Rune Mage [Fantasy/Adventure | Book 1 +2 | Complete]

Chapter 100: Madeleine Harred

Seiren.

"What?" Seiren said out loud, too broken to focus on her inner thoughts.

Take me over there.

Seiren frowned, lifting her head. The chaos -- no, celestial -- magic still swirled in her hands, brilliant white, but the room had dimmed. The ground that glowed the unnatural organic magic light faded back to the normal cracked marble. She touched the necklace and withdrew with a hiss. The stone was sizzling hot to touch, but didn't burn her.

"Over...?"

Maura.

Seiren struggled to her feet and stumbled outside the hall, the hushed voices of the other state mages disappearing into the background buzz. Maura's glassy eyes stared upwards at the night sky, the nearby flames throwing shadows across her body. The organic magic rune Kristen made had dissipated completely, but at the centre of Maura's chest was a little white glow. She still breathed -- just.

Seiren's necklace also glowed white.

"What is this?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.

The chaos outside makes this an ideal moment if you want to chance transplanting her soul into another body. Mother had said. But the necklace hadn't done this when Loren died, nor with any of the subjects Seiren had experimented on in Bicknor. Perhaps it was the catalysis happening right now that allowed it to respond so vibrantly. Perhaps it was her mother's magic flowing within her own body that made the power so palpable.

It's Mother's magic. The necklace is responding to Mother's magic in you.

"How?" It was a crazy thought.

It was her magic that night that kept me alive in here. And now you have her magic. Maybe...?

Seiren stared down at Maura's body.

I can't... surely not...?

Once you're a dead sack of meat, then it doesn't bloody matter what happens to you, or me, for that matter, but we can still change this. Maura's voice from merely a few hours ago rang clear. Maura wouldn't have minded, that was true.

But to transplant Madeleine's soul into her?

Madeleine pressed against the outer shell of Seiren's mind, with yearning.

It's calling me.

Seiren's ears rang, but Madeleine's voice was clear as glass. With trembling hands that still glowed with celestial magic, Seiren unfastened the necklace and knelt at Maura's side. Madeleine's presence vanished. Seiren gently placed the necklace over the glowing area on Maura's barely-moving chest and pressed. Kristen's magic poured down her arm like an opened tap. The white celestial magic flowed over her fingers, streaking through the stone, running over the blood rune, which glowed the same colour, and coursing over Maura's body. The insurmountable energy left Seiren breathless and faint, but she continued to press until there was nothing left of Kristen's presence in her body. The power left tingles all over; no doubt the catalysis by the deaths around them made the process all the more potent and possible. Maura's body bathed in the blinding white light until she was just a body outline with no features visible. Seiren sat back, eyes wide, her thoughts empty and her body drained.

She held her breath. The white glow seemed to take forever to dim, but it did. The light faded. Maura's face became visible again -- except she looked a little different. Her face was pointier, with a flatter nose, more prominent cheekbones, and thinner lips. The black hair faded to a medium brown. Her chest rose and fell with vigour. Colour returned to her cheeks.