Chapter 64
Alistar’s Name Day began with a familiar anomaly that had grown to be a regular part of his life.
These days, the terrible dreams that tortured him each night had gotten far worse. Not only was he constantly reliving his father’s death in the midst of his phantom family, but both last night and the one before it he had been forced to face a bone-chilling realization that he’d promised his uncle to forever forget. That was, the pit full of dead slaves that he and Raidon had stumbled upon on their first day as freemen. In these dreams, the pit had been full of familiar faces; his parents, his uncle, Kaila’s parents and grandpa, and also the sweet girl herself. In both instances, the decomposing bodies had all been missing bits of flesh where savage bites had been taken out of them by scavenging animals, though this didn’t stop them all from staring up at him where he stood along the perimeter of the pit, legs cold and limp as he unwillingly beheld the nightmarish scene with a spine-tingling sense dread.
Last night’s terror had been particularly cruel, for his family had been trying to scramble their way out of the pit amidst the howls, hisses and roars of unknown, unseen creatures. Alistar had been powerless to assist them.
Papa...Mama... Why must I see such things?
He awoke with a face full of tears, burying his head in his hands as his body was shaken by unsteady breaths. I’m sorry, Uncle. I broke my promise. Moments into his manic episode of depression, it registered in his mind that his bedroom was basking in unexpected illumination. His was one of the few rooms in the manor house that lacked windows or wooden flooring, a space composed entirely of solid stone.
This again?
The source of light was attached to his wrist, the silver bracelet that had replaced the one he’d worn all of his life in the mines. Staring down at Caedmon’s gift to him, he noted that the plate of silver at its centre was glowing vibrantly. The light was bright blue.
"Why does it do this?" he muttered to himself, wiping at his eyes with his right wrist. A light crack suddenly appeared at the centre of it the plate, one so small that it would be hard to notice had he not been staring directly at it.
Interestingly enough, the light began to dim as the minutes dragged by, fading altogether by the time that he collected himself. He doubted that the bracelet had shown such a reaction for no reason, which meant that something had to have caused it. Recalling all of the previous times that he had awoken to a similar situation, he couldn’t help but wonder if the cause was related to his bad dreams. Thinking back to his previous bracelet, he had no choice but to doubt his former thought. His old adornment had lit up many times, mostly while he was awake. Since this was the case, it couldn’t be related to his dreams.