I swallowed down tears. This town had seemed so peaceful, its people kind and filled with laughter. Now? The dead lined the streets and people hid in fear. Another screech split the air, this one longer, almost pained.
“Are there more of them?” I clenched my fists and squared my shoulders.
“Vaskra travel in mated pairs. It’s coming to avenge its mate.” The Commander didn’t look at me. Black flames licked the metal of his sword as he swung it once and dropped into a fighting stance. The Vaskra crashed down the street, running on all fours with unnatural movements. Its claws scraped against the cobblestone, round maw opening impossibly wide to screech. TheCommander ran towards it. Two monsters charging at each other.
My hands shook at my sides. I needed todosomething.
Kill,the voice whispered in my head as the melody carried to me on the breeze. With every whisper, the power in my veins surged. My vision darkened at the edges, yet I could see everything. I threw my hands out, head snapping back towards the stars. I couldfeelthe Vaskra. Its heartbeat. The blood pumping through its veins. I held onto every particle of water in its body. A song scraped through my throat, urgent and haunting. Itore.There was a popping sound followed by a wet squelch. The Vaskra exploded in a spray of blue gore. My song cut off. My head flooded with exhaustion. I was floating and sinking all at once. My knees crashed into the cobblestones, as unconsciousness threatened to drag me into its embrace. Doors opened along the street and Fae emerged from their safety.
“Praise the Commander of Death!”
“The Commander keeps us safe!”
“Hail the Commander!”
“Get back inside! The threat might not be over! Do not come out until daylight breaks!” The Commander’s voice thundered through the street.
I tried to stand, but my vision swirled, and I crashed into the ground again with a frustrated cry. I was so weak. So heavy.
Warm arms picked me up from the ground. My head lolled against the Commander’s chest.
“I’m too weak to wield my power,” I whispered.
He glared down at me with hatred, but there was a small crack in his expression. One moment of softness, before his lip snarled.
Find the pieces. Find the Pieces. Find the pieces.
“Find the pieces,” I whispered along with the voice that was chanting in my head, losing my grip on reality.
“You’ve already absorbed one Soul Relic. I was suspicious, but the moment you couldn’t cross Solas’s barrier, Iknew.”His voice held a vicious bite to it. But he said what I had suspected. The axe.One to wield.I had stolen some of the Sea Goddess’s power. But… How? My thoughts turned sluggish. Slow, like honey as my eyes closed, passing out in his arms.
My head pulsedwith a sharp pain as my eyes opened against the soft golden glow radiating through the broken window. I was buried under the soft blankets; my skin had been cleaned from last night’s gore. A black nightdress made of the softest silk slid across my skin when I sat up.
The Commander stood at the window, his back to me. I couldn’t help tracing the rigid lines of his exposed muscles, remembering how they shifted beneath my palms.
“You ran,” he said without turning around, fury simmering in his voice.
“I did.” I swallowed the slimy feeling in my throat. Why did I feel guilty about running from this beast of a male? “You told Solas that you were going to kill me.”
He scoffed as if I were the one who had offended him. “Why did you still kiss me?”
The silence stretched between us, and I shifted uncomfortably. He hung his head, a soft, humourless chuckle escaping his lips. My chest ached and I wrapped my arms around myself.
“It was nothing but a trick, wasn’t it, Little Drownling?”
I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t bring myself to talk. Yes, it had started off as a trick. But I had gotten lost to it. To my want forhim.When I didn’t reply, he turned. Shadows swarmed him, burrowing under his skin. His face was pained as he walked towards the bed. He picked up a book from the bedside table and threw it on the bed in front of me.
“Stay here.” His voice shot through me, our blood bargain tingling painfully against my skin. I glared at him as he left the room. I grabbed the pillow from behind me and shoved my face against it and screamed into the pillow until I had nothing left. I let out an unsteady breath and picked up the book, wanting to throw it. But the cover stopped me cold. Intricate silver lines gleamed against the black leather, an unsettling mirror of my blood bargain mark on my left hand.
My pulse throbbed in my temples as I turned the book over in my hands. The lines shimmered, bleeding like ink dropped into water. The first page unfurled in elegant, handwritten script, and I began to read. My lips moved silently as I followed the words.
Journal of Rythos Draven
As the decades pass, my memories are harder to clutch onto. So, I will write them here. In case I forget.
This story started when agoddess fell in love with a Mortal.
The Sea Goddess loved the living. Fae, Mortal, even demons. She walked among them, defying the King of Gods, Helion. Her husband.
