Page 17

Perhaps it was her stubborn nature, but she felt slighted by the way he’d wedded her, among other things that continued to vex her. She was waiting for him to be gentlemanly in any way, and not once had he proven to have any amount of soft-hearted decency inside him.

No. Instead, Weldir seemed mostly devoid of emotions. He could laugh, could be irritated, but beyond that, nothing else seemed to get any kind of emotional rise out of him. She was his wife, and he’d offered her nothing regarding that sentiment.

Their relationship was completely stagnant and stilted, and each passing day had her growing resentful of him.

She liked using him, just as he was completely using her. She wanted his power, and he wanted more for himself. That’s all their relationship needed to be. Self-serving. They had no need to spend any time within each other’s presence, and she disliked being in this empty realm.

It was utter darkness. There was no light, no warmth, just emptiness.

How she was able to see him in it, considering he was made up of black mist, was out of her range of knowledge.

The only way she could see anything of him that appeared to be humanoid was by the black chalky flakes streaking across him.

It was like someone had flicked the matte, brittle substance upon him, and it’d glued itself to him in speckles.

They moved all the time, sometimes allowing her to see where his hand might be by wrapping around the back of his wrist. Sometimes she knew he was seated cross-legged by the shifting pale flakes revealing a kneecap and the ankle bone of the opposing foot.

She rarely saw his face, and when she did, it was part of his lips and nose when he spoke.

His chest, from what she could gather, was leanly muscled, as was the rest of his body.

The oddest thing was that his size could differ each time she saw him.

Sometimes he was large, as if twelve feet, and other times he appeared shorter than her five-foot-seven height.

She didn’t know why, and she didn’t care enough to ask.

Then again, if they were going to be together forever, she was sure she’d learn all of what she was allowed in due time. There was no need to rush.

She knew nothing of the rest of his features, since they’d never been highlighted by those flaking streaks of chalk. That, or she’d missed the chance to see them.

There’s less than usual, she noted, narrowing her gaze at nothingness after peeking at him momentarily to know where he was. All she saw was a cloud and barely any of the man who should be floating within it.

His silence was unnerving, and unless he gave her little invisible slices of magic to lean against, it was easy to lose him if she got turned around while floating. She liked knowing where he was, so she could keep her distance.

“It appears you have become formidable with my mana,” Weldir stated, abruptly floating right in front of her so there was less than a metre separating them. “Were they more of those humans that bring sacrifices to the... what do they call it? The Veil?”

“Yes,” she answered, cocking a brow curiously.

“I see. You humans are so wasteful of life.” His voice hinted at humour, even if the brief highlight of his chalky mouth lacked a smile. “You kill as they kill, yet you consider your actions justifiable.”

Lindi pointed upwards at his face and scrunched her nose when anger boiled in her gut. “They harm the innocent; I do not. I am the judge and executioner of cruelty.”

“You may be whatever it is you wish, so long as you do what I have asked of you.”

Her anger quickly deflated upon realising he wasn’t judging her actions but purely commenting on them. She sighed and rubbed her nape before looking down at her hand.

I still find it odd that I can feel in my incorporeal body here, but not my physical one. It was like it flipped for her when she was in Weldir’s realm.

On Earth, if she turned Phantom, she perceived nothing but pressure.

Here, she felt the softness of her skin, the wetness of her licking across her lips, the tiredness in her eyes.

Whereas, if she were physical, she’d only perceive that pressure like being a Phantom on Earth.

She wished the ache in her muscles from exertion would fade, but the only way to give herself a reprieve was to turn solid – which he didn’t allow.

Much about her abilities and how polar opposite they could be between Earth and Tenebris was a mystery. She would, one day, unfold the secrets, but not even Weldir had been able to shed any light regarding the nature of Phantoms.

It was unknown and new for him, just as it was for her.

“So, the humans have taken to calling the Daekura Demons,” Weldir stated smoothly, and like usual, his rich voice tingled in her ears. “Why?”

Her brows furrowed at how he’d come to learn that. Perhaps he hasn’t been as asleep as I thought. Enough to have overheard conversations in towns while she’d been travelling through them, enough to hear the schemes of occultists to know they called it the Veil.

She shuddered at knowing she’d been watched when she was none the wiser. Creepy.

Her eyelids lowered in disinterest. “I guess it’s because we would consider them unholy beings.”

A sighing sound came from him, but it was utterly false considering they both currently lacked true breath. From him, it came across even more fake. “You humans needlessly tie everything to religion.”

“Says the literal god,” she pointed out.

“They have nothing to do with faith. They aren’t truly evil creatures. They exist to feed and grow, just like a predator. Do you consider a bear evil for taking from the forest?”

“No,” she bit lightly, while the fold of her arms tightened. “But they are animals, doing what is natural for them.”

“As are the Daekura, as are the humans. It only frightens your people because you are the food source. Yet, you don’t seem to see the hypocrisy that you consume things that are smaller and weaker than yourselves. Are you not, then, the unholy beings to the forest critters?”

Lindi parted her lips to refute him, but only the click of her tongue moving wordlessly came from her mouth. She shut her jaw as her features pinched in annoyance.

I hate it when he does that. Weldir could stab, quite swiftly, with cold and unfeeling logic. His perspective seemed to be entirely warped to where good and evil didn’t exist – no matter if the actions or reasons were what she deemed immoral.

She knew killing those occultists was wrong, but she also didn’t give a damn. She’d shed her opinion on the matter, based on the fact that nothing she did had a consequence in a bad way, only good.

Weldir spoke as if he, and nothing, truly had any consequence except for what humans pushed onto each other.

“I guess it’s no different. But humans are cruel creatures,” Lindi admitted, averting her gaze away from where he was. “What I’m doing is evidence of that. I’m trying to snuff out that wickedness as much as I can.”

I want to feel like I’m outweighing the cruelty with love.

She wanted to be a protector, even if no one knew she existed.

A hero to women who hadn’t yet suffered.

She didn’t care if anyone thanked her for it, she just wanted every day of her gifted new life to matter.

She wanted to know, even though she’d wed a god of another realm that went entirely against her teachings, that she was a part of the good in the world.

Was that too much to ask?

Otherwise... why did she do this? She didn’t really want to feel the resentment that sometimes boiled over inside her. She didn’t want to feel so... selfish for wanting to live, even if it meant breaking her faith and walking away from humankind.

This is one of the reasons I dislike talking to him. He made her think in ways she didn’t particularly like, as if it was a game to him. She felt like entertainment, like a puzzle he wanted to break apart and put together in his own imagery.

She refused. Lindi wanted to stay as herself, even if it meant holding onto foolish notions and ideologies.

She wanted to stay human, in heart, in mind, in body, and in spirit.

“Okay,” Lindi started, while letting her features relax. “You’ve collected your souls. I’m ready to go back to Earth now.” To just... get away from him.

He’d gained some power; he had no need for her now.

A tsk sounded from all around her. “Not quite. You have another task to attend to, and now that you’ve mastered your abilities, it’s time you give me what I truly seek.”

His very words sent a spike of dread through her in an instant. Lindi’s skin cooled as a nauseous, nervous pit formed in her stomach and enclosed her heart like a set of frightful claws.

Her eyes widened, and she brought her horrified gaze back to him. Dear heavens, no.