Page 46 of To Trap a Soul

“You have done brilliantly in your role. There is nothing more you could have done, and the fact that they at least have aphysical form means I am proud. Hopefully they will grow the rest on their own. We will have to wait and see, although it is concerning that they are sightless. Perhaps they have their own way of seeing the world, and more importantly, souls.”

Lindi averted her gaze to the side, and tried to not let the strange, half-hearted compliments get to her. Yet, surprisingly, him being proud of her did make her feel better. She was proud of herself and that she hadn’t gone insane with how her life had turned. She’d made all these choices, had consented to everything, and she was trying her hardest to wear it all bravely.

She let Weldir inspect them in his own time, while her own eyes drooped. She was tired, and she wanted rest more than anything. She wished she felt comfortable enough around Weldir to let herself drift off, but she was currently not wearing pants and in a place that felt wrong.

There was nothing here, no warmth or cold, but also no scents. It didn’t feel real, which warped in her mind that she didn’t exist. It was often harrowing, like she was haunting the place just as much as he was. With the way she floated, she often worried her next breath would be filled with water and that she’d been dreaming the entire time as she drowned.

Her eyes slitted from the weight of her sleep-straining lids, but she kept watching him tilt the child one way and then the other.

“I know you will not sleep comfortably here, so I will return you back to where you were.”

“I thought you couldn’t do that,” Lindi muttered softly, although pointedly.

“I left a small amount of my mist behind so that I may do so. Consuming the soul in the way I did allows me to do small things like this temporarily.” The fact that Weldir had thought to do such a thing for her benefit was both relieving and surprising. She didn’t think he’d show her any modicum of respect forwhere she wanted to rest. “I will keep our offspring until you have rested and then return them to you.”

Her skin ran cold with fear, but she didn’t reject the notion, nor them.

She would learn, and she would adapt, no matter if they continued to be a bloodthirsty thing.

I need to remain resilient.

Even when tears dotted her eyelashes once more, and she thought she’d choke on her next breaths, she needed to stay strong.

March 23rd, 1689

“What am I supposed to do with you?” Lindi murmured, as she gently prodded the side of her baby’s face.

The strange little being sightlessly swiped the air to grasp her forefinger and likely cuddle it, only to miss and start falling forward towards the edge of the table. Lindi quickly steadied them with her palm and pushed them back up so they wouldn’t hurt themselves and then wrapped her hand around their back. They laid down, curled into her palm, and nuzzled.

She sighed as she ran her thumb back and forth over the top of their head to give them comfort. Sitting at her family’s wooden and rustic dining table, she pouted as she pressed her chin to the top of her fist.

She really had no idea what to do with them.

It’d been days since she’d brought them into the world, and they weren’t as bloodthirsty as she thought them to be. Well, kind of. She’d already discovered something about the smell of her fear set them off.

After she’d cleaned up the bloodied mess in her room andrested in her parents’ bed for the night, Weldir had eventually sent them back to her via his mist. She was a little ashamed to admit that she’d been so nervous about them biting her that they immediately launched like a bird of prey with a squawk. Then guilt assaulted her when they slammed against the wall because she’d turned incorporeal as a fear response.

But they didn’t seem to mind, nor were they hurt, and they quickly got back to their feet and scuttled around sightlessly. She winced every time they head-butted the wall or the bed’s leg, but they’d stopped being feral.

Then they started making this cute little whine and her heart, even in her Phantom form, had exploded in sympathy.

She turned physical, and they whimpered as they ran straight for her. It was only when they were at her knees, since she’d lowered to be closer to their level, that they’d started snarling. She turned intangible once more, they settled, and then they started searching for her again.

When they lay down right where her scent was the freshest, she backed up and turned physical again. They didn’t attack, and she realised it was her wariness setting them off.

Which made her wonder why they’d brutally bitten her multiple times when she gave birth. The only answer had been because of the blood, and she’d later nicked herself with a knife to test that theory.

She’d been right. They grew enraged, but they quickly settled when she removed the evidence of blood.

Since then, all her fear had faded, and she’d been careful not to injure herself. Due to these precautions, not once had they been a violent little thing.

“You’re actually rather sweet,” she murmured as the corners of her lips curled upwards slightly.

As if they wanted to answer in confirmation, they gripped her thumb and curled what they could of their small body around it like it was a doll.

Within seconds, they fell asleep. That’s all they did.

They sought her so they could lay any part of their heated body against her skin and take a nap. They didn’t seem to want to eat, even when she offered them every vegetable she could find throughout the village. They didn’t drink water. Actually, they’d squealed in protest at its coolness when they’d knocked the bowl over and it had emptied on top of them.

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