34. Thirty-Four

Thirty-Four

I swept Benoi’s staff over the body of a fallen demon. The staff drank in the shining orb. I knelt beside the massive orc. His face, full of large metal piercings, was slack.

I gently touched his bare shoulder. His mana responded to my touch, and I pulled it into my blood, joining the mana of a dozen others. I hadn’t had much experience with orcs other than the odd Enchanter case or two. Demon mana was always different. Instead of scents, their magic ignited emotion.

His mana flooded my senses. My chest puffed out as I stood, my task completed.

Pride. Orcs were the demons of pride.

I looked around for the next body, but Enoch had been efficient. I supposed he had a hell of a lot more practice, even if he’d gotten rusty in the past thirty years.

Smoke rose from a pyre in the yard. A ring of fire elementals managed the flame while orcs and druids gathered pieces of cottages, fence posts, and furniture to feed it. They were dismantling the compound. Good.

Injured and weakened hunters peppered the compound. To my surprise, Skye attended to some of them alongside Shael. Shael laughed and slapped a hunter on the back, doubling the man over in pain. Skye just glared. They needed to work on their bedside manner.

Max and Genny sat on the steps of the great hall. Genny propped a hand on either side of her body to hold herself up. Max held her head in her hand. The torn sleeve of her leather duster revealed an open wound, still raw and bleeding.

They needed mana. I glanced down at my veins. Faint silver light pulsed below my skin. I walked up to the stairs. Genny spared me a tired smile, but Max didn’t even raise her head.

“Hey,” I said. Max jerked awake, blinking rapidly.

I held out my hands, and they took them without question. I could feel their magic now. Their raw mana pulsed faintly. They were so weak. Genny had given her mana to every captured hunter she could. Max had been badly injured and hadn’t fed in days.

I relaxed my barriers and coaxed my mana to flow to them. Max gasped and tried to pull away, but I squeezed her hand tighter. When their auras were strong enough, I dropped their hands.

Max stared at me, wide-eyed. She rolled her shoulder, testing it. “What did you do?”

“Gave you mana.” I shrugged. “You looked like you needed it.”

“Well, I …” Max shook her head. “Thank you, Arsyn.” Her silver gaze dropped. “But we aren’t the only ones who need it.”

I bit my lip, following her gaze to the injured hunters below. “I have an idea.”

I jogged towards the gate. I may have severed my connection to Enoch but finding him was as easy as ever. Even in a crowd of silver hair and eyes, he had a magnetism, an ethereal quality.

Enoch stood beside Cyrus, his deadly looking scythe in hand. Cyrus had removed his plate armor, and now wore his usual jeans and T-shirt combo. Black, red, and silver blood stained his clothing. He must have been wearing that under his armor.

The two appeared locked in a deep conversation. I slowed my pace, straining to hear them.

“Will you go to her now?” Cyrus asked.

Enoch closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No. Not yet. I fear if she were to learn of my return and involvement with the Aegis, she would leave Niaras and insist on helping.”

Cyrus sighed. “That does sound like Ellie.”

Enoch pressed his hand over his heart. “The Aether cries out. It isn’t safe for her yet.”

Cyrus’s icy gaze landed on me. I quickened my pace.

I saluted them. “All of the souls and mana have been harvested, sirs.”

“Good,” they answered in unison, in the same even voice.

“Okay ...” I glanced between them. “So, what’s happening with Sebastian?”

“He is restrained in the great hall,” Cyrus answered. “Felix is guarding him. He will have multiple guards around the clock until it’s safe to teleport him to Niaras for his trial.”

I nodded. He would finally face justice. I wondered what the bennu justice system was really like. Would he be put to death? Imprisoned forever?

I tamped my emotions.

I shouldn’t care. He sealed his own fate.

I thrust the staff out to Enoch. “We have the vessel now. Can we restore Ari’s soul?”

“Yes. I believe we have everything we need.”

“Let’s go, then,” Cyrus said. He tapped his finger on his teleportation rune. “I assume you won’t be patient enough to drive?”

I narrowed my eyes. “You just said teleporting is dangerous.”

“It is.” Cyrus shrugged. “But I just let you go into enemy territory. I don’t think I can take leaving you alone for another second after that.”

I groaned. “I don’t have to start a Cyrus journal again, do I?”

“No.” He chuckled. “I trust you. I just can’t ...” His Adam’s apple worked. “I will never leave your side again.”

I smiled. I was starting to be able to translate Cyrus speak. This was his way of saying he cared about me.

“Can you teleport to the Aether as well?” Enoch asked me.

“Not … er ... well … yes.” I raised my arm to show him the teleportation rune on my wrist. “But I have a favor to ask.”

Enoch raised a white eyebrow.

“The hunters here are very weak and injured. Raw mana is extremely powerful to us. It accelerates healing and even just a small amount would be enough to sustain them for a week or more.” I hated asking for favors. “What I’m asking is ... can you share some of the mana you harvested with the hunters here?”

Enoch considered me for a moment before nodding. “Very well.” He drew in a deep breath and blew it out forcefully.

The hair on my arms stood up at the energy that filled the air. I may not have been able to sense nearby auras anymore, but Enoch’s magic was palpable . I wouldn’t have been surprised if the humans in the compound were able to feel it.

Silence stretched. There were no more groans of pain. I spun. All around, hunters sat up, inspecting their bodies. A man I’d seen imprisoned during my walk into the Castelle compound stood, flexing his fingers in awe. He unraveled the bandage on his arm, revealing smooth, unmarred skin.

Sebastian thought corruption was the only mana with the power to work miracles, but he was wrong. Corruption was powerful, but its cost was too great. Raw mana was the stuff of life, but corruption was death.

I turned back to Enoch and Cyrus. “‘Kay, we can go now.”

It was strange being back in the Aether after everything that had happened. Dust still hung in the air from the tower’s fall, as if caught in time. Debris littered the courtyard.

Cyrus’s lips thinned as he took it all in. He hadn’t been here since the day the tower collapsed and the wells went out.

I looked up at the dark sky. Gray clouds hovered overhead, unmoving, as if a storm held its breath. The wells were dark voids.

“Nothing’s changed.” My knuckles whitened as I gripped Benoi’s staff.

Enoch appeared as serene as ever. “Everything has changed.”

I’d seen him here once in a vision of a very different time in the Aether’s history. It had been filled with life and color then.

“Do you think it’ll ever be like that again?” I asked absently. “Like it was before?”

Enoch summoned his scythe out of thin air. “We have a lot of work to do.”

He tapped the base against the stone floor, and the blade glowed white. Orbs poured out and floated upwards. I watched as they reached the gray clouds, burning away the darkness wherever they touched. The orbs flowed through the sky as they had in my vision. But where that had been a shimmering river, this was a trickling stream.

Enoch closed his eyes and blew out a long, even breath. I tilted my head. Was he releasing mana now? He was the soul breather after all.

I would never see mana like that again. No more auras. No more ...

Wait.

The Morgan abilities worked through touch. If the Aether was a living thing, then ...

I knelt and pressed my palm to the dusty stone at my feet. Bright mana flashed. It shot from Enoch’s body like tendrils of light, flowing to the ground, each well, and to the air.

This was the duty of a reaper. Ferry souls and mana to the Aether.

I’d been returning mana before without knowing, and I’d watched the Aether’s garden bloom with life. But even that had been a fraction of its potential.

I searched for the Aether’s heartbeat. It was weak below my palm.

I didn’t have much mana left from what I’d harvested, but I sent what I could to the Aether’s heart. It thumped hard, shaking the ground, sending a pulse of power through the stagnant air.

As if time resumed, the dust stirred, carried on a strong wind that shifted the clouds above. The wells flickered with faint light. I stood. The gust caught my loose hair. I coughed and shielded my eyes.

“Your Aether affinity is strong,” Enoch said. “Akin to a full-blooded reaper.”

I shrugged. “I got to know it pretty well when I was breaking the daeva curse.”

“You ... you ... ” Enoch sputtered. I’d never seen him lose his cool. “You broke the daeva curse?”

“Yeah. I made a deal with the daeva king you met. We found the anchor, and then I just kinda ... absorbed it.”

Enoch blinked slowly. “You absorbed it.”

“Yep.”

“That should not have been possible. A reaper could not ...” He looked at me. “Unless it is your human blood that made it possible.”

I shrugged again. It felt like a lifetime ago that we had broken the curse.

“Give me the staff,” Enoch instructed. He raised his scythe, and it blinked out of existence.

I held out the staff. “What about Ari’s soul?”

Instead of taking it like I’d expected, Enoch tapped his finger to the tip of the staff. I gasped. But Enoch didn’t crumple to the ground like the hunters I’d killed. He withdrew his hand, and a shimmering orb hovered in his palm.

My throat tightened. “Is that Ari?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“How can you tell?”

“Here.” Enoch held his hand out to me. “His soul has not yet been purified. It still holds his memories, his emotions, and his bond to Daev.”

I inched away. I didn’t want to risk messing anything up.

“Do not be afraid. I have created a temporary bond. His soul will not float away.”

I gazed at the orb. So that was what made Ari ... Ari?

“So much pain.” Enoch’s voice was so soft, I barely heard him over the breeze. “But there’s joy there, too. Love.”

I swallowed thickly. I had so much to tell Ari when we restored him.

“I will not release him to the Aether.” He looked up to the stream of souls in the sky. “As they float through the Aether, they let go of their former selves. Their memories, their pain, and their grudges fade.” He looked back at me. “And then they are reborn. Souls gather imprints of their many lives, but they are purified by the Aether.”

He tapped a different finger to the staff, pulling a soul into his other palm. He extended the new soul to me. “Here. Hold out your hand.”

I did, and he flipped his hand to hover over mine, the soul floating between our palms.

“Binding a soul is similar to the bond I created with you.”

“You want me to bond with it?” I wasn’t sure I was ready for that responsibility. I’d never even been able to keep a succulent alive.

“Bind it. Temporarily,” Enoch said. “You already know how to sever bonds. Forming them is similar. Imagine yourself pulling a thread of mana from yourself and tying it around this soul. Souls are anchors for life. Like the flower was the anchor for Daev’s curse.”

I worked as he spoke, imagining a thread of my mana extending from my palm to wrap around the soul. As my mana touched the shimmering surface, emotions flooded me.

Rage. Greed. Disgust.

Memories followed. I saw through their eyes as wine spilled on her dress.

My manicured fingers grasped a sharp letter opener. I turned. The servant’s eyes went wide. She raised her hands in front of her face. “Mistress, please!”

I slashed her throat.

“Who?” I ground out through clenched teeth. “Who is this?”

“I believe her mortal name was Valeria.”

Cyrus stiffened beside me.

I drew my hand back and severed the connection. “You’re not seriously releasing her into a peaceful afterlife?”

“All souls deserve peace.” Enoch raised his hand and let the soul float up to join the stream. “It is not my responsibility to judge them, merely to ferry them. The Aether and the Ancients will determine their fate. All souls are reborn pure. It is the worlds that twist them.”

I bit my lip. It wasn’t fair that Valeria could do so much damage, cause so much pain, just to float peacefully in the afterlife.

Enoch pulled out another soul and held it out for me to bind. I tethered a thread of mana to it, and more emotions flooded me.

Anger. Sadness. Retribution. Regret. Shame.

Guilt.

I closed my eyes and let the memories wash over me .

My mother stared back at me with gentle, loving eyes. She stroked her swollen belly. “Everything will be alright, Elias. I made sure of it.”

My throat tightened.

“What about the people who died while you were imprisoned?” When I opened my eyes, Enoch’s face was blurry through my tears. “There were no reapers to bring their souls to the Aether.”

Enoch withdrew his hand, leaving Elias’s soul in my palm. “They have been wandering the worlds in search of peace. They continue to hold their memories and emotions, and they are likely tortured by them. It will take time, but I will return the lost souls to the Aether to find peace and be reborn.”

I took a shaky breath and severed the thread, letting my father’s soul float from my palm. Maybe his final wish would come true. Enoch would find my mother’s soul and she could join my father here to be relieved of their pain. Maybe they would be reborn. Maybe they would find each other again in their next lives.

Could love like that transcend death?

Cyrus gestured to Earth’s well. “It’s time.”