Chapter Thirty-Six Pax—Tearsith
Chapter Thirty-Six
Pax—Tearsith
Pax held tight to Aria as they eased out from the dense foliage that hedged in their sanctuary. The air was pleasantly cool. Perfect as it murmured across their flesh on the temperate breeze that rustled through the boundaries of Tearsith.
The massive, magnificent tree stood proud in the distance. Limbs forever full of dense leaves stretched out to create a canopy of green. A tree where he and Aria had played as children. Where they’d laughed and giggled and chased each other.
That was in the years before they’d understood the perversion and obscenity. The wickedness that reigned, that one day they would war against. Before the scars and the traumas and the fear.
This girl who’d been his very best friend. His only friend. The one who’d become his anchor when he felt as if he were perpetually lost in the ravages of a deep, toiling sea.
He glanced at his Nol then. At the sharp, defined angles of her face. Cheeks and jaw whittled like blades. Eyes sharp and keen, yet so unbelievably kind. Real and steeped in her desire to help those in need.
He had no question that she would be willing to sacrifice it all, even if it only served one person.
One soul.
But her mission had become so much greater than that. The scores she’d been given to protect. Every life. Every being.
The charge that had been her burden had become essential.
Basic for all survival.
The whole fucking weight of the world riding on her shoulders.
But for one night—just one night—he wanted to give her a reprieve.
A moment that only belonged to her.
A moment that only belonged to them.
Beyond where he and Aria stood on the soft grass at the edge of Tearsith, on the bank on the crystalline brook that weaved through their haven, their Laven family had begun to gather at their great teacher’s feet.
Pax’s chest tightened when he saw that Ellis had grown weary. His shriveled frame sagged even more than it had just a week ago.
Brittle beneath the great losses that had befallen their tribe. Their family, who were being picked off one by one, their numbers dwindling with each day that passed.
A quiet sorrow quivered and moaned through the flock, though in it, Pax could feel a new strength that had emerged. Nols sat closer, tied in a way they’d never been before, clinging to the other in relief that both had arrived in Tearsith that night.
That they’d made it another day.
“How many of them do you think have joined?” Aria asked beneath her breath as she stared out over the crowd. “How many do you think have found their Nol in the day?”
“I imagine that most of them ran to find the other, if there was any possibility of doing it,” Pax rumbled.
“I can only wonder if them finding each other is what has allowed them to come here tonight. If it’s what’s kept them safe.” Aria’s voice was laden with caution, and he could feel her grief. Her pain over the ones who’d already been lost.
She suddenly trembled. “Do you think it’s because of me? Is it because of me that Ambrose has been seeking the demise of us all? He said I was the last one standing in his way. Would he stop this slaughter if I was no longer in his way?”
Ferocity filled his spirit, and he turned to her, his words emphasized.
“No, Aria . . . I think you’re here because this was going to happen.
Because Ambrose was going to try to merge the worlds.
End our kind and likely every person on the planet.
I think you’ve been sent—purposed for this time—because you’re the only one who can stop it. ”
She inhaled a shaky breath, and Pax ran his thumb over the object tied to her left ring finger.
Another impossibility.
Because they never crossed realms with any human properties. Not clothing, or jewelry, or even their scars and tattoos. They emerged in Laven’s uniforms, clad in brown pants and jackets and boots.
And there his promise remained on her finger.
The ribbon.
She exhaled before she tipped him a timorous smile, and the two of them slowly moved across the meadow to where the rest had settled. Dani and Timothy were already there, Dani tucked beneath Timothy’s arm and pressed to his chest.
“. . . of the utmost care . . .” Ellis’s instructions trailed off when his regard landed on the two of them.
His eyes were now nearly completely gray, as if the irises had spread out to stain the sclera, yet his gaze remained impossibly warm.
An embrace from afar, though there was torment written in it.
Josephine hovered near him. Strands of stringy gray hair hung limp around her aged, weathered face.
“Aria . . .” Ellis said with an exhalation of relief. “Dani and Timothy told us what happened last night. It’s all so much to handle and believe. I’m so sorry this burden has befallen you.”
His expression went grim. “And the Kruen . . .”
“It was terrifying,” she whispered. “But we made it out, and I am well and whole.”
By the time they’d curled up together in bed, she’d nearly been healed, the wound resembling a scar more than anything else.
“Thank Valeen,” Ellis murmured on the breeze.
Aria’s nod was slow, though Pax could feel the gravity behind it. “Yes, thank Valeen. She was near.”
“Then she has not abandoned us.” Ellis’s whisper held the weight of a prayer of deliverance.
“No, she has not. And I’ve come to believe that she is urging us toward one another. To stand together. More than here and in Faydor, but in the day. I believe we are not just stronger with our Nols, but together as a whole.”
A ripple of surprise wound through the throng of Laven, their chattering held in uncertainty. But a current rode through it. One that struck a chord in their spirits.
As if they’d all become attuned to one another. As if their spirits recognized what Aria was saying.
A middle-aged woman named Stephanie climbed to standing in the middle of the crowd, her hair as black as Aria’s, her skin just as pale.
She blinked with the severity of her confession.
“I had a dream. The same one two nights in a row. A dream telling me I’m supposed to leave.
It’s as if I’m being called somewhere else but I’m lost in the middle of it, not sure of where I’m supposed to go.
” Her voice waffled with uncertainty. “And I never have dreamed before. Not once in my life. Not until now. When I close my eyes, I always come here.”
Two more asserted the same.
The confused certainty that they felt they were supposed to be somewhere else, though they had no indication of where they were supposed to be. Riddled with a feeling of being misplaced.
It left them all unsettled and unsure.
“Maybe it’s calling us toward our Nols?” another speculated.
Stephanie’s response shot down that theory. “But I was already with mine.”
Hundreds of eyes turned to Aria, seeking guidance.
Pax could feel the anxiety roll through her. Her wish to be able to give something real. To be able to protect each of them. To provide a solution. A miracle.
“We all feel it . . .” Aria said. “Something inside us urging us to do something or a change is about to happen. And I wish I knew exactly what that was. That I could tell you exactly what to do. I can’t, but I do get the sense we’re supposed to wait for clarity. That we will know when the time comes.”
Aria fisted her hand over her heart. “The one thing I can say with certainty is, I’ve been called to end Ambrose. How? I don’t know. But I have faith that it will be revealed to me. That Valeen wouldn’t bring me to this time and place only to leave us helpless.”
Her chest shuddered as she inhaled. “And I promise you that I will go where she calls me. Do whatever she asks. Whatever it takes. I won’t surrender or submit.
In the meantime, I think you need to find whatever Laven live closest to you and go to them.
Stick together. Not just with your Nols, but with anyone else that you can. ”
Apprehension rolled through them all, and Ellis lifted a bony, spindly hand. “I know it’s hard to process, to accept when we’ve been instructed to live so differently, but I believe we must trust in what Aria says.”
Agreement seemed to move through the crowd, and a chatter rose through the ranks as Laven moved toward those they knew lived closest to them, their conversations hushed as they made plans to meet in the day.
Ellis let them talk for a time before he cleared his throat. “My children, even though we must pivot during the day, we cannot become distracted from our original purpose. Finish your plans, and then we must prepare to descend. The time is coming near.”
Pax edged forward, and he pushed a hand out to stop their family from rising, silently asking them to stay back as he brought Aria to stand directly in front of Ellis.
“Not yet, Ellis. I need you to do one thing for me.”
Confusion knitted the old man’s brow, though in it, Pax saw that he was willing to do anything.
“What do you ask?”
“I want you to marry me and Aria. Tonight. Right now. In front of our family.”