Page 95 of To Free a Soul (Duskwalker Beginnings #2)

A time unknown, but of troubled offspring

When Weldir placed Nathair’s serpent skull over the face of his soul, and it bound together with a little help from his own spiritual essence – a different kind of mana – a sense of triumph overcame him.

It was strong enough to overshadow the regretful sorrow and longing as Nathair’s body grew in a flurry of black, glittering sand.

Saying goodbye was easy – Weldir avoided it entirely. He pulled Nathair out of Tenebris by his fate tether without a word.

Lindiwe was waiting for Nathair in the dark nothingness of his void, and her smile was bright and teary.

He waved at her and then signed his greeting, which Weldir translated for him.

He would try to assist in this regard in the future until she learned ‘Nathair speak’ so she could communicate with him.

He would’ve let them speak sooner, if being outside of Tenebris in the limbo realm didn’t instantly put spirits to sleep. The same had happened to Aleron and his human companion, and they’d woken up again in Nyl’theria as a pair of Ghosts wandering the Elven realm.

The reintroduction between his mate and the serpent Mavka was short – he needed to send them back to Earth.

Considering he had little mana, he’d taken a grain of his mother’s crown to empower him enough to make a portal.

He could bring Lindiwe back and forth, but not Nathair, who now had a physical form.

Before he moved through the portal, Nathair turned to Weldir and signed, “Thank you for all you have done. It is...” His fingers twitched as he tried to figure out the right words to say.

His hands weren’t often hesitant or unsteady.

“...difficult to leave your side, but I do appreciate this opportunity.”

He hadn’t been able to avoid a goodbye, after all.

“You’re welcome, Nathair. I’ve enjoyed your company within Tenebris. I’m still sorry that I have not been able to remove all the fragments from you, but hopefully returning to life will do what I could not.”

Then, without another word from either – although Lindiwe shared with him a strange, tender smile – they left together. He placed them north of the Veil, just at the fringes of his mist on the surface, and watched to see how they fared.

Chaos immediately ensued.

Whether it be the sounds of life, the smell of it, perhaps even the way the wind felt brushing along his scales, Nathair went from calm to panicked. The fiery vortex of his orbs swirled with an array of colours, and he clutched the sides of his skull with a bellowing roar.

He started bashing his skull on the ground, then against the closest tree trunk, as if to break it once more. He clawed at his own neck to decapitate himself just to stop the fragments that came at him with a vengeance.

He’d done this many times in the beginning when he’d first awoken with the fragments.

“Weldir! Help!” she yelled.

Nathair lashed out at her voice and bit into her shoulder so swiftly not even Weldir saw it coming.

She hadn’t expected the strike, hadn’t expected him to lash out when it was obvious he wasn’t enraged.

Although his squirming, self-mutilating hands were a clear warning, she’d allowed herself to be struck.

Lindiwe didn’t seem to care about her wounds.

She backed up as her form flickered between physical and Phantom. She winced each time she was human, but her eyes never strayed from a distressed Nathair.

“There is nothing I can do now for him,” Weldir stated. “He is out of my reach, my magic, and my capabilities.”

“H-how do I help him, then?” she asked, clutching her shoulder and putting space between them.

“Put him to sleep. That is how I assisted when it was this bad in the beginning.” After Weldir had removed enough of the fragments to take him out of his permanent seizing.

Her complexion grew ashen as horror fell over her features. “The only way to do that is to behead him.”

“Hmm.” Weldir regarded Nathair and the way he tore into his own throat. “If you’re unable to do it, he will surely do it himself.”

“Ugh!” she screamed. “I hate this!”

She went to lift both hands to help him, to get it over with, rather than him clawing at himself slowly and painfully until he achieved unconsciousness. Only her left arm rose, as the other twitched and spasmed, but wouldn’t lift more than partway.

Lindiwe placed her hand over the wound, then lifted it away to look at the blood coating her fingertips. “His venom. I forgot about it.” Her right leg shook before her knee gave in. She caught herself with her left hand when falling nearly made her go face-first into the ground. “Uh, Weldir?”

Before he could answer, Nathair dived for her. Her scream cut short when he dug his claws into her neck and abdomen, and pulled in two different directions.

Weldir brought her to his realm before Nathair could do any more damage and likely eat her. Their two young offspring shrieked when they lifted off her, reaching for her with little kicking arms and legs. They’d arrived awake and in their physical state, intangible to him.

Their flailing spun them around, sending them further and further from her.

Weldir neared while grumbling in anger at the life draining from her. Blood trickled from her deep wounds, her lips, and nose, and each scarlet drop floated off her skin and surrounded her.

“I cannot heal you until your body disappears and you return to me.”

He tsked, rather fucking angry about this, her pain, and the events. When her heart ceased, her body began to crack and break apart like chalk, and disintegrated bit by bit.

He looked at the viewing disc of Nathair, who had finished decapitating himself with a gush of purple blood streaming from his headless throat – before he exploded in a cloud of black sand.

Their young offspring continued to let out shrill cries as they blindly searched for her with grabby paws reaching in the direction of her scent.

“Well, this could have gone better.” He moved towards his offspring. “Perhaps you two should stay with me until Nathair stabilises.”

Although being eaten by a Demon ensured they’d birth themselves from its stomach, he had no idea what would happen if a Mavka ate them. I’d rather not find out.

Considering Nathair’s current instability, it was a possibility that he could turn on her again and might do so when Weldir wasn’t watching. Which meant... she would return to his realm after being eaten by her own son if he managed to get his venom into her.

“I imagine that will be quite horrifying for her.”

He wished he could feel his palm as he rubbed his face. She will be upset. Not just about that, but about Nathair’s mind in general. I did warn her, but I had power in Tenebris that she cannot wield.

If worst came to worst, and Nathair couldn’t adjust to life due to his fragments, then it might be a mercy to bring him back to Tenebris.

Despite the circumstances, Weldir decided to revive Aleron without waiting for Nathair’s body to return. There was no use in putting it off.

There was also little else for him to do between waiting for Nathair and Lindiwe to return.

So, he took himself back to Tenebris.

He found his winged offspring and the human locked in a naked cuddle, Aleron rumbling a purr as Gideon chuckled in answer.

“I leave for a few hours, and this is what my poor eyes are blessed with upon my return?” Weldir teased half-heartedly, rather surprised by these two.

I hadn’t truly expected Aleron to find a companion within Tenebris. He actually thought his winged offspring would let this human male slip from his claws in some way, but they continued to persist and were now intimate.

Aleron squeezed his wings tighter around the tanned male. “Go away.”

“Yeah, shoo, Mr Dusty Man! Or I’ll sic my giant feather duster on you,” Gideon chimed in. “We’ve had enough of your interruptions.”

“He is rather dusty.”

They both cackled within the shelter of Aleron’s wings.

Weldir wished he could feel the power of his sigh. Both are so insolent. He cared little about what they did together, but now they were just being playfully irksome. After watching his mate perish and his offspring behead himself, he wasn’t in a particularly grand mood.

“As much as I would prefer to leave you be, there is something I must discuss with Aleron. It is of great importance.”

Once they unfurled themselves, Gideon covering his privates with a hand until he requested clothing once more, Weldir explained the possibility of revival for his offspring. There were some minor issues, mainly a miscommunication instigated by Weldir, but they were quickly resolved.

Thankfully. For he currently lacked any patience.

Then again, he didn’t realise Aleron’s infatuation with the human went beyond filling the loneliness of Tenebris.

That it was, in fact, much deeper. Thus, when he fitted Aleron’s skull to his soul once more – with a little manipulation, as it wasn’t truly his but pieces Weldir had spliced together – he regarded the human differently.

A male bride. I never considered it an option, but I’m pleased my offspring are open to such avenues. The gender of their partners didn’t matter, so long as their hearts were good to his Mavka and treated them well. I want my offspring to be happy.

Even if it meant Weldir was alone.

He hadn’t foreseen Gideon losing all his memories of Tenebris, as that hadn’t happened with Emerie.

She was only here for a day, though. Which was not much time to retain.

It brought on unforeseen complications and issues that Weldir had to battle while Lindiwe was preoccupied with a chaotic and erratic Nathair. He would have preferred her to take care of the relationship matters, as she could’ve done so in person.

Especially as Gideon – traumatised, lost, and very confused – wasn’t handling his new life well. He’d completely forgotten his love of Aleron and was trapped with him, inadvertently torturing him as he repeatedly rejected the bat-skulled Mavka’s advances.

The only thing he could assist with was manipulating the male’s spirit by shoving his own memories of their final hours of Tenebris into him to remind him of his own words, and his promise. He’d also used yet another fucking soul in a way he’d never needed to – and hadn’t been sure would work.

At this rate, I’ll use Almethrandra’s crown fragment entirely just to bring my offspring to life and settle their problems.

The only consolation was there were none of his offspring left for him to attend to, and he only needed to use a grain of it at a time. He’d barely removed a tenth of it.

After a few weeks, the world frosted with winter, and he watched Lindiwe finally leave Nathair’s side. The serpent Mavka had forced the solitude by slipping inside of a pond and discovering a cave at the other end of it.

She could have followed, but there was little point, as it was obvious he wanted to adjust on his own now that he’d eased the worst of the fragments.

As time had gone on, and he’d almost eaten her again, Nathair had grown more desperate to leave her side to protect her from himself. Lindiwe wasn’t ignorant of that fact.

Nathair had apologised for hurting her repeatedly and thanked her for staying by his side when he needed her most, many times. Weldir had translated on his behalf, often eliciting a smile from Lindiwe.

But she continued to express her desire to stay, informing him that she didn’t mind her wounds. She wanted to be near him, to be with him, after he’d been absent from her life for over three hundred years.

She relented when she could see it was distressing him more and more.

Her care and adoration of their offspring always made Weldir’s mist shimmer with tenderness. Her beauty had not changed, and his appreciation for her had deepened over the centuries – to the point of utter obsession.

He still visited his cave of memories regularly, even if it made him sour and... lonely.

She has pulled away from me these last few decades, he thought, as he witnessed Lindiwe come to Aleron’s side in her owl form.

He was flying from Merikh’s ward towards the group of Mavka in the east: Orpheus, Magnar, and Faunus’ empty home.

They will find Ingram. Hopefully after their relationship had finished repairing itself. The human is softening towards Aleron again. It’s why he’d never told them where to go, as they needed the journey in order to repair Gideon’s mind and heart.

At least they were finally on the correct path. It shouldn’t be too much longer. Which means I can finally act...

He brought the crown fragment to him with a sense of uncertainty. He still didn’t know what to do with the rest of it.

The longer he stared at the glowing concentration of mana, and perceived its unceasing power-filled throbs, the less... confident he felt about her answer. Weldir intended to present her with a choice, one that would greatly impact him.

I am... unsure if she will choose me.

It was making him hesitate. His mate was a mystery, even now, and her inner thoughts had always been unspoken.

Did Lindiwe care for him in the same way he did her, or had she been trying to make the best of her situation? I still remember her hateful gaze. He’d found it insignificant then, but not so much now. We have a companionship, but it has always been shaky.

And given that she no longer desired to be near him or intimate with him, even after many decades had passed, he wondered if perhaps she’d just grown bored. He’d offered her no future other than the one they currently had, and it had always been for Weldir’s selfish gain.

Such things probably lingered over their bond like a dreary cloud. Perhaps any fondness from her was as false as she found his realm and his body.

Yet, he didn’t want to believe that things had been so shallow and surface level. He wanted to believe there had been more, even if she hid it for whatever reason. Maybe it was a stretch, and he was being foolish, but he simply didn’t want all the affection and intimacy to be a lie.

There is only one way to find out.

And once Aleron found Ingram, and Nathair settled into life fully within his cave, Weldir was ready to present the choices to her.

The crown fragment flashed with light when he shoved his own mana into it.

This will be my final gift to her .