57. Soul Demon’s Seven Anchors
Aleiraah
I float in the heart of the darkness, no longer oppressed by it. In fact the light radiating out of my body fractures the malevolent murk, making it shriek like a wounded banshee.
A litany of “surrender” echoes against my mind, the Raven Grimoire desperately trying to seep into my consciousness but I put up a mental barrier. No longer clueless. Finally whole…unrestrained.
The thorn embedded in my heart tries to dig deeper but I focus my energy around it trying to expel it from my body.
Agony rips through my chest but I keep pushing myself until blood dribbles from my mouth and nose.
The darkness whirls around me like a tornado, but seven glowing rings envelop me in overlapping circles forming a globe of blinding light. They whirl faster and faster until fire erupts from me in a supernova, fueled by my soul and the black thorn dipped in my blood ejects out of my chest.
It’s tapered and sharp like a miniature blade and immediately tries to plunge back into my heart but I ignite a bluish-white spark between my palms. The encroaching thorn is scorched in a blink making the Grimoire howl in wrath.
The spark grows into a flame until it engulfs me and my lungs expand on a rush of energy that feels familiar. Like it has been a part of me all along.
It grows until I’m all but a living inferno. The flame surges outward, consuming the pitch-black prison the Grimoire has crafted.
For a moment I wonder if I’ll burn alive but a soothing voice flitters through my mind.
“You have burned in seven lifetimes. And you have risen. Do not fear the flame. You are the flame, fiery one.”
As the whisper dies down, I finally let go and the flames crash into the suffocating tornado as a tidal wave.
The Grimoire screeches, its smothering abyss convulsing.
Vroc
I stop mid-incantation. Under my hands the Grimoire starts to resonate.Pages start to curl and the obsidian parchment marked with red ink bulges like something trapped within is trying to break out.
“No…what has she done?” Disbelief swamps me. “No, no, NO! I’m so close to getting everything! She should be weakening—”
A deafening scream erupts from the Raven Grimoire, shattering the walls of the dungeon.
Blood from the lake starts trickling from above, as the entire foundation shakes.
Frantic, I try to shield the Grimoire with my own body but bluish-white fire bursts from it, flinging me violently against a cracked stone pillar.
“Impossible…” I whisper incredulously, collapsed on the ground scattered with debris as my skin burns painfully. Aleiraah steps out of the pages of the Grimoire in a blaze, setting the omniscient tome alight.
As I scramble to my feet, Aleiraah’s fiery eyes lock onto me and the bluish-white flames zap toward me. Hungry. Ready to burn me alive. I throw up a shield just in time but the heat from the fire threatens to melt my body.
She is a succubus! How the hell did she become so powerful? What happened inside the Grimoire?
As she advances like an avenging angel, her flames fan out in all directions.
I try to draw strength from the Grimoire, but my connection to the ancient entity is gone.It has always answered my call, but now the vicious artifact curls in on itself, shrinking from the intensity of Aleiraah’s power.
I’ve never witnessed anything like this.
I throw all my magic into pushing back the fiery tendrils, sweat and blood dripping from my face.
I won’t lose!
I’ve spent years plotting and I’m too close to victory to be taken down. I need to strike her soft spot.
“Stop, brat! You’re destroying the Grimoire! If it's harmed, this realm collapses—taking your precious mates along with it.” I sneer my warning, but her expression doesn't change. I’m not sure she even heard me.
Fuck!
I draw my sword and swing at her neck once she’s within reach, even as the heat threatens to melt the skin off my bones.
Out of nowhere, a gnarly tendril pierces my chest with a wet crunch, the devious Grimoire sapping my life force to restore itself.
Arching in agony, I claw at my chest, swinging the sword blindly just as Aleiraah throws up a wall of flames.
The metal turns white-hot, blistering my hand until the sword drops with a clang.
The tendril turns to ash, and the Grimoire shrieks.
Biting back the searing pain, I try to retreat, but fiery claws wrap around my throat, blistering the skin. I scream in agony as a molten fist punches through my chest, cracking my ribcage and ripping out my heart.
I gasp in shock, gurgling blood as I look into Aleiraah’s face. Her eyes are burning galaxies of wrath. Yet I can see the familiar aquamarine peek through.
An aquamarine that used to be the center of my existence until it wasn’t.
“You will never be able to harm my anchors again.” Aleiraah’s voice echoes through the dungeon, as more debris falls around us with blood pouring in from the lake.
My mouth opens and closes but no sound comes out. Years of planning and waiting wasted in a blink.
But an odd sense of peace settles over me as Asmordial’s daughter turns my still-beating heart to ash in her fist. Like father, like daughter—I think and smile.
The Grimoire screeches again, an eerie cacophony––the last thing I hear as my consciousness drifts, memories from the past assailing me in these last moments.
I remember a tiny hand grabbing mine and the bright, toothless smile from when I first met Asmordial.
I gave him that name because it sounded strong, and because the incubus didn’t have one.
A goblin child abandoned to grow up on scraps and get kicked around by powerful immortals, befriending another castaway.
Asmordial, a fellow orphan, had been the first person to show me any kindness. Together we escaped a shop we had sneaked into after stealing a fresh loaf of bread. A luxury.
And over the following centuries we stuck together, having each other’s backs as we gained more influence.
Asmordial was the only one who had seen past my ugly exterior, the stigma of being a goblin. We were just children, trying to survive in a cruel realm.
I didn’t know when my feelings for Asmordial changed. But over time, I knew that to become powerful enough to escape the ridicule and beatings, I only needed him by my side. I wanted to live forever with him. We would have been enough for each other.
When Asmordial left me, I begged him. Urged him to stay but he was determined to build a future with that succubus. It had felt like the deepest betrayal, that he too would abandon me.
I watched from the shadows as the love of my life became someone else’s.
Luck had been on my side for once when I managed to get hold of the Grimoire. I went to see Asmordial, a last try to get my friend back. Get my love back. But he had become Ashtarth. He had taken her name.
It broke something in me. He had erased our history. Erased me from his life while he was all but the center of mine.
He asked me to reform, called me greedy and it angered me to no end. How could he?
Naively I thought the lure of the Grimoire would be enough but Asmordial was set in his ways.
Then he went and had a child with that female. My heart was shattered.
Still I kept trying to make him see reason. And in my desperation I used the Grimoire with my limited powers to sway Asmordial.
It backfired.
The entity, hungry for power, latched onto me. Asmordial intervened, saving my pathetic existence. But it aimed for his child next. And Asmordial sacrificed himself to the Grimoire’s greed to save her.
I lost my mind. I couldn’t imagine a world where he no longer existed.
In my rage, I wanted to destroy the Grimoire but it was the last tether to Asmordial. It promised me that it could bring him back to life. But over the years no matter how much I tried I couldn’t gather enough power to bring my dearest friend, my only love back.
So I fixated on our dream, to rule all the realms. And perhaps one day when I was privy to the Grimoire’s secrets I could resurrect Asmordial. That was my one true wish. One which the Grimoire often dangled before me.
And now none of that could come true.
But I hoped that maybe on the other side, I’d be once more united with my beloved. For this life was mired in regrets and loss.
Perhaps in a different universe I would get to be with Asmordial. Love him and be loved in return, just the way I had always craved..desired.
Two youths whose paths never diverged.
Aleiraah
I let the ashes of Vroc’s heart fall from my palm. A small smile remains frozen on his face as his eyes stare unseeingly in death.
His neck is already charred black from my flames and I let the rest of his body be consumed by soul-fire.
A sense of satisfaction ripples through my chest. I have finally avenged my parents. I’m free from this vile creature’s machinations.
The surroundings take on a dark hue as the Grimoire makes one last attempt to get its grubby claws into me, showing images of my mates. Dead, corpses rotting, beheaded.
My breath hitches, the flames sputtering for a moment. The entity rejoices, managing to wrap thick branches around my body but then a bellow pierces the mental fugue.
“ALEIRAAH!” Baz’s roar is a balm to my soul, and my fire burns hotter, turning the branches into ash.
“You lie!” I snarl and release a tsunami of soul-fire at the cursed tome floating above me midair.
It howls, the covers cracking, and a red hue spills forth as pages upon pages of darkness is diminished into nothing as my soul-fire consumes it. Bluish-white flames swallow the Grimoire whole. The pages shriek as they burn. Black tendrils wither into ash.
The explosion hits the dungeon like a star collapsing—a shockwave ripping through stone.
A void develops slowly where the Grimoire once floated and it starts sucking everything into it.
I need to escape!
Bazrosh
I unleash dragon fire as debris blasts from the bottom of the lake. Blood churns, creating a central whirlpool that sucks the creepy creatures into its hollow depths.
A torrent of violent power lashes out, slamming us into nearby rock outcroppings and dead trees. And from the wreckage emerges Aleiraah. Covered in blood yet almost radiating the light of a supernova.
She opens her eyes. And they are pure, blinding white, brimming with power.
A sound like a cosmic heartbeat ruptures the fabric of this dimension.
And at the epicenter…floats my Starling.
Her hair, a river of molten fire, floats around her face. Her skin glows like carved moonstone, eyes burning with ancient, unfettered magic. I shift and notice the tendrils of light from our chests merging into her, growing brighter and stronger.
A shiver runs down my spine, agog at the sight of my mate.
Then she parts her lips and a single word falls from her mouth––”Anchors.”
A knowing slams into me and I’m assaulted with a barrage of memories from another lifetime. Where we loved and lost each other only to promise to meet again. All because of the Raven Grimoire.
The others look equally dazed and stunned, no doubt being subjected to similar realizations. Only Azael is still unconscious and Ispahan’s looking bewildered.
“Starling…” I whisper reverently, with the deep-seated awareness that I’m her soul-tether––her anchor. No wonder I sought her out desperately in this life.
Ispahan interrupts my musings, his voice urgent, “We need to leave! This dimension is collapsing.”
As if on cue the ground below our feet cracks and the sky roils a violent red as a fierce gale picks up.
The resulting noise is unbearable as everything starts to collapse, like the death-howls of thousands of banshees.
Aleiraah still hovers midair, as if trapped.
I transform again and fly to her, ready to grab her in my claws but a black branch shoots up from the churning whirlpool and tries to wrap around me. Soon more branches shoot out and try to grab the rest of us.
Aleiraah becomes wrath personified, her voice echoing a resounding “NO!”
She curls inward, then arches, releasing a torrent of white-hot fire that spreads to the farthest corners of Haalbeg.
I welcome her magic, basking in its warmth as the branches incinerate with an unearthly shriek.
But my satisfaction is short-lived as Aleiraah suddenly collapses, her flames winking out.
Heart in my mouth, I dive, catching her mid freefall.
“Starling!” I bellow but she’s unresponsive.
Panicking, I take her to Azael but he’s barely awake. Alistair literally crawls to her and the rest converge.
“Her chest is barely moving!” Silas frantically checks her pulse.
Just then a crater forms a couple of feet away and I manage to scramble back clutching Starling to my chest, as the others clamber away from the chasm.
“Ispahan, how do we get out?” Ifrinn asks in a harried tone while gripping Starling’s hand in both of his.
Archie is rubbing the soles of her feet, “Her body is growing cold. Fuck!”
“Love, wake up, please!” Zien pleads, his voice breaking as he wipes the blood from her face.
Aleiraah doesn’t move an inch.
“I’m wiped out. I don’t have sufficient magic to form another stable portal and transport all of us safely. I can manage maybe one of you to travel with Aleiraah.”
“You can come back later for us or whatever.” Ifrinn agrees immediately.
Ispahan shakes his head. “No. I’ll not be able to go through the portal. Not enough power.”
His solemn expression says what he clearly refuses to articulate. That there’s no hope for us to make it through alive and he’s willing to sacrifice himself for Aleiraah.
“You know that’s not an option. We gave our word to Zenith!” Archie protests vehemently.
“We are losing time.” Silas chokes out, caressing Aleiraah’s belly gently as he stares at her face despairingly.
The babies…did they even survive this ordeal? My heart twists painfully inside my chest.
“Take...Aleiraah…and go, Ispahan.” Azael’s voice cuts through the heavy atmosphere. Ifrinn helps him near Aleiraah and he puts his palm on her chest.
“She’s in…deep sleep. The babies are barely holding on. You need to hurry, Ispahan.” He urges hoarsely after a few moments, looking like death warmed over.
Ispahan appears close to bawling, but gathers Aleiraah into his arms. “I’ll come back for all of you. Hang in there.” He promises determinedly even though I know it’s going to be too late by then.
“Until next time, Love.” Zien caresses her cheek lovingly, tears streaming down his face.
The words hit like an anvil.
We watch helplessly as Ispahan opens a portal after a few tries and with one last look full of resolve, he steps through it with Aleiraah in his arms.
The golden tethers connecting us to her snap one by one.