Page 123 of Memory of Ashes

Casyl froze.

No, it couldn’t be.

Its eyes narrowed through the swirling smoke. An expression he knew better than his own.

“Father.” The word escaped before he could stop it.

He’d never thought he’d see him again. Even in death, he could not escape him.

It shrieked, sending him back a step. It had no words, but its meaning was clear.

The creature lunged, pouring agony through every part of his body.

Casyl roared, the primal, guttural sound tearing from his chest. He reached out for the pain instinctively. It was what he had always done, but this pain did not belong to flesh. It lived within the shadow itself, shaped by rage and suffering.

They collided. Darkness erupted around them.

He had spent his whole life under his father’s control. He would not spend his death the same way.

The fragments of Lifesource buried beneath Casyl’s skin ignited. Blue light spread through his veins, hotter and brighter than his power had ever burned in life.

His power exploded, illuminating the shadows. The creature screamed, falling back from his touch, its dark smoke thinning around it.

The unified shrieks signalled the arrival of the other creatures. They surged, as if summoned to the blue light that emanated from Casyl like lightning.

He froze.

Hundreds of them covered the desolate land like a blanket of darkness. They came closer, drifting towards him. Beneath their rage, he sensed their endless suffering. He reached out, drawing some of their pain into himself. One by one, the creatures became still.

Understanding crashed into him. These weren’t merely monsters; they belonged here, beings of this realm, and his power could reach the agony that formed them.

He glanced at the creature that had been his father, and the monsters followed his gaze, waiting.

The iridescent glow beneath his skin brightened, stronger than it had appeared when he’d first arrived in this place. It pulsed as his power shook within him, rattling his bones.

Take him.

They swept around the old king, obeying, their shadows consuming him until he’d dissipated into the black of the sky.

Casyl sank back into the sand. He was relieved, and then he was numb. The fear and exhaustion had gone, as had his father, replaced by the same emptiness as this realm.

Were these creatures the spirits of those who had been judged and had descended, trapped forever in this vast sea of nothingness? Would he turn into one of them?

They disappeared back into the darkness, but he knew they’d be there, following him in the background.

With no other option, he continued to walk through this desolate realm, tortured by the thought of Amelia. He missed her, missed the intensity in her eyes, the taste of her lips. He missed a lot of things, trapped here with his own thoughts.

Something stood out in the distance, high on the horizon. It was the first thing he’d seen that didn’t just look like rocks.

His feet dragged through the sand as he hurried towards it despite his weariness. It looked like ruins. The fragmented ruins were stark against their bare surroundings. The crumbling stones were scattered by time, sinking into the sandy ground.

As he crested the slope, more came into view in the valley below. What had this place been? He glanced over his shoulder at the shadows that were now always behind him.

He skidded down towards the bottom of the valley and walked through the ancient structures. Even with his vision, it was hard to make out what they had been.

Circles of stone marked the foundations of great towers that had fallen to time. Their rubble littered the land before him.

As he wove through the ruins, they began to thin. They were completely out of sight as he approached a crevice. It was like a scar in the ground, sand sinking into its dark depths. A faint blue glow pulsed far below. He recognised it as Lifesource, bleeding through a wound between realms. The mine blast had torn the weakened veil open all the way to the Shadowlands.