Chapter Eighty: Passing the Torch

~PRESENT~

“Is Jartre alright?” I frantically ask, my final memory of that dagger aiming for Jartre filling my mind.

Fretez gives me a compassionate look, “Depends on your definition of ‘alright’. The moment you died, your bond was broken and for any animai…that’s a pain worse than death, but for a God…I shudder to think.”

I look around at the expansive white around us, surprised by how warm and welcoming this vast nothing is. “Where are we?”

“This is the veil - a realm between the world of the living and the world of the dead. As Goddess of the Veil, this was always my domain; since my death, it is where I now reside. Welcoming and guiding souls as they cross over, waiting until the day you came along,” she says affectionately.

I scrub my hands down my face, “Why is all of this happening? What I saw…I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. The hatred in Azadou, the anger and shame in Jartre…and then to see all those innocent people fighting something they can’t truly fight…what was