Shards of the Soul

By Cole Begnaud

The novel that explores fantasy has enough twists and turns to keep readers invested from start to finish. With a multitude of situations and characters to pull on the heart strings in their own ways, and with hints towards what may come to pass in future installments in the Soul Seekers series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667814421

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© 2021 Cole Begnaud

ISBN: 978-1-66-781442-1

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Table of Contents

New Age

Haev’n

First Favor

Northbound for Answers

Official Church Business

Altered Ruins

Realm of Sleep

The Companion Joins The Fray

Betrayal

The Search Must Go On

The Broken Cycle…and Doom Followed

Just the Merc I was Looking For

The Journey North

Magic Training/Witch’s contract

The Deeper Basement

The Green beneath the Red

Truth be told

The Fall of a Demon Lord

Day Off

Parade of Souls

Demon Reunion

Demons in the South

Rude Awakening

The Captain is Back

Skies in Your Eyes

New Arrivals

Seeing Double

Helena! Honey.

Final Battle

New Age

When I awoke I felt a heavy pain in my chest, as though my heart had been ripped from where it should’ve been by a strong blunt force. My mind not fully aware of what had happened, I had begun to feel the hard ground beneath me. My armor had rusted, though I felt no pain and was clearly alive. The battle that occurred around me clearly ended long ago. I began to remember small fragments of what had happened, we were at war, we had been in the middle of a battle, and that was all I could remember. Not my name, family, or own background prior to the massive-scale battle at a castle wall.

Upon my recollection of the battle occurring on a castle wall, I sprang up and inspected my surroundings, nothing but dense fog, tightly packed ground beneath my feet, and dead brush and trees around me. I began trying to call out as loud as possible to anyone nearby, but only a whisper came from my lips. I felt no soreness anywhere on my person however I was very limited in my mobility and speaking abilities. I stood still trying to recall a bit more of what occurred but to no avail.

I felt no emotions, however logically, I needed to re-arm myself as the bloatflies were coming to feed on the unburied bodies surrounding me. I had scavenged a rusted sword, the rust had eaten it down to the size of a small dagger roughly a couple inches in length and it appeared so frail that it would almost disintegrate after one swing, but it was better than trying to fight the corrosive pests with my fists. The buzzing in the distance was quite loud, likely fifty or one hundred bloatflies, each with full bellies slowly maneuvering through the air towards my location. I had to move. I began heading east, as there was an old adage about constant human civilization being in the eastern portion of our continent.

I travelled for the remainder of that day, the fog didn’t let up, the buzzing was now miles behind me, still audible, however quite faint as I moved rather fast considering my rusted metal kit I had on. The sun was setting, and the air began to feel awful, not poisonous, but wrong to breathe in. I started to get a pile of dead brush together for a fire, I had to remove the leg and arm pieces of my armor to move fast enough to start the fire before nightfall. Upon the darkness setting in there had began many unnerving sounds in my surroundings, just out of sight the sounds of dirt being stirred up, scratching and scraping of branches of the dead foliage in the area, and screeches, unnervingly loud and various pitched screeches from every direction. This all endured for the remainder of the first night, fortunately I was not tired and sat ready for anything near the fire until sunrise.

At the beginning of the next day, I had buried the burnt brush and continued east towards the coast. Half a day had gone by, I spent the entirety on edge as the buzzing faded out in the background giving way to the sound of many footsteps all in unison surrounding me at every moment. I had made it to the edge of the fog where the dead brush gave way to a massive and lush forest with a slight breeze moving the leaves above my head. The sound of the leaves rustling together was very comforting and I took a moment to rest and take in the new environment. Watching birds fly overhead, their whistles and songs easy on the ears, some scittering of small rodents like squirrels and chipmunks. The trees only had leaves beginning at roughly fifty feet off the ground, they didn’t sway and their roots visible in the surface of the grassy floor of the forest with scattered flower patches.

After a few minutes of rest, I heard a commotion off to my right, towards the south if you will. There were people in distress, and some part of me sought to help these people. I rushed over towards the sound, not paying mind to my poor gear for a battle nor my lack of memory of who I was, and when I arrived there was one person with a slack rope in their hands they had been crying into. I once again tried to speak but it came out as a whisper, What happened? What’s going on here? they didn’t respond. I took a knee behind them and began to pray for any lives that might have been lost in whatever incident occurred. They collected themselves after five minutes of mourning and crying out, then they began to speak under their breath, though it was clear sounding to me we were told they could get back from there… They said there was no threat, they’re all gone. I’m all that’s left. Do I go back? They’d decide I was a deserter, What to do? and the person repeated this over and over. They had been just outside the fog I had left, which puzzled me but I needed to go find someone who could help them, as I knew not of what was happening. I began back northeast, in search of the human civilization.

Haev’n

I had found the massive stone walls and iron gates of a city by sundown, with two human guards posted just outside the gates near flame sconces with odd banners that seemed foreign to me. I approached hastily until the guards had drawn their weapons upon me and shouted Halt fiend! In the name of her majesty Agetha, who and what are you? I had to speak once more, losing my voice to only sound as a whisper I know not who I am, I recall fighting a battle and woke in a thick fog. There is a person southwest outside the fog that is distraught and in need of help. I also require assistance to repair my things.. There was quite the pause, it felt like an eternity before the guards had agreed to sheathe their blades and open the gates. Go cautiously, you don’t appear any more than a phantom to us, we thought you were under a witch’s spell friend. We will send horsemen to the person in need of help, go to the cobble tower in the center of town to speak with her majesty. I thanked them and began to enter the city with more caution than I had ever recalled having before.

All of the city’s structures were composed solely of stone bricks and each shop was open to the public for use should they know how to use them, which explained the tension in the guard at the gate, thieves would take full advantage of a small trusting city such as this. I wandered for a half of an hour to familiarize myself with the layout of the city and each brick in the walls and where manholes had been placed for their plumbing. Then, I made my way into the large cedar door of the large cobblestone tower to see a reception desk of dark wood with hanging torches scattered around the room to illuminate the calming environment with potted herbs and paintings of great heroes and heroic deeds. Can I help you? asked the receptionist, instead of speaking I had chosen to use hand motions and signaled a crown, Her majesty? I nodded in affirmation She’s in her office atop the stairs to my left, go ahead…freak. Though I didn’t appreciate the attempt to speak that final word under her breath, I refused to let my quest be stalled any further and began up the winding staircase on my right.

It was a long trek up the stairs to the top floor, after passing fifteen floors each separated by roughly sixty stairs, each room well lit by various colors of torches. Once on the top it had hit me, I had not experienced any weakness or fatigue in my legs despite the long trek and lack of time asleep. The guards had mentioned I appeared to be a phantom to them, though I’d never heard that term before, at least that I could recollect. I arrived at a bright golden door at the top of the stairs, upon entry the room was bright pink, and everything appeared soft and fluffy including books on shelves. It was strange to say the least. There was a beautiful young woman behind the desk in the center of the room, Who are you? she had asked without looking up, she had a deep voice for someone of her stature, and was deeply invested in the view outside her window on the other end of the room, I know not who I am, or was, I woke in a thick fog surrounded by brush after a large war, my armor is in need of repairs and I require assistance in understanding where I am and when this is. This got her attention, she looked up from her window and slowly turned to face me. When our eyes locked she appeared shocked only for a moment, then was recomposed and began with a short history lesson That armor of yours is in need of disposal in its current conditions, but that griffin on the chest plate indicates it is at least a thousand years old. Who you are is important as that battle was a loss for all life but the demons that arose in the middle of that civil war. You only remember that the battle happened, which is fine, but hard to describe all that occurred as all knowledge of the internal ring around the life tree had fallen during that battle. I only know the stories passed down and the songs the children sing. I had looked towards the carpet at my feet, and removed the rusted chestpiece, upon inspection there was a griffin on it, right in the center, as I was about to speak the woman continued I can try to have a new set of that armor crafted for you sir, however you’ll owe the citizens a great debt, especially if you are to acquire a weapon, we are a city of healing magic and not warriors good sir. I hope you understand. I nodded, and put my remaining pieces of armor in a black box by the golden door behind me and the woman began once more Wear this in the city please, no race will be kind to a known phantom, regardless of how harmless you may really be, you are now a form of beast in these lands. The library can inform you more. She stretched out her right arm from beneath her desk with a set of brown plain clothes and a large hood, large enough to hide a person’s face. I put it on and looked in a mirror before pulling the hood up, the mirror revealed the image that caused people to be uneasy, I was black smoke from the neck up, and my remaining skin and bone was decaying and being replaced with a black slime-esque substance. The clothing hid my form entirely, and I waited for the shops to open before exploring their wares in depth.

I figured I should start my search of the city with the library, try to understand a bit better as to what happened and what was happening in the age that I awoke. I entered the oak building that had a calming aroma of various books filled with all topics from history to historical fictions, truths and fairy tales for children. I walked up to the round counter which had a young man sat behind it in a large chair and asked him Where is your historical section? to which the young man responded not with words, but with a motion of his left hand, without raising his head from the documents he was writing into. I followed the direction of his motion without hesitation, and found a mass of encyclopedias. I took three days and nights to read through the entire collection of 12 books encompassing all the knowledge that is available to the general public. Information about this land I was on had informed me of four significant biomes, a thick forest in the north east quarter, a constant winter full of mountain ranges in the north west quarter, a desert in the south west, and in the south east is a flatland. The forest becomes thicker and more humid, similar to a jungle as you progress north.

On the northernmost point of this continent is the home of the church, they parade around the island visiting the various kingdoms that line the coast on