Where is Azric? Why isn’t he beside me, running those crimson nails over my cheek and through my hair? Why aren’t his wings wrapped around me? I want to cry from the throbbing pain that still radiates through me. I need his touch to survive this.
Then he’s there, but he’s not facing me. He’s facing… Nyxthos? I try to wake up more, to come back to reality, but I can’t. Am I dying? I can’t move, still frozen in place in the air.
All of a sudden everything changes and there is nothing but pain. I’d felt power overwhelming a moment before, but now it’s gone, drained away like a bath with the stopper removed. The shadows holding me together are still there, still stitching the fabric of my humanity together, but they’re fraying. They’refailing.
Finally, I hear myself scream, and everything becomes black. There is nothing but pain as everything I am begins to come undone.The shadows that hold me together are failing.
And with each stitch that comes undone, pieces of myself are lost. I’ve experienced torture countless times. The destruction of the body can’t compare to the destruction of the soul, and there’s no doubt in my mind that’s exactly what’s happening.The shadows that hold me together are failing.
Time becomes something impossible to measure as memories wash over me, lost just as much as my childhood was. Memories of my real parents. Memories of Rhaskar. Of Cedric and Bram. Of Rurik and Erik. Of Isola and Jorren. Darian.
Of Azric.
They pass before me like strangers in the night, blurry and unfocused. Hidden by the shadows which are failing. I watch them go, fading into nothing. They leave me empty. A slowing pulse of dark power still resides inside me, but it’s fading too.
Everything is fading. Except the pain. That only grows worse.
Now, instead of feeling too full, I’m empty. I’m becoming nothing. Is this how the Void would feel if it were a person? Would it yearn for something to fill it? Anything?
Suddenly, there’s a light so bright I would shield myself from it if that were possible. And a voice like liquid silver. “What is happening?” the feminine voice whispers? “My cage is gone? But how? Oh, hello. What’s your name?”
I don’t know how to answer the strange voice which sounds so familiar yet so foreign. My voice is gone along with my memories.What’s your name?I don’t remember. Is it Fi? Or was that someone else? Maybe it was Asha?
“Oh no. What have they done to you?” the voice whispers. “You’re shattering, aren’t you, little human. Would you like me to help you? It will hurt, but I think I can save you.”
Do I want this strange voice’s help? I don’t know if I can handle any more pain. If I die, the pain will be over, won’t it? Wouldn’t that be better?
And a voice I barely remember says, “But suffering is better than death, isn’t it?”
And another, “Don’t fall off the cliff, Asha. You’ve never been Lost until now, but it’s up to you to decide if you want to be Found. Suffering is better than death, isn’t it?”
And from somewhere far away, “You will come back to me, Little Priestess. You do not get to leave me. Not now. Not ever.”
That third voice feels like home, like someone I know I can trust completely. And I say the words that will lead to more pain. “Please help,” I whisper.
And the world of darkness explodes with light.
