Page 141 of Requiem of Silence

As a wraith himself, Yllis was able to expel spirits from the possessed; he fought alongside them, pressing forward as a flood of wraiths converged ahead. Yllis was nowhere near as powerful as a Nethersinger though, but Kyara and the others had been deployed elsewhere in the city.

Early reports stated that the dead had been digging through the streets, trying to access the mostly underground emergency shelters. Overhead, the portal to the World After was still open, spirits pouring through, searching for hosts. The fact that the sky was dark and filled with the frustrated dead was the only bright spot. It underscored the truth that so many of the populace had heeded the call to go to the shelters and be protected. And with every willing Singer manning full shelters, the streets were mostly clear. The number of new wraiths being created was trickling to a halt as available hosts dwindled.

And so the True Father’s army that had already been created had turned from their human destruction to laying waste to as much of the city as they could. While spirits swirled aimlessly overhead, the wraiths that Jasminda and the others faced were intent upon destroying the docks. The buildings across from the line of silent boats had already been devastated. The structures were old, built of stone to withstand the raging storms of the rainy season, but now had been transformed into broken-down husks. Torn apart by the bare hands of the incredibly powerful army of the dead.

Jasminda laboriously readied another bolt of Earthsong. Fortunately, each one could take down multiple wraiths. The obeliskpulsed at the back of her senses, reinvigorating her with each beat, like a magical drum.

A wily wraith broke free of the pack of her brethren and came at Jasminda from the side, her movements almost too fast to see. Jasminda had no time to react before she was tackled to the ground, where her bones crunched against the pavement.

Pain bloomed through her arm and she knew it had broken. She whipped the wraith away from her with a blast of air, but its speed was on full display as it raced toward her again.

A dart of crimson energy sizzled into her and the wraith was down. Jasminda looked up gratefully to find Oola standing over her. The woman barely glanced her way before returning to the battle. Jasminda rose, healing her arm with a thought and faced the enemy again, more mindful of her periphery.

A chunk of cement, bigger than she was, flew through the air at her. It had been torn directly from the street. She batted it away with a focused wind and the chunk flew to her left, all the way into the ocean.

Breathing heavily, even with the obelisk’s aid, she began the strenuous task of spinning up another bolt.

“Let’s try doing it together,” Darvyn said. Oola glanced at him and nodded. As one, they faced the opposing force and shot Earthsong energy into the entire crowd. Every wraith within their vision fell, twitching and changing, their features in flux for long moments until they settled back to that of their original host.

Jasminda’s breath heaved, though she felt oddly invigorated. The carnage all around them was devastating, but a smile fought its way to her face. She turned to Oola, wanting to share in the sense of amazement, but terror quickly took its place.

Walking toward them across a rubble-filled lot where a warehouse once stood was a figure oddly clad in animal furs. TheElsiran man had his russet hair pulled back in a short queue. He was thin and of average height, but Jasminda’s heart froze.

“Sister,” the man said to Oola, who turned to face him. “It is good to see you again.”

Jasminda and Darvyn were locked in a state of shock, while Yllis stood to the side. All of them staring in silence at the True Father.

The portable radio at Darvyn’s belt crackled and a voice called out, speaking in Lagrimari. “Hello? If anyone can hear me, stay away from the cemeteries.” It was Kyara and she sounded breathless, exhausted, and terrified. “We assumed the spirits could only take over living bodies. We were wrong.”

A slow smile spread over the True Father’s face and he began to laugh.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

It was once called Sacred Death.

Consecrated, set apart from that which lives.

We’ve forgotten the gift it gives.

For what is Sacred Life without its

antithesis?

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

Kyara and Tana stood, hand in hand, on the edge of the cemetery on the northwest corner of the city. The sight before her was like rain falling, except the dark forms of the spirits were the precipitation, diving like missiles into the ground.

Elsirans did not burn their dead as the Lagrimari did. They buried them and marked the grave with a mirror, embedded near where the head of the deceased would be. Across the field before her, tarnished, cracked, and broken mirrors were dotted throughwith newer ones of the recently dead. All so that the loved one could look through and view the Living World before they joined the Eternal Flame.

Some of the older mirrors were well-maintained, polished regularly by family members. Others were abandoned to the ravaging of time, in the hopes that the person had crossed over. But now they were all being desecrated. Cracked, broken, and destroyed as bodies clawed their way from the ground.

Instead of corpses, these bodies were whole and healthy, already transformed. The wraiths used their superior strength to break through the caskets and dig their way up through the earth.

Behind her, one of the Raunians who’d been fighting with them gasped. It took a lot to shake one of the stalwart sea-faring people, but this was surely enough to do so.

Tana squeezed Kyara’s hand. Both of them were exhausted. Their physical bodies on the edge of collapse, even if their Songs were still going strong—buoyed by the portal overhead and the death all around them.

Again, Kyara sank into her other sight, as she’d been doing during the fighting. Her wildcat avatar wasn’t tired, and this fact kept her hope high. The creature eagerly leapt in the direction of the wraiths. Tana’s dragon and Mooriah’s raptor swooped in as well, tearing spirits from bodies and gorging on death energy.

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