The Phoenix Chronicles: The Curse of Lustria

Chapter Twenty-One: Two Halves

(NARRATED BY SENTI ORCANA)

Had her voice not been as beautiful as it were, I may have never woken up:

"My raven, my raven,
Stay always with me.
You make me as happy
As I'll ever be.

Raven, raven,
Raven of the night,
With grace do you fly,
Under the moonlight."

I gradually opened my eyes to find Mareini Makai kneeling over me with tears streaming down her face. She was pressing my right hand against her cheek as though it were her most prized possession. I felt pain all over my body, but it was nice to see her face again.

"Oh, you are alive!" she wept with joy, noticing that I was conscious. "Thank the gods! You are truly alive!"

I summoned a bottle of antidote, grasping it weakly in my left hand. Unable to speak for some reason, I directed her attention toward it using my eyes. She quickly got the message and administered the liquid to me, draining the bottle completely.

As she watched me heal, Mareini continued to hold onto my hand, weeping with joy. Once I regained enough strength to do so, I sat up and attempted to comfort her: "There, there, Mareini. You need not cry."

"I thought I had lost you again!" she sobbed, burying her head into my chest. "I thought you were never coming back! You had me so frightened that—"

As I looked over Mareini, I spotted my red cap just a few feet away, right beside the hawk's feather that she had given to me prior to our departure. I was both shocked and relieved to see that both objects were completely intact.

"Mareini, would you please hand me that cap and feather over there?" I requested.

She pulled away. "Hey! Are you listening? Senti, are you listening to me?"

I heaved a sigh, "What is it, Mareini?"

Hurt by the tone of my response, she let go of my hand. "Nothing, Prince Senti. Forget that I spoke." She then fetched me my cap and feather, which I promptly donned.

"Thank you, dear sister," I said.

She bit her lip and looked away.

Attempting to teleport straight to the goblin, I ran into an abstract wall of sorts, leaving me with a headache. "I cannot teleport to the goblin," I informed Mareini. "He must have a ward protecting him."

She nodded slowly. "Right... I completely forgot about him."

"Huh? How could you—"

"When you were hurt, all I could think about was you."

"Oh... how long was I unconscious?"

"About ten minutes," she answered.

"Good. Then we still have time to catch up."

For whatever reason, Mareini looked like she was going to protest, but I teleported out of the abandoned mine before she could do so. Then, when she tried a second time, I turned back into a wolf and immediately started yipping at her. Sighing with frustration, the red-haired girl gave up and climbed onto my back.

After following the scent southeast for another three hours, I began to grow weary. I had traveled all day and nearly died in the mine cart wreck. Furthermore, I had not eaten a single scrap of food since the morning before last, prior to entering the Fay's Labyrinth. It was understandable that I would be running low on energy. I continuously panted with exhaustion and decelerated more and more, until Mareini finally had enough: