The Blood of Vampire: Chapter 14 - The Trial of Fire and Faith
The Reversal Siphon left Jatex utterly drained and emotionally exposed. As they crossed the arid Shifting Sands, Jatex stumbled, forcing Ryn to catch him.
"You're shaking," Ryn whispered, her hand instinctively checking his pulse—or rather, the lack of one. "You haven't Siphoned in twelve hours. You need to feed the Stain."
"I can't," Jatex gasped, the effort of speaking immense. "The Thirst… it's too close to the surface now. If I call the Grief, the Thirst will take over."
The spiritual starvation caused a terrifying side-effect: his memories of Aeliana began to surface, not as comforting memories of love, but as raw, psychic fragments of her pain.
He saw her in the ritual chamber, not proud, but terrified. He saw the spiritual scars she carried before the Oath—small, geometric flaws in her Weave, suggesting she had been fighting the Vaelanar principles long before her final act.
She wasn't perfect. She was fighting, just like me.
The memory was pure agony—but it wasn't his agony. It was the distilled energy of Aeliana's Scars—her own trauma, untainted by his guilt.
The Thirst was so desperate for energy that it lunged for this new, powerful source. Jatex allowed it—a desperate, terrifying gamble. The Thirst consumed the pure, external memory of his sister's struggle, stabilizing him just enough.
Ryn watched the transformation—the momentary terror in Jatex's eyes replaced by a cold, exhausted resolve.
"You're feeding it with her pain now," Ryn said quietly, horrified.
"No," Jatex forced out, his voice stronger. "I am feeding it with her will. She didn't die because she was weak. She died fighting the Law. I am using her war to fuel mine."
Ryn realized the sheer, unholy dedication of Jatex's mission. He wasn't just cursed; he had been entrusted with a cosmic legacy of spiritual defiance. She was looking at a boy who was willingly becoming a ghost to fulfill a sacred, impossible promise.