The Broken Song

Chapter Thirty-Eight

—The Place Where It Began—

Her feet touched ground, but where she had ended up was anyone's guess. There hadn't been a thought to her destination, not a care given to where she would deliver herself. All that matter was getting away, from Kiverryn, from Lulu, from the Sorceress, from Alistair, from everything that was creating too much noise for her to hear her own thoughts. But when she landed, the noise didn't cease. Instead, it reached a fevered pitch that made her want to scream. A raging tempest that made her bones ache, she doubled over, hands fisted in her raven locks as she tried to contain her torrential emotions. But, this was a battle she was not meant to win.

The dam burst in a violent, swirling upheaval that swept across the land, destroying everything in sight. The grass shriveled and turned black. The trees recoiled, bared branches cracking from the force of their destruction. The water in the river turned to solid ice. Even the air turned cold and biting, bitterer than the coldest Jotunheim storm. Silence rang in the aftermath.

Ori sunk to her knees, arms wrapped around herself. The pain had lessened as had the angry storm in her mind, leaving her to sit in the din of the quiet.

"You let people believe I'm the Savior." Her voice was barely above a whisper, her breath dancing in clouds that rose around her. "You let them believe I can save them, that I can do the impossible. So, why do you leave me in the silence? Why are you never there when I need you?"

It was only the echoing silence that met her. She had expected such an answer, but it did nothing to lessen the sting of rejection. She tried to keep her anger in check, but how could a god ever justify leaving their people to suffer in silence? Her magic riled at the thought, ready to unleash another furious storm when a voice drifted on the cold, bitter air.

"You are not alone," the soft, feminine voice floated past her ear, drawing her attention to a shimmering, golden rift that appeared before her eyes. "The Creator waits for you, Savior."

Ori was hesitant to rise to her feet, uncertain of what lay before her. But, the voice spoke again, urging her to walk toward the barrier for the answers she sought. She was only a few steps away when she heard another sound, this one a sad, heartbreaking whimper that made her pause. Though she could see nothing in her immediate vicinity, she heard the sound again, her body turning away from the rift.

"This door will not remain open for long, Savior," the feminine voice reminded her. "If you walk away, you may never find that which you seek."

The sound, she realized, was something suffering just beyond her sight. A creature, pleading for its pain to end, was out there.

"There are more important things than answers," Ori told the voice, following her feet as they hurried to follow the sound. She trailed around the river's bend, and there, lying on the bank was the Minokawa, blood still leaking from its fatal wound, one leg frozen in the solid ice of the river. It cried out pitifully, its beak barely able to open enough to let the sound fill the air. It heard her approach and tried desperately to escape, but it was held in place by the ice. The closer she drew, the more the Minokawa seemed to accept its fate, until, at last, she was standing directly next to it. Its wide, unblinking eyes watched her, wary even in what could be its final moments.

Ori reached out, slowly so as not to frighten the creature any more, her hands beginning to glow with the warmth of healing magic. The Minokawa flinched when she touched near its bleeding wound, but allowed her to do as she pleased. It had no more fight left. The wound was difficult to close, the magic from the staff fighting against her as she tried to mend the broken and bleeding flesh. Slowly, however, she was able to overcome the staff's festering magic, and the wound sealed. The moment it was closed, she stepped back and thawed the ice.