16 - Syrsee
His name is Paul
Ryet is talking to me, and I say something back, but I’m drawn to another place and his voice fades along with my awareness of him.
I find myself inside the Darkness.
Here lies infinity. The forever. The eternal. The unknown.
Ever since my grandma died I’ve been looking for the truth. It feels like a mission now. I wanted to read the books because I felt like that was where my truth was hidden. Somewhere deep in the pages of antiquated thoughts, and magic recipes, and philosophical waxing.
But my whole trip to the Guild with Ryet was nothing but a dream. Nothing but a lie.
No wonder I was reading nothing but meaningless things. The Guild library doesn’t hold my truth, I do.
I am the Coyrah and the reason I can’t find my truth is because I have been shattered into so many pieces, there’s not much left of me.
Which begs the question: If this piece of me I’m living in now is but one of hundreds, or thousands, or, who knows, maybe even millions—then what would I be if I was whole?
How much power over the purple and gold would I have if all of that knowledge was contained within a single consciousness?
And what could I do with that power?
Change Ryet back?
No. What’s done is done. He’s a vampire now, whether I like it or not. Whetherhelikes it or not.
Just like him, I am made of Darkness, but that’s the past. It’s done and there’s nothing I can do to change it. But maybe I could use all that magic to bring forth a better future.
Not for the world—I don’t speak for the world—but just Ryet and me. Couldn’t I use my power to find a way to give us…hope?
It’s a goal, at least. One that might be futile, but what else am I gonna do? If I am eternal, what better way to spend eternity than hunting down all my missing pieces so I can put them to good use?
This new confidence and understanding forces a change and slowly, the black emptiness fades and then I’m conscious again. Another minute or so passes before I try and open my eyes. And when I do, I wake up immersed in a mist of swirling gold and purple.
It moves around me like a slow-moving tornado, glittering, and sparkling, and catching the light. For some reason, this makes me feel safe. Kind of reminds me of a fairy realm I saw in a movie once.
Which allows me to relax, exhale, and look around.
After a few more seconds I realize it’s not the pretty colors that comfort me, but some internal instinct that this is… home. Somewhere I belong.
My body starts to tingle and a sense of purpose and wellbeing comes over me. A surety, maybe, that I have… arrived.
The only question is, arrived…where?
It’s impossible to know because there’s no one to ask.
But I’ve been dreamwalking since I was a child. I might not know everything about it—certainly not the gold parts, since they are new—but I know enough to get places. To use it as means to an end.
To use it as aroad.
My stomach flutters and my hand automatically drifts down to my stomach as I suddenly realize that there is something growing inside me.
A demon? A god? A vampire?
I don’t know. The only thing I do know is that it’s not mine. It’s not Ryet’s, either. It belongs to the Darkness. We belong to the Darkness as well, I think. But this baby is different. It’s something very, verywrongand it cannot be born. I feel this all the way down to my bones.
It cannot be born.
