Page 76 of To Trap a Soul

His lips pursed, and his brows drew together further. “I saw a female, but she was untouchable.”

Lettie’s expression hardened as her brown complexion – slightly diluted in saturation, giving it an inhuman grey tone – grew even more ashen. “Are you sure?” Then she laughed, leaned forward to get under his face level, and grinned with her hands clasped behind her back. “Or is this another ghost of the past?”

Folding his arms across his chest, Jabeziryth rolled his eyes with a low growl. “Ugh. How dare you.”

He gave one last look around the area before shaking his head, dismissing her and the situation between them that just took place. As she watched them leave, both bickering like friends who liked to bully each other, Lindi had this overwhelming feeling.

One that sat forebodingly in her psyche.

I doubt that’ll be the last I encounter those people.

December 19th, 1704

“Are you sure he’s this way?” Lindi asked out loud, knowing Weldir was listening in.

Climbing through the brush, she pushed back the thick foliage, eager for it to thin out once more. She was careful of any spiderwebs and any potential nasty traps their owners could leave under unassuming dry leaves or under flaps of loose bark. The rough trunk of a nearby tree brushed beneath her fingertips as she steadied herself to step over a cavity in the earth.

Insects flew through scattered rays of sunlight penetrating the criss-crossing leaves above, soaking in the summer heat as they emitted a cascade of different sounds: buzzing, flaps of wings, and many even sung. Butterflies chased each other right in front of her untrodden path, while a mosquito haunted her every movement until she almost slapped herself in the ear, trying to swat it before it could sting.

A harsh gust of wind made branches creak, clack, and groan, but Lindi lifted her face in welcome as it blew past her. The cool air was a reprieve from the scorching heat. She also searchedbeyond the brush for whom she sought.

This wasn’t Lindi’s first time walking through the forest below the Veil’s canyon, and she was thankful she was on the fringes of it near the cliff wall. The forest was still rather sparse due to the young growth. In due time, it would mature, thicken, and be impossible to see any light through the crossing branches like further within the Veil.

She was nervous about walking through it, but not enough for it to stop her. Lindi just kept a wary ear out for danger.

“Yes. I’m sure,”Weldir confirmed.“I can feel your spirits drawing closer to each other, but I can’t tell you exactly where to go. Just the general direction.”

Watching her next footfall, Lindi blew a sweaty curl from her forehead, only for it to fall exactly where it’d been.

“I wish there was an easier way to travel,” Lindi complained. “I also don’t like being on the ground here.”

A shiver tore up her spine in worry, and she flinched whenever something snapped or rustled in the distance.

“You could try a horse again.”

Shealmostrolled her eyes at that, but she did huff. “No. Horses are exceptionally intelligent creatures. I think that’s why they spook whenever I have one of our children on my person.”

Plus, she could only imagine how she’d get a horse to willingly descend any possible path along the cliff walls to the bottom. She’d only tried to utilise them for transport in the previous years when Weldir no longer wanted children from her.

Lindi had acquired a few horses, but that was in between her first and second child. They refused to let her near them with Nathair when he was a baby, and she imagined it would be the same with the one who currently had their nose to the wind over her shoulder. Many were also wary of her, although she was a natural with a horse due to her family owning one to sow theircrops. She had a feeling it was something to do with her magic abilities or the fact that she was actually half dead.

“Can’t you just... I don’t know, give me the ability to move from one location to another in the blink of an eye?”

“I don’t have such abilities, Lindiwe.”

“But you do it all the time in your realm!” she argued, keeping her voice light.

His answering soft chuckle had her ears warming. It was too decadent and rich, and it always unnerved her how quickly it could send a pleasurable shiver across her skin.“That’s because my realm is me. As you can touch your nose, I can move to anywhere within me. On Earth, I would have to walk if I wasn’t trapped in my mist.”

Lindi turned her head to look at the baby currently clinging to the back of her brown tunic with their head over her shoulder. “He isn’t being very helpful, is he?”

Hearing that she spoke to them, their little oval nostrils flared rapidly in her direction. They gave a bawk and leaned closer – but Lindi leaned back, unsure if they would playfully nip her or lick her nose. This child happened to be much feistier than Nathair had been.

“Let me dwell on a solution,”Weldir offered.“I may not be insightful about Earth, but all Elven deities are aware of all spells that the Elysians learn. There may be something in my memories that I can find.”

But I want something nooow!She didn’t dare utter her childish pout, but she did stick her bottom lip forward slightly. Then she moved them onto the current topic at hand.

“I’m still surprised he’s in the Veil,” Lindi commented, noting the trickling water in the distance.

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