The giant witch Rafi glared down at me, contemplating how best she should explain further.
Within the broken ruined frames of windows, scenes from my life vividly played out in front of me under the moonlight.
First was the time I killed the bitterweed. She lifted a finger towards it. “You rushed into danger to help someone three times your size without regard for your own health.”
‘The bitterweed, when I helped my father kill it… He wasn’t in any real danger though.’ “I was just excited I knew how to beat it… I probably just got in his way in the end…”
She grimaced. Next was the scene of me getting thrown out of Fritz's stall by the stable boy that didn’t know me. “You were hurt, but were quick to forgive, not fighting back because you were worried for the boy’s sake.”
“How does that make me incorruptible? He hardly hurt me. That kid was seriously annoying, but no normal person would just beat him for it. He was trying to protect me.”
She raised an eyebrow. “That’s… How you see it?”
The third image was one of Mara, beating me senseless in the training yard. “As long as you breathe, nothing keeps you on the ground.”
“There are plenty of bad people that can take hits just as well…”
“Would you shut up and let me finish!”
I inhaled sharply as I moved my head back. “S-sorry…”
She rolled her eyes, pointing to the last one. “You could have killed your brother, and no one would have blamed you.”
I waited, making sure she was done.
Finally, she waved her hand with a groan. “Go on, just spit it out.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m really glad not murdering a family member gets me good guy points… But not killing someone doesn’t make you a saint. I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s like maybe a tenth of what you need to be qualified.”
Just like before she faded away into glistening white snow before vanishing entirely, and as I blinked I saw the little version lying carefree on the giant throne, which now looked more like a couch due to the size difference between them.
She let out a good-sized laugh. “You pissed off my older sis so she’s making me deal with you again.”
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‘So they’re not the same person?…’
She sat up, waving away the images. “Look, you read the book right. So you know about the four souls. Well, the four mentioned anyway. Fire, nature, light, human. Human souls are dark and blah blah blah. So You have the living soul of a human inside of you, but even if I told you to go murder a bunch of children or I would kill your whole family, you wouldn't do it. Does that make you a good person? I don’t really care, BUT IT DOES MEAN, that dark magic won’t corrupt you as easily.”
“I see…”
She formed a web of darkness between her fingers, playing with it like a spider. “For people like us, we don’t need that whole. (I have to survive for my family) junk in order to keep ourselves sane.”
She flicked the web from her fingers and it wrapped around me, floating me into the air. “Of course, none of the garbage I just spewed actually tells you how to cast the spell, so listen up. You can use whatever you want for the spell.”
“That doesn’t help…”
She rolled her eyes with another groan. “Figure it out, dummy. Geez…. Find something you care about, even just a little bit, and connect the spell to those feelings. If you stop caring about that thing, then connect the spell to something else.”
‘So that’s how it works then is it.’
“Well, you're helping me out, so we're basically friends now right? Can I just connect it to you? Keep the weird void stuff weird void stuff related?”
She snorted, clearly finding something amusing. “Sure, why not, but don’t blame me when you have to change it later.” She jumped down from the throne and walked over to me, “By the way, it's not the weird void, it's the abyss. The place you’re in now is my realm called the rift, it separates your world from the abyss.”
Her hand stopped just short of mine and her face suddenly took on a sad expression like a child being forced to say goodbye to her mother.
‘Should I have picked something else?’ “I-if you don’t want to it’s fine.”
Her face relaxed a bit as she bit her bottom lip before forcing a smile. “N-no it’s fine… Just… Brought back some old memories…”
She grabbed my hands, steadying my weightless body. “Think of me as a tether that lets you walk through the darkness, so long as your memory of me remains you will be able to walk in the abyss. You are my knight and I am your leader.”
I took another close look at her, memorizing every detail of her soft delicate frame. She wasn’t a warrior like me, not even close. She didn’t have the muscle to be an archer either. Her skin was pale, more so than your average bookworm, but her face was full of life, and her hair was the finest silk white. She was like a fairy, glistening in the night sky.
Keeping the image in my mind I did as she said, imagining her as a tether that gave me the ability to walk on darkness, keeping my head above it instead of sinking.
Before long my feet slowly touched the ground, and it felt as though I were standing on stone. Just like before the darkness appeared to ripple underneath my feet, but the footing was solid as stone.
The little girl in front of me started to cry through her forced smile. “There you go… See… Easy…”
Some of her tears began to float through the air like droplets of liquid moonlight. She wiped her eyes, but they kept flowing. “That’s it for now.” She said abruptly, turning around.
I took a step toward her, but as she waved her hand the world spun around me and I was sent spiraling back into my bed in an instant.
I was dizzy and could still feel the power of the dark magic gently coursing through me. I had become somehow more sensitive to the things around me. Specifically, I could feel the presence of the abyss. It emitted from nearly every shadow in my room.
It all felt so surreal like it was just a dream, but at the same time, I knew it was much more. Everything came back to me clearly, but the image of the little girl crying at the end tugged at my heart.
For a moment it was hard to even get out of bed as I lay there thinking about it. ‘She called the other one older sister… So which one is Rafi, is it both of them? Neither?’
I felt the tether keeping me grounded, providing a melancholy of comfort and dread even when I wasn’t in the abyss. I raised my hand up to the ceiling and saw my skin had turned pale like hers. My curiosity was one thing but it was like our emotions were connected as well. ‘Why… Was she crying…’