“What then?” I ask. “How will I know what to do without my soul? When Leon lost his, he was just a shell.”
Etusca nods. “The cup should help with that too. Mortal bodies struggle without their souls—it’s why they wither and die. But as yours will be immortal, it won’t suffer the same effects. It will be strong, and mostly sentient, though it won’t be quiteyou. At least that’s my theory. I don’t know exactly how it works.”
I hear several of my friends shift uncomfortably. They don’t like the reminder that we’re working in the dark here.
“I saw Caledon shoot the arrow from the bow after he used the scythe,” I say, forcing myself to sound more confident than I feel. “If he could do it, so can I.”
“That will be the last step. We’ll take you outside, and then you’ll shoot an arrow. Ethira’s magic should do the rest.”
“You can use one of mine,” Tira says, handing an arrow from her quiver over to Etusca, who lays it beside the bow. I smile at my friend, grateful.
“Alright,” I say, aware that with every passing minute, Caledon is likely spreading his pollution further across Agathyre. “Let’s go.”
I reach my hand out and press it against the shimmering surface of the gaidonesti.
I jerk as the stars’ power courses through me. I’d forgotten how it felt—the jolt like I’ve been struck by lightning, the immediate burst of energy that makes me feel like I’m going to explode. I fill myself up with it, drinking in the power until every nerve fizzles with magic waiting to be used.
I pull away, but my ears still hum with the pressure of the gaidonesti’s power, then I hold out my hand.
“Give me the scythe,” I say.
Etusca hesitates, but Leon strides forward, picking up the scythe and placing it in my palm in one swift movement.
“I love you,”he says, staring into my eyes as my fingers close around the scythe’s handle.
“I love you too,”I reply.
Without giving myself time to question it, I lift the scythe and draw its blade across my stomach.
It slips into me as easily as a hand breaking the surface of water. There’s the brief sensation of something thin and warm moving through me, like a sliver of sunshine. It touches a deep, familiar part of me—a part I discovered when I carved out some of it to save Leon. Then, with a quick slicing sensation, that part is cut loose.
I’m not sure what happens next. One minute I’m looking at Leon, then there’s nothing to see, and no eyes to see it with. I’m drifting in something I can only describe as absence, unsure how I got here. I don’t know where I end and the nothingness begins. I don’t even know whatIam. What I do know is that an awful,sweeping fear grips me—a certainty that I am far away from where I’m meant to be, totally lost, and totally alone.
Hands grip a cup somewhere, its rim lifting to press against a pair of lips. Water spills across a tongue, and a body starts to stand, rejuvenated by the drink.
Eyes look down at the hands, clasping a bow and arrow. They look up to the sky, then nock the arrow, tilting it upward. An arm pulls the string back, fingers loosening until the string flies from their grip. The arrow shoots up into the clouds, disappearing.
My terror spikes as something pierces me in the nothingness, dragging me out of the absence into a world of sensation. I’m falling, spinning downward, though I still have no weight or substance. How can that be? This isn’t right; this isn’t where I belong. My momentum slows and then I’m being swallowed up by something strange and unfamiliar—a foreign entity absorbing everything I am.Becomingeverything I am. I fight against it, but I’m already settling into my new home, the doors closing behind me.
With a gasp, I blink open my eyes, finding myself standing outside the temple. The others are arranged around me, and I look down to see an arrow in my hand. It takes me a moment to formulate everything in my mind, understanding that my soul was drifting in ether, then was pulled back to earth by the arrow. My memory of it all is still fragmented, my awareness stunted by being separated from the physical world.
But the ritual is complete.
“Are you alright?” Leon rushes forward and takes my hand, his fingers holding my chin as he examines me. “I can feel you’re there. I felt your soul come back.”
I reach across the mooring and sigh, reassured. He’s right, our connection’s still there, even if it feels harder to focus on than before when there are so many other thoughts crowding in on me.
“Yes,”I manage across the mooring, still utterly disoriented. I’d imagined some torturous ordeal, but the ritual wasn’t painful so much as terrifying. I remember the feeling of being totally isolated with a shudder, trying to push away the horror of being ripped from my body and shoved into something else. I glance down at my hands. Theylooklike mine, at least.
“Gods, that was scary,” Leon says, echoing my thoughts. “Was it that scary when it happened to me?” Leon asks. It takes me a moment to realize he’s talking about when I had to witness him withouthissoul.
“Worse,” I say. “Because you didn’t give me any warning before you went running off.”
He grins at my weak joke, relief spreading over his face. I look over to the others, seeing similar expressions, as Etusca mutters rapid prayers of thanks to Viscalis and anyone else who will listen.
“How do you feel?” Tira asks.
“I don’t know,” I say, only now settling into the full awareness of my new body.
