The Pursuit of Shadows: The Last Warden by Edward Kane

Author:Edward Kane [Kane, Edward]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stranded Publications
Published: 2025-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Fiona scanned the room, but her attention was quickly stolen by the sudden stop of her guide. He stopped, looked at her then down to the floor. After a deep breath, she followed his eyes.

The floor was clear, like a window looking into another world. Fiona backpedaled fast, the walls of the cottage were the only thing that kept her upright.

She looked back to the giant, he was finishing a sentence on the blackboard, "I can show you the past."

Fiona followed the chalk in his hand from the blackboard as he pointed to the floor. Through the floor window, she saw a great field that went on for decades. That was the word that came to her. It was about time, not distance. It was overwhelming to look at. How could it go on forever?

Suddenly, the endless gold field was smeared with red. Thick dark red blood. She could nearly smell it. A giant rolled through the field. Fiona couldn't tell if it was her guide or not. Something rocketed through the air that made her think of lightning, and it collided with the giant's arm. She saw the stone encase the flesh and knew who this was. He was speechless and just stared off in the direction he came from. Hurt and horror stained his face. There was a lot, and he wore it all for her to see. The disappointment of an enormous disagreement.

Another giant came from seemingly nowhere, lifting her guide up from the blood-soaked field. The blood was erased and the second giant's voice boomed.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to the weight of your mistakes," He tapped the stone arm. "Warden, time to settle into your new role."

Fiona looked to her guide. "What sort of disagreement gets you... all of this?"

The Warden shook his head.

"What does a Warden do?"

Her guide pointed his hand down to the floor.

The golden field was gone, in its place was a vast hole. Vast was wrong because it implied an end. This hole, like the field, was not measured in size, but in time. The hole's time was shorter. It was turned inside out. She heard scratching on the chalk board and turned to see the Warden holding his hand to a word she didn't recognize.

Sheol.

He pointed to the hole then back to the word. The hole was called Sheol. She watched the hole spiral upward into a tall spire. As it did, she saw small shadows bleed from it, at first only a few then as it grew there were more and more. The shadows reached out from the spire, but were quickly drawn back in by some invisible force. The Warden beside her scratched at the chalk board then tapped at it.

It read: Pursuit.

She said, "The spire."

The Warden nodded then wrote, "Shades tried to escape during the change, but they were unable to. Wardens persuade souls, offering guidance through the fields. Not all realms want wandering souls. So they worked for us, as shades."

"Realms? You mean Heaven and Hell?"

The Warden laughed.

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