Death is immortality.
Death is your second chance.
Velian Terrashine belongs to a classless society of equality, art and democracy; a land full of creativity and mindfulness. It is in that perfect political system that one wrong movement, one carele...
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THE CYPRESSES WERE A WALL. A thick wall of trees placed next to each other to divide the capital from what lay behind the wooden door; a door so large that seemed to be connected to the sky, yet so ordinary that someone would never imagine what was hidden behind it if they didn't walk in. And it was breathtaking, magical even. A place where creatures even more uncanny than the ones that appeared in my mother's bedtime stories lived.
Another world. A world made of countless stables in a row that kept horses—but not the kind of horses I used to ride in Lantra. No. They had wings, wings so large that I was sure they would keep them flying even under the worst and most appalling circumstances. Wings so colorful that could replace the brightest rainbow. Green, purple, yellow, red, blue. There was not a color that was missing. And they looked beautiful. Black horses with sparkly purple wings, white horses with radiant orange, brown with shiny yellow, gray with pale blue.
They did not only have wings but also sharp-looking horns on top of their heads, between their ears. Mythical creatures of magic and wild beauty.
And there were people. So many people. Some of them feeding them hay, others talking to them, others just looking at them. Next to the stables, there was a tower, standing tall but not so tall that it would be visible from the other side of the cypresses. I searched for familiars faces, someone I might know. But nothing.
And since the rain had really started taking a toll on me, I decided to scale the full of stables hillock, pass the strangers and their otherworldly creatures and reach for the tower. A morning full of paperwork with Amanda, who'd been happy to see me again after Jersen had announced to her my decision to go to Hell, and then an evening full of training, had my breath labored as I trudged to the only place that would provide me with a roof over my head. But it was good. I probably wouldn't sleep tonight. Better a vigil than a night filled with dreams of an immersed in darkness guy or a building turning into a graveyard.
A part of me punished me for coming here.
If Denfer wanted to be alone, I should have respected that. If he wanted to stay here for another ten days, I should let him do exactly that. Yet the words of that young man in my dreams were enough to kindle a shuddering flame in me. I still remembered the words he'd whispered to me one night, words I'd kept in my mind for the way they'd sounded important, even though I hadn't managed to decipher them back then.
When in darkness, trust the sun.
When in the dark side of the sun, hold him close and he will trust you back.
The sun may be an unreachable destination for the people of the Gap World, but I'd seen Denfer lighting up my room and warming up my body in a few sacred heartbeats. I'd seen his eyes glowing like the universe had suddenly two suns and I'd been blessed by both. I'd, then, seen Denfer's glow slowly and painfully fading away. I didn't know if he was the sun the guy of my dreams had talked about, but I could still try.
