The bird flew into Addie’s chest, faster than she could possibly react.
She touched her chest, and it felt completely normal. Then, she looked down at Squishy next to her feet. She could feel the fear, no, the worry pulsing through his soul as it bled into their soulbond.
Addie fell to the floor, but she wasn’t quite sure why. The world started spinning around her, and she felt her face against the swampy mud.
Huh. Addie wasn’t breathing. She should probably do that. Addie commanded her body, one breath at a time— inhale, then exhale. She kept that up. It seemed like a good idea.
Somewhere far in the distance, a keening sound wailed out. Oh, wait, no. That sound was right next to her ear. It was Squishy, whining. She wondered why he was doing that. Addie felt fine. The cold mud felt good on her face like this. It really cooled her down.
She felt really hot. So, the cold mud was nice.
“My Lady.”
Idly, Addie wondered if Nettal had healed all the children.
“Addie.”
Well, that was weird. Addie could have sworn she was lying on her side in the mud, but now she seemed to be looking up into total darkness.
A crack split through the sky, Binary light shining down into the dome. Oh, maybe they were tearing the dome down now that Black Cloak had been defeated.
But he hadn’t really been defeated, had he? Or, maybe he had been. Addie wasn’t sure. At least the cold mud on her back felt good. She had really started sweating for some reason.
“Addie, look at me.”
It got a little bit harder to breathe, Addie thought. She slowly moved her eyes down away from the crumbling sky. Squishy was standing on her chest. Huh.
But she wasn’t really thinking about Squishy right now. Something was weird with her magic.
It was roiling in stormy turbulence. Her magic seemed to be responding to something extremely hot. So hot, that her soul seemed to be boiling. That probably wasn’t good. Maybe she should sink further into the mud to cool down. That seemed like a good idea.
“Addie! By the Binary.”
Oh, it looked like Christena was ok. Her hair looked disheveled— far messier than she preferred it. And her maid uniform seemed a bit burnt. That’s right, they had been fighting Black Cloak, maybe that’s why Christena’s hair was so messy.
Addie had defeated Black Cloak, right? What about—
THE BIRD
Addie groaned and grasped at her chest, bunching some of her dress’s fabric into a ball with her fist. She turned back onto her side and rolled up into a ball. A moment later, a firm hand pushed her forcing her onto her back again.
“This isn’t good. She’s losing consciousness.”
Who was Christena talking to? And where was Squishy? Oh, he was still on her chest, but he seemed to be sleeping. Silly cat. This wasn’t a good time to sleep.
“I don’t know what more we can...”
That kind of sounded like Mr. Owlcharge. But Addie was too sleepy to pay much attention to him or Christena.
The world around Addie went black. But, she was still aware. Not of the world, or anything else on the outside.
Addie was a soul: A boiling soul due to the flames around it.
Nothing else existed.
The soul writhed and ached in pain. The soul was on fire. Its layers of transcendent loop bypassed, the flames sneaking directly from within the soul. There, the flames manifested ignoring all barriers completely. Then the barriers collapsed and shattered into motes of light.
The ghostly flames consumed the soul like ravenous beasts, feeding and growing stronger with each moment. They sought not just destruction, but complete obliteration, aiming to transform the soul into something unrecognizable. The soul, once full of hope and light, was now a battleground of searing pain and desperate resistance.
Agonizingly, the flames spread, devouring more of the soul. It writhed under the relentless assault, tiny cracks forming along its radiant crystalline surface. Despair set in, as the soul realized its fate. The flames slithered into these cracks, forcing their tendrils inside and taking root. Each crack felt like another memory lost, a touch of hope destroyed. With each fiery invader, the soul felt its individuality being torn away, bit by bit.
A cherished memory, a girl with bright red hair eating the first harvest of spring cherries. The initial tartness and subsequent sweetness. The crunch as her teeth pierced the skin. This memory came and went, forever gone in the destruction. A cherished memory turned to ash.
The soul roiled in reaction to the flame. It tried to pull away from the flames like a hand recoiling from a hot stove. But the flames pursued relentlessly, their hunger insatiable. They encircled the soul, drawing in its essence from every side.
The soul’s shell superheated and cracked, and the magic within the shell boiled. The tumultuous boiling caused the magic to push up against the sides of its shell, making it feel as if it would burst from the pressure. The soul superheated, spreading the cracks. Panic set in, as the soul desperately tried to contain the boiling magic, without letting it overflow and destroy the shell. But each time the soul pushed down on its magic, the pressure increased, putting even more stress on the fragile shell.
The stress created more fractures and more opportunities for the flames to invade. The flames heated the shell, which boiled the magic. The boiling magic increased pressure within the soul, which in turn created more cracks. Each malicious flame created more fearful searing pain, and each searing pain created more agonizing cracks. The spreading cracks made more uncontrollable, panic-inducing pressure. And the panic-inducing pressure allowed the flames to continue terrorizing the soul. On and on it went, in a cycle of blinding pain and horrifying uncontrollable aversion. The soul writhed. And like this, each step of the process led to the next— the soul cascading further and further into what might soon be total unrecognizabilty.
The flames spread, snaking down the soul along a connection.
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Slithering down, flowing along the river the flames sought to touch the soul on the other side. Reaching out for that soul covered in galaxies and flowing magic.
But that other soul fought back. The soul of swirling galaxies and twisting nebulas pushed up against the flames, overcoming them in twirling scenes of splendor and magnificence.
The crystalline blue soul watched as its partner soul battled the flames. In its twinkling stars, the blue soul saw its determination and pride.
Addie saw the hints of pride in Squishy’s soul only spoken of in the legends of dragons.
And the crystalline soul saw its partner soul’s determination, and how it used its magic not just to recoil or attempt to run away, but she saw how it actively defended against the flames, fought back against the flames. She saw how Squishy’s soul was winning against the flames.
A ghostly ember would strike up against that galaxy soul, and the soul would wrap that ember up in magic, and send it away. The joy of battle flowed through the galaxy soul, and whispers of that magnificence and triumph bled up through the connection to the crystalline soul. The crystalline soul watched as those Whispers from Realmspace rose up through sheer discipline and sheer will. The crystalline soul watched as its partner pulled on their magic, and used it to form stalwart barricades, and looping barriers to protect itself from those flames.
But the galaxy soul was too overwhelmed just trying to defend itself.
Despite being unable to give its aid, the galaxy soul showed the crystalline soul how to fight back, how to defend without recoiling in pure reactionary pain.
Despite the pain, the crystalline soul made a strong determination, it would work to defend itself even in the face of the burning flames.
As the cracks spread across its surface, the soul grabbed ahold of its boiling magic. It expelled that boiling magic, while still keeping total control over it. The writhing magic tried to twist and turn, to bubble up and evaporate. But the soul kept the magic in place and flattened it out.
The searing pain of the flames made the soul wince in pain, again the craving to recoil and flee flooded through it. But despite wanting to run away, the soul held onto its magic firmly and spread it out into a sheet.
Still superheated beyond normal, the magic stung the soul as it wrapped itself up in that protective layer. The magic felt like a blanket that had been sitting next to a campfire for too long. But the initial heat and pain from the boiling magic cooled down after settling across the soul. Still warm, but not so much to burn.
The ghostly flames burning on the outside of the soul were smothered, which allowed the crystalline soul a moment of recovery. It allowed Addie to become aware, and finally take a breath and get control of herself.
But those insidious flames infected her soul to its deepest layers. The ghostly flames had rooted down and settled into the cracks in her soul, which Addie did not know how to heal.
Additionally, past the soul shell, the source of those flames raged on, still pulsing out from something that had clawed its way inside the soul’s deepest center.
Though the cracks could not be healed, perhaps they could be soothed. And although the source of the flames clawed and scraped to stay rooted, perhaps it could be calmed down.
Despite the pain, Addie flooded her soul bond with Squishy using all the rest of the magic she still had. The flames on their bond extinguished, and Squishy sent a feeling of relief up through their bond.
With new freedom, Squishy sent more magic up coursing through the bond, giving Addie more ability to act.
But also giving the flames more fuel to burn.
Addie took that magic and tried to smother the flames in those tiny ravines marring the surface of her soul shell. She tried to shove it down there, but it slipped from her control. Those cracks were smaller than hairline fractures, and Addie had never manipulated her magic into such tiny spaces.
A torrent of flames pulsed out from the center of her soul, sending Addie reeling. Despite the searing heat, she kept the layer around her soul strong, and the torrent of flames had nowhere to spread.
The cracks in her soul would have to wait. She needed to do something about the source of the flames deep within her soul. Trying to smother the flames by themselves would go on forever if she didn’t do something about the fuel.
Addie reached a tendril of her magic deep into her soul. The tendril pushed up against another soul—a burning soul full of fear and regret.
The burning soul lashed out at Addie, spreading ghostly flames up her tendril, almost causing her hold on the magic to collapse. But her magic had the intent of two, now. Squishy pulsed his will down their bond and helped reinforce Addie’s magic.
Together, Squishy and Addie flattened out their tendril of magic and spread it over the burning soul like a blanket. The blanket caught aflame, sending out vibrations of terror and burning. Despite the terror, Addie and Squishy’s hold on the blanket stayed firm. They activated the magic within the blanket, and Addie thought about Christena’s warning.
When you send Black Cloak’s soul out into Realmspace, he’ll never be able to bond again.
What if sending the bird’s flaming soul out into Realmspace hurt Addie? It was inside of her soul now, did that not mean it was already bonded, or perhaps, bonding to her?
She didn’t want to take the risk of losing all of her magic, and she knew Squishy agreed by reading his emotions traveling up through their bond.
Instead, Addie and Squishy held onto that tightly wrapped blanket, and pulled on it, tugging the burning soul out from the deepest layers of Addie’s soul.
On her side, Addie pushed the blanket-wrapped soul forward, and on the other side, Squishy pulled the blanket-wrapped soul toward the connection of roping power that formed their soul bond. With the force of two, the soul rapidly moved away from Addie’s soul and began traveling down Squishy and Addie’s soul bond.
Halfway down the bond, Addie and Squishy stopped moving that burning soul. They moved it up against the edge of the starry tunnel formed from Addie and Squishy’s shared magic.
Then, gently, Addie lifted up the tiniest portion of the blanket, allowing a tiny bit of the burning soul to be exposed.
Immediately, a ghostly torrent of flames roared out from the bird’s soul. The flames burned against a circular portion of the tunnel wall, creating a hole in Addie and Squishy’s soul bond.
The entire tunnel rumbled and nearly tore itself apart, the forces on either side becoming unstable with a hole in its side.
Addie stabilized the tunnel on her side by using more of her magic to hold it firm and stop it from moving. The other side of the bond also settled down, and Addie knew Squishy had done the same thing on his side.
Quickly, before the burning soul could escape or worse, cause more damage, Addie wrapped the blanket back around the burning soul, smothering it again. Then, she pushed it into the opening the burning soul itself had formed in the soul tunnel connecting Addie and Squishy.
Addie held the burning soul in place and unwrapped the front and back of the blanket. Now, the burning soul was held in place from the sides, connecting it to either side of Addie and Squishy’s soul tunnel connection. They held it there in place, firmly.
The burning soul roiled and wiggled for a moment. Addie could feel its confusion at its new location. From her side, Addie sent a feeling of acceptance and kindness down the tunnel, directed at the burning soul. From his side, Squishy sent a feeling of protectiveness and sturdiness down the tunnel to the burning soul.
Now connected to Addie and Squishy, magically and emotionally, it felt all of the damage it had inflicted across Addie’s soul shell. Each crack the flames had caused, each burn that had manifested, the bird’s soul felt Addie’s injuries in full as its own. It experienced all of the sufferings it had pushed onto Addie as its own, each ache and pain Addie felt traveling down the connection where they now shared a bond.
It became aware then, that all of the damage it was causing to Addie’s soul for its own gain was self-destructive. Consuming Addie’s soul in its greedy flames and devouring her soul as nothing more than a source of magic would not just destroy Addie. It would destroy the bird, too.
The soul stopped, aware of all the hurt it had caused. Finally aware that its selfishness caused nothing but suffering. For a moment, Addie felt vindicated, tempted to push all of her suffering onto the one that had caused her harm. But, she didn’t. She knew her new bonded’s soul was already suffering, as she was. And she felt compassion for it. Just as Addie herself didn’t want to have aching burns, she didn’t want her new bonded’s soul to have aching burns.
The cracks in Addie’s soul shell were still there, marring its surface, but no longer did tendrils of flames wriggle in deeper to take root.
The new, three-way connection between Addie, Squishy, and the ghostly bird relaxed. Their connection was damaged but not cascaded— Weak, but stable. The magic from the bird flooded out into the bond. It tasted of spice and smoke. The idea of a shadowy fire, but all magical potential— not manifested as true flames since it lacked ill-intent.
The bird’s magic mixed inside the tunnel with Squishy’s magic. The three-way bond felt like spiraling galaxies and passive ghostly flames, with a hint of a young girl’s excitement for magic.