Page 63 of To Trap a Soul

“So, you and Leyfr are the reason there has been a sudden influx of Daekura,” Weldir pressed on, avoiding what the fully formed god had just said, and how offensive it was. “I have noticed this, but I didn’t notice you tampered with other parts of this realm.”

Rökul swayed his head side to side. “I wouldn’t saytampered.We have just opened more doors for the Daekura, but it is solely up to them whether they cross over. Although... you could say Leyfr’s whispers might be considered coercion.”

“But they will if they believe they can achieve a better life here. You are dooming the humans just to save the Elysians. How is that any better?”

The friendliness in Rökul’s features was swallowed up by a stiff hardness. “We have no other option. There are billions of humans, and only a few million Elysians left. They are facing extinction, and I don’t really want to be the god of nobody.” This time, he pouted in a childish way, like he found himself cute, and ran his fingertips down his left braid. “I’m too... pretty to not be worshipped.”

I think he’s an idiot.His idea to preserve the Elysians was actually quite remarkable, but his mannerisms were vexing to someone who didn’t share in his games.

“There are other Elven realms to garner worship,” Weldir countered.

“But these aremypeople.” Rökul ran his fingers through the short hair on top of his head. “Perhaps you have no attachment to them, but we do. They are yours to protect as well.”

“I can do much more protecting if I lay my mist in Nyl’theria and incinerate all the souls of the Daekura from within their physical bodies. I feel your plight, but I don’t agree with your method of salvation.”

Then again, Weldir had recently developed an attachment to the sentient and insentient creatures of this world. Viewing the memories of humans gave him insight into their lives, and he found them remarkable in their own way. He also consumed the souls of many animals that had been eaten by Demons, and he’d even spent time living in their simplistic memories.

Each being here, although so different, was... beautiful.

As were Lindiwe and Nathair.

All this endangers my mate and offspring.

Although Lindiwe wasn’t very warm towards him, she was still his female. He allowed her to drain his mana without complaint because it protected and mollified her. It obviously gave her purpose to continue her hunt for the human men of the occult, who continued to offer sacrifices – although she was doing a superb job at whittling down their numbers so it occurred less frequently.

More Demons meant she had to defend herself, especially at night. He was rather angered whenever she died and returned to his realm, and she was always irritable in return. She hated having to restart in his mist, more annoyed that she’d potentially lost a lead than her death. She’d grown accustomed to dying,although she often had a faraway look afterwards – a little lost and petrified of what she’d just experienced.

Nathair was a formidable creature onhisown.

Weldir had been greatly annoyed when Nathair had eaten his first human, but doing so had granted him a gender – thus completing him physically. There was something still missing from him, something Weldir couldn’t decipher, something entirely spiritual. His soul had a hollowness to it, and he had no idea on how to fill it.

Despite this, his offspring grew stronger with each meal. He’d stopped hunting and had become a lie-in-wait kind of predator, often lazing in bodies of water or in the forest. He was opportunistic, eating anything that came within a close enough distance that he could quickly immobilise it with a strike of his paralysing venomous fangs and consume it.

Even with their immortality and strength, he didn’t want Lindiwe or Nathair to suffer in the real world. More Demons meant more suffering for them, as well as every other creature that lived here.

Weldir could not share this information with Rökul.

He hadn’t known if he could obtain a mate, let alone produce offspring. If he didn’t, then he doubted his fellow deities did.

And they feared him already.

They didn’t need to say it; the scars of history were evident in their avoidance of him. He’d been trapped in a prism crystal for that very reason and freed upon Earth rather than released within their holy realm, Relune. A place where darkness and light touched, where life and death danced, and cold and heat kissed.

Relune was considered a place of perfection, where any element, no matter how obscure or immeasurable, could be found.

Weldir had never seen it, even though his prism had been housed there.

Yet, even now, Weldir didn’t hold any ill will regarding all this. He’d been lonely, but he also slumbered for much of his time, gaining strength as he learned to hold his chaotic, immaterial self together.

He’d needed that time alone – and had truly been dangerous.

He wasn’t now, which was why Rökul’s disappointed and judgemental expression – a furrowed brow and ticking jaw muscle – weighed on him a little more than it should have. It was fleeting, the man shaking his head at Weldir’s solution to the current problem, but he wisely let the conversation go.

“Salvation or not, this is what we have begun.”

“If it is already decided and already in play, then why do you need me?” Weldir asked.

An easy smile curled his lips, although a little weaker than before. “Since you already barricaded one portal from allowing Daekura that have passed over here from returning, we hoped you would continue to do so, but against many more.”

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