Chapter 48

I didn’t expect to hear her voice. Every cell in my body explodes with happiness. I wait for what feels like decades to listen to her voice once more.

I try to call out for her, but the words weren’t forming. Was I imagining it? No, I can’t have. It felt too real. It felt how it used to.

As I panic in the blackness, a familiar light reaches out to me. Nia calls my name once again. The gentleness of her tone finds me in the darkness – as it did once before.

“Valerie!” She calls louder. I reach out with greedy hands. Desperate and excited.

I don’t need to reach for when the light curls around me. My body feels relaxed in this place. Nothing hurts. I float in clouds of tranquil silence, my mind whole. My thoughts are just a whisper.

“Welcome child-…” A new voice murmurs into my ear.

I recognise her voice, the Goddess. Selene!

“I was searching for you,” I breathe. I didn’t even feel my lips move. My thoughts feel so open, my body no longer feels burdened, and my soul feels free.

“I know, I heard your prayers,” I felt the smile in her words, but a sudden rush of anger burns my soul.

“Did you hear my prayers in that dungeon?” I ask. I can’t help myself; this place is different from the other place. I can’t keep anything to myself. My thoughts, my emotions just burst wide open.

“Yes, I did,” she answers truthfully. I couldn’t help but let my tears fall, upset. Her soft hands run through my locks, humming a gentle tune.

“How can you just ignore me? I was in so much pain, for so damn long,” I whimper, my body curling into itself.

No one listens; no one cares; no one bothered.

I’m insignificant. A speck compared to the universe. Why did I hope the Gods would show me mercy?

“I know, Child. I hear every prayer, and I have never abandoned you. I can’t hold your hand when things get difficult, or you’ll never grow and learn. Nevertheless, I would never leave you alone. As long as you keep me in your heart, there will always be something greater waiting for you,” she promises, like a soft lullaby in my ear.

“But I haven’t experienced anything great, and I’m dead,” I cry, recalling my memories with my younger self.

“That is because I removed your soul before the ice touches your heart. As long as your soul hasn’t touched death, you can awake once I place you back into your body,” she confesses. “I planned to bring you here, but you fought so desperately for life, I lost my grip on you.”

That explains why I ended up in that unusual place, talking to my past self. Does this mean my soul hasn’t touched death, but the revelation is still confusing? “W-Why?” I whisper. Why did a Goddess save me? I thought they don’t get involved?

“Shhh, we don’t have long. I can feel your companion searching for you. It won’t take him long. You’re here because everyone who knows the truth of the events two thousand years ago is dead. The only way you can make a real decision is by knowing your history.” My heart stays calm, ready to listen with curious ears.

“Two thousand years ago, when Freya was born?” I whisper. Truthfully, I’m curious. Too much doesn’t make sense. I’ve always known my mother wasn’t innocent. Honestly, who is? But I haven’t met anyone with as many secrets as her.

It was those times in the dungeon, left to my thoughts replaying and questioning past events. She held too many secrets – secrets she told no one.

“Yes. Freya spoke the truth; she is your sister. Lucinda and Orion met two thousand years ago, but Orion was just a spirit without a vessel. He passed through everything he touched, and at first, your mother was okay with it. They both were – until they fell in love,” Selene reveals.

They met two thousand years ago?! So, the day on the cliff, was mother speaking to Valak or Orion? “When you fall so deeply for another person, but unable to feel the beat of their heart. The warmth of their touch, nor the comfort of their presence, you start to feel desperate.”

“I love you, and it’s the worst kind of pain I’ve ever had to live through.”

My mother’s words echo inside me. I recall the pain in her voice and the tears searing down her face as she sobs, holding her chest to comfort the ache in her chest. “Until one night, a hooded figure fell at her doorstep, dying. He stole an ancient artefact from the Eastern lands, a bracelet once touched by a God – A Seress.”

“I thought a Seress is a person?!” Being touched by only a tiny portion of a God shouldn’t make me a Seress. Selene’s hands run through my hair, her gentle fingers running down my face.

“No, you’re the second breathing Seress. The reason is that your mother used Voca de Oracle while she was pregnant with you. The call allows a god of an Oracles choosing to possess you. At the time, your mother chose Hecate, and you became a Seress.”

I’ve had the black paw print since birth. Mother always told me it was a birthmark, but I always thought differently.

“So, I’ve always been a Seress?” I ask. That doesn’t explain how my mark turned white.

“You were touched twice, so the mark turned white. Truthfully, no creature can survive a single touch of a deity, that is why Seress’s were originally objects - until Ava, and now you,” she breathes.

“How did my mother conceive us? If neither of us existed, then the worlds wouldn’t be hanging on a thread,” I finally ask. No matter what direction I run, saving the world seems to be hitting every bump. I can run from it, no matter where I turn.

“Eldora isn’t a world the fates planned to create. Before Eldora, Gods were able to come to Earth – not many lived peacefully. Earth was our playground, waging wars for land, power, of jealousy. They were dark times for humans. The ashes of those wars created Eldora. Creatures we didn’t have any control of rose, and we were no longer able to step onto your worlds to correct our mistakes.” Selene confesses, sadly.

“And the Qusayr was created to watch over the darkness,” I state. The Gods couldn’t do anything themselves, so they created beings who could.

“Yes. The man who fell at your mother’s doorstep told her of a place known as Caiden. It possessed the eternal fire, which contained too much power it frightened us. Unmatched darkness, unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Its heat even reached Olympus, so the Qusayr were tasked to watch it.”

I have heard about Caiden - no one knows where it is. Those who have searched for that power never returned. We heard stories about the place as children, that if you get too close, the heats melt your very bones until your nothing.

“How does it relate to my mother?” I wonder. Even if she did get close, the heat would most likely kill her.

“Oracles aren’t affected by the flame because they have the Gods protection. Only a Seress blade can truly kill them.” So, my father’s blade.

Where did he even find such an object?

“So, my mother ventured to Caiden and used the flame to breathe life into Orion,” I piece together. It seems like something she would do. Selene chuckles, continuing to run her fingers through my hair.

“Yes, but she underestimated the powers of the flame. When they slept together for the first time, the flame breathed life into Orion’s sperm, and you were born.” No, that doesn’t make any sense.

“You mean Freya,” I correct.

“No child, I mean the three of you.” Three?

“Are you saying my mother had another kid?” I murmur. I couldn’t comprehend the idea that I may have another evil sibling out there. I’m barely grasping Freya is my sister. How the hell do I have another?!

“No child, I’m saying she had triplets.”

As she spoke those words, I suddenly fell out of her reach as a familiar voice calls out to me.

“Valerie!” It roars so loudly; my bones vibrate. A ghost of a hand settles onto my shoulder, and Suddenly, Selene feels a million miles away, and I feel like I’m being sucked into a vortex.

“NO!” I scream. As my body simultaneously breathes back to life.

No, I need to know more!