Page 31 of Unseen Lord

Breathing until I couldn't breathe anymore.

Feeling the weight of the earth drive out the air in my body. Crushing my internal organs. Crushing bones.

I could hear them snap.

Feel them break.

But I could not scream.

Could not cry out.

Could only endure the pain.

And the end came.

I had a fraction of a moment when I felt my heart burst inside my chest, and then there was nothing.

* * *

The nothing gaveway to a heaviness that was almost unbearable. I had been floating, it seemed, into the ethers of eternity. Now, I was corporeal once again, and standing in the dungeons, or what was left of the dungeons.

I looked down at my body, shocked, confused. I had died. I was sure of it.

Devon was dead.

The staff destroyed.

The caverns and older parts of the dungeons appeared to be gone as well, now just a crater of electric fire.

The newer parts of the dungeon still stood, and I had to assume the rest of the Black Lotus was intact.

I waited, knowing my uncle would be here in 3, 2, 1…

"What in tarnations is going on down here?" he asked, standing beside me as if appearing from smoke, his long purple robes pristine.

"I… " I looked at him, and then threw myself into his arms and cried. I didn't stop crying for some time, and it took a lot of deciphering for him to get the story out of me.

When I was done confessing, I looked up at him with swollen eyes. "How am I alive?" I asked.

He brushed my hair out of my face and smiled kindly, gently, with some sadness I didn't understand. "You were blessed by the Mother Dryad as an infant. You can Renew, but only once a day."

"So…I can't die?" There was so much to unpack in this new information I didn't even know where to begin.

"Well, you can, if you're not careful. If you're killed twice before your Renewal regenerates. And there are some forces that can kill you the first time, even with Renewal, but those are very rare indeed."

"Why have you never told me?" I asked.

"I wanted you to take care of this life you have. It's not to be trifled with. Youth these days already think they're immortal, I didn't want to feed that."

I sniffled and wiped at a stray tear. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what he was going to do. I thought he loved me."

Uncle Sly hugged me again. "Oh my child, there is nothing to forgive. This is the age of heartbreak and self-discovery, though… " he looked at the wreckage and frowned. "That doesn't usually involve powerful ancient magics and the destruction of my dungeons."

I chuckled at that, then remembered what I'd done and frowned again. "What do we do now?"

He led me through the dungeons and back into the Black Lotus to his private office. On the way, he called for tea and food and we found it waiting for us by the time we arrived. He tucked me into a blanket made of the softest material in all the worlds—though he would never tell me what it was—and gave me tea and cookies. "Rest. I will handle the rest. The delegates from Nirandel have some explaining to do. In the meantime, I think there's someone who misses you and would like to keep you company."

Callie walked in sheepishly, her head down, her hair curling around her perfect face.