Lore of Sanctum Omnibus

by Elaina J Davidson

  Torrullin drew a breath. “Thank you; leave it with us. Report to your superiors we have removed whatever it is.”

  The man inclined his head and swiftly left.

  Plaques on the interior walls revealed dates of old battles, but none were relevant to their purpose. They climbed rounded spiral stairs, neither saying a word.

  The chamber at the apex possessed a wooden bench and narrow window slits. In days passed, archers waited for the daring up here to unleash barbed death below.

  In the centre of the space a sphere hung suspended without any obvious form of support. Sorcery kept it bobbing slightly in place. It was round, yes, but vicious spikes protruded. Of metal, it also shifted continuously, as if metal snakes curled round and around an inner core ceaselessly. Faint whispering sounded as metal scratched against metal.

  Both men stared at it fascination.

  “It appears old,” Elianas eventually said.

  “A device usually attached to a strong chain and swung with intent,” Torrullin added. “An ancient weapon.”

  “But this one has been altered.”

  “I do not want to touch it either,” Torrullin muttered, “never mind remove it.”

  The dark man nodded and closed in. He halted with the device at eye level and studied it closely. “It protects something.”

  “Or when it stops moving it blows.” Torrullin stayed where he was.

  “An explosive device? I doubt it. There is something inside this thing, something we need to know.”

  “Elianas, I find I do not want to know.”

  “Likewise, but there is nothing for it, is there?” He reached in and swiftly grabbed the moving orb.

  Instantly the spikes retreated and he held a grooved metal weight. It fell then, hitting the stone floor with decided impact.

  “Heavy,” Elianas muttered, and stepped back.

  The sphere burst open as petals unfurled in rapid succession, metal petals that flattened out to form an intricate design upon the floor. In the centre of the bloom, a sparking green orb twirled.

  Torrullin hunkered, breath leaving him in an exhalation of astonishment.

  “You know what this is?” Elianas prompted, sinking down beside him. He reached out.

  Torrullin smacked his arm aside. “Do not touch it.”

  “Is it a bomb?” Elianas whispered. Perhaps sound would set it off.

  “No.” Torrullin abruptly sat, crossing his legs under him. Hands clutched at knees.

  “Energy? It sparks akin to electricity,” Elianas prompted.

  “Quiet, man, I am trying to work it out.” His fingers were white and he rocked slightly.

  “Gods, Torrullin, what is this thing?”

  Torrullin inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, clearly searching for equilibrium … and courage.

  Elianas was now staring at him rather than the spinning little orb. “Talk to me.”

  Silver eyes squeezed closed. “It is a soul.”

  Breath left the dark man in an explosion of sound and he sat as if he had lost all motor function, jostling Torrullin.

  Torrullin opened his eyes. “I once held Declan’s soul in my hands, after Tymall … never mind how. Declan’s was blue, also spherical, and it sparked, although not as much as this.” He drew in a shuddering breath. “A soul is intangible. You do not feel it in your hands. There is nothing to feel, but you may see it, if you know how to look.”

  “And we are meant to see,” Elianas said. There was an edge of panic to his voice. “Who would this soul belong to?”

  Torrullin managed to un-claw his fingers from his knees and swiped at his face, his hair, until those fingers ended up pressing into his cheeks. “That would be the question, would it not?”

  “What are our choices?”

  Torrullin dragged his gaze to the man beside him. “Release or capture.”

  Elianas blinked at him. “We cannot simply free it. It may unleash …”

  “… terror, evil, manipulation, suffering, chaos? I know. A risk, indeed.” Torrullin sighed. “Or it may free an innocent deliberately held back from his or her Afterlife.”

  Frowning, Elianas reached up to remove the white fingers gouging holes into Torrullin’s cheeks. “Stop. Breathe. We think, then we do.”

  Those silver eyes were stark. “We need to establish identity.”

  “My god, who do you think it might be? I have never seen you this wary.”

  “It is green, Elianas, emerald. Is it Saska … or …?”

  The dark man’s eyes snapped to the sparking orb. “No, please, not that. Not her.”

  “It may be neither.”

  Elianas leaned forward until his head nearly touched the floor. “Animated and Arc. Between us we have the ability to create … life.”

  Torrullin dragged him up by his hair, pulled his head to within a hair’s breadth from him. “We do not desire the responsibility.”

  Elianas reached in and gripped Torrullin’s hair also, held him there. “What if it is Saska? Torrullin, you loved her.”

  “As you loved your Saska?” Torrullin said sadly.

  “Yes! I … Hunarial. Her name was Hunarial.” His head sank to Torrullin’s shoulder and he clutched convulsively at Torrullin’s arms.

  Stroking dark silky hair, Torrullin said, “Tannil saw all the parts of our pasts. He knows us.”

  Abruptly Elianas straightened. “He fucking does not know me. All he understands is that this conundrum will drive a wedge between us, even if we just talk about how we would choose. But he does not know me. He does not know I do not desire to revisit a past I turned my back on.” He pointed at the little orb without looking at it. “If that is her, she deserves her freedom.”

  Torrullin was unblinking.

  “If that is Saska, she deserves her freedom,” Elianas added.

  Torrullin nodded, remaining wordless.

  “And yet we must know who it is, in the event it is someone we do not now foresee, addled as we are by goddamn emerald eyes. To unleash evil is irresponsible.” Elianas drew breath. “I do not want to know, for Aaru’s sake!”

  “We capture it and we give it to Sabian to release in a safe place. If a deserving soul, it will move on. If undeserving, he will have it where it can do no harm,” Torrullin said. “He never tells us who he set free.”

  Elianas closed his eyes and, after many minutes, nodded once.

  Neither moved then.

  “We need to know, do we not?” Torrullin prompted.

  Elianas eyes snapped open. “Unfortunately.”

  “We accompany Sabian.”

  “Yes.” The dark man looked away.

  “Elianas.”

  That dark head swung back and Elianas reached for him to kiss him as if it would never happen again. “This hurts badly,” he said when he pulled away.

  “Then let us end it swiftly.” Torrullin stood, bent over the device to touch the edge of a metal petal, and stood aside to watch it close up around the twirling green spark.

  He lifted the sphere, gripped the dark man’s shoulder and took them from there, already summoning Sabian to attend them.

  Luvanor

  “WHERE ARE WE?” Elianas asked.

  Before them the ocean roared and behind them, set amid trees, a small cottage rested in dappled shade.

  “Luvanor,” Torrullin said. “That is Lowen’s cottage. Sabian knows this place.”

  Sabian was there an instant later, before Elianas could ask about the reason for choosing Lowen’s territory.

  “You need me?” Sabian asked after nodding greeting.

  Torrullin held the grooved orb out to him.

  “And what is this?”

  “A soul.”

  Blue eyes snapped up. “How?”

  “Never mind that now. It needs to be released.”

  “In a secured environment; I see.”

  “We desire to accompany you,” Elianas said.

  That clever gaze flicked from one to the other, and Sabian inclined his head.
“When?”

  “Now,” Torrullin stated.

  Sabian stared at him. “I am not omnipotent when it comes to realm dumping. I do not have a unlimited host of options to choose from; therefore I have made myself aware of certain choices when certain choices need to be made.”

  Elianas threaded a hand through his hair, but Torrullin waited the fair man out.

  “This requires a place where, if unwholesome, it cannot escape, am I right? Of course I am. An innocent will move on no matter what, for Aaru summons across boundaries. That is what you hope for? No need to answer. I know of such a place.” He paused there.

  Torrullin stilled. Elianas’ eyes narrowed.

  “Tymall is buried there.”

  Silence greeted that statement.

  “I took him there in the event he is not as dead as he appeared at the time.”

  More silence ensued.

  Elianas snorted, and then burst out laughing. “Priceless! Gods, we are so skittish! The dead never seem to fucking stay dead, do they?”

  “Torrullin?” Sabian prompted.

  “Take us there.”

  Chapter 17

  Expectation is able to engender hope. It is also able to bow a soul.

  ~ Awl ~

  Realm for the Dispossessed

  THE PLACE WAS BEST described as nondescript.

  Trees and meadow, sky and earth, but there was little sound and no movement. It was pretty, in a sense, but appeared manufactured. They had stepped into a painting, an unchanging image from someone’s mind.

  A mound of recently turned soil waited between two generic trees, but that was the only manipulation present in the environment.

  “He is there,” Sabian gestured.

  “Seems intact,” Elianas said after a moment.

  Torrullin nodded, turning his back on the mound.

  “How do I open it?” Sabian asked, rolling the metal orb over.

  “Drop it,” Elianas muttered, staring fixedly at the sphere.

  Sabian dropped it.

  Torrullin stepped away a pace, a mask slipping over his face.

  The petals appeared as expected and there the green sparking commenced.

  Sabian leaned over it. “Intriguing. My experience tells me of wisps of white smoke, sometimes colourful flower designs, but a moving sphere is quite rare. One cannot usually see souls; it is more a sense of sight. This one is pretty established.” He looked up. “It is either long held, in which case, innocent or not, it will be most unhappy, or it is newly harvested and therefore still maintains clear presence.”

  Neither man said a word in response.

  Sabian shrugged and kneeled. “I shall now breathe on it.”

  Torrullin cleared his throat. “Breathe? As simple as that?”

  “My ancient breath was not given me via simplicity, Torrullin.”

  “True.” Torrullin swallowed. “Go ahead.”

  Sabian leaned in close. Elianas abruptly hunkered to see more clearly, while Torrullin remained unmoving. Sabian blew on the swirling emerald orb. Torrullin became as stone. He understood he now guarded his heart against whatever came next. The kneeling man opened his mouth wide and exhaled forcefully.

  The spinning ceased.

  Sparks snuffed out.

  Elianas braced with hands flat on the ground beside him.

  The circular shape curved outward and then elongated into an impossibly thin thread reaching into the sky. Green sprinkles erupted as if exploding, and then they vanished. The metal device disintegrated, until only dull glitters remained.

  “Direct to Aaru,” Sabian murmured, sitting back.

  Elianas’ butt found grass untidily.

  Carefully Torrullin squatted. “Tell us.”

  “She was not long held and she died suddenly, perhaps from asphyxiation. I received impressions only. A human, quite young, brown hair, green eyes. Her name was Beth.”

  Elianas flopped back, breathing rhythmically.

  “Sabian.” Torrullin stood. “You are a clever man. Very clever.”

  Elianas sat up, squinting at Torrullin.

  “Torrullin, I think I understand who you thought may have been trapped in there. I am, however, not clever enough to lie to you,” Sabian said. “I am not sparing your feelings. It was a woman and, yes, she had green eyes, but her name was Beth.”

  Torrullin exhaled explosively. “Thank you.”

  “He knew what we would suspect,” Elianas muttered. “He used an innocent to prove his mastery.”

  Sabian stood also. “It is time to leave here. It is never a good idea to linger in this place.”

  Dark hair swung to the mound between the trees, and Torrullin snorted in response to the action. “Let him lie undisturbed. His story is done.” He extended a hand to Elianas.

  When the man’s fingers curled around his, his skin erupted as if electrified. Fire raced through his veins. Elianas bumped into him, and the effect transferred to the dark man. He inhaled as if taking in life everywhere.

  Sabian, eyes moving, shook his head. They had moved beyond the ability to think.

  He simply enveloped them and hastened them to Avaelyn, returning himself to Akhavar to delve those hidden spaces more.

  Avaelyn

  ATRIUM.

  Foliage. Sunlight.

  Boots flew.

  Passage. Darker.

  Breeches slithered down and landed in untidy heaps. A scabbard bounced.

  Bedroom. Tunics tore.

  Skin cleaved against skin and hands demanded, sought and discovered. Mouths locked.

  Limbs became liquid and they tumbled to the tossed bed. Everything became fluid as if flesh was treacle, swirling and dancing a slow rhythm.

  Hot hands gripped simultaneously and they moved as an entity, together, unbroken, until great shudders tore into the mating dance.

  Music soared out.

  Proof of life.

  TORRULLIN WENT FOR COFFEE.

  When he returned Elianas was on his stomach, head buried in pillows.

  He set their mugs nearby and lay on his side to trail gentle fingers along the man’s spine. His skin rippled in response.

  Tracing his shoulder blades with questing fingertips, Torrullin said, “Today I realised my heart was returned to me.”

  Elianas flipped over. Propping his head with one arm, while drawing the nearest cover over his groin, he asked, “Your heart was lost?”

  “I thought it was. I gave it to another and thought it lost.”

  Drawing in breath, Elianas murmured, “Be more specific, please. You are driving me crazy.”

  A tear tracked over Torrullin’s cheek. “All these ages and I did not understand I gave it to you the day you stood outside for the first time. In the moment I laid eyes on you, it was yours.”

  Swallowing, Elianas lifted a thumb to that silver streak. “And now it is returned to you?”

  “You have returned to me, yes.”

  “Gods, Torrullin, I never left.”

  “Elianas, you did,” Torrullin said. “You left me alone so very long. Even when right here with me, you withheld yourself.”

  Tears ran freely over noble amber planes. “Forgive me.”

  “Forgive me. I hurt you, hoping to make you see. I hurt you too much.”

  “We carry much baggage yet. It will not be smooth road, despite understanding,” Elianas murmured.

  Torrullin laid both hands on those wet cheeks. “I can accept all of it now.”

  Elianas sat up. “I am about to unpack some baggage. How do you explain loving another with all your heart, when you say you gave it to me?”

  Torrullin retrieved the coffee mugs, passing one to Elianas. “We were not walking time together when my heart engaged for another. Perhaps for a while I borrowed it from your keeping.”

  Elianas slurped noisily. “Crap. You took it back in times of brinkmanship.”

  “I did not remember you. There was no brinkmanship, and I certainly did not know I needed to take it back for a while.
”

  “You did not remember. That is why.” Elianas rubbed at his forehead, closing his eyes. “She said I am angry with someone, and that someone does not know I am angry.” He opened his eyes. “You are right. I let you go and thus you loved another.”

  “Did I let you go, Elianas? Is that why you loved another?”

  Dark eyes glittered. “You now assume you have my heart. You assume I too gave mine to you in the first moment.”

  The mug found a spot on the floor via tightly controlled movements.

  “You did not let me go deliberately,’ Elianas said, “and yet it felt like it.”

  Torrullin stared at him.

  Elianas smiled from his very depths. His entire being infused with light. “You know I was yours from the beginning. Most days I want to bloody kill you, but you have my heart.” He shuffled forward to grip Torrullin’s face. “And now I know you have returned to me.”

  Torrullin kissed him, then again, and again, until both were laughing.

  “YOU NEED A SWORD,” Torrullin murmured as he entered the kitchen with the empty mugs.

  Elianas turned from stashing coffee beans. “Teighlar has already put his best blacksmith on it, says if he has the Lumin Sword, least he can do is offer me the finest replacement.”

  “Bloody Senlu,” Torrullin muttered, delivering the mugs.

  Elianas grinned, rinsing their dishes.

  “This Timekeeper nonsense,” Torrullin began, causing the dark man to twitch, “will set us against each other.”

  “Only if we let it,” Elianas mumbled without turning.

  Torrullin was silent then, forcing Elianas to look at him. The dark man leaned against the counter, expressionless.

  “There can only be one at a given time.”

  “Do you desire the responsibility? I know I do not,” Elianas said.

  “I definitely do not want it. And yet we know these matters are forced into being, because there is a need.”

  “You are assuming we are the only contenders,” Elianas stated.

  Torrullin blinked. “There is another? Who, by all gods?”