By the Chains that Bind Thee (Part 5) by Fantasy Weaver

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Wow. A whole year. Or nearly. "Soon" was rather far away. I guess that's what happens when real life gets it's sharp talons into you and won't let you go. I apologize for the wait for this next chapter, but I hope everyone here is understanding of one thing:no one here is a paid author. This is a hobby, and when there is no time for hobbies, they take a back seat to reality. That, unfortunately, happened here. And yet, I finally managed to find the time and energy to continue this story that is dear to my heart.

As usual, a reminder that this is a long story with a lot of lore and a multi-chapter event for the long-awaited haircut. So to those who don't like reading the whole buildup, sorry, this isn't for you.

Part five of "By the Chains that Bind Thee". Please read the previous parts for context.

-Fantasy Weaver.


Note

1: Some foul language ahead

2: Some adult themes ahead

By the Chains that Bind Thee

Part Five

XXXXX

He awoke with a start, breath coming in rapid bursts as his heart beat thumped against his chest, still reeling from the awful reality that had come to pass. Eleos, no!

Shay whimpered fearfully, standing and moving his body forward only to be pulled back by his hands. He glanced back, finding gold cuffs on chains to be wound around his wrists. Frantic blue eyes darted around the space, finding himself to be locked in a circular marble cell with no windows, no doors, and only one floating orb of neutral white light.

"No, no, this can’t be happening…" he muttered inconsolably, pacing the scant space he could walk with the chains binding him to the center of the cell, like a dog on a leash far too short for it. "This isn’t happening!"

He tried to call on his magic to break the cuffs, but it was like slamming into a stone wall. His arcane pathways were blocked. His hair didn’t even glow when he tried.

That’s when he felt it, a tight, slim metal ring around his head. He had heard of these. What were they called again? They had learned about them during their Arcane History classes, how these rings, Suppressors, were woven with intricate seals to prevent the use of magic in all it’s forms.

And he had one on his head.

He screamed.

He screamed. And pulled. And banged his fists on the floor.

He screamed until his throat was raw and all he could muster was pitiful sob of despair.

If he had only felt the signs of possession sooner, then none of this…

He brought his cuffed hands to his face, palms wet from tears he could do nothing to hold back. He didn’t even know if Eleos had managed to escape. What if the mages had caught him? What if he was in one of these cells as well, unable to call upon his magic?

What if he was in far worse conditions? Shay knew of more than one way the SunWoven order could be torturing him if they so wished it. Eleos could very well be getting his body burnt not unlike during an Initiation. They could be torturing him in other ways. What if they’re messing with his mind? What if Synn is…

He stopped his panicked train of thought.

He recalled something.

Synn had said something during their brief exchange. He had called Eleos a Demi-God.

Breathing heavily, slowly, Shay thought harder about it. Had he misheard? He was certain of it, though…The way Synn had taunted him for loving Eleos - it must be right.

But that brought even more questions. Why would Synn call Eleos a Demi-God, unless he truly is one? He doubted the wrathful sun deity was mincing words or using them metaphorically. Unless, of course, this was another lie.

Blinding pain surged from behind his forehead. Gritting his teeth, Shay brought his hands to his throbbing head. Synn’s influence; there was no doubt. Whenever he thought against the SunWoven Order, against Synn, he was punished, his mind flayed for even trying to resist. He felt as though he knew what the pattern was. Damn it all; he didn’t want to be ignorant anymore, didn’t want to give in.

Another flash of pain. The distinct ringing.

Eleos had said something about Shay being a powerful mage. He didn’t believe it but…the handsome man had told him of an arcane user’s true potential, how his own magic isn’t tied to Synn alone. Eleos may have touched him, may have carded his fingers through his hair and he had believed that was what warded off the sun’s influence, but that was wrong. It was something within himself, something which being in close proximity with Eleos, allowing him to play in his hair, had unlocked.

Love? Lust? Something else?

The pleasure of Eleos’ touch?

He imagined Eleos’ hand in his hair.

Imagined the night they had shared.

Imagined the tight pull of a demanding hand.

The raking of nails along his scalp.

The exhilaration.

He sighed.

The ringing stopped.

He was wrenched from his thoughts suddenly when the wall of his cell parted with a resounding scrape. Shay turned around, pacing away from the open archway as his heart began to thump anew.

Before him, two Elder Mages entered, followed closely behind by the High Mage. He swallowed, nervously scanning the old man’s face, trying to find some clues as to what they planned to do with him. He dimly wondered if Synn was in control of the High Mage at that moment, but reminded himself that his own eyes had glowed white-hot when Synn had possessed him last night. Yesterday? He wasn’t sure how long he had been in here.

The High Mage approached him, slow, steady footsteps echoing in the cell. Shay resisted the urge to back up, not wanting to show just how afraid he was. Still, his legs trembled under his robes.

Those piercing sapphire eyes watched him closely, too closely for comfort.

"…" Shay opened his mouth, finding some semblance of courage. "Where is he?" he all but whispered.

The High Mage stroked his long beard as he circled him. "What were you doing with a Dark Mage? A Mage of Stars, no less?"

‘He’s dodging my question’ Shay fumed in his mind. "Where. Is. He?"

The High Mage turned to him then, his hand mid-motion while stroking his beard.

Just as quickly, he slapped Shay across his face.

As the young mage stumbled back, tugging on his chains, the High Mage scowled at him, eyes furious blue gems. "Have you no dignity? No respect for your elders? Shame on you," he spat, "You are a disgrace. You’ve let that Dark Mage influence you and allowed him to soften you with honeyed words and poisonous gifts!"

Shay shook his head, brows furrowed angrily as his cheek stung where it had been hit, "You’re wrong!"

The High Mage motioned to the Elder Mages, dismissing them from the cell. As the walls closed in on them, Shay tried to pull at his chains, knowing it was nothing but futile.

The old man came to grab at his face, thumb digging unpleasantly into his jaw. When he resisted, the grip tightened and he let out a pained hiss. He opened his eyes into slits, glaring into the High Mages own as this one spoke, "What has he told you?"

He growled as he tried to wrench his face away. "Enough! He’s told me enough!"

"What has he told you?"

"Where is he!?"

"Speak or you will never see your beloved traitor again."

"Liar!"

"Who is the one lying here? The people who have taken care of you your entire life, or a stranger you’ve only just met?"

"I don’t know!"

He was released, allowed to crumble to the floor on his knees as he panted, tears threatening to fall.

The High mage began to pace around him again, at that same snail’s pace, a creeping sensation coursing along every one of Shay’s nerve-endings.

He didn’t know?

No, no that was wrong, all wrong! He had seen Synn in his mind, he had-

"What has he told you?"

His lips trembled with the force at which he was keeping himself from sobbing. "Synn is a monster…" Those weren’t Eleos’ words. Those were his own. He believed them.

But the High Mage wasn’t fazed. "Synn is a god. Gods have many forms, some more monstruous than others."

"He’s controlling you," he tried to convince the High Mage, but his words were weak.

"You saw Synn during your trials. In my mind. Because he is everywhere, child."

"He was a monster; I nearly had my soul destroyed!" He cried out, pleading eyes trying to make the High Mage see reason, but those sapphire irises stared down at him passively, as though his words had no meaning. "It was burning, and pain and suffering in that place! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"You saw one of many of Synn’s forms. Not all of them are as grand."

"Grand!?" He shouted disbelievingly. "I was possessed by him! Does that mean nothing!?"

"Oh child," the High Mage squatted down close to him, his face displaying sadness, but his eyes were nothing short of blank, "You believe you were possessed by Synn? You were with a Mage of Stars. He cast a divination spell on you, had something otherworldly controlling you. He knew you were weak of mind and tried to push you over the edge by making a mockery of our god."

"Shut up, shut up…" he tried to place his hands on his ears, tried to block out the words, but the High Mage was holding his chains.

"He tricked you, apprentice Shay. That Dark Mage has been trying to get into our midst for years, and you became his tool."

"I’m not a tool! I went to him on my own!"

"You allowed him to touch your hair, your arcane focus. He left his mark on you and had you seek him out, implanted an idea into your mind to make you believe it was your own, and you were none the wiser."

"It’s not true!" His ears were ringing again. His head was pounding. He couldn’t… "He made me understand that my magic comes from within myself, not from these stupid passage ceremonies, and not from Synn! He made me see that the primordial Goddess Musuni is our true creator!"

The High Mage’s face turned furious, and for a brief moment, right before the mage’s hand made contact with his face again, Shay swore he saw those haunting white eyes.

"Silence!" the old man shouted, his platinum hair coming undone from the intricate style, the frayed whisps hanging over his distorted features. "Not only did you let him into your mind, you allowed him to convince you that our Creator is not the true one!? You incompetent fool! We promoted you to Pupil, and this is how a Pupil acts?"

"I don’t care about that anymore! Where is Eleos!?" Shay pulled his chains free of the High Mage’s grip, putting as much distance between them as he could. He would get his answer, he would get it even if his head was ready to burst and he could hardly hear anything anymore over the ringing. "Where is he!?"

"He is dead!"

Shay stopped in his tracks.

He stared unseeingly at the floor between his feet. "That’s…that’s a lie…"

The High Mage composed himself, hands straightening the mess of his hair and clearing his throat. "He was executed earlier this morning."

"It’s more lies, just lies…" Shay shook his head, hugging himself. Even as he told himself it wasn’t so, he doubted himself.

"He will no longer have control of you, dear child…" The High Mage approached him, placating hands outstretched, like those same hands hadn’t just hurt him moments earlier. His wizened face held sadness and understanding on it, but there were shadows in his eyes, cruelty to his compassionate words when he placed his hands on Shay’s shoulders. "You were vulnerable, and we did not see that. It is our fault that you fell under his spell. But you will heal from this. You will forget him."

Shay trembled, trying to shake off the High Mage, but the hands on his shoulders were like steel. He panted, heart beating so fast he thought it was going to rip through his chest; it would still be less painful than the emotions welling up within him now. "No, no, I can’t…"

He lowered his face.

"I love him, please…"

Something in the air stirred around them.

Shay looked up.

Only to see the high Mage’s eyes had turned white.

Horror seized him and Shay struggled to pull away from the possessed man, whimpered in fear when bright light bathed the room and the High Mage’s hair began to glow. So, Synn himself was going to deal with him now? Was this how he would meet his grizzly end?

Was this how Eleos met his own?

"Get away from me!" he cried.

If those hands were steel before, then they were titanium, burning hot on his shoulders now, singing the fabric of his robes, reddening the skin beneath. A strangled sound came from the apprentice’s throat as he contorted in pain.

"THOU HAST SEEN TOO MUCH. MY GRIP ON THINE MIND FALTERS, BUT NO MATTER."

The words brought only some sense of satisfaction, outweighed heavily by the terror and pain of being in Synn’s presence. "I won’t let you control me!"

The possessed High Mage moved his face closer to his own, those searing, endless abysses of white burning into his soul, his eyes. "IT IS HIGH TIME THOU UNDERSTOOD THOU HAVE NO FREE WILL IN THIS WORLD OF MINE OWN DESIGN. THOU ART NOTHING BUT ANOTHER PAWN MEANT TO BE CONTROLLED."

"Like you did when you captured Eleos!?" Shay spat back, his entire body shaking. Something clicked in place then. "You…couldn’t control him though."

Wrath flared in those white eyes before him. "WHAT DID-"

"I’m right, am I not?" Shay knew he was walking a dangerous path, but if he’s dead anyway, he may as well get one hit in before being blown to bits. "You can’t control Eleos. That’s why you possessed me. The other mages would never have been able to take him down either if you hadn’t used me. You can’t control someone that refuses to give you that control, can you? Or is it because he’s a Demi-God?"

His throat was caught in a fiery hand as soon as the words were out.

Shay gasped for air, eyes wide and staring up at Synn’s furious features.

"THOU WILL BE MUCH EASIER TO MAKE INTO MY VESSEL ONCE ALL HOPE IS DRAINED FROM THINE SOUL."

"W-what ack-" his eyes watered as that hand pressed down on his windpipe; the edges of his vision were growing dark. "What are…you…?"

As suddenly as he was choked, he was released, left to grovel on the floor as he gasped for air. When he dared to look up, the High Mages features had returned to normal, and he was staring down at him with a psychotic look in his eye and a twisted smile on his face.

"Synn has granted us a vision for you, apprentice Shay."

It’s like the old man didn’t realize he had been possessed at all. His face told a different story though.

"Your Initiation ceremony is at sunrise tomorrow."

XXXXX

Sunrise tomorrow.

When was that?

In the silence of his cell, there was no telling.

If anything had been proven by Synn’s words, it’s that those passage ceremonies truly were useless; nothing but a show, a tool, in order to maintain control over the SunWoven Order.

The Initiation Ceremony then…the way that apprentice had looked so lifeless after the healing period; was it that they had destroyed his will completely?

From sunrise until sunset, he would be subjected to the same torture, of having his body bound and bared to the full force of Synn’s wrath for hours on end. He too, would end up like that apprentice, a walking shell of a person, perfect for Synn to possess. But a vessel to inhabit?

Why him? Why would Synn choose him? He wondered if Eleos had found out that tidbit of information before…

He closed his eyes tightly, a shuddering breath pushing from his lips.

He wanted to believe it was a lie.

The longer he was left to his own thoughts however, the less he could.

His thoughts came to a halt when the cell wall parted before him, bathing the circular room with the glow of candlelight.

He gasped, blue eyes widening at the sight before him.

It was Oras.

But…

Why was he wearing black?

His friend put a finger to his mouth, a gesture to tell him to keep quiet. It was not needed â€" he didn’t know what to say if he could speak; even now his mouth hung open in unconcealed shock. How had Oras gotten through the guards? The seals? How did he open the door? He’s just a novice, he can barely make a paper crane flap its wings!

His mouth opened and closed, and Oras urged him to keep quiet again with a more pronounced gesture. Then, he came close to him, to where the chains were bound to his wrist cuffs. His friend took them in his hands and closed his eyes, his short hair shifting around his head as he brought forth his magic, the sandy locks glowing faintly.

‘But he can’t break these, he’s not-’ Shay thought, but his mind soon went silent when the cuffs began to glow.

In the blink of an eye, they had turned to gold dust, falling away from his wrists like flowing sand.

His imploring blue eyes stared incredulously at his friend, but all he got back was a cryptic, yet sheepish, smile. Oras’ hands went to the Suppressor around his skull and dissolved this one too, just as easily as he had with the cuffs. Without a moment’s hesitation, Oras took his friend’s wrist and ushered him towards the open wall, pulling him through quickly before Shay could begin to process how he had removed the magic-suppressing circlet.

Shay stared at the back of his friend’s sandy blonde head, nearly tripping over himself to keep up with his fast-paced movements, trying to understand what was going on. Was he dreaming all of this up? His clumsy, magically dull friend could not have just pulled a great escape for him, truly?

He was wearing the talismans he had gifted him.

What was going on?

Oras was muttering something under his breath, and his hair began to glow again. Shay tried to catch on to the ancient tongue’s words, found he could only recognize the words for "Pass" and "Trace". A stealth spell? Again, if it was, this made no sense for the level of magic Oras was used to doing.

A mage’s true potential…

Shay kept running with Oras, eyes flicking to the black cloak.

There was four-pointed black star, traced in gold.

"We can talk now," Oras suddenly said as he stopped them near a corner between hallways, eyes scanning the empty corridors.

He wanted to scream more than talk. He had a million questions and worries spinning around his subconscious, each one bearing yet more questions than the last. "Oras, why are you wearing those clothes? How did you get to me, how did you even- and your magic, how-" he was babbling, gesturing to Oras without sense, trying to piece together what was happening.

"Look, it’s really complicated," Oras was saying as he tugged Shay along. They were heading to the library from the looks of it. "Right now, you need to get Synn’s influence as far away as possible from you, and to do that, you need to see the truth," he snorted. "You always were more a visual guy."

"Oras, this is in no way funny!" Shay flicked his eyes around as they made their way through the marble-clad hallways. "You’re a mage of stars! How did you keep this from the Order?"

"Shay," Oras was unlocking a door using his arcane abilities. When had they made it to the library? And why were they unlocking the forbidden section? "There’s going to be plenty of time for us to talk, but right now, you’re in the danger zone for Synn to possess you again. The High Mage…that old bastard messed with your head in that cell, didn’t he?"

The grand doors unlocked, and Oras pushed them through. Shay shook his head, his mind reeling from everything. Then, his mind came to a halt, focus shifting to the insignia on Oras’ cloak. If he was a Mage of Stars, then, did he know of Eleos?

He couldn’t stop the inquiry if his life depended on it. "He…Is Eleos dead?"

Oras stared at him with a mix of anger, disbelief, and most of all, after all of these had melted away, understanding. His lips thinned as he snorted. "What do you think?"

He didn’t have time to dwell on any double meanings -his friend brought them further in, to a towering sealed shelf. A shimmering golden barrier was erected around it, just transparent enough to see the numerous scrolls and books stacked one on top of the other on the other side. He shook his head at Oras who was beginning to mumble a spell. He couldn’t be serious, could he? "Oras, you can’t break this seal, it was made by the High Mage-"

The seal fell.

His friend just grinned at him. "Come here. Look."

He went up to the shelf, picked a few scrolls and bound tomes, placed them on the ground in front of them. He conjured a small flame in his palm, allowing Shay to see better.

Oras opened a first scroll, showing it to him.

They were…written accounts, in long-dead tongues which Shay could barely read. "Oras, I don’t understand any of this."

"Oh! Right, hold on-" He reached into a pouch at his belt, and when he removed his fingers, a shimmering substance tinged his fingertips in silver. "Forgot to give you the right tools."

Shay had his forehead smeared with the stuff. A rune perhaps? When he looked down at the scroll again, he could understand the words as thought he had always spoken the tongue. He would not question how this was, as Oras seems to have been hiding his real abilities from more people than just him this whole time.

His eyes widened. "These are-"

Stories, myths, legends, about Musuni. About the Mother of the Universe. The Primordial Goddess, creator of suns, planets, moons, humans…of all that lives and breathes and is made in her image.

Here. Locked away.

The book was more of the same. Shay found himself taking a scroll from the shelf, finding yet more about Musuni, all written by various different people, Mages and followers, believers and non-believers alike, philosophers and historians. Whatever happened to these people? Carefully catalogued tapestries, locations of guarded murals, places of worship…

"These scrolls, the books, they all come from different lands," Shay said, his eyes taking in the various wax seals and signatures. He stared at his friend, brows furrowed. "Eleos was right…"

Oras scoffed. "Of course he was. You don’t need me to tell you that. You already knew it yourself. Ever since you saw the Initiation, you’ve been thinking that something was wrong, but Synn was keeping you from seeing that. Eleos just made sure to push you in the right direction."

"W-wait," Shay exhaled, bringing a hand to his hair and raking the strands back from his face, "You’re talking as though this was planned." Oras suddenly stood straight, eyes darting around the room as his hair began to glow. "…Oras?"

Something caught Shay’s attention.

…Smoke?

His friend’s panicked gaze fell on him in an instant. He flung his body towards him, voice resonating in the library, "Shay, look out-!"

The words were barely out before something exploded behind Oras.

A deafening boom drowned out all sound as a rippling inferno consumed them both.

Shay felt himself be flung back with incredible force, blacking out, ears ringing as his head collided with something hard.

As the library burned around them, Shay blearily forced his eyes opened as he struggled to gain breath. A few feet from him, he could make out Oras’ prone form.

There was so much blood.

"O…Oras…" he croaked, eyes slipping shut as countless figures emerged from the black smoke and angry red flames.

XXXXX

An increasing pain emerged from the deep state of unconsciousness his mind had been so carelessly flung into. It began to work on waking him from the forced slumber, the throbbing only increasing with every moment up to Shay opening his eyes.

He groaned, not even noticing his eyes closing again. He forced them open, another pained sound accompanying the loathsome act. His head hurt so much; he could feel his hair sticking to the back of it where he had hit his skull during the blast, no doubt caked with his dried-

Oras. What had become of him? His body had lain on the ground surrounded by a puddle of his own blood…

"You’ve come to, I see."

Shay’s head lolled to one side, eyes blinking rapidly to focus on the person in front of him. The High Mage, clothed in the elegant robes only worn during important events.

A cold fear crept up his spine. Anxiously, the young mage looked down at his body.

He wasn’t wearing anything.

A sound came to his ears: a fearful, weak whimper. It sounded so desperate. He realized then, that it was his own meek voice, raspy and high-pitched, the very epitome of terror seizing him in its unyielding icy grip. The sound came again, more desperately as the realization that he couldn’t move his arms and legs came to him. His wide blue eyes found the source of restraint -gold cuffs on chains, just like in his prison cell. This time though, he was spread-eagle, standing, bared to the High Mage.

"No, no-" the words fell from his lips as the whimpers had, his heart speeding unnaturally as he took in the circular domed roof of the Initiation Chamber, with that foreboding opening lined up perfectly with his bound form.

"Calm yourself, apprentice Shay," The High Mage was saying, his words falling on deaf ears, "There is no need to be so fearful any longer. The danger has passed."

Danger- what danger? Surely not the danger ever-present here and now? That had not passed; it has not even come to pass, not while the sun wasn’t burning the skin off his-

"Those Mages of Stars can no longer hurt you or lie to you. This is what you want. To be safe from them. And to do so, Synn has chosen you- a divine gift he shall impart to you." Shay trembled, looking into the High Mages crazed sapphire eyes, their depths swirling with madness unleashed. Synn had f***** with the old man’s mind. It was the only reason why he looked so deranged now, so gaunt and soulless. "The sun God shall taketh away thy fears, thy sins, thy longing. Thou shall ascend to a higher level of existence to make way for him."

Shay whimpered, cringing as the High Mage’s hands came to caress his face and -much to his disgust- lewdly touch his exposed body. He cried out, a sob hitching his throat when his manhood was grabbed unabashedly. This was not Eleos’ gentle, warm, seductive touch, this was the obsession of a mad-man being controlled by a being far beyond the concepts of "insane".

"You will leave your body and give it to thy Master, and never again shall you disobey him, and in doing so you will purify your sins in fire and give yourself to him pure and whole!"

The man’s ramblings were interspersed with the speech Shay had come to associate with Synn, and through his sheer panic, Shay wondered if the old man’s degrading state was because Synn was enacting some measure of possession over him.

Shay cried out again, writhing in his binds, desperately calling on his magic, but he couldn’t. He didn’t even have a Suppressor on his head, so how? How could he be blocked like this?

He became aware of other presences in the room. Elder Mages, the Council, even apprentices. He recalled the last few moments before he had blacked out. Had the Elder Mages done something to him to prevent him from using his magic? He knew they needed his hair to be free for the Initiation; was there a seal on him, or some other spell hiding his powers away?

"Let me go!" he rasped, jerking his head away, his every limb shuddering in anticipation of what could happen, what would happen. He couldn’t set himself free, and Oras -his dear friend…who knows what state he’s in?

He heard the Elder Mages begin the unmistakable initiation chant, the murmured incantation causing Shay’s skin to break out in goosebumps. The High Mage backed away from him, a crooked grin plastered on his twisted face, and that’s when he knew, deep within himself, that there was nothing he could do anymore. The inevitable had come.

In the distance, beyond what he could see of the mountains, the sun was rising.

A sob rose in the young mage’s throat. He closed his eyes, thinking of Oras and…Eleos. He hated how their last interaction had ended. Had he gotten control over himself, then none of this might have happened. His best friend and his…he did not know what Eleos was to him, but he had lost them both. Lost his blissful ignorance.

And now, even hope was slipping from his trembling fingertips.

Shay felt his hair begin to lift, felt his magic, as much as he could not control it, flow into his hair.

And as the chanting reached it’s crescendo, as the High Mage made his speech, the first rays of sunlight hit his body.

With a terrible scream, his hair began to glow.

The pain! The agony! Every single one of his skin cells being burned to a crisp, as though the light itself was carving through his flesh and bone. Through the mind-boggling pain, the distinct feeling of his hair growing and flowing around his body mixed and mingled with the searing sensation, a pleasure so very wrong in this awful moment.

His throat was raw from his constant shrieking. The sunlight was bathing him from the neck-down, and he feared how much more painful it would be once the rays reached his face-

His mind was engulfed in blindingly hot light; ears ringing, that wrathful voice drowned out even his own cries:

"SURRENDER THY MIND."

He couldn’t let Synn take him.

"ALL HOPE HAS FORSAKEN THEE."

His body convulsed in its golden chains, head snapping back as sunlight seared his contorted features.

"THINE MIND SHALL SHATTER. THOU SHALT BE FREED FROM THINE FLESH PRISON."

It was like the tears that cascaded down his face were molten lava.

"ABANDON THY FUTILE FIGHT. NONE SHALT SAVE THINE SOUL FROM MY FIRES."

Shay didn’t know if he was still screaming, if the pain in his throat was from his own hoarse voice, or if Synn’s power was bleeding through his veins.

His body, his very soul; he felt as though it was turning to ashes.

Synn was speaking to him again, but he could scarcely hear the wrathful god anymore. Not even his ears were ringing. His body was growing number and number.

In some sacred part of his mind, Shay found a safe haven from the suffering, or at least, that’s what he told himself. Through the unending field of white, of light, of pain and fear, of control and power, a dot. A small one, at first. He went there.

‘This is like an astral projection.’ If he told himself that, perhaps it would be true. A twinge of hurt pulsed though his being. He ignored it. Fled from it. He fled to that dot, that single dot that stood out against the unending bright white. Perhaps, there, with that dot, he could find solace.

A memory. A stary night. Luna Moths fluttering silently by his vision. A willow covered in dew, the serenity of the night. Cool, calm, clean.

The silent embrace of silvery rays upon a dark velvet sky. The crisp air of a singular moment in time, away from the heat and garish sun. Eyes the color of gold, of silver, ebony hair that shone like the auroras.

‘Resist.’

There was no pain here. No endless screaming, no mind-shattering ringing; just the never-ending night, a motherly voice soothing his senses, and the feel of hands caressing his body as the water flowing from a mountain stream.

That dot was all of those things.

His body was weightless here. Unbound. And though he could not tell whether his physical form had carried on with him, he felt as though he were floating along a languid stream, coursing silently and peacefully through the night sky, ripples making the stars distort and twinkle in rainbow tones.

A compelling, a tug of something greater than himself, urged him to open his mind, open his eyes to the place he was imagining.

And so, his eyelashes parted, like curtains being pulled back from a window.

He sat in the palm of an immeasurably large figure.

A visage of light and life. Eyes of silver and gold. Rippling waves of hair that made up the universe.

She spoke.

"Awaken…"

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What shall Shay see when he awakens? What of Eleos and Oras? I can't give an exact date of when the next part will come, but it is in the making. Patience and kindness go a long way. Thank you for reading!

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