“Greetings, Charu.”
“Turan, I am honored by your presence.”
“I see that you have recovered my missing lasa.”
“I have brought her to the gates.”
The goddess nodded, her eyes winging over the spirit with regret.
“My poor little spirit,” she murmured. A hand stretched but dropped away. “The vanth brought you my message, why didn’t you keep to it, Apane?”
“I’m sorry, mistress,” Apane wept. “I just wanted to go home.”
Turan closed her eyes and shook her head. “You cannot come back among your sisters now; your light has changed.” She lifted her hand and a golden veil parted through which descended a pair of vanth, their torches in hand. They looked at Apane with surprise and then sorrow washed over them as they watched the lasa crumble to the floor, her frame shaking with sobs. They gathered the little spirit to them and departed as quickly as they came, leaving only Turan facing Charu.
The goddess folded her hands in front of her and smiled.
“You have returned something I lost to me, and now I will return something lost to you.”
Reaching into her robe, she pulled out a crystal egg.
“I caught her at her last breath but allowed her to sleep for a time until I could bring her here to you.”
His eyes widened as he looked into the heart of the crystal and saw the curled form of Meredith’s soul sleeping within. She didn’t look like a human soul. Though the purple locks of hair falling across her face were not unusual for his mate, the lavender wings draped around her and tiny, delicate ivory horns sprouted from her brow were not.
“She’s changed,” Turan whispered, her eyes glinting with humor and none-to-little pleasure. “She’s become your light. It is appropriate, I think, for the light of the gatekeeper to be the very thing that holds his heart. Nothing should remain forever alone.”
“I didn’t want her possessed by the lamp,” he said, sorrow weighing on him as he wondered how much of his mate would be Meredith, and how much would be the sentience of the light he’d drawn from himself eons earlier.
Turan laughed. “She is not possessed. She was chosen, born into the world just for you. That little light of yours is within her, but dormant at the moment. It doesn’t yet have a soul to attach to. Your essence will mingle with hers, and you two will spawn the soul of a new spirit of light from that seed within her. She will not be a spirit of Aites but a spirit of the world.”
Charu bowed his head in acceptance, his heart full. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from his mate’s spirit. He’d thought the gods had been cruel, but instead he’d been offered the greatest of gifts. He would have his mate for eternity by his side not as a shade that could be taken from him and reborn into the mortal world but as a spirit bound to him, and with her he would be blessed with an offspring to call his own. Blood-red liquid fire dripped down onto the back of his hand and he raised his fingertips to touch his cheek. For the second time, he shed tears, but this time in joy rather than sorrow.
He hugged the egg close to him and met Turan’s eyes.
“How do I wake her?”
The ais smiled widely. “There’s a little magic to it. Let me show you.”
Gently plucking the egg from his hand, she pressed a kiss against the crystal shell, breathing her magic over the egg. It flashed gold and glowed softly.
“Now watch.”
Placing the egg on a bed of dirt, she stepped back and bid him to do the same. The egg began to glow as it grew larger. The shell thickened until it was an opaque, luminous gold, and still it increased until it was a massive size. It shuddered and then lit up brightly before bursting into a cloud of dust.
Charu raised his head to thank the goddess only to discover that he was once again alone. No. Not alone. His mate slept there before him. Amid the settling dust, Charu rushed to Meredith’s side, his hands stroking down her arms, down her ribs, and over her hips in wonder. An aura of white-blue light radiated off her body. Her eyes opened and she drew a startled breath. The same white-blue light pooled in them as she stared up at him. A hesitant, disbelieving smile stretched over her lips as she raised a hand, her fingers caressing a lock of his hair.
“Charu?”
He squeezed his eyes shut, struggling against the feelings surging within him.
“I thought I’d lost you, Meredith,” he whispered as he drew her closer to him.
“Is this a dream?” she asked. “Please tell me it’s not a dream.”
His knuckles stroked down her cheek.
“Does that feel like a dream?”
She gasped and clutched his hand, pressing her lips to it, a look of wonder on her face.
“How is this possible? I thought I died...”
“You did, my love. But by the grace of the aiser, you’ve been reborn here to dwell at my side. We will never again be apart.”
She laughed, tears in her eyes, glowing like diamonds refracting the sun.
“Forever is a very long time.”
“You once said that you couldn’t promise me forever...”
“I did,” she agreed. “But now when all is said and done, I know that even forever won’t be enough.”
Her wings ruffled as she returned his embrace, a sound of happiness escaping from her. Jerking in surprise, she looked over at the soft feathers arching from her back and pumped them experimentally, sending soft drafts over him.
“This is out of the world...!”
Her fingers investigated her face and she laughed as she found the tiny horns.
“Do I look like you now?”
He made a sound of amusement.
“Not even close. You are beautiful, my mate.”
Her eyes glowed up at him as his lips descended to meet hers. Her light swelled around them, growing brighter until he was drowning in her, and still he couldn’t break away. He felt the weave of thousands of threads between their souls, uniting their spirits as they were hidden in a burst of radiance. In that light, a kiss turned into a caress, and he loved her there before the gates.
No being of Aites knew love, but he’d found his. Meredith’s lips curved into a smile against his and he knew that they’d discovered everything within each other.
Epilogue
Turan stroked the head of a dove as she looked out over the world, a smile playing on her lips. All the spheres of the planes floated around her, but the world of men was the one with which she was most concerned at the moment. Things were returning to normal, and human civilization was slowly rebuilding, although cobbled together in a different form with their decimated numbers. Still, the people were happy and thriving.
The only thing that none had predicted was the lasting effect the ravaging of the wulkwos left upon the world. It was a permanent scar on their world. Although the beings of Aites could no longer pass into the world of humans, the barriers between the planes had broken down. Humans were no longer going to be the only beings in their world anymore. Once again, they’d have to share the space with those spirits that chose to cross back and forth over the divides.
Another sphere hovered nearby, where she enjoyed peeking in on from time to time to check on Charu and Meredith. Their love brightened those once terrible gates, welcoming souls as the vanth brought them forward. Meredith had proved not only good for the gatekeeper but a powerful spirit in her own right. Unlike her gruff mate, her gentleness earned her the adoration of all who passed before her. She exuded comfort to the souls of the dead and had formed friendships among the vanth. Yet she was never far from her mate. He was still overbearing, but Meredith seemed to enjoy it if her constant smiles and their leisurely embraces were anything to go by. The couple exuded love to the point that it was a matter of pride for Turan.
She smiled smugly to herself; she’d made a good match there. Not only was their love causing ripples through Aites, the little fledgling spirit they brought into the world was a constant source of joy to Turan. Mischievous but full of l
aughter, her parents had named her Maria, “brightness.” Turan liked that. It suited the age she was born to usher in. Her light would one day bring great changes. A new enlightenment.
Turning back to the sphere of the world of men, she smiled as a young woman came into view, her blond hair blowing around her as she eased a bow onto her shoulders. She was walking into a forest alone. This woman had a temerity about her that Turan enjoyed. The men of the town by the forest wouldn’t allow her to hunt with them, in hopes that she’d eventually choose from one among them to marry. She’d refused every suitor, preferring to live alone at the edge of the woods in her cabin despite their attempts to woo her.
Turan tsked and drew another sphere beside it. The silvani lucumo had been useful to her. While she was, strictly speaking, not allowed to interfere with the mortal world, it didn’t mean she couldn’t bend the rules a little. She wrinkled her nose as she watched him, reclined in his throne, being waited on by various woodland spirits, an expression of boredom pulling at his face. He was looking thoughtfully out his window, a devilish smile pulling at his lips. Up to no good, she supposed. He’d discovered for himself the scarred open paths between the worlds. More than once, he’d found sport frightening some poor soul out of their wits. Something needed to be done here.
Grinning gleefully, she set the two spheres together and breathed a rosy mist of magic over them, setting her enchantment. They just needed a bit of encouragement. Kissing her dove, she set it loose and it flew into the sphere of the mortal world, its wings beat as it flitted down beside the huntress. Oh, this was going to be fun.
Turan settled back onto her cushions and laughed.
Glossary
Ais/aiser: Etruscan words that refer to deity/deities respectively. There is no feminine/masculine distinctions.
Aites: The Etruscan word for Hades, referring both to the ruler of the dead and the abode of the dead in general.
Asila: A creature entirely of my own imagination, named for the Etruscan word “handmaiden.”
Charu: Also spelled Charun, he is the Etruscan gatekeeper to the underworld. His name bears similarities to the Greek ferryman but his appearance and function are very different.
Culsa: In this book I mention her as a twin of Charu. In mythology she’s not (or at least not from what we know, though they bear striking resemblances in some ways). She is considered a guardian of the most volatile parts of the underworld which I played up a bit more. She is wife of Culsans, the god of gates in general.
Lasa: A feminine winged spirit of the fields and nature in general that is especially linked with the cycles of flowers and plant-life. Servants of Turan.
Lauchume: Etruscan word meaning “king”. It is the root for the latin lucomo and names such as Lucius and its derivative.
Marish hinthial favin: a cobbled together bit from Etruscan words “servant soul descend”
Miasma: A complex spiritual view from the Greco-Roman world that ascribes that we can all be exposed to a spiritual pollution that removes you further from the gods. It can come in different degrees that has various methods of purification. The most common is daily accumulation with unclean contact and exposure whether it be from things or individuals. More serious miasma is accrued through contact with death/birth in which a house would be considered unclean during a certain period following brief exposure to the spirits that accompany such events. Actions that stained the soul could also be miasmatic, he most serious of which was acts of murder.
Silvani: A spirit of the woods common in Italian lore. Named after Silvanus, the god of the wood, or Selvans as he was named among the Etruscans.
Turan: Etruscan goddess of love and beauty. She is also the anointer of the dead and plays an important funerary task. The lasa are her children/servants and the vanth are considered a sub-branch of the lasa who are particularly concerned with moving souls between worlds.
Vanth: The name of a classification of spirits as well as a goddess of the underworld. The vanth are spirits related to the lasa who are likewise winged but also carry torches, scrolls with the names of the dead and serpents. They travel between the world of the living and dead to collect the souls of the deceased and transport them through the underworld.
Wulkwos: Based off the phonetics of the Etruscan word for wolf, these are mostly my invention based off of images from Etruria of wolfish men of the crypt seen to come out of the underworld through crematory urns etc. The king of the underworld possesses a wolf cap so there are strong underworld vibes I utilized for creating these spirits.
Author’s Note
First of all, thank you for reading my book baby. I really loved everything about writing Havoc of Souls. Funny enough the entire book concept started as a joke. I love horror. Books, movies...everything. I grew up watching it from a young age. So last month I made a joke that I could never write horror because if I tried it would turn into a romance with a woman falling in love with the monster. I didn’t go quite that route with Havoc of Souls (although I have a short erotica I plan to release around my birthday that is a bit closer hehe) but I really wanted to bring some of the things I loved from my childhood adoration of all things Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, as well as bring in Etruscan myth and Greco-Roman spiritual worldview. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun to write.
For those who want to know, yes there will be a volume for the Silvani Lucomo that is projected in my calendar I sent to my editor for May. I am looking forward to digging into his story!
My schedule for the next two months will have a release of Heart of the Agraak in late November, while December will see two novellas released. One is a fan awaited release of Emala’s story as a prequel to Red. The other will be the A Gift for Medif as my holiday release. I also will have another Ragoru short story in an Anthology being released in December that readers can look out for. I will mention more of it in my newsletter later in November.
Thank you again for going on this journey with me!
S.J. Sanders
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