Out of Evenfall (BOOK 1)

Chapter 35

ADARA

You promised.

Out of the mind's abyss grew something familiar, painted by a gentle, unseen hand. A room, curved around to follow a tower's architecture. Outside an arching window, the entirety of Prunal, full of the life it lost to the crimson night. Auras fluttered at the shadowed corners. In the bed facing the window, a weary woman laid within the blankets. Her dark hair fell against her shoulders in stringy strands. Sickness raged on her brow, but strength continued to rage within her brown eyes. Around her shoulders, a crimson shawl, the same one she clutched onto through the blood and ash. Adara headed up to her bedside, where Mother's voice echoed out stories to her.

"Seirean, have I mentioned I don't like kids?" a familiar voice grunted, borne of the sea as the painted images moved to allow him in.

"Mommy!"

Adara twisted on her feet to investigate the child's voice. Garren, younger and stronger, stood there with a little girl in his arms, who flapped her arms in excitement. "I'm a bird! Look!" Her arms flapped harder, her hand almost smacking Garren across the face as he dodged and held the child far away from himself.

"So you are, Little Bird. Soon, you'll be a phoenix." A soft laugh escaped Queen Seirean as she undid her shawl to pass it to the little girl, who buried herself into it. "Garren, I can't trust her with anyone else. Jin is trying to find a safe place in Dyrin to grant you safe passage back to Euros." Her smile dropped further and accentuated her skeletal features. "Garren... though we were too late here, I believe that something can be saved, but it's no longer safe for her. I would rather her safety than my own."

Not here. Not here. It echoed around the painted fog.

"You must run. You must live. You must fly and be free."

"You must..."

"Mommy!"

Every image burnt away as it slipped out of her grasp and fell to forgotten dust and ruins. Unable to make the connection to her past, to her Mother. Knew her voice, but not her face. Guided through the doorways of memory and thought by an unseen hand clutching onto her, when all she wanted was to feel. To understand. To know the part of herself hidden from her.

"Addie?"

Chills washed up her spine at Jisa's voice, who held out the same pink bird before when she turned.

I left it behind... I left you behind.

Adara could do naught but choke on tears as Jisa smiled at her, untainted by the void she abandoned her in.

"It reminded me of you," she echoed. "You're a bird, wanting to flit from place to place. To be free of your cage."

Thrown out of the cage, and expected to know how to use my wings. Adara pushed the memory away, where green tendrils wrapped it into bundled mist to send into the river of her memories. Voices rang out from the dark of the other side. Crimson energy shuddered on the other side.

I can't do this. I can't.

Silver fire burnt down the forest.

"For you, you must run."

"Mommy!" the little girl cried into the void. "Mommy, where did you go?"

"I will be there."

Arrows pierced through the night.

"The dawn must always return," two voices intermingled, one unfamiliar as it sang in harmony with Mother's voice. "And I will be here."