Rise of the Warrior of Everfen

Chapter 105: The Consequences of Hate

The blackness stretched out before them. The mist around her was gray but the blackness somehow seemed different. It still curled and rolled like a smoke, but it was thicker, as though it would suffocate her. The distorted figures within it flowed and moved like a breeze blew around them but she felt none on her skin.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know," there were one too many voices that answered her. No one knew.

"Can you see it?"

"We see a pit of darkness, nothing more," Duran answered.

Khash said, "I see shapes in a black fog."

"Me, too." She didn't know what to do, but she reached instinctively for her sword and found one there, strapped to her hip. She pulled it free. "We have to find Wren in that."

"How? They look the same."

"You cannot touch them," her mother warned. "They will try to attach to you."

"I understand."

"Most of these souls are already dead."

"Most?" She turned to look at her.

The woman that came for Khash answered, "When a soul is cursed, part of it comes here until the curse is lifted...or until they die. As the curse worsens, more of their soul comes here, bit by bit." She took a deep breath and loosed it slowly, "There will be paler forms in this black sea, those are the living. Wren's soul will be...very dark but not lost."

Her mother nodded, "If they die cursed, their soul never leaves here."

"What happens out there? When the curse fully claims him?"

Khash answered this time, "He will no longer be able to become human. Now I understand why. His soul has slowly been stripped away, over time. Pieces of himself coming here. When all of his soul is gone, Wren is dead, he is here. Only the beast will remain, ravaging the kingdom."

"Not all curses take the soul, but this one does. It is...a terrible thing to do."

Erinne's heart hurt to hear those words. All these years, having one's soul slowly taken...it must've been a hell Wren could not truly put into words. "Why was he cursed like this? Who would someone do this to another?" She looked around at all the lost souls, blacker than soot, roaming the sea. To look at them was to look at a sunless sky, where no light would ever find them. It made her own soul feel less somehow.

"Someone who did not understand the consequences of hate," a new voice joined them and they all turned to see a woman and man moving from the mist. The woman looked different, somehow, as though she were, herself, a shadow. Not quite like the Forgotten Souls, but the air around her was blackened with a hint of the same wraiths she saw wandering the dark fog.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"A cursed one." She answered easily, but the man next to her seemed familiar.

She heard the sharp intake of air before Khash hit his knees, "My Lord, King."

Erinne frowned, studying the man. His blue eyes and high cheekbones were familiar. The man smiled and knelt down, taking Khash's shoulders, "You do not bow to me anymore, here I am no king. My son is king. You will serve him."

"You're...Wren's father?"

"Yes, and she is Wren's curser."

The woman beside him hung her head, "My curse was made in anger, I did not know the consequences of my actions."

"Why do you...look like...this?" She wasn't sure how else to ask the question.

"Cursing one comes with a cost. I live a half life, neither here nor there. I am always hungry, I am always thirsty. I never feel at peace." There was so much hurt and pain here. It broke her heart. All these lost souls, all these spots of darkness. The woman must have sensed her thoughts because she said, "You cannot help the others. They are already gone."