A Trickle of Soulfyre

Chapter 15 - Engulfment

The night was Lyrani's territory. It gave her comfort and protection that the brightness of the revealing day didn't afford her. It gave her room to manipulate and hide herself from the ill-meaning eyes who might see her.

That was why she had insisted that she and Agent Phen travel into the night. This was where Lyrani could protect them best. Even though the other agent had rubbed her tired eyes and scowled like a child, she hadn't argued.

Now, an hour or two after they had made that agreement, Lyrani and Agent Phen glided over the shadowy green treetops on their griffins, not so close that the forest's inhabitants would detect them by the powerful wings stirring the leaves, but not so far that only the coolness of the distant galaxies above would surround them.

Even so, the night was cold around Lyrani. The sun had long departed the day, and the full moon could only give half its light and warmth where it lay like a pearl on a black velvet dress.

Lyrani buttoned her coat, tightening her legs around her griffin to maintain her seat upon him. She huddled into the warm fabric with a shivering breath and glanced back to check on Agent Phen.

The junior agent stared ahead, her eyes as blank and empty as the space around her. A stretch of turbulence took her and her griffin in its hold, snapping out of her trance as she sent a glare Lyrani's way.

She hadn't uttered a word since asking Lyrani to pass her a flask of water when they stopped to have lunch along the route. She preferred to communicate with her expressive face and sharp eyes, and Lyrani preferred it that way.

The silence kept Lyrani focused. It reminded her of the black night sky, of a slumbering world, of the power the shadows gave her over it. She had always preferred quiet over the incessant chatter some agents insisted on when she worked with them.

It was only when they were gone that she missed their talkative manner.

Lyrani gave a wistful smile as she thought of Trelle. At the time, she hadn't been able to tolerate the senior agent. She had been so keen to complete the mission with her at Vlitavia so that she'd never have to work with her again, but those emotions were only a glimpse of her true, deeply complex feelings for the other elf.

Trelle had led Lyrani's first ECISI mission. Lyrani had accompanied her on her last. She had never told her how much she admired her—the way she could charm anyone with a smile, the way she could draw every eye in the room to her but make them forget they had ever seen her if she chose to. Lyrani had never even realised the respect she had for Trelle until she stood to speak at her ECISI memorial when nobody else did, but the dead were deaf to the praises and regrets of the living.

Trelle was gone, but she was with Lyrani every day. She could sense her. Her presence was so strong, so characteristic, just like the hideous tea Lyrani had brewed for Nash the night he met her and Trelle.

Jacden, Dessie's fiancé who had died on an ECISI mission three years before, was with Lyrani too. So was Veyali, Lyrani's mother who had been driven to suicide by Rayn's malevolent spirit.

Lyrani's story was tangled with many others, but it was still ongoing while theirs had ended. It didn't feel fair, but it was a privilege she shouldn't squander, a chance to keep fighting for the realm she had pledged her life to serve.

There would always be conflict in the realm, between the ancient clans with their ancient grudges, but there would always be agents willing to lay down their lives to end it. There would always be hope even in the most impossible of missions.

Lyrani turned her gaze ahead. This high above the rest of the realm, there was nothing to focus on but this cloud and the next and whatever lay beyond that one.