Prologue
Rain poured. The sky cracked with thunder, weeping from horizon to horizon.
“No! It can’t be! How could this happen?!”
The heavens roiled, the earth shuddered, the wind moaned. All the world conspired to drown out the boy’s wails, but still he screamed into the turmoil.
“Why?! How?! Why did it have to be you?!”
His voice did not prevail. It vanished into nothingness, snatched away by the wind and battered by the rain.
The howling gale and torrential deluge ravaged his body like poison, sapping the warmth from his flesh. In time, his breath turned white and his face grew pale with cold. A chill swathed the land like it had been locked in ice—and so it was only natural that the warmth of the woman in his arms also began to ebb away.
“Stop it, please. Leave her alone...”
The sky sneered at his pleas, scattering them with driving rain. Great droplets poured down on her, freezing and pitiless.
“Rey... Come on, Rey, open your eyes. Please...let me hear your voice again.”
There were many other things he wanted to say. If only he had kept a cooler head, if only he had been more rational... There were a thousand excuses he could have made. But with the flame of her life guttering before him, his mind went blank.
“Why did this have to happen?! Why does she have to die?!”
Even knowing his efforts were futile, he drew her close as though trying to bind her soul to her body. Like a child clinging to a departing mother, he buried his face in her chest and unleashed a wordless howl.
“Someone...anyone...help me, please...”
There was nobody to answer, and yet he prayed all the same.
“I’ll do anything... Please...”
There was nobody to hear, and yet he begged all the same.
“Save her! I’ll do anything!”
There was nobody to lend their aid, and yet he pleaded all the same.
“I know! The Spirit King! You could do it! You’re watching, aren’t you?! You have to save her! How hard can it be for you to stop one soul from passing on?!”
But the moment he looked up at the sky, he knew no miracle was coming. Thick, black clouds swirled in the heavens, a raging, growing storm. As if by contrast, the movement of the woman’s chest became shallower and shallower, her breath growing faint as the rain washed her blood away. Lightning cracked, illuminating the boy’s despair-stricken face, bringing it into sharp relief.
“No! No, no, no!”
Screams split his throat. Ragged breaths clogged his windpipe. Sobs wracked his lungs.
“Ahh... Aaaaaahhh!”
He had pledged his life to her, and the vow now broke his heart. He had sworn to save her, no matter the cost, and that vow now shattered his soul. Faced with an unacceptable reality, an indescribable truth, he screamed in denial of it all.
“Aaaaaaaaahhh!!!”
On that day, his heart—his soul—died.
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