The Voice Between Heartbeats

The Voice Between Heartbeats

The smell of fresh bread should have been comforting.

It drifted from the little pink bakery in Commerce Burrow, warm and sweet, wrapping itself around the bustling streets where halflings laughed and merchants called to one another. It was the sort of place where children chased each other beneath bright shutters and life insisted on being ordinary.

Yet all I could smell was sulfur.

It lingered beneath every pleasant scent now, a reminder that no matter how brightly the sun shone, death had learned my name.

I listened quietly as Nekales spoke.

His words carried certainty. Liches were evil. Beyond redemption. Beyond reason.

Perhaps he was right.

Perhaps everyone else had learned that lesson long before I had.

Tianni's voice trembled as she recounted the night before.

"I couldn't talk... I couldn't move... I just stood there."

I saw the memory in her eyes before she spoke it aloud. Terror leaves its own scars.

I stepped closer.

"Pardon me... I'm rather intrigued by your vision of the situation."

Not because I doubted her.

Because I needed to understand the thing that had chosen me.

When she spoke of the staff...

...my stomach tightened.

Always the staff.

Always the same impossible demand.

Then it came.

Not from the street.

Not from the people around me.

From inside.

A familiar presence invades your mind...

The sulfur thickened.

"I see you are within the company of another..."

My blood turned to ice.

Not because I feared him.

Because Tianni stood beside me.

Because Nekales stood beside me.

Because they had become part of his game.

I forced myself to breathe.

"Tianni."

She looked at me, confused.

"The member in my head is taunting me."

The words sounded absurd even as they left my lips.

How do you explain a conversation no one else can hear?

How do you convince people you are speaking to the monster hiding behind your own thoughts?

Nekales warned me not to answer.

Not to invite it.

He didn't understand.

Silence had never made the voice disappear.

"I shall not flee from you any longer."

The words surprised even me.

No.

I was done running.

"But you cannot take that which is not yours."

A pause.

"And I am not yours."

For the first time since this nightmare began...

...I meant it.

The lich laughed.

Not aloud.

Inside me.

A cold, patient amusement.

I remembered the promise.

The promise that no more killing would happen.

"You promised me..."

"...that no more killing would happen."

Nekales shook his head.

"You cannot trust a lich."

No.

Perhaps not.

But I had to believe there was something I could reach.

Some sliver of purpose beyond endless slaughter.

Then—

A hand.

Cold.

Bony.

Rested briefly upon my shoulder.

I spun.

Nothing.

Only empty air.

Only laughter echoing where no sound should exist.

Tianni pulled at me.

Asked if I was alright.

I almost laughed.

"I always expect it."

Because I did.

Every quiet moment.

Every peaceful street.

Every friendly conversation.

I waited for him.

For the whisper.

For the next threat.

The next death.

The voice returned.

"You shall beg at my feet..."

No.

"I beg only that my home be saved..."

"...and that you stop your killing."

If he wished to feed upon me...

Then let him.

"My life is nothing compared to them."

The words slipped out before I thought about them.

Because they were true.

Always had been.

Tianni asked what he wanted.

I didn't answer immediately.

Because saying it aloud somehow made it more real.

"The staff."

Always the staff.

The impossible journey over the mountains.

The impossible choice.

I searched desperately for an answer.

Teleportation.

The Arch of Four Winds.

Anything.

There had to be a way.

There had to—

The voice interrupted.

"You lie."

Lightning answered.

The world exploded in white.

A bolt crashed from the heavens.

The thunder came after.

Nekales never had the chance to scream.

One heartbeat he stood beside me.

The next...

...his head was gone.

His body collapsed at my feet.

The street became impossibly quiet.

Tianni screamed.

I couldn't.

I simply stared.

No.

No.

No.

I dropped to my knees beside him.

"I'm sorry, Nekales!"

The words broke inside me.

This was because of me.

Because I answered.

Because I listened.

Because the monster had chosen me.

Tianni wrapped her arms around me.

"It isn't your fault."

"Yes it is!"

Even as Nekales' ghost protested...

Even as Tianni tried to comfort me...

I knew.

Or believed I knew.

The guilt settled over me like wet wool.

Heavy.

Impossible to remove.

Yet beneath the grief...

The voice laughed.

Watching.

Waiting.

Testing.

I wiped away my tears.

"There might be a way."

The Arch of Four Winds.

Perhaps.

Maybe.

Hope had become a fragile thing.

Still...

It was all I had left.

Later, Tianni asked me quietly if I was alright.

I looked at my friend.

At the worry in her eyes.

At the body still lying in the street.

At the place where lightning had stolen a good man.

"No, Tianni."

My voice barely rose above a whisper.

"I'm not okie."

For a moment she simply held me.

And I let her.

Because even with a lich inside my thoughts...

Even with death following every step...

Even with guilt clawing at my heart...

I was not alone.

Not yet.

Not while there were still people willing to stand beside me.

Even if I feared standing beside me might one day be the thing that killed them.