Verita - The Guardian of Darkness

65

She'd called out to him before she even felt the words form in her mouth. Regardless, Aetrian's hands didn't stop moving. When the tip of the blade met the soft skin on his wrist, blood started to flow. That was when he looked up at her with a faint smile.

"You're so done", he stated while stretching a hand out towards her right arm. She dodged his unarmed attack a little too lazily and the back of his fingers grazed the part of her skin, where the shards had drawn blood earlier.

Aetrian didn't risk her understanding the situation before he could act. He hurriedly pressed his blood-covered fingers onto his open wrist, murmuring something she didn't understand.

Not knowing the first thing about what he'd just set into motion, Elanthin froze up. What kinds of magic had she seen him use before? There'd been the explosion of light which had killed the Children of the Deep's assassin; the distraction spell in the tavern, which must've been discarnate magic, followed by a simple marking and elemental battle magic.

Whatever he was doing currently didn't resemble any of his prior spells. There were no flashy lights or effects to analyze. Just the brooding silence that followed his mumbled incantation.

Her eyes stuck to the bloody dagger which Aetrian threw aside carelessly.

"I guess I have to change it to we're so done now."

"What in the abyss have you done?", she hissed while all color drained from her face.

"It's a linking spell", he explained in a strangely calm manner. "It connects our physical bodies. So whatever you do now, you won't do it alone."

"You idiot." Elanthin didn't know how to handle the fact that he'd carelessly handed over his life other than hurling insults at him. "You absolute wast–"

"I won't stop you anymore", he cut in. "If you're fine with me sharing whatever waits for you down there, you can go and jump."

Aetrian used the momentum of her surprise to scramble onto his legs and make a run for it. Breathless, her eyes followed him cross the dirt in a hurry. How could he have done this? Hadn't he spared a single thought for the consequences?

Elanthin felt unsteady on her feet as she asked herself the most important question: Could the spell be revoked or had Aetrian just signed his death sentence?

Caught up in her thoughts, she noticed too late that he wasn't trying to put some distance between them. Rather, his goal was the massive leather bag which he'd left behind. Lifting it from the ground, he lunged towards the edge of the abyss. At the same time, Elanthin began to sprint towards him.

"I WON", she screamed at him at the top of her lungs. Mixed in her voice were aggregation and a rising panic, which she couldn't hold back anymore.

Would this be the end of both their houses? Because she hadn't had the heart to render Aetrian unconscious before he could doom himself?

"Who gives a damn?", he shouted back. Aetrian's voice was steady but his restless eyes betrayed him. They were busy scanning the abyss below their feet, preparing himself for the inevitable. "Did you really think I'd let you jump in there?"

For a brief moment, Aetrian's eyes lifted from the pit of darkness and locked with hers. Then he drew his shoulders back and threw the mechanism. Time seemed to have stopped while both of them watched the copper cage sail through the air. It hadn't even reached the middle of the Deep's crack, when it dropped into the impenetrable darkness with a low whirr.

It was all over.

He'd decided his fate with his stubbornness, despite her efforts to save him. What had she spent the last days, riding like a madman over the Plains, for?