And there I found her: Xayon. I don’t know how I knew it was her, because she’d become so transparent that I couldn’t even see whether she was a man or a woman, let alone make out any of her features. Her outline was like a ghost of a ghost, one degree away from pure invisibility and fading into oblivion.
I grabbed her, and like the snapping back of a taut bowstring, I was yanked back into my body, carrying the soul of Xayon with me.
When I’d killed and resurrected Isu, I’d had to use a piece of my own life energy to bring her dead body to life and insert her soul into it, but this would be different. I’d still have to use my own life energy, of course—that was just how resurrections worked—but I couldn’t stuff a soul into a living body, a body that already had a soul in it. I had to kill the body, but then, before the soul left it, I would cram the other soul into it. They would merge, sharing the same resurrected body, but my timing had to be perfect. If it wasn’t, I would end up sending Rami’s soul to the Sea of Souls, essentially killing her.
No one spoke as I prepared my mind for the switchover, keeping a grip on Xayon’s soul while reaching into my own heart to pull out some of my life energy. Everything was in place. There was only one last thing to do.
I opened my eyes and looked at Rami.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what?”
“For this.”
I slammed Grave Oath between her ribs, right into her heart. Her eyes bulged with shock and disbelief for a second. Then, she transfixed me with a look of such crushing sadness that I felt I’d committed the ultimate betrayal, and guilt consumed me.
There was no time for such feelings though. I plucked Grave Oath out of Rami’s side, and she collapsed forward into my arms. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets, and she breathed her last. The instant she died, I closed my eyes and launched my mind, gripping my life force in one hand and Xayon’s soul in the other, into Rami’s body.
As soon as I was coursing through her veins, shrunk to a thousandth of my usual size, it seemed, I could sense her soul leaving her body, like rain falling in reverse, getting sucked back into the sky and drying out the land. I had to get to her heart before her soul left her body completely,
I raced through her veins and arteries, and then, there it was, her heart, gushing blood from the wound I’d given it. Her soul was almost gone now, and I had to act immediately. I dove into her heart, cramming both Xayon’s soul and my life force into it, and then felt a surge of energy as Rami’s soul was sucked back into her body. The wound in her heart closed up and disappeared, as if it had never been there in the first place, and then that beautiful organ began to pump again.
I opened my eyes, gasping as I returned to my physical self. I dropped onto my knees, retching and shaking. It felt as if Rollar and Drok had just spent the last hour kicking the shit out of me after I’d drunk a barrel of ankheg acid. This whole resurrection thing really took it out of me.
“You did it, Vance, you did it!”
Groaning with pain and exhaustion, I looked up and saw Rami looking down at me, her eyes bright with life. It was her voice that was speaking, but I knew it was Xayon talking too.
“Thank,” I paused. “Well, thank me, I guess.” I managed a grin as I nursed my aching head. “Someone get me an ale. I need a drink after that.”
“It’s amazing to be alive again after so long,” Rami said, and I knew it was Xayon talking.
“Rami, are you still in there?” I asked, worried that the merging had gone awry.
“Yes, I’m here, Vance. But I’m not just me anymore. I’m her, Xayon, and me, Rami. We’re one person now. It’s, wonderful! I feel amazing. I can’t explain it, but I finally feel... complete. Whole, as if something I’ve been desperately seeking my whole life has finally been returned to me. You did it, you brought me back.”
Rami looked up at Isu, and her expression was like she was seeing her for the first time in a very long time.
“You!” she hissed. “Traitor! Vile traitor!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked Rami.
“Nothing,” Isu said hastily, before Rami—or Xayon—could say anything. “She’s bound to be confused for a long time, while she—this new Rami—becomes accustomed to being merged with an entirely different soul. Ignore her nonsensical babbling.”
“I haven’t forgotten what you did, Isu,” Rami said. “And you will pay. For now, though, I have something for my savior. Vance, stand up.”
“I would if I could,” I groaned, “but I feel like an army of northern barbarians just went to town on me.”
“Then you need the Wind That Lifts Your Wings.” She dropped down onto her knees and gently pressed her lips onto mine, but instead of kissing me, she blew air into my mouth. It didn’t feel like any ordinary breath of air, though. Instead, it felt like a powerful gale rushing through my body. And as the potent gusts of wind raced through me, they whipped away all traces of tiredness and pain, and in a few seconds, I felt as good as new. I sprang up onto my feet, grinning.
“Awesome! Xayon, or uh, Rami, I’m not sure what I should call you now, but that felt great!”
“Call me
