44. Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Four
Kya
P lease. Ease his pain. He shouldn’t have to suffer because of the choice I made.
Tell him I love him beyond the bond.
I never got to say it back…
It was a strange feeling to know something was coming, but not when or exactly what. I knew this wasn’t what was left for me, this wasn’t my fate. I was tired of waiting. Something big was coming…
Over and over, we did the same fucking thing. The same walk to the sacred stepstone. The same incantations and shields. The same exhaustion from using my Waalu to create the Glaev.
The only difference was that so long as I did what I was supposed to, Leysa didn’t have to wear the collar anymore. It certainly kept me motivated. It tore me apart when I had to listen to her cries of anguish, being punished for something she had no control over, so I did as I was told to spare her the torture.
By this point, I had nearly finished—the once lush, thriving land was now ruined with the same black death that had plagued Taeralia. The more I destroyed, the more impatient and irritable Daegel became. He had stopped putting a shield around Leysa several days ago, forcing her to move along with us. While she and I had to stay on a very narrow trail across the island to move from the stepstone to the other end of the island, Daegel had the ability to touch the Glaev.
The only good thing about doing something so repetitive was I didn’t have to think about it anymore. Going through the motions, it allowed me to focus my mind elsewhere. I had never had the time to do it before, so I took the opportunity to finally learn about myself—about the magic bestowed upon me.
The orbs closer to the surface were easier to access, like my invisibility and aligist magic from Kleio and the energy from Odarum. But there was more, buried deeper within the recesses of my soul I had never tunneled down to.
Until now.
Keeping the Waalu flowing from my fingertips, I fell into myself to explore what was shrouded in darkness. It was more difficult, since I had to keep my eyes open, constantly distracted by my vision. But after days of trying, I was finally able to separate my mind from reality.
It was like traveling through a dense fog with no sense of direction. But I pushed through the seemingly endless haze until I saw a soft glow. There, tucked away in the darkness, was another orb, another gift from the Silent Goddess.
It looked like glass with blue streams rippling across the surface. I tried to reach for it, but it was as if there was resistance. I didn’t know what it would do if I pushed it, and it was a risk attempting this in front of Daegel. But I did it anyway, forcing myself through the wave of resistance and latched myself around it.
It felt unnatural and wrong, giving me a sense of unease and putting a knot in my stomach. I came back to my conscious vision and subtly looked around, glancing at myself to see if there were any visible changes.
Nothing.
Great. Another orb I didn’t know how to use or what it did.
I continued to hold on to it, which only exhausted me faster, but I wanted to see what it could do before I was forced to wear the collar again.
The sun was setting over the curve of the vast ocean before me. I couldn’t do any more today.
In addition to my exhaustion, Daegel was in a particularly foul mood, only aggravating me further.
“More,” he bellowed over and over all Godsdamn day.
Fuck him.
“I’m done,” I snapped as I spun on my heel to face him just outside the magical dome barrier with nothing but a pearlescent sheen between us.
His eyes narrowed into slits. “What do you mean you’re done ?”
“I’m finished,” I clarified, throwing my hand out to gesture to the Glaev I had created today.
He tilted his head to the side, clearly not understanding.
I smirked. “What? You’ve never heard a female tell you they’ve finished before? I’m not surprised.”
His face twisted into a sneer. “I’ve warned you, Diamond.”
He lifted his hand and waved it. The collar lifted and wrapped around my throat. Gods, I didn’t want it back on. No matter how many times he kept forcing me to endure its magical suppression, I would never get used to it, and it was the one thing I resented most.
I closed my eyes and lowered my head, waiting for his stupid incantation that would bring me nothing but pain and suffering until we returned again.
“Lauss,” I muttered under my breath, just like I did every time.
The collar fell to the ground.