“You extended my life,” Ashani said. “You showed me that there is still hope. I will remember you for the rest of my days.”
Panic filled Vir’s stomach.
“What are you saying?”
“Oh, my dear friend, I cannot cross through my own Ash Gates. If I could have, don’t you think I’d have left to seek my people?”
Vir’s blood ran cold.
Ashani’s wolves crowded protectively around their mother, baring their fangs at the approaching Wyrms. It would not be long before they arrived.
“That’s… no,” Vir said, his words barely more than a whisper. “I-I was going to show you the Demon Realm! We were going to travel the world together! Were those hopes of yours a lie?”
“I had hoped,” she said. “I’d held hope that you might know a way. But you do not. Do you?”
Vir’s words caught in his throat. What could he say to her? Maybe if he’d practiced his chakras. Maybe if he’d opened them, he’d know more.
But he didn’t. He hadn’t. Vir didn’t have the slightest clue.
“My apologies,” Ashani said. “’Tis presumptuous of me to ask for such a thing.”
No! That’s not it at all! Vir thought, furiously trying to come up with a solution. But sometimes… there just wasn’t an answer.
The Wyrms were close now.
Vir started forth, but the gate wobbled in front of him. Ashani’s image distorted.
“Lad!” Cirayus roared, bounding up to him. The giant grabbed him with all four arms, locking him in place.
“Let go!” Vir cried, fighting the demon with every muscle in his body. “I need to go back. I need to help her!”
“Don’t you dare!” Cirayus thundered. “That gate is no longer stable. You’ll be cut to pieces! I’ll not lose you again!”
“Ashani!” Vir roared. “I won’t leave you to die!”
Ashani smiled coyly. “Oho? Who said anything about dying?”
“You can’t fight them.”
“No. But they’ve yet to track me. I shall do what I have always done to deal with such threats. Hide. And hibernate. In time, they will bore and leave.”
Ashani urged her wolves along, and they disappeared into the nearby buildings, whimpering.
“But now,” she continued, “I have more life than I ever could have hoped for.”
This can’t be happening, Vir thought. Hadn’t he just grown stronger? What use was that strength if he couldn’t even protect the ones he cared about? How many times would he have to lose those precious to him?
Vir scowled in fury. Cirayus released him only when he’d exhausted himself, and he slumped to his knees.
I refuse to accept this. I can’t lose her. I won’t. Then Vir did the only thing he could. He swore an oath.
“I will return, Ashani.” Vir locked eyes with the goddess. “I will come back. I’ll find you. And I’ll show you the world. I swear it on my father’s name. I swear this oath to you now. I will return.”
Ashani’s smile lost its sadness, turning beautiful, like a blossoming flower.
“Then I shall eagerly await that day. My friend.”
The gate winked shut, and she was gone.
Vir drove his fists into the ground. Prana Current surged, and a maelstrom of deadly black prana coalesced around him like a storm. A visible storm of prana, billowing furiously around his body. Nowhere was safe.
Cirayus backed away.
Vir looked up to the sky, and he roared. In anguish. In defiance against Fate itself. Swearing to the gods that he would return for her one day.
Consumed by his emotions, Vir never noticed the black blur that had slipped through the gate before it closed.
49
(PART ONE): POWER OVERWHELMING
Cirayus was beginning to think he’d made a huge mistake by restraining the boy.
“The City of the Gods,” he said blankly.
“Yes,” Vir replied, frowning at the ground.
“An Imperium Goddess. The Goddess Ashani!” Cirayus said. “Who can create Ash Gates.”
“Yes,” Vir repeated.
“And you left her behind?” The giant roared.
“You were the one who stopped me from going back!” Vir shouted, driving his fist into the wall of their abode.
With just his fist? Cirayus thought, eyeing the impression Vir had made into the hard rock. He’s stronger now. Incomparably stronger! By Adinat, just how much prana must course within his body to be so physically strong?
And the cyclone of prana that whipped around Vir when he’d come through the Ash Gate earlier…
The terrifying image played through Cirayus’ mind in a loop, even now. To channel so much prana that it became visible… He’d witnessed nothing like it in his four centuries of life. Just what secrets had Vir learned in that realm? What gifts had he been bestowed by the goddess? How strong was he now? Cirayus shivered in anticipation. Anticipation, and awe.
Vir paced around the home, fidgeting, his hand brushing against the handle of his katar as he summarized his time in the Mahādi Realm.
The more Cirayus heard the more his amazement grew.
For centuries, he’d striven to glean what he could about the Age of Gods. Both to understand demonkind’s ancestors and because such knowledge might very well lead to an improvement for demonkind’s lives. Who knew what sorts of secrets lay buried in their past?
And now, in just under a day, Vir had learned more than Cirayus had in four hundred years.
Vir sat on a chair and clutched his hair.
Cirayus was no stranger to loss, of course. How many times had he watched those he cared about pass on? Both on and off the battlefield. The most recent of which still scarred him.
He’d lied when he’d told Vir earlier that he’d found ways of dealing with death. It never got easier. Not for those who were truly close to him.
Others dealt with it by closing off their hearts, often becoming cold and lonely in the process.
Cirayus never had. Rather, he refused to. He felt that putting the world at arm’s length would make him lose something precious. That the loss of his wives, sons, daughters, and grandchildren in the Chitrans’ coup struck so hard meant he still cared.
Unfortunately, it also nearly destroyed him. To this day, he wondered whether fleeing into the Ash with the young Vir was for the boy’s benefit… or his own. Was he ready to return to that realm? Was he ready to confront all those he’d lost?
The Chits would pay dearly—of this he had no doubt. But even if he single-handedly annihilated their clan, how was he supposed to look his progeny in the eye after he’d failed them so thoroughly?
Cirayus couldn’t say. The wounds were still too raw for him. Still fresh.
It was why he knew no words could console the boy. Only time would do that.
Time… and a distraction.
The boy needed to release those pent-up emotions. And, to be honest, so did Cirayus.
When Vir had disappeared, Cirayus had nearly broken. Only by spending time in his chakra mindscape, meditating, did he stop himself from collapsing entirely. It was too much. He’d thought for certain that all had been lost. And now…
“You look like you want to kill something, lad,” Cirayus said.
“You’re Ash-damned right, I do. If it wasn’t for that Wyrm…”
“Well, they may not be Wyrms, but those Domain Lords out there are still waiting for you.”
“Why bother?” Vir asked. “I know I can take them.”
“Oho?” Cirayus said playfully, betraying none of his internal turmoil. “Quite the confidence. I wonder if you can back that up?”