Once Vessa identified and located Maya's mother, she would play the role of Envoy child specialist, delivering Maya to her mother and offering free psychological counselling to assist her in recovering from her traumatic experience. This would give her regular contact with Maya in the mundane world and the rest of the time she could watch from the planes in her spirit form.
What I found unappealing about the idea of tracing the link for Vessa was that it required me to get to know my subject, because I must immerse myself in them, like I had done when removing Maya's fear related to her abduction. I cursed silently at my indecision. This was Vessa's journey, therefore it would not be my place to interfere, I decided. My decision was followed by a feeling of reassurance. That was Aurealis. It was one of the ways my master communicated. She wanted Vessa to do this without assistance. That was probably why the search on her laptop had not been successful, my master wanted to challenge Vessa. Tracing the spirit tie would entail a deepening of the connection between Maya and Vessa, strengthening their bond. Perhaps that was my master's goal, considering Vessa was to be Maya's life-long guardian.
Quietly extracting my bag from the closet, I placed it on the padded bench in front of the bed. I had one suit and replaced it as needed, which was less often than you would expect for a therilgalen on the wrong side of his brethren. Aside from the suit, there was a black shirt, two pairs of black cargo pants, underwear and socks, and two t-shirts, both black, one with a gryphon and the other a lion, both printed against a Celtic/tribal background in grey, silver, and gold. My other shirt was lying rumpled on the bench where I tossed it earlier. I put it and my other dirty clothing into the bag the laundry service supplied, they usually had it back in few hours. Although, sometimes, I'd moved on in that time and one of Envoy's employees would eventually get it back to me, or I went to Bastien's place where his assistant kept up a supply of my more basic clothing. I drew out some underwear and a pair of cargo pants and started to dress.
Lost in contemplations of my future, I did not hear the knock on the main door, although I was aware of Vessa moving about in the other room. Suddenly, a spark of warning seared through my senses and I stiffened.
'She could not have been that stupid,' I muttered, hurrying to the other room as I buckled my belt. I opened the bedroom door and froze as I met a fiery-red gaze.
Changing to my natural form was automatic, normally I soften my facial features and dampen my shadow nature when around children and I had not wanted to startle Maya if she'd woken while I was in the room. Vessa looked shocked as I did so. All she saw was a tall, dark-haired man in a suit. He had an ID wallet out and had been asking her about an investigation he wanted help with. I wondered how the intruder had even gained access to this floor, but that was a matter to be investigated later, the more immediate urgency being to get him out.
Before she could voice her objection, I thrust Vessa behind me. 'Go to Maya, seal the door with your strongest ward. Check the seal around the apartment,' I snapped. She tried to stammer a question, but I cut her off. 'Do not,' I raised my voice, pushing command into it, while not taking my eyes off the intruder, 'attempt to leave, the wards are the only protection you have from the soul takers waiting outside.'
The intruder smiled lazily at me. His transformation was good, I had trouble mimicking human expressions so easily. His disguise was good enough to fool Vessa, but not me. He had been careful to form not just his physical shape into a human, but also to make his spirit look human too. However, because spirits are our main source of sustenance, therilgalen can sense the true nature of a spirit, just as chicken smells like chicken and cow smells like beef to a human, a therilgalen spirit smells very different to a human spirit. Vessa was not designed to consume spirits and that was how he had deceived her into admitting him past the ward protecting the apartment. Now that he was inside, it was going to be very difficult getting him out. Had Vessa and Maya been alone, the guardian would have had little chance of surviving.
And as I had warned Vessa, our intruder had not come alone. I could sense his brethren in the shadow plane, waiting to assist him once he made it out past the wards. If he made it out. They could not sense that I was in the apartment because of the wards placed around it, and so I had just changed the odds of him getting in and out quickly. What had me off-guard was that he was here at all. True, Maya had recently died; vulnerable souls draw therilgalen, and the most vulnerable are those just leaving their physical forms. But I had healed Maya, so she should not be a target any longer.
The intruding therilgalen changed to his natural form, spreading black-feathered wings wide in a gesture meant to intimidate me. I kept mine tight behind me, it did not matter that my wingspan eclipsed his; pride had no place here, just the kill.
'That colour is so pretty on you,' he goaded, referring to the gold on my body that had replaced the dark red when I took the oath to serve Aurealis.
My rival had a broadsword strapped to his back and he pulled it slowly from its scabbard drawing out the sing of steel against the metal adornment of the scabbard's opening. I had left my twin short swords in the other room. Just after I'd made my oath to Aurealis I'd not been allowed outside her realm, so I decided to use the time to make new weapons. Because I ended up in a lot of closed combat, I'd decided on shorter blades and a pair in place of a singular sword. The black handles have bronze-gold embellishments and shadow-stones on the ends. I'd engraved the blades, naming one Spirit Bane and the other Spirit End. It was a reminder of what I had once been that, at the time, I'd felt the need to have. I considered my opponent and decided I would not need my blades— a weapon such as his would only impede him in this setting, which would give me enough advantage to defeat him barehanded.
I drew back my upper lip, it looked like a snarl, but I was actually pushing my incisors fully forward to start the venom flowing. Only this deliberate movement will trigger it and it is a standard tactic for therilgalen— I may have an immunity to our venom now, but my opponent did not. I considered using my shriek but was reluctant to expose Maya and Vessa to the nightmare vision and the terror the shriek induces. I would leave it as a last resort, I decided.
Finishing his show with his sword, my opponent swept towards me, raising the blade for a diagonal strike. I flexed my feathers to form a shield. As the therilgalen closed, I shifted to avoid the strike. My closest hand shot out to grasp his wrist. Jerking him off-balance, I closed my other hand about his throat. Before I could fully grip it though, he emitted the paralysing shriek. He was young and did not quite achieve the right frequency, but it would still be partially effective, compelling me to react immediately.
Using the hand on his throat, I pulled myself up to his ear. My inner core tightened with the pain of resisting the paralysis, but just before my nervous system gave way and my muscles seized up, I managed to shriek right back. Even though both of us were now paralysed, my shriek was at the optimum frequency and far stronger, so it would affect him for precious moments longer than his affected me. Satisfaction filled me as I saw metallic red-violet blood ooze from the ear I assaulted.
The shriek paralyses prey for varying lengths of time depending on the being and whether we get the right frequency. As I mentioned, non-therilgalen will usually see a vision drawn from their deepest fears, a kind of conscious nightmare. I say usually because I'd just found out that some, well, one, did not experience the terrifying vision, but Jayden Emerline Thaneton may be unique in her immunity. If used on a therilgalen, the paralysing effect only lasts a matter of seconds. Still, when we hunt in groups or engage in a confrontation, we stay a certain distance from each other, enough so that if one of us employs the shriek, the others are not affected.
When coming out of the paralysis, the prey experiences a number of shocks as their nervous system regains control. I felt the first of these barely half a minute after I finished my shriek; they are extremely unpleasant. The instant the paralysis wore off, I increased my grip on my opponent's throat, esse
ntially strangling him. Just a few heartbeats later I felt his body tense as his system recovered. He dropped his sword and used his fist to deliver a blow to the side of my head. I grunted but did not loosen my grip. He struck again, this time at the underside of my wrist, leaning his head back as he did. My hand slipped up to his chin and I felt him drag in a laborious, but deep, breath through his nose because my new hold kept his mouth closed. He crumpled slightly, as if in weakness. I did not relax; it is a standard therilgalen strategy to feign feebleness.
He dragged in another breath through his nose. I could see panic lurking in the depths of his eyes, and I readied myself for a more forceful attempt to break free. It came a moment later; he dropped the shoulder of his free hand and, twisting in under my arm, thrust his shoulder into my chest. Pulling back, he rammed his shoulder up underneath my arm. I lost my grip, stumbling backwards. Recovering, I twisted and ducked a strike. I still had his wrist in my other hand and I used it to wrench him in front of me, turning him to face away from me, leaving his back vulnerable. I wasted no time delivering a sharp blow to the closest wing joint.
He screamed.
I smiled with triumph. I wasn't as weak as my former brethren thought, was I?
When he whipped around to face me, I could see fury had flared in his eyes. Of my kind, I am the only one Ceri-talen gifted with the reflection of his realms in the irises, all other therilgalen have light-red eyes, but when the fury is upon us, the red darkens. All soul takers, both the therilgalen and those Ceri-talen created before us, experience fury: when we get hungry, and when we take a spirit, a chemical is released in our system, we call it fury because it has that effect on us. Right now, only flecks of dark red were present in his eyes, so his threat level was not at a peak, but it was something I needed to monitor.
My opponent closed, going for my throat. I leaned out of reach, knocking his hand away before using his move against him, ramming my shoulder into his chest. I hit his chin instead, blood and venom flying from his mouth. He stumbled, but recovered to round on me, and using my move, caught my throat in his hand as I started to follow through my attack. Before he could shriek again, I bent my knees and tossed him over my shoulder. As I did, he grabbed for one wing, but I was moving, wanting to be ready when he landed. He twisted mid-air, landing in a crouch. The fury had made his eyes completely dark red by now, the colour so deep, they were almost black. His pupils had contracted to thin, vertical lines. Venom was dripping from his fangs.
I grinned. I had embarrassed the pup. 'Leave off, young one, and I will let you depart.'
He scoffed at my offer. 'Ceri-talen will praise me when I drag your hide to him, traitor.'
'He enslaved me,' I snarled.
'You are still a slave. You have merely exchanged one master for another.'
My faced hardened. He was right to a degree. Yet I had felt the sincerity of the promise Aurealis had made. With Ceri-talen, there was no chance for freedom. 'You get only one chance: leave now or perish.'
'The light-dancers have made you weak,' he sneered.
He charged, dodging at the last second and curling an arm about my waist, whipping me into the wall. It was instinctual to flex my feathers, preventing serious damage. With a thrust of his wings to gain height, he leapt to execute a double kick, I rolled clear, just in time.
His head snapped around, looking for me. I pulled my wings in and circled behind him keeping just out of his line of sight, using the shadow plane to partially shroud me. Seeing an opening, he lunged for his sword, snatching it up and swinging it around. I was still behind him. As I moved, I knocked the remains of a table, now so much shattered glass and bits of metal. He spun to face me, his blade slicing through my mid-riff. By no means was it a shallow wound, but it was not life threatening.
We were both breathing hard and I took a moment to consider a new approach. My opponent saw the gold blood oozing from my wound and looked startled by the sight; it was no longer metallic red-violet like his. He brought the sword back and thrust forward in a direct attack; he was trying to force me into a corner. I let him for the moment.
The longer he was in here, the more dangerous it was for Maya. What I could not predict was Vessa's reaction. Any moment, now, the guardian might try to intervene in an attempt to aid me. I needed a killing strike before she panicked and endangered herself and Maya.
In this situation, administering a venomous bite would be the most efficient way to kill him. Unfortunately, it can be quite difficult getting the bite in a sufficiently vulnerable area to make it fatal. I might be able to get a hold on him, but as soon as my teeth came close, he would put a lot more energy into fighting back, or he would simply planes-shift out of reach. That was one way to end this confrontation— if he planes-shifted out of the apartment, he would not get back in through the wards…
I really wanted to kill him though.
Yes, the offer I'd made to let him depart had been genuine. Aurealis requires me to give them a choice in circumstances such as this; where the wards will keep them out once they leave. But I was tired of masters and rules and this young pup, so confident I was no longer capable of the hunt and the kill. So, I let him believe he had the advantage as I dodged his strikes and backed up. When his sword hand drew back for what he was sure was the killing strike, I felt my muscles tense— this was going to hurt.
I felt the blade pass through my ribs and strike the wall behind me. The young fool had struck too low and missed my vital organs, but then I would never have allowed him to make the strike if I had not judged that the angle would not be permanently damaging. At the same time that he lunged towards me, I pushed forward bringing my body up to his cross-guard. I expelled what he was certain was my dying breath... And then I sank my teeth deep into the side of his throat. Again, satisfaction rippled through me, and then I remembered myself and pushed it aside; Aurealis would not approve.
He recoiled, taking his sword with him, stumbling back several steps. The terror in his expression brought me more sadness than I expected. Dropping to his knees, his life drained from his eyes even as metallic red-violet blood trailed from the four points where my fangs had breached his throat. Had he been one of my ranks, when I was in command of the therilgalen, he would have expected such a move. As it was, I was just a legend of which his elders spoke. The traitor once great, become weak.
'There is pride and there is survival. You chose the wrong one.'
He did not sneer this time; he was still in shock. First, the venom paralyses the outer limbs, then, the organs fail. He slumped to the ground, eyes fluttering closed, as if he was just sleeping, until his chest stopped moving.
As he had noticed differences in me, so I now noted changes in him. Ulyn not only managed the therilgalen but spent much of her time 'finessing' the creatures Ceri-talen created. Her obsession in this area was utterly consuming. She would be responsible for the changes I could see.
Some of the differences were subtle. For instance, our undersides have an intricate pattern of short, wine-coloured hair, but his markings were a little wider than mine, a little longer too. He looked more muscular and I remembered that he'd felt heavier. I wondered how that affected his ability to fly— I am well-muscled, but not bulkily so. When I had bitten him, I had seen armour along the back of his neck. I crouched for a closer look. I wanted to see if it was a part of him or something he wore. I ran my fingers over scales that started small and soft and formed hard plating over neck and upper spine, much like those over our forearms. Interesting.
I stepped back, watching his spirit coalesce as it readied to move on to the ether. Ceri-talen would approve: a new beginning brought about by destruction. Despite my injuries, I could not take his soul as I might do at other times. If I needed to protect or save a life, Aurealis would accept that. To heal wounds that were not fatal would lead to punishment. My jaw tightened as I suppressed the urge to take the soul anyway.
This is my path now.
Aurealis
The
breeze amplified the cool shade of the trees and I enjoyed the sensation of a shiver as it rippled over my skin. I was in my angel form as I did not want my companion to feel intimidated. Cyndar co-ordinated the redeemers, monitoring their progress, providing guidance, and delegating their assignments. Some redeemers came to us, others Cyndar sought out, and, on occasion, I found them. Cyndar oversaw them all, except one...
We were in the Sunlit Meadows, a place I created to echo the beauty of the earthly realm. It was a place familiar to spirits who had just departed the earthly realm, a place where they could rest, a place where they could learn, a place where they could heal. Many served me, but just as many were in a state of transition moving from one vessel to another, moving towards ascendance. We were on the edge of a forest, the sun stretching towards us, but we were just beyond its reach. The peace of the location belied the intensity of the discussion taking place.
'I am reticent to disagree with you, but the risk in this case is not only extreme, it is irreversible.'
Cyndar looked up at me anxiously. I was not just his chosen god; I had redeemed him, saving his soul. I gave him a reassuring smile, another reason for appearing as an angel; it is impossible for a dragon to smile without revealing a mouthful of incisors. 'There is no need to be hesitant in your objections or concerns. I appointed you because of your experience as a redeemer. Your understanding of their perspective is valuable. I desire your input without reservation— have no fears in being honest.'
Soul Taker's Redemption Page 15