Soul Bound

08 | Whatever It Takes

[Music recommendation for this chapter up above. Enjoy!]

It had taken Narae a while to wrap her head around the fact that magick had brought her back from death. That there was rhyme and reason to what had happened to her even if she didn't know the melody yet. She was determined to find out.
She wanted to know why she was stuck in limbo. Why she was forced to come back just to hide. Why her parents had to die.
Because...if there was reason to her coming back...then there had to have been a reason for her to die in the first place, right? And if there was a reason for her to die...then it was her fault that her parents died.

She wanted to know why. Wanted to see clearly how she had caused her parents' death. Who had caused magick to decide It wanted to take three lives just to give one cursed one back.
And once she found the responsible party...
Narae would show them how the cold could bite on naked skin; how much it hurt when blood slowly crystalised into ice; she wanted to freeze them inside out and shatter them into a thousand pieces.

Knowing who...what she was. Knowing she would always be hunted and would always bring risk to the people associating with her...a thought began to bloom carefully in her mind.
A tiny seedling still but determined to grow into a strong tree deeply rooted in the love she held for her coven.
For now, though, the seedling wasn't strong enough. She wasn't strong enough. But she wanted to be. Desperately.

And as one knows well, desperation leads one to do stupid things.
"Solar", Narae asked quietly at the end of one of her shifts in the shop. She was just back in her own appearance again, the potion to deepen her voice not yet entirely faded.
"Hmm?", Solar hummed in a show that she listened. And for a moment Narae hesitated. Watched as Solar counted the money they had made that day.
Solar looked up when Narae didn't follow up with saying something. Her brows furrowed at the tentative look on Narae's pretty face. So she set the money down and waited patiently. Waited until the young woman was ready to say whatever she wanted to say.
Narae closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, their unearthly vibrant colour seemed to gleam even more than usual.
"Will you teach me how to fight? How to defend myself and my coven?"

A horrible moment nothing happened and Narae thought she had overstepped a line. Who in their right mind would train a ticking bomb like her to become even more dangerous, anyway. She should have never—
"I thought you'd never ask", Solar said darkly, lips pulled into a dangerous Cheshire Cat grin.

Narae blinked in confusion. "Y-you will?", she stammered.
Solar walked around the counter and took Narae's face gently in her hands. Caressed it carefully as if it was a fragile ice statue.
"Little dove", she said softly. "My little dove. You have found your will to live again, haven't you?"
Narae swallowed thickly. Had she...but hadn't she... No.
Narae saw it clearly now. She hadn't lived the last years since she crawled away from death like a cowardly thief. Hidden within the Im Coven's home she had simply...existed. Truly a ghost. A ghost haunting herself.
"I—", Narae had to stop as her voice broke. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. "I want to know why..."
"Why what, little dove?", Solar gently coaxed.
Narae looked up from where her gaze had fallen to the ground in her silent musings. This time there was no mistaken the unnatural glow of her eyes. Vibrant and cold like glacier ice gleaming from within when the sun hit just right.
"Why I came back", she said firmly. "Why my parents had to die for me."

Solar nodded with a proud smile that was so heartbreakingly sad at the same time.
"You're going to walk a dangerous path", she replied and let her hands fall from Narae's face. "But you know that already, don't you? It's why you asked me to train you."
Narae only nodded.