Chapter 97 Another Solution
LUCA
Bardon gives me a look I can say I’ve never seen on his face before. Thoughtful but with a glint of something I couldn’t place my finger on.
“Yes, but you giving it to her doesn't mean you lost it completely.”
I shook my head, my face twisting in confusion. He sounded like a crazy person right now. And I really wasn’t in the mood to listen to one of his insane theories. “What are you saying, Bardon? Be clear.”
“Immortality doesn’t disappear. It transforms, right.” the whole room nodded, some muring in agreement. “It means, it’s inside her now, integrated with her Moonborne power.” He met my eyes. “If we could extract it, return it to you temporarily—”
“Would that work?” I cut him off, eager for him to get to the important part.
The part where he tells me how I'm going to get my mate back.
“It can be possible but I have no valid proof.” Bardon’s honesty was brutal. “The spell to transfer immortality has never been reversed. We’d be attempting something completely theoretical.”
“Do it.”
“Your Majesty, if this fails, you could die. The magical backlash alone—”
“If it succeeds, I can reach her. That’s all that matters.” I looked around the room. “Someone start working on the extraction spell. Now.”
“But even if we get you into the void, there’s no guarantee you can get both of you out—”
“Then I’ll stay there with her. I don’t care. I’m not leaving her alone in that place one moment longer than necessary.”
Caspian stood. “Then let’s get to work. We have an impossible rescue to plan.”
\-----
ARYA
Time had no meaning here.
I didn’t know if I’d been trapped for hours or years. The void didn’t allow for such mundane concepts as the passage of time.
Mordecai was somewhere with me. I felt his cold presence occasionally. He’d tried to attack me several times, but the spell kept us separated.
Mostly, I was alone. Alone with my thoughts. My regrets. My memories.
I thought about Luca. About the life we’d been building together, all the plans we’d made that would never come to fruition.
I thought about the unity movement. Whether it would survive without me and if everything we’d accomplished would fall apart.
My friends. My allies. Everyone who’d believed in me.
Then I thought about going insane.
Because that was the real danger here. Not Mordecai. Not even the void itself. But the slow erosion of my sanity as the nothingness ate away at my sense of self.
I tried to hold onto who I was. Repeated my name over and over. Listed facts about my life, my loves, my purpose.
But it was getting harder.
The void wanted me to forget. To dissolve. To become nothing like everything else here.
'No,' I told myself firmly. 'I am Aeliana Moonborne. I have a mate. I have friends. I have a world to save.'
'Do you?' The void seemed to whisper back. 'Or is that just a dream? Perhaps you’ve always been here. Perhaps there is no reality. Only this.'
“SHUT UP!” I screamed at no one. “I’m real! They’re real! It’s all REAL!”
Then I heard Mordecai’s laughter from somewhere and everywhere all at once.
“Is it?” His voice came from everywhere. “How can you be sure? The void plays tricks and shows you what you want to see. How do you know those memories are real and not just fantasies it created to keep you docile?”
“Because I can feel the bond! I can feel Luca!”
“Are you certain what you’re feeling is not an echo of what you want to believe?”
I reached for the bond and it was there. Proof that reality existed. Proof that I wasn’t just a construct of the void.
'Luca,' I sent through it. 'If you can hear me, I’m still here. I’m still fighting.'
“He’s forgotten you by now,” Mordecai said conversationally. “That’s what the living do. They mourn briefly, then move on. Find new loves. New purposes. You’re already being replaced.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Am I? How long do you think we’ve been here? A week? A year? A decade?” His laughter was cruel. “You have no way of knowing. For all you know, everyone you loved died of old age centuries ago.”
“STOP!”
“Truth hurts, doesn’t it? You sacrificed yourself for nothing. They’re all gone, and you’re stuck here with me. Forever.”
I curled into myself and tried to block out his voice. I could only hold onto the hope that everything he said wasn’t the truth. But it was so hard. So impossibly hard that my heart tightened and it didn’t feel like it would ever release again.
'Luca,' I thought desperately. 'Please don’t forget me. Please keep trying. Please—'
Something shifted in the void. A warmth where there should be only nothing. A presence where there should be only absence.
Reality was bleeding in. And with it came a voice I’d know anywhere.
“ARYA!”
'Luca?'
“I’m here! Hold on! I’m coming for you!”
I wanted to cry, scream, run toward his voice. I wasn’t sure which to do.
“Well, well,” Mordecai said. “Looks like your mate is even more foolish than you. He’s actually trying to enter the void. This should be entertaining.”
“Don’t you dare hurt him!” Mordecai's laughter was cruel.
“Hurt him? I don’t need to. The void will do it for me. He’ll dissolve like everyone else who’s tried to breach this prison. And you’ll get to watch.”
“NO!” i screamed.
But I was powerless and trapped and unable to help as Luca forced his way into the impossible.
‘Luca, don’t come in here. It’ll trap you.’ I pleaded, trying to reach into the bond again but it was almost like it was never there to begin.
'Please,' I begged whatever force controlled the void. My voice was breaking. Everything in me was breaking. 'Please don’t let him die trying to save me.'
I got no response.
'Please.