"Remember the shaman hymn that lifts a compulsion," Victor compelled me, his voice steady but carrying that faint edge of desperation that told me how much he needed it to work.
And it worked. At first, I didn't believe it had, but when I tried repeating the hymn again, watching his eyes sharpen and his shoulders ease, I realized Victor was finally able to set himself free from the invisible chains that had bound him.
"What now?" I asked softly, my voice barely above a whisper as the two of us sat in front of the faint ashes that still lingered on the floor, ashes that had once been his heart, his very core, the thing that had almost cost him everything.
"You need to disappear," Victor suggested firmly, though there was a weariness in his tone that betrayed just how much he hated saying it.
