The Realm of Lost Souls

Kyria's last and final thought was regret.

Why did she spend so much time hating? Why was she so bent on revenge. What as it about that first step being a mistake that made every step a mistake thereafter?

But she closed her eyes, the last image was of Jinon, his face a broken mask of grief.

If I could do it all over again. She promised herself. I would choose differently.

But she knew that it was too late, she was too broken and could not turn around.

When she opened her eyes once more she was in a barren land. She saw a figure in front of her, she had bright red hair and dark wings. She was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

"Where am I?" She asked.

"The place between life and death." Cybelline responded, "Your body has but one breathe but your soul is shattered beyond repair."

She waved a hand and Jinon appeared. He stared at a woman in a crystal coffin, he was breaking his own soul to save his. He carved magic spells into the crystal sarcophagus, intent on healing her.

Kyria began to cry as she saw the toll it was taking on him, "He will die this way! Tell him to stop, if he doesn't then he'll shatter his own soull"

"He's a stubborn man." Cybelline responded with a smile, "He won't stop. Not after I told him that there was a way to save you. If he did not, then your soul would shatter instantly."

"This is my punishment. A person like me shouldn't exist." Kyria answered, she looked at Cybelline with hope, "Kill me now. Don't give him hope anymore. Let him move on."

"I would. But both you and I know that he would die." Cybelline responded.

Kyria crumbled to the floor, "I beg you, tell me what to do."

Cybelline stared at the woman who had brought so much evil and pain into the world and sighed, "I wish nothing more than for you to disappear. But I promised Jinon that I would give him a chance. And it's for him I do this. Because he saved just as many as you killed, that I do this."

Kyria felt a light breathe as she found her soul to become more stable. Some of the cracks lightened.

"Jinon asked me to keep your soul intact for a thousand years." Cybelline said, "He asked that I give you a chance to redeem yourself while he finds a way to save you. While he finds a way to save your soul by sacrificing his."

"I..."

"Don't need to be saved. I know." Cybelline said, "But let you pride go. You lost and you're about to lose the one thing that was good in your life. For his sake and for your own regret, stop wallowing in guilt and do something."

"If I do everything..." Kyria said, "If I promise to do all that you ask, I will take any punishment. I deserve death for the pain I caused. I deserve to be shattered. But If I do everything you ask, can you show me how to save him."

After a moment Cybelline looked at her, "There is no way to save you both. But perhaps there is a way for you to save him. Even if you do everything I ask, your soul might still be lost. Can you bear that? If you let him do this without interfering, then he may succeed in saving you."

"I deserve my fate, Jinon does not deserve to suffer for my choices." Kyria straighten and then bowed to Cybelline, "What must I do?"

"A thousand years of toil. You will find every lost soul that you killed and shepherd them to the Fae lands. You will make sure that those you had a hand in killing find peace and are reborn in their homelands. You may never be able to repay your sins, but you can give them the peace you stole from them." Cybelline said her voice was laced with power, "A thousand years to heal what you have broken. If you can not do this, then I will tell you how to save him."

Kyria nodded, "It is more than I deserve."

Cybelline nodded, "Few receive second chances, and if you waste it, Jinon will die."

Cybelline tossed a globe to Kyria, "Go, find the souls and give them peace." She waved a handed and tossed Kyria into a whirlpool where it transported the wandering spirit back to earth.

Kyria for the next thousand years would endure the hatred and anger of those she slaughtered. They would beat her and evade her, making her suffer for all that she did. And she would take it all, knowing that she deserved all of this. She knew that if she did not try her best, then Jinon would die.

The Lonely Mountains

In the highlands where the Silver tribe lived there was a strange tale. It spoke of a tall man whose hair was the color of the sun, and eyes of sapphire. He was even bigger than the mountain men who traversed the smaller mountains in search of timber and fur. When the strange man first came here, he looked to be in his prime, with a few wrinkles around his flashing eyes to indicate that he wasn't a rash youth anymore.

In his sturdy arms carried a beautiful woman yet scarred in red, deep in sleep.

The highland tribes took in this strange man and woman, curious about this stoic stranger.

He had only stayed in the silver tribes for three days, buying a few provisions and asking for the way to Northern Peak. The silver tribes looked at him in stunned horror when they realized what he wanted to do and tried their best to tell him, that it was a fool's errand.

No one who had ever gone up to that mountain had ever come down. They told him, there were powerful creatures that ate the men who tried. The man only shrugged and asked what the fastest way was up the mountain. The silver tribe could only shake their heads and sigh at the loss of another heroic fool.

What made them even more shocked was that the day he left, he was carrying girl with him, she had been asleep all the time they had been in the village.

The Caves of the Soul Crystals.

It took him another three years to kill off the powerful guardian creatures that lived on the summit. Once he found the Cave of Dreams, Jinon began to work.

He fashioned a bed out of Phoenix feather down framed with ten thousand year old pine, so that she was always shrouded by the scent of evergreen.

Jinon had been living in the mountains for ten years when he decided to go back to the silver fox village for provisions. Fighting the monsters had made this man unbelievably powerful and now, the villagers treated him like a god. Ever since he had come to the region, there were less and less beast attacks on the villages. Jinon had killed nearly half the beasts of the mountain and tamed the other half, the villagers were sure that he was the reason their lives were much, much better.

The silver fox people looked at this man with wonder, he was like a legend to them, every time he appeared, he looked the same. What they didn't know was that Jinon had already reached the highest level a human could reach, and could live up to a thousand years now. If he wanted he could cross the last barrier and become a true immortal. But the thought never crossed his mind.

In the crystal caves the girl didn't age either, preserved by the cold and powerful crystals, she kept on sleeping as her man labored.

As he decades passed, the silver fox tribes and all the tribes of the region began to look at Jinon as if he was their god, whenever they saw him, the would touch the ground he walked on respectfully. Some built a shrine to his likeness and held feasts in his honor, in his arms was the figure of a woman he had brought the first time they saw him. Jinon only shook his head and visited the outside world less and less.

Slowly, lovingly, faithfully, he began to carve a beautiful crystal sarcophagus out of the massive soul crystals he found. It would protect her soul, keep it from shattering into a thousand pieces and erasing her existence before he could set the spell.

Finally, after three hundred years, he finished the beautiful large sarcophagus, the magical spells he placed on it for protection gleamed slightly as he gently laid the girl inside.

Then he began to carve, at first on the sarcophagus, simple and complex weaving of powerful spelled sealed with the promise of his blood. They glowed white when each was finished. Thus the dark cave became brighter and brighter each day as the coffin was filled with so many protective spells it was hard to find even an inch of empty space.

Then he began to carve the icy walls. This was even harder than the crystal, but from his strong hands came spells that would keep her soul in one piece, until one day it could be whole again. Each spell he filled with his own immense magic, sealed with a piece of his soul by a drop of his blood. His for hers. He would protect her forever, even if it meant that his soul had to be traded for hers in the process.

Seven hundred years was a long time for a man whose only reason to live was a girl who was a a day away from death

Finally, when he had broken his soul into a million pieces, sealed into the millions of carvings in the mountains, he stopped. All he needed was one spell that would activate it.

"You're a fool, old friend." A voice called to him.

Jinon waved a hand, "You're late. Come, the tea is almost cold."

Cybelline walked into the cave and sat down by him, taking a sip of the tea and then making a face.

"Hey, that's my best tea." Jinon said as he pulled out a loaf of bread from his great beard.

"If you offer that to me, I'll beat you with it." Cybelline warned.

Jinon glared at her and then bit into the bread, "How's the kids?"

"They're a little wild." Cybelline said, not bothering to mention that her eldest daughter was only ten and was riding the shadow dragon god king as her favorite winged mount. Now that she was airborne, it was only a matter of time she would go and wreak havoc on the other Dominions. It was the deepest fear of the Dominions. The daughters of the Dark Queen was a nightmare for most.

She looked around, "You're almost ready."

"Yes." Jinon admitted.

"There's no way you would consider backing out now, would there?"

Jinon looked at her with his piercing eyes and Cybelline sighed, "I wish I never agreed."

"You said that if I break my soul and exchange it with hers, she could live." Jinon pointed out, "A soul for a soul. A life for a life. I would never back out."

Cybelline continued to sip the cold, bitter tea, "I won't save you. And if she lives, she will only live as a mortal. She'll die after a few decades."

"But she'll have a chance to find peace, her soul won't be scattered to the winds. She'll have a chance." Jinon said stubbornly.

"So be it." Cybelline said with a smile, "You stubborn lion."

Jinon scowled, "You really didn't think I would give up after all this time."

"I hoped." Cybelline said.

Jinon put down his tea, "Kyria has done some unforgivable things in her life, I won't deny it. She deserves punishment, I agree. But..." He looked down at his hands, "I only wish that she finds peace."

"It's your prerogative." Cybelline said, "So i will respect your wishes. Even if I don't agree."

"Then remember, don't make the mistakes that Kyria and I made. Don't let hatred grow until there was no road to turn back on your sins. There is always someone waiting for you, if you can bear the responsibility of your crimes." Jinon said softly.

She sighed and stood up, "Then my friend, go in peace as well."

Jinon was left there alone, staring at the broken woman in the sarcophagus.

A thousand years had come and gone. He had completed the labor that no man had ever done, or was ever to be done again. Though he still looked like the man who had come up the mountains, he knew that his time would end soon.

Kyria, in that infinite and terrible darkness of her punishment, she began to hear his voice. As she received her punishment, she felt his presence and his call. A first it was a faint whisper that she held on with the last vestiges of her broken mind. It was like tendrils of ivy that grew in the cracks of the frozen earth, breaking the chains that bound her to the terrible silence. His voice was the most joyous sound to her and she held onto it with all of herself.

She never deserved him, she knew this from the day she turned away. She hadn't dared or hoped that he would love her back, as broken as she was.

And yet as she fell, he was there to catch her.