Fractured Soul

Chapter 32: A Fate Worse Than Death

Mella was having a nightmare. She was stuck in a never-ending fight with Rin, and she was losing, badly. Nothing she did seemed to make a difference.

"Enough! I'm tired of fighting!" Mella dropped her guard, and her weapons.

Rin ran at her, her scarlet eyes murderous, and the dream shattered before Rin could touch her.

"Why do you insist on showing her these things?"

"That wasn't me…she came up with that one on her own."

Inside Mella's mind it was dark. Where were the voices coming from?

"Who's in here?" The voices were silent for a minute.

"Are you sure she can't hear us?"

"Positive. She's too sick to be conscious enough to hear us."

"There's a difference between sick and hurt. I can hear you."

Two lights came into being. One was like sunlight through the leaves of a tree. The other was the light just before dusk: strange, bursting with color. They grew brighter and brighter, until two spirits floated in her mind's eye.

The shorter of the two wore a dress woven of leaves and flowers. They kept shifting endlessly. Buds bloomed and died in rapid succession. The spirit's tawny hair was cut super uneven and hung around her face, the ends all a brilliant shade of emerald. Wings reminiscent of leaves fluttered lazily behind her, but the most disconcerting thing was her eyes. They constantly changed color, from deep brown to shockingly white, never two shades quite the same.

The other spirit was simpler, in a way. Everything about her sparkled and glowed. Her clothes glittered pale lavender and pink. Her entire outline glowed faintly. Her eyes were a strange shade of purple, half hidden by dark brown locks.

They looked to be Mella's age, if spirits could be teenagers. They all stared at each other for what felt like ages before Mella broke the silence.

"This is going to sound stupid, but who are you? And what do you mean, "showing her these things?""

The pink spirit looked at her sister. "I'm leaving. I'm not supposed to be here yet anyways." With a flash of light she vanished.

The remaining spirit rolled her eyes, which had turned bright green.

"Sisters. They think they can meddle with everything and vanish. Honestly. Anyways, hi Mella. I'm Tara, the earth spirit. Rai-erm-Raitiena was the one that just left. If you thought your question was bad, her title is worse. She's the spirit spirit.

Mella laughed, but stopped immediately when she was pulled back into a shard of the nightmare. It vanished in seconds.

"Don't push it, girl. I may be your patron spirit, but I will not be made fun of!" Raitiena's voice echoed through the area.

"I thought you said you were leaving, Rai." Tara reminded the empty air.

"I am." Raitiena said. It sounded like she was whining. Tara looked back to Mella.

"Sorry about that. She has her moments. Ageless, but the mentality of a teenager. Back to your other question. One use of spirit magic, as you just saw, is to influence dreams. But you aren't ready for that. Earth comes before spirit, which is why I'm here."

"Alright…so what do you want me to do?"

"You need to find an earth place. A city, a town, whatever. Whenever you get there, you have to start learning, as fast as you can."