time and that the Fates had tried to send me back.
He looked worried when I told him that it hadn’t worked and scratched his chin.
“I have never heard of anything like this happening before. The Fates revealing themselves to someone, let alone a human. You must have created quite the stir in the in between.” He chuckled.
Panic was seeping into my bones because I knew there wasn’t much time left before Veridus would disappear. And who knew when or if he’d come back again.
“What are we going to do now? We still have no idea if it’s possible for me to come back or how to do it.”
Veridus took my hand in his in a comforting gesture.
“We have plenty of new information now and that smugly intelligent God of yours won’t rest until he can piece the puzzles together. Give us some time to figure out what to do from here. But whatever you do, don’t go into the light, do you hear me, wordsmith?”
I smiled at him brightly. “Thank you for giving me some hope. How… how is Theo doing?” I asked quietly.
“Meh… I admit he has looked better, but he is doing as well as can be expected after losing you. He almost single-handedly took down the Fraction and disappeared for weeks after your… death. He was frantic trying to find you, he never stopped believing you were still there. He told me that he could still feel you around and I guess he was right.”
I was crying again now, hating that I could not speak to him myself.
“Can you please let him know that I am… I don’t know… well? Tell him I miss him and I love him and I will never stoptrying to come back. And that I am sorry for lying to him and hurting him and…” I broke off with a sob.
That surely wasn’t the most poetic message, but it was all I could muster.
Veridus took in a sharp breath.
“Our time is up, I am coming out of my trance.”
He handed me a folded note.
“Theo gave me this for you. Be strong, Maelis, I will be back. Don’t lose hope!” And with that, he was gone, and I fell into a deep black hole again, pulling me under like usual.
* * *
Theo
I didn’t remember falling asleep.
The exhaustion from the night before must’ve caught up with me, dragging me under despite every effort to stay awake.
When I opened my eyes, my neck protested immediately, stiff and aching from the angle I’d been lying in. It took a few seconds for my brain to catch up.
The familiar scent of old books and leather settled around me.
