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Serephina.Sheopenedhereyes expecting black abyss, but found pure white light instead. It was warm and it was beautiful.
“Serephina.” She turned to the voice and found herself looking at a figure she had only seen once before in her memories. Though he was ageless, he appeared in the form of a middle-aged man with short brown hair and a trim brown beard. He was of average height and build, but it was his eyes that gave away he was not mortal. His silver ringed eyes locked onto hers and she found that she was too tired to be awed at this immortal’s presence.
“Serephina.” She sighed at the repetitive false name. Perhaps it was hers once, but it was not hers now. Her mortal body was already dead or dying and her power stolen. There was nothing left for him in her any longer.
“That is not true, Serephina. You are tired, but you have much left to do. You need to wake up.” He looked at her like he pitied her, but his words demanded more of her.
“I have given enough, I have done enough. I am tired and now I will rest.” She closed her eyes, feeling as if she needed only let go to be free.
“Then you condemn the world you gave your mortality for to darkness.” His patient voice told her that he knew her better than she did.
“It was not I who made that choice. I grew up on a farm.” Her words came out a bit too harsh to give credit to her story of choosing rest.
“You are one and the same. I have watched over every life you have lived and always you are the same. Always you are the goddess that saw beauty and goodness in imperfection and gave all to protect it. You cannot fight who you are when it is at your very core.” He smiled fondly at her and she found herself wanting to earn that smile, the tug on her too strong to fight.
“Why me? Why this version of Serephina?” she asked, needing to know why any of this had happened and why her body lay behind her in a strange room.
“The why does not matter. What matters is what you do with the time given to you. You can choose to pass from this world and take your rest, leaving the world to burn or you can burn for this world. You can choose to take the love you have been gifted and shed its light on the darkness that threatens all. You can choose.” He folded his hands in front of his body and looked at her expectantly.
“My time is already through and it is because of what you call a gift.” Still, ‘You can choose’ reverberated in her. She could choose.
“Not all love is a happy story, but you will never be weaker or less than because you chose love. It is love that sustains you now, and it is love that calls you back. Love makes us strong, it brings us together. Fear is what makes us weak, isolates us.”
“I don’t understand.” Hope flared in her all the same under the bone drenching fatigue her body carried.
“You came into your power in three. Three loves. Power awakened by three. One cannot take what does not belong to them,” he explained patiently.
“Sophie and Kai.” She understood now. The power and remnants of her immortality were divided inside her three ways. Wesley only took what was his. “But I was dying, I am dead.”
He nodded gravely. “Your power laced with immortality was not enough to heal you from such a wound, but I have added my power to yours. For what you gave, I will give but a shadow of that cost. Yet still I feel it’s absence even now. Your body is healing in the mortal world. You must choose now.”
She thought about what it would mean to finally rest and to wash her soul of a world cruel enough to give her love and betrayal in the same breath. Yet, it was also a world that gave her Sophie who was good and kind. It gave her Kai who she still had so much to learn about and know. There may be darkness in this world, but there was still good to be celebrated.
“No choice at all is still a choice, Serephina.” He looked at her gravely, and she could feel her tie to this place weakening. The threads pulling away from her mortal body and the promise of the release of nothingness. She knew what she would choose. She would fight to protect the world from what she had given to Wesley and for the good that lived within that world.
A hint of a smile graced the immortal’s lips. “Live well, Serephina.”
Chapter 39
Wrenawokewithagasp to the smell of lavender and salty air. Panic rose in her as she clawed at the enclosure she was trapped underneath. Her frantic hand waving and pulling gave way to a white sheet that had been covering her body.
She sat up, taking in her surroundings. She was somewhere dark filled with storage that looked to be shipping supplies. The earth rocked underneath her and she realized with a start that she was on another ship. Her fingers felt for the wound in her abdomen that she knew would be gone. Her fingers ran over a slight imperfection in her skin. Her eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness of the hull revealing a scar where Wesley’s dagger had slid into her. She placed her hand over it, a reminder of what love was capable of.
Finding her feet, she slid to the side of the cot she had been placed on. Bracing herself, she stood feeling her legs shake slightly at the movement, the silk dress she wore pooling around her. The sway of the ship and the weakness of her healed body fought to incapacitate her, but she knew she needed to assess her situation. She had sworn to protect this world and she would do little good hiding in a foreign ship’s hull.
Grabbing a fishing spear stashed nearby, she made her way up the stairs, holding onto the side for balance. She would not be caught off guard again, she would be wiser than she had been before.
Seeing light pouring in from above her, Wren knew she was close to the ship’s deck. She paused and felt for her magic. It felt far away, but she was able to pull an ember as her right hand illuminated the remaining darkness with her light. She would be stronger than she had been yesterday.
As she entered the deck, she breathed the salty air into her lungs, relishing the feeling of being alive. This feeling had almost been taken from her and she would not take it for granted again. She heard a gasp and a muttered prayer, and whipped her head around to see a young boy likely no older than fifteen with a dropped mop staring at her with shock.
Seeming to gather his wits he ran in the opposite of her direction frantically. Of all the reactions she had expected upon arriving on the deck, that had been low on her list of possibilities. The sun was setting and there was no one else on deck meaning the boy had likely run to find his crew mates making that where she needed to go to catch her enemies off guard.
She reached down into the well of her power and smiled when she felt it filling up closer and closer to the surface. Wesley had taken one third of her power and without it she felt more control as if she wasn’t bursting to the seams with untamed magic.
Her footsteps were sure despite the sway of the ship and she called another set of flames to her other hand holding the spear. The flames danced around the spear, bouncing harmlessly off the wood it was made from. She heard running footsteps coming from the stairs nearly in front of her and stood still readying to release magic and spear alike.
A pair of brown eyes met hers and she dropped the spear and released her magic staring in disbelief. Sophie’s face held disbelief and unwavering hope when she looked her over.
