by Gaja J. Kos
“I'm not sure I even know how to kick-start my powers on purpose,” Rose admitted, her eyes still fixed on the dying light, which lay gently over the versatile terrain outside.
She had doubts when Veles suggested she should try to search for more lost souls, for those lingering just on this side of death, and those doubts were still rooted inside her. The god gave her a reassuring and slightly self-assured smile; it was the latter that succeeded in lifting her spirits, at least slightly.
“I'll guide you. All you have to do is not fight it.”
She frowned, not quite sure she would be able to keep to her side of the deal. She had a moment of true connection with her power, but that was one time. Before it had been more chaos than symbiosis, and she couldn't exactly relax in a situation like that, not when she didn't believe she had the tools to control it even in the slightest measure. Veles had, naturally, disagreed with her.
“Fine,” she finally groaned, moving closer to the god.
He suggested for her to lie down, but a prickle of stubbornness inside her refused. She didn't want to be incapacitated each time the power decided to surface, and trying to sit while it surged through her body was at least a small step towards regaining control.
Veles clicked his tongue at her, but the expression on his face showed he was very far from being annoyed by her willfulness. Without any warning from the god, the olive green flames started to burn within his dark rims, gradually escalating as he reached out towards Rose, who sat in a cross-legged pose, facing him. She extended her hand, taking a long breath in preparation to accept the needed amount of his alluring energy to coax her own power into surging.
A faint trickle of his energy crossed over to her even before they had managed to touch, teasing the gold filaments in her eyes to reach that shimmering glow. He lowered his hand, reaching for her palm; he laid his fingers on her warm skin in a caressing gesture and released a controlled, but strong wave of power into her.
She gasped as she felt the pulsing, olive green energy roll across her body, finding its way inside her through her skin. It began to spread through every part of her, sounding a wake-up call for her own power to break away from the dormant state it had pulled itself into and become aflame.
“Don't fight it.” Veles's voice sounded as if he had spoken from under the surface of the energy, the muffled words nonetheless reaching their goal.
Without thinking about the mechanics of it, she opened the pores that were containing her throbbing power and allowed it to pour out of her. The golden hue of it swirled and danced with the olive embers that had called to it; it carried Veles's rush of energy like it was nothing more than an ornament as it grew stronger, the warm metallic shimmer turning into the purest, almost otherworldly gold color as it engulfed her and took her into the darkness.
It was different this time. The darkness seemed more like twilight as the steady glow of power that surrounded her diluted the otherwise solid wall of black. Rose peered around, taking even breaths, and the vast space she had found herself in gradually became comfortable, almost domestic. She wanted to move, but instinctively knew there was no need; the thin darkness that spread in all directions had no geographical points assigned to it, no markers to differentiate one segment from the other. It was one, and she was the all-present figure inside it.
The aura of her power burned like a beacon as she stood patiently on the same spot, on every spot of the plane. She extended her hands in a welcoming gesture, and for the first time, she felt she could extend the energy that accumulated and danced inside her outwards. Not wanting to scare away the souls, she kept it contained as close to her body as she could without working against it. She kept the power pulsing and began to invite those who might have lingered in the darkness to reveal themselves.
The density shifted in various areas around her. She tried counting the souls, but couldn't. Not in a rational way, at least. So she opened her senses and felt all the souls that had gathered around her. She stopped thinking in numbers; once her mind let go of its overly logical part, she knew exactly how many had come to her asking passage to the underworld.
Veles had told her she only needed to bring them over for fear that seeing all of their deaths would exhaust her body, if not her power. She remembered the sensation of willing the souls to enter her and knew she could replicate it; so she agreed, agreed to act only as a vessel this time and with it, she agreed for Veles to ease her into touching the souls once they were already safely dwelling inside his realm.
She breathed deeply, preparing herself for the gathering spirits to enter when she felt a shiver slither down her spine. She turned towards the thick air to her right; there were two souls hovering before the one that felt...odd. Without physically moving, she maneuvered around the two she did not wish to touch, outstretching her hand in the direction of the one that had caught her attention.
Sorry, Veles, Rose thought as her fingers connected with the dense air.
There was power, so much power within her. Within them. The smell of fresh bodies splayed across the ground was strong; there must have been even more corpses lying around than she could see through the line of vision the soon-to-be-deceased offered her. Rose didn't dare think how stomach-turning the odor would be if she were able to smell it with her werewolf senses. However, it was still uncharacteristically strong for a two-legged being to sense it as well as she did.
She hadn't yet had the chance to feel out the corporeal form, not with the crushing wave of power gathering around them. It acted as a magnet, distracting her from fulfilling the steps she knew she had to complete to be able to make the most out of being linked to a soul. Putting more effort in spreading her concentration to other areas as well, she began to notice whose flesh carried her within itself.
There was an indisputable air of otherworldliness around the body she inhabited, but there was also something more. It felt as if the body was underlined with a festering darkness she couldn't quite comprehend. They snarled into the overcast sky above them, their muzzle pointed sharply upwards.
A dog's muzzle.
Their attention was drawn to the sounds of slaughter. Someone must have been safeguarding their back; however, the being didn't turn around, didn't follow the trail of cries and growling, but lowered his gaze to the presence of a wildly pulsing power which was now only a short distance away. The prickle of the energy felt familiar, yet it was other, more other than it should have been.
They could feel the power approaching, the unmistakable aura of it pushing the air towards them in barely noticeable currents, but ones that amounted to nothing short of a wall once they blended together. A man blazing with green flames stood facing them. The tongues licked around the lean figure, moving to the side with flickering movements to reveal the stern face behind the flames. The sharp cheekbones, the dark hair—it was too familiar for it to be a coincidence.
They were staring at Veles's father.
Chapter 34
“Velin,” Psoglav snarled, and Rose felt the repulsion rise within his body, a rush of power bursting out of his pores in response.
The thundering pulsing of hostile energy spoke of the creature's displeasure for being caught by surprise, but it didn't diminish the arrogance within, even though that exact arrogance was what had made it possible for someone to close the distance, to follow Psoglav's trail until it led directly to him.
The taste of flesh was still fresh in their mouth, giving the impression that Psoglav had to peel himself away from his latest victim when Velin had finally caught up to him.
Veles had been right; the creature had given himself wholly into the pleasurable abyss of gluttony, and that had made him slow, but slow in the supernatural meaning of the word, certainly not according to human standards. Rose could sense the heaviness in the creature's stomach; the velvet feel of contempt that came with it was present in an almost overwhelming manner. Psoglav had to fight the sensation in order to keep his power burning, but as long as he
could maintain that aura around himself, he was nothing less than absolutely lethal.
The pulse of Velin's energy brushed against their own. Neither could keep the power from recognizing the other, which created a connection similar to those inexplicable bonds twins tend to share. But there was also friction between the two auras, a peculiar sensation as if someone ran his hand across a field of thick fur, the movements brushing in the wrong direction.
Through Psoglav, Rose could sense how similar the structure of Velin's power was to that of Veles; both gods carried that element of raw, yet pure energy, which made them different from any other power-wielder Rose had ever come across. However, Velin's struck her as ancient, a perfume of times from the dawn of men caressing the strength underneath, while his son's was entwined with lively fire that spoke of worlds to come.
What lay under the rumble of Psoglav's now furiously blazing power was rotten, festering. It held death like something to be devoured, not protected.
A flicker of Velin's green flames managed to cut through the thick, dense aura that surrounded the dog-headed creature. The impact whipped at both of them; Psoglav jerked when the unexpected pain hit him, while Velin stood his ground, only the lines around his mouth revealing that he, too, had felt the agony of his own blow.
Psoglav raised his muzzle, howling into the air. It was as if the sound of his voice carried the ability to call more energy to rise from within. Rose felt him tap into that reserve locked away deep inside his body. To deplete it could mean only one thing: Psoglav knew he would die on this blood-soaked land. And he had every intention of taking the opposing god into that dark oblivion with him.
Velin had moved closer while Psoglav accumulated the rest of his strength, and it was exactly what the chimera had wanted. Rose felt his body prepare to throw all of the gathered power at the god with one lethal strike; he needed only a little more time to wrap his ethereal hand around the rumbling energy, forcing it into its target.
But the meal he had gorged upon was still weighing heavily inside his stomach, affecting Psoglav's speed; he should have been able to blast Velin the moment the god covered the distance and put himself directly into the creature's killing range. The ethereal hands were gripping the final loose strands of power when the deep green flames that surrounded the dark-haired god became almost blinding.
Rose could feel the fury rise within Psoglav; their body almost couldn't contain the bursting rage along with the full extent of the power. In the few seconds it took for the blast of the purest green energy to collide with Psoglav's own festering one, the creature retreated into a state of that particular calm that comes before a kill.
Psoglav brought his energy to the surface, as if he were wrapping himself in a cocoon. Even if Velin were not to attack, the creature knew he had signed his death warrant by depleting himself of all that strength, leaving nothing inside but the very ordinary elements of his flesh. He couldn't survive in such a state for more than a few minutes; nobody could if they separated themselves so cleanly from their very essence.
However, despite the initial displeasure, Psoglav now counted on the god to finish him, counted on Velin to fulfill the plan his moral high ground had laid out for him. The chimera flashed a snarling smile at the ideological god who would die only to abide by rules that were made to protect the weak, the prey of this world.
With Psoglav's particularly developed set of senses, Rose became aware of the very split second before the power began to surge from Velin in a rumbling wave towards them. The chimera set his gaze in the god's direction, but he looked past the blazing figure, not at it.
His eyes wandered past the green lightning that had just begun to speed towards them like a thousand missiles launched and came to rest on a figure standing a safe distance away from the blast that was about to occur. The dark silhouette was perfectly still as it kept out of harms range. Just as Psoglav had commanded it.
Before the gluttony took over, he had been sane enough to procure himself a fail-safe, and in his final moments, that same sanity had returned to him.
When the full rush of Velin's energy crashed into the cocoon he had wrapped himself in and began to dissolve them both, burning away every bit of flesh and bone they were made of, Psoglav's eyes remained calm, lingering on the figure of the wolf-man who would carry on his legacy and protect the event of his death from being carried out in vain.
Chapter 35
Tears flowed down Rose's cheeks as she found herself back on the warm white rug laid across the living room floor. Veles sat a short distance away, silently staring at her with wide eyes; the color was drained completely from his skin, the contrast with the pure black of his hair making it even more noticeable and more worrisome. Rose tried to compose herself; she knew Veles was the one who needed support at that moment, but the image of Velin burning alongside Psoglav was still too vivid in her memory, the frightening sense of death their power brought upon them still crawling over her skin.
“I thought their souls burned with them...” Veles whispered, his words broken, as if each of them were carrying too many emotions to stay whole.
“Did I also bring…?”
Rose could sense almost all the souls she had brought over in that split second after Psoglav's last living moments came to their end, but the emotions that ran through her after being locked in the creature's body made her perception of the spirits that entered her aura slightly blurred. In that overwhelmed state, she might have easily missed the individual markers of one of those that had accepted her open energy, accepted the path which lead to home.
“No, my father was not among them.”
Rose wasn't certain if she should be relieved or worried by that answer. The idea of Velin's soul still lost somewhere on this side of the barrier between the living and the dead was heartbreaking, but at the same time, she didn't think Veles could have handled feeling his father's final moments. Psoglav's perception of it was enough. At least in such a short period of time.
She reached out her hand towards the shaken god and he took it, wrapping his fingers tightly around hers.
“I'm sorry,” she whispered and sent a gentle wave of her golden energy sliding from her skin onto his fingertips.
The god shuddered as if he were cold, but Rose knew his reaction had nothing to do with the sensation of chill. Her power held warmth like the heat of the sun that fell upon naked skin in the summer months, and she saw the color creep back into the god's cheeks as he closed his eyes and embraced the affection.
The gentle blaze of olive flames returned to his eyes, giving him the ability to move from the locked position he had kept himself in ever since she had returned from transporting the souls to the underworld. He crawled over to her and found her lips, gratefully leaning into the comfort they offered.
“Thank you,” he said into her kiss, his hand enclosing on the nape of her neck.
He brushed the tip of his nose against hers and lightly pressed their foreheads together, lingering in that intimate position that spoke of safety, the kind only another being filled with the strongest affection can offer. Rose breathed in that unique, intoxicating scent of the god before he moved away, sitting down on the carpet in front of her.
The stable and collectedly stern look in his eyes told her she could now ask what she needed to.
Her voice was still a little shaken, but she found her ground as she began to speak, each word washing away the dark sensations of what she had experienced and allowing the more pragmatic, combat-ready side of her to resurface.
“The wolf-man in the White werewolves' den was Psoglav's second-in-command, wasn't he?”
“I should have realized that earlier.” Veles nodded. “But I had never seen Psoglav's lackey, only heard of him... It never even crossed my mind that he could be the one in the cavern...”
“Because all the creatures that had been bound to Psoglav were destroyed along with the land of Mračaj.” She picked up Veles's line of thought.
�
�Mračaj was built, or maybe I should say supposedly built, in a way that ensured its existence as long as its master walked among the living. The land's very essence was drawn from Psoglav's own power. No part of it should have survived his death...”
Rose bit her lower lip, taking in a deep breath before speaking. “What if Psoglav leaked some of his power into the wolf-man? Would it be enough to preserve some part of Mračaj–or his lackey, at least?”
A sigh-turned-into-a-tired-smile flashed across Veles's face. “You do learn fast.”
Rose wanted to play-frown at him for the typically arrogant remark, but he continued to talk, seriousness seeping back into his voice.
“If the creature had some power of its own to begin with, it would be quite possible to preserve him by transferring power into him, yes.”
She placed her hands firmly on the soft texture of the rug, straightening her back as she leaned on her palms and shifted her weight to relax her body as much as she could. These topics brought nothing but tension to her tendons, and it wouldn't do her any good if she made the situation worse by pulling herself into a tight knot.
“And if the wolf-man was preserved, it is possible that there are even some actual pieces of Mračaj left, yes?”
Veles let out a long breath as he nodded in agreement, a few strands of his hair brushing against his chin as they swayed in tune with the movement.
“At least we know where they're hiding, but that doesn't give us much in terms of finding them. I inspected the gates of Mračaj myself after my father and Psoglav battled. There weren't any traces left... And I do mean nothing, Rosalind. They disappeared in the same obliviating destruction as their master did.”
Rose got up, her face drawn in a tight expression. She went to sit on the leather couch positioned by the glass wall, fishing a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. The smoke wove out of the room in an almost dreamlike movement through the narrow, tilted window that had been incorporated into the edge of the wall. When her gaze fell back on Veles, the god had lain down on his back, his hands crossed behind the shining black mass of his hair.