Page 97 of To Trap a Soul

The Anzúli were doing all they could, but there were limitations. They could only expend so much of their magic, reserving it for use at night when the city was most at risk. In the relative safety of day, human soldiers stood guard around the perimeter while builders shed blood, sweat, and sometimes their lives to quickly construct defences and repair infrastructure. They restored much of the city that had burned down, people working tirelessly to give homes to those without.

The Anzúli offered medicines, which were far superior to anything humankind had ever made. They aided the farms in growing food with thrice the natural speed. They were there,helping, but they were mortal beings, and not impervious to exertion.

Thus, Lindi had not only become a pillar of faith that their god was there watching over in the form of a feathery blessing, but she was aiding. She had a powerful magical source, and though it was finite, it did not drain her.

It drained Weldir.

When she had explained their collective cry of desperate need to him, and how much she wished to be a solution – unable to witness such a slow mass destruction of people – he’d granted her full use of him. Which meant he had been shoved into his slumbering silence, as he slept during the overwhelming usage of his abilities.

Weldir slumbered to allow Lindi to cast a barrier of chalky sand against the length of the river each night, giving the city a wall of darkness to protect them. It gave many Anzúli time to rest or work on other means of aid. Throughout the day, and if it rained – which it did often here – she grew vegetables so they could tend to rearing animals in a more efficient way.

The city council pushed back the perimeter of the city, wanting more farmland since they no longer needed to rush their building of the wall. With her help, they could make the city’s border bigger. She burned corpses with scentless black flames, ensuring the horrible and frightening stench of meat didn’t cling to people’s noses and minds, while also removing the potential of disease. It seemed a more humane means of removing the dead, with the Anzúli praying for their peace as they moved onto the next life.

There was one final task – one which was solely reliant upon her to take care of. One that happened at each dawn.

There was so much more she wanted to do, but it was her body’s demand for rest that she could not do more.

And, in her sleep, Lindi transformed into a raven to stand upon this cathedral to close her weary eyes. To be a pillar of hope, letting the Anzúli wrap the humans in a comforting lie like a warmed blanket.

At night, she awoke to bear witness to the plague of Demons scratching at all their barriers, hers spanning the furthest along the river. They howled, squawked, and yelled. They were relentless, baring their teeth just for a scrap of meat.

The sorrowful state of not only this city, but the world, was ineffable. She’d seen such devastation everywhere, but this was where she had been planted for the past seven years. This was the worst she’d seen in person, but surely other cities faced such destruction, with the Anzúli doing all they could to prevent total annihilation.

How pitiful.

I can only be here.This is where the Anzúli had reached for her help, and she couldn’t be in many places at once.I am only one person.She couldn’t become many, no matter how much magic she could access.

And, as sunrise crawled its way closer this day, pink and orange splashing across the sky, Lindi grew tired. But she couldn’t cease her assistance. She could not close her eyes against the heavy weight in her lids and rest.

Her next and final task before rest awaited her.

Lindi unfurled her wings to the oncoming light and lifted off to search through the slow retreat of Demons. The wind rustled her feathers as she soared higher into the sky and then banked to the left to glide through the air.

She sought a monster, but not one that matched the throng of others. Something else. Something far more dangerous and beautiful.

She circled the city until a tiny speckle of white made itself known among the glistening blackness of bodies. A creaturesniffed at a glimmering, translucent wall, unable to pass through to hunt the humans within, but unafraid of the oncoming rays of sunlight.

In the past six years, it’d been seen by many humans who loitered at the barrier to get a peek at what horrors lay on the other side. This creature, although menacing, aggressive, and just as nightmarish as the others, was obviously different.

Here it skulked every dawn and reappeared every dusk. Stepping through the light without burning and dominating the night as it fed on Demons foolish enough to come near. Like a shark, it was always circled by prey, but wasn’t always lucky enough to feast on what was just out of reach.

Lindi, in her raven form, landed behind it.

Orbs flared bright red, and it turned to her with a boisterous and ear-splitting roar. An otter skull, mighty and large, snapped its intimidating fangs, while a deep-purple tongue curled with saliva dripping from it. Roe deer antlers jutted up from the crown of its head, and the creature tossed their head to present them.

The humans hadn’t known what to make of it at first, only knowing that it was dangerous and would eat them like the Demons. Yet, the fact that it stood here with the sun on its back while skulking on all fours caused fear to quake in their hearts.

They’d given her child a name, and she found it to be rather suitable. Especially considering their abilities to march wherever they desired, in whatever time of day they liked.

Duskwalker.

The Anzúli had relayed the name to other sectors, and the term was swiftly spreading throughout humankind – especially in the places where her other children had been spotted. They would find more in far-reaching places, as she already had four in three continents.

There would be more, as per Weldir’s wish.

This child was young, a little over eight years old, but rather formidable. Not long after she’d given birth, she’d discovered the state of Londinium and had quickly found their skull and antlers to grow them. They had yet to consume a human and find their gender, but Lindi knew if they were to travel north rather than relentlessly returning to this barricaded city, they would stumble upon one eventually.

Lindi sighed as she transformed from a raven to a human before they could step a single humanoid hand forward.

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