Chapter 47
Hours passed.
Saer lay unmoving, save the shaking of his breaths.
He waited for the deceiving peace to break, for the fallen angel to return and invade his mind again.
Any moment, now.
The pain would start again. The flames would take him. He’d lost everything already. His Neyu. His quest. His kin.
Lucifer never came.
Was it all a lie?
Was he dead in truth?
Eyes fluttering shut, Saer floated backwards, inwards, but without the panic of self-preservation this time. His breathing evened, his consciousness slipping into a half-wakened state.
The tethers came into focus—his inborn ties to Lucifer. He knew that now.
Why were there two? He remembered having the thought, but was unable to answer at that moment.
How had he succeeded in sundering one while he could barely stand to touch the other?
The cord he’d broken lay frayed, its ends drenched in a poisonous, black ichor. Saer extended his consciousness towards it and touched one of the pieces. Sickness rolled through him, but also a sense of possession.
Mine.
He pivoted his attention to the other radiant and intact tether. While unbroken, it strained and hummed, as though carrying the weight of both—and the difference between the two clarified.
Not mine.
The connection he’d cleaved represented his allegiance to Lucifer, the vow he’d spoken to the fallen angel. His dedication to It.
The one still attached symbolized Lucifer’s proclamation of Saer—Its declaration of ownership. An undeniable tension pulled on his maker’s tether, attempting to uphold the two-way bond on its own.
But the fallen angel’s possession of Saer’s mind had weakened and disappeared without both. Breaking one tether forced Lucifer out.
It couldn’t possess him any longer.
Saer blinked, and the real world came back in a rush.
His kin must all have their own tethers. He’d witnessed Errshek and Kalia possessed by Lucifer. The human he’d seen amidst his dedication to become a blood drinker had to have formed those same cords while taking his oath. A vow to and from each party was required.
An oath for an oath.
Our maker destroyed Neyu. Saer repeated the accusation in his mind, and waited for the familiar, roiling sickness to set in.
None came, and he inhaled a deep lungful of air. The easiest breath he’d ever taken.
He’d broken his tie—the tie he could.
Trembling, Saer dragged his arms under his body, then pushed onto his back. He took in the clear, blue sky between the tall trees surrounding the campsite. Birds chirped, peaceful despite the chaos in his mind.
Excitement warred with disbelief and the sudden urge to locate the Daemoenica again, to explain his discovery to them. They could be free, too…
Was he free?
The thought caught his breath, and he swallowed past a charred, dry throat.
He’d completed the first step. An agonizing, brutal step. One which opened the door to more, and better, and harder all at once.
He couldn’t tell his kin and risk putting them in danger. Not until he held all the pieces. Not until he knew how to snap the other chain.
The others need you. Neyu’s words, echoing in the back of his mind.
One more tether to break. It seemed impossible at first glance.
We could be unstoppable. Like she knew the opportunity existed.
Not impossible.
We deserve more than we are given.
For the first time since he’d been forced to unmake her, he recalled other words his beloved spoke when faced with her death. The ones he’d rebelled against without consideration. I need you all to see and experience beyond me…
She’d tried to tell him what he needed, even facing her own destruction.
Saer’s throat tightened. The pain of her absence would never disappear. The Neyu-shaped hole she’d left in his heart couldn’t be filled by anyone but her. But it didn’t need to be.
He’d remember her. He’d keep going. Seeing. Experiencing. Finding the way out.
For all of them.
Saer rolled onto his side and used his quavering arms to push his body into a sit. Once he caught his breath, he forced his legs under his frame. He swayed where he stood, but didn’t fall.
He staggered to the firepit to light one last, revitalizing blaze.
And he began again.