𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐫 || 𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐅𝐀𝐍𝐅𝐈𝐂 ||

18. Deathless

T/w: small mention of suicide - pls let me know in the comments if this does trigger anyone and I'll do a summary in the next chapter of the key details in this one

Meira:

Deathless.

I freeze when I hear the words come out of the High Lord's mouth. And suddenly it all starts coming back in flashes, as I fall through the memories -

An old man - no, a powerful ancient God.

Chains. Manacles. The Walking Book of the Dead.

Sirius. Laying next to me, chained with a growing pool of blood.

Me screaming and screaming and screaming to let him go, let him go, let him go.

Their hands on my wrists, bruising them as they shove me into the Cauldron.

Toes. Feet. Legs. Waist. Fingers. Arms. Shoulders. Neck. Nose. All sinking into the water as the raw magic takes ahold of me, and forges me into something new.

"Deathless," The Cauldron purrs, and I continue to uselessly thrash and attack the darkness.

Then nothing.

"You clever girl." An old voice erupts into mind as it catches my fall, and instead of falling through the memories I'm in a blank room with only a scratched wooden door. "You remembered something. Open the door, Girl. There is more to you than even the Mother herself knows."

———-

And then I'm on the floor, Azriel next to me as I slowly sit up.

"Are you alright?" He asks me, offering a hand but I refuse it now. I slowly get up, coming face to face with the High Lord.

I can feel my power rising up, and quickly I push it down.

Never again.

"What would you like to know?" I ask quietly. There's no point lying. They could lock me up in the cells again.

"I-"

"Downstairs." I tell him, and with the help of Azriel, I hobble along the landing and down the stairs. They take me into the sitting room, the fire on, illuminating the figures inside. The High Lady. Mori. Nesta and her mate. Amren.

But no Elain.

Azriel helps me to an armchair, and he perches on the end of it.

"Deathless is not a who, not a where, but a what. Deathless is not a being." I start, my mind suddenly feeling sick, my head ringing. Breathe. In. Out.

I face them, my gaze hardened. "Deathless is to be immortal,"

"But isn't that just fae?" The Illyrian general asks.

I shake my head. "Fae have immortality, but they can still be killed by a blade. To be Deathless..." I trail off, but forcing the words out is harder than I thought. "You can't die. At all. Any blade or weapon can harm you, and even if your heart stops, you won't die."

I swallow, thinking about the past, the pain - to have your soul just floating in limbo only held on my the thread of the curse causes even more pain than to die anyway.

I trace the scars on my left forearm. And to think I did it 343 times.

Azriel's arm snakes around my back in a comforting hold. I lean into him, gaining the confidence I need to tell them.

"An old, powerful God head about this power. Heard about how you would never die, not fully, only to be reborn again and again. His name was Malthus. He heard t-that the cauldron...it had this power. He wanted to know..." A tight knot filled my voice but I continue, "He wanted to know if it would succeed. So he captured a-a fae, and threw them in."

I shake, tears forming in my eyes. Fresh memories of a life I never knew I lived flash in my mind, of a bright fae with beautiful ocean eyes and shining chestnut hair. I don't know her name, but it feels like I knew her from the grief that comes along with it.

"It was unsuccessful. She died. So he decided he needed someone stronger, faster, with a purer bloodline."

"That was when me and my brother came in."

"Sirius had heard of Malthus and wanted to kill him, and as instructed by our mother 'deactivate the Cauldron.' So we did. We found him. Hunted him down into his own Palace. That was our first mistake. Both of us were not even 20 years old but we knew we had to prove we could do this. Prove to our mother we were more than her mistakes. So we attacked him, fought as bravely as we could but it was too much. He had us by the necks, and snapped them."

"So you died?" The High Lady asked, empathy in her gaze because she, too, knew what it was like to die.

"Yes. And then of course Malthus came to a realisation. 'What would happen if you put dead bodies into the cauldron?"

My hands are now full-on shaking, and Azriel takes his scarred hands into mine. "You don't have to continue," He whispers to me.

But I shake my head. "I need to do this."

"When we came out, we were alive. Stronger. Faster. But of course, we were still trapped in Malthus's Palace. And as we had been drilled into us at a young age, don't get caught in enemy territory. So we hung ourselves, only to discover our souls simply vacated our body but just floated. We could still see everything, travel through walls, everything ghost-like possible. It took 3 days to work out how to get back into our bodies. And once we did, we found they were still fresh and had not even rotted at all. Our necks were completely healed."

"How?" Nesta asked this time, her eyes glazed.

"When you bring someone back like that, killing someone but then using the cauldron to bring them back, all that magic leaves an imprint on the soul. Our curse was a result of Malthus's actions which defined nature. Combined with the Cauldron's power to gift gifts and power to those who are thrown inside it, that was our power. To be Deathless."

"However, unlike my brother, I got another gift." And when I hold our my hand, shadows rise from my open palm, forming shapes and outlines of animals. One formed a wolf, and it ran around the living room before the shadows disappeared, leaving the real-life wolf behind.

"Silver ." I whisper in amazement as the large grey and white wolf comes and lays in front of me over me feet, rubbing against them before falling asleep.

A few more are revealed, a tiny monkey with a sparkling eye for a thief, a parrot, a couple of cats and a polecat.

"How?" Azriel asks in amazement as a few more animals are revealed before the shadows come back to claim them and they are gone.

"I can teach you." I tell him, a small smile on my face. I learn from years of watching my bigger taught my his Godfather, who was also a Shadowsinger - the same as my brother. "When Sirius died, his shadows didn't die with him. They came to me instead. I often wonder if they made the right choice." I frown, thinking of Sirius's mate.

But Silver remains. She eventually moves over to the fire, but not before wandering over to everyone and sniffing and licking them.

"I think she likes you," I say to Nesta as she rubs her head against Nesta's leg.

She smiles softly, and I only gently lift my lips in a ghost of a smile in return.

Time. It will take time to learn to trust her again.

———

Hey everyone!!
So... I know not much happened in this one but I promise there will be more to come, with better content!!
I'm in the middle of my mocks and it's hell 😭 so I will try to update next week but if not it'll be the week after.
Thx for reading and see u in the next chapter
❤️

Also a massive shout out for everyone who voted and commented on the chapter so far!! It makes my day when I see ans read the comments, so pls keep them coming!!

Love to u all

TheFantasyWriter09 🤗🤗