Page 32 of To Trap a Soul

Perhaps it was her stubborn nature, but she felt slighted by the way he’d wedded her, among other things that continued to vex her. She was waiting for him to be gentlemanly in any way, and not once had he proven to have any amount of soft-hearted decency inside him.

No. Instead, Weldir seemed mostly devoid of emotions. He could laugh, could be irritated, but beyond that, nothing else seemed to get any kind of emotional rise out of him. She was his wife, and he’d offered her nothing regarding that sentiment.

Their relationship was completely stagnant and stilted, and each passing day had her growing resentful of him.

She liked using him, just as he was completely using her. She wanted his power, and he wanted more for himself. That’s all their relationship needed to be. Self-serving. They had no need to spend any time within each other’s presence, and she disliked being in this empty realm.

It was utter darkness. There was no light, no warmth, just emptiness.

How she was able to see him in it, considering he was made up of black mist, was out of her range of knowledge. The only way she could see anything of him that appeared to be humanoid was by the black chalky flakes streaking across him. It was like someone had flicked the matte, brittle substance upon him, and it’d glued itself to him in speckles.

They moved all the time, sometimes allowing her to see where his handmightbe by wrapping around the back of his wrist. Sometimes she knew he was seated cross-legged by the shifting pale flakes revealing a kneecap and the ankle bone of the opposing foot.

She rarely saw his face, and when she did, it was part of his lips and nose when he spoke.

His chest, from what she could gather, was leanly muscled, as was the rest of his body. The oddest thing was that his size could differ each time she saw him. Sometimes he was large, as if twelve feet, and other times he appeared shorter than her five-foot-seven height. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t care enough to ask.

Then again, if they were going to be together forever, she was sure she’d learn all of what she was allowed in due time. There was no need to rush.

She knew nothing of the rest of his features, since they’d never been highlighted by those flaking streaks of chalk. That, or she’d missed the chance to see them.

There’s less than usual,she noted, narrowing her gaze at nothingness after peeking at him momentarily to know where he was. All she saw was a cloud and barely any of the man who should be floating within it.

His silence was unnerving, and unless he gave her little invisible slices of magic to lean against, it was easy to lose him if she got turned around while floating. She liked knowing where he was, so she could keep her distance.

“It appears you have become formidable with my mana,” Weldir stated, abruptly floating right in front of her so there was less than a metre separating them. “Were they more of those humans that bring sacrifices to the... what do they call it? The Veil?”

“Yes,” she answered, cocking a brow curiously.

“I see. You humans are so wasteful of life.” His voice hinted at humour, even if the brief highlight of his chalky mouth lacked a smile. “You kill as they kill, yet you consider your actions justifiable.”

Lindi pointed upwards at his face and scrunched her nose when anger boiled in her gut. “They harm the innocent; I do not. I am the judge and executioner of cruelty.”

“You may be whatever it is you wish, so long as you do what I have asked of you.”

Her anger quickly deflated upon realising he wasn’t judging her actions but purely commenting on them. She sighed and rubbed her nape before looking down at her hand.

I still find it odd that I can feel in my incorporeal body here, but not my physical one.It was like it flipped for her when she was in Weldir’s realm.

On Earth, if she turned Phantom, she perceived nothing but pressure. Here, she felt the softness of her skin, the wetness of her licking across her lips, the tiredness in her eyes. Whereas, if she were physical, she’d only perceive that pressure like beinga Phantom on Earth. She wished the ache in her muscles from exertion would fade, but the only way to give herself a reprieve was to turn solid – which he didn’t allow.

Much about her abilities and how polar opposite they could be between Earth and Tenebris was a mystery. She would, one day, unfold the secrets, but not even Weldir had been able to shed any light regarding the nature of Phantoms.

It was unknown and new for him, just as it was for her.

“So, the humans have taken to calling the Daekura Demons,” Weldir stated smoothly, and like usual, his rich voice tingled in her ears. “Why?”

Her brows furrowed at how he’d come to learn that.Perhaps he hasn’t been as asleep as I thought.Enough to have overheard conversations in towns while she’d been travelling through them, enough to hear the schemes of occultists to know they called it the Veil.

She shuddered at knowing she’d been watched when she was none the wiser.Creepy.

Her eyelids lowered in disinterest. “I guess it’s because we would consider them unholy beings.”

A sighing sound came from him, but it was utterly false considering they both currently lacked true breath. From him, it came across even more fake. “You humans needlessly tie everything to religion.”

“Says the literal god,” she pointed out.

“They have nothing to do with faith. They aren’t truly evil creatures. They exist to feed and grow, just like a predator. Do you consider a bear evil for taking from the forest?”

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