Faebreaker

17.1: Ashes PT 2

Time passed, and when dusk came, Erik went outside to see what had become of Alaric.

The fae sat in the evening sun, holding the pouch that he'd tossed Erik earlier. Lia's body had been burned down to...a withering husk, it seemed, the dagger Aedan had used driven straight into her chest, Aedan's promise of a fiery spectacle having come to pass. Alaric collected some of her ashes from the makeshift pyre he'd made from the inn's ruins, depositing them into their container.

Erik shook his head, a faint trail of smoke swirling up into the air from where Lia's body lay. He didn't want this life anymore. Didn't want to struggle—but for some reason, Alaric's promise of a great return had not been enough for him. Erik wanted more.

Walking up, the sun setting beyond the horizon slowly but surely, Erik approached the hulking brute of a fae with hesitant steps.

He reached Alaric, who seemed to be finishing his job.

"I want to carry her," he said. "All the way."

"You don't have a hope." Alaric said grimly. "Is my promise not enough? Consider yourself lucky I am not one those fae that would dance around with words and give you something you would not expect. Your part of the bargain is easy enough, that it requires no effort. Understand, that I do this more for her than you yourself. Hers were once a great people."

Erik shook his head. "I'll help you find your daughter if you help take me there."

Alaric glanced behind him, looking at the boy. "What do you take me for, an escort?" The fae turned around, looking into the distance toward the capital of Hillford. "I have no use for you beyond the promise that you'll direct my daughter to me should you find her. For that reason only will I carry your friend's ashes."

"This isn't for you to do," Erik said in defiance. "If you find yourself so guilty of having failed me in some way, then you should help me do this thing. You led that man here, one way or another—that I can see, so this is at least part your fault."

Alaric looked back at the boy with gritted teeth.

"Don't give me that look. You're the one that doesn't understand." Erik winced. "She wanted me to promise her that one day, I would take her to the sea again." He took a deep breath. "I'm not going to let you steal that promise from me. Not when I only have the tiniest fragment of it left."

The fae's lips parted in a sigh. "Then we make another deal," Alaric started to say. "And break our previous in unanimous agreement."

"Talk," Erik said confidently.

"I will guide you, but you must give a small part of yourself to me."

"That's—" Erik shook his head. "What?"

"Everything that lives and breathes has a soul. When someone dies, it is released, and can do any number of things before it crosses into the beyond."

Erik thought about father, thinking what had happened earlier made a little more sense now. Father had been there—but in a different way, he supposed. "Like what things?"

"Whispers in the air, appearance through apparition, many things—many things even my people do not yet understand," Alaric explained. "Your soul is a direct reflection of yourself in life. There is a fair chance I will be able to use it to find my daughter, which is why I am asking for a piece of it should we come to an agreement."

Erik thought about father again. "Will this hurt me?"

Alaric sighed. "You'll feel strange," he said, tapping his boot against the ground. "But I won't mince words. When you die, there is a chance you may forget about certain aspects of yourself, or have trouble finding the place beyond."