Holmberg, D K - The Endless War 05 - Seal of Light by Holmberg D K

Author:Holmberg, D K [Holmberg, D K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ASH Publishing
Published: 2016-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

25

Jasn

Exiling the Wise might have been a mistake. Perhaps there is some way to learn to speak to them, though our attempts to learn have failed.

—Ghalen, First of the Khal

Jasn sat alone by the fire, watching Ciara as she spoke softly to the draasin. Night had fallen, and the flames leaped higher than they had before, casting away the shadows. The fog that hovered around the tower dissipated leaving nothing more than a starry sky. A warm breeze blew in from the ocean, carrying the scent of the sea and the sound of circling gulls. Had they been there before? The warmth had not, and the clear sky had not. That, more than even the soft glowing off the walls of the tower, told him that they had succeeded here. Tenebeth had been suppressed.

All because of Ciara.

Not him. He might have fought off some of the Khalan, but he’d barely done enough and had nearly died in the attempt. Were it not for Ciara, the Khalan would have succeeded.

A lump formed in his throat as he thought of her, and it refused every effort he made to swallow it back. Maybe it would choke him. After all that he had done, didn’t he deserve it?

He wasn’t surprised to live, though from Ciara’s reaction, his injury must have been particularly gruesome. That wouldn’t be the first time that water had restored him when he should have died, and he doubted that would be the last. It had been the first time that water restored him when he wanted to live.

Had wanted. Watching Ciara’s reaction to hearing him describe what he’d done in Rens had torn his heart out. If he could have died from anything, that would have been it. Instead, he had to suffer with pain that water could not take away. Better to suffer a physical assault than to deal with the pain of revealing what he’d done to her people.

Why did you bring me back?

Water delayed answering, but the answer came. You would have remained broken?

I think I am always going to be broken.

Only because you choose it, Child of Water.

I choose nothing.

Which is why you are broken.

Jasn felt as Cheneth appeared through a strange combination of water and spirit. Since recovering, his connection to spirit had strengthened. That had never happened before. Always before when he recovered from an attack, he had returned no more or less powered than he had been before. This… this was noticeable.

“You don’t have to sit alone,” Cheneth said.

“I think that I do.”

“Do you? Has she turned you away so soon?”

Jasn shook his head. “I told her who I am.”

“Am or was? Because I do not think they are the same.”

Jasn hadn’t either, but could he ever really escape what he had done and who had been? “When I went to Hyaln, I thought that I could become someone else. I thought that maybe that was the reason you had sent me there. Now I’m not so sure.”

“You went to Hyaln because

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