I sat down on the tile before one of the benches and let my eyes fill with the darkness of the place. For a few minutes there was no sound, sensation, or scent. I forced my mind to think of nothing other than what it would be like to meet my daughter. Dawn couldn’t come quickly enough.
I heard a noise outside of the structure. Footsteps sounded in the forest. I opened my eyes. The first rays of dawn filled the floor of the Radicle. I knew the footsteps and the cadence of her heart.
I would always remember the sound of her heart.
“Nadea,” I greeted her when she stepped into the doorway of the shrine.
“Good morning, Kaiyer.” She smiled at me and my heart skipped. “I couldn’t sleep, and the Elvens mentioned you had left camp an hour ago. I figured you would be here.”
I rose and tried to keep my excitement under control. It would not be long now before I met Vaiarathe.
“Emotions are funny. My father knew I loved him. He loved me. But he couldn’t bear to show me this place. He was afraid that I would figure out how to use it and then leave him.”
“He knew where it was all along?” I asked.
“Yes. When I told him of your daughter, he confessed.” Her smile faded a bit and she sighed lightly.
“What did you say after he told you?”
“Everyone deserves forgiveness. Everyone deserves love.” She smiled again.
“Even me?”
“Especially you, Kaiyer,” she laughed.
“Then why don’t you believe that you deserve love?” I asked her.
She crossed her arms and looked away.
I stepped toward her and reached my hand out to touch her shoulder.
Then I pulled her into my arms.
Her body shook against me and my nose filled with the scent of her hair and the sound of her heart hammering wildly. I could almost taste her skin on my tongue and her arms gently wrapped around my waist. She leaned her head into my chest and let out a deep sigh.
“Do you know how I feel about you?” I whispered.
“Yes. But—”
“No,” I interrupted her. “You know that I love you?”
“You also love Jessmei. You love both of us.” Her slender body leaned into me for another precious second and then she pushed herself away. “It is better that you are with her. She needs you.”
“Do you love me?” I held her shoulder again.
“No.” She averted her eyes.
“Look at me,” I begged. “Tell me you do not love me. If you really don’t, then I will join with Jessmei in marriage.”
“And if I tell you that I do love you?” Nadea’s eyes were suddenly fierce.
“Then you know what I will decide.”
“I don’t love you, Kaiyer. I only want your friendship and the love of your daughter.” She smiled and blinked a few times. “Will you give me your friendship? Will you allow me to return that bond? Will you let me befriend your daughter and treat her as my niece?”
“Yes, of course.” I forced a smile to my lips and let my breath leave my body slowly.
“Should I bring her through?” Nadea asked.
“Can you bring her here now?” I said after we looked at each other for a few more seconds. “Don’t you need Jessmei?”
“She suspected you would leave and come here. She told me she is close enough to sense when I use the Radicle, and she will release the hold then. Do you want to wait for her?”
“No. Jess will understand. If you are here and can do it now, I don’t want to wait any longer.” My heart began to race and I felt the palms of my hands get sweaty. I was more nervous than I could ever recall feeling. Perhaps I had felt this way when I first met Iolarathe and she asked me to wash her feet, but that was many lifetimes ago.
“Then let’s meet your daughter.” Nadea walked to the nearest pedestal and laid her hands upon the smooth stone. I felt the Earth surge up around me with familiar warmth and the walls of the Radicle seemed to glow with a symphonic range of gold colors.
“Vaiarathe,” Nadea said clearly and the world echoed her name.
Then my daughter came to this world and into my arms.
Epilogue
I watched Kaiyer embrace our child and my heart soared.
“Finally.” I spoke the words, but they sounded strange. The language seemed cumbersome and inadequate.
“You brought her to this world,” Entas said and I turned to look at the man.
He was different.
I was different.
It was a sudden change. The knowledge of who I really was crashed into me and scattered into a million particles of nothing. I knew too much. I understood everything that was now and that had been.
I saw my daughter and my love again and understood who they were. I turned to the being that called himself Entas and knew who he was. It was horrifying and wonderful at the same moment.
“I am sorry, my child,” I apologized because it was needed. I hated admitting I was wrong, much like Iolarathe, but I had made too many mistakes to maintains such pride.
“I know.” His form nodded, but I saw the life behind the mask of skin and bone.
“How many lives have you lived?” I knew the answer before I asked.
“Hundreds of thousands.” The form flickered with a smile and a bright orange color.
“How many times did you try to tell us?”
“I gave up and stopped trying. Neither of you would remember. Every instance was met with rejection. It was the punishment you gave yourselves. Then Kaiyer came to be and I recognized the opportunity.”
“He does not know?”
“He knows at the same time that he does not. It is why he kept returning.”
I watched them embrace again. My child was telling Kaiyer that she knew he would find her. She was painfully thin, but her small arm had enough strength to reach up and touch his face. The adoration was plain in her eyes and I felt my consciousness fill with love.
It was wonderful.
“Your avatar,” the voice of my other child said. I saw that Nadea had left the Radicle and walked in the direction that would return her to the camp. My family was distracted by their first meeting and had not noticed that Nadea no longer stood beside them.
The woman continued to walk into the nearby forest and I wondered why she did not remain to rejoice with her friend.
She crouched down beside a fallen pine log and put her face in her hands.
Then she wept.
They were ravaging sobs of pain and loss. I felt my own sadness force tears to the eyes of the Elven shape I currently wore. I knew her pain.
“This is what we needed to understand.” My child nodded and empathy filled his silver eyes. “We knew nothing of sacrifice, or love, or regret,” I said.
“Now we understand. We know what it is to be mortal.” His words floated to me.
“I will never be able to repay the debt I owe her.” Nadea cried for ten more minutes. She forced herself to stop and wiped her eyes on her sleeve and rose, trembling, to her feet. She walked back toward the Radicle.
“She may continue to serve you. There is still terrible danger to our family, our children, and their worlds.” I nodded and forced my form’s eyes closed.
Recatolusti’catri.
The dragon lived. Though she no longer submitted to our will. She had her own dark desires now. The monster I created needed my daughter so that she could travel through the Radicles.
“She knows Kaiyer’s armor is gone and that he has finally woken. She knows that he will release Vaiarathe from her prison. Her minions will not stop until they return to her what you have promised.”
“I know.”
“What shall we do?” he asked. Now that I was aware of the truth, he reverted to his old role of seeking my guidance.
Kaiyer held my daughter in his arms and they walked out of the Radicle. Nadea met them a few steps in front of the clear pond and Kaiyer introduced his daughter to the woman. Nadea’s eyes wer
e still red from crying, but Kaiyer did not notice; he was too wrapped up with the thin girl he carried.
“She will have to learn of her powers. She will have to fight. She will have to save them. She will have to save us all.”
“Then we will pray that she is successful.”
I smiled at the irony and watched the trio journey into the forest and up the path that would eventually return them to their other friends. The sun had almost completed its initial climb into the sky and I marveled at the beauty of the forsaken world. The scene was a fitting end to my existence, and now that Vaiarathe was alive, I could do nothing more than watch her fate unfold.
“Then we will pray that she is successful,” I repeated his words.
The End
Thank you for reading this novel. Don't forget to write a review!
It's been a long journey friends. I hope you've enjoyed the story of The Destroyer. While this novel ends on a happy note (unless you are a Nadea fan) you are probably wondering about the loose end that I didn't resolve. It will be resolved, but first I plan on taking a bit of a break to work on some other novels. I will return to Kaiyer, Jessmei, Nadea, and Vaiarathe in the near future, so make sure you subscribe to my mailing list.
Thanks for enjoying my series. Please feel free to send me an email on my website if you have any questions, or want to just say hi.
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Editing and e-book formatting by Ginger Earle
Cover art by Daniel Kamarudin
Typography, illustration and print book formatting by Jason Faraci
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Michael-Scott Earle
The Destroyer Book 4 Page 60
