Dark Awakening: Echoes of Destiny (The Children Of The Gods #88)

73. Morelle

73

MORELLE

D arkness enveloped Morelle, a velvet cocoon of tranquility. Her mind, usually a tempest of relentless thoughts, found rare solace in this void. She floated weightless, unburdened.

Was this sleep?

A dream?

The distinction blurred, irrelevant in this moment of peace.

She dared not stir, fearing the fragile calm would shatter, but consciousness tugged at the edges of her mind. Morelle resisted, clinging to the serenity. If fortune favored her, she'd slip back into oblivion, stealing a few more precious hours of respite from her restless psyche.

Then, the void metamorphosed, darkness yielding to a gentle kaleidoscope of muted hues. Morelle drifted over softly blurred landscapes, her serenity unbroken by the change. This dreamscape, with its watercolor horizons, cradled her in its surreal embrace.

"Morelle, my daughter." Her mother's voice pierced the tranquil veil. "It is time to wake."

Her mother materialized, regal and ethereal, draped in flowing robes that seemed to ripple with starlight, her obsidian hair billowing around her serene face as if suspended in an invisible current.

"No, Mother," Morelle murmured, her words floating like bubbles. "I wish to stay. Here, I am at peace."

"It is not real," her mother said. "You cannot stay here forever."

Morelle reached out, her fingers brushing the gossamer fabric of her mother's sleeve. The touch sent ripples through the dreamscape, distorting the colors around them.

"Life isn't real either," Morelle whispered. "It's all an illusion, each cycle a step in the soul's never-ending journey, and I'd rather skip this one and start anew in a different body, on a different plane. Somewhere no one thinks of me as an abomination, a place where Ell-rom and I don't have to live in isolation and never show our faces to anyone."

Her mother's form shimmered, reaching out to cup Morelle's face in her hands, something she never did during waking hours.

The touch was warm and comforting despite its insubstantial nature, and Morelle decided she liked this version of her mother more than the real one.

"It is in facing our storms that we truly learn to dance in the rain. You are not an abomination, my daughter. You are beautiful and perfect, half goddess, half Kra-ell, and there are joys in life that can only be experienced through the flesh."

Morelle's lips curled into a skeptical smirk. "The pleasures of the flesh that the high priestess described didn't sound appealing to me at all."

A gentle laugh escaped her mother's lips, her eyes twinkling with amusement and a hint of mischief, again, something that was so shocking that Morelle was starting to doubt it was indeed her mother appearing in her dream.

Morelle had never heard her mother laugh, and the queen only smiled when she wanted to terrify those who dared to disagree with her.

Maybe it was a mischievous spirit pretending to be her mother?

"What the high priestess taught you was the way of the Kra-ell, and we enjoy our sex battles very much. But you are half goddess, with the godly part much stronger than the Kra-ell." The queen sighed. "Your father was a formidable male, smart and courageous, but he was a gentle lover, and I enjoyed him more than all of my others. That is what you should have, and it is worth having."

Now Morelle was convinced that it wasn't her mother talking in her dream. The queen had never talked about Morelle and Ell-rom's father except to tell them that they were of double royal blood and that it was crucial to keep it a secret.

Curiosity sparked in Morelle's chest, a feeling she hadn't experienced in what felt like eons. "Did you love him?" she asked.

"Yes, I did, but our love was not eternal." She sighed. "It was not meant to be. We met as co-conspirators, became lovers, and we parted as friends."

"Does he know about us?"

Sadness crept into her mother's eyes. "He was sent into exile before I could tell him that I had conceived, and he died not knowing about you and Ell-rom. But since all is known here in the Fields of the Brave, he knows now."

Morelle felt like the breath was knocked out of her chest. "You are not dead, Mother."

The queen smiled, but the sadness remained in her eyes. "I have passed beyond the veil before my time, but time has no meaning here. It has meaning where you are, though, and it is time for you to wake up and experience the new world I sent you and your brother to live in. Ell-rom needs you."

Morelle was still reeling from the revelation that her mother was no longer among the living, and now she was telling her that Ell-rom was in danger.

"Who is threatening Ell-rom?" She felt anger electrifying her blood, readying her to wake up and fight to protect her brother.

"Nothing has changed over the thousands of years you were in stasis, my daughter. Your grandfather, the Eternal King, still wants you and Ell-rom dead."