Ink of Ages Fiction Prize

Shattered Souls, Eternal Light

I had never seen anything quite like it. In all my years of travelling around the globe, scouring for relics of old, I had never come across something so … intricate, so ornate. The gemstone glimmered in the glow of the full moon, shaped like … a tear, an ansu. I caressed the stone in my fingers, feeling its every groove.

Then a wave of sorrow washed over me like an avalanche, and I collapsed on the bank, my thoughts swirling in a frenzy.

It has been eons since I last saw her. I remember when I first saw her ethereal figure, dancing in the lake of faeries. Her flowing hair shimmered like spun silver, cascading down her back. Her eyes, they were deeper than the lake she bathed in, with a mischievous twinkle which only led me on.

With her I felt alive; listening to her eccentric hymns in the moonlight. I don't remember how long we spent together. It could have been a thousand years; it could have been a day.

I writhed on the floor, my head beaded with perspiration. Dazed and utterly confused, I focused my vision on what lay before me. It glowed with a foreboding glimmer, almost as if daring me to touch it again.

He had been an explorer, not unlike me, who had come searching for something special, something to cure the emptiness inside him. And he had succeeded. And he was euphoric, for a while. But then, everything had been taken from the prince. Yet he still lingered in this world, his soul refusing to depart until it was whole again.

But who had cursed this man to his wretched fate? I heaved a great sigh … then settled my gaze on the damned gemstone.

In Egypt I went by the name Saif-ul-Mulook, the sword of kings. And that was indeed how I spent my days. I was sent from kingdom to sultanate, a pawn on my father's chessboard. I never failed a task, yet I never rejoiced in the killing of strangers in the name of the ruler of the black soils of Kemet. Yet something

pulled me towards the gardens of Khyber. Something … or someone.

Badri-ul-Jamala, for that was her name, was the queen of her kind. She too, was yet to find her purpose. We often dreamed of a future together. Her, the queen of faeries, and I, the scorned prince of Egypt. She helped me recover from my state of utter desolation, helped me find value when all seemed lost. She was my hope, my desire, my love, more valuable than any jewel on the planet. And then she was gone.

I could still feel her warmth in my arms, the softness of her breath on my neck, the way her laughter echoed like music in the air. She was everything I had never known I needed, everything I had been searching for in all my years of wandering, fighting, surviving. And now, she was being torn from me.

It happened so fast. One moment, we were together, standing by the lake, our sanctuary, where her laughter and the moonlight danced as one. The next, the ground shook beneath us, and the lake's still waters turned to violent waves, churning like the wrath of a god. And then I heard it—the voice. Deep, thunderous,

filled with a hatred that chilled my bones.

The sound of Deuo Sufaid's roar was like a hammer against my soul. I had heard stories about her demon lover, but never had I pictured a wrath like this.

But before we could move, the earth split beneath our feet, and the giant rose from the depths of the lake. His monstrous figure loomed over us, pale as bone, his eyes glowing with the fire of hatred. He towered above the mountains, his silhouette framed by storm clouds that darkened the sky in an instant.

The giant's laughter boomed across the valley, shaking the very mountains around us. "You fool," he snarled, his eyes narrowing on me. "You have taken what does not belong to you. Now, you will suffer."

He raised his massive arms, and the sky responded. The wind roared like a beast unleashed, the clouds swirling into a storm of fury. And then the water rose—first a ripple, then a wave, and finally a towering wall of water that surged toward us with the force of a hundred storms.

I grabbed her hand, pulling her toward me, desperate to escape, to run. But it was too late. The wave crashed down, slamming into us with the force of a mountain. The cold water engulfed me, pulling me under, tossing me like a rag doll in a tempest. I lost my grip on her, my fingers slipping through hers

as the current dragged me away.

"No!" she cried, her wings flaring with a final burst of magic. A tear trickled down her cheek, an ansu.

He extended his hand, in it was a gemstone. His fingers crackling with dark energy. A beam of energy shot from the gemstone, striking Badri in the chest.

She screamed as the magic enveloped her, pulling her toward the amulet. She struggled, her essence resisting the pull, but it was futile. Inch by inch, her body dissolved into light, her very being siphoned into the gemstone's core.

Rage and despair twisted inside me, a howl of agony rising in my chest. I had lost her. My love, my queen, taken from me by a creature too powerful for me to stop. But even as the tears of frustration burned in my eyes, something inside me refused to surrender. I would not let this be the end.

It glowed in my hands, cursed, forsaken. And I knew what I had to do.

I lifted it up and smashed it on the ground.

It smashed into a million pieces.

Two lights escaped; bright, free.

They flew into the sky

Intertwining, they became one.

And then there was light.