AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But the deeper I got, the stronger the pull of that power, the more it infused me. It crawled through muscle, veins, and bone, seeming intent on drilling down to the very atoms of my anatomy and tearing it apart, until I was nothing but a consciousness swimming in a sea of white.
Nothing but a voice that cried out in pain and confusion and hope of acceptance.
But I was not alone in this place.
There were other voices here. Voices that rejoiced in my presence, offering me comfort and a deep sense of presence. I couldn’t see them, couldn’t feel them, but they surrounded me nonetheless, ushering me forward, ushering me deeper, into the deeply resonating heart of the power.
In that core, we were considered.
Not me so much as the child I carried.
The little girl who would one day master this energy in a way I couldn’t even begin to imagine.
A little girl whose very existence now hung on the judgment of the amorphous power that surrounded us and the voices that sang to us.
Voices that were even older than this wellspring; voices that belonged to all those who had traveled this path before us.
The Fenna.
Singing to my child. Explaining to me.
Then the tenor of their song changed. Rejoiced.
The earth had accepted my child.
But it rejected me.
A heartbeat later, it sent me careening out of the mine, back into the real world.
ChapterTwelve
I stumbled forward several meters and then fell, landing heavily on my hands and knees. Stones tore into my palms, but that was nothing compared to the pain that burned through my entire being. Absolutely everything hurt—even my goddamn hair. Even worse was the fact I just couldn’t drag in enough air to ease the fire in my lungs or the racing of my heart.
I stayed there for what seemed like ages, shaking and sweating, but gradually the pain eased enough for some semblance of awareness to return. The earth’s fury had also eased, and while the wellspring’s light continued to burn as bright as any sun, there was no anger in her now.
The spring had accepted her guardian. My daughter would become one with her when she was old enough. In the meantime, I remained the temporary protector, able to call on her power while never fully integrating.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Didn’t know how I felt about the life I’d committed our daughter to. She was now forever linked to this wellspring and those voices. In very many ways, I’d doomed her to an existence and a way of life she might never have willingly chosen.
And there was nothing, absolutely nothing, I could do about it.
Because thanks to those voices, I also knew that had she been considered unworthy, her existence would have ended.
As the pain abated even further, sensory input returned. It was no longer raining, but the air remained sharp with the threat of it. Overhead, thunder rumbled, a sound that echoed through the earth itself. Only it wasn’t thunder but an odd sense of movement and chaos. It wasn’t the wellspring; it was something else.
Then the scent of blood and fury hit my nostrils, even as howls of anger and confusion rent the air.
We were under attack…
Belle? What’s happening?
For several seconds there was no response, and my fear surged. I pushed upright and staggered forward, but my legs didn’t want to support my weight and I fell again.
Here,Belle said. Sorry.
What’s happening?
