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The flavor is bright and sweet on my tongue, the flesh crunchy and juicy. It tastes like home, and a memory from my childhood rises unbidden. Me toddling through the orchard on our farm, chasing after my mother, who wears a basket strapped to her waist as she collects fruit from our trees to sell.
She carves a slice off a pear plucked fresh from a tree and hands it to me, brushing my curls out of my eyes as I nibble the fruit. She fades away quickly, too quickly, and I blink back tears at the loss of her.
Staring down at the pear, I wait for the grief I haven’t felt in so long to pass.
“Good memories are stronger in Irios than anywhere else in the Shadow Realm. It helps with the healing,” Railan explains.
I nod. Unwilling to take another bite, I let the fruit roll from my fingers to the ground and watch it absorb into the earth like water.
“How long can a soul stay here?”
Stepping around the tree and further into the field, he sweeps his arm out in front of him, and I see souls wandering in the bright green grass for the first time.
“As long as they need to.”
“And then what happens?” I ask, my voice barely above a whisper as I watch two souls cross paths as if the other weren’t even there.
“Some move to Videva to live their eternal lives in the company of those like them. Others choose to reincarnate.”
I tilt my head to study the woman closest to us. She wears a plain white dress, and the gentle breeze that’s warmer here than at the palace blows her blond hair around her shoulders.
“Do you have to be reincarnated?”
“No.”
I purse my lips. I’ve never thought of reincarnation as a choice before, assuming all souls cycled through the Shadow Realm over and over. Stories on the matter differ based on who’s doing the telling, but my aunt was adamant that life was meant to be lived again and again until you got it right. Whatever right was.
The idea of it always exhausted me. Why gamble on living life again and potentially going through the same torment a second time?
When Railan walks further into the field, I follow, and with each step I feel calmer, more relaxed. He glances at me and smiles.
“That’s exactly how the healing fields are meant to make you feel.”
“What?” I ask, my voice soft and dreamy.
“At peace. Comforted.”
Pulling the fresh, warm air deep into my lungs, I let it out slowly, gently. I do feel at peace here, but that isn’t the point of today’s excursion, and I need to keep my wits about me.
“Where are we in relation to the palace?”
He bends to pick up a bright pink flower I’ve never seen before, tucking it behind my ear before responding.
“Northeast of the palace. Irios is surrounded by dense forests and heavily warded, as it requires the most protection.”
“More than Síra?”
Mistaking the curiosity in my voice for concern, he reaches out to rub a hand down my arm. “Don’t worry. Síra’s borders are well fortified and holding. You’re safe from the tormented.”
“I’m not afraid of what lurks in Síra.”
He laughs unexpectedly, bright and big. “Of course you’re not. And it’s all starting to make a bit more sense.”
“What is?”
He opens his mouth to speak but freezes, his back going straight and his shoulders squaring. He cocks his head as if listening to a sound only he can hear, and it takes a long moment before he relaxes again.
“It would seem we have a batch of new souls that have just arrived and are in need of judging.” Holding out his arm to me, he raises a brow when I don’t immediately take it. “I must go.”
