Page 62

Cupping her hands, Lindi dived them into the cascade of a frothing waterfall.

Finding the water more bearable than she first anticipated, deliciously cooling with the oppressive summer heat, she braved ducking her entire naked body into its fall.

Closing her eyes, she tipped her head back and let it wash her face and down her skin in harsh rivulets.

The pressure was intense, but she found it all the more cleansing.

Even though this waterfall actually started above the surface and fell into the Veil, linking to a swamp just a little ways west, she wasn’t afraid. She had no reason to be.

Lindi was so quick with her Phantom abilities that she hadn’t been killed by a Demon in decades. Her borrowed magic was also a tool she wielded with practised skill, and she knew what to listen out for. Most Demons were loud, snorting and snarling long before they were even in view.

Even over the roar of the water, she’d hear them, be dressed and then gone before they could reach the top of these steep rocks.

I’m glad I found this place, she thought, taking in the lukewarmth as she rubbed down her arms.

The spray coming off the cascade pushed away Weldir’s thickening black mist, allowing her to feel as though she wasn’t directly under his gaze. For now, she didn’t think he was watching her through one of his viewing discs, since he’d been quiet for quite some time.

It was a private moment she was allowing herself on the border of the Veil, and within it.

Weldir’s mist, although thin and mostly transparent except to her keen and knowing eye, was growing. It didn’t encompass the entire Veil, but at least a quarter of it from the edges inwards.

His silence often made her want to call out to him to check if he was asleep or not, but she never did. She worried that if she did so, she’d somehow stir him awake and then she’d be forced to have a polite conversation she wanted no part of.

She’d barely spoken to him since before the separable twins were conceived. She probably shouldn’t have taken what he said and how he treated her to heart, but her grudge wouldn’t waver, no matter how she tried.

His rejection had been so instant that her ego had taken a massive hit, and she felt like she was undeserving of any attention. That she wasn’t pretty, or worth anything more than what they were now.

A servant and her master. A god and the human he took advantage of. A husband that saw her as nothing but a person who did not deserve even the lightest, brief caress.

That kind of insecurity could really bruise a person.

Lindi never thought she was capable of feeling that way. She wasn’t utterly beguiling, but she thought she was beautiful enough. Her parents made her feel that way, as did the boys in her village when they tried to court her.

The word ugly or unbecoming had never been uttered in her direction, but his actions allowed those pestering doubts to fester. They ate at her and left a wound within her chest that she’d been struggling to fill.

It was getting easier every day, resigning herself to this fate, but it still kind of... well, it kind of fucking sucked. Although his tendril had been inside her numerous times, she was still practically a virgin after seventy-six years.

What a depressing thought, and one she’d been trying to ignore for the better part of six years. She gave birth to their children, suffered horrible post-partum depression, and then asked for a small reprieve from this duty to collect her thoughts.

In this separation of time, the lack of child rearing made it easier to ignore this pain. It made it easier to forget.

She didn’t want to speak to him, and she hadn’t called out to him once. She didn’t want his support, just his magic. He’d painted a clear line in the sand, and she would adhere to it. There was no point in kindling a friendship when it offered nothing and often left her dismayed.

She was better without him.

I don’t need anyone, she thought, washing her curls by following her usual routine. She reached down to the hair products she’d brought next to the falls so she could apply conditioner to her hair, gently combing through the strands from the ends to the root. I don’t even need people.

Later, when her hair was dry, she’d focus on using a special oil to make her curls glossy and springy, finger-styling them for definition.

Sometimes she would style them into a single thick braid, as she often liked to do.

Even though it was in frequent disarray due to her adventures through the wilds, Lindi liked to take care of her hair.

She had ample time to tend to her physical needs and took comfort where she could.

There was a hot spring not far from where Lindi was – at least not far by flight. It was probably a few days’ walk south, though.

Sunnet Hill’s Headsprings was a small mountain village connected to rocky heat pools. The humans who still lived there, refusing to leave their homes, claimed the water had healing properties.

Lindi had visited a few times just for the comfort of a warm bath, but she hadn’t felt much different after a ‘therapeutic’ soak.

However, her muscles did relax, which helped to make her tired and weary bones ache less.

Her mind also found a way to untwist itself, at least for a little while.

Perhaps that’s what they meant by healing; it was more to one’s psyche than their body.

But, as the years passed, and Lindi found herself withdrawing more and more from who she was and humankind, she’d rather bathe in this barely warm waterfall in the Veil.

It felt... simpler. Better.

No one could ask her questions she couldn’t answer. She didn’t have to politely ask the name of a person she’d surely forget, just as she’d forgotten the thousands of others. There was no such thing as a friendship for her, not when her presence was fleeting, and her life a secret.

She didn’t want to play pretend. Lindi was tired of doing so.

Checking her surroundings now that she was clean, she sat down on a rough, jagged boulder right next to the cascade, with droplets continuing to spray her legs and feet.

She took the moment of tranquillity while she could, peering into the lake below to watch its ripples and how it frothed.

Shaded by the cliff wall, moss clung to the rocks and looked darker in the lack of light.

The air was cool here, despite it being summer.

If she didn’t know better, she could have mistaken this for a picturesque rainforest brimming with quaint life.

There was no white condensation that was present throughout the Veil, nor was there Weldir’s darkness.

Not a Demon had come along to make a peep or peek at her naked body, and it looked peaceful. Beautiful, even. Definitely serene.

I hate admitting this, but the Veil has its charm.

It was quiet, and only eery when she considered the danger that lurked – danger that she didn’t truly have to be frightened of. The forest was now lush and full, barely any sunlight able to touch the ground except for near the centre. There were plenty of flowers, and even some trees bore fruit.

If only the Demons didn’t exist, she thought, moving her gaze away from the pleasant scene so she could lean down to her feet.

She lifted one after the other, cleaning them thoroughly. She cringed at the state of them, finding them dry and calloused. At least the soles are thickening. After so long of not wearing boots, she was finally adjusting to being barefooted.

Shifting to her raven form usually allowed her clothing to be hidden, but her boots remained. It was uncomfortable to wear them as a raven, and it was difficult to walk or stand in them with her bird feet and talons inside them. It was impossible to perch.

After years of obtaining new boots, only for them to be worn to the point of holes, Lindi had finally given up on them.

She had a pair of flats tucked away in her satchel for if she ever needed them, light and not taking up a lot of space.

She’d been training her feet since then to handle walking over sharp sticks and rocks, and, unfortunately, to be dirty.

She washed them every opportunity found, even if it was an inch-deep stream. I wish there was something else I could wear, though. Oh well.

Just after she finished cleaning them and was about to lean back, a strange awareness tickled the back of her neck. All the hairs on her body raised, like she was being watched, just as her ears picked up on the softest breath.

Surely, it’s just Weldir.

“Hello,” a masculine voice greeted from behind.

Lindi screamed, covered her naked breasts, and had to stop herself from bounding over the edge of the fall. She turned to look behind her as she got to her feet. A man’s face was less than a foot from her own before she put space between them, but he creepily followed her.

How did someone get behind me?! She’d been watching! Okay, maybe not when she’d been cleaning her feet, and a little before that, but she should, at the very least, have heard them!

Red eyes, sharp and observant, narrowed as he halted and watched her move away.

He straightened, raising himself to his full height, one pointed ear flicking through the few inches of white hair around his head.

It almost brushed against one of his black, segmented horns that ran over the top of his head.

Noting exactly who it was, she immediately turned incorporeal. She made sure her breasts and the apex of her thighs were covered with two arms as she lowered her lids into a glare.

“Yes, I remember you can do that,” Jabeziryth commented with a grin curling his lips, exposing his shark-like fangs. Humour lifted into his eyes, making the youth in his face even more present. “Did I spook you?”