Page 56 of Requiem of Silence

“The prophecy is coming true. I am needed.”

Fenix nodded. “Yes. I saw the ones who first tore the hole between worlds. The Physicks. They did not know what they were starting.”

They stared at each other for a long beat, so long that Kyara felt awkward, like she shouldn’t be witnessing whatever was happening. She sensed a pained history between the two. But both appeared to get themselves together with a little shake.

Fenix looked Mooriah up and down. “So you returned. I had a feeling you would not go easily into the Flame. Whose body did you take?”

Kyara froze. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask exactly how Mooriah had come back to the Living World. But Kyara, too, had witnessed the spirits brought by the Physicks from the World After take over bodies. Had she thought Mooriah different? Were there other ways the dead could come back to life? Perhaps she’d given it little thought because the spirits she’d seen in Yaly had been angry, set on revenge, and using incredible power. In comparison, Mooriah seemed… normal. Annoying, to be sure, reckless and foolhardy, but not a vindictive, vengeful creature.

Mooriah brushed away Fenix’s question. “She was just an old hag I found in a prison. One who had tormented my descendant. She will not be missed.”

Mooriah had descendants? Kyara looked at the woman again with sharper eyes. Caught in avoiding her own guilt, she hadn’t asked Mooriah about a great many things. Hadn’t wondered more about her life. That had obviously been a mistake.

Fenix turned to Kyara and Darvyn. “When you saved me, I made a promise to return and bring aid. Though, in that, so far, I have failed. My long-awaited homecoming was not as I’d hoped. I could not convince anyone to come and assist this world.”

Mooriah snorted. “Your brethren always cared only for observing.”

Fenix firmed his lips, disappointment evident. “I have not given up all hope. Not quite yet.”

“There are only us three to stand in the way of the army of the dead and their dominance. She is untrained.” She pointed to Kyara. “And she is bound.” She motioned to Tana.

Fenix’s gaze passed Kyara to settle on the younger girl.

“None here are able to unbind her,” Mooriah said. Fenix took a few steps toward Tana, but Kyara blocked his path. He tilted his head in silent question.

“What are you going to do?” Sure, he had helped them escape in Yaly, but she still didn’t know who orwhathe was. “Where is it you come from, and what power do you have?”

Fenix blinked before bowing to her. “I apologize. Our introduction was in haste as we were both prisoners. I regret that I was unable to communicate with you during our incarceration. But it was not within my power at the time.”

He folded his hands before him. “Your ancestors, the two who came from my world and made this land their home, they were of my people. From the world on which we originated, at least. That place was destroyed and we were scattered across the worlds, using the portals to travel and find new homes. I am one of the observers sent by what’s left of those who govern us to keep track of our people. History tends to repeat itself and we would prefer not to be left to the random hand of fate for survival as we once were.

“I came here many centuries ago to do research on the land and progeny of the two who settled here, the ones called the Founders. Virtually all of Elsira and Lagrimar are their descendants. However, the occupants of this land were less than welcoming.” His mouth twisted in a grimace.

Kyara’s mind went blank for a moment, then restarted. Her current dizziness had nothing to do with the height. Other worlds? Besides the World After and the World Between? Of course she’d seen him disappear into a portal and arrive via one just now, but how many were there? What were they like?

She shook her head and blinked. “And—your power?”

“Our powers manifest differently on different worlds. In each place, the source is the same. Refugees from our dying home all took small pieces of the source with them, to sustain them. But for reasons we don’t yet fully understand, what we can do is always slightly different.”

He raised a hand and a glowing ball of light materialized in it. “Earthsong you call it here. The collective life energy of all beings. So simple.” With a twist of his hand, the ball of light transformed into a blooming flower of some variety she’d never seen before. Next to her, Darvyn leaned forward, enthralled.

The flower transformed again, into a tiny, black puppy—floppy-eared, with copious amounts of fur. Ulani gasped then squealed in delight.

“Is that an illusion?” Darvyn whispered.

“This is life,” Fenix said simply. He knelt and set the puppy on the ground. It yipped, and then ran straight for Ulani’s legs. She scooped him up and cradled him to her chest. Ella’s jaw had unhinged as she stared at the little wriggling creature lapping at her daughter’s cheek.

“But Earthsong cannot do such things,” Darvyn said. “Create life from nothing.”

“Not from nothing, life from life, from energy,” Fenix corrected, rising. “And there are a great many things possible with Earthsong that are only limited by the capabilities of the Singerscurrently alive. I am not, strictly speaking, an Earthsinger. One must be born here to claim that. However, the way my power expresses allows me to manipulate Earthsong.”

Darvyn looked like he had more questions, but seemed a bit overwhelmed. He’d likely need some time to think this over and process it. They all would.

“But then at some point you were captured by the Physicks?” Kyara asked, now in awe that such a thing could occur.

Fenix lowered his head. “I was careless. By that time Mooriah was gone—I’d forgotten how short lives are here—but when I returned, I would check on her descendants. It was during one of those times, when I was lost in my own mind, lamenting the way things had turned out, that I fell into a trap a child should have seen through. I paid for it with many years of my life powering the Great Machine for the Physicks.”

He took a step closer to Kyara. “So you see, it is because of both of us that this threat has appeared on this land. I will do whatever I can to rectify my mistake and help.”

---