Light in the Shadows

To Heal

At times, a person must act without thought and when things settle, must learn to live with the consequences of their decision. I learned this hard lesson when I was four. I was enjoying the ride with Jayla. I had known her for less than a day, but I thought I'd grow to really like her. We had been riding for a while when she finally spoke.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Jayla asked.

Before I could answer, there was a loud c***k, like the sound of a gunshot and a rabbit ran across the path. Thunder didn't even flench. He was tied to my spirit and waited for my command. Sunflower didn't have the advantage of a soulbond. She reared and Jayla, who had been holding her reins lightly, was thrown.

It was like time slowed. A large tree breaking had made the sound. Now it was falling towards Jayla. She landed off the path and her head hit an old stump that had a single large stub jutting out of it. Her head hit the stump and the sickening c***k of a skull breaking cut through me. I watched in horror as the stub jutted out the front of her head.

I was already in action. I cast a spirit web to capture her spirit while I jumped from Thunder. I landed on the ground at the same time as the tree crashed down on Jayla. Limbs shattered and I was sure that I heard more bones crushing, but I could not be sure.

I ran the few steps to the still shuddering tree and placed one hand on it while placing the other on the ground. Then I pulled the energy out of the tree and pushed it into the ground where I could still access it.

Fifteen feet of the tree simply vanished, clearing an area around Jayla. I took the two steps to her and knelt. My magic worked better with touch. She was dead, but I knew that; I also knew that it wasn't too late to save her. Her shirt simply vanished as my hand touched it. I needed to see where the tree had punctured her chest. I had opened that wound accidentally. As my hand touched her bare stomach I could feel every scrape, every cut in the body. Her heart was simply gone. It had been pulverized.

I felt Peter and Jayla's father arrive. They simply materialized in the clearing. Peter placed a hand on my shoulder. "She's dead." He whispered into my ear.

I shook my head. And pour energy into her. She began to breathe and I closed the wound in her chest and started making blood. My power forced the blood through her body.

"What is he doing?" Jayla's father asked.

"She's no longer dead, but she has no heart to speak of. I feel him building a new heart." Peter whispered.

As I built the heart I also repaired Jayla's brain. This was a tricky business, but I was acting on instinct.

"How is she alive?" Jayla's father asked.

"He has anchored her soul. I've never seen anything like it..." Peter replied.

I wasn't really listing. I was also aware of Peter's girlfriend, Vivian, but she wasn't saying anything. Jayla was now breathing on her own and her own heart was pumping blood through her body. The angry Isham, the lower angels of death, were still trying to pluck her spirits from me. I needed to face them on their own plane and defeat them. I stepped from the physical plane.

The spirit realm is more than a single plane. It has a realm known as the mirror realm, which is a copy of the physical plane. It has the realm of nature, the elemental realms, and the celestial and abyssal planes. Then there is the border plane which connects all planes but is part of none. I had erected a shield around Jayla and me. More than a dozen angels of death were throwing themselves at the shield trying to break it.

I pressed my remaining strength into the shield, and the assault paused. The Ishan did not retreat, they were simply waiting. I glanced at Jayla, she was sitting up and Vivian was handing her another t-shirt. She was no longer dead, so Ishan had no claim to her. I still didn't lower the shield. It was possible that they would still try to steal a soul. After all, I had stolen a soul from them.

The Ishan pulled back some as another being approached the shield. Even through the shield I could feel her power. She held her hand up, palm outward in an ancient form of supplication. I studied her robes for a moment. To most modern people Near Eastern ancient robes were pretty much the same, but I had been trained by an Akkaddian priestess. This being wore Hurrian robes. The symbology on the robes named her Analli.

I lowered a portion of the shield and the ancient goddess approached me. I wasn't scared. The goddess of the underworld wasn't evil, no more than the dead were evil. Besides, she had called off the assault on my shields which meant she wished to speak with me.