“In her diaries, my grandmother explains that the older one gets, the harder is for them to enter a Fringe. That’s why she went looking for one back when she was young. To avoid the backlash and use whatever she would learn as a foundation for her studies.”
“I understand the issue for you and Ajatar, but I’m not hundreds of years old.” Lith shrugged.
“Indeed, but you are also someone who undergoes world tribulations. I’m afraid that Mogar might focus on you when you enter. That and your cracked life force might cause you similar problems.” Faluel replied.
“What about Solus?” Lith pointed out. “She has world tribulations as well.”
“She has amnesia and what little she remembers can’t hurt her. Also, the nature of her tribulations is not as dangerous as yours. She’s going to be fine.” Faluel had no idea how wrong she was. “Now, while Nalrond brings the others in, I want you to practice this meditation technique.
“When you feel you are about to be swallowed by grief and regret, focus on a single moment of your life. Something that defines yourself. A turning point when you have made a decision that shaped your lives.”
Lith and Ajatar nodded, yet the former was quite in a pickle.
‘I have three lives so I need three moments. Also, I must somehow switch to a different memory during the telepathic onslaught. This is not going to be easy.’ He thought.
“Ajatar, you and I are going to go first and have Nalrond wait until we have snapped back to reality. This way when Lith arrives, we and Solus can help him with a mind link. Even if he gets lost in the current, we can act as a beacon and rescue him.”
One after the other, the members of the group grabbed Nalrond’s hand and entered the Fringe.
This time, Quylla and Friya didn’t try to harm themselves but the experience left them weeping nonetheless. The grief from Phloria’s death and their regret for failing to save her despite Faluel’s help hit them hard.
“If only I was stronger!” Friya hiccupped, her blue-violet aura bursting forward in frustration.
Aalejah, instead encountered no problem. The voices didn’t bother her much, she even tried to make conversation as she passed through the veil. Once on the other side, her young and sheltered life didn’t give her much to think about.
Faluel chose to focus on the memory of the first child she had refused to Awaken and the moment of her death. Her daughter, Yrdra, had been pampered and spoiled by her father, growing into an entitled little monster.
Her arrogance had also led her to an early demise that had caused great grief to her parents and split them apart for good.
‘I don’t regret not Awakening her. If I did, Yrdra would have killed that innocent mage and the gods know how many more. I solely regret not taking a more active role in her education and saving her from herself.
‘Yet I took responsibility for my actions and let Yrdra pay the price for her foolish choices. I couldn’t have done more.’ She thought while focusing on the memory of standing in front of Yrdra’s tomb.
Ajatar focused on the moment when he had slaughtered an entire village. Back then, he was just a scholar with no fighting experience or thirst for blood. He had simply helped a lost traveler and healed him.
The man had reported the position of the Drake’s cave and its treasures. At the mention of the gold, the people of the village had decided that such a monster couldn’t be allowed to live.
That it was just a matter of time until the monster attacked them so killing him first was self-defence. Also, with all that gold, the villagers would have lived the rest of their lives in luxury.
Their mistake was assuming that the thin, gentle lizard was as frail as it appeared, not just a form Ajatar had chosen to not scare the traveler.
‘I didn’t want to kill them but I knew that if I let them go, they would just have returned with more people after painting me as a bloodthirsty monster. I would have had to fight the Kingdom’s army and Association for no reason.
‘I might have died. I don’t regret killing them. I regret my naïve stupidity that made me believe that people are intrinsically good instead of egotistical jerks.’ He thought.
As for Lith, the problems started as soon as he stepped through the barrier.
It wasn’t just Mogar noticing him, but also all the souls lingering inside and outside the Fringe. They piled up on in, using the current of thoughts and memories that swirled around the dimensional barrier to gain access to his brain and from there to his life force.
Normally, Lith’s powers shielded him from unwanted interactions with the souls but within the veil, the boundaries between the living and the dead were much thinner. Lith could handle the external memories with ease just as Faluel had predicted.
The hungry mob of souls clawing at his mind and life essence, however, wasn’t something he was prepared for. He couldn’t run. He couldn’t hide from them. Worst of all, he had no idea how to defend himself without losing his focus and getting his mind destroyed by the veil.
He switched from one threat to another, trying to buy Nalrond the time to bring them on the other side.
Unfortunately, during the journey, the Rezar shared his passenger’s suffering so he was paralyzed as well, lost adrift in the current of memories and barely holding up on his own sanity.
‘Enough!’ Mogar’s will boomer like thunder, their gaze shining like a bullseye over Lith’s mind and driving all the souls away.
The storm turned into calm as along with the wailing assailants the veil stopped weighing on their minds as well.
‘It’s nice to meet both of you again.’ Nalrond heard the voice in his head like his own while to Lith Mogar sounded like Elina. ‘Do you feel strong enough for what waits for you on the other side?’
‘What the fuck?’ Lith panted, checking his life force for injuries and finding none. ‘I have so many questions.’
‘No.’ Nalrond replied. ‘I almost lost it. I need rest.’
‘Good.’ Mogar ignored them both and pushed them in.
Nalrond recovered instantly but for Lith, it was trickier.
For his first life, he focused on the memory of when he had killed Chris Wainright. It gave meaning to his journey and kept him from going insane when he relived Carl’s death.
The pain was tempered by the certainty that the killer would pay and that nightmare would end.
For his second life, the problem was that it lasted so little that by the time Lith recalled the memory of his hunger and despair, he had already moved on to the third.
It happened so fast that he almost failed to conjure the right shield in time. The final memory was about a family lunch he had just a few days back.
It was simple, but it carried a lot of meaning to him. Tista was alive because he had saved her. Raaz was now able to smile and rejoice after what Orpal had put him through.
