Page 118 of Echoes From the Void
“Please,” she tries one last time, but there’s no power left in her voice. No manipulation. Just the final plea of something that should have ended centuries ago.
“I forgive you,” I tell her softly, meaning it. “For all of it. Every moment of pain, every twisted experiment, every corruption. I forgive you.”
Her eyes widen in genuine shock, corruption momentarily stilling around her. “Why?”
“Because that’s what strength really is. What you never understood.” My shadows begin to pulse with transformed purpose, carrying echoes of what I learned from my father’s burden. “Real power isn’t about breaking others. It’s about choosing to remain whole despite being broken.”
“Frankie-” she starts, but I silence her with a gentle touch. The same way she used to silence me, but carrying healing instead of harm.
“Goodbye, Valerie,” I whisper. “May your next existence remember what shadows were truly meant to be.”
My shadows don’t tear or destroy. They simply... unmake. Like entropy remembering its first purpose, they unwind her essence thread by thread. Not with violence or vengeance, but with the quiet certainty of necessary endings. Each strand of her being dissolves into possibility rather than destruction.
Valerie doesn’t scream or beg. She just watches with something like wonder as her corruption dissolves into the void. As centuries of twisted purpose return to the space between moments not as poison, but as potential. The frozen light shifters around us pulse brighter, as if sensing the transformation of their ancient tormentor.
“Oh,” she breathes, her form beginning to fade like stars at dawn. “Is this what it was supposed to feel like? This... peace?”
The last of her essence unravels beneath my touch. Not destroyed, but returned to the space between moments where all things begin again. Where choice matters more than corruption. Where even the most twisted purpose can remember its original nature.
Through our twin bond, I feel Finn’s fierce pride, his light reaching to support my shadows through this necessary task. Through our pack bonds, I feel their distant understanding of what I’ve done—not killed, but released. Through my father’s restored presence, I feel ancient approval of balance maintained.
My wolves gather close as the void pulses with new purpose. Where Valerie stood, possibility spreads like ripples in still water. The frozen light shifters seem to shine brighter, remembering what they were meant to be.
“It’s done,” I whisper, though I’m not sure who I’m telling—my wolves, my brother, my pack, myself. “It’s finally done.”
No, my father’s voice cuts through the moment of peace. His restored form shifts with sudden urgency.Not yet. Your brother...
The twin bond pulses with warning—Finn’s light flickering like a distant star about to fade. In dealing with Valerie, I’d almost forgotten the true reason we entered the void. Horror hits as I feel how weak he’s become, how much of himself he’s given to wake the frozen light shifters.
“Finn,” his name tears from my throat as I spin toward where I last felt his presence. The void seems to twist around us, making distance meaningless. “Where-”
There, my father’s restored form shifts, ancient eyes fixing on a point deeper in the void where corruption runs like black rivers.The damage runs deepest there. Where the light shifters first attempted their sacrifice.
Through our bond, I feel Finn’s essence growing weaker—not just distant now, but fading. While I dealt with Valerie, he’s been working tirelessly to wake the frozen light shifters, pouring his own essence into their crystallized forms. The effort has drained him nearly dry.
We find him among the oldest sacrifices, his light barely visible as he tries to reach one more frozen soul. His foxes flickerlike dying flames around him, their forms growing transparent as they lend him their last strength. The corruption here is older, deeper—the first poison that all others spawned from.
“Enough,” I say, catching him as he sways. His form feels fragile in my arms, light stuttering like a candle in wind. “I’ve got you. We’ve got you.”
“Had to try,” he whispers, his voice faint but carrying that familiar scholarly determination. “They’ve been trapped so long. Waiting so long for someone to understand...”
My father’s massive form curls around us both, his restored shadows merging with mine to support Finn’s failing light. Through our twin bond, I feel his exhaustion, his determination, his desperate need to help those trapped between moments. Even now, with his own essence guttering, he reaches for another crystallized form.
“Together,” I tell him, letting my transformed shadows flow into him. Not to corrupt or consume, but to strengthen. To support. Like we should have been able to do since birth. “Like we were always meant to be.”
His light flares weakly as he meets my eyes, violet swirls dancing in depths that mirror my own. “The light shifters—they’re not just trapped. They’re waiting. For us. For what we can show them about willing sacrifice.”
Understanding hits like a physical blow. The crystallized forms around us pulse with ancient power—not just prisoners of their choice, but guardians waiting for a better way. This is what the prophecy meant—not about us sacrificing ourselves to the void, but about showing another way. About willing transformation rather than forced stasis.
“Father?” I look up at the Eredar’s ancient form, watching how his restored shadows flow like liquid starlight. “The corruption you carried, that I absorbed and transformed... can we use it? Show them how to change entropy into possibility?”
His massive head tilts as he considers, power rippling through spaces between moments.Yes. But the cost...His form shifts closer, protective instincts warring with understanding of what must be done.To transform barriers this ancient, this fundamental...
“Will be willingly paid,” Finn finishes, his voice stronger as he draws on our combined strength. His foxes’ forms stabilize slightly as they press against my wolves. “That’s the difference, isn’t it? Between what they did and what we can do?”
Around us, the frozen light shifters pulse with recognition. With hope. Their ancient power still feeds the barriers between realms, but now... now there’s another way. The void itself seems to hold its breath as possibility spreads like dawn through darkness.
Together then,my father’s voice resonates through spaces between moments. His massive form begins to shift, shadows flowing like liquid night until...
