Page 12 of Between Soul and Vessel
Sage
“She looks like him,” Empress Avena said, her voice a soft whisper as her fingertips passed over my face, mapping the architecture of my bones. “It’s the nose.”
I couldn’t feel any of it.
“What do you plan to do with her . . . after?” Victor rasped, his words rattling from deep within his chest. He was bent over my vessel, a chisel in one hand and a small hammer in the other. He tapped it along my skin, working on the tattered flesh and gaping wound in my chest, caused from . . .
I searched for an answer but found none.
“I suppose that depends on her memories. If she succeeded at her task, then I will reward her. However, if she failed, I will have her soul crushed, once and for all,” the empress said as she brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.
“You delude yourself with false hope,” Victor said as heturned toward a tray, his ichor-covered fingers passing over top of the different tools. “I do not need to look at her memories to know how things must have played out with Nockrythiam,allfactors considered.” Selecting a chisel with a smaller point, he went back to work.Tap. Tap. Tap.
The empress looked up at Victor, her eyes full of fire, her features twisting in anger. She hissed, “I do not delude myself at all.Iset all the pieces perfectly.Iwas the one who infiltrated the minds of the Spinners, whispering to them that a new king was coming.Iwas the one who had Nockrythiam dethroned, handing his two favorite realms over to the New Gods we created. And then I senther. I placed Aurelius’s heart in her chest, knowing the organ would sway her every thought. I pitted her and Nockrythiam against one another. I dideverythingright to ensure that she would succeed at her task. That she would kill Nockrythiam and send his soul back to me.”
“You do not need to remind me. I was there through it all. But have you forgotten, Avena? Despite all of the things you did to ensure success, shestillhad a child with him,” Victor countered.
Something tugged at the inside of my vessel, the slightest feeling. Like the tick of a finger. But it was gone as fast as it came.
“That doesn’t mean anything.” The empress glanced down at me. “He could have easily forced her. Nockrythiam was a ruthless beast after all.”
“Oh, I doubt that,” Victor disagreed, looking up from his work. His tongue pressed into the corner of his mouth,rubbing against it. “She probably couldn’t keep her legs closed.”
The empress’s nostrils flared, but she said nothing. “How much longer?”
“She’s done,” Victor answered as he tossed his tools onto his tray.
“Good,” the empress stated. Bolts of lightning burst from the corners of her eyes, streaking outwards, sparking then vanishing. She plunged her hand into my chest, her fingers rooting around, searching for something.
From inside my frozen vessel, there came a sound—a scraping of metal on metal. Like coins grinding against one another inside a cloth purse.
She pulled her hand from my chest and flattened her palm, studying the strange bits of broken, silver shards. She raised them to her mouth, her eyes glowing even brighter. Her lips pressed together, and she blew on them—the swirls of air visible.
The shattered remnants began to glow. Then, they began to move.
They rose from her palm, swirling and twirling, dancing with one another as they began to line themselves up. It was like watching a circular jigsaw puzzle put itself back together, the strange pieces trying to fit in this spot then that, until finally, they sealed together, creating a perfectly round, silver ball.
The empress shifted her glowing, sparking, electric eyes to mine, and then she shoved her hand back into my lifeless body.
At first, I felt nothing.
And then, I felteverything.
A drum began to beat inside me, growing louder and stronger, forcing ichor to pass through my shattered veins, healing them with each strike. My lungs, once tattered and torn but now healed, instinctually looked for oxygen, but there was none to be found. Desperation clutched at me. I felt like a drowning person on the verge of losing consciousness. Panicking, I tried to breathe in, but instead of air, it felt like I filled my lungs with water. It was heavy, so heavy, and it dragged me under until blackness swept over me.
Was this the end?
A bloodcurdling scream tore its way out of me, and my eyelids sprung open. I jerked upright and began to vomit over the side of the altar. The retching did not cease as my body expelled a briny, watery substance.
A cool hand slid over my heated skin, rubbing my back in gentle movements. “That’s it. Let it all out,” the empress spoke softly, her voice melodic.
A string of saliva dribbled down my chin, stretching at the command of gravity’s pull, until it snapped and dripped into the clear vomit below. When the violent clenching of my stomach began to subside, I rolled over, my body shaking and dappled with beads of sweat. Panting, I looked up into the eyes of the empress.
“Now, shall we see if you completed your task?” she asked, her voice calm and serene, like the glass top of a lake, untouched by wind. She pinched at something in the middleof my forehead, pulling a strange material from my body, like a layer of organza that had been tightly wrapped around me.
Memories stampeded into my thoughts, shoving me backwards, back tohim.
Polished floors emerged beneath me, glistening with bits of broken chandelier. The underlayers of my decadent gown sounded against one another as we swayed back and forth to the enchanting, dark melody—a symphony of death.
