A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,35

from the Night Bringer.” Soul pointed at the plaque. “He wants us to tap into these memories. To witness everything he saw, everything he was able to record.”

I described everything I saw and felt, each noise I heard as I carved the Night Bringer’s message into stone. By the time I was done, Soul was paler than usual, his lips tightened into a thin line, his gaze fixed on me. For a second, I nearly lost myself in the galaxies of his eyes.

“I think the people of Cruor were wood nymphs,” he concluded with a heavy sigh. “They’re rare these days. They were rare even before I entered Zetos and abandoned the outside world. There were only three lands known to be home to the wood nymphs in this dimension. The pointed ears, the leaves and flowers in their hair, the description of their clothes and features… Yes, wood nymphs, for sure.”

“Wood nymphs,” I repeated after him, the image of those people still fresh in my mind, along with their crippling pain.

“Yes. Creatures who lived in harmony with nature,” Soul replied. “This wasn’t a town. This was their capital city. This was as urban as the wood nymphs would ever get. Most of them lived in the forests.”

“Which explains the geographic fingerprints. This whole place used to be lush, covered with trees,” I said. Sadness washed over me like an icy wave, tearing me apart on the inside. “Oh, those poor creatures…”

“The Elders came here at some point. They tried to possess them, to turn them, I suppose. But it didn’t work. The nymphs were not compatible, like you said. They drank each other dry, then their bodies gave out.”

I got up, my knees still shaking. I pulled my hair back into a tight bun—one of the few things that actually helped clear my mind—and looked at the plaque again. “What does the rest of this message say? I remember carving it… Well, I remember the memory of the nymph who carved it, but I don’t know what it means. You obviously do.”

Soul nodded once. “There are five Beta elements we have to break,” he said. “This is the first. Each of these objects has memories embedded within it. The plaque used to be empty when the Spirit Bender sealed it as a Beta element. The Night Bringer couldn’t break the pieces himself, so he managed to possess different nymphs to carve them instead. He put memories within each in order to tell his story, to make us understand what happened here. Perhaps he was worried the Elders might live long enough to spread to other worlds, I don’t know. I’m guessing on that last part.”

“So, this is the first Beta element,” I murmured, staring at the plaque.

“In places of great anguish and pain, memories persist,” Soul said. “Without knowing the history of this place, we must follow these ruins. The anguish has seeped into the ground, Kelara. It drew us here without either of us even realizing it. The plaque wanted to be found.”

My eyes stung, but the truth was right in front of us.

Cruor had suffered deeply at the misty hands of the Elders. It was our duty to unravel this history, to understand it, and it was our duty to break the Beta elements, too. The tasks went hand in hand. We couldn’t have one without the other. As much as the thought terrified me, it had to be done.

“I have to live through more horrific memories before I can break the other Beta elements, don’t I?” I asked, guessing there was a hitch in all of this.

Soul nodded again. “It’s how Night made it. Maybe he wants us to feel at least a fraction of what he’s experienced while we’re here trying to save him. I have to admit, it makes him quite a sadist. I’m impressed.”

Anger burned hot in my chest as I took out my scythe and cut the plaque in half. Thunder clapped loudly above, though there weren’t any clouds—just the reddish, thick haze. Light flashed across the sky as my blade sliced through the stone. The air rippled outward as something of great power was finally released.

Soul exhaled sharply. The air felt a little lighter already, a minor side effect of the broken Beta element. Minutes passed in an eerie silence as I tried to wrap my head around what I’d learned. The Night Bringer was tucked deep beneath the fabric of Cruor. Somehow, he’d wound up witnessing the invasion of the