Page 80 of Between Soul and Vessel
“It’s alright. I’m just frustrated. The empress casts her shining eye on Imari. Imari, of all people! When was the last time she extracted a soul and didn’t break it?” asked the taller female.
“Yes, it has been a while. Oh, speaking of, how are you making out with the mortal soul, the one with the vessel that’s missing fingers?
Kaleb and I looked at each other.
“It’s kind of a cutie, you know, for a human,” the shorter female continued, her voice growing more distant the further they walked from us.
I gestured for Kaleb to follow behind me. He nodded. Quietly, we moved through the trees, staying hidden while keeping up with them.
“Right? I think it’s cute too,” the taller one said. “The vessel has been repaired, and the soul is nearly finished as well. I imagine I’ll be done tonight so we can ship it off with the others.”
“That should work. Can I ask you something?”
The taller one nodded. “Of course.”
“Do you ever wonder why the empress has us rebuild male souls and vessels if they are just going to be sent to the arena to be crushed anyway? Why not just haveusdo it?”
Ponytail lowered her voice. “I heard this from a friend of a friend who works at the Celestial Opal Palace, but the empress likes to look through them. Although it’s rare, sometimes she’ll keep some of the male souls. That’s howshe built her harem.”
“Wow, can you imagine being hand-selected by the empress?” the other one exclaimed as they walked up to the foot of the mountain.
“It must be an incredible feeling,” the taller one said as she raised her hand, and a glowing, oblong slit emerged in the stone, opening it to the tunnel and the rushing river of souls. They walked through it, and it sealed shut behind them.
“We need to get back to camp,” Isaid. “Now.”
Shadow
Everyone had a defining moment in their life, one they thought back on and knew that it had changed the entire trajectory of their path. As I peered down at the map laying on the table before me, contemplating where Avriel and I could go, I could only hope that this was my defining moment, one that would lead to a better life for us both.
But I was no stranger to the ways of the world and the many obstacles we would face once we were on the outside. Specifically, my lack of rights. I was a possession, something to own. No more than an acre of poor land, one to be bought and raped. I found it ironic that in the arena, spectators cheered me on, treated me like a god, but outside of it, the ichor coursing through my veins and the skill of my blade were long forgotten.
A champion in the arena but a slave outside of it.
Aryx used to tell me stories about his past life, about aplace called the Three Realms. He said that there, immortals known as Old Gods were treated equally, regardless of sex. However, the mortals who resided in the Living Realm lived differently. He drew parallels between the way women were treated there and the way men were treated here. He said that kings and lords were the ones who possessed female concubines.
Female concubines.I had scoffed at the thought.
I still couldn’t imagine such a thing.
Aryx had also said that women, especially those born into poverty, would go missing and then their souls would turn up in the Da’Nu, something which he explained functioned the same as the Miyakai River here. I had asked him what caused their deaths—did they have arenas they sent women to? I still remember the way Aryx shook his head, sadness washing into his eyes as he told me women didn’t die in an arena, no; it was in the privacy of their own homes, something the Living Realm turned a blind eye to.
Sometimes, when the nights grew long, I’d sit in the quiet of my room and think about that, a glass of spirits in my hand. I knew what it was like to die behind closed doors; I experienced it every time the empress called me to her room. I hated that the women in the Living Realm had to experience that too. Hated that things were so . . . out of balance.
I drew a heavy breath.
Lungs reaching their fill, I returned to looking over the map.
The Mother Realm was comprised of threecontinents—Fiarnia, Eaylandrea, and Airenyl. I always thought Fiarnia and Eaylandrea looked faintly like dragons, fighting over the meat in the middle—Airenyl.
Fiarnia was a brutal land, comprised of steep, treacherous mountains, barren wastelands, and scorching-hot deserts. Eaylandrea, where the majority of the population lived, was the opposite, with its fertile, rich soil, bountiful forests, and gentle snow-capped mountains. Both continents had a small hint of one another within them, like yin and yang. Airenyl was a mix of the two.
I eyed the floating island of Avolonia, the empress’s imposing palace sitting on top. This had been the only so-called home I had ever known.
I held no love for it. No loyalty either. And if it weren’t for my brothers, Avriel, and the other innocent people forced to live in this creator-forsaken place, I would have lit it aflame a long, long time ago. Just to watch it burn to ash.
“Do you know how you got your name?” the empress’s voice echoed in my ear, her arms wrapping around my shoulders.
I didn’t respond to her apparition, knowing that it was my mind conjuring her.
