Ám Giữ Linh Hồn Novels & Stories

Across the valley, countless silver lights rose into the sky like stars returning to their rightful place. The Moon Goddess wiped away a tear. "This..." she whispered, "...is why memories matter." Lumen looked upward as more and more souls found peace. His own chest began glowing, and he smiled. "I remember something too." The others turned toward him. He closed his eyes. "I remember... the first time someone held my hand." He looked at Aiden. "It was you." The silver light surrounding him intensified—not because he was leaving, but because he was becoming whole. The darkness that had lingered at the edges of his soul disappeared completely.

He explained. They all fell silent as they worriedly looked at Raima whose tears were now streaming down his pale cheeks. Raima is the ‘incarnation’ of the guardian of souls… the souls, the underworld… No wonder Raima is crying. Because he felt sympathy for the souls! And they confirmed this when they saw what happened next.

“Those are our vows for each other in our next lives, Brother Jun Xiong... I ever heard that mind indeed possesses such unmeasurable as well as unlimited power, Brother Jun Xiong... Would you keep those vows of ours within our minds, souls and hearts so that they can be continued to our next lives?” “Of course I will... I’ll not only keep those in our minds, souls and hearts, but I’ll also engrave them over there so that they’ll always remain there, they’ll always stay there, they’ll always live there regardless of the power of birth and death which’ll fly and fling both of us here and there in the future, which’ll change both of us in the future.” “Okay, Brother Jun Xiong... Those are our i

I had to store her in my memory, to cling to every bit of beauty her form contained. "I wish I could take you with me." This was the child in me, saying things that reflected the silly sincerity of the heart. But she placed a firm hand on my chest. "But you are taking me with you, Rory. Wherever you go, I will never cease to be a part of who you are." She pulled me close and embraced me. I drank in her scent, sweet lemon verbena and jasmine married with something astral. "In death, we only part from our physical forms. Our souls remain, protecting those we leave behind. So, I will be bound to you, in this life, the next, and the next."

Both in Islam and Judaism, they are said to hold a scroll concerning the fate of the mortals, recording, and erasing the names of men respectively at birth and death. At their feet, I could see the guardians, asleep as well. As they were actually sent to this realm as well, I could not speak to them, so this task was rather tedious now. I pondered for a while on what to do when I remembered what Edith said about the souls. Azrael should not know that souls had been removed from the realm if we were to replace them. As I recalled the instructions with the image of the soul in my mind, it appeared in my hand. I placed it at Azrael’s feet and grabbed one of the guardians.

Carson, I cried through the bond, desperate, I cannot hold much longer. His voice pressed through, faint but burning, You can, Maeve. You are stronger than this. I feel you. Hold to me. The fire squeezed harder, but the warmth of his voice steadied me, pulling me back from the edge. I lifted my head, meeting Johan’s glowing eyes, my voice raw but steady. “You will not break us. You cannot. You can take my blood, you can chain me here, but you cannot have my soul. You cannot take what belongs to him.”

She pushed Francesco aside and, despite her aching arms, lifted Daisy into her embrace. She remembered what Grandma Rosie had once said—after a person passes, their loved ones must keep calling to them, or their soul might lose its way. "Daisy, let's go home. I will take you home."

It was the same one that always followed after the admission of who is mother was. “What exactly is the Keeper of Souls, well, what does she do?” “She was born to gather the souls of the earths dearly departed and keep them until it was time to be reincarnated. I don’t know how she behaved before I was born, but I do know that very seldom was a soul ever actually reanimated. Instead, she fed on them, taking on the magic the bearer once had. As she grew stronger so did her cruelty.” Saraid looked as if she might be sick. He reached for her and then changed his mind. He settled with a question.

“And what of this life? What of the children I lost? Will they be returned to me, or will they remain nothing but tiny names on stones Caelan must carve alone? You cannot fix what has been done!” The Moon Goddess’ voice trembled then, for the first time. “I cannot bring them back to this life. But their souls are not gone. They rest in my light, and when the time comes, they will return to you. Not as shadows. Not as fleeting dreams. But real. Whole. Yours.” I closed my eyes, clutching at the emptiness in my chest as sobs tore from me. “You let me drown in misery, and only now—now that I am dead—you offer me this mercy? Where was this kindness when I screamed for it?”

He detected a hint of accent but wasn’t sure what it was. “It is believed,” he went on, “that the soul—your soul, friends—is connected to the body by a thin, invisible line. And when these clay pots of ours ‘break’, or give out . . . ” The old man thumped his torso with both fists. “ . . . when our springs and summers have flown, and when the bleak winter of our life grows colder and these clay pots doth break—” He struck himself sharply a second time, and the hollow echo of it and of his voice hung frozen in the air a moment. “—once that invisible silver cord is severed, we cannot get back. Ever. The separation of spirit from flesh becomes final. In a word: we die.”