ONEIRAL: The Witch, The Book and The Mirror

Chapter 4: Down

The day had been slow. Sel woke up, showered, stole some food from the kitchen and settled in her desk to review the book. As she advanced in her reading, the topics became more complex and specialized. She scribbled some notes on the edge of the pages and after a few hours she also started to write tentative spells and enchantments in some spare paper. She worked in silence for hours before her mind brought her back to reality. She glanced around her room, brightly illuminated, from the clothes in her bed, to the leftovers in the corner, as if she was in some strange place; it was an odd sensation, as if waking up from a dream and slowly making sense of the place and people around you. Korem. She hadn't seen him since meal yesterday. She tried to focus on the sounds to see if she could find him out what he was doing, or at least to sense his presence. Silence. She went out and headed for his room; after knocking a couple times and getting no answer, she slowly opened the door. Empty. She headed then for the kitchen, only to find it empty too. She once more focused on the sounds and heard a faint pounding. She followed it until it grew louder, leading her to the edge of the cliff. The was Korem, piecing together what appeared to be stairs. She stared long at him from the distance, before realizing what she was doing. She shook her head and walked the finale distance to the cliff, standing next to him.

"What are you doing?"

He jumped a bit, and turned to face her, holding a hammer in one hand.

"You should not sneak up on people, especially people with hammers" he said, looking tired.

"Sorry. So, what you are doing?" she insisted, eyeing the tools and pieces of wood spread out in the sand.

"Stairs" he sighted "Last time you left me down there I realized there's actually a nice beach, with a cave and everything down there. I want to go down."

"Oh. How is it going?" she asked, dragging her words, as if speaking exhausted her.

"Actually, I just finished, I was about to do a test run." He replied without facing her, depositing the tools back to the box. She extended her hand signaling the stairs, and Korem walked towards the edge, carefully descending the first steps. He turned and gave her a thumps up, to which she nodded. He gave a couple more steps before he heard a crack, and suddenly the boards bellow him gave up. He tried to hold onto something, but the only thing he found was air. He was falling, bracing himself for the impact...which never came. When Korem opened his eyes, he was floating, slowly ascending until he was back above the cliff. When he looked up, he found Sel holding her hand to him, slight concern in her face. He took the hand she offered and stood up with on swift moment.

"Well, that went well" she said.

"Thank you" he gasped.

"Don't mention it" she waved dismissively, focusing on the stairs below her.

"I guess I still need to work on that" he laughed bitterly.

"Probably" she replied, still looking down the cliff "Why don't you go ahead and start with the food? I'll be there in a moment." she said, still looking down.

"Sure" he agreed and headed out for the kitchen. As he took out the ingredients and started to cook, he found himself again deep in thought. For an evil witch, she sure didn't act the part, you know, saving people's life's, like, several times. And while anyone may say it was instinct or whatever, well yeah, this time maybe, but the first time he had a sword pointing at her, and still she had saved him... Why though? It wasn't her fight then, she didn't have any obligation to him, and still she was helping. They say evil isn't born, is made. Maybe she was a good person before turning to evil, and maybe forgetting everything turned her back to good. He couldn't just ignore the fact that she had tried to curse the entire land, and he was still wary of her, but there was something else that bugged him, because despite all the evidence, there was still this constant ring in his mind that kept insisting: trust her. Every. Single. Time. He eyed her suspiciously, or started spiraling into what evil deeds she might be planning, or how to make her tell the truth and this feeling, this whisper came to his mind, trust her, almost like an instinct. It pissed him off actually, that he couldn't just be all worried and cautious of her, but neither could be all trustful and relaxed.