Chapter 14 - The Binding of Souls
Julian looked down at Mara, his eyes reflecting the blazing inferno before them. “Rewrite it? How? There’s no spell in the archives for reshaping a divine covenant.”
“There is,” Mara replied, a calm, resolute certainty in her tone. “The bloodline of the First Sovereign holds the key, but it requires two balanced halves—a ruler of the crown and a keeper of the earth. Light and shadow. King and servant.”
Before Julian could question her further, Alistair’s shadowy form lunged forward, a spectral claw of pure energy sweeping toward them.
“Now, Julian!” Mara shouted.
Together, they moved as one. Julian channeled the royal energy of his blade directly into Mara’s outstretched palm. The sapphire tattoos on her arms exploded with brilliant white light, forming a shield of pure, blinding creation that intercepted Alistair’s attack.
The cavern shook violently. Cracks spiderwebbed across the crystal walls, and boiling magma surged upward from the chasm.
“You cannot bind what cannot be held!” Alistair shrieked, his voice fracturing into a thousand overlapping echoes as the light began to consume his shadowy form.
“We aren't holding you,” Mara declared, her voice carrying the full weight of her newly awakened heritage. “We are setting the world free from your debt.”
May you like
With a final, earth-shattering roar, Mara thrust her hands forward. The white-blue light wrapped around Alistair’s core, pulling the scattered fragments of his consciousness into the bone throne and sealing them beneath an impenetrable layer of pure crystal.
The purple fire vanished. The cavern fell into a profound, peaceful silence, broken only by the gentle dripping of water and the steady, rhythmic breathing of the two survivors standing on the bridge.
