Kai's Memories

Only you...

Laying in bed, it’s the spirit’s words that haunt her.

Only you can...

Only she can kill the Maldrus. Only a little goblin in way over her head, when all she ever did was survive.

It’s been at the back of her mind for a long time now. Since she learned who she truly was, since she found her ruined home, since she stared into the lonely sorrow in Xiin’s eyes and knew for certain that she had to finish this, that no one else could.

Before all those terrible things had happened, she’d been so happy with Alistair and Dezzy. That glimpse of a normal life was what she truly wanted, what she’d been unknowingly searching for in all those years of wandering. Home.

She tries to imagine another world, a world where she and her makeshift family lived days of blissful nothings, went on inconsequential adventures searching for pretty gems or a weird new plant for Dezzy’s garden. Where Star and Balmin and Kal and all her friends were safe.

But she can’t.

Because the lich is still out there, and he nearly stole Dezzy.

Because the world is growing darker every night, and somewhere beyond the stars, Nazriil is waiting.

Because if they hadn’t been in Linmeld that day, Star and everyone else would be dead.

Because when Balmin dies, his soul will be taken.

And because if she doesn’t stop the Maldrus, it will consume everything.
There’s only one way to make that dream a reality… and she can’t bear to face it.

Sitting up, she slips out of bed. Dezzy’s turned out the window with sea and stars behind her, but her eyes are closed.

No one sees or stops her as she makes her way to the beach; nobody is out but a few tired guards anyway. Here she stands in the echo of a memory, looking hopefully out over blue so blinding she has to squint, Balmin beside her, a shell clutched in her restless hands.

But when she blinks, the ocean is dark and still, the howling winds cold. She sits in the sand with all its warmth drained, alone.

With the Weave Watcher and Xiin’s help, she’s gotten all the guidance she can. It’s not like they’re sailing in totally blind. But an aura of uncertainty lingers, and she can’t shake it.

She just needs guidance. But she’s never known what gods to pray to, except maybe Vindicir since he’s probably close by, and this doesn’t really seem like his area of expertise.

Something comes over her. Magic in a desperate moment, a spell within willed to life. Her eyes shut as a soft glow overtakes her, and she casts out a call for help into the void.

Someone answers.

Break the towers, reach the tree

Craft into one from the powers three

Only the catalyst can make the one

Only through her the horror undone

She keeps her eyes closed, listening to the waves hit the quiet shore and the few murmurs lingering in Drifdale’s night. After a long time, she rises, heading back to the inn.

It’s not a lot. But it’s enough.

She can do this.