Season 4: Episode 1 – After the Platform

This series contains mature themes and is intended for adult listeners.

POV: Bryn Tal

>Begin Porta Cor imprint.<

My neck felt tight, and I felt restless as I stood in a closed office with Dahlfia.

“Dahlfia, what have I done? This young woman, barely a woman, has done something impossible using our magic.”

She stepped over to me. “Bryn, we don’t know that it was anything you did.”

“What else could it have been? It was either the effects of the Porta Segreta or a side effect of the genetic nomen chip. What if more of them can do things like this?” I began pacing back and forth in the office.

“And maybe it was one of those things, and maybe it was not. We do not know the answers, and we need to be guarded about this until we do,” Dahlfia said.

“Did you feel it too?” I asked her. “The tightness in the chest? The pull of the energy?”

“I believe every Tylwyth Teg around felt that,” she answered.

“Where did you send her?”

“I had Kylah take her back to her room here in the facility and instructed Kylah to wait inside with her and not let anyone inside except us,” Dahlfia replied.

“She transferred a soul from a dying man into a bird!” I felt as if someone other than me was speaking as the scene replayed in my mind. “Did anyone else realize what happened?”

Dahlfia stepped in front of me to stop me from pacing and took my hands in hers gently.

“I do not believe anyone else was close enough to understand what really happened other than you, Kylah, and me. I heard the councilors say they thought she tried to use magic to save his life but failed. The bird flying down was a coincidence or a sign, depending on who you ask.” Dahlfia assured me.

After a moment, she warned, “It is something dangerous.”

I looked at her, surprised. “Dangerous to us?”

Dahlfia went silent for a moment before speaking. “There’s now something deeper linking the bird and the woman. We need to talk to her first, without medics or anyone else around. This should stay contained to the four of us.”

“Five, you mean.” I corrected her.

Dahlfia looked at me uneasily. “The bird.”

Dahlfia and I moved quickly down the hallways and knocked on the door of one of the rooms. Kylah opened the door and stepped aside to let us in.

The room was plain with a couple of chairs, a desk, a bed, and a dresser.

The red-haired woman was seated with the cardinal sitting on her right shoulder. Her skin was smooth and soft; she was young. Her eyes looked up at us as we entered, golden in the center with green rings around the outer edges. She had no fear or confusion in those eyes but had a calm certainty I found a little unnerving, given what she had just done.

We stepped inside, and Kylah closed the door behind us. “Lock it, please, Kylah. I don’t want anyone interrupting.” I said softly, and I heard the door click.

I sat down in the chair next to the woman and smiled. Her hair was about waist-length and pushed back from her face by a strip of fabric.

“Hello. I’m Bryn Tal, but you can call me Bryn.” Then I motioned to Dahlfia, who stood next to me. “This is Dahlfia Dewr, and I am guessing you already met Kylah?” I gestured back to the door.

The woman looked to each of us in turn, and then to Kylah. “No, she wouldn’t tell me her name. Kylah,” she said, satisfied now to have it.

“Kylah!” I gave Kylah a sharp look, and she shrugged at me.

“I’m Kerrih MacMillan, but you can call me Kerrih.” She pointed at the bird. “This is Lixand.”

The bird puffed out his chest. “I am now ready for a very underwhelming conversation.”

Dahlfia’s expression was cold, almost hardened.

Kerrih looked at Lixand. “Lixand, you are being quite rude to our new friends.”

He opened his beak a few times as if chewing on something and then stayed silent.

“He’s a little cranky. He and Kylah were not getting along well before you came in.”

I looked at Kylah, and she did indeed look a bit agitated, but she shrugged at me again.

“Kerrih, do you understand what you did on the platform?” I asked her, still remembering the echo of the feeling.

“I’m not quite certain. I saw the man dying on the platform. I raced to him, and when I got there, he said, ‘Save me. Save me.’ So, I did the first thing that came to mind and called the bird down. I began to speak some words, and then the next thing I knew, the man was dead, and the bird told me his name was Lixand.”

The bird said to Kerrih. “I was having a rather nice nap in that tree before you interrupted me.”

“You weren’t napping. You were singing; that’s how I knew you were there.” Kerrih corrected him.

“And now, apparently, I have a human stuck in my brain,” he added, puffing all his feathers out and shaking.

Kerrih turned to look at me again, quiet, contemplative. Her eyes were intense and penetrating as they shifted from me to Dahlfia and back to me again.

“You’re the leader, aren’t you?” She gave the sentence inflection like a question, but she was making a statement.

“Yes,” I replied.

Dahlfia spoke up, “Have you talked to anyone else about this?”

Kerrih shook her head no.

Dahlfia looked at me and then at the rest. “Currently, only those of us in this room know about the soul of the dying man being transferred to Lixand. Everyone in this room, including Lixand, must tell no one about what happened.”

Every muscle in Dahlfia’s face looked tense, holding something back. An expression that was extremely rare for her to display.

Kerrih tilted her head and then responded, “You’ve already decided something about it, haven’t you? I’m not certain how we will hide a talking bird.” She looked back at him as he had tilted his head, listening to everything in the room.

Then the two of them looked at each other for a moment, and Kerrih nodded her head to him. Did they have a conversation? Are they using a Porta Cor transmission?

Dahlfia’s position changed to an authoritative stance. “You must comply.” I felt more uneasy.

Finally, Kerrih turned back to us, her eyes narrowed before she answered, “Yes. We promise.”

The bird was silent now, studying us, his body completely still on her shoulder. The soreness in my chest returned.

We left her room and passed her sister in the hallway, whom medics told us was her twin. We didn’t have twins in Anturia, so the concept was new to us. The woman looked just like Kerrih, except she had dark brown, almost black hair.

“What if the twin does something like this?” I whispered to Dahlfia.

“This expands the risk,” she confirmed.

I turned to Kylah, who was with us. “Keep a close eye on them all.”

Kylah nodded at us and then turned back to the hallway to hang out nearby.

Dahlfia and I left and went to our quarters set up outside the Porta Segreta.

It was late in the evening, and I was exhausted and sore.

We entered, and I took off my shoes and settled on the couch.

Dahlfia made us both drinks, then sat down next to me and handed me one.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked her after taking a sip.

She looked down at her glass, took a sip, and then her eyes met mine. “I think she and the bird are soul-linked. I don’t know for sure yet, but the evidence that is currently presenting indicates it.”

“Soul-linked?” It was a myth. I never met anyone soul-linked.

“Yes. A major event can cause soul-linking,” she said.

“So, the Porta Segreta pull over? Or the genetic nomen chip?” I suggested that those were still my guesses.

But Dahlfia shook her head. “I’m not certain what did it, but I do not believe it was solely either one of those things.” She took another sip of her drink and pulled a strand of my blond hair out of my face.

“I have seen the soul-linked before,” she admitted.

I didn’t have any words. Soul-linking was real.

“They can communicate with each other even beyond the Porta Cor transmissions, but it also means…” Dahlfia’s expression shifted from unreadable to one marked by danger. “That when one dies, the other dies.” 

The weight pressed down on my already sore chest for a moment.

Then my heart sank. At least one of our Immortaleum was now vulnerable.

>End Porta Cor imprint.<