Chapter 43
Brio
My song is not working on him, so I changed to something more insidious. Something to amplify his fear. Just a dark little ditty, repeated over and over. Something that will seem innocuous at first but then get under his skin.
I sing about his corpse floating, forgotten in the dark, the creatures that live here, and how he will never see the light. I sing about the cold and barren world that exists in these deepest parts of the ocean.
He starts to shake, his movements growing erratic as he rushes, trying to break past Reed, Canto, and Lirin.
They stay on him, chasing and charging him, driving him towards a darkness that is gathering.
We are of these oceans, but we aren’t the ocean.
No, another has that distinction, and his rage is sending waves that will ripple across worlds. A voice saying that no one touches what is his. Not ever again.
I follow behind them, singing a song of such chilling terror that even the creatures that normally inhabit this area flee.
I catch a glimpse of colour and turn, watching as she circles around.
She gave me my music back. Magic. Mine.
I could have lived without it, but it wouldn’t have been living. I’m not sure what I would have been, but losing her was the worst thing that happened to me, and losing my music was a close second.
I can still feel the heat as it sears into my throat. That feeling of opening my mouth to speak and barely managing a whisper.
No way to call her. No way to immortalize her. Everything I am, ripped from me.
I lost hope.
I shouldn’t have, and I will forever try to make amends, but I lost hope of ever seeing the light. Of seeing her. Of being happy. I gave up, wanting to die, provoking him at all turns so that he would punish me and focus on me.
My body is a mass of scars now, but the one scar I can’t live with is gone. She is the miracle that took it from me.
I smile as I sing my bone-chilling song. I smile because she is here, because I am free, because I can sing.
I give my song claws and focus on the enemy, preparing to destroy him once and for all.