Page 21 of Shadows of Air and Earth (Remnant Archives)
T he severed cord fell in slow motion through the fog, swaying to brush softly against my leg and it was everything my nightmares were made of.
Pure terror and heart stopping loss had me lunging straight into the mist with nothing but desperate fear.
My outstretched arms quivered, futile in their search through the vacant air, suddenly a reflection of the vacuous chasm that my heart was falling into.
"They took her," I roared, wildly sweeping through the fog, stumbling blindly in a circle, restricted by the taut leather cord that still connected me to Remnant.
Seized in a chokehold, horror rippled through my body when the white mist began to withdraw with no Xi in sight—not a whisper of her remained in the clearing of the dark, dense jungle.
Remnant’s head snapped up from her query, her lips pulled back in a viscous snarl.
Still holding a slain nymph in her arms, she threw the sadistic creature to the side, her dagger sliding from its body in a sickening yet satisfying spray of blood.
The gore dripped down the front of her bare chest but she paid it no heed, instead, she grabbed my arm in a rush, chasing after the quickly retreating mist. "Come on Ri," she cried, dragging my stunned, grief-stricken frame.
"We need to follow the mist or we will lose her forever! "
Half stumbling, half running I stared blindly at her bloodied hand wrapped around my arm pulling me along.
Lose her forever…
"Fucking Faerie," Remnant spat at the retreating mist that seemed to disappear faster than we could run.
Lose her forever…
Crashing to a halt, the last deposit of the ghostly fog disappeared, leaving us surrounded by nothing but tropical greens, suspicious looking flowers, and hot, stagnant air.
Releasing a slew of curses, Remnant sliced the cord between us and I winced, the leather swaying just like its twin moments ago when Xi was lost. Pacing, the jungle floor crunched beneath the general’s stomping feet while she ripped her tight ponytail from its tie with another round of colorful swearing.
Tugging her fingers through her long strands, I could see the dark, wet, shine of nymph blood soiling her silky locks.
Xi hated it when blood got in her hair. It stained her luscious white hair pink for weeks and she would complain non-stop until it was finally purged from those pure strands that I loved to tuck behind her ear.
I swallowed hard, wondering if I would ever feel it between my fingers again.
"We need to find a Faerie ring," the shadow fae muttered, studying the trees in front of her, the dark, dormant shadows, returning since the mist had retreated, rapidly flickering around her body. "But how are we going to know which one is the right one?"
Like the echo from the end of a tunnel, her muttered pondering blurred to an indistinct hum. Blinking long and slow, my world came crashing down around me, and I stared into the endless green, a bottomless pit of never-ending despair.
"Shit, Ri," emerald eyes blazed only inches from mine, Remnant’s dark brows scrunched together with alarm.
How long had she been standing there? "We are going to figure this out," she said softly, her blood-stained hand reaching up to cup my face, "I need you to focus though.
Can you do that for me, Dragoon? Now is not the time to shut down.
We need to act quickly, time is fickle in the Faerie rings. "
Time is fickle.
My lips pulled back in a sneer—time was more than just that, it was a fucking illusion that always took and never gave back. A countdown that could easily be filled with regrets if one was not careful and that was all I felt right now. Fucking regret for wasting what I once had.
She sighed, attempting to pull her hand away after seeing the flash of anger in my eyes, but I stopped her with a harsh and desperate grip, digging my fingertips into her pale, tattooed skin. "You have been inside the rings?"
Her bare chest heaved with a deep sigh, the blood that had splattered on her dry and flaking as she ignored my handle on her body. "Unfortunately."
I squeezed her arm harder, my grip punishing but she never once winced. Instead, her eyes softened, empathy and worry for me shining in their emerald depths. I did not deserve such worry and I was past caring how pathetic I sounded. "How?” I choked, “How did you get out?"
"I didn't, my mother did. A fae must stand judgement to break the hold of a Faerie ring and then must be strong enough to pull the anthousai’s victims back through.
But it is dangerous, Ri. It's not your actions that are judged, anyone can walk into a Faerie ring with proclamations of love but not everyone can face the truth in their own heart.
If you are not deemed worthy, death will be inevitable. "
I dropped her arm, my confidence returning. "Nothing is more dangerous than walking this world alone with a shattered heart and an empty soul," I growled. "Xi Chin is mine. They will not keep her," I added darkly.
Black hair spun as Remnant pivoted, first staring back into the jungle and then excitedly back at me. "That's it!" She smiled widely. "Sweet goddess that's it. You must use your power to find her."
I froze, my breath catching in the back of my throat with the same realization. Damn my soul to Sheol and back but I could not. I would not. Playing dense, I exhaled, "I fail to see how my air can help find a Faerie ring?"
She crossed her arms, covering her naked breasts and giving me a pointed look that reminded me of my mother when she used to scold me for whatever mischief I had caused for the day.
Those memories were few and far between now, and Remnant was resurfacing them with too much ease.
Memories that were too painful to even think of fully…
forever tainted by the cruel fate of my mother’s final days.
When the silence stretched between us, and the general’s look began to burn holes into my skull, I licked at my lips, hissing between my teeth.
"Fuck Rem, if you’re alluding to my other power, then you know how vile it truly is, how monstrous it is.
Just the small bit of Xi knowing I had used it has her already walking away from me.
If I actually do open them up…” I shook my head cursing.
“I’ll possess her, I’ll siphon her power, drain her dry, wield combined power through her, make her hurt others…
with it, she is naught but a weapon or tool to use.
Her free will gone—and when she finds out that not only have I used it, but used it on her, I'll lose her forever. "
"I don't believe that for one goddess damn second Riley Dragoon.
When she inhales, you're the only air she wants to breathe, when she touches you, you're her earth to stay grounded, when she speaks your name, you're the only ruler she will bend a knee for.
It is impossible for you to ever lose her because she is so interwoven into your very essence…
just as you are threaded so thoroughly through hers.
Xi will always choose you, Ri, and it is not due to the influence of your power.
It's because her heart chooses you, her soul chooses you.
Because of that, you have been given a gift far greater than any other—a gift greater than a bond of the soul. "
I blinked at the shadow fae, swallowing hard and holding back the tears of despair flooding my eyes. "How do you see all that?" I choked, "You have only known us for a few days. We have known each other for hundreds of thousands."
"Sometimes, Riley Dragoon, it is harder to see who we are under the scars that we ourselves have given power to. In time it becomes our truth, a truth that is just as blinding as any lie."
"Our truth has been blind for a long time," I sighed with resignation, lifting the severed cord and frowning at it. Fingertips brushing against the frayed leather, I snarled, crushing it in my hand and reaching down into the darkest depths of my mind where the locked power I had banished but never escaped from was hidden. Exhaling slowly, I undid the mental locks, feeling Xi’s essence bloom to life, then her unique scent of fresh grass and polished stone plucked from a riverbed assaulted my senses.
The thrum of her heart quickly followed, beating fast and erratic, her breath ragged, a sound I knew so well—I swallowed hard.
Her pleasure hit me like a blow to my gut and rage burned through my veins.
There was only one reason why Xi would be feeling pleasure in a Faerie ring and it sure as goddess wasn't by her fucking choice.
The tethered collar around her neck, one bewitched to be hidden even from her sight, hummed in welcome as I summoned it—summoned her.
Grunting, I reared back when my pull was cut off, like having a door slamming into my face. "I can't pull her from the ring,” I snarled, “not with my power but I do know where she is."
Pouring more energy into the bond, I began to race in the direction of the barrier, tearing blindly through the jungle, not giving a fuck about the hissing gnomes or the dragon plants that snapped at my heels.
I even ignored the shouting warnings from Remnant.
None of that mattered as I rode the winds to swiftly hurtle me through the jungle.
Blasting through a wall of vines with a cyclone of air, I snarled hatefully at the floral ring in front of me. Hyacinth flowers waved softly in the remains of my winds, taunting me with their little innocent star buds.
I glared, their beauty a cruel monster, an illusion of peace in its deadly hunger. I blinked when the petals blurred. Suddenly my knees hit the ground, losing the ability to stand. I shook my head, as realization hit me. It wasn’t the flowers that were blurring but my vision.
“No,” I whispered out desperately, crawling towards the ring unseeing, my hands clawing into the earth when I fell again, my face meeting the ground. The ring was just inches away, I was so close…if I could just reach a little bit further.
"Riley!" Remnant's hands firmly rolled me to my side and I silently roared with fury as she pulled me further away from the ring.
I started to thrash, my body seizing and jerking against her firm hold, suddenly not in control of it.
Moaning, my vision blurred in an aura haze of pinks and blues, my ears rang with derisive laughter, as the merciless scent of berries and lilacs penetrated the final shred of conscious thought I had.