SOULBOUND

Chapter 9 A Past Wrapped In Feathers

Az had always carried himself like someone made of shadows—silent, sharp, and hard to read. But as Pari returned with the Unwritten Blade pulsing at her side, she noticed something else in him now:

Fear.

Not of her.

Of what came next.

They didn't speak as they rode the wind-bound lift across the Skein Veil—a corridor of raw energy that threaded between dimensions. Az stood beside her, silent, his raven perched on his shoulder like a cursed accessory.

Halfway through the crossing, Pari finally asked, "How long have you known?"

He didn't pretend not to understand.

"Since your first return," Az said. "Since you breathed again after your soul should've dissolved. I was there."

"You were?" she turned sharply. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was afraid you'd remember what I did."

Pari narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?"

He sighed, the kind of sigh that didn't come from the lungs—it came from lifetimes.

"I was the one who gave Mordekai the soul-weave formula."

Pari froze.

"I didn't know what he would use it for," Az continued quickly. "Back then, he was still... good. Idealistic. He wanted to purify the system. I believed in him. I believed in both of you."

Pari's grip on the blade tightened. "So you betrayed the Council."

"I betrayed you."

Silence stretched between them, louder than any scream.

"I loved you too," Az added quietly. "Not like he did. Not loud. Not full of fire. But enough to watch you die. Twice. And still protect your grave for a century."

Pari turned away. Her head spun. Everything kept folding back—her memories, her soul, the people she thought she knew.

"Did Mordekai know you loved me?"

Az hesitated. "Yes. And he hated me for it."

The Skein Veil shuddered beneath their feet. Lightning cracked through the sky. The realm itself seemed to sense the tension.

Pari closed her eyes.

"So we're walking into a war. Between the man I used to love, and the man who helped him destroy me."

Az didn't respond. But his eyes shimmered with guilt and quiet resolve.

They arrived at The Hollow Sanctum, a zone untouched by time, floating in the chasm between fate and free will. This was Mordekai's stronghold now.

It had once been the Temple of Souls, where rebirths were guided and death was woven into poetry. Now, it thrummed with unnatural magic.

Twisted sentinels lined the entrance—half-shadows with broken wings. Their eyes glowed with recognition as Pari stepped forward.

They did not attack.

They bowed.

Az muttered, "He knew you'd come."

Pari walked up the blackened stairs.

Inside the sanctum, time unraveled. Every step shifted her surroundings—one moment a childhood memory, another a battlefield from a life she'd never lived.

Then she saw him.

Mordekai.

He stood at the center of the chamber, robes whispering with ancient power. His hair, once a tangled mess of soft curls, now streamed like woven flame. But his face... it still looked at her the same way.

Like she was the center of every world he'd ever walked.

"You returned," he said gently. "Just like I knew you would."

Pari held the blade low. "This ends here."

Mordekai didn't flinch. "Why? Because the Council told you to? Because Az whispered sweet apologies into your grief?"

Her fingers trembled, but she didn't raise the blade yet.

"You broke me," she whispered. "Not just by killing me. But by twisting what we were. What we believed in."

"I didn't kill you," Mordekai said. "You chose death. You tried to stop me. And I begged you not to."

Pari's breath caught. Memories surged again—an argument, a kiss, a promise shattered by principle.

"You begged me to help unmake the cycle," she said slowly.

"Yes. Because the system is a cage. We were gods, Pari. You and I—we found the threads behind reality, and we could have rewritten it all."

"And you wanted to erase imperfection," she said. "Erase souls you deemed 'flawed.'"

"They suffer, Pari. Every life. Every death. Over and over. I wanted to free them."

"By burning the whole loom?"

Mordekai's voice dropped. "I still love you."

"I know," she said.

And finally, she raised the Unwritten Blade.

Az stepped forward, but Pari held out a hand. "This is mine."

Mordekai didn't reach for a weapon. He just spread his arms.

"Then come end me."

Pari's heart pounded.

Because this wasn't just a war.

This was the end of something once beautiful.

And the beginning of something far more dangerous.