The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 342

Chapter 342 Duality

TESSIA ERALITH

It was cold. Really cold. But the sensation of frigid air biting at my skin—my skin, I had to remind myself—was exhilarating. It reminded me that…

I’m alive.

Resting my bare hands on the icy-cold railing that ran around my ten-foot-wide balcony, I stared out at the endless range of snowy mountains, miles and miles of jagged peaks that rose up from the earth like the teeth of an enormous dragon.

No, not the Earth, not anymore. Despite reminding myself of this startling fact at least a hundred times, I have yet to come to terms with it. Who could have known there were other worlds out there? And that you could be…reborn into one. New episodes will be published on light?nove?lpu?b.c­om.

My gaze was drawn to the series of runes marking my bare arms, glowing faintly with warm light. These arms were more slender than those I’d had before…

Before what?

I closed my eyes hard against the fog in my head, squeezing until I saw stars before opening them again.

It had been worse—much worse—the first time I had seen the thin arms and the tattooed runes. Nico had been there, standing over me—although I hadn’t recognized him, of course. His alien eyes had stared into mine from beneath his new, dark brows. I had immediately vomited all over his shirt before passing out…

In the distance, a winged creature the size of an airplane was wheeling around one of the peaks, hunting. What had Nico called the creature?

A mana beast.

As I watched, letting my attention move entirely away from my own body and the glowing runes that marked my now fair skin, the magnificent monstrosity suddenly tucked in its wings and dove, vanishing in the dips and valleys. I wished I could join it, flying through the mountains, nothing between me and the jagged rocks but the magic I’d inherited with this body.

Of all the amazing things I’d seen and learned, flying was definitely my favorite.

Flying, though, made me think of my first battle in this new world, of the impossible strength of our enemies, and a chill ran through me that had nothing to do with the cold, raising gooseflesh along my arms.

We hadn’t expected an attack…I had barely known what was going on still, only that my new friend Agrona—the one who gave Nico and me another chance at life—needed my help. I simply repeated what they told me to, until…

I flew, I thought dizzily. I’d never done that before.

Turning suddenly, I whisked back into my room and shut the door against the cold and the alien landscape. A twisting sense of vertigo threatened to overwhelm me, so I threw myself into a chair in front of the blazing fireplace, rubbing the bridge of my nose forcefully, my entire body rigid against the nausea.

An unwanted memory surfaced. I was walking across the school campus on a day like any other, when my body began to ache and tremble, the swelling ki washing across me like waves over a stormy ocean, and when those waves of ki broke land…I was lying on the floor, my body jerking and twisting within a cocoon of dark, spear-tipped vines, the angry presence hidden within me lashing out, roaring with hatred and confusion…

Shaking my head violently, I recoiled from the images, tucking my legs up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them.

Breathe, just breathe, Cecilia.

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This dizzying sensation of wrongness had been common at first. Nico said it was just my mind acclimating to my new physical form, but—

A knock at the door made me jump.

Unfolding from the chair, I stared at the back of the door. “Yes?” I asked after a few seconds.

“Cecilia, it’s Nico. Can I come in?”

I turned back to the fire, dancing in shades of orange and yellow, and took a deep breath to push back the lingering dizziness. “Yes, of course.”

The heavy wooden door swung smoothly inward, revealing a figure a head taller than me, with alabaster skin and jet-black hair. He stepped inside and let the door close softly before crossing the room to sit stiffly on my bed.

Nico looked so different, and not just his physical features. Whatever had happened to him in this new life had been hard on him. It had made him hard. You can find the rest of this content on the ligh?tnove­lpub.c?om platform.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, his piercing eyes burning into me as if he were trying to see my soul, hidden beneath the skin I was wearing.

“Fine,” I replied, too quickly.

Liar.

“I had an attack of vertigo, just now,” I admitted. “But I’m okay.”

Nico was off the bed and kneeling beside me in an instant. When his hand came to rest on mine, I pulled away as something inside of me recoiled.

“Sorry,” I whispered, but I didn’t put my hand back.

“No, Cecilia, it’s okay. It’s fine, really.” The obvious hurt this caused him shone back at me from those unfamiliar eyes, but he took his hand off the arm of my chair. “I know this is all so confusing.”

Confusing doesn’t begin to cover it.

“Do the exercise,” Nico suggested.

Nodding, I closed my eyes and began to focus on the orange glow of the fire playing across the inside of my eyelids. Then, breathing deeply, my focus followed the breath in through my nose and down into my lungs, where I held it.

As I breathed out, my focus stayed on my lungs, on the way my sternum shifted as my chest rose and my stomach expanded, causing an intricate interplay of the muscle, bones, and internal organs. There, I searched for my mana core, trying to feel it, to be consciously aware of it.

It took a minute, but eventually I found it near my solar plexus. Once I had it in my mind, it felt impossible to miss: a ball of white hot power, waiting for me to draw on the gusting hurricane of energy contained within. Sort of like my ki center, but…more.

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But there was something else there, too.

Within the core, I could sense another will, separate from my own, just like in the memory. Angry green tentacles wriggled, making my stomach churn.

The elderwood guardian’s beast will…

My eyes snapped open as I was shunted out of the meditation by the queasy feeling the beast will gave me. From the corner of my eye, I saw Nico watching me closely.

“Better?” he asked when I opened my eyes.

I only nodded in response.

“Anyway.” Nico stood and took a hesitant step back. “Agrona would like us to join him for dinner in an hour, in his private rooms. Want me to wait for you to get dressed?”

I shook my head this time, then tucked a stray lock of gunmetal hair behind my ear. “No, I’ll…see you there.”

With a nod, Nico fumbled behind him for the door handle, then backed out into the hallway, not taking his eyes off me until the door had snapped shut.

Sighing deeply—something I couldn’t remember doing often in my past life, but felt the need to do frequently now—I sank down into the chair and moved my feet closer to the fire, close enough to be uncomfortable.

Like the cold, the sensation of the too-warm flames licking at my bare toes made me feel…

Alive?

Remembering what Nico had said about dinner, I jumped up and dashed through a door on the other side of my bed that led into my own private dressing room. Inside, there was a desk with drawers full of perfumes and makeup, several mirrors, three dressers for different types of clothes, and a closet that ran the length of the room.

It was, I thought a little guiltily, my favorite place in Taegrin Caelum.

I’d never had my own stuff before, not really. Or at least, I didn’t think so. So much of my previous life was still a blur, although Nico and Agrona assured me that it would all come back with time. But I remembered the orphanage, and Headmaster Wilbek, and I remembered the testing…

Pulling away from the memories to avoid another fit, I began to sort through the clothes hanging inside the closet. It contained mostly dresses and strange robes of a hundred different colors and designs, and all just for me.

My fingertips brushed a simple, onyx-colored dress with black runes along the back that I thought would make my new hair stand out, but dismissed it for an ankle-length green dress with golden leaves embroidered up the side.