Wizard of the Wood

Conversations and Confrontations

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20

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Essie's body felt completely filled with the weight of a continent of sand. Her heart skipped two or three beats, she wasn't quite sure, and all nerves in her body simultaneously screamed to run while also losing all feeling entirely.

There was something naturally unnerving about someone knowing you, calling you by a name with a look of recognition in their eyes, and you having absolutely no recollection of that person while your instincts scream to flee.

As much as she wanted to leave, Essie could not – would not – abandon Rylir on his on in a town that would undoubtedly try to eat him alive.

So...

She held firm. She kept her body taut like a drawn bowstring and held her ground against this unknown person who sent an unnerving instinct to flee ripping through her.

Cotton mouthed, she elected to address the stranger. Despite her unease, it was still rude and discourteous to be addressed twice without response.

"Apologies, but you must be mistaken. I do not believe you and I are acquainted," said Essie curtly. "And it is considered discourtesy to not introduce oneself after addressing the other."

Essie's words were immediately met with a sinister, cackling laughter that made Essie sick to her stomach, bile and acid accumulating quickly in the back of her throat.

It was familiar.

She was familiar.

Why?

Essie shuddered as flashes of that wicked grin appeared above her in a darkened room accompanied by a searing pain in her arms and in her gut. There was a glint of a bloodied knife wielded by strong but nimble fingers.

That voice – her voice – rang through the visions before her eyes.

*"It'll only hurt for a moment. Don't struggle, or else we will have to start again."*

Essie forced a breath into her body as the vision passed. The strange woman smiled.

"Oh, Ezra, you haven't changed at all. Direct. To the point. Unattached. That's what made you so good," said the woman as she advanced two steps. "But what's this? You don't recognize me? You don't remember me? And after all of our quality time training together."

Essie was quickly losing control of her breathing which was becoming erratic at best. Though her memory couldn't place exactly where this strange woman was from, her body seemed to know what her conscious mind could not comprehend. Another agonizing flash sent her mind reeling. Images. Desires. Hopes. The dreams... which was a revelation on its own. Every drop of pain that she endured bubbled to the forefront of her mind.

All of it slashed out at her from behind that protective veil somewhere deep in her mind.

It wasn't everything that decided to make itself known to her all at once, but it was just enough for Essie to see that woman's face marred by an arc of crimson lightening shooting from someone's fingertips – her fingertips.

"I... I gave you..."

"What? This?" asked the woman as she gestured to the scar on her face. "Indeed, you did. Quite the spectacle you made of yourself that day, Ezra. Don't worry. I am sure we can think of a way to repay the favor." She advanced two more steps, and Essie retreated two steps instinctually.

"I do not find those terms agreeable," stated Essie, noting a slight tremor to her voice. "And I do not appreciate you making references I do not understand."