The Fallen Paladin's Riddle by C. Y. Russ

Author:C. Y. Russ [Russ, C. Y.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

Mara only knew that time was passing. She had to get out, because every minute spent stuck in her own head was a minute that Resham remained in peril.

She had to get out.

But she was weak, tired of fighting. It had been days that she had done nothing but throw herself against the ever shifting web that was holding her away from reality and she was exhausted.

And the more tired that she got, the more that laugh leaked in. She knew that laugh, it had plagued her since the sanctuary. It meant that the Creeping Shadow was winning free of the light that was Rhyland’s soul.

That light was faint and far now and if the Creeping Shadow managed to win free it would begin to consume Keiino. And that was one thing that she would never allow to happen.

Which meant that she would remain trapped in her head in order to hold the Shadow back. She had sacrificed her body, now she would sacrifice her freedom and her mind in order to ensure the safety of this place.

It didn’t matter that she had been taken. There were innocents and children that had nothing to do with her kidnapping and no idea that she even existed and Mara was not going to become a doorway to destroy them.

So she turned from her freedom and bent her energy to become a cage for the Shadow. Trapping it in the core of her as she had done back on Resham.

It hurt, eating at her like acid, but the pain was familiar and known so she welcomed it back. It would chew through her, but she would cage it, even in death she would guard and never let it seep free of her bones.

She could weave those spells, even from the depths of her head. She could trap the shadow into the marrow of her bones and tie it there with her eternal soul. She would never pass on, never find peace, but the world would be safe.

And that was worth the pain.

That was the duty of a Paladin.

She wove, driving the Shadow down and in and if she had been free of her own head she would have been screaming with the pain. As it was, she swam in the agony as it filled her body with no outlet or surcease.

But through it all, was the beating of duty and the need to protect the people. Even though she had never met them, even though they wouldn’t understand her sacrifice or that she would never rest. Hopefully she could tell them to bury the bones she would leave behind far and deep and never allow them to see the light of day.

It was a horror, but it was all she had left.

Rhyland had abandoned her, she was imprisoned in the depths of her head, but she could still do her duty.

Resham

Resham was also her duty, but she had to choose to save the people of an uncorrupted world.

And then her world exploded.

Where silence and darkness had been, there was fiery illumination and far too much sound.

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