Eirian finally let them sleep after Chenzhou spent several minutes stumbling over his words to explain that special ant special in a good way. Eirian hadn’t really been that angry, but it was funny to watch him try to explain himself.
And even funnier to watch Mingzhe try to turn himself invisible between them.
But she wanted to get to sleep, so she eventually ordered them to do the sa. She hadn’t managed to dream of the world of the dead since the last ti when Death had arrived.
She’d woken up almost imdiately after that, the fear and adrenaline from being caught so close to the veil jarring her awake in real life. They’d been on the verge of crossing through the veil, she thinks. They’d certainly argued in circles about it for long enough, and a part of Eirian believes they’d been arguing about it for far longer than she’s been dreaming of it.
There were monts where it felt like they had been arguing for lifetis, and Eirian could have sworn the world of the rock was aging around them.
But nothing changed in that dead world.
Ever.
She lay still in the darkness, Chenzhou and Mingzhe snoring softly next to her, and tried to will herself back to that place. She didn’t even know why she was so drawn to it, why she kept dreaming of returning to it.
Why she couldn’t let it go. Her mark had stopped hurting once it had healed, but it was still there, vivid black ink across her back that was strangely patchy in places. Like it was unfinished.
It was a magical mark, of that she was certain; she just didn’t know if it was a curse and soone was trying to kill her, or if it was sothing worse.
Was it marking her for sothing besides death?
Was there sothing she was supposed to do?
The only thing she knew for certain, and even that was just a guess based on her gut, was that the answers lay in the dead world.
Which made her worry even more than the coming war against the tribes.
Magic may exist on the rock, but even it had rules, and even magic didn’t dare cross between the living and the dead. It could affect one or the other to an extent, but once sothing was committed to one or the other, only the magic in that world could touch it.
The world of the living and the world of the dead were kept separate in all things, and travel between them only went one way.
And it was permanent.
Grand stories of resurrections and battles against the underworld aside, once sothing had died, it was never allowed to return to the world of the living.
There were rules, and they existed for a reason.
The living and the dead did not mix.
Even Eirian’s magic, as powerful and strange as it was, was bound by those sa rules.
It took a while, far too long in her opinion, for her to start to drift off when her mind finally quieted.
Then the world went quiet and dark and glittering, and Eirian was face to face with a being made of sheer power and haunting blue eyes.
Death was not pleased.
Eirian and the others stood side by side against him, united at least, even though Eirian doubted they stood any kind of chance against him.
And yet, there wasn’t much fear.
Not the bone-chilling, mind-freezing fear Eirian had experienced occasionally in combat or when she’d been exceedingly stupid about sothing and gotten herself into a situation where she ended up hurt.
Like jumping off the city walls into the Still Water when she was young and thought her magic would give her wings.
Needless to say, it had not.
Even as he looms over them, Death feels too familar to inspire that kind of fear.
He feels, she realizes with a sinking feeling in her stomach, like family.
And that’s what inspires the fear.
“Starlight, starlight, burning bright.” His voice booms, dark and so heavy Eirian can feel its weight on her shoulders like a winter cloak. “Set all the heavens alight.” His power gathers behind him as his form grows and shifts. “Heart of fire, will of stone.” There are parts of him that grow into the world around them. Glittering chunks of precious stone and floating clouds of magic traversing what should be his skin but looks like the night sky. “Who walks the path alone.”
The others are yelling at him, and EIrian is too, even though she has no control over it.
They want to go through the veil, she realizes and she does to.
She wants deseperately to go through the veil and see that world bursting with life and a sky full of dragons.
Death doesn’t want them to go, seems to be forbidding it even and well, that’s never been a good way to stop your child from doing anything.
Oh…
That’s what it is.
He feels like a parent.
He feels more like a father than her own does.
And he doesn’t want them to leave.
“Flicker, flicker, flas aloft,” he growls as his power spreads like wildfire, pushing at them, surrounding them, “Kiss the earth as all is lost.”
The veil rippled and shifted and in small, slivers, a peak of the world beyond.
Green and lush and alive.
Why didn’t he want them to go?
“Wings of wrath, hands of grace, silent in all the world’s embrace.” The ground started to shake beneath their feet, but no one faltered.
No one stood down.
It seed Death was too angry to have a real conversation. Was he cursing them?
“If you go, you cannot co back.” He finally said and that made them all fall silent, even Eirian. “That world is not yours.”
“It could be.” The man, the one who’d felt like Eirian’s older brother and who she’d seen at the veil the most. “Why are we bound here, in this place? Why can’t we see the rest of this world?”
“Because it is not yours! You belong here, with !” Death roared and it was the most emotional Eirian had ever heard him. He almost sounded…hurt. “Your place is with !”
~ tbc
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