Chapter 38 #4
Eldric’s head tilted back, his gaze fixed on the sky.
He blinked the raindrops away, staring at the heavy, rain-filled clouds that hadn’t been there moments before.
Water struck his hands, and he watched his skin soak under the downpour.
His eyes drifted to the woman he loved as she melted in her own despair, but even consumed by her suffering, Eldric saw a pattern.
Something subtle, something only he, who loved her deeply, would notice.
Her screams and the roaring thunder came in unison.
It was almost as if they were the same, as if the storm itself was coming from her.
And then it hit him.
He let out a dry laugh. Even in its irony, laughing in itself seemed so foreign to him after everything that happened in the last few months.
The sound caught her attention, and she glanced up at him, drenched in rain and blood. “Is this funny to you?” she shouted right when another thunder roared.
He shook his head. “Didn’t you find it odd that there was no bad weather for the entirety of our trip?
” he asked, increasing her annoyance. “I mean, we have traveled for six months, and not for a single moment have we found rain or cold in our way. I have traveled all over Heldraine several times, and never have I gotten such amazing, favorable weather.”
“Eldric, do you really think I’m interested in discussing the weather right now?”
He knelt down beside her, cupping her face. “What I’m trying to say, darling, is that it is no coincidence. The rain is coming from you, the same way your magic unconsciously controlled the weather every step of the way.”
“That has nothing to do with me, Eldric. I’m a Zeity—my magic is of time and flesh,” she corrected him, unaffected by his nonsense.
He smiled. “No, Alissa. You are a Hozter. You have both the power of Ksarens and Zeitys in you.”
“That can’t be true. Desi said the existence of Hozters was never proven.”
“I guess you will be the one to prove her wrong then.”
She frowned. “I tried using the magic of the elements before when you were held in captivity, Eldric. It didn’t work.”
“I know… You must have been so fixated on the Zeity power that you may have unintentionally refused to let the Ksaren magic out when you were training. I guess now that you know how to use it and that your emotions are so intense, the power is coming out naturally.”
“What does it even matter now if I’m a Zeity or a Hozter?”
“It matters that if you have the power of the elements, you can bring this damned wall down!” he cried out, barely containing his excitement.
Alissa’s eyes immediately lit up. She remembered the time she was trapped in the canyons, how the stone door instantly moved at the touch of her bloody hand. Could it have been a coincidence?
She didn’t need to consult her books on magic to learn how to conjure the power of elements because she felt the electricity inside begging to be brought to life the moment her fingers touched the cold walls. She cut her palm and closed her eyes, releasing all of her restraints.
As she let out her last sorrowful scream, the rain ceased pouring.
When she placed her bloodied palms on the stone, the walls that stood strong and immaculate through centuries began to waver.
With her hands still pressed against the surface, she channeled her magic through her touch.
Her eyes were still closed, but she could see the damage unfolding within the walls through her magic, as though her vision traveled with the cracks she summoned.
Wisps of light spread through the fortified structure, branching out like the lightning that had torn through the sky moments before.
Alissa should have stopped the moment the first breach gave way; it was enough for them to slip through. She should have conserved her magic, but these were the very walls that had imprisoned her people, constructed to conceal lies and genocide, built on the exploited power of the Ksaren.
The memory of a conversation with Freyah at the beach in Golheim resurfaced in her mind.
“Life on this side of the wall doesn’t seem so fair either, Frey.”
“It doesn’t. But they have something we never did. Not truly.”
“And what is that?” Alissa had asked.
“Freedom.”
Maybe she could still fulfill Freyah’s wishes for freedom, even if she wouldn’t be there to witness it. That was the moment Alissa decided she would not stop until the entire wall lay in ruins at her feet.
As her mind invoked the power that traveled from her palms to the walls, the fissures widened, and the structure collapsed.
When Alissa opened her eyes, the stones that had marked the boundaries of the end of her world for her entire life were gone.
The solid wall gave way to a cloud of dust, filling the air with a gray haze that spread across the entire expanse of land.
The ancient town of Bryniard shook with the roar of crumbling mortar as the last fragments crumbled.
It was the sound of hope, the sound of freedom.