Page 66 of Between Soul and Vessel
Following Millie’s instructions, we sat down.
“I’ll be back in a moment,” she said warmly before she hurried back to the bubbling pot.
“She’s so sweet,” I whisper-spoke to Artemesia, who sat across the table from me.
“She really is,” she agreed. “One of the kindest souls I’ve ever met.”
We chatted for a short while, before Millie returned with two steaming bowls, which she set in front of us. “Some nice deer stew for you two. Fresh from the pot.”
We gave our thanks and then we dug in, reminiscing as we ate. Somewhere between my sister’s laughter and the good, hearty food, I could feel the icy grasp of the chilling memory I’d recovered beginning to melt away.
After we finished eating, the plates were cleared, and we had profusely thanked Millie, Artemesia slung her arm over the back of her chair and looked at me. “Sooo,” she started,dragging out the word. “Do you want to tell me what you’ve been up to all of these centuries?”
“That’s a loaded question,” I answered honestly.
She smiled. “We have nothing but time.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
Then, I told her all of it. Every little detail. Sometimes in order, sometimes not. I cried at some parts, laughed at others, but throughout it all, I longed for Von. He was stitched into every inch of my story. His name was carved upon my soul, in my bones. He was my other half, and I was incomplete without him.
When I got to the part about the child we lost, Artemesia reached across the table and squeezed my hand. With misty eyes, she said, “I do not know what it is like to lose a child, but I do know a little about loss. I know that when we love someone, we cut a piece of our heart out and give it to them. So, when they die, in some ways, we do too. But the thing is, we carry a piece of them with us, and so, in their honor, we must do the impossible without them—we must live.”
Pressure built between my eyebrows, and my eyes blurred with tears. They brimmed on my lower lash line, then spilled over, trickling down my cheeks. My voice crackled with emotion as I choked out, “That is beautiful.” Finding it hard to speak, I pressed my lips together, trying not to give in to the weight of sadness I felt welling within me. My gaze fell, and I shook my head. “I just wish I would have gotten the chance to know them.”
Softly, she squeezed my hand. “Who knows what comes after this realm. Maybe someday, you will.”
Von
An icy grip clutched at my limbs, dragging me under, but it was the heat boiling beneath my skin that shoved me to consciousness. With the speed of an arrow released from a bow, my eyes flashed open. I was in dark waters, among hundreds of glowing souls, their unconscious spectral forms tossed around by the tumultuous currents. When the current dipped low, one was shoved into me, her body drifting through mine, passing to the other side.
As I had zero desire to stay down here, I called upon my shadows to shadow walk me out of here. My umbra answered, sweeping around me, and then—
Nothing.
Nothing happened. My body didn’t move an inch. That was odd.
I supposed I’d have to do it the mortal way—I began to look for the surface.
There.The slightest bit of light gnawed at the shifting surface. Biceps firing, I started to swim toward it, heeding little mind to the phantoms as they passed through me. The waters fought against me, trying to pull me back down, but my will was unyielding.
When I reached the surface, I swam toward the jagged edge of the shoreline—viciously carved by the iron bite of the river. Placing my hands on the rocky ground, I heaved myself out of the waters. Kneeling there, naked as the day I had emerged from the soil, I took in my surroundings as the water dripped from my body. The innards of a mountain stretched over top of me, tunneling around the river. The light source that had guided me to the surface was from brilliant, glowing stalactites that lined the cave’s ceiling.
As I gazed up at them, I couldn’t help but think of Sage. Had she seen them too? Had she beenhere?
Now that I was in the same realm as she was, I wondered—
Sage, I spoke through our bond, my breath ceasing as I waited.
Silence was my only answer.
I tried again.Little Goddess.
Still, nothing.
Further down the river, Folkoln emerged from the agitated waters. He had one arm banded around an unconscious Kaleb’s chest while he used the other to swim toward the shore. Swiftly, I moved.
“Here!” he yelled over the roar of the river, passing me Kaleb.
