Beyond the Void

Chapter 76, The one who rules Blood

VAERA

Five moons since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

A red jet of power flashed in front of Vaera's eyes, and another cloud of plaster filled the side street. "Do not touch me!" Vaera barked at the dust-filled street.

Something slammed her against the wall again. She could not move. Nevertheless, Vaera was still angry. Why was she this angry? A sudden boiling haze had clouded her head.

"Why have you bound the one who rules Blood? A thief! Have you stolen an elder's powers?" The Alyar's voice growled.

"Let me go!" The invisible restraints broke around Vaera and cleared the air in the small alley. Her eyes finally found the Alyar a few paces away from her. How had they ended up here?

"Unexpected." The Alyar mumbled.

"Are you going to talk any sense?" Vaera shouted.

"The elder's being is pouring through with every ounce of its power, but the elder's will is chained. What happened?" A wave of shadows pushed Vaera backward. "Don't argue with me, tell me everything. What happened in the city of pearls? What happened under the gaze of void?"

Vaera wanted to get back at the annoying Alyar for suddenly pushing her around. A loud part of her insisted that she should answer. "Under the gaze of void? You mean the night when the voidstones awoke? Or the second night?"

"The second night? The void awakened on that one night. I felt the wailing of the sunshards."

"I was in the Ebon Spire on two nights." She explained, still fuming with anger. "The second time I was blackmailed into going back there. To help a barmaid I knew, save her little sister. That brat did something. There was fighting. I was against three Hands and my blood was boiling..."

"What did the voidgazer do?" The Alyar asked, his voice aghast.

"Voidgazer?" Vaera lost track of the conversation.

"The young child, bound to the voidstone." The Alyar explained, impatient.

"That was the little sister. She stepped in between my fight with the Hands. It tore her apart. I thought I was dying. But she took the brunt of the flow about to erase me."

The Alyar swore in its own tongue. There was nothing else it could have been. The ashen-skinned Alyar hit the wall with his fist. "Why did you not leave the city after the first night? You received direction from the first puppet, did you not?"

"I did? How was I supposed to understand anything she said? I was more concerned with getting away alive." For once, the Alyar said nothing for a little while. "I have no clue what is happening to me since they sent me to retrieve a pair of soul shards the first night. If you're responsible for bringing me here, can you help?"

The Alyar's deep, green gaze fell on Vaera and he looked at her far too long. He mumbled something in his own tongue.

"What was that?" Vaera barked.

"I said you have a constant stench of void on you. What did you say it was they sent you to retrieve?"

Vaera opened her mouth and then closed it. She put down her backpack and opened a hidden pocket on the bottom. She had almost forgotten these were still with her. The two black soul shards looked as inert as the day she had first laid eyes on them. Vaera held them towards the Alyar, but he did not take them.

After an uncomfortably long silence the ashen skinned Alyar spoke again.
"Should I be surprised, or should I say, as expected of the bastard. That one always meddles in everything. Always finds a way to make a grain of sand topple a fortress. Always ruins your best laid plans and still leaves you questioning whether it gave you the greatest gift you never would have expected."