Kismet: A Game of Fates

Chapter 10 - Kahar Hates Liars

"Vaughaun" was a liar.

Kahar hated liars.

If he had told her his real name, she would have dropped him off in the Underworld and come back already.

Instead, she was trying to catch the wind with her bare hands.

The spirit did not move in the predictable– catchable – way living creatures did.

In moments like these, when she watched a spirit spurt in-and-out of time, she wished Neither was bound by the strict lines of the living world rather than the blurring rules of this one. Kahar liked to think of it as an echo of the living world; a distorted replica of its original state. She often caught herself thinking about the worlds, wondering if there was another that lay on Neither the way dust settles on a shelf.

She groaned.

This was everything she warned Luca about. Unbound spirits were chaotic, slipping between the layers of the worlds. Untethered by either body, or guide, the spirit popped in-and-out of existence.

"Come back!" She shouted. It was useless.

A flittering apparition with no clear direction, wherever she turned, he appeared– then disappeared –without warning. Behind her, on top of a tent, just beyond the cliff and back again. It was dizzying.

Gone once more, her eyes scanned the campground until she spotted him even further away. This time, the spirit was hardly a speck, standing on the top of a decrepit building, miles away. She focused on her intention. She had to catch him, and quickly, before he was out of sight. A lost soul was Luck she could not afford to lose. Just the thought of the soul's bounty was enough to fire up her legs into a jump, the momentum spurring into her wings as she shot into the air.

Where was he headed? His movements were erratic, but even chaos has a pattern. If she could just make sense of where he was going, she could catch him before he got there.

Instead of the soul, she caught sight of her ward– Luca was in the eye of a storm.

He fought against a group of Valkyries, still determining the fate of the boy. The golden-winged warriors outnumbered him, three-to-one. Luca had been ambitious, but this was not a fight he could win. Never had she seen so many Valkyries fighting for a single soul.

Kahar recognized one Valkyrie– Asha. She was merciless in battle, relentless in her determination to save mankind. She had hair the honey colour of midnight sun and a shrill battle cry that froze time. It was her who killed Haizon.

In her sleep, Kahar still heard his last breath. Still felt his blood on her hands.

Luca thrust himself to the boy, pulling a hand through the boy's heart. The boy screeched– an unholy sound. It should have been enough. Finding a mortal's cord is victory enough to stop most Valkyries. Most– but it was not enough to stop Asha. She hit him by the side of his head. Luca's face was alive with fear, as he began to realize he could not leave this fight alive. She hit him again in the same spot. This time, his wings went limp and Luca took a hard fall to the ground.

Kahar felt time slow down.

Asha dropped from the sky. Standing above Luca's unconscious body, her arm drew back her sword, a heavy weapon forged from the silver-lining of unanswered prayers. She would be too far to stop the blade from coming down.

As much as she wanted another Double, Luca could not die like this. They were so close to Solstice– two days and her Bad Luck would be cleared, her name restored.

Styx.

She could not let him wander without memories until his next chance at life, not when he was about to have them back.

He was a brute, and a bore, but he would not be her problem if they could just make it two days.

She could not let him die like this, not by Asha.

Not again.

The sounds came out of her mouth before Kahar realized she had said them.

"Truce."