Fate Bound by Athena Storm

Author:Athena Storm [Storm, Athena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Athenaverse Press
Published: 2022-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Seven

Lothar

Stop. You must not die here, Lothar.

“Without her, why should I live?” I grip the knife handle tightly. “Better to die than to suffer. I will never live long enough to see my love ever again.”

You are wrong. I will lend you some of my lifeforce, and allow you to remain alive until such time as Nathalie awakens.

“You lie,” I sputter. “No one can live that long. Even mountains and stars die in such a time as you allude to.”

You continue to think of time and space as linear. You must live, Lothar. Your love is not lost to you. Not forever.

The promise of seeing my love awake and alive again is too much. I drop the knife with a clatter and cover my face with my hands.

The waiting will not be easy. I can do nothing to ease the pain of longing. I can only keep you alive to endure it until the day when Nathalie awakens.

“Whatever it takes.” I pull my hands away from my face and stare up at the Life Tree. “I’ll do whatever it takes to see her again.”

Then rise from your despair, and drink my nectar. You will see her again, so long as your heart remains pure and your affection for her remains intact.

A bright green vine unfurls from the greater trunk and bends toward me, heavy with the weight of a curled, fresh leaf the size of my head. The leaf unfurls as it reaches ground level, forming a kind of deep bowl. Inside of the leaf resides clear, honey-like liquid.

I tip the pointed edge of the leaf into my mouth, then tilted the vine upward. The nectar spills down my throat, and it’s like swallowing a bolt of lightning. I can feel my body changing, not just physically but changing in the very easy way my molecules move through time.

I take the leaf from my mouth and grimace at the layer of dead leaves I’ve accumulated.

“Why did you cover me with leaves?” I ask.

I did not. While drinking my nectar, you entered a realm beyond normal space and time. It seemed only a few seconds passed to you, but this world has made a hundred trips around the sun.

“A hundred years?” My jaw goes slack. “I’ve been standing here for a hundred years?”

In a manner of speaking.

“Where is my love? Have there been any changes? Is she safe?”

The Life Tree connects to my mind and shows me her sleeping form.

There have been no changes, nor are any expected. At the least you have passed the first century of waiting in an eyeblink.

I suppose I should be grateful for that.

I don’t want to be around the Life Tree. Its essence in my mind is too omnipresent. I decide to return to my people, since it has been a hundred years. I hope no one will recognize me.

When I return to them, they assume I am a rogue Skuyr looking for a new clan. I allow them this illusion. The truth would be far too complicated for them to possibly grasp, and I am not about to dwell on my misery.

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