All thought of the risks in my strategy flooded my mind as my body lay there dying. Given a choice, I would not have gone about it the way I had. The pain you might expect from falling from a cliff was nothing compared to the terrible agony I actually felt upon crashing to the rocks. The magic in the blood I had previously absorbed was all I had to keep my soul tethered to my body for long enough to act. Combining two forbidden schools of magic, I used my remaining power to bind my soul to the black diamond that I held in my pocket. I had no reasonable expectation of my spell being successful, but I had gambled on the long-lost connection between Garanda and myself providing me access to his sparesoul.
Fortunately, I was not mistaken.
Using my soul magic, I discarded my broken body and took up residence in this new shell. The experience of entering someone else's soul was usually one of wandering through a facsimile of a place where that person felt most comfortable. However, Garanda's soul resembled stone landscape beneath an empty void. There were mortal remains littering the ground, some of which I recognized. My soul went cold when I recognized the blank faces of Ethan Reed and his companions. I turned away in discomfort and wandered in another direction until I nearly stumbled over the bodies of people I once recognized as members of my old blood mage coven.
There were no walls around me, but I felt constricted. There was no water around me, but I felt as if I could drown. I had seen and done so much with the coven and during the Archknight Rebellion that I should have been desensitized to these sights, but here it did not matter. Garanda's soul was nothing like the mortal souls I have seen up to and since that day. He was nothing more than the sum of his atrocities, a single-minded monster who lived only to kill. He was nothing like the Maulans who were allied with him, who at least had no free will. He reveled in his purpose. In this moment, I had come to understand my adversary far more than I ever had before. With Maula's sympathies re-aligned with those of her family, this aberration had no reason to exist--but he was too resilient to stop.
It was a mistake to think I could be rid of such a destructive force of nature. After all, is it even possible for Garanda to die? I was convinced then as I am now that he will only do so when Maula allows it and, until that day comes, it was critical to control him. Fortunately, Broger had left me with an invaluable tool that would work for that purpose. So, I knelt down toward one of the fallen blood mages and forced myself to pick him up. I dropped him next to one of our sisters then walked away to grab another body. Seeing nothing else I could do with this soul at present I resolved to clean my surroundings. I was relieved to see that my magic still functioned in this place, as it allowed me to pile these reminders of Garanda's victims and burn them away.
Throughout my attempts to clear the soul of his crimes, I had hoped for the chance to interact with even the faintest fragment of his soul. But he didn't seem to be present. It was unusual, even among practitioners of soul magic, to see a soul occupy more than a single space. Thus, the existence of his own body would prevent him from appearing here. That was fine, however. Now that I had unfettered access to his soul for a change, I had a power over him he could only have accounted for if he were cooperating more closely with Broger than I thought. There would be no perceived glory in his slaughter any more, nor would he be tainted by the stench of death. Without these reminders of his violence staining his soul, I could only imagine with glee how he would change.
As for an encounter, well that need only have waited until Garanda noticed what I was doing to him. I was certain that when he did, he would come after his sparesoul again. So, I waited. I waited for Kartal to subdue Adaling and restore my cousin's control over her body. I waited for Voltairine to reach my then-dead body and retrieve the stone. I waited for my companions to get to safety. All this time, I remained aware of my surroundings but could see and feel nothing. I could only hear their voices cutting through the silence in my temporary shelter; mourning my passing, reassuring Adamora that she was no more at fault for what had befallen me than I was for Garanda's murders. I called to them, willing them to hear that I had not yet expired in spirit, but my words could not escape the object in which I had imprisoned myself.
I would have shouted myself hoarse had I been in possession of vocal cords at the time. I relentlessly called to them as they discussed alternate plans to defeat Garanda without me and I continued to do so when they exhausted this topic of discussion and went their separate ways for the night. They left the sparesoul with Voltairine, who had grown clearly weary and confused with the recent string of traumatic sights that come with my journey. She picked up the sparesoul and stared into it, inundating my entire view with her sad eyes. I wished to comfort her, to let her know that she had borne the burdens she had taken from me with more grace than I could ever have expected. But I had since given up on trying to talk. I could only think in this place, so I thought of the name of the one who had impressed me so much. As I did so, however, she jumped in her seat and hissed my name in shock. It seemed that holding the sparesoul allowed her to hear my thoughts.
Scarcely believing my fortune, I communicated with her between minds. I informed her that my death was arranged to be temporary and that this was the only I could think of to overcome Garanda's superior strength. I warned her that Garanda would be coming for the sparesoul as a result of what I had been doing with it. She was terrified at the thought of being found with his soul, but I assured her that I could protect her and everyone else in this state, which was true. When I saw him again, I would have sufficient access to his soul to prevent him from harming anyone else--or doing anything I would not approve of, for that matter.
The next morning, Kartal and Adamora returned to inform Voltairine that Garanda was not coming for me. Instead, he had opted to draw me to him by focusing his wrath on my hometown of Palon. Fear for the safety of my daughters was certainly an incredible lure, but quite unnecessary. After hearing this bit of news, Voltairine then told them of my survival and what she could understand of my plot to subdue Garanda once and for all. Now that I knew where he could be found and my companions knew that I still remained to oppose him, there could be no question that I would be coming for him. When we were close to each other once more, I would have the power to interact with his soul fragments and exert even more power over him than I already had.
So they set out, with me stowed safely on Voltairine's person, toward the culmination of over 60 years' mutual hatred. I was ready to end this.
Continue to Part 17!
Continue to Part 17!
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