Chapter 51 An Improvised Imparting #2
The Goddess smiled sadly. “Go rest, child. All will be well.” As soon as the Goddess released Caroline, she nodded, and after dabbing at her cheeks turned to look at Tamlin one final time. “Tell her I love her more than anything, and I know she will be a fine woman.”
Tam bowed his head. “You have my word.”
When Caroline had disappeared through the trees, her arms wrapped around herself, the Goddess clasped her hands in front of her skirts and looked at Thomas Julian patiently.
She did not speak, and she didn’t ask him to, either.
Still, the young man ducked his head sheepishly and fixed his eyes on the grass. “I… will be the exchange for Tamlin Ashowan.”
“What?” Tam frowned. “No. I will not be responsible for taking your life. I know we haven’t officially met, but—”
The young man turned to him with a somber knowingness lighting his brown eyes.
“My days were numbered regardless. When I chose to hide among the first witch’s closest allies, I knew it placed a sentence on my head.
I’ve watched Daxaria from afar and helped when I could.
Likon, my uncle, was raised as family in your household.
He… He was like a brother to you, and because of me he has been forced to stay in Troivack.
I need my death to have meaning. Please let me…
” The young man took a shuddering breath.
“Please let me show everyone why I was doing this. So that they see I was trying to make sure I could save as many people as possible.”
Tam opened and closed his mouth, unable to think of what to say until at last he managed to splutter. “But you aren’t dead yet, are you?”
Thomas Julian smiled sadly. “I am near death. I have taken Witch’s Brew.
I’ve been watching from afar as Aradia’s eyes for a long, long time.
I was near the battle by the castle. When I saw what you did, and then how Lady Elisara disappeared with Kraken, I had a hunch that…
that maybe… maybe I could finally be a hero. ”
“Tamlin?”
Tam was about to go on to say there was no way he could allow Likon’s nephew to die on his behalf, but the Goddess’s words pulled his attention back to her.
“I will accept this exchange. In light of the souls that you have saved, the light you have brought to my children, as well as a mother’s final wish, I will not take your magic from you. But I will send you back with a task.”
“No!” Tam exclaimed, turning back frantically to Thomas, who was smiling with a heartbreaking mixture of happiness and sadness at the Goddess. “Likon may be angry with you now, but he loves you! He’s worried about you! Your mother, your siblings, they all are—”
The young man swallowed, then said with a bit more force behind his voice, “If I live now? I will be executed and die a shameful death that will haunt my family for betraying the Daxarian monarchy. Tam… This is how I… This is how I wish to end my life, and you cannot tell me how I should go. It isn’t up to you. ”
Before Tam could say another word, the Green Man returned and placed himself on the Goddess’s left side. His eyes were red-rimmed but peaceful. Death made his way over to the Goddess’s right.
“Tamlin Ashowan, your task upon returning to life in your body, in a way that breaks the laws of nature’s balance, is to help unite the witches, humans, and ancient beasts.
It is a task my children struggled to accomplish for centuries, but this time, with your exceptional familiar”—the Goddess nodded at Kasha—“and your connections to both a normal human prince and princes who are witches, you are in a very unique position of a counselor. It will not be easy, but I’m well aware you Ashowans have a way of making things work out. ”
Tam was about to object again to Thomas Julian sacrificing himself, but then Death reached out and gently touched Tam’s face. The Forest of the Afterlife dimmed as he swayed on his feet.
“Thank you for loving our son. You were everything we hoped for him, and more. He will still feel people’s emotions, and affect them to some degree, but…
the abilities will not be as potent as they were.
” The Green Man’s words echoed in Tam’s head, and next thing he knew he had fallen into a restful darkness.
★ ★ ★
Kasha barely wedged herself under Tam’s unconscious body in time before he fell to the ground.
She made a low rumble of concern, but a quick look at Kraken, who was using this moment of quiet to start cleaning his back leg, told her things were not dire.
“As for you, Kasha,” the Goddess said, her eyes glowing subtly in the shifting light through the trees. “We expect you to help your witch with his task. You can help him negotiate with the ancient beasts and humans. We know approaching us as a court and negotiating with us was your idea.”
If Kasha were in her human form, she’d blush.
“However, when Tamlin Ashowan returns to life, and Thomas Julian makes the exchange, we expect you to document very clearly that we will not bend the laws of life to such an extreme again. With our son’s fate resolved, and our daughter home, we believe it is time that the age of magic become something more…
subtle. There will be a decline in witches born in the coming years.
Please make it be known that while this may seem alarming, we the Gods are not angry.
We simply believe that a more nuanced approach to a world with magic should be the way forward. ”
“What about the ancient beasts?” Eli asked, her mind already filling with possible complications of a world with less magic.
“Soon they, too, will fade. They will gradually integrate into the world until everyone is at balance with one another,” the Green Man explained regally.
Kasha swallowed. “Why… did you tell me this, and not Tam?”
All three Gods smiled, and Kasha wasn’t sure what to make of it, until the Goddess answered.
“Because you are a familiar. Now go enjoy your peaceful life. You will have great work ahead, but you will know great joy from here on.”
Kasha lowered her head, and it was then she noticed that the weight of Tam had disappeared.
He must have returned to the land of the living.
Kraken rose with a stretch. “Right. Come along. There are going to be a lot of crying people we will need to console with our fluff. Until next time,” Kraken called lazily over his shoulder to the Gods.
The Goddess laughed, sending a musical breeze dancing around the trees.
Kasha was almost too entranced to move, but Kraken shouted at her once again. “Come along! We don’t have all day! I’d like to at least get a nap soon!”
And so with a final look at the Gods, and a final bow of gratitude to Thomas Julian, who waved with a smile and tears running down his face, she chased after the fluffy haunches back into reality.