Souls of the Never: A Fantasy Scifi Romance Time Travel series, with Dragons, Elves and Faeries. (Tales of the Neverwar Series Book 1) by CJ Rutherford, Colin Rutherford

recoiled in fear from the malice and evil emanating from the other, trying to hide, but there was nowhere to hide in the void. The aberration which had found it chased the soul relentlessly, inevitably finding its prey. Toying with and torturing it, releasing it and letting the helpless soul think it had escaped, just to be drawn back into its maw.
    After a time the being grew bored. Even though there was no way to measure the passage of time here, it knew it could not stay indefinitely. Its visits to the void were fleeting, and up until now had provided no escape from the utter loneliness of its corporeal prison.
    So it imprisoned the soul within itself, intending to return with it to the physical plane, and use the life force pulsing inside to bolster its own ebbing existence, but in doing so it perceived new memories blossoming within its consciousness. There were visions of a blue world with an abundance of life. Life which existed for one purpose, to follow another’s will, it thought.
    His will, Tenybris finally realised, as he returned to his physical body, with the memories of the first soul he had consumed in eons still fresh and boiling through his mind.
    A greed, which had lain dormant for an age, awoke inside him, furiously sweeping aside his intransigence. He became fully aware of how close he’d come to fading into oblivion.
    Looking around at his prison, he saw it consciously for the first time in thousands of years, and felt something completely alien to him.
    Hope…hope that he would finally escape this dungeon of his own making. He saw the bloody marks on the stone walls that his fingers had etched, as he’d in his madness attempted to break free.
    He knew now, as he grew increasingly insane, his consciousness had been released to wander the Never. He still couldn’t understand how he could have brought the soul back. It should not have lingered long enough to be found. It should have dispersed and been absorbed almost instantly after its passing, joining with the energies of the Never to be reborn again.
    He put these irrelevancies aside however, as his mind regained clarity and the hunger drew him back to his escape. He had this soul, one purer than he could ever have thought possible. The energy within it would provide him with sustenance for another thousand years if he consumed it now.
    But this would only prolong his imprisonment here, so he dismissed the notion immediately. No, he thought as he looked around at the carcases of the great dragons which littered the fortress, there is another way.
    If this innocence could be turned, if it could be corrupted, he could use it to find a way to this blue world it was from. Not for him directly, until he could devise a way to break these walls around him, but if the memories brought to him were to be believed, this world possessed a magic perfectly suited to doing just that.
    This... science, would provide at last a means to free himself, and once he was free, this same science, and the mighty weapons already possessed by these humans might...no, would, assist him in returning to his own birthright.
    He would pierce the “Veil” which the accursed Olumé had used to rip his magic away. Pierce it and consume all the life and magic hidden there, and when he was done, all magic, all power would be held within his form to be used solely at his whim.
    He laughed, but there was no merriment in the cruel sound. It was his first laugh in millennia that hadn’t been wholly insane. He had purpose again and set about his plans with just one thought and desire in his black heart.
    Revenge!

12 – Sanctuary – Realities
    Years before
     
    “So how will I know?” asked Derren.
    “What do you mean?” replied B’ran. This was the first time this had ever been asked and the old man seemed offended. The initiates were expected to study the history as they progressed in power. They travelled the Never, cataloguing the realities, the idiosyncrasies, as major