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Chapter
One
Senara
The glow of Thorn's eye faded as flames consumed me. They crawled along my skin, burning every inch. Every crack, every blister screamed with pain as my skin bubbled, seeming to flake away.
The blisters began popping one by one, each causing immense pain. I thought I was screaming, but I couldn't hear myself. I couldn't hear anything over the roar of the fire. I wished death would just take me, or at least that I would pass out from the pain. I wasn't sure why my body was so stubbornly hanging on.
If this is what it was like to die by the veil, then I pitied everybody that had come before me. Most of the time when I had seen it happen, the people just turned to ash. Maybe that was just because they touched the veil, not because they were thrust into it? I had no answers and could barely form a coherent thought as agony pounded through my veins.
The air seared my lungs, burning them from the inside out, but there was no smoke clogging my nostrils, no scent of burning flesh. I prayed to any god that would listen that Wyn wasn't suffering the same fate. I wasn't sure how long it went on or if Iended up blacking out and waking up again, but after what felt like an age, the pain began to subside.
Or maybe I just became numb to it.
If you lost all your skin, could you still feel pain? I wasn't sure. All I knew was that I wished I had a sleeping draught or a healing potion. Something to make this all go away. Hell, I'd even take some of the swill that Grimsby called wine. Anything to make me unaware of what was happening.
I wasn't sure how much time passed. The numbness spread, making my thoughts drift and twist along the way. I wondered if this was the true punishment of death by Vale.
It wasn't the burning. The punishment was losing your mind from the pain or if that didn't happen then it was losing your mind from being aware and not being able to feel anything. All of my senses completely deprived until I just felt like a consciousness floating there, like my soul was the only thing that I consisted of.
Just as I felt as though I'd come to peace with that fact, the pain began again, but in a different way. I felt like my body was being stretched as though I was being tortured and pulled apart limb by limb, and when it wasn't my limbs, it was my spine and my neck.
What I thought was the location of the mark burned and throbbed. Every single part of me felt like it was being torn apart and put back together at the same time until there was nothing left that was truly me. It was all something else, and as I had that thought, my senses began to return.
A haziness surrounded me and as far as the eye could see was an endless pale bluish-green that reminded me of where the summer sky met the grassy hills in Balaise where I'd been stationed with the military. As I seemed to float there in this turquoise colored nothingness I became aware of small little pin pricks all along my body.
When I look down I could see that I did, in fact, have a body now, or it still had one. Not only that, but I was dotted with Luna moths. They seemed to appear out of the nothingness faster than I could count, more of them flocking to me every second until I was covered. The gentle aura they emitted actually comforted me. The magic they possessed, the innate oneness that they had with the moon from which they derived their name, seeped into me, joining with my own.
It was like being around Wyn after she had just cast a spell or used magic in some way. There was that same faint hum of magic that was in the air. Only there was a hum present around each moth, and it all coated me, making me feel like I was a flower about ready to bloom, or maybe a caterpillar changing into a moth would better suit, given my current companions.
A voice sounded, muffled at first, making it impossible to understand. The moths flew from my body in a great cloud, leaving me exposed as the voice echoed through me once again. I had no idea where it was coming from. As it spoke, I realized that it wasn't one voice, but many layered on top of one another. "My child. You have returned. Welcome home." The voice was feminine at first and then transitioned to a more masculine, as it said, "You will have a hard road. Know that we are with you."
An image flashed in my mind, a man with a fiery shield and golden armor gleaming in sunlight and reflecting off his bald head while a woman stood next to him dressed in pale blues and purples with two gigantic blades, each curved like a crescent moon. Their faces were slightly blurred, as though I was watching them through watery eyes. I could tell they were both gorgeous, but beyond that I couldn't pinpoint any details.
"My scion," the woman said, handing off one of her blades to her companion before extending her hand to me. "You bear the seed of greatness. Whether you accept it is up to you. While I cannot know everything it is that you will go through, I cansay that I believe you will handle it. You have the light of the moon burning bright and strong within you and nothing can extinguish it. Others will try to use it, sometimes even against you, but I have no doubt that a scion of mine will be victorious. You may use your magic as you see fit, the only thing I ask is that you chase the darkness from the land and bathe it in my loving light once more."
The urge to take her hand was too strong to resist, especially after hearing words like that so I did. A jolt of what could only be described as power went through me. I may as well have been struck by lightning. Every inch of my skin was more alive than it had been a moment ago. I was aware of every part of my body in a way I hadn't been before, from the tips of my toes to every strand of my hair, even my vision was sharper, bringing some of the woman's face into view.
"You will defy odds, you will break rules and traditions, and you will have to make sacrifices that no one should be asked to make. Bringing your power to the land will come at a cost, one you must be willing to pay or this will all be for naught."
Her words sent a chill down my spine. Cost? Sacrifice? I was dead or dying wasn't I?
"Not quite." She smiled beatifically at me, though I still couldn't quite make out her face. "You have a whole new life waiting for you if you can accept it."
My heart jumped in my chest.
A chance to live?
Of course I would take it!
"Do not take what we have said lightly, child. You have a hard path to forge, one that will have resistance at every turn, but if you find the right allies it might make things a little easier for you. Just remember what we are asking you to do in exchange for this new life," the bald man said, his voice sounding like a scolding father.
"Take this power, though, in truth, it's been inside you all along, we have merely assisted you in unlocking it. Be my scion and help me heal my people." The image of the woman and man faded as did the sound of her voice as she spoke.
A great whooshing sensation flew over my skin, like I was standing at a cliff edge and the wind had just gusted, blowing me backward to safety. Only I had no idea if that was actually the case.
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