I opened my eyes slowly.
It felt unreal. I had spent so long existing as little more than a thought, watching Liraya's life unfold, that I had started to wonder if I would ever truly return at all.
Looking around, I realized I was still in the warehouse, nothing had changed. I was still standing, exactly as before. Then I looked down. She lay there, her eyes still open.
I stared at her for a long moment. I had expected it to feel stranger, almost wrong. Shouldn't my personality have shifted? I had lived far longer as her than I ever had as myself, ten times longer. And yet, I knew it. I was still me, It was as if her entire life had settled one level beneath my own, present but secondary, while mine remained dominant.
I reached out and gently closed her eyes.
It did not seem like much time had passed. Otherwise, someone would have stepped in already. I didn't know how it worked, but compressing an entire life into a few moments was incredible.
My gaze drifted to her hand, and I carefully slid one of the rings from her finger. It was a black band set with a diamond-shaped white stone. A divine artifact capable of storing objects.
The stone was white only when the ring had no owner. Once someone claimed it, it took on the color of their spiritual energy. In Liraya's hands, it had turned gold. That color had faded the moment she died. Fortunately, the items inside were still there. The space bound to the ring did not rely on spiritual energy to exist.
I slipped it onto my finger and called my spiritual energy.
It responded instantly.
The difference was overwhelming. Day and night compared to before. Startled, I stopped feeding it into the ring and redirected it through my body instead. It was still wild, but it moved faster and with more precision. For the final test, I raised my hand and concentrated the energy into one fingertip at a time, moving through all five. Then all of them together. It looked as if a red star burned at the tip of each finger.
I clenched my fist and looked back at Liraya.
"Looks like all your hard work wasn't in vain" I said. "Thank you."
Would it be the same for everything she trained?
I directed my spiritual energy back into the ring, and the stone turned red. Information about everything stored inside flowed into my mind.
Perfect.
It had everything I remembered.
I focused on it and willed the two short swords Liraya had kept inside to come to me.
They appeared in my hand at once. Both were bronze, broad at the base and tapering into sharp points, with edges on both sides of the blade. Runes ran along the middle of each one. They were divine artifacts as well, when fed with spiritual energy, their durability and sharpness increased.
Before living her life, I had always trained with a single blade. Years of practice, but nothing that could compare to what Liraya had accumulated. She had trained with them for decades.
Now, as I held the two short swords, they felt natural in my hands. In that moment, I understood. All of her training had become mine.
I tightened my grip and channeled my spiritual energy into the blades, the runes flaring red as I stepped forward and attacked.
I swung both swords in sequence, one after the other. An opening strike, meant to throw the opponent off balance. She had used it countless times.
It worked at first, until my foot slipped at the end of the motion and broke the flow.
That made sense. Even if all of her training was mine, it could not be copied perfectly. Everything about me was different. I was taller, stronger, and my body moved with a different weight and timing.
I did not doubt I could adapt quickly, but time was against me. I had no way of knowing when they would begin to suspect something was wrong. Belash, Nerak, and Lureh. All three had sworn divine oaths to Liraya.
They were waiting outside.
Belash was an ascendant, and unlike the others, his oath to Liraya had been his own choice. If he found out I was the one who killed her, vengeance would be the only thing on his mind. Nerak and Lureh, on the other hand, would likely flee the moment they understood what had happened, which would be a problem in itself. I could not let them talk. Letting that happen would turn everyone who had stood behind her against me.
I had to deal with all of them.
Facing them head-on was not an option. Even knowing their runes and how they fought, it would still be almost impossible. I would have to find another way.
If I did that, it shouldn't be too difficult. I smiled, returned the short swords to the ring, and stepped outside.
I followed the riverbank. As I walked, my thoughts turned to who knew she was going to be here. Aside from the ones waiting ahead, there was Urhen, her second-in-command. No one else had been told directly. But Ishtal likely knew as well, he must have pieced it together. After all, he was the one who had given her the information about Darim and Arisha. I would make him pay for that, but there was no hurry.
Voices cut through my thoughts.
"Do you think Lady Liraya will take long with him?" It was Lureh's voice.
"Not long. She will probably force him into a divine oath" Nerak replied.
I kept walking, in no hurry at all.
"That would make sense. Otherwise, we would not have taken the child. Still, I almost feel sorry for him." Lureh added.
They fell silent the moment they heard my footsteps. As I drew closer, Belash, who had not spoken until then, finally did. "Turn back the way you came if you do not want trouble."
I pulled back my hood, raised my hands, and answered calmly. "My name is Zimesh. I just made a divine oath to Lady Liraya, same as you."
He stepped into view, suspicion clear in his eyes, daggers already in his hands. "If that's true, she should be with you" he said, raising his daggers in warning. "Where is she?"
Nerak and Lureh stayed out of sight.
I smiled.
"Neither eyes nor the chosen can extinguish the spark" I said clearly.
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard it. Their hearts jumped, then settled. Belash put his daggers away, and the others stepped out of hiding.
All of them lowered their guard.
Of course they would. It was a code, one that changed day by day, used to identify those who truly belonged to the cause. For them, the only way I could have known it was if Liraya herself had told me.
"So" Belash asked, "what happened?"
I lowered my hands and answered evenly. "I do not know. She received a message and told me to follow the riverbank to find you, to wait with you until she returned."
Belash nodded, and the others followed, though he did not seem entirely convinced. They were soldiers who could not betray her. Shouldn't she have come for them before doing anything else?
But he knew better. There were things even he was kept in the dark about. I knew he had no choice but to accept it.
"Come" Lureh said. "Let's introduce ourselves. We will be working together for a while."
I looked at Lureh. She had long blond hair, a rare sight among the people here. She was calm, rarely caused trouble, and had come to accept her place under Liraya. A chosen of Enki. She looked like a teenager, but she was well over forty.
I started walking.
Nerak spoke beside me. "She convinced you pretty quickly, didn't they? That eager to become someone's slave?"
At glance, he could have passed for an ordinary man, if not for the fact that he was a chosen of Ninurta. He despised Liraya with everything he had and wanted nothing more than his freedom. He had never forgiven the fact that he had been given no choice.
"I didn't have a choice" I replied, my voice carrying a hint of sadness.
"Like all of us" Nerak muttered.
Belash shot him a sharp look.
"Tsk" Nerak clicked his tongue, looking away.
I looked toward Belash. A tall, broad-shouldered man who was always quiet during missions with the others, not because he was withdrawn, but because he saw himself as above those who had sworn divine oaths by force.
As we walked toward a nearby lamp, I spoke again, forcing a trace of nervousness into my voice. "Is it true that Darim is alright?"
Lureh smiled gently. "Yes. Don't worry, she's not as bad as she seems. Her methods are… questionable, but the child is fine. We'll go to him once the lady returns."