66. Darkness
A eden opened his eyes and found himself not surrounded by water but what he had come to recognise as the Weave. Something felt different this time, though. Something felt off.
Grogginess filled his head and it took him a few moments to gather his bearings as he struggled to remember where exactly he was.
Everything was black, as if he had been sent into the darkest of skies without a single star in sight.
Loneliness gripped his chest like a failing breath, and suddenly he remembered he had been submerged underwater. He gasped for breath, wondering if it would help him, and all it did was lead to further confusion. If he was drowning, how could it feel like he was able to breathe here?
There was nothing around him, nor was there any sign of anything else. His chest thundered when he realised he couldn’t feel Nyra. No fear, no anxiety, no panic. The silence that surrounded him was deafening .
He kicked his legs like he was drowning and submerged under water, as he knew that he was, but his legs felt as if he were wading through thick tar, viscous and unforgiving.
His limbs moved in slow motion as a panic formed at the back of his throat.
He didn’t know whether to scream or cry as he grasped at the air around him.
He had never seen the Weave like this, never realised that this was how it could be. Prison-like, torturous. Was this to be his life now, was this what he was to endure till the end of time, if such a construct existed here?
“Nyra! NYRA!” Aeden called out, his voice echoing like he was in the base of a canyon, skipping around him over and over again until it slowly faded into nothing.
“Nyra, please.” A hard knot formed in the back of his throat as Aeden found it hard to swallow.
This couldn’t be it, this couldn’t be how their story ended.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice breaking under the strain of grief, “I should have said it sooner, I should have told you as soon as I saw you.”
He had never gotten to say the words after he had hurt Nyra’s feelings, but he hoped she could hear them now.
Aeden’s head bowed forward as tears streamed down his cheeks, burning and unforgiving. This wasn’t how things were meant to be.
As he floated motionlessly in the Weave, he found it hard to focus, his mind playing through everything they had done together in their short time as a bonded pair.
In the distance, something garnered his attention, something faint, something that could just as easily be missed than could be found.
What was it, though? It was so quiet, so minuscule, that he could have been forgiven for skipping past it.
Instead he found himself focusing on it, there was something about it that he was drawn to.
The more he homed in on it, the more he realised it sounded like a low beat.
Dum dum , dum dum, dum dum .
It was a heartbeat, or at least, that’s what it felt like. When he focused his thoughts, he realised it was in tandem with his own.
It was there – he wasn’t imagining it.
“Nyra?” he asked, desperation clawing at his throat. “Is that you?”
There was no reply, just his echoed voice spinning around him dizzyingly.
“I know you’re there, Nyra. I need you to be there, I need you to understand that you can’t leave me.
I need you to know that without you, I am nothing.
You came into this world against all odds.
And I stupidly thought that I needed to fix you, that I needed to do everything and anything that I could to prove that you could be just like all the other Aer-Kin at the academy, when I should have just accepted you for how you were.
Like everyone else, I was foolish enough to see you as broken, instead of seeing you for what you truly are.
” His sobs became unmanageable and breathing became difficult as Aeden lost control of his emotions, grief consuming him.
Dum dum, dum dum .
He could feel her heartbeat, he could sense it, however faint it was.
“Nyra, if you can hear me, I need you to know that I’m sorry, and understand that all I have ever wanted is for you to be happy, for you to be accepted by your peers, as I believed that’s what you truly wanted.
I would have done anything to help you achieve that.
” He sniffed up and tried to gather himself, despite there being no chance of that.
His hurt had become all consuming, an unforgiving wrath.
“I thought that was what you wanted, but my desire to fix you became all consuming, instead of accepting you for what you are. Perfect.”
His head lolled, he tried to focus of the faint beat in the distance.
Dum dum, dum . . . dum, du ? —
The beat stopped.
Aeden’s heart plunged like a boulder being tossed into a ravine.
“No, no, no, no, no! You can’t go, Nyra, you can’t, I need you, I am nothing without you.
I’d give my life for you, Nyra. If you need power, if you need anything from me to help you get to the surface of the lake, then you take it.
If I have the option, I would rather it was me that was taken, so that you can live. ” He was desperate, he was terrified.
It was no use. His time was running out. He didn’t know how much time had passed while he was in the Weave. Surely his air must have run out by now. His own thoughts started to waver as he greeted the darkness that surrounded him, accepting it.
At least I will be by her side when I leave this world, he thought as he stopped struggling, accepting his fate. If Nyra was gone, then there was nothing worth fighting for.
There is, though.
The thought flickered to Aeden like a dying flame, but it was still able to provide light in the darkness .
If Nyra was dead, if she had passed, then Aeden would no longer be here. If their connection was severed, so too would be his life, because his life was linked to hers.
He had been doing this all wrong, he had called out for her, screamed for her, looked for her, but that was not what their connection was. Their bond transcended the need of touch, the need for sight or sound.
Aeden closed his eyes and searched, searched harder than he had ever for anything in his life.
Through the darkness, through their bleak situation, the faintest of feelings flickered. So small, but definitely there nonetheless.
He could feel her, and through Nyra, Aeden’s skin warmed slightly at the prospect, his arms prickling as his heart rate increased.
This must be her.
It had to be her.
He continued to search, homing in on a feeling that was drawing him in. It wasn’t much, but he knew if he was going to find her, if he was going to reach her, it would be through the feelings that they shared.
Slowly, the faint feeling grew, giving Aeden something more tangible to hold on to as he continued to focus on it, allowing it to swell within him.
The bleakness, the helplessness of the situation, it all started to fade, no longer controlling Aeden as the warmth travelled up his legs slowly, gaining speed, gaining strength until eventually he could recognise the feeling.
It was comfort, comfort in knowing that she was not alone, that the two of them would always be there for one another no matter what, and that despite the circumstances, Aeden would give his life for Nyra, and she would for him.
It wasn’t transactional, it was a bond stronger than the currents of the ocean, of the wildest winds in the northern territories, the most active of the volcanoes of the southern isles.
It was unbreakable.
It was theirs.
And he could feel it.
He could feel her.
“Nyra?” Aeden spoke softly. The warmth felt as if she was wrapping her wings around him to protect him.
As he opened his eyes, a flicker of light lit up a section of the darkness of the Weave.
Dum, dum. Dum, dum.
It was a small ball of light, like a distant star, flickering in tandem with the beat, the beat that now matched the pacing of Aeden’s heart. It was calm, it was collected, and it was growing.
A tendril of light stretched out, stopping at a point where a second spark formed, then another. The tendrils continued to stretch out in multiple directions as it took form in the darkness.
Aeden had seen these sparks before, he had seen these tendrils when channelling the Weave. He could sense that he was connected to it, his skin prickled with the same energy as when he drew on their connection for magic.
This was different, this was something more, something energised, and it continued to grow at an alarming rate.
As the Weave grew in front of him, so did Aeden’s comfort, his belief, his hope.
Nyra was alive, they were alive .
Aeden’s eyes widened at the form that took shape in front of him.
“Nyra?” Aeden asked once again, longing to hear her voice.
The Weave continued to grow before him, light illuminating the darkness in a blinding flash.
“ Aeden? ” Nyra’s voice was a breath of fresh air, but there was something different about it. She sounded older, she had an ethereal presence about her.
As Aeden’s eyes adjusted, he let out a gasp at the shape that had formed from the Weave. It was Nyra, as if she had been mapped out by the stars, as if she was her very own constellation. It pulsated with a raw energy that only served to invigorate Aeden.
“I’m here, Nyra, I was always here.”
“ You came for me? Even though ” – Nyra’s voice was still tender, still soft but different.
“I was never going to leave you,” Aeden said. “It’s you and me, Nyra. Wherever you go, I will be by your side.”
The Weave flickered once again, growing in power.
“ I thought I was lost, I thought you were gone .” Nyra’s words were not coming from in front of him but instead from all around him. “ I feel strange, different, there is a power .”
“Is this the Weave? Is this our connection?” Aeden asked. He recalled Lyric saying that as their connection grew stronger, as the foundations of their bond solidified, their Weave would get stronger. Was that what this was?
“ It is ,” she said.
“You seem different,” Aeden said. There was a confidence about her voice, a wisdom .
“ There is so much that I realise now, so much that I remember, so much that was hidden from me. It is overwhelming, Aeden, but something that I will share with you .” The tendrils within Nyra’s Weave strengthened, burning brighter, the nodes that connected them all flickering and crackling with the raw power.
Aeden had so many questions that he wanted to ask as Nyra’s Weave watched over him. That warmth, that comfort that he felt when she was near him, was stronger than it had ever been.
“Nyra, I’m sorry for hurting you, I’m sorry for making you feel that you weren’t good enough. I believe in you, I believe in us.”
“ I heard you ,” Nyra said. “ It was faint, but I could hear you, I just wasn’t able to reach out, until you figured out how to get through to me, how to bring me back, how to awaken my dormant power.”
“Dormant?” Aeden said, suddenly finding himself confused.
“It is time that I showed you, Aeden. Open your eyes.”
Aeden’s eyes snapped open, and the darkness and light of the Weave were replaced by the murky depths of the lake. His chest pounded, and he started once again to struggle for air as he sat on the lake’s bed under the water, both his hands placed on Nyra’s body.
That energised, pulsating sensation poured out of his hands into her. She was warm to the touch as pockets of bubbles started to climb from her, her body glowing with an energy of light that could only be matched by the Weave or a star in the night sky .
It continued to grow, burning brighter, the pulse of their Weave now emanating from Nyra as bubbles continued to flow, fiercer, more charged. It was as if they were sitting in a geyser, the water boiling as the raw energy of the Weave wrapped first around Nyra before engulfing Aeden.
His eyes widened as the power flowed through him. In that moment, images and memories flashed through his mind, everything they had been through, finding her, fighting with her, binding her wings, sharing tender moments with her. They were all there, they were all theirs.
The glow of light grew so bright that Aeden had the compulsion to shield his eyes with his arm.
When Nyra stretched out her wings, they glowed brightly, like the wings themselves were the Weave. Her bindings were nowhere to be seen, and Aeden was in awe at what was unfolding in front of him.
“ Climb on, Aeden ,” Nyra said, reaching out to him through the Weave.
Instinctively, Aeden climbed onto her back. He was nearly out of breath and was almost out of time.
“ Hold on ,” Nyra said as she pushed off from the bottom of the lake with force and began their ascent to the surface.
Aeden’s heart hammered, the sensation in his stomach unbearable as the periphery of his vision darkened.