Shard of Soul , livre ebook

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115 pages

English

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The Unending has awakened with more power and clarity than ever before. But Danika is on the hunt for the final soul shards... and will stop at nothing until her Master is back.

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Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	01 juillet 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9798605865797
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0000€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Copyright © 2020
Hot Pancakes Ltd
www.hotpcakes.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
TRISTAN
“I thought this day might never come.” The Unending’s voice echoed all around us. The world had vanished, mere wisps of color with no shape or substance dissipating into the great and vast nothingness that surrounded us.
We stood in front of each other, soft smiles on our faces. We were finally meeting, and in the strangest of places. We were in the depths of her subconscious, where millions of years of existence had been tucked away beneath layers of Aeternae lifetimes. I could see her for who she was. The Unending. The first Reaper ever made. The first among the First Ten.
Death had blessed her with the power of immortality, and the regret that had stemmed from this decision had also led to a string of misfortunes and misery. Yet the woman in front of me was all grace and forgiveness, her galaxy eyes shining with hope and… love. I could feel it in my own heart. The Unending loved me. I would’ve been a liar if I’d said I didn’t reciprocate the feeling. By the stars, my breath was short, my very soul swelling with pure joy at the sight of her. I’d not only fallen for Valaine-I’d fallen for the greater whole that was Unending.
“I’ve finally found you,” I said.
“Tristan, I have always been here.”
Wearing a long white dress, silk pouring down her body like milk, the Unending was a vision of absolute beauty. Her black hair cascaded down her back, her delicate hands wrapped in black leather. Blood-red lips stretched into a smile, and I was mesmerized, forever lost in the eternity of her gaze. Only now was I truly capable of observing the similarities between the Unending and all her reincarnations. While the black hair and dark eyes were never distinctive enough to separate a specific Aeternae from the others, they were features that she carried with her in each life.
I could see Valaine in her. I could see Sessilly and Eldfenn. Persia Bluewater and Eliana. I could see little Maira Razelyon and all the other Aeternae whose bodies she’d been born into. Each of them stared back at me, smiling with the same warmth and affection, sincerely happy to see me. I could see it all clearly now, and it made sense.
“How do we get you out of here?” I asked. She took my hands in hers. The feel of her leather gloves against my skin made me tremble, a faint shiver traveling down my back.
“We need to break through to my very first incarnation,” the Unending said. “And I’m not sure how we’re going to do that. It has become increasingly difficult for me to go deeper. Each golden thread is thinner, weaker, harder to follow. I suppose time is like snow in here. Every layer buries the truth deeper and deeper until there’s frosted white as far as the eye can see, with not even a glimpse at the ground beneath.”
“And we need to find the ground,” I muttered, slowly moving away. I’d thought we’d already made it to the very first incarnation of the Unending. Clearly, Maira had not been it. We’d have to go further back, and I could feel the Unending’s exhaustion, mirrored by my own aching bones. I wasn’t sure how much longer we were going to last in here, but I sure as hell wasn’t ready to wake up to reality without the Unending by my side.
I started pacing back and forth and around as she watched me and listened to my musings. I went over all the past lives we’d witnessed and everything we’d learned along the way about her allies and her enemies, about how the Aeternae, Darkling or otherwise, played key roles in keeping her a prisoner to this vicious and miserable cycle.
“So you remember all these lives, from beginning to end,” I said.
Unending nodded slowly. “I remember what sort of blood I drank on the morning of the sixth day of my hundredth year of life as Draga Merensis. This is from five centuries ago. I remember every detail of each existence, down to Maira. Even things I wouldn’t otherwise bother to register.”
“Do you remember the seals Spirit put on you?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t gotten to that part yet.”
“But you remember that you’re the Unending, Death’s first Reaper.”
“It’s hard to explain this one. I know that I’m the Unending, Death’s first Reaper. I’ve always known it. I just don’t remember it, per se. I can’t tell you how I got to Visio or what drove me to come here in the first place.” Heartbreak had brought her to Visio. “I could tell you.”
“Tell me, then.”
“Your lover was killed. You’d given him immortality, and the Spirit Bender killed him.”
Moments passed in absolute silence. The Unending simply stared at me, her expression firm but blank. “I don’t remember it. Even if you tell me. I’m afraid we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“Keep digging.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair.
“Yes. There’s something else, Tristan. Something I’ve begun to consider lately, based on all the conversations I’ve witnessed across my past lives, including Valaine’s.” She paused, waiting for me to look at her. “I might have to shed my Aeternae form once we break the three seals, whatever they may be. This body… it’s not who I am. It’s alive. I am not.”
Something gnawed at my stomach as I remembered all the times we’d assured Valaine that this wouldn’t be the case. We’d spoken without full knowledge of what the seals entailed. Then again, the Unending was doing the same here, now, since she didn’t remember details about the seals, either.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Of course not. It’s just a feeling I have, but it’s pretty persistent, so it might be anchored in some kind of reality. It might be stemming from something I know as the Unending but can’t remember. Soul, Morning, and the others might have it only partially right. I’m just trying to use logic here. Part of the seal involves locking me inside an Aeternae body. That body is still me, sure… but it wouldn’t survive my liberation.”
There was another thing I had to consider going forward. The more the Unending remembered, the faster the line between her and Valaine’s consciousnesses would blur. Eventually there would be no difference left. Valaine was the Unending, but they were also separate minds-one alive and aware, the other dormant and struggling. I loved Valaine, and I loved the Unending. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about this whole situation and all its harrowing possibilities.
I was excited to free Unending, but I would also grieve Valaine once she was gone-or maybe absorbed into the first Reaper, since she was a part of the greater whole. That was inevitable, I realized now. It had to be done. In order to succeed, sacrifices had to be made.
“I don’t know how things will work out,” the Unending said after a while, “but I know I’ll be okay as long as I’ve got you by my side. You’ve been my beacon in the darkness, Tristan. I hope you’ll forgive me for what must happen in order for my liberation to occur.”
Exhaling deeply, I cupped her face and brought her closer to me. Her skin felt soft and warm to the touch, likely an interpretation of my mind here in the bowels of the Unending’s subconscious. I could only imagine what she’d feel like out there in the real world. “Valaine doesn’t deserve to suffer like this, and neither do you. None of your past lives deserved the hell they were put through, either. We have to stop the cycle, no matter what, and I know Valaine feels the same way. If she had a voice of her own, if she were a separate entity altogether, she’d agree. This has been going on for too long. It’s time to set you free.”
“I hope she will forgive me.”
“You’ll have to forgive yourself,” I said.
She moved in closer, and our lips met. Warm light spread through me, filling my veins and making my soul glimmer from within. I could stay like this forever in the nothingness, in the Unending’s delicate embrace. It was quiet here, and peaceful. The world outside was merely an idea, something we could comfortably kick aside and ignore for as long as we wished.
But being here also made me feel incomplete. It made us feel incomplete. I wanted to be with her, and she wanted to be with me. We couldn’t really be together in here, not while this voided space served as an in-between place, a membrane to adhere to while we bounced from one set of memories to another. We had to keep going. We had to find the whole truth and return to the real world.
And once we got there, the Unending and I would do our damned best to make it better. To make the quiet of the nothingness feel as insufficient as it truly was. The universe needed the Unending, and she needed me.
“How do we dig deeper, my darling?” Unending asked, as if she’d just heard my thoughts. I offered a shrug in the absence of a coherent answer. “It’s your voice I hear whenever I scratch at the glassy surface between my conscious and subconscious. It’s your voice I follow into the past. I trust you, Tristan. I trust you with my existence, with my soul… with everything.”
Her words were meant as an encouragement, though I had to admit, they also made me feel a bit overwhelmed. Unending had placed a great responsibility in my hands, and I was terrified of the concept of failure. I couldn’t accept a possible scenario in which I wouldn’t be able to bring her back to the surface. Then again, we’d made it this far, and I was clearly the only one whose mental projection had survived. Morning and Phantom were nowhere to be seen. I had to keep going.
“Remember your very first day as Maira Razelyon?”
She thought about it for a few seconds. “I do, yes.” “Could you describe it to me?”
“I’m in my mother’s arms. She’s smiling even though she’s tired. I can see it in her eyes… the exhaustion. It’s been days since I was born, and my eyesight is getting better. I’ve bee