The Exiled King | ✔

Chapter 26 - Broken Bonds

When the keyguard died, it was like an invisible bond between the guardians snapped. One moment, everything was fine and the next... a horrible constricting feeling clawed its way up their throats. It lasted only a few short moments before the bond broke, and a terrible, sinking feeling rose up within them all.

Jason sprinted down the hallway with the others close on his tail, his heart racing.

Something's wrong! He thought desperately.

Lirya had been distant from them, but Jason had just thought that she was still dealing with the guilt of Taryn's death.

He turned the corner and found the door to her room. Twisting the door handle and throwing the door open, he froze at the sight that greeted. He felt as if a void had opened up beneath his feet and his heart sank.

Illuminated by moonlight, two bodies lay on the ground. Lirya lay in a crumpled heap, her body unmoving and a rust-coloured crimson stain around her lips and in a pool beneath her, dyeing parts of her emerald dress an ugly brown. Two silver goblets lay nearby, glittering in the twilight. Eryian was sprawled out lifeless beside his sister, a now familiar stain around his lips too.

Jason stood rooted to the ground, a ringing or roaring in his ears as the others pushed past him in the doorway, rushing towards the motionless bodies. As the frantic cries and motion happened around him, Jason snapped out of his trance and knelt by Lirya's side. He tentatively touched her face with shaking hands.

She's still warm, He thought, still finding it hard to wrap his head around.

He knew, deep inside, that she was dead. Her spirit no longer lingered around them in the overworld.

"It's poison," Altein announced with a heavy voice, "Both of them were poisoned."

"How?! Why...?" Leus asked.

Jason stood up, his mind strangely clear.

"I will go to the in-between," He said, "And see if I can speak to either of their spirits."

If I think instead of what I can do, I feel less lost...

<--<< >>-->

Slipping into the in-between voluntarily proved to be more difficult than he first anticipated, but Jason eventually managed to leave his mortal body behind.

In the familiar golden landscape, Jason saw two spirits waiting, who approached him as he descended.

"Jason!" Lirya cried, running towards him, "I knew you'd come! I waited for you."

Jason smiled as he saw her, but asked solemnly, "What happened, Lirya?!"

Eryian strolled up to Jason and answered before Lirya could.

"We saved the world, Jason Bladesworn. We were the last of Garyth Herus' bloodline... all we had to do was die."

All you had to do... was die?

Jason frowned and said, "Death is not such a simple matter. Surely there was another way? Why did you not tell us?!"

"There was no other way, Jason," Lirya whispered, "But I didn't want to die... and I didn't want to know whether you would have sacrificed the two of us for the world. I mean, if it wasn't my own life, I'd probably also have thought that two lives for everyone else's was a fair bargain!"

Hearing her admission that she had not wanted to die, Jason could not help the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. If she had not wanted to die... how did she end up poisoned? He was fairly sure he knew who the culprit was, but he didn't want to believe it. He knew that her brother was someone special to her.